Author: France 24

Some of the transfer rules of world football’s governing body FIFA go against European Union laws on free movement, the EU’s top court said on Friday in a ruling on a high-profile case linked to former France player Lassana Diarra.

The French government plans to subject the budget to a €60 billion belt-tightening drive next year in the hope of bringing the deficit down to 5 percent of GDP from an estimated more than 6 percent this year. Two-thirds of that sum are to come from spending cuts, and the rest from new taxes. Why does the country find itself in this fiscal hole? How will this new budget impact the country’s economy? FRANCE 24’s Charles Pellegrin talks to OFCE Economist François Geerolf. 

Just over a year ago, on October 7, 2023, the Palestinian group Hamas launched a series of deadly attacks against Israeli towns and military sites near the Gaza Strip. It was a massive, coordinated, lightning-fast operation. In this report, we take a look back at the hours leading up to the biggest massacre in the history of the Hebrew state. Story by Johan Bodin.

A celebration of the body, dance, art and sport! At Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri installs Italian archer-artist Sagg Napoli in a long glass cage. Her collection is an ode to the Amazons, a reference to the designs created by Christian Dior in the 1950s. For his “Impro” collection, designer Alain Paul unleashes the bodies of male and female dancers on the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet. Last but not least, Magda Butrym awakens and reveals Polish fashion in an understated presentation. FRANCE 24 takes you to Paris Fashion Week.

A year after Palestinian armed groups breached Gaza’s security fence and led a simultaneous wave of assaults on Israeli communities and outposts, FRANCE 24 looks at the intelligence failures that led to the October 7 attacks. There was plenty of warning that Hamas was planning a large-scale assault: suspicious movements along the border with Gaza, as well as a huge military parade taking place inside the enclave. But Israeli authorities ignored them. FRANCE 24’s Claire Duhamel examines how the threat from Hamas was underestimated at the highest echelons of the Israeli army and state. 

Four-time Oscar-nominated Irish actress Saoirse Ronan speaks to Eve Jackson about her heart-wrenching addiction drama “The Outrun”, based on Amy Liptrot’s memoir. Known for “Lady Bird” and “Little Women” in German filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt’s film, Ronan plays a recovering alcoholic who returns to her hometown in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. The actress also talks about her role in Steve McQueen’s new movie “Blitz” and the reasons behind the recent success of so many Irish actors.

In tonight’s edition: Rwanda raises the alarm as eight people die after getting the Marburg disease, a highly contagious virus with Ebola-like symptoms. Also, the UAE is to file an official complaint with the African Union over what it calls a “heinous attack” on its mission in Khartoum. And we focus on the Pinnacle Point site in South Africa: it’s part of a World Heritage site thanks to its caves, which are more than 100,000 years old.

Arsenal beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 on Tuesday in a Champions League match in a London. 25-year-old Kai Havertz put Arsenal on the path to victory with a well-timed run and header in the 20th minute. Borussia Dortmund thrashed Celtic 7-1 in Germany. Among the home highlights, player of the match Karim Adeyemi scored a first-half hat-trick.

More than 30,000 Orthodox Jewish pilgrims are thought to have congregated in the Ukrainian city of Uman for Rosh Hashanah, a key holiday in the Jewish calendar, some leaving war in the Middle East to brave the conflict still raging in eastern Europe.

Depicting a young woman yearning for freedom and suffocated by village life, “Norah” is a striking account of provincial life in the Saudi Arabia of the 1990s. The film was shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Director and writer Tawfik Alzaidi joins us on arts24 to discuss his inspirations for the story, the fledging film industry in his home country and how, despite growing up without access to movie theatres, he was determined to become a filmmaker.