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Today

A look at Trump's controversial nominations for cabinet

With less than two days to go before US president-elect Donald's Trump is sworn into office, FRANCE 24 takes a look at some of Trump's top picks including controversial figures such as defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, who has been accused of sexua

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Syria's new leaders reckon with reintegrating vestiges of Assad regime

Syria's new leadership has seized abandoned military housing previously occupied by former high-ranking soldiers who fled following the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. But questions remain over how to rehome the large numbers of low-ranking ex-

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Israelis anxious and confused ahead of Gaza ceasefire

Israelis are feeling “deep anxiety, deep confusion” ahead of the Gaza ceasefire deal which is scheduled to take effect Sunday, FRANCE 24’s Noga Tarnopolsky said. “Among all of the groups who have a major stake in the current war, Israelis are the only on

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Russian court sentences Navalny lawyers to years behind bars

Russia on Friday sentenced three lawyers who had defended Alexei Navalny to several years in prison for bringing messages from the late opposition leader from prison to the outside world. Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin were found guilty o

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TikTok app to 'go dark' in the US on Sunday

TikTok says it will "go dark" in the United States on Sunday unless the government provides assurances a new law calling for its ban won't be used to punish service providers. The US Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law supported by President Joe Biden a

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Colombia suspends peace talks with ELN rebels over border fighting

Colombia on Friday suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, for a second time in less than a year after blaming the rebel group for recent violence in a northeastern region. The ELN has been fighting ex-rebels of the former Revolu

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Weakened but still standing: Hamas fights on in Gaza

Israel launched a full force military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks. After a devastating 15 months of war which saw former leader Yahya Sinwar killed, the Palestinian group has been considerably weakened but rem

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Integrating Syria's former civil servants poses 'difficult' problem for new leadership

Syria's new leadership, HTS, faces a conundrum over what to do with millions of civil servants, formerly employed by the Assad regime, who now have not been paid for more than a month. HTS said it plans to reintegrate some civil servants into its adminis

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Israel's cabinet approves Gaza ceasefire deal due to start Sunday

Israel's cabinet approved a deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire and release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday, a day ahead of the agreement's scheduled start. Fighting is exp

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Syria’s HTS begins requisitioning homes of former Assad soldiers

Syria's new leadership has seized abandoned military housing previously occupied by former high-ranking Republican Guard soldiers who fled following the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, but questions remain over how to rehome the large numbers o

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How Trump won over Pennsylvania Latinos with money, religion and machismo

Incoming US president Donald Trump made significant inroads in the 2024 vote in Reading, home to Pennsylvania’s largest Latino community. Many of his supporters here say his attacks on immigrants pale in comparison to his promises to defend tradition, fa

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Israelis question why Netanyahu stalled on Gaza ceasefire deal

As mediators and the Israeli government have confirmed that the approved Gaza ceasefire agreement is the same as a deal that was rejected more than six months earlier, "the question many Israeli's are asking right now is why did it take two US presidents

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Bolivian judge orders arrest of ex-president Morales in teen sex abuse case

A Bolivian judge on Friday ordered the arrest of the country's former leader Evo Morales over his alleged relationship while in office with a 15-year-old girl with whom prosecutors say he later fathered a child. Morales, who has neither confirmed nor den

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Live: Gaza ceasefire set for Sunday morning as Israeli cabinet approves deal with Hamas

The Israeli cabinet on Saturday officially approved a three-phase Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal, with the first stage of the ceasefire set to begin at 8:30am local time (6:30GMT) on Sunday. The first phase includes a suspension of military oper

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'Progressive trend: In the past 30 years we've seen 60 countries liberalise their abortion laws'

As France celebrates half a century of legal abortion, FRANCE 24's Oliver Farry welcomes Kei Yoshida, Senior Legal Advisor at the Center for Reproductive Rights, offering an in-depth look at women's health, reproductive rights, and the progressive trend

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L.A. wildfires 'so intense, violent and brutal that recovering is problematic'

Two wildfires still burning in Los Angeles have torched more urban areas than any other fire in the state since at least the mid-1980s. Experts say several factors could lead to wildfires reaching cities more often, inviting climate change and urban spra

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Yesterday

Ex-CIA analyst pleads guilty to leaking docs on Israel's plans to strike Iran

A former CIA employee who was accused of leaking classified documents about Israel's plans to strike Iran has pleaded guilty to criminal charges that he willfully retained and transmitted national defense information. Asif Rahman, 34, was arrested by the

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A truce for Gaza? Tik Tok's Time up? Beware the 'Oligarchy'

It’s been a week of high-stakes developments around the globe. In Gaza, a long-awaited ceasefire deal has been reached, set to begin Sunday, with plans to exchange hostages for prisoners in a bid for "sustainable calm." In South Korea, the dramatic arres

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In China, rare voices seek to break taboo over 'comfort women' raped by Japanese army

Pacific Asia • 6:49 PM

During World War II, the Japanese imperial authorities abducted, coerced, tricked and sometimes recruited hundreds of thousands of women from Japan's colonial empire to become sexual slaves for soldiers. Sometimes minors, these women were called "comfort

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Iranians and Israelis barred from entering Syria, airport source says

Iranian and Israeli citizens have been banned from entering Syria, a source from Damascus airport said, after international flights to the country resumed last week. Syria's new leadership has no diplomatic ties with Israel and has frozen relations with

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There is a 'backlash against gender balance everywhere': EU Commissioner for equality

Europe • 5:13 PM

For our first Talking Europe interview with the new crop of EU Commissioners, we host Hadja Lahbib, who is in charge of preparedness and crisis management, as well as equality. Lahbib, a former foreign minister of Belgium, talks about the challenges of h

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Biden or Trump: Who should we thank for the ceasefire in Gaza?

In the wake of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, outgoing US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, who returns to office on Monday, both raced to take credit for what they hope will be a major diplomatic success. It is a d

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Minister Ben-Gvir threatens to resign if the Gaza ceasefire deal is approved

Gaza ceasefire agreement faces strong opposition from hardliners in Netanyahu's coalition, who said it was a capitulation to Hamas, which had controlled Gaza. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if it was approved. However, he

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United States: Trump gains ground among Latinos in Reading, Pennsylvania

In Reading, a former industrial city in Pennsylvania where nearly 70 percent of the population is of Hispanic origin, a growing number of Latinos are turning to Donald Trump. Between economic disillusionment, conservative values and family priorities, th

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Trump 2.0 and women's rights: What is at stake this time around?

With Donald Trump re-entering the White House, what will it mean for American women this time around? Annette Young talks to Carter Sherman, the reproductive health reporter for the Guardian US. Also the gender divide in South Korea is becoming all the m

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Musk, a pro-populist thorn in the EU's side: Concerns grow over 'foreign interference'

He has called the German chancellor an "incompetent idiot" and the country’s president an "anti-democratic tyrant". Perhaps such invective would not matter if Elon Musk did not have the influence that he does. But Europe is a key market for the tech bill

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From 'Twin Peaks' to 'Blue Velvet': Remembering legendary director David Lynch

Culture • 3:53 PM

As the film world mourns the loss of legendary director David Lynch, arts24 looks back at the life and career of a true icon. Known for his surreal and unsettling style in films like "Twin Peaks", "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive", he redefined cinema

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US Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban slated to start on Sunday

The US Supreme Court refused to rescue TikTok on Friday from a law that required the popular short-video app to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be banned in the United States on national security grounds, dealing a major blow to a plat

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TikTok set to 'go dark' in US on Sunday as Supreme Court ban looms

TikTok says it will "go dark" for 170 million users in the US on Sunday after the Supreme Court upheld a law set to ban the app on national security grounds. Now all eyes are on whether incoming President Donald Trump, who takes office on Monday, will th

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Top AI companies score badly on risk and safety assessments, ahead of Paris summit

Are leading artificial intelligence companies doing enough to keep us safe from the potential harms of their products? According to the nonprofits SaferAI and the Future of Life Institute, based in Paris and Brussels respectively, the answer is "no". We

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Trump says US and China to 'solve many problems' after phone call with Xi

Pacific Asia • 3:29 PM

US President-elect Donald Trump said he had a "very good" discussion on Friday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a number of issues, including trade, fentanyl and TikTok.

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Maha Kumbh Mela festival: India's soft power on display

The Maha Kumbh Mela has got underway in northern India, with organisers expecting over 400 million visitors throughout the festival. In this week's show, we speak to India's permanent representative to UNESCO, who discusses how the Hindu festival is bein

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Russian court jails three of Navalny's former lawyers for 'extremist' activity

Europe • 2:47 PM

Three lawyers for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny were found guilty by a Russian court on Friday of participating in an "extremist organisation" and sentenced to years in jail.

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Netherlands grapples with painful past as WWII archives go public

Europe • 2:24 PM

Eighty years after the end of World War II, the Netherlands' largest war archive is going public. No longer classified, it contains the names of hundreds of thousands of people who were investigated for collaborating with the Nazis. The release has spark

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Tech: US Tiktok users flock to Chinese social media app RedNote

The US talks on banning the Chinese-owned Tiktok app from the App Store have triggered a digital migration of US users to an alternative platform, the Chinese social media app RedNote to continue their businesses and content making. And they have been wa

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‘Sheep for hire’: Trump, Musk and Zuckerberg’s dangerous plan for Europe

The European Union has long been one of the safest digital spaces for internet users. But that was before Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House and before two of today's tech titans – Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg – were essentially handed ca

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'Ironic that Trump is taking credit' for Gaza ceasefire deal, John Bolton says

FRANCE 24 spoke to John Bolton, a former national security adviser under Donald Trump. Bolton reacted to the ceasefire deal that's been struck for Gaza, following a devastating 15-month war between Israel and Hamas. The deal was clinched through cooperat

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Israeli security cabinet approves Gaza ceasefire deal

Israel's security cabinet approved in a vote on Friday a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that should take effect this weekend, the prime minister's office said.

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Abortion rights: From Veil act to constitutional right

As France celebrates half-century of legal abortion, some countries are shifting their policies on abortion. For more, FRANCE 24 hosts managing director of abortion support network, Camille Kumar.

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All eyes on Gaza: United Arab Emirates positions itself for post-war period

With Israel and Hamas on the cusp of a ceasefire in Gaza, our reporters investigated the strategy of the United Arab Emirates in the region. The oil and gas-rich Gulf monarchy – a Middle Eastern heavyweight which has a strong rivalry with neighbouring Qa

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🔴 Israeli security cabinet approves Gaza ceasefire deal

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Transitional government urges Syrian refugees to come home and rebuild together

The authorities in Damascus have called 1.5 million of Syrians who fled to country to return home. FRANCE 24's senior reporter James Andre has more.

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Fifty years ago, the Veil law legalised abortion in France

Fifty years ago, on November 29, 1974, the French National Assembly passed a bill to legalise decriminalise abortion. in France. It was a victory for Simone Veil, the health minister who championed the landmark law.

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French president Emmanuel Macron pushes for Lebanese sovereignty

France’s president began a visit to Lebanon Friday, where he will meet the crisis-hit country’s newly elected leaders, as the nation attempts to recover from the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war. Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Lebanon, is his first in more than

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SpaceX catches Starship booster again, but upper stage explodes

Elon Musk's space company SpaceX succeeded on Thursday in catching the booster for its Starship mega rocket for the second time. But the flight was not a complete success, as the rocket itself broke apart after launch.

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Aid trucks in Egypt wait to cross into Gaza after ceasefire announcement

The ceasefire deal in Gaza comes as 90% of the population faces acute food insecurity with the limited food supply under strain, and as humanitarian lorries have struggled to reach much of the besieged strip. The ceasefire deal stipulates that 600 aid lo

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France's president Emmanuel Macron in Lebanon to back new leadership

France's President Emmanuel Macron was in Lebanon on Friday for a visit to meet his newly-elected counterpart and offer support to leaders seeking to open a new chapter in their country's turbulent history. FRANCE 24's correspondent in Beirut, Rawad Taha

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Israel security cabinet begins meeting to vote on Gaza ceasefire deal

Israel's security cabinet meets Friday to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that should take effect this weekend. If approved, the agreement would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza's deadliest-ever war and initiate the release of doze

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The Independent's front page looks at terrible cost of war in Gaza, in numbers

PRESS REVIEW – Friday, January 17: We look at reactions from the press as Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu's cabinet prepares to vote on a ceasefire deal in Gaza. Also: the Lebanese paper L'Orient-Le Jour interviews French President Emmanuel Macron as he ar

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Israel-Hamas war: Israeli security cabinet to finalise ceasefire deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip has been reached, after his office said earlier there were last minute snags in finalizing a ceasefire that would pause 15 months of war. A story by Ma

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South Africa mine end rescue: 78 bodies, 246 illegal miners lifted out

Police have called an end to a rescue operation that was launched in South Africa to rescue about 300 illegal miners known as ZamaZamas trapped more than two kilometres underground. Police launched an operation in July to smoke out the miners by blocking

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Pakistan's ex-PM Imran Khan sentenced to 14 years in landmark graft case

Pacific Asia • 8:37 AM

Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were convicted in Islamabad on Friday in one of the country's largest-ever graft cases. Khan received 14 years in prison and Bibi was sentenced to seven for graft linked to their Al-Qad

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France's Macron urges 'acceleration' of Israel-Hezbollah truce implementation

Europe • 8:30 AM

French President Emmanuel Macron promised his Lebanese presidential counterpart Joseph Aoun that ‘France will remain by your side” as he pledged financial aid to help rebuild Lebanon while also urging the ‘acceleration’ of an Israel-Hezbollah truce durin

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Four more years: Have allies figured out how to deal with Trump?

How should US allies deal with Donald Trump's return? His inauguration, featuring far-right figures, signals a US president-elect who's intent on shaking up alliances and settling scores. Critics warn he could hand concessions to leaders like Binyamin Ne

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Israeli cabinet ministers set to resign over ceasefire deal with Hamas

Right-wing ministers in Israel's cabinet have threatened to resign over a proposed ceasefire deal in Gaza, which they see as a failure from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to deliver "absolute victory" over Hamas. "They were promised that Hamas would b

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