Author: France 24

Olympique Lyonnais lost (2-1) away to Sparta Prague in the first leg of the third qualifying round. The return leg will take place on August 11 in Lyon.

Carys Garland is pleased to welcome Alexander Held, Senior Expert of the Resilience Programme for Integrated Fire Management. Held explains how Europe’s escalating wildfire crisis is exposing the limits of a response model built around emergency suppression rather than long-term resilience. He argues that while the European Union has significantly improved its capacity to coordinate firefighting efforts, it continues to intervene only after the fact: once wildfires have already become uncontrollable. His central thesis is that the challenge is no longer primarily one of firefighting but of landscape governance. Climate change may intensify the conditions for extreme fires, yet the…

Lebanon and Israel are holding a fresh round of direct talks in Rome under US sponsorship. It is the seventh such meeting since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire at Israel, which responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion. The talks were criticised by the leader of Hezbollah, who said they brought ‘shame’ and ‘humiliation’ to Lebanon. FRANCE 24’s Seema Gupta tells us more.

Surgeons in the UK are training using robotics in keyhole surgery, as part of a drive across the overstretched National Health Service. This more precise surgery within a smaller wound should mean a shorter hospital stay and recovery time, which would hopefully allow patients to leave hospitals sooner, free up bed space and reduce waiting lists.

Sigrid Haugset of Norway won the third stage of the Women’s Tour de France. She secured a solo victory following an 87-kilometre breakaway. 

U.S. President Donald Trump said new talks to wind down the war in Iran will start on August 3, after announcing he is holding off on new massive strikes he had threatened to unleash on the country. This is not a one-time occurrence: Trump has regularly announced ongoing talks after threatening agressive strikes on Iran. But this time, Iran seems to not have given into the strategy. FRANCE 24’s Kethevane Gorjestani tells us more.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is under pressure after abandoning plans to sell a stake in the World Cup to private ​investors. Infantino’s plans fell apart after UEFA’s 55-member nations agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions. CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation also said they opposed the plan. 

US President Donald Trump has pulled back from plans for major new strikes on Iran, in his latest climbdown after weeks of threatening to hit Tehran hard. The president said late Saturday that the US would hold off, provided a deal can be reached quickly. It follows a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who reportedly urged de-escalation, amid fears that Iran could retaliate against the Kingdom and other Gulf states. In announcing that he was calling off the strikes, Trump said Israel had “joined him in this commitment”. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet…

Dutch rider Lorena Wiebes claimed the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France Femmes on Saturday after winning the opening stage in Lausanne, finishing ahead of Mauritian Kim Le Court and European champion Demi Vollering in a sprint finish.

Spanish officials said more than 48,000 migrants had returned, after around 50,000 people crossed the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta by sea. Meanwhile, France and Italy bolstered border controls on Saturday, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announcing the suspension of Schengen free movement between Spain and Italy. According to Judith Sunderland, Senior Associate Director at Human Rights Watch, the return of many of those who reached Ceuta was chaotic, and the exact figures remain unclear. She says the borders are heavily fortified, making them extremely difficult and dangerous to cross, with 57 people reported to…