Author: France24

An Italian court threw out charges Friday against crew members of migrant rescue ships, ending a controversial case seven years after the government accused them of colluding with traffickers.

Three men who allegedly organised and carried out an attack last month in Lithuania on Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov have been arrested, officials said Friday.

With less than 100 days to go before Paris hosts the 2024 Olympics, which organisers plan to open with an elaborate waterborne ceremony on the Seine river, concerns are mounting about the efficiency of the anti-drone shield meant to protect the French capital from a potential terror attack. According to several security sources, recent tests have exposed some worrying flaws in the system.

In this week’s special edition of Access Asia, we focus on India as the country’s record-breaking election gets under way. In the past few years, India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index has plummeted. With the country’s independent media increasingly under threat, YouTube has become a key medium to fact-check trending topics. Twenty-nine-year-old Dhruv Rathee has been using the platform to fact-check issues and hold the Indian government to account. He spoke to FRANCE 24’s Delano D’Souza.

French authorities Friday detained a man suspected of entering the Iranian consulate in Paris and falsely claiming to be armed with an explosive vest, police and prosecutors said.

An organisation of Olympic sports federations on Friday said the decision by World Athletics to award prize money to gold medallists in its events “undermines the values of Olympism”.

The Croatian city of Vukovar, on the banks of the Danube, has a painful past. Located on the border with Serbia, it was the scene of the first major battle in the 1990s Balkan wars. Four years before the genocide in Srebrenica and eight years before the war in Kosovo, Vukovar was the first city in the former Yugoslavia to suffer ethnic cleansing, in 1991. More than 30 years later, reconciliation between local Serbs and Croats is hindered by impunity for war crimes and the inability to agree on a common version of events. 

Russian strikes on Ukraine in the early hours of Friday killed at least nine people, including three children, as Kyiv said it shot down a Russian strategic bomber for the first time.

The United States on Thursday spoiled a long-shot Palestinian bid for full United Nations membership, vetoing a Security Council measure despite growing international distress over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Iran’s state media reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan on Friday, raising fears of a possible Israeli strike in retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country. Here’s what we know so far.

India began voting Friday in a six-week election with an all but assured victory for Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a weakened opposition is pushed to the sidelines.

Indonesian authorities closed an airport and residents left homes near an erupting volcano Thursday due to the dangers of spreading ash, falling rocks, hot volcanic clouds and the possibility of a tsunami.

World leaders called for de-escalation in the Middle East after Iran’s state media reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan on Friday and US media quoted officials saying Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes on its arch-rival. Iranian officials played down the incident and said the blasts caused no major damage. Israel had previously warned it would hit back after Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates on the situation in the Middle East. 

Lawyers in Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial on Thursday selected 12 jurors who will assess his guilt or innocence over the coming weeks in a case stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.

Kenya’s defence chief and nine other top brass died on Thursday in a military helicopter crash in a remote area of the country, President William Ruto said.

Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated record “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday — the 11th studio album from the megastar who is already having a blockbuster year.

Senegal’s new President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Thursday visited neighbouring Mauritania on his first official trip abroad since his election at the end of March, the two presidencies said.

Freshly back from maternity leave, FRANCE 24’s Florence Villeminot shares her insights about having a baby in France. While the number of births in the country is dropping, France remains one of the better performers within the European Union. One of the reasons is its healthcare system, “la Sécurité sociale”, which covers the bulk of the cost of having a baby. A key player in the whole process is someone called a “sage-femme” – a little-known profession outside of France. We also look at attitudes towards breastfeeding and an iconic toy that is a must in terms of baby gifts.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday announced measures to crack down on teenage violence in and around schools, as the government seeks to reclaim ground on security from the far-right two months ahead of European elections.

Deepfake pornography of famous women like Taylor Swift has sparked outrage and calls for the regulation of artificial intelligence. Yet this powerful technology is not only being used to bully women in the public eye – minors are also being victimised. Schoolgirls are finding themselves targeted by AI-generated deepfake porn made by their own classmates using new, easy-to-access “nudifying” apps. And no federal laws exist to stop it. 

Burkina Faso has expelled three French diplomats for “subversive activities”, according to a foreign ministry note seen by FRANCE 24 on Thursday.