A shadow fleet of almost 1,000 ageing tankers – totalling 18.5 percent of global capacity – has been used since 2022 to dodge Western oil sanctions. These flag-hopping vessels with opaque ownership and frequent name changes ferry crude oil to Chinese "teapot" refineries from states including Russia, Venezuela and Iran.

France must make “efforts cope with our tough times”, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, calling for an additional €36 billion for the country’s armed forces by 2030 to “accelerate our rearmament.”

French astronaut Sophie Adenot’s first mission to the International Space Station is being brought forward and extended to nine months after an unprecedented medical evacuation forced a reshuffle of the station’s crew rota.

A century after quantum mechanics revolutionised physics, one of its most transformative applications - the quantum computer - is edging closer to reality. Among the global race of companies pursuing this technology, French startup Quandela is taking a distinctive approach from its headquarters in Massy, just outside Paris.

The European Unionhas detailed a vast new €90-billion loan package for Ukraine aimed at keeping the country’s economy afloat and strengthening its defence as Russia’s invasion approaches its fifth year.

French authorities have banned 10 British far-right activists for actions in France intended to stop migrants crossing to England on small boats, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

Burkina Faso football federation bosses on Wednesday sacked coach Brama Traore and all of his staff just over a week after the national squad was eliminated from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

European military personnel were due to begin arriving in Greenland on Thursday, shortly after a meeting between American, Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington failed to resolve "fundamental disagreement" over the mineral-rich, strategic Arctic island.  

Uganda was on edge as polls opened on Thursday, with President Yoweri Museveni expected to extend his 40-year rule amid an internet shutdown and a police crackdown on the opposition. 

Morocco beat Nigeria in a penalty shootout on Wednesday night in Rabat to advance to the final of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

Senegal advanced to the final of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for the third time in four successive competitions following a 1-0 win over Egypt on Wednesday night in Tangier.

US threats to seize Greenland drew a warning from France on Wednesday, after leader Donald Trump renewed claims that Washington should take control of the Arctic island for security reasons. President Emmanuel Macron warned that any move affecting Greenland’s sovereignty would bring “unprecedented” consequences.

Uganda's election on Thursday will see incumbent Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, seeking a seventh mandate – at the age of 81, in a country where 55 percent of the population is under 20. Supporters of his main rival, Bobi Wine, say he embodies hope for change. Robert Amsterdam, Wine's international legal representative, told RFI of the difficulties he has faced in a campaign fraught with fear and repression.

The Ice Memory Foundation on Wednesday opened the world’s first sanctuary for mountain ice cores in Antarctica, aiming to preserve crucial records of Earth’s climate for centuries.

Earth logged its third-hottest year on record in 2025, figures released on Wednesday showed, extending an unprecedented run of global heat and pushing the planet closer to a key warming limit. 

France will open a consulate in Greenland on 6 February, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Wednesday – calling the move a political signal as US President Donald Trump renews threats to take control of the Arctic territory.

Morocco head coach Walid Regragui hailed the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations as the standard for future competitions as his players went through their final paces for their Wednesday night clash against Nigeria in Rabat.

France's cuts to greenhouse gas emissions slowed for a second straight year in 2025 and remain well off track to meeting its climate goals, according to provisional government-commissioned estimates published Tuesday.

French farmers began lifting their blockade of Paris early Wednesday after the government pledged debt relief measures and an emergency farm law, as protests driven in part by opposition to the EU-Mercosur trade deal continued elsewhere in the country.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Tuesday she had "no sense" of having committed any offence at the opening of an appeals trial which she hopes will save her 2027 run for president.

Uganda's presidential and parliamentary elections on Thursday are expected to be a duel between incumbent Yoweri Museveni, in power for 40 years, and singer turned opposition leader Bobi Wine who is running for a second time, backed by the country's youth.

France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that he had summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest against what he described as the “unrestrained use of state violence against peaceful demonstrators” in Iran. Similar démarches have been made by several European governments as the death toll rises, while the United States has warned that it may intervene.

Nigeria midfielder Alex Iwobi paid tribute to the side's esprit de corps as the squad went through its final preparations for Wednesday night's semi-final against hosts Morocco at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Fewer babies, more elderly people, rising life expectancy: France has gradually changed and is now at a demographic turning point. For the first time since World War II, there were more deaths than births, according to the national statistics institute Insee.

New Caledonia's pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) announced on Tuesday that it would not attend the meeting on the institutional future of the French archipelago in the South Pacific, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday in Paris.