Author: France 24

As Lebanon prepares to resume direct discussions with Israel, the ghost of the May 17 Agreement of 1983 – a deal that was signed but never implemented – is haunting the new round of negotiations. President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam are facing a smear campaign from Hezbollah, which has already rejected any compromise and issued thinly veiled threats against the country’s leadership.

Nice secured a 2–0 win away at Strasbourg in the French Cup semi-final and will face Lens in the final. Elye Wahi made the difference with a brace. Initially dominated by a Strasbourg side sitting 8th in Ligue 1, Nice, 15th, remained defensively solid and clinically efficient in attack. They will return to the Stade de France on 22 May, four years after losing their previous final to Nantes (1–0).

The European Union has unveiled plans to shield households and businesses from the energy crisis, triggered by the war with Iran. The bloc says it has spent an additional €24 billion on energy imports beacuse of higher prices since the war began, and it urged more investment in renewable energy. Also in the show – French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurates a lithium mine, to reduce reliance on imports of critical minerals. 

This week’s film show on arts24 spotlights a trio of strikingly different releases, led by Antoine Fuqua’s highly anticipated biopic “Michael”, which features a breakout performance from nephew Jaafar Jackson as the King of Pop, alongside Colman Domingo’s chilling turn as patriarch Joseph Jackson.

The United Nations is pushing its proposal for a humanitarian corridor to get fertiliser and other essential goods through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blocked since the start of the Iran war. This plan, which FRANCE 24 has seen, has yet to be approved by several countries. 

RC Lens qualified for their first French cup final since 1998 by defeating Toulouse (4-1) in a lopsided game.

Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi return for season three of Sam Levinson’s troubled teen drama “Euphoria”. The series has been lauded by fans but slammed by critics for its hypersexual, fetishist content. TV critic Dheepthika Laurent also reviews the second season of Netflix’s rage drama “Beef”. It stars Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac as a country club couple who get into a blackmail feud with a young couple. Plus: Eric Rochant, the creator of the French series “The Bureau”, is back with a family crime drama called “Bandi”. It’s Netflix’s first ever series set on the French Caribbean island…

Iran says it has new “cards to play” on the battlefield if the war resumes, while uncertainty remains over whether it will attend talks in Pakistan, as the US prepares to send the vice president to Islamabad. Delano D’Souza reports on internal divisions in Iran, highlighted by mixed messages over the weekend about the future of the Strait of Hormuz.

Victor Wembanyama is the youngest Defensive Player of the Year in NBA history, and the first to win the award unanimously.

Governments and regulators are assessing potential implications and urging critical sectors to beef up their defences after a powerful new AI model sent shockwaves around the world. Mythos showed the ability to find previously undetected bugs and to exploit the vulnerabilities by itself, prompting its developer Anthropic to decide not to release it to the general public. Aleksandr Yampolskiy, Co-founder and CEO of SecurityScorecard, explains the inflection point the new AI model brings.