Author: France 24

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.

Towana Looney, a 53-year-old from Alabama, is the fifth patient to receive an organ from a genetically modified pig in the United States since 2022, and was in better health than prior recipients who died within two months of receiving a pig kidney or heart. Her case could signal progress toward solving the organ-supply shortage.

US President-elect Donald Trump has upended bipartisan efforts to avert a government shutdown, after he rejected a stopgap bill and pressed Republican lawmakers to either renegotiate it or risk their political careers. The new bill would have kept federal funding running at the current level until March after the current short-term spending plan expires on Friday night. Plus, the ongoing political crisis in Georgia is taking a toll on its economy, especially tourism.