Новости за 18.11.2020

Blair Kinghorn has insisted there is nothing lucky about Scotland's winning streak as they head into this weekend's Autumn Nations Cup clash with France. Gregor Townsend's men will kick off at Murrayfield on Sunday on a run of five successive victories -- over Italy, France, Georgia, Wales and Italy again -- in what is their joint-best sequence since rugby union became a professional sport. A victory over Les Bleus would mean the Scots had won six in a row for the first time since 1990. Italy... Читать дальше...

Yazidis crowned a new spiritual leader on Wednesday at their holiest site of Lalish in northern Iraq, nearly two months after the death of the minority's top cleric. Ali Alyas was formally named as the Yazidi "Baba Sheikh," the title for the religious guide of the esoteric community ravaged by the Islamic State group in 2014. In his 40s, he is relatively young to receive the title. The Yazidi's strict caste system stipulates that clerics can only hail from specific clans. Alyas's father was also a "Baba Sheikh." On Wednesday... Читать дальше...

A vacant baseball stadium in Texas is set to become a permanent venue for American cricket as the United States prepares to launch its own domestic Twenty20 competition, USA Cricket said Wednesday. American Cricket Enterprises (ACE), the parent company of Major League Cricket, a T20 tournament set for 2022, has received approval from the City of Grand Prairie, west of Dallas, on a long-term lease agreement for AirHogs Stadium. The 5,445-seat arena is to be increased to a 8,000-capacity ground and... Читать дальше...

Lampooned by experts and debunked by fact-checkers, the controversial French film “Hold-Up” claims to uncover a global conspiracy by world elites to control citizens through the Covid-19 pandemic. FRANCE 24 takes a look at the reasons for its astonishing success.

Designer Philip Treacy, a haute couture hatmaker to the British royals and American stars, presented his collection in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday saying "we all need entertainment" during a pandemic. The 53-year-old Irishman, who counts among his clients Queen Elizabeth II, the Duchess of Cambridge and Madonna, unveiled the collection at Saint Petersburg's Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this autumn. Speaking to reporters at Russia's largest private museum of contemporary art... Читать дальше...

A US judge on Wednesday granted a government request to drop drug trafficking and money laundering charges against a former Mexican defense minister who will now be sent back to Mexico. Prosecutors for the US Department of Justice on Tuesday asked New York Judge Carol Amon to release Salvador Cienfuegos from prison so that Mexico can do its own probe and potentially prosecute him. Amon said she had "no reason to doubt the government's determination that the Mexican prosecuting authorities sincerely... Читать дальше...

President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a major Iranian foundation and the country's intelligence minister, further stepping up pressure before Joe Biden is sworn in. The Treasury Department said it was freezing any US interests of the Foundation of the Oppressed, officially a charitable organization for the poor that has sweeping interests across the Iranian economy including in oil and mining. The Treasury Department described the foundation as a "multibillion-dollar... Читать дальше...

The population of most wild animals with a backbone -- mammals, amphibians, birds, reptiles and fish -- is stable, scientists said Wednesday in a finding sharply at odds with a benchmark report issued every two years by environmental group WWF. Looking at 14,000 vertebrate populations monitored by WWF since 1970, researchers found that if the one percent suffering the worst declines are removed from the equation, the remaining populations, grouped together, are holding steady in terms of overall numbers. Читать дальше...

Alia al-Hathloul is the sister of Loujain al-Hathloul, a Saudi women's rights activist who has been in jail for more than two years without trial. In an interview with FRANCE 24, Alia al-Hathloul said she was "very worried" about the worsening health of her sister, who began a hunger strike on October 26. With Saudi Arabia poised to host a virtual G20 summit from Saturday, Hathloul appealed to the Saudi authorities to release her sister.

With millions of Americans left jobless amid the Covid-19 pandemic, food banks and charities from New York to Los Angeles have been handing out free turkeys and other produce to help those in need enjoy a Thanksgiving meal this year.

US regulators on Wednesday cleared the Boeing 737 MAX to return to the skies, ending its 20-month grounding after two fatal crashes that plunged the company into crisis.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has revealed his childhood love of French cartoon Asterix with its "magic potion and eating whole boars" as he backed football star Marcus Rashford's literacy campaign.

A French court has ruled that Clint Eastwood cannot testify during the trial of a suspected Islamist gunman, whose attack on a high-speed train was thwarted by three Americans, who later played themselves in a movie by the U.S. actor and director.

The Taliban on Wednesday welcomed the Pentagon's announcement it would soon pull about 2,000 US troops from Afghanistan as a "good step" that will help end the country's long-running conflict.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region to seek refuge in neighbouring Eritrea and Sudan. As the Ethiopian government prepares for a final military operation against rebel forces in the north, the UN warns of an imminent "full-scale" humanitarian crisis. FRANCE 24’s team filed this report from the border of Sudan.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Wednesday his country vetoed the EU's budget over plans to tie funding to respect for the rule of law, as it amounted to "blackmailing" countries that oppose migration.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to arrive in Jerusalem Wednesday for a farewell visit as the chief diplomat of the strongly pro-Israeli Trump administration. Palestinians protested as Pompeo was expected to become the first US top diplomat to visit a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, where a vineyard has named one of its wines after him. Pompeo -- who has so far backed Donald Trump in refusing to concede defeat to President-elect Joe Biden -- is on a Europe and Middle East tour that has so far taken him to France... Читать дальше...

Thousands of democracy activists gathered in downtown Bangkok Wednesday for a second day of protest, after six people were shot during violent clashes, as lawmakers voted on possible constitutional reforms. FRANCE 24's Philip Sherwell tells us more.

Ethiopia’s growing conflict has resulted in more than 27,000 refugees fleeing the Tigray region into Sudan, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday, as fighting spilled beyond Ethiopia’s borders and threatened to inflame the Horn of Africa region. FRANCE 24's Maria Gerth-Niculescu and Bastien Renouil report from Sudan's border with Ethiopia.

The UN said Tuesday that a full-blown humanitarian crisis was unfolding in northern Ethiopia, where thousands of people each day are fleeing the conflict in the Tigray region. FRANCE 24's Chief Foreign Editor Rob Parsons explains.

France has surpassed 2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, the fourth-highest total in the world. The government imposed a nationwide partial lockdown starting Oct. 30 as the second surge hit and could start easing the measures Dec. 1. Non-essential shops and venues, such as bars, cafés and sit-down restaurants, will remain shut.

England's 1966 World Cup hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst says children should be banned from heading the ball due to so many of his generation suffering from dementia. Several of Hurst's 1966 team-mates have been diagnosed with dementia, the most recent Bobby Charlton. Another sufferer, Nobby Stiles, died last month. Charlton's brother Jack, Ray Wilson and Martin Peters -- the other England goalscorer in the 4-2 win over the then West Germany in the final -- were also diagnosed with it and have died in the last three years. Читать дальше...

Both sides in Ethiopia's raging internal conflict claimed military successes on Wednesday, creating a muddied picture of fighting even as the government promised it would soon be over. A communications blackout in the Tigray region, where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has ordered military operations against the ruling party, has made it difficult to get a clear picture of hostilities that have now entered their third week. "We're inflicting heavy defeats on all fronts against the forces that came to... Читать дальше...

On a dusty plain in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a golden-lettered sign with Israeli and American flags stands before a rusty wire fence as the gateway to "Trump Heights". Inaugurated in June 2019 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this Israeli settlement celebrates US President Donald Trump's recognition of the Golan as Israeli territory. FRANCE 24's Gwendoline Debono and Iris Makkler report.

More than four billion people could be overweight by 2050, with 1.5 billion of them obese, if the current global dietary trend towards processed foods continues, a first-of-its-kind study predicted Wednesday. Warning of a health and environmental crisis of "mind-blowing magnitude", experts from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) said that global food demand would leap 50 percent by mid-century, pushing past Earth's capacity to sustain nature. Food production already hoovers... Читать дальше...