Author: France 24

This year’s Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey speaks to FRANCE 24’s Culture Editor Eve Jackson about her wonder-filled space novel “Orbital”. They discuss climate change, fiction’s role in politics and Elon Musk’s space endeavors.

Donald Trump named anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy as health secretary, marking another bold choice in his rapid post-election cabinet appointments. Announcing on Truth Social, Trump expressed enthusiasm for Kennedy’s nomination, signaling his intent to disrupt and reshape the US government with controversial picks.

Australian Brett Robinson was elected chairman of World Rugby on Thursday after he defeated French rival Abdelatif Benazzi by two votes. The new chairman pledged to invest in “player safety, law reform and innovation”.

The APEC summit is kicking off in Lima, Peru, ahead of the G20 Summit in Brazil next week. Among world leaders attending is Chinese President Xi Jinping.  His first order of business in Peru is to attend the inauguration of the Chancay port, a majority Chinese-owned megaport that’s expected to become a major shipping hub for the Belt and Road initiative.  Plus, slumber business is booming in Japan as sleep-deprived workers increasingly turn to improving the quality of their sleep. 

Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including pursuing a deliberate policy of forcibly displacing people and denying them the right to return home, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday. The report also labelled the likely permanent dispossession of Gazans in areas cleared by Israel to serve as buffer zones and security corridors as “ethnic cleansing”.

It’s been 24 years since Russell Crowe stepped into a dusty arena as the mighty Maximus. Now, Ridley Scott has returned to his blockbuster hit for a sequel starring Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Connie Nielsen. Film critic Emma Jones tells us why it’s a spectacularly entertaining time at the cinema. We also discuss the documentary made by an Israeli-Palestinian collective about forced displacements in the West Bank, and Emma tells us more about Demi Moore’s big comeback in “The Substance”. French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat has tapped into some timely female anxieties for this body horror, which won the best…

In this Science segment we take a look at a new decree signed by French Prime Minister Michel Barnier that compels doctors to specify patients’ medical conditions for the prescription of certain drugs. If they fail to do so, the drugs will not be reimbursed. Many doctors fear this decree could affect medical confidentiality and freedom of prescription. FRANCE 24’s Julia Sieger tells us more.

In its 2024 Green Skills Report, social media platform LinkedIn uses data from its 1 billion users to track the evolution of so-called “green skills” on the labour market. Their findings show that while the number of people with the skills that help combat the effects of climate change has grown over 5 percent in the year, that’s not keeping up with the 11 percent increase in jobs requiring those skills. With the COP29 climate summit underway, FRANCE 24’s Charles Pellegrin speaks to LinkedIn’s Vice President of Public Policy, Sue Duke.

UK author Samantha Harvey, one of a record five women shortlisted for the Booker Prize, won the coveted award on Tuesday for her fifth novel, a “space pastoral” titled “Orbital”, becoming the first woman to win the award since Margaret Atwood in 2019.

Tens of thousands of fans gathered in France’s Sables d’Olonne on Sunday for the start of the 10th Vendée Globe, the round-the-world solo yacht race known as the Everest of the Seas. FRANCE 24’s Selina Sykes reports from the port town in western France as the 40 skippers leave their pontoons ahead of the race’s official start.