Author: France 24

More Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries are competing in the 2026 World Cup than at any previous tournament, much to the delight of fans from Morocco to Jordan. But as always with sports, politics is never far from the pitch. Iran, of course, springs to mind. Never before has a country hosted a World Cup while at war with one of the competing nations.

Nadia Massih is pleased to welcome Ian Williams, Professor of Applied Environmental Science in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton, UK. He argues that Europe’s current heatwave should not be understood as an exceptional weather event but as evidence of a new climatic reality shaped by anthropogenic warming. While acknowledging that adaptation measures can significantly reduce mortality and social disruption, he maintains that increasingly intense heat extremes are ultimately driven by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Williams presents France as a notable case study in climate adaptation, citing its post-2003 reforms…

South Africa reached the World Cup knockout stage for the first time on Wednesday with a 1-0 victory over South Korea, completing a remarkable recovery after losing their opener. Thapelo Maseko scored the decisive second-half goal as Bafana Bafana secured second place in Group A behind Mexico after drawing with the Czech Republic.

Power outages, train delays, and melting roads – the heatwave is straining France’s infrastructure. Electricity provider EDF says it has had to reduce its nuclear power output, but that it still has enough capacity to meet demand. Also in the show – the UN’s International Maritime Organization starts evacuating some of the 11,000 sailors stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, and Europe’s defence industry prepares for a boost with the IPO of Franco-German tankmaker KNDS. 

France’s biggest film gamble of the year arrives in cinemas as “De Gaulle: Liberté” returns with its second chapter – a €74 million historical epic that’s betting big on international audiences. Film critic Manon Kerjean breaks down whether the ambitious biopic succeeds as a wartime thriller rather than a traditional war movie.

US Central Command on Wednesday said that US forces had conducted an air strike in northwestern Syria that killed Ali Husayn al-Ulaywi, a senior Islamic State group leader, last Friday.

As historian and WWII resistance fighter Marc Bloch is inducted into the Pantheon, Sharon Gaffney is pleased to welcome Dr. Andrew Smith, Historian of Modern France and Lecturer in Liberal Arts at Queen Mary University of London. Marc Bloch’s entry into the Panthéon is described by Andrew Smith not simply as the commemoration of a distinguished historian, but as a profound statement about the contemporary crisis of democracy, truth, and citizenship. Smith argues that Bloch’s enduring significance lies in the fusion of scholarship and civic responsibility: he was a historian who viewed the past as a tool for understanding the…

Much of France remains under severe heat alert on June 23 after the country experienced its hottest afternoon and night since records began in 1947. Temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius were forecast for cities including Bordeaux, Rennes and Toulouse. The extreme heat has already proven deadly – two children were found dead inside a parked car on June 22, while 40 people have drowned over the past few days as they sought to cool off.

⁠Colombia secured ​their place in the World Cup knockouts round with a game to spare after a 1-0 victory over DR Congo pushed them back to the top of Group ​K ‌on Tuesday, with Daniel Munoz ⁠finding a winner in the 76th minute after the South Americans had been ‌frustrated for much of the evening.

As Europe swelters under a major heatwave, the energy-intensiveness of artificial intelligence has come into the spotlight.  At a climate conference in London, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on AI companies to disclose the environmental impact of their systems.  Plus, Iran rejects the US’s claim that any frozen Iranian assets, once unlocked, will be controlled by the US and Qatar and be used exclusively to buy American food and medicine.