Russia increasingly isolated on world stage as Putin turns 70

French PM Lecornu pledges to suspend 2023 pension reform

In the face of an unprecedented political crisis, France's re-appointed prime minister Sébastien Lecornu proposed suspending President Emmanuel Macron's signature pension reform enacted in 2023.  Speaking before parliament, Lecornu warned however of the estimated cost of such a move as he pressed...

Hamas searches for missing bodies of Israeli hostages

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it will take time to hand over the remains of the Israeli hostages killed in the Israel-Hamas war, given the difficulties of finding bodies amid Gaza's rubble. On October 13, 2025 Hamas handed over four bodies - whom the Israeli military said they h...

Biggest challenge for Lecornu govt: 'Show that democracy is still a winning formula'

Amid political and economic turbulence, few issues have illuminated the fault lines of French governance quite like the highly unpopular pension reform. And the clash goes far beyond policy, it inflamed an already angry and volatile electorate and parliament the moment Macron forced it through with...

'We won't allow it': French-Israeli peace activist warns against renewed fighting in Gaza

Hours after returning from a Gaza peace summit in Egypt alongside President Emmanuel Macron, French-Israeli activist Ofer Bronchtein told FRANCE 24 that negotiations must continue following a historic hostage and prisoner swap. Bronchtein, co-founder and president of the International Forum for Pea...

Coral reefs under threat due to surge in global temperatures

A new report released October 13, 2025 is warning that ocean temperatures, driven by climate change, are pushing coral reefs past a critical tipping point. It's a worrying conclusion as reefs support a quarter of all marine species and protect coastlines from storms. Yinka Oyetade and our colleague...

US-China trade tensions escalate as tit-for-tat port fees come into effect

Port fees imposed by China and the US took effect on Tuesday, adding a new front to the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. In this edition, we explore the reasons behind these new fees and their impact on the broader talks between Washington and Beijing. Also, we examine how US...

Live: UN, Red Cross call for opening of all Gaza crossings to allow in aid

The UN and the Red Cross on Tuesday called for all crossings into Gaza to be opened to allow desperately needed aid into the war-torn Palestinian territory. The call came amid uncertainties over the next steps of the Gaza ceasefire deal following Monday's hostage-prisoner swap between Israel and H...

British viceroy: Dr Hellyer warns Gaza can't be run by int'l leaders & a few Palestinian technocrats

As international attention turns to the high-level Gaza peace summit in Sharm el Sheikh, where diplomatic gestures are presented as forward momentum, François Picard is pleased to welcome Dr H. A. Hellyer, Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) for Defence and Intern...

Hamas releases all living hostages and Israel frees prisoners under Gaza deal

Ramallah in the West Bank and Tel Aviv in Israel are filled with families gathered for the return of their loved ones. With around 20 Israeli hostages released and nearly 1,900 Palestinian prisoners freed, the end of the war has stirred deep emotions on both sides, as our reporters reveal....

Palestinians welcome released prisoners as part of Gaza ceasefire agreement

Cheers erupted in Ramallah, West Bank, as Israel released nearly 2,000 prisoners under the Gaza ceasefire deal in exchange for Israeli hostages freed by Hamas. Freed prisoners were warmly welcomed by crowds, but celebrations remained restrained due to restrictions imposed by nearby Israeli settlers...

Gaza action plan: Netanyahu has 'no incentive' to return to war

In a critical day for the Middle East, the last 20 living hostages held by Hamas were returned to Israel while Israel released some of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners under a breakthrough Gaza ceasefire deal. US President Donald Trump made a whirlwind visit to the region. In Jerusalem, he ad...

Key Palestinian prisoners excluded from Israel’s hostage exchange list

Israeli authorities are finalizing the release of around 1,950 Palestinian prisoners—250 long-term detainees and 1,700 arrested during the war—as part of a high-stakes hostage exchange deal. The releases are happening only after all Israeli hostages safely cross back into Israel. While several...

Donald Trump celebrated in Israel for his role in hostage release

As he heads to Israel, US President Donald Trump is set to receive a hero’s welcome, praised for his role in brokering a ceasefire and securing the release of Israeli hostages. Celebrated in the Israeli press and even impersonated by actors in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, Trump has drawn comparis...

EU accuses Russia of 'gambling with war' after airspace violations

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's top diplomat, on Monday called on Europe to turn its economic power into military deterrence during a visit to Kyiv as Ukraine faces renewed Russian attacks on energy infrastructure ahead of winter. The EU accused Russia of "gambling with war" for repeatedly violat...

Hamas releases Israeli hostages

Israelis on Monday celebrated the return of the last surviving hostages from Gaza, a defining exchange in the fragile ceasefire that has paused two years of war between Israel and Hamas. FRANCE 24's Noga Tarnopolsky is in Tel Aviv to cover the story....

Donald Trump arrives in Israel as hostages return

President Donald Trump arrived in Israel on Monday to celebrate the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, an agreement that he declared had effectively ended the war and opened the door to building a durable peace in the Middle East. The US leader was whisked off to the...

Hamas frees all living Israeli hostages, Palestinian prisoners released under Gaza deal

Hamas on Monday released the 20 surviving Israeli hostages under a ceasefire agreement, pausing two years of war that reduced much of the Gaza Strip to rubble and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. The releases came as US President Donald Trump arrived in Israel for a lightning visit ahead...

Venezuela's Maduro calls Nobel Peace laureate Machado a 'demonic witch'

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday called opposition leader Maria Corina Machado a “demonic witch", two days after she won the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting democracy. The Nobel Committee praised Machado’s “tireless work” for human rights in Venezuela, long at odds with Washing...

Live: Buses carrying Palestinian prisoners freed under Gaza truce deal arrive in Ramallah

Several buses carrying Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday shortly after Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages as part of a hostage-prisoner swap under the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by President Donald Tru...

Floods trap motorists as torrential rain batters Spain’s Catalonia region

Floods trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region on Sunday as torrential rain battered the area, local media said. Videos showed muddy torrents sweeping through streets. Weather agency AEMET issued a red alert for Tarragona, warning of up to 180 millimetres of...

Russia attacks Ukraine power grid, Moscow expresses 'extreme concern' over US Tomahawk missiles

Russia attacked energy infrastructure in the regions of Donetsk, Odesa and Chernihiv overnight into Sunday in an ongoing campaign to cripple Ukraine's power grid before winter as Russian officials also expressed “extreme concern” over the US potentially providing Kyiv with Tomahawk cruise miss...

‘No guarantees’ that Israel will uphold Gaza ceasefire, specialist warns

There are “no guarantees” that Israel will uphold the current ceasefire in Gaza, which was brokered with help from the United States and other mediators, said Anne Irfan, a lecturer in interdisciplinary race, gender, and postcolonial studies at UCL. “As for whether the Trump plan can — and...

Trump staking ‘political capital’ on Gaza ceasefire success, expert says

US President Donald Trump is staking his “political capital” on the success of the Gaza ceasefire, said Harmonie Toros, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Reading, in an interview with FRANCE 24. Toros noted that Trump was “front and centre” in the peac...

Families of hostages seek to recover loved ones’ bodies in Gaza deal

Thousands rallied on Saturday night outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem calling on him to make a deal that will end the war and bring the hostages home. "I accuse the prime minister of leading us for two years down a dead-end path, toward endless war and aban...

Madagascar leader warns of coup attempt after soldiers refuse orders to shoot protesters

Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina said in a statement on Sunday that "an attempt to seize power illegally and by force" was underway in the Indian Ocean island state, a day after some soldiers joined a vast protest movement that started last month. The mutinied army unit said it was taking con...

Gaza live: Netanyahu says Israel ready for 'immediate' return of hostages

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was prepared for an "immediate" return of all hostages held in Gaza, ahead of their planned release on Monday under a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Trucks were seen crossing into the Palestinian enclave at the Rafah border earlier on Sunday as humani...

FRANCE 24 wins Bayeux War Correspondents’ Award for report on Assad’s brutal Syrian prisons

FRANCE 24 wins Bayeux War Correspondents’ Award for report on Assad’s brutal Syrian prisons

A report by FRANCE 24's Julie Dungelhoeff, James André and Sofia Amara won the 2025 Bayeux War Correspondents’ Award in the short format television category. Broadcast on France 24 in December, the film focusses on those who survived of the hell of Syria's prisons under Assad, and depicts the...

‘Pawns in Putin’s war game’: African women lured into drone factories

Russia has been accused of making false promises to recruit young women from across Africa to work in drone-assembling factories. The women were coerced into assembling Shahed-136 kamikaze drones in a dangerous area that has been repeatedly bombed by Ukraine....

RSF drone strike kills at least 60 in Sudan displacement camp

A drone and military attack killed at least 60 people at the Dar al-Arqam displacement camp in Sudan's El-Fasher on Saturday as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensifies its assault on the besieged western city. The RSF has been at war with the regular army since April 2023....