Parisians react as city extends 30km/h speed limit to most streets

The French capital has lowered the speed limit for drivers on most streets in a bid to curb the number of cars in the city, reducing noise and fighting climate change.

"I was stressed this morning, and I'm still stressed," says a taxi driver as Paris imposes a 30km/h speed limit on most city streets in a bid to reduce accidents and noise pollution, as well as helping the capital adapt to climate change.

Flooding is an annual hazard during the July-September rainy season in Cameroon's largest port city, Douala. But, impelled by suspected climate change and worsened by urban planning and blocked drains, such events have become more and more frequent.

In the north of Kuwait, a 2-square-kilometre (0.7-square-mile) dump has become known as the place where tyres go to die, with some 40 million of them piling up. Now the oil-rich Gulf country has plans to transform the “tyre graveyard” into a site for residential properties.

The trial of 20 people charged over the November 13, 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris, that were France's deadliest peacetime atrocity, will get underway on September 8, 2021. 130 people were killed and 350 wounded when Islamist suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Stade de France stadium, bars and restaurants in central Paris and the Bataclan concert hall. More than five years after the events and in the lead up to the trial, AFP spoke to survivors, first responders and former government officials about that night.

High waters and heavy rain are seen through a vehicle's window in New York as Storm Ida wreaks further havoc on the northeast United States. The storm has forced airport closures and state of emergency declarations in the state and neighbouring New Jersey.

Paris is famous around the world for its beautiful sights and towering monuments, but it's also somewhat infamous for its driving culture. Parisian drivers are the first to admit that manoeuvring the streets can be quite a harrowing experience. Over the years, Paris's authorities have taken steps to limit traffic in the French capital and encourage alternative modes of transport like cycling. The idea is to make the capital safer while also cutting air pollution, yet this has sparked growing rage among drivers. We take a closer look in this edition of French Connections.

One year after singer Akon laid the first stone of the $6 billion futuristic city he plans to build in his native Senegal, the site remains grassland. Construction of "Akon City," a project due to feature ultramodern twisting skyscrapers, was already meant to have begun near the Atlantic Ocean village of Mbodiene. But building work is yet to start, prompting residents who were hoping for jobs to wonder about its future.

Bus and train services have been suspended to contain a COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand have purchased more vaccines as the countries struggle with new cases. DW has the latest.

Women municipal workers will not be returning to work in Kabul, unless they occupy "positions that men could not fill or that were not for men", says Molavi Hamdullah Nomani, the Taliban member who holds the post of Mayor of Kabul. The other women must "stay at home" and will be paid. In Kabul municipality, 27% of employees are women.

For a century, the French town of Saint-Amand-Montrond, in the central Cher department, was the capital of gold. As France's third-biggest centre for manufacturing gold jewellery after Paris and Lyon, the town of 10,000 inhabitants was best known for its hollow-link gold chains. Today, few goldsmiths remain but the local vocational school is busy training up the next generation of jewellers. FRANCE 24 takes you to discover it.

Pro-choice activists clash with police during a protest in Mexico City calling for abortion to be decriminalised across the country. Abortion has been decriminalised in four of Mexico's 32 states, in the first 12 weeks. Earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled that women should not be punished for abortion, opening the way for them to access the procedure across the country without fear of being prosecuted.