National Rally and allies gain record 14 seats and can form senate group for first time after indirect vote by local officials

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has said her 2027 presidential campaign will be boosted after her anti-immigration party, the National Rally (RN), and its allies improved to a record 14 seats in partial senate elections this weekend.

Le Pen called the results a “historic victory” and a “major milestone” after her party cleared the 10-seat threshold to be able to form a senate group for the first time, after an indirect vote by local officials including mayors and councillors.

Pontiff says artificial intelligence must remain at service of people in first official papal visit to country in 18 years

Pope Leo has warned against losing humanity in a “paradise of machines” as he addressed global concerns over the dangers of artificial intelligence at the start of a three-day visit to France.

“If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for people to be educated in ethical discernment, capable of seeing what is morally right,” he said in a speech at the Élysée.

Tour Montparnasse modernisation project at a standstill after clashes over pricing and other issues

It has been called a carbuncle on the Paris skyline, a sombre skyscraper where visitors to its viewing platform often joke that the city looks better when you can’t see the building itself.

The much-maligned Tour Montparnasse, a lone, dark monolith with tinted windows rising above a historic neighbourhood in the south of the city, is once again at the centre of controversy after its long-awaited renovation was halted this week because of disagreements between its many private co-owners.

Paris public prosecutor opens investigation into online harassment of Riner, one of France’s most popular sportspeople

Paris’s public prosecutor has opened an investigation into the racist abuse and online harassment of the French judo star Teddy Riner after he expressed concern about the rise of the far right.

Riner, who has often been voted France’s most popular sportsperson and is one of the most successful judo competitors of all time, told a TV sports show this month that he felt “anxiety” about the rise of the far right in France. Numerous racist insults and hate messages were subsequently directed at him online, the prosecutor’s office said.

France and Germany among countries with low Pisa scores, which show how well 15-year-olds use school learning in life

France’s were its worst ever. Germany’s, too. In the Netherlands, results also tumbled to all-time lows. Even in Finland, Europe’s much-vaunted schools champion and a global leader for decades, scores plummeted.

The 2025 Pisa scores, which assess how effectively 15-year-olds apply school-learned knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics and science to real-life situations, have rocked some of western Europe’s education powerhouses.

Rachida Dati accused of lobbying for carmaker Renault-Nissan when she was member of European parliament

Rachida Dati, a former French culture minister, has gone on trial in Paris on corruption charges linked to dealings with the Renault-Nissan carmaking group.

Dati, 60, is accused of illegal lobbying when she accepted €900,000 (£770,000) in lawyer’s fees from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault-Nissan while she was a member of the European parliament. The court will have to decide what the money was for.

Fans from around the world gather for star’s long-awaited performances after break because of neurological condition

More than 30,000 Céline Dion fans have gathered in Paris for the Canadian singer’s long-awaited return to performing on Saturday night, four years after she revealed her diagnosis of stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological condition.

Thousands more people without tickets have flocked to a series of giant karaoke events across France to belt out Dion’s famous power ballads, in celebration of the star’s health stabilising enough for her to return to the stage.

Critics say agreement between Nigel Farage and Jordan Bardella to return migrants to France goes against France’s ‘interests and sovereignty’

Reform UK has insisted its deal with France’s far-right National Rally to return migrants back across the Channel was fully approved by the party and signed off by its president, Jordan Bardella, amid a furious backlash in France.

The agreement unveiled on Friday between Nigel Farage and Bardella, who is the 30-year-old protege of presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, appeared to directly contradict Le Pen’s long-held policy of refusing to accept the return of those who arrive in the UK in small boats from France.

Sinking of inflatable dinghy in 2021 resulted in 31 people dead or missing, including a seven-year-old child

Fourteen men have gone on trial in Paris over the deaths of at least 31 people in the worst mass drowning from a small-boat crossing in the Channel on record.

The accused men, alleged to be linked to people-smuggling networks, face charges including manslaughter and facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised criminal group.

Thieves took four artworks but it is thought they dropped two in museum garden as they fled

French police are hunting two thieves who escaped with two Renoir paintings from a museum on the French Riviera after breaking in through a hole cut in its garden fence.

Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, about 10 miles west of Nice, said the pair appeared to have been “well equipped and well informed” about the museum, which houses works by the French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in his former home.

Singer has rewarded patience of hundreds waiting outside hotel with regular appearances and even some dancing

Noëlla Lamy, 52, who described herself as one of Céline Dion’s biggest fans, was preparing to spend all night on a Paris pavement without a tent but wearing a sweatshirt printed with the singer’s face for comfort.

“Céline Dion is a force of bravery and an inspiration,” she said.

Unions say ban will take time to enact, while president also wants under-15s social media ban as key legacy

French high schools are rushing to put in place a ban on mobile phones this week as Emmanuel Macron pushes for children to spend less time in front of screens.

Education unions warned that banning mobile phone use in lycées – where children are aged 15 to 18 – would be hard to implement quickly.

Speech part of effort to strengthen National Rally party’s international ties before Marine Le Pen’s presidential bid

The French far-right leader Jordan Bardella is to give a speech at Reform UK’s party conference in Birmingham next week as he attempts to boost international ties before Marine Le Pen’s bid for the French presidency next spring.

Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) is high in the polls and she is predicted to reach the final round of the French presidential race in May.

Comté, beaufort and abondance makers can temporarily supplement cows’ diets as there is ‘no grass left to eat’

Strict production rules will be loosened for some of France’s most famous cheeses after drought and repeated heatwaves dried out grazing pastures, threatening the livelihoods of traditional dairy workers.

Comté, a hard cheese made from raw cows’ milk in the Jura mountains, is France’s top-selling traditional cheese, with more than 62,000 tonnes produced last year. The government announced on Wednesday that its producers would be granted a temporary change to strict rules on grazing after farmers said extreme heat had scorched their pastures, putting production at risk.

Internal inquiries also opened after two suicides and two attempted suicides of staff in departments connected to PM’s office

The Paris state prosecutor has opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged workplace bullying after the attempted suicide of a staff member in a department connected to the French prime minister’s office, France Inter radio has revealed.

The public radio station reported on Monday that two government workers in different departments had ended their lives in the past year, and two others had attempted suicide. The radio station said complaints of alleged workplace bullying had been made.

Blazes near Madrid coming under control but efforts to contain huge fire near Bordeaux hampered by windy conditions while another heatwave forecast

• What is a ‘fire cloud’, and how have they worsened wildfires in Europe?

Authorities in France battled to contain a huge wildfire near Bordeaux as the forecast of another heatwave threatened to deepen the crisis and the Spanish prime minister, Pédro Saánchez, warned Spain and the Iberian peninsula were suffering the effects of the climate emergency.

Windy conditions on Saturday night hampered efforts to extinguish the blaze in the Gironde region of south-western France – which has consumed an area four times the size of Paris and caused nearly 220,000 people to be evacuated.

• L’Équipe laments ‘mentally sunk’ players in Dallas

• Ouest France front page reads: ‘End of American dream’

French fans’ expectations of their national team had been at an all-time high: a semi-final on Bastille Day, Kylian Mbappé a hero, a squad unbeaten. Across the country, bars had been packed with viewers spilling on to pavements, ready to crack open the fireworks ahead of hopes for the final.

But the night was unexpectedly subdued, streets cleared early. On Wednesday morning, the French media were still digesting the disappointment of defeat in a World Cup semi-final, praising Spain’s performance in Texas while struggling to comprehend Les Bleus’ fall from a high.

Ukraine and nine other countries including UK issue joint statement as leaders meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris

Ukraine and nine other countries including the UK, Germany and France are to build a shared protection programme for Europe against ballistic missiles, using Kyiv’s experience in fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion for more than four years.

“Our goal is to build a shared ballistic missile defence capability for Europe,” the 10 nations said in a statement on Monday as leaders met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for talks in Paris.

Officials say blaze in Fontainebleau forest is of ‘exceptional scale’, with 900 homes evacuated and road and rail links hit

French firefighters are tackling a blaze of unprecedented scale sweeping through Fontainebleau forest south-east of Paris, while in southern Spain the prime minister visited the scene of a deadly wildfire and warned: “The climate emergency kills.”

The fire in Fontainebleau, a one-time royal hunting preserve about 40 miles (60km) from the French capital that today is dotted with villages, began late on Sunday afternoon. The blaze, which is unusual in its proximity to Paris, raced across about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of forest.

The French far-right leader’s presidential campaign is clouded in uncertainty under the shadow of an embezzlement conviction

Marine Le Pen’s decision to run for French president in 2027, despite her legal woes, has drawn comparisons from her opponents to Donald Trump.

Just as the US president felt his voter base cared little about legal investigations against him, the French far-right leader shrugged off the leftwing protesters who shouted “criminal!” as she launched her presidential campaign at a market walkabout in western France on Wednesday. The previous day, an appeal court had upheld her conviction for the embezzlement of European parliament funds.