Author: France 24

Eritrean sprinter Biniam Girmay won stage eight of the Tour de France on Saturday while Slovenian Tadej Pogacar retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.  Source link

Paris will be in the throes of Olympic fever from July 26 to August 11 for the 2024 Summer Games. Public transport routes will be revised and vehicle access will be restricted just as millions of visitors are expected in the city. Both residents and tourists are urged to review the revised routes and plan ahead. Source link

Hamas on Saturday tentatively accepted a US-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire in Gaza, abandoning its demand for an upfront commitment from Israel to end the war entirely. This potential agreement, still under negotiation, could initiate a six-week cease-fire involving hostage and prisoner exchanges and pave the way for broader talks to conclude the nine-month conflict. Source link

Hamas has accepted a US proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday. The militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, according to the source Source link

France beat Portugal 5-3 in a penalty shootout to reach the European Championship semifinals on Friday, ending Cristiano Ronaldo’s bid to win the title in his last appearance at the tournament. Source link

Iran’s reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday won a runoff presidential election against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, the interior ministry said. Source link

Germany’s Euro 2024 dream ended on Friday after Spain secured a place in the semi-finals with a 2-1 win over the tournament host thanks to a last-gasp Mikel Merino winner at the end of extra time. Source link

Israel on Friday said it would send a delegation to Doha next week to negotiate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. “There are still gaps between the parties,” Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s spokesman said after a first round of talks that were held earlier in the day. Source link

A French AI lab has released a demo of a voice chatbot with practically immediate response times. OpenAI, the world’s third most valuable start-up, has been teasing a similar feature for its own voice bot since mid-May.  Source link

At least five people were killed on Friday during an Israeli military raid in a Jenin refugee camp, according to the Palestinian Authority health ministry. The clashes in Jenin came a day after the Israeli monitoring group Peace Now said the Israeli government plans to build nearly 5,300 new homes in settlements across the occupied West Bank. Source link