Plenty of action in the African 2026 World Cup qualifying on Friday, with Gabon's star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who scored four goals and was sent off, while Minnows Benin built a two-point lead in the 'group of death'. Group C leaders Benin won 1-0 in Rwanda to go two points clear of South Africa, who could only draw 0-0 with Zimbabwe.

Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says he is teaming up with a Paris film school and Netflix to launch a training studio to help old-fashioned stop-motion animation techniques survive.

A drone and artillery attack killed at least 60 people at a displacement camp in Sudan's El-Fasher on Saturday, activists said, as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensifies its assault on the besieged western city. 

Pressure is mounting on Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama to declare a state of emergency as environmental degradation caused by illegal mining reaches critical levels.

Pressure mounted Saturday on France's newly reappointed premier Sebastien Lecornu to get an austerity budget approved, as more parties threatened to topple a man whose first term lasted a mere 27 days.

Black, Indian and mixed-race South Africans built their own sporting world during apartheid, defying segregation with parallel clubs and competitions. Archivists in Johannesburg are now working to save that history.

France moved three points closer to qualification for next year's World Cup with Kylian Mbappé, Adrien Rabiot and Florian Thauvin all on target in a comfortable 3-0 Group D win over Azerbaijan at the Parc des Princes in Paris on Friday. Les Bleus are set to play Iceland on Monday but will do so without Mbappé, who took another knock to his sore right ankle.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who dedicated the award to the Venezuelan people – and to US President Donald Trump.

The Czech Republic's parliamentary elections returned Andrej Babis and his populist ANO movement to power, marking a decisive break from the outgoing government and reflecting a broader trend within the European Union. As the billionaire looks for partners on the right to secure a majority, anti-corruption activist David Ondracka, former head of the Czech Republic’s branch of Transparency International, tells RFI why Babis’s victory isn’t necessarily the ideological shift it might seem.

French President Emmanuel Macron has reappointed Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister, just four days after he quit in the role. Lecornu II has the tough job of forming another government to pass a 2026 budget.

As the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into force in Gaza at midday local time on Friday, Palestinians are torn between cautious hope and disbelief – while medical charities stress the need for urgent humanitarian aid. 

Thirty-one French nationals who joined an aid flotilla to Gaza plan to file a criminal complaint in France over what they describe as arbitrary detention and mistreatment in Israel. The Global Sumud Flotilla was stopped by the Israeli navy before reaching the Palestinian territory. One of the French participants told RFI about the conditions inside the prison where they were held.

An investigation has revealed how Hungary’s intelligence services recruited citizens to spy on behalf of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, targeting sensitive European Union decision-making. The exposé, published by Hungarian outlet Direkt36 and partners, uncovers the extent of this clandestine operation and exposes vulnerabilities in the EU’s security framework.

European Union lawmakers this week voted in favour of a proposal to restrict meat-related terms such as "burger" and "sausage" to products that contain actual meat, in order to protect the interests of livestock farmers. The decision has sparked debate across the European Parliament, notably among French MEPs.

Campaigning in Cote d'Ivoire's presidential election kicked off on Friday. The five candidates approved by the Constitutional Council have two weeks to win over voters ahead of the 25 October polls. RFI's correspondent Bineta Diagne is following the campaign trail.

Nigeria head coach Eric Chelle urged his squad to focus on beating Lesotho in their penultimate game in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, not on the permutations emerging from the other fixtures in the pool.

Six million foreigners live legally in France, new statistics show. Foreign residents made up just under 9 percent of the French population in 2024 – a proportion that remains below the European Union average.

Mali’s military junta is struggling to ease a jihadist fuel blockade as talks with al-Qaeda-linked militants inch forward – amid petrol shortages and growing public frustration.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that expanding Israeli settlements threatened a Palestinian state and US-led peace efforts, as France hosted Arab and European ministers to find ways to boost the Palestinians after a Gaza ceasefire deal was announced.

France skipper Kylian Mbappé urged his teammates to focus on victory over Azerbaijan – who have never qualified for the World Cup – in Friday's Group D qualifying match for the 2026 tournament, rather than on racking up a big score.

France's Emmanuel Macron was on Friday due to pick a head of government tasked with pulling the country out of a political gridlock, in a move that staves off fresh elections for now.

The United States' closest European and Arab partners have met in Paris to work on how to shape Gaza's post-war future, hours after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and prisoner-hostage swap proposed by US President Donald Trump.

As countries mark World Day Against the Death Penalty on Friday – a day after France honoured Robert Badinter, the man who ended it in the country – experts say capital punishment is still failing to stop crime and instead fuels violence.

Robert Badinter, the justice minister who ended the death penalty in 1981, was inducted into the Pantheon in Paris on Thursday as France paid tribute to his lifelong fight for justice – with President Emmanuel Macron praising the abolitionist's “essential and unfinished battles”.

A man convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot, who survived years of assaults orchestrated by her husband while she was drugged unconscious, has lost his appeal against the verdict. A court in southern France also stiffened his sentence to 10 years in prison.