Author: France 24

FRANCE 24’s Olivia Salazar-Winspear brings us all the latest from the Avignon performing arts festival, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary. This year, Golden Globe winners, Brazilian actor Wagner Moura and French actress Isabelle Huppert are starring in shows. The festival has also chosen Korean as its language of honour and turns the spotlight on artists from the Mediterranean region. Salazar-Winspear also talks to the co-director of Avignon’s fringe program. It’s known as the “off” in French and features more than 1,700 shows performed in public spaces around the city. Finally, she gives us her recommendation for a fringe show that…

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“Allies must ensure that Ukraine receives the support it needs in its war with Russia” according to NATO chief Mark Rutte, ahead of a summit set to take place in Ankara, Turkey. He has also said allies will be announcing contracts worth tens of billions to “deter and defend”. FRANCE 24’s Kethevane Gorjestani tells us what to expect from the summit, and what it means for Ukraine.

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Organisers of the Pride March due to take place in Paris on June 27 weekend postponed the event after police ordered them to change the date to relieve pressure on emergency services during the heatwave. A popular music festival has also been cancelled, while public alcohol consumption has been temporarily banned. This comes as hospitals and emergency services are overwhelmed amid a historic heatwave. FRANCE 24’s Emerald Maxwell tells us more from eastern Paris.

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Chinese tech giant Alibaba has ordered staff to stop using Anthropic’s Claude Code, after it was found to be flagging users connecting from China. But Anthropic is already trying its best to stop Chinese firms from using Claude at all, and accuses Alibaba of running large “distillation” campaigns against it, saying it deployed around 25,000 fake accounts to train its own models on Claude.

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Three sons of former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Sunday made a rare public appearance at his funeral but there was still no sign of their brother and his successor Mojtaba Khamenei. Crowds of thousands for the second day in a row filled the Grand Mosalla religious complex in Tehran for the funeral ceremonies of Khamenei and four family members killed on February 28 in Israeli air strikes based on US intelligence.

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One month after Congolese authorities officially declared a new Ebola outbreak, the virus is still spreading in the east of the country and the death toll continues to rise. There are now more than 1,000 confirmed cases and more than 250 confirmed deaths. FRANCE 24’s Aurélie Bazzara-Kibangula reports from eastern DR Congo, with Paula Séville.

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