Author: France 24

French metal giant ArcelorMittal has confirmed it will go ahead with a plan to build a new electric furnace to replace one of its coal-powered ones at its steel mill in northern France. Half of the €1.3 billion investment will come from a state-backed energy efficiency mechanism. President Emmanuel Macron toured the Dunkirk site to mark the occasion. Also in the segment, we look at the state of Cuba’s economic crisis amid severe fuel shortages. 

She topped the charts with the planetary hit “New Soul” in 2007 and her stirring voice and irresistible melodies have filled concert halls, radio waves and headphones ever since. Yael Naim tells us why reaching a personal and artistic crossroads led her to experiment with a new minimalist sound and new production techniques, and why embracing optimism is a political choice today.

Peter O’Brien is pleased to welcome Iranian-American veteran journalist Borzou Daragahi, offering a deeper perspective of the geopolitics and diplomacy at play. What we’re witnessing is a last-ditch effort to avoid a military confrontation that feels dangerously close. Both Washington and Tehran have painted themselves into their respective corners. The Trump administration is under immense pressure from its political base, powerful financiers and regional allies. Meanwhile, Iran, reeling from internal unrest and isolation, has left itself exposed.

Imagine designing a society without knowing your role in it. Would you still choose the inequality we live with today? Eve Irvine welcomes Kate Pickett, Author and Professor of Epidemiology at the University of York. Her work as a social epidemiologist concludes that inequality is not just unfair, it has real-life, even deadly, consequences. It erodes trust, wellbeing, education, and even the length of our lives. We already have the answers. What we lack is the will to act. This book, The Good Society, is a call to collective courage, to choose policies that prioritize human flourishing, over GDP, a…

The Seattle Seahawks relied on a relentless defence to ⁠beat New England 29-13 in Super Bowl LX on Sunday, denying the Patriots an NFL-record seventh championship and avenging a heartbreaking loss to the same opponent in the title game 11 years ago.

The digital economy now accounts for 17% of global GDP, worth over 20 trillion dollars according to a new report by the International Data Centre Authority. But growth has been uneven across the world with more than one billion people having poor access to electricity. IDCA’s CEO Mehdi Paryavi tells France 24 that poorer nations can develop digital economies that can empower the nation and improve energy access and education. 

On today’s Arts24 music show, Jennifer Ben Brahim is joined by artists whose music reflects their multicultural upbringings. Franco-Haitian singer–songwriter Naïka grew up across the Caribbean, Kenya, South Africa and the United States. Singing in English, French and Créole, her music mirrors this global upbringing. She is set to release her debut album, Eclesia – ancient Greek for “the coming together of people” – a theme that her music embodies.

In Syria, last week’s agreement between Kurdish forces and Damascus includes a humanitarian component, ultimately aimed at allowing refugees to return home. These families fled the fighting that followed the fall of Bashar al-Assad. There are now more than 100,000 internally displaced people in the Qamishli region, in Syria’s far northeast. Report by Marie Charlotte Roupie, Abdulrahman Daoud and Josh Vardey.

Nearly four out of every 10 cancer cases could be prevented if people avoided a range of risk factors including smoking, drinking, air pollution and certain infections, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. FRANCE 24’s Mark Owen speaks with Hanna Fink, Doctor in Epidemiology and researcher at the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

American skiing legend Lindsey Vonn’s bid for a fairytale Olympic comeback ended in dramatic fashion on Sunday after she crashed out of the women’s downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, leaving the race won by her US teammate Breezy Johnson overshadowed by fears the 41-year-old’s career may be over.