Author: France 24

Two-time defending champion Iga Swiatek will face Jasmine Paolini in the French Open women’s final in Paris Saturday. The contrasts between the French Open finalists are obvious: Iga Swiatek, who turned 23 last week, already owns four Grand Slam titles, including three in Paris. Jasmine Paolini, 28, had never been past the second round at any major tournament until this season. FRANCE 24’s James Vasina reports. Source link

Israel said Saturday it rescued four hostages who were kidnapped in a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, in the largest such hostage recovery operation since the war with Hamas began in Gaza. The army said it rescued Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40, in two separate locations in a complex special daytime operation in the heart of Nuseirat in central Gaza. FRANCE 24’s Irris Makler reports. Source link

Israeli forces bombarded a Gaza refugee camp Friday after a deadly strike on a UN-school there, as the war sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel entered its ninth month. Efforts to mediate the first ceasefire in the bloody conflict since a week-long pause in November appear to have stalled a week after US President Joe Biden offered a new roadmap. Source link

With less than two months to go until the 2024 Summer Olympics kick off in Paris, preparations are still underway in the French capital. While key landmarks undergo a facelift, ramps and seating for various Olympic sports are being set up across squares and bridges, in some cases snarling traffic and inconveniencing locals. Source link

Israel’s war cabinet member Benny Gantz said Friday he will hold a press conference on Saturday, with Israeli media reporting he was likely to announce his departure from the government. Gantz said last month he would resign from the war cabinet if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not approve a post-war plan for the Gaza Strip by June 8. Source link

Just over a week after its completion, a slew of poor weather off Gaza’s coast battered the US-built humanitarian aid port off the enclave, which President Joe Biden had said would ramp up deliveries to those in need. Some social media users claim the pier drifted away or sunk entirely, but this is not entirely true. Vedika Bahl explains in this edition of Truth or Fake.  Source link

Israel continued to pound large parts of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, all the while Benny Gantz, a leading member of Israel’s war cabinet, threatened to resign from Binyamin Netanyahu’s government unless an agreement is reached on a post-war “action plan” for the Palestinian territory. Follow all the latest developments on the war between Israel and Hamas in our live blog. Source link

Iga Swiatek is as good as it gets in tennis at the moment, especially at the French Open. Been that way for quite some time. So her unyielding success against Coco Gauff just about everywhere — and certainly at Roland Garros — should come as no surprise by now. Source link

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has added Israel’s military to a global list of offenders for committing violations against children in 2023, said Israel’s U.N. envoy Gilad Erdan, describing the decision as “shameful.” Source link

As a result of the war in Ukraine, millions of Ukrainian children have been scattered around Europe. These young refugees have seen their education heavily disrupted, with only between 30 and 50 percent of them enrolled in schools in their host countries. NGOs such as Junior Achievement (JA) Europe and UNICEF have teamed up to help offer 1.9 million hours of training and education over the course of the last year across 14 countries. Charles Pellegrin talks to Salvatore Nigro, the CEO of JA Europe. Source link