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🇫🇷 🎒 🪧 High schoolers across #France continued to blockade their #schools on Thursday, trying to form a "blocus" at the entrances of their schools in #protest. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that 625 people, mostly students, had been detained during blockade attempts on Wednesday, noting "an expansion of the movement". But what are they asking for? FRANCE 24's Tanishk Saha explains.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting Thursday as students staged new protests against understaffing, onerous schedules and overheated classrooms, with public transport affected in several cities. More than 600 people, most of them students, have been detained and dozens of police injured amid the increasingly violent protests.
Student protests have grown in scale and intensity, with violent clashes in some places leading to hundreds of arrests and dozens of injuries.
During a visit to Spain, France's Emmanuel Macron said it would be "good news" if the UK moves towards the EU, with Pedro Sanchez also embracing the idea. UK PM Andy Burnham has not ruled out rejoining the bloc.
As the French government prepares to unveil its latest budget, the country's debt is at a record high and growing every day. France's public debt currently stands at nearly 3.6 trillion euros, nearly 60 billion of that added in the last three months alone.
A British-French agreement aimed at reducing the number of people trying to cross the English Channel in small boats has been scrapped, London said Wednesday. The pilot programme was intended to break the business model of "people smugglers" by exchanging undocumented migrants who had made the crossing for people who legally applied for asylum.
Some 1,500 people have been removed to France since the scheme began just over a year ago.
Speaking alongside Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that it would be "a good decision" if the UK decided to rejoin the European Union. The two leaders met at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid on the second day of Macron's two-day state visit to Spain.
Pro-Russian influence operations have caused a surge of 850% in fake news stories mimicking real media brands, according to a report published this week by disinformation specialist, NewsGuard. Out of the 15 most imitated news outlets, eight are French – including FRANCE 24.
A French politics observer says the allegations of anti-Semitism against the head of France's far-right National Rally have really damaged the party. Andrew Smith from Queen Mary University of London says people have been buying into the detoxification of the party, despite its legacy as an anti-Semitic and racist outfit. But that makes this week's allegations against Jordan Bardella even more shocking. Bardella is accused by the investigative news website Mediapart of sending a series of anti-Semitic remarks from 2013 to 2015. Andrew Smith spoke to us in Perspective.
The head of the company that runs the Eiffel Tower will step down at the end of the year after female staff at the landmark building in Paris were excluded during a visit by a Hindu religious group. The incident sparked outrage in France and prompted a staff walkout that saw the Eiffel Tower forced to close for a day.
A US-led coalition deployed in Iraq more than a decade ago to fight jihadists concluded its mission on Wednesday, a move celebrated by the country's leaders, but which some fear will embolden pro-Iran armed factions. France 24's Angela Diffley takes a look at the security challenges facing the country and why the US has chosen this moment to take its troops out.
The Israeli government believes an incident on a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, which diverted to Saudi Arabia after transmitting emergency signals on Wednesday, may have been an attempted "terror attack" by one of the pilots. France 24’s Shirli Sitbon takes a look at what we know about the incident so far, with many of the details still emerging.
In the last ten years, South Korea has established itself as a powerhouse of beauty and cosmetics. But, behind the innovative creams, serums, and treatments that have allowed so-called K-beauty to conquer the world, Korean society has also felt the impacts, and people now face rising social pressure to conform to new beauty standards. France 24’s Christina Yoon, Mélodie Sforza and Jan Camezind Broomby sent this report from Seoul.
The United States Supreme Court temporarily authorized the Donald Trump Government to resume the accelerated deportations of migrants to countries other than their places of origin, while analysing the final legality of this policy. International law questioned whether individuals could be sent to countries where they could be victims of crimes. Haim Vásquez, an immigration lawyer and former criminal prosecutor, addresses the issue in France 24.
Press coverage of a student demonstration against the Iranian regime in Tehran, despite the ongoing repression. The appointment of Fatima Ezzahra El-Mansouri as Prime Minister of Morocco after the victory of her party in legislative elections. The shock wave, in France, after revelations on anti-Semitic words attributed to Jordan Bardella. And the reading of the English novel "Jane Eyre" on the program of Chinese schoolchildren.
Tens of thousands of workers march nationwide, as police arrest 440 students in clashes at schools.
Students have been protesting conditions and resources in high schools since last week.
France's debt reached 3595.5 billion euros in the second quarter of 2026, just revealed INSEE, or 119 % of GDP: a level that had not been reached since 1946. Despite the executive's efforts to save money, one of the first items in the 2027 budget will be debt interest: €77.4 billion in 2026 and €100 billion in 2030. At the same time, thousands of officials protested this Tuesday against the decline in their purchasing power, eroded by fuel prices.
The White House calls them public service announcements - like those used in past administrations. Almost everyone else doesn't agree, with three taxpayer-funded advertisements that glorify President Donald Trump drawing criticism from across the partisan divide. Legal experts say the ads violate federal laws on government propaganda, as France 24's Emerald Maxwell explains in this edition of Truth or Fake.
