Author: France 24

Museums and galleries around the world are increasingly offering visitors an interactive experience, as exhibitions become participative “experiences”; our reporters explore some of the perks and drawbacks of this art world trend. We also look ahead to some of the cultural highlights coming up in 2025 with new music, movies and artwork on the horizon. Plus the Grand Palais unveils its brand new look as the Parisian landmark prepares to reopen its doors to the public after three years of extensive renovations.

Thousands of people who vanished during former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s reign are still missing, a month after the regime’s collapse. While some families have been reunited after the release of the regime’s prisoners, others are desperately searching. Four families told FRANCE 24 the stories of their loved ones’ forced disappearances.  

The re-election of Donald Trump as US president has generated a climate of uncertainty over US economic policy for 2025, with Trump and his team vowing to increase tariffs on most imported goods. How will Trump’s return impact the global economy? From the United States to China by way of Europe, we take a comprehensive look at what global trade, growth and innovation are likely to look like and what all of that could mean for the climate. Our guest is Raphaël Gallardo, chief economist at Carmignac. 

This week, “Paris des Arts” takes its cameras to the French archipelago of Guadeloupe to meet an ambassador of Caribbean music, Tanya St-Val. She shows us the Duval site in Petit-Canal, home to the village of Ka which pays tribute to Guadeloupe’s famed drummers. Next, we head to Bouillante, where we sit down for dinner with chef Jimmy Bibrac, who uses local flavours to spice up his dishes. Finally, in “From Paris with Love”, we shine the spotlight on one of the archipelago’s unmissable street artists: Al Pacman.

A study in the medical journal The Lancet estimated that 64,260 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which would mean the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip had under-reported the number of deaths to that point by 41 percent.

FRANCE 24 reveals, in partnership with investigative media outlet Disclose, RFI and the Pulitzer Center, that French banking group Crédit Agricole holds a €240 million stake in Repsol – a Spanish multinational responsible for gas extraction in the Peruvian Amazon – and is making substantial profits from it. According to our investigation, the gas firm is responsible for numerous environmental and health hazards.

Consumer prices in China grew barely 0.1% in December compared to a year before, marking the fourth consecutive month that price increases have slowed down. This raises the threat of a deflationary spiral which would further damage the country’s economy. The Chinese government has made boosting domestic consumer spending its top priority for 2025. Also in this edition, we look at the economic incentives behind Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to get rid of third-party fact checkers.

Childhood trauma, addiction, poverty, homophobia, religious extremism and disability are just some of the hard-hitting themes in filmmaker Adam Elliot’s new dark and humorous film “Memoir of a Snail”. The Oscar winner speaks to Eve Jackson about this whimsical and tear-jerking Australian stop-motion film about separated twins, which won the Cristal award for best feature at Annecy, the world’s top animation festival. The feature also took the top prize at the London Film Festival last year and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Adam is also sharing his creative process in an exhibition in Melbourne, Australia at ACMI.

After two years of a presidential vacuum, Lebanese army chief Joseph Aoun was elected president Thursday in the second round of a parliamentary vote. Addressing parliament shortly after the vote, Aoun emphasised the need for reforms and said his tenure would be focused on national reconstruction and maintaining Lebanon’s territorial integrity. FRANCE 24’s Rawad Taha reports from Beirut.

The Netherlands is the world’s leader in fresh flower production. Over the past decade, the sector has grown by a fifth. But NGOs have been warning about the high levels of pesticides in Dutch flowers. One study even showed that a third of the substances analysed were banned in the European Union, some of them more than 20 years ago. In France, a florist who worked with flowers from the Netherlands recently obtained recognition of her daughter’s death from cancer from the Pesticide Victims Compensation Fund, putting Dutch flower sellers in the hot seat. Our correspondents report.