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20260806 220000 UTC
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[00:00:06] Midnight in Paris, end of the essential on France 24, the
[00:00:10] Yemeni government threatens reprisals after attacks on Yemeni soldiers,
[00:00:14] there were 58 deaths, the rebels denounce the increased support
[00:00:17] of Saudi Arabia to government forces,
[00:00:20] two dead and 14 injured near
[00:00:23] Damascus, a bomb exploded in a bus in a town near the
[00:00:27] Syrian capital. Demonstration of caregivers, Democratic
[00:00:31] Republic of Congo, on the front line against Ebola, they are demanding payment
[00:00:35] of their salaries, even as the virus progresses at an alarming
[00:00:38] rate, a suspected case was spotted
[00:00:41] behind these promises, inequalities on a boat heading to Kinshasa.
[00:00:52] situation became even more complicated
[00:00:57] At least 58 dead in the ranks of Yemeni forces from drone
[00:01:01] and missile attacks claimed by the Houthis, the rebels denounce
[00:01:05] an increase in Yemeni troops supported by Saudi Arabia, the
[00:01:08] Yemeni government threatens retaliation. Louis
[00:01:11] Chalavant.
[00:01:14] After several attacks in the Red Sea against Saudi tankers, the
[00:01:18] Houthis this time strike on solid ground. A direct
[00:01:21] response according to them, to the increased support from Saudi Arabia
[00:01:25] to Yemeni government forces for several
[00:01:27] weeks.
[00:01:32] This operation allowed us to kill and wound many Saudi mercenaries,
[00:01:36] to destroy and burn a large number of camps and
[00:01:39] them greatly, but Carlos weapons depots of the Saudi enemy in the east of the
[00:01:41] country,
[00:01:44] as well as to destroy a large number of military vehicles stationed
[00:01:48] in the targeted
[00:01:48] camps.
[00:01:53] According to an anonymous military source, Houthi drones and missiles struck
[00:01:56] several military camps in the province of Marib in the center of the country
[00:02:00] and that of Hadhramaut near the border with Saudi Arabia. This is the
[00:02:04] deadliest toll since 2022 between the two camps. The
[00:02:07] Yemeni government announced that it would retaliate at the opportune
[00:02:11] time and place. Since 2014, a proxy war has been taking
[00:02:14] place in Yemen between the Houthi rebels allied with Iran and the Yemeni
[00:02:18] government supported by Riyadh and Washington. In
[00:02:21] 2022, a fragile truce came into effect, but it
[00:02:24] collapsed last month when the Houthis welcomed an Iranian plane
[00:02:28] to Sana'a, violating the Saudi blockade of Yemeni
[00:02:31] airspace. The Houthis then announced a naval blockade of
[00:02:35] Saudi ports and began targeting the kingdom's
[00:02:38] oil tankers.
[00:02:41] We warn the Saudi enemy against any reckless action
[00:02:44] against our country and our people. They will have to bear the
[00:02:48] consequences of any
[00:02:50] escalation. According to a senior
[00:02:54] Saudi official. Several intelligence services claim that Iraqi militias
[00:02:57] are preparing attacks on Saudi territory in coordination with Yemeni
[00:03:01] Houthis and under the direction of the Iranian Revolutionary
[00:03:04] Guards. Saudi Arabia indicates that it will take the necessary
[00:03:08] measures to respond to any aggression.
[00:03:11] An initial assessment reports two dead and 14 injured. A bomb
[00:03:15] exploded in Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, the Syrian
[00:03:18] capital. The device was placed in a public transport minibus. France
[00:03:22] 24 correspondent Dana
[00:03:24] Ukraine appear, I knew Alboze. According to our latest report
[00:03:27] from the Syrian Ministry of
[00:03:30] Health, two people have died and 14 others have been injured
[00:03:33] in an explosion that occurred this
[00:03:36] simply want to take advantage of next day, I dried my evening in Jaramana, in the southeastern suburbs of
[00:03:39] Damascus. The explosion occurred in the middle of Jaramana's main
[00:03:43] thoroughfare, a very busy road. It targeted a small
[00:03:46] passenger shuttle which was completely
[00:03:50] destroyed according to our information. The injured were
[00:03:53] evacuated to two hospitals in Damascus and
[00:03:56] Jaramana, and according to a local
[00:03:59] in the Aude, the fire started in source, most of the injuries are minor, but this
[00:04:01] information remains preliminary and the toll could
[00:04:04] worsen. Authorities have established a security
[00:04:07] perimeter around the area and there was
[00:04:11] concern among the residents of Jaramana. Jaramana is
[00:04:15] only a few kilometers southeast of Damascus. The city
[00:04:18] also houses a large Druze population,
[00:04:22] but also residents from different communities.
[00:04:26] At this stage, no party has officially claimed
[00:04:30] this attack. The authorities have not commented on the exact nature
[00:04:33] of this explosion, but of course this
[00:04:36] incident comes as Syria has experienced several explosions in
[00:04:40] Damascus and in its surroundings in recent
[00:04:44] months and even in recent weeks. I remind you
[00:04:48] from the Ukrainian that in early July during the visit of French President Emmanuel
[00:04:51] Macron, two explosions occurred in Damascus. In
[00:04:55] these different cases, explosive devices had been
[00:04:58] mentioned and this new explosion comes
[00:05:01] in a context, I can say, of security challenges for the
[00:05:05] new Syrian authorities, Syrian authorities who must notably
[00:05:09] face the persistence of attacks and security incidents targeting
[00:05:12] urban areas.
[00:05:14] This new offensive by Donald Trump
[00:05:17] against birthright citizenship in the United States, this decree he just signed to
[00:05:21] prevent birth tourism, understanding this possibility for
[00:05:24] foreigners to give birth in the United States so that their children obtain American
[00:05:28] citizenship. At the beginning of July, the Supreme Court had annulled one of his
[00:05:32] decrees, but this time the occupant of the White House is
[00:05:35] confident.
[00:05:36] The Supreme Court made a very
[00:05:40] regrettable decision regarding birthright citizenship, the vote
[00:05:44] was close but the decision is very regrettable, so we are going
[00:05:48] to make adjustments because it's very unfair, this rule was
[00:05:51] established for another reason, it was just after the Civil War, it was for the
[00:05:55] children of slaves, but today what's happening is that
[00:05:59] wealthy people are doing business around this birthright citizenship,
[00:06:02] it shouldn't work like that, it's a shame, they
[00:06:05] buy their access to citizenship.
[00:06:08] With
[00:06:15] 3973 confirmed cases,
[00:06:17] including 1801 deaths, the 17th Ebola
[00:06:21] epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the largest
[00:06:24] the country has ever known. A suspected case has just been reported on a
[00:06:28] boat heading for Kinshasa, the capital. The
[00:06:31] spread of the virus worries Romain
[00:06:33] Michelot. Care and disinfection
[00:06:37] operations, here, everything is real or almost, these
[00:06:41] doctors are still in training in this center near
[00:06:44] Nairobi, Kenya, they are 200 to have already been prepared
[00:06:47] to face the Ebola epidemic.
[00:06:51] We organize this training for 3 days and give them contextual
[00:06:55] information on the epidemic, how to manage Ebola patients, how to
[00:06:58] protect themselves as healthcare personnel before, during and after this
[00:07:02] epidemic.
[00:07:05] The objective is therefore for these health professionals to become
[00:07:08] operational very quickly. 40% of the doctors trained here
[00:07:12] are sent there, to the Democratic Republic
[00:07:15] of Congo, where the 17th Ebola epidemic is raging.
[00:07:18] In mid-May, the first case was detected in Ituri province in
[00:07:22] the northeast of the country. Since then, contaminations have
[00:07:25] multiplied in four other provinces. Nearly 4,000 cases have
[00:07:29] been confirmed and more than 1,800 people have
[00:07:31] died. The number of cases of this new Ebola variant, the Bundibugyo
[00:07:35] strain, is already higher than during the last epidemic in the
[00:07:39] country between 2018 and 2020. The WHO,
[00:07:43] whose director visited the site this Wednesday, calls for
[00:07:46] intensifying the medical response in the city of
[00:07:49] Bunia, capital of Ituri and epicenter of the epidemic,
[00:07:53] the largest Ebola detection and treatment center has just been built.
[00:07:56] We have more than 300 staff who will
[00:08:00] work in this center and we count on
[00:08:04] the community to accelerate
[00:08:07] the process of identifying cases. At the same time, the
[00:08:10] work to create an
[00:08:15] effective vaccine against this new variant continues. At the end of July, a British volunteer received the first dose of a
[00:08:19] vaccine developed in Oxford, others are in the testing phase elsewhere
[00:08:22] in the world, but none have yet been
[00:08:24] validated.
[00:08:28] The fire is contained in the Aude in the south of France, a road accident caused a
[00:08:32] fire in the Corbières massif, the same massif where last
[00:08:35] year flames devoured 11,000 hectares of vegetation.
[00:08:38] Alexandre,
[00:08:41] the flames are spreading at a phenomenal speed,
[00:08:45] pushed by the Tramontane wind at 30 km/h,
[00:08:48] the fire devours the vegetation,
[00:08:52] facing the blaze, 250 firefighters deployed along
[00:08:56] this limestone massif,
[00:08:59] reinforced quickly by 10 aerial means, including two
[00:09:02] Dash 8s, four Canadairs and a water bomber
[00:09:06] helicopter,
[00:09:11] the commune of Serré, it is heading towards
[00:09:15] Saint-André de Roquelong and threatens homes.
[00:09:19] 1200 people are now confined in these two
[00:09:21] communes, including a man we reached by phone and
[00:09:25] who filmed these images. The fire is a few hundred
[00:09:29] meters from his home. So how do we apprehend the night? I think it's going to be a
[00:09:32] sleepless night and we're going to pack all our things just in case. So for
[00:09:36] now, we don't really know what's going to
[00:09:39] happen. The worry in this village of
[00:09:42] 500 inhabitants, all watching the progression of the
[00:09:45] flames, I was called by the
[00:09:48] family and they told me that Roquelong was burning and
[00:09:52] since I'm from the village, I rushed home from work and
[00:09:56] worried, well, Roquelong, the landscape near the
[00:09:59] village, a few minutes ago, these
[00:10:03] images reached us of scorched landscapes and it's
[00:10:06] always heartbreaking because obviously nature
[00:10:09] going up in smoke is always... quite
[00:10:13] traumatic. A vehicle that caught fire after a
[00:10:16] road accident is believed to be the cause of this fire. The vineyards
[00:10:20] in the path of the fire could act as a firebreak
[00:10:24] tonight. The fire is now contained, the
[00:10:28] prefecture of Aude announced in its latest situation report, also
[00:10:31] stating that tonight a hundred firefighters will remain
[00:10:35] mobilized to carry out surveillance and dousing
[00:10:38] of hot spots. Your late night editions will be on from
[00:10:42] 1am with Fainzi, right after that, the major reportage magazine from the
[00:10:45] newsroom, reporting on these Colombians who have decided
[00:10:49] to join the Ukrainian front. Have a great night and a great weekend
[00:10:53] everyone.
[00:11:14] The tension is palpable in this command post of a Ukrainian
[00:11:16] unit.
[00:11:22] These soldiers see Russian drones live on their screens.
[00:11:59] The deputy battalion commander himself almost died at Kupyansk. He
[00:12:03] was saved by two Brazilians while leading his unit into combat last
[00:12:07] December.
[00:12:09] An operation led mainly by Latin Americans and which marked a
[00:12:13] major turning point by stopping the Russian advance after a year
[00:12:17] where Ukraine had lost
[00:12:17] ground.
[00:12:22] It was not under enemy control so it was not a counter-offensive.
[00:13:25] that it was possible to bring many people back,
[00:13:27] if only we were given the means,
[00:13:30] we only need resources.
[00:13:34] The largest contingent of Latin Americans
[00:13:41] fighting for Ukraine comes from Colombia. The country
[00:13:45] has a substantial and well-trained army due to years of civil war and
[00:13:49] US support, but here soldiers' salaries are
[00:13:52] low.
[00:13:56] having served for 8 years, Daero is now preparing his departure for
[00:13:59] Ukraine.
[00:14:02] The brigade pays for our plane tickets, for our meals and for our
[00:14:05] accommodation here in Bogota. It takes care of all the administrative
[00:14:09] travel formalities. When I heard about it, I seized
[00:14:13] this opportunity, it's what
[00:14:14] I was waiting for.
[00:14:17] For a month of February in Ukraine, Daero does not seem sufficiently
[00:14:20] equipped. They told me not to bring too many things. I was
[00:14:24] very cold. I served in
[00:14:25] Israel.
[00:14:31] In this hotel, Daero, originally from Medellin, awaits his departure with other
[00:14:35] men, who came from elsewhere in Colombia. We commit out of vocation, moreover,
[00:14:39] it is a noble cause to fight under a flag that is not ours, but that of a
[00:14:42] people who are attacked, it's a bit like if my neighbor had broken into
[00:14:46] my house.
[00:14:49] A feeling shared by many men here, but not
[00:14:52] everyone. What they know above all is that in Ukraine,
[00:14:55] they will earn a much better salary than in Colombia.
[00:14:59] Here, when you leave the army, the best you can hope for is a job as a security
[00:15:03] guard. As a security guard, yes, or a bodyguard,
[00:15:07] and if you don't stay in the army until retirement, then you don't even
[00:15:10] get a pension. Anyway, it's not enough to survive,
[00:15:14] you have to keep working, fight for your survival and that of your
[00:15:17] family.
[00:15:20] At the airport, a representative of the Ukrainian army distributes their passports
[00:15:24] and their identity cards.
[00:15:37] things, I want my brother to give my daughter a monthly pension until she is
[00:15:41] of age, but I'm not going there thinking I'm going to die, no, God will
[00:15:44] decide.
[00:15:48] There is no official count of Colombians killed in Ukraine,
[00:15:52] it could be a few hundred. Carlos
[00:15:55] Gonzalez was able to return home, he is a
[00:15:57] miracle survivor.
[00:16:01] Strongly attached to Ukraine, Carlos was able to renovate his house thanks to the money
[00:16:05] earned in combat.
[00:16:09] but he bears indelible scars on his body. In May
[00:16:13] 2024, near Kherson, he survived a chemical weapon attack,
[00:16:16] which killed two other Colombians from his unit. This is how
[00:16:20] they found
[00:16:21] me.
[00:16:25] I told the workers, stop work on the house, I'm going to
[00:16:28] Ukraine.
[00:16:31] But Carlos convinced me not to go, saying it was too
[00:16:34] dangerous and that I wouldn't have been allowed into the military hospital in...
[00:17:08] Upon his return from Ukraine, armed groups once again tried to recruit
[00:17:12] him, his experience with combat drones interested
[00:17:17] refused.
[00:17:20] If you tell any armed group that you have served in Ukraine, you become
[00:17:23] interesting, if someone wants to join a gang here or in
[00:17:26] Mexico, they can go to Ukraine and study drones. Yesterday I was talking to
[00:17:30] a friend, one of his comrades with whom he had fought in Zaporizhia,
[00:17:34] is now fighting alongside the guerrillas in the department of Cauca.
[00:18:08] My mother raised us alone, she
[00:18:10] had to work as a cleaning lady to support us.
[00:18:13] Sandra's brother, Neider, wanted
[00:18:16] to lift his family out of poverty, and he also dreamed of becoming
[00:18:20] a soldier. So in January 2024, he
[00:18:23] decided to go to Ukraine.
[00:18:26] 5 months later he was
[00:18:31] killed.
[00:18:32] I can't stay here,
[00:18:39] I rarely come here, I don't like
[00:18:50] it, I don't like to think he's there,
[00:18:54] as soon as I saw the +380
[00:18:59] dialing code for
[00:19:02] something had happened to him.
[00:19:04] then the officer said:
[00:19:07] alas, and I immediately threw the phone, I
[00:19:10] collapsed, the
[00:19:14] tears and contacted the embassy, they asked for my authorization for
[00:19:18] cremation, it happened quickly, 45 days
[00:19:21] later, my brother's ashes were in Bogota,
[00:19:24] he wanted to have this experience, he was happy to have this
[00:19:28] experience, he said: this is another
[00:19:31] level sister, this is crazy here, he
[00:19:35] said: everyone has to die someday, so whether it's
[00:19:38] in Colombia or here, one
[00:19:41] day I will die,
[00:19:43] and if I have to die doing what I love, so
[00:19:47] be it, you have to respect that.
[00:19:50] If Neider's ashes were repatriated
[00:19:53] without incident, the money he earned in Ukraine is taking time to
[00:19:57] arrive. Sandra went all the way to Kiev to
[00:20:00] claim her inheritance, she had to stay there for several
[00:20:04] months. happened, the bank said there was no
[00:20:07] bank account in my brother's name, I was counting on this
[00:20:11] money to pay for my return ticket.
[00:20:14] Finally, a priest paid for her
[00:20:16] ticket. Sandra returned to Colombia on New Year's Eve,
[00:20:19] without her brother's salary, but with the promise of 300,000 euros in compensation
[00:20:25] state.
[00:20:26] All these are the documents I brought
[00:20:30] from Ukraine, translations, powers of attorney, everything is
[00:20:33] here. "We provide the documents, we open bank accounts in Ukraine and
[00:20:38] wait for the money to arrive.
[00:20:41] But for now, there are only 139 hryvnias, that's
[00:20:45] the money I deposited there.
[00:20:49] I imagined growing old in my son's
[00:20:52] arms, I thought he would take care of me when I
[00:20:55] was old.
[00:21:00] If the money doesn't arrive soon, Anna and her daughter could lose this
[00:21:02] house they mortgaged to
[00:21:06] pay for her brother's trip to Kiev.
[00:21:09] seriously, then in December, I asked why I
[00:21:12] hadn't received my combat
[00:21:50] bonuses, they replied that I hadn't participated in an operation
[00:21:53] on the front line, I told them that we were in a village under
[00:21:56] constant attack and that we were only there because in the village we
[00:22:00] were in before, our house had been bombed,
[00:22:04] finally Katchoro decided to stay.
[00:22:08] Even 20, 50, 100
[00:22:10] hryvnias is a big help.
[00:22:12] All the Ukrainians we spoke
[00:22:16] to seem very grateful to us.
[00:22:50] During their layover in Istanbul, a member of their group defected,
[00:22:54] someone had bought him a ticket to
[00:22:57] Barcelona. We told him: "Brother, it's your
[00:23:00] life, you're an adult, it's your decision." But he could
[00:23:03] have been more honest. Whoever
[00:23:06] bought him his ticket from Istanbul could have bought him a ticket from Bogota, and
[00:23:10] Ukraine would not have wasted its money. It's a great experience really,
[00:23:14] may we come out of it alive and go home, find our
[00:23:17] families,
[00:23:24] yes, see our families and do all the crazy things we've always dreamed
[00:23:27] of doing, as we were finishing this
[00:23:31] report, these men were waiting to be deployed to the Karkiv
[00:23:34] region, probably to
[00:23:37] Kupyansk. at the White House and the capture of Nicolas
[00:23:40] Maduro in Venezuela, everything seems to have accelerated,
[00:23:43] the Cuban economy is on the verge of
[00:24:20] collapse and Washington is increasing pressure against the Cuban
[00:24:23] regime, so does Donald Trump
[00:24:26] an already weakened power, why now and how far are the
[00:24:30] United States willing to go? We decipher all
[00:24:34] that. by the United States, President
[00:24:37] Trump offers a new path between the United States and a new
[00:24:40] Cuba, something has to happen because
[00:24:50] we can't go on living like this, but we're not starving to death.
[00:24:53] To understand why Cuba is currently experiencing the worst crisis in its
[00:24:57] recent history, we need to go back in time. In
[00:25:16] 1898, the United States intervened in the Spanish-American
[00:25:19] War and took control of Cuba until its independence in
[00:25:22] 1902. For decades, Washington considered the island
[00:25:25] part of its sphere of influence, but everything changed in
[00:25:29] 1959. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara overthrew
[00:25:32] the regime of Fulgencio Batista, which was supported by the
[00:25:36] Americans. In the midst of the Cold War, Cuba joined the
[00:25:40] communist camp, a revolution that deeply worried
[00:25:43] Washington. Let's remember that the island is only 145 km from its
[00:25:47] coasts, in the heart of the Caribbean and on strategic
[00:25:50] maritime routes.
[00:25:54] tradition and perception, if you will, of Cuba as being close to the United States, the first was
[00:25:57] the politics, the threat
[00:26:02] of Castro then established a communist
[00:26:06] single-party regime with a centralized
[00:26:10] economy of society,
[00:26:14] a model that promised equal access to health, education,
[00:26:18] food, and so on.
[00:26:22] that wasn't even true in the 70s and the 80s, meaning in the 70s and the 80s, if you were
[00:26:24] part of the high political
[00:26:26] elite, you know, if you were part of the Castro dynasty, but beyond that, if you were
[00:26:32] part of the the the high lead of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of the Armed
[00:26:36] Forces, the Council of State, the Communist
[00:26:39] Party,
[00:26:43] widened between a large part of the population and a minority
[00:26:46] that managed to circumvent the
[00:26:48] system through parallel markets and
[00:26:51] diaspora support. The
[00:26:55] when the United States imposed an economic embargo against the island
[00:26:58] in 1961, which is still in effect today. This
[00:27:02] embargo basically prohibited US firms from doing
[00:27:05] business with the Cuban government, that
[00:27:09] includes investments.
[00:27:12] For a long time, however, Cuba held on thanks to aid from the USSR and
[00:27:16] Venezuela. From 1999, Venezuelan
[00:27:18] President Hugo
[00:27:23] Chavez. of its own oil and its own energy needs
[00:27:26] through solar parks and other means, but
[00:27:30] 60%, but after the fall of the USSR, Cuba
[00:27:42] went through a severe economic crisis, often compared to that of
[00:27:46] today. 30 years later,
[00:27:47] Donald Trump's return to the
[00:27:52] White House marked a new hardening. Washington
[00:27:55] multiplied sanctions, further isolating the Cuban regime and
[00:27:58] seeking to cut off its last economic support. And you surely
[00:28:01] remember these images from January 2026, Venezuelan
[00:28:05] President Nicolas Maduro was captured during an American
[00:28:09] operation. Oil deliveries to Cuba
[00:28:12] abruptly stopped, apart from Russian aid that arrived in March
[00:28:16] 2026, the island received almost no more fuel.
[00:28:32] Already weakened, the Cuban economy collapsed. The American
[00:28:36] embargo contributed to it, but it doesn't explain everything, the
[00:28:39] Castroist economic model is largely
[00:28:52] to blame. Strong centralization, dependence on
[00:28:56] imports and reforms postponed for too long lead to a stalemate.
[00:28:59] of medicine and essential goods now paralyze the country,
[00:29:02] power outages plunge Cubans into darkness for hours,
[00:29:06] hospitals operate at a snail's pace,
[00:29:18] waste accumulates in the streets and purchasing power has
[00:29:22] collapsed. Today, a simple meal can
[00:29:25] cost the equivalent of a monthly salary, those who can still
[00:29:29] afford it turn to the black market to find products that have become
[00:29:32] unobtainable in state stores.
[00:29:35] Faced with this crisis, Havana is trying nonetheless to regain
[00:29:39] control. The government announced at the end of June
[00:29:42] 2026 a vast plan of
[00:29:48] 176 economic reforms, opening to private banks,
[00:29:51] possibility for private investors to enter the capital of
[00:29:55] certain public companies and progressive end of several
[00:29:58] state monopolies. The government assures that this is a sovereign
[00:30:02] decision, but for many observers, these announcements
[00:30:06] are primarily aimed at convincing Washington to ease the
[00:30:09] pressure. These measures are rather
[00:30:13] a guarantee addressed
[00:30:16] to
[00:30:19] Cesh mesures, c'est plutôt une garantie
[00:30:21] especially in the United States so
[00:30:25] that the latter disarm, among other things, but it's also a guarantee, well, it's for the
[00:30:29] regime, a way to ensure its stability and... to
[00:30:32] ensure that it stays in place during this
[00:30:35] transition that will ultimately be controlled. The United Nations estimates that Cuba
[00:30:39] is now on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. The island is
[00:30:43] more fragile than it has been in decades, even Donald
[00:30:47] Trump acknowledges this.
[00:30:50] And yet, it is precisely at this moment that the president decides to put
[00:30:54] the island back at the center of his priorities, but then
[00:30:57] why?