The Latest Breaking News from Radio France Internationale

As world leaders gather in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, many Catholics are wondering if the church could soon elect its first black pope. With Africa home to one in five Catholics, the idea of a pope from the continent is gaining ground.

Tens of thousands of people visited the Vatican on Friday for a last glimpse of Pope Francis's open coffin, before his funeral on Saturday. Italian authorities have stepped up security to protect the more than 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs expected to attend, alongside around 200,000 mourners.

With 2024 confirmed as the hottest year on record, pressure is mounting on all countries to step up their climate commitments. In just over six months, world leaders will convene in Brazil for Cop30. Its president, André Corrêa do Lago, has warned the era of empty promises is over, but…

In 25 years, investment in the fight against malaria has prevented two billion infections and 13 million deaths, most of them in Africa, which carries nearly all of the burden of the disease. But as cases rise for a fifth year in a row and US funding is cut, experts…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to Pretoria on Thursday for a meeting with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa. While the visit was cut short when a Russian strike on Kyiv killed 12 people, prompting Zelensky to return to Ukraine, the meeting saw a notable shift in Pretoria's stance on…

French Prime Minister François Bayrou has urged "an intensification of controls in and around schools" after a student killed a teenage girl and wounded three other pupils in a stabbing spree on Thursday at a private school.

French health authorities have warned that some widely used pesticides are putting human health at risk – especially the developing brains of unborn babies and very young children.

US President Donald Trump has defied international norms on the nascent field of deep-sea mining, signing an executive order expanding the practice for rare earth minerals in domestic and international waters.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that France failed to protect the rights of three teenage girls who reported being raped, as the country debates changing how the crime of rape is defined.

A group of French healthworkers who launched a movement named Hungry for Justice for Palestine are in their third week of a hunger strike, to raise awareness over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and alleged war crimes committed by the Israeli army. After speaking to the French Senate on Tuesday,…

Emmanuel Macron said he wants to seek "forgiveness" for France’s colonisation of Madagascar, starting with the return of looted cultural artefacts. During his two-day visit, the French president also announced plans to step up economic ties, including investment in a major hydroelectric dam project.