Author: staff
Hundreds of students took part in protests in Rennes and Paris, blocking school entrances and demanding more resources for education. In Rennes, students barricaded the entrance to Lycée Bréquigny, where bins were set alight and police faced protesters. In Paris, students at Lycée Simone Weil used bins and crates to block an entrance and called for more staff and funding, citing overcrowded classrooms and poor conditions in some schools. Students in several other parts of France also joined the national day of action.
The IEA has hinted that releasing further strategic oil reserves could be an option to ease supply shortages. Speaking at a meeting of EU energy ministers in Dublin, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said that the agency has released 400 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic reserves since March and that one-third of that has yet to “come to the markets”. The released stocks are equivalent to “20% of the overall stocks”, Birol said, adding that “80% is still in our pocket. If there is a need and if our member countries do agree with it,…
By Roselyne Min with AFP Published on 29/09/2026 – 17:38 GMT+2 Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is spending $8.2 billion (€7bn) on a company that builds virtual worlds, entering a field where its rival Nvidia is developing AI models to train robots. AMD said this week it had agreed to buy World Labs, co-founded by Fei-Fei Li, one of the most influential researchers in artificial intelligence (AI). Li, a Stanford University computer scientist sometimes called the “godmother of AI,” will become AMD’s executive vice president and chief scientist when the acquisition closes, according to a statement from Li. Li is best known…
La droite et le centre apparaissent plus faibles que jamais au sortir des deux mandats d’Emmanuel Macron. Quelle responsabilité porte le président dans l’état de déliquescence de son propre camp ? Pauline Thiévenaud, journaliste à RTL, et Jérémy Marot, journaliste à l’AFP, ont mené 160 entretiens et racontent dans « Le crépuscule des principes », publié aux Editions du Rocher, les coulisses de la fin de règne du chef de l’Etat. Ainsi que les efforts de ses dauphins pour s’éloigner de son bilan. Les deux auteurs sont les invités d’Anthony Lattier. N’hésitez pas à vous abonner et à laisser vos…
Pro-choice demonstrators marched through Santiago and Bogotá on Monday, calling for abortion access without restrictions and defending reproductive rights. In Chile, abortion is currently legal only when the pregnant person’s life is at risk, in cases of rape or when the foetus is deemed non-viable. In Colombia, abortion is decriminalised up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, following a landmark 2022 Constitutional Court ruling. Protesters in both countries expressed concerns about potential setbacks to reproductive rights.
French public debt rose again in the second quarter, reaching the unprecedented level of 3,595.5 billion euros at the end of June, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) announced on Tuesday 29 September. Measured against overall economic activity, France’s debt also hit a historic high, at 119% of gross domestic product (GDP). You have to go back to 1946 to find a public debt ratio that high. France was then tending to the wounds of the Second World War. Between the end of the first quarter of 2026 and the end of the second, the debt increased…
Leaking ship The very existence of the Mediapart report is cause for concern for the National Rally’s leading duo, whose relationship has been tense since a surprise court ruling in July cleared a path for Le Pen to run for the presidency. Bardella, who had been his party’s “Plan B” candidate, has visibly struggled to fall back in line behind his boss as he had to revert back to being her number one supporter. “This wasn’t the work of political opponents,” said Gaspard Gantzer, a political communications consultant close to former President François Hollande, hinting at the source for the…
Austen Ivereigh, a fellow in Contemporary Church History at Oxford University, thinks one of the biggest themes of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate will be “to build a new world order”, as he sees the old one “has crumbled”. The Pontiff, the expert says, will focus more on Europe as young people are “returning or coming to faith” and “are seeking and searching for meaning”. Ivereigh was surprised by Pope Leo XIV’s popularity both during his recent visit to France and during his visit to Spain a few months ago.
Published on 29/09/2026 – 15:13 GMT+2 Middle East crude oil exports rose in September to their highest monthly level since the Iran war began seven months ago. Preliminary data from Kpler put regional exports at 16.3 million barrels a day. That was still around 3.2 million barrels a day below the 19.5 million recorded in February. Saudi Arabia accounted for much of the increase, more than doubling its exports from 2.45 million barrels a day in August to around 5.4 million in September. Flows through the Strait of Hormuz were projected to reach about 9.7 million barrels a day as…
Published on 29/09/2026 – 14:24 GMT+2 Inflation in Spain jumped to 4.9% in September, six tenths of a point higher than in August, driven mainly by the rising cost of fuel and lubricants for vehicles, according to the flash estimate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). INE explains that fuel prices rose again in September, in contrast with the fall recorded in the same month of 2025, which contributed to the sharp rebound in inflation. The movement in package holidays also had an impact as their prices fell by less than…