Author: France 24

The European Union has sharply raised import duties on Chinese electric vehicles to address what it sees as unfair competition.Starting Friday, provisional tariffs of up to 37.6% will be imposed on China-made EVs coming into the EU, on top of the standard 10% tariff on imported cars.  Meanwhile, China’s BYD opened a new factory in Thailand, its first in Southeast Asia, as part of a push to expand its global reach.   Source link

Culture reporter Olivia Salazar-Winspear speaks to Eve Jackson about the highlights from the Avignon Theatre Festival in the south of France, including Greek tragedy “Hecuba, not Hecuba” from the event’s artistic director Tiago Rodrigues, and French director Boris Charmatz’s delightful outdoor style rave “Circles”. The directors also comment on the importance of immigration and openness for artistic creation in the current political context in France. Also on the programme, we hear from the all-female metal band Voice of Baceprot, who made history at Glastonbury as the first Indonesian group ever to play at the iconic event. Source link

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Thursday it launched more than 200 rockets at Israeli military positions in response to the killing of a senior commander the day before. Israel retaliated with strikes on southern Lebanon as cross-border exchanges continue to fuel fears of a broader regional conflict. Source link

Iranian presidential hopefuls Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili held their final campaign rallies on Wednesday in preparation for Friday’s snap election runoff. Around 61 million Iranians are eligible to vote on who will succeed the late president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.  Source link

The energy required to power AI data centres has caused Google’s greenhouse emissions to increase 48% since 2019. Meanwhile, General Motors is faced with a 146 million dollar fine to settle allegations that its vehicles released more pollution than the carmaker reported. But first, Bolivia’s president has announced the country is lifting its ban on cryptocurrencies.  Source link

The Hamas militant group said Wednesday it has sent new “ideas” to Qatari mediators aimed at ending the nearly nine-month Gaza war with Israel. Source link

Japan’s first new banknotes in 20 years have entered circulation featuring three-dimensional portraits of the founders of financial and female education institutions in an attempt to curb counterfeits. While ATMs and ticket machines have been updated to treat the new bills, many of the country’s ubiquitous vending machines have not.  But first, a new law has gone into effect in Greece allowing employees to work six days a week in order to make up for a shrinking working population.  Source link

British sprinter Mark Cavendish on Wednesday secured his 35th Tour de France stage win, breaking Belgian legend Eddy Merckx’s 1975 record for most individual stage wins. Source link

Lebanon-based Hezbollah on Wednesday said it had fired a barrage of rockets targeting Israeli positions in retaliation for an attack that killed one of its senior commanders, the third top Hezbollah commander to be killed in almost nine months of hostilities along the Israel-Lebanon border. Source link

Inspired by a true story, “Ghost Trail” introduces us to the clandestine groups tracking down Syrian war criminals in Europe. Director Jonathan Millet joins us to talk about how he constructed an espionage film with amateur spies at its centre, and we discuss the long road to justice for the millions of Syrians devastated by the horrors of 13 years of war. Film critic Lisa Nesselson also takes us through Kevin Costner’s passion project, “Horizon”, as the first chapter of his four-part epic opens in French cinemas. Plus we get a rundown of the best road movies on show at…