Author: France 24

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, representing Gaza mediator Qatar said on Sunday that there was “a bit of progress” in talks in Doha this week aimed at securing a new truce in the Israel-Hamas war.

The death of Pope Francis has prompted sadness among many of Hollywood’s leading lights, with director Martin Scorsese paying tribute to “a remarkable human being”. FRANCE 24’s Olivia Salazar-Winspear takes us through some of the reactions to the pope’s passing from the world of cinema. She also gives us a preview of the poster for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

A goal by Frenchman Jules Koundé in the dying minutes of extra time handed Barcelona a dramatic 3-2 win over Real Madrid in a thrilling Copa del Rey final on Saturday, keeping the Catalans’ dream of quadruple title wins alive.

April 25 marks World Malaria Day, a time to draw attention to one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases. While significant strides have been made in prevention and treatment, malaria still claims hundreds of thousands of lives annually, with Africa bearing the brunt. In 2023 alone, the mosquito-borne illness killed nearly 600,000 people. Joining us now to discuss this is Dr. Michael Adekunle Charles, CEO of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria — welcome to the program.

Countries that once followed the gospel of free trade and liberalism are changing tack and focusing on national interests before anything else, with Donald Trump’s America being a case in point. Our business editor Charles Pellegrin takes a deep dive into how geopolitics is reshaping the global economy with David Baverez. He’s a French investor based in Hong Kong and author of the book “Bienvenue en économie de guerre” or “Welcome to the wartime economy”, published in French by Novice. 

At least four people were killed and 516 people injured Saturday following a massive explosion and fire at the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. Hours later, authorities had still not offered a cause for the explosion. 

She’s the reluctant icon of generations of street artists: photojournalist Martha Cooper became a cult figure after her 1984 book “Subway Art” inspired creative souls around the world. She’s now teamed up with renowned stencil artist Logan Hicks to revisit some of her images and give them a new, more painterly aspect. Cooper and Hicks join us in the studio to talk about the transformation of murals, tags and graffiti in recent years, as the ninth Urban Art Fair opens its doors in Paris. We also chat about meeting with a tattoo master in the Japan of the 1970s and how…

Paris has had only one club in France’s top division – Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). But that may be about to change thanks to one of the wealthiest families in the world. LVMH founder Bernard Arnault and his family took a majority stake in a small club called Paris FC with the aim of transforming it into a force to be reckoned with.

Global aid funding cuts, led by the United States, are disrupting efforts to vaccinate children against deadly diseases almost as much as the Covid-19 pandemic did, the United Nations said on Thursday. Lawrence Gostin, Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University and Director of the WHO Center on Global Health Law, says that “many people will die and many will be hospitalised, all because of funding cuts and disinformation”.

Google is still making lots of money. Its parent company Alphabet reported $90.2 billion in revenue for the first quarter, up 12 percent from the same period last year, making $34.5 billion in profit. Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said Google’s AI strategy was to thank. But the elephant in the room at Thursday’s earnings call was the possibility that US federal judges might order the company to be broken up. We take a closer look in this edition of Tech 24.