Author: France 24

On today’s weekly music show on Arts24, Jennifer Ben Brahim speaks to the singer of one of the most successful British bands of the last decade. Bastille stormed the UK charts in 2013 with their debut album “Bad Blood”, spawning smash-hits like “Pompeii”. Four records later, Dan Smith has taken a gap year of sorts, releasing a solo Bastille album that blends music with his love of history called “& (Ampersand)”. It shines a spotlight on historical figures including Edvard Munch and even his own father. Dan Smith has brought this new music on tour, with seven special one-off shows…

Christians gathered at the Church of the Nativity in the holy city of Bethlehem on Tuesday to mark a second Christmas Eve overshadowed by war as Pope Francis launched observation of the global holiday with a sombre mass in the Vatican.

Stampedes during three Christmas charity events across Nigeria have left at least 67 people dead in the past week, many of them children. Families are struggling during the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Details by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Lagos, Nigeria, Chinwe Ossundu.

Japanese carmakers Nissan and Honda have confirmed talks aimed at deepening their cooperation as they struggle to compete with Chinese EV startups. We take a closer look. Also in this edition: Italy’s Unicredit raises its stake in German lender Commerzbank, and DR Congo accuses Apple’s subsidiaries of trafficking in conflict minerals.

The first season of the Korean drama was Netflix’s most streamed series ever. Dheepthika Laurent tells us about the return of the hit show where Gi Hun returns as the protagonist caught up in this horrifying competition. We check out a new television feature from entertainment mogul Tyler Perry – “The Six Triple Eight”, which shines a light on the only US battalion made up of women of colour who played a key role during WWII. And a family-friendly Star Wars spin-off arrives just in time for the holidays with Jude Law taking the lead role in “Skeleton Crew”.

A Dutch court on Tuesday convicted five men for their part in last month’s violence against Israeli football fans in Amsterdam that shocked the world and sparked accusations of anti-Semitism.

Officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday apprehended 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, a former Ivy League student born and raised in Maryland, over last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, after Mangione was found with a “ghost gun” equipped with a suppressor.

In this Science segment, we take a closer look at Google’s announcement that it has cracked a key challenge in quantum computing, with a new chip capable of almost unfathomable speeds. Dubbed Willow, the chip performed a standard test in under five minutes, whereas today’s fastest supercomputers would have taken billions of years. So what exactly is the quantum revolution and what is it set to change in our world? FRANCE 24’s Julia Sieger tells us more.

The Cinémathèque Française in Paris says it has cancelled a screening of Bernardo Bertolucci’s controversial classic, citing “potential security risks”, after women’s rights activists accused the cinema of failing to provide context about an infamous rape scene filmed without the consent of actress Maria Schneider.

Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, hosted high-level talks on Monday with Arab diplomats, including Jordan and Qatar, focusing on reconstruction and future cooperation. The meetings marked a significant shift in regional ties after Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow earlier this month.