The Latest Breaking News from Radio France Internationale

France’s National Assembly narrowly approved the 2026 social security budget late Tuesday, giving Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu an important victory as he pushed a compromise through a deeply divided parliament without using article 49.3, which lets a government force a bill through without a vote.

As Mayotte prepares to mark one year since the French island department was hit by Cyclone Chido, recovery has been hampered by soaring costs, supply bottlenecks and stretched public finances. With this year's cyclone season under way, thousands of residents are still living with leaks, unfinished repairs and rising anxiety.

France’s social security budget heads into a knife-edge vote on Tuesday that could plunge Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's government into a new political crisis and open a €30-billion gap in funding for welfare, pensions and healthcare.

A Tanzanian doctor has reported hundreds of corpses being taken from the hospital where he works, appearing to corroborate accusations from Western officials and the UN that the government removed the bodies of those killed during protests following the presidential election at the end of October.

Following pressure from right-wing and far-right parties, the European Union’s 27 member states have approved a major tightening of the bloc’s migration rules – including the controversial introduction of so-called 'return hubs' for rejected asylum seekers.

Unions at the Louvre have called a rolling strike starting 15 December following a series of crises at the Paris museum, including a high-profile jewel theft in October and a water leak in November that damaged hundreds of works in the Louvre's Egyptian department.

Ankara is voicing alarm over a spate of attacks on Russian tankers in the Black Sea, with fears that strikes on ships carrying oil and other key commodities could threaten global trade and pose environmental dangers to Turkey, which has the longest coastline in the strategic sea.

The President of the European Council has pushed back on any attempt by the United States to meddle in Europe's politics, after the US published a new security strategy criticising the continent's policies on immigration and urging alignement with the far right.

France has condemned the attempted coup Benin and has called on its nationals in the country to stay alert, as Benin’s President Patrice Talon confirmed that the coup had been thwarted and the situation was “totally under control”.