Author: France 24

The 2026 World Cup final will be held at MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey, organisers FIFA announced on Sunday. Issued on: 04/02/2024 – 23:42 3 min The New York bid held off a strong challenge from Dallas to secure the July 19 game, the culmination of the expanded 48-team tournament being co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico.The competition will kickoff with the opening game at Mexico City’s iconic Azteca Stadium on June 11.Atlanta and Dallas will host the semi-finals while the third-place game will be played in Miami.The quarter-final games will take place in Los Angeles, Kansas City,…

Polling stations opened in Paris on Sunday for a referendum on tripling parking costs for hefty SUV-style cars, a campaign that has drivers’ groups up in arms against city hall.  Issued on: 04/02/2024 – 07:21Modified: 04/02/2024 – 11:02 2 min Some 1.3 million Parisians are eligible to cast their ballot on the change, which would see cars weighing 1.6 tonnes or more charged 18 euros ($19.50) per hour for parking in central areas, or 12 euros further out.Fully electric cars would have to top two tonnes to be affected, while people living or working in Paris, taxi drivers, tradespeople, health…

New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) predict a 77% increase in cancer cases globally by 2050. The report points to air pollution as one of the factors driving the expected increase in cancer rates, even though it does not have the same effect on everyone. As a global health watchdog, the WHO rarely has good news. It stayed true to its mission ahead of World Cancer Day, when its International Agency for Research on Cancer released a report on February 1 predicting an increase of some 35 million new cases of cancer by 2050. This represents an increase of 77%…

Opposition parties prepared to demonstrate on Sunday after President Macky Sall announced the indefinite postponement of a presidential election set for February 25, sparking a wave of international concern. Issued on: 04/02/2024 – 16:27 3 min Just a day before official campaigning was due to start, Sall plunged the nation into the unknown saying he intervened because of a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court over the rejection of candidates.Lawmakers are investigating two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned.”I will begin an open national dialogue to bring together the conditions for…

Namibia’s President Hage Geingob died early Sunday in a hospital in Windhoek, his office said. He was 82. Issued on: 04/02/2024 – 07:46Modified: 04/02/2024 – 09:26 2 min Geingob, who was serving his second term as president and was his country’s first prime minister after independence, revealed last month that he was being treated for cancer.Most recently, he took a stand by supporting South Africa’s complaint against Israel under the Genocide Convention and by condemning Namibia’s former colonial ruler Germany for rejecting the case. “It is with utmost sadness and regret that I inform you that our beloved Dr. Hage G.…

There is an unfamiliar air of serenity in El Salvador’s capital, where voters head to the polls Sunday without the specter of gang violence and intimidation hanging over them for the first time in years.  Issued on: 04/02/2024 – 11:02 3 min Most of them will opt, they say, for incumbent President Nayib Bukele whose “war” on gangs they credit with improving the daily lives of a majority of Salvadorans almost overnight.”Now more than ever we are in a democracy because we have a president who thinks about Salvadorans, who is governing for Salvadorans,” Alvaro Perez, a 47-year-old carpenter in…

Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published…

The death toll from a strike on a bakery in the occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk has climbed to 28 people, including a child, Russian rescuers said on Sunday. Issued on: 04/02/2024 – 08:49 1 min Moscow’s occupation forces on Saturday said Kyiv had targeted a bakery that is popular on weekends, almost two years into Russia’s full-scale offensive against its neighbour.The front in eastern Ukraine has barely moved in months but battles continue to be bloody, with intensified attacks on both sides this winter.”Search operations continue on the site of the collapsed bakery… 28 people, including a child,…

Two French volunteer aid workers were killed in a Russian drone attack in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, French Foreign Minister Stephane Séjourné said on Friday, confirming reports from the regionalgovernor and other officials.  Issued on: 02/02/2024 – 02:26Modified: 02/02/2024 – 11:43 1 min “Russian barbarity has targeted civilians in Ukraine. Two French humanitarian workers paid for their commitment to the Ukrainians with their lives,” Foreign Minister Stephane Séjourné wrote on X. “Russia will have to answer for its crimes.” La barbarie russe a visé des civils en Ukraine.Deux humanitaires français ont payé leur engagement auprès des Ukrainiens de…

Pakistan former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Khan were sentenced to seven years in prison and fined on Saturday by a court that ruled their 2018 marriage violated the law, his party said.  Issued on: 03/02/2024 – 13:22 2 min It was the third adverse ruling against the embattled former prime minister this week and comes ahead of national elections on Thursday that he is barred from contesting.The jailed Khan, 71, has in recent days been sentenced to 10 years for leaking state secrets and 14 years along with this wife for illegally selling state gifts.”After hours…