Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who was serving a 27-year prison sentence for an attempted coup, underwent successful hernia surgery in Brasília after being temporarily released from jail. Doctors said he was expected to remain hospitalised for several days.
In Senegal, a country with a large Muslim majority, Christmas Eve is not tied to any specific culinary tradition. That freedom is inspiring some chefs to reinvent festive cuisine. One of them is Franco-Senegalese chef Aïda Gaye, who puts local flavours centre stage in a fusion-style approach.
Somalians turned out in droves on Thursday to vote in local elections in the capital Mogadishu – the first by universal suffrage in nearly 60 years – with the city locked down amid security concerns.
Pope Leo decried conditions for Palestinians in Gaza in his Christmas sermon on Thursday, in an unusually direct appeal during what is normally a solemn, spiritual service on the day Christians across the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus. FRANCE 24 speaks to Missimo d’Angelo, research associate at Loughborough University London.
Many people celebrated Christmas Day with a traditional mass on Thursday, while others enjoyed the holiday with tiramisu at Sydney's Bondi Beach or watching a parade of Ukrainian soldiers in Lviv. In Bethlehem, Christians celebrated their first festive Christmas in over two years as the occupied West Bank city emerged from the shadow of the war in Gaza.
Moscow has made a "proposal" to France concerning the case of researcher Laurent Vinatier, who has been imprisoned in Russia since June 2024, the Kremlin said Thursday. Vinatier was sentenced by a Russian court to three years in prison for allegedly failing to register as a "foreign agent" but faces fresh allegations of spying.
French farmers marked Christmas on the A64 motorway on Wednesday evening as they continued protests against the government’s cattle-culling policy aimed at containing the spread of lumpy skin disease. President Emmanuel Macron met with farmers’ union leaders on Tuesday in their first talks since the protest movement began, amid broader tensions over a controversial free trade deal and the government’s handling of the outbreak, also known as nodular dermatitis, to discuss a controversial free tra
Joy is returning to Jerusalem as Christians mark Christmas in one of the world’s oldest cities. FRANCE 24’s Noga Tarnopolsky reports a festive atmosphere in the air, describing it as "a huge relief” after more than two years of war in Gaza.
Christmas in France would not be complete without free-flowing champagne, oysters or a bûche de Noël. And the French holiday season is longer than most – stretching into the New Year with Epiphany (January 6) and its traditional galettes des rois (king cake) into February with Chandeleur (Candlemas).
One year after the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Christmas festivities are taking place under a cloud of pain and worry. In the capital Damascus and the nearby town of Maaloula, Christian communities are determined to celebrate, despite the wounds of recent violence and widespread concern about insecurity in the country scarred by more than a decade of war. FRANCE 24's Syria correspondent Dana Alboz has this report.
