Author: France 24

France’s independent public audit office shared its assessment of the pension system deficit with Prime Minister François Bayrou this Thursday. This is the starting point of a renegotiation of the 2023 pension reform that raised the legal retirement age from 62 to 64. Both worker and employer representatives will start discussions next week. One option on the table to reduce that deficit is to complement the existing worker and employer contributions with private sector pension funds. We take a closer look in this edition.

Mourners dressed in black, some waving Hezbollah flags or clutching portraits of the group’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, gathered in their thousands to attend his funeral on Sunday in a stadium on the outskirts of Beirut.

Designers Jeanne Friot, Walter Van Beirendonck and Louis Gabriel Nouchi have taken a stand to defend gender-neutral fashion, calling for inclusion rather than exclusion. Meanwhile, Japanese labels Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto propose a simple, comfortable wardrobe, underpinned with poetry. All of these designers have opted for extraordinary fabrics to create their latest collections. FRANCE 24 takes a closer look.

Mbappe was the star of the show as he scored a hat-trick which helped Real Madrid beat Manchester City 3-1 to reach the last-16 of the Champions League on Wednesday. PSG annihilated Brest 7-0 at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

The economy is a top concern for voters in Germany as they go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new government. The country has seen two consecutive years of economic contraction and this stagnation could very well continue for a third year. Its post-Covid recovery was completely stunted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis that followed, laying bare Berlin’s deep dependence on Moscow’s oil and gas. Now the return of Donald Trump as US president is further muddying the prospects for growth. To better understand how Germany got here and how it can dig itself…

Lebanon’s Hezbollah will on Sunday hold a funeral for its former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The public ceremony for Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli strike in September, is set to be “highly political” says expert Albert Kostanian, who hosts one of Lebanon’s leading politics broadcasts.

A new exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Metz is hoping to challenge the Euro-centric principles that have long dominated art history. “After the end. Cartographies for another time” brings together the work of 40 international artists, as they explore alternative visions of our shared future as humans. FRANCE 24’s Florence Gaillard spoke to artists and curators there to find out more. We also meet the filmmaker behind a new documentary that puts the ultimate 1990s pop princess under the microscope, as “Britney: No Filter” examines the toxic media frenzy surrounding the young singer and its harmful effect on her…

Paris Saint-Germain will face Liverpool in the last 16 of the Champions League, a draw showed Friday. The two teams last met in the group stage during the 2018/2019 season.

Elon Musk is starting to see the fruits of his AI shopping spree with the release of Grok 3, one of the most capable AI models yet. But according to French startup PRISM Eval, the chatbot’s safety filters can easily be bypassed to make requests about dangerous and illegal activities, such as building a bomb or hiding a body.

President Donald Trump’s proposed US takeover of Gaza has been roundly condemned globally, with Palestinians, Arab nations and rights experts saying it was tantamount to “ethnic cleansing.” For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24’s Oliver Farry welcomes Scott Lucas, Professor of International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin. Offering a scathing critique on Trump’s so-called Gaza Riviera plan, Professor Lucas insists “the idea that Trump has a thought-out proposal on ethnic cleansing is ridiculous. It is not a thought-out proposal, it’s just his honest wish to make money out of Gaza.”