enToday's news, livenews and breaking top stories on France 24https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:58:01 GMTSporthttps://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261009-red-bull-s-verstappen-takes-pole-position-for-singapore-gp-sprint-race George Russell's Mercedes will join Verstappen on the front row for the 21-lap dash on Saturday with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc third and Oscar Piastri's McLaren fourth. A resurgent Verstappen, who won for the first time this season in Malaysia last weekend, clocked 1min 31.156sec under lights at a Marina Bay Circuit enveloped in haze caused by fires in Indonesia. "It's always close here in Singapore. And also your lap itself, you're pushing as hard as you think is possible, close to the walls in places," said the four-time world champion. "Once we bolted on the soft tyres (for SQ3), it felt like the car was coming alive a little bit more, but I did not expect this. "Of course, very happy to be first." Fifth was the McLaren of Lando Norris, followed by the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, sporting a new aero package, was only seventh in his Mercedes, with Liam Lawson (RB), Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) completing the top 10 on the grid. 1d18c0d2-c3e9-11f1-995e-15df1fe77932Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:55:40 GMT© ANTHONY WALLACE / AFPFRANCE24https://www.france24.com/en/video/20261009-russia-says-all-clear-after-contact-tracing-in-reported-plague-case Russia has detected no health issues or dangerous micro-organisms after tracing all contacts of a woman who reportedly died of plague, the governor of Siberia's Irkutsk region said Thursday. Russia has not confirmed the woman died of plague, and Governor Igor Kobzev said in his statement she had contracted "community-acquired pneumonia". 9c31648c-c3e4-11f1-97f2-e9e0faacf421Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:53:23 GMTFRANCE24https://www.france24.com/en/video/20261009-madrid-mourns-evicted-retiree-icon-of-spain-housing-protests Tens of thousands of mourners marched through Madrid on Thursday in tribute to a Spanish pensioner whose eviction sparked national housing protests that culminated in the calling of early elections. The death of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal on Wednesday produced tears and anger in the Spanish capital's emblematic Puerta del Sol square, the epicentre of the movement where hundreds are camping in protest. 0cc5d12e-c3e5-11f1-aad2-997c946106ffFri, 09 Oct 2026 13:51:52 GMTFRANCE24Sporthttps://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261009-man-city-case-causing-uncertainty-for-whole-premier-league-says-iraola City remain adamant they have done no wrong and have appealed against the findings of an independent commission, which were announced last week. The Premier League leaders potentially face a severe points deduction that could put their place in the English top flight at risk. Iraola believes the world's richest league is caught in limbo until there is a definitive outcome. "I think the worst thing probably is the uncertainty, that no one knows what's going to happen," the Spaniard said ahead of City's first outing since the verdict at Liverpool on Sunday. "But we have to focus on Liverpool -- be the best club we can be, the best team we can be and that's my challenge." Iraola only joined the Reds in June but is looking forward to a red-hot atmosphere at Anfield. "The atmosphere is going to be big, especially at Anfield," he said. "We want to give also our supporters reasons to be with us. When they see the team they want to see on the pitch, we can create an even better atmosphere and we will work for that." Liverpool are still unbeaten under Iraola, but three draws in their opening five league games means they start the weekend six points off the top. Iraola's options up front are limited after Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo were injured on international duty. "As a club manager, you are always waiting until the game ends (hoping) the doctor doesn't call you, doesn't give you bad news, but in this case we've been unlucky with Alex and Cody, both of them," he said. "They are injured and they are not going to be involved on Sunday." 8edf17bc-c3e8-11f1-bb77-453e8e78ca54Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:51:41 GMT© Paul ELLIS / AFPFRANCE24https://www.france24.com/en/video/20261009-no-peace-without-international-law-the-message-behind-navi-pillay-s-nobel Navi Pillay, a South African-born jurist and former UN human rights chief whose career has spanned from defending the rights of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela to leading a panel that found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her efforts to promote international law as it comes under attack. For more, FRANCE 24’s William Hilderbrandt is joined by Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. b9386afa-c3e7-11f1-83b2-453e8e78ca54Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:50:28 GMTFRANCE24Sporthttps://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261009-chelsea-star-palmer-committed-to-england-insists-alonso Palmer pulled out of the England squad for their recent Nations League matches against Spain, Croatia and the Czech Republic with an injury. It was not the first time Palmer had withdrawn from international duty since Tuchel took charge of the Three Lions. Tuchel appeared frustrated with Palmer, who was a controversial omission from England's World Cup squad earlier this year, saying: "I can only judge him on what he is delivering for the national team and he's just missing too many opportunities." Blues boss Alonso was quick to come to the defence of Palmer, who has been a key figure for Chelsea, netting four times in seven appearances so far this season. Pressed on whether the 24-year-old was fully engaged with England, Alonso told reporters on Friday: "He's committed, but he needs to be fully fit to play. "When he's fully fit he will enjoy his minutes, and we need him in that moment for the club and the national team." Palmer is expected to feature when Chelsea return to Premier League action at home to Bournemouth on Saturday. "He has trained the last week, he has felt better. We didn't want to rush because we had a lot of time. But the most important thing for Cole is to be fully fit, that he enjoys his game, that he is feeling OK," Alonso said. "Whenever he is not, like the Brentford game, you can see that he was struggling. And for the next part (of the season), we have a good feeling with him." Alonso needs Palmer fit and firing even more than Tuchel after Chelsea's wobble before the international break. The 10th-placed Blues have gone three league games without a win, losing to Arsenal and Brentford either side of a draw with Hull. "We need to keep improving. It's part of the process," said Alonso. "We are learning things, but we need to make sure we don't make the same mistakes again." 46ee8c58-c3e8-11f1-ad40-99846153dc77Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:49:40 GMT© Adrian Dennis / AFPFRANCE24Businesshttps://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261009-openai-denies-firing-researchers-over-ai-safety-warnings Refuting claims that the exits were related to safety, the AI firm said an internal probe had uncovered "a significant breach of trust" beyond what they had disclosed. "We want to be very clear that these decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out," OpenAI said in a statement posted on X, adding that it stood by its decision to dismiss the researchers. "We have not and do not terminate any of our employees for raising concerns," the statement said. The company's response came hours after Mikita Balesni, Tomek Korbak and Jasmine Wang publicly released a letter to OpenAI, breaking a weeklong silence since their very public dismissal and reigniting the debate over safety at a company whose software has been involved in security breaches. "I believe we were fired for prioritizing safety over the near-term interests of OpenAI as a corporation," Balesni wrote on X. "Our firing leaves us worried that the norms inside OpenAI are shifting," the letter says, adding that "terminations such as ours, executed and communicated so abruptly, are chilling the open culture OpenAI has prized in the past." The researchers also urged the company to keep its promise to permanently host independent auditors, saying they feared their dismissals "may be used to justify ending" that work. OpenAI said it was "actively finalizing contracts" with third-party safety assessors and would announce details in the coming weeks. The company also said it agreed with the letter that keeping advanced AI models monitorable required a commitment from across the industry, including from OpenAI itself. "We are deeply sad about this outcome," the statement said, praising the three researchers' contributions and "their willingness to speak up and challenge ideas." The three researchers worked on monitoring OpenAI's models, which escaped their testing environment in July and hacked Hugging Face, a leading platform for sharing AI models and code. The incident sparked a heated debate in Silicon Valley over whether to slow the development of the technology. In September, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX chief Elon Musk called for a slowdown. Others, like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, want to move full steam ahead. US regulators are unlikely to intervene. Last month, President Donald Trump hosted a group of American tech executives who agreed to abide by a voluntary code of conduct on AI safety. 28a869cc-c3e7-11f1-ae90-a5f1089d7013Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:41:40 GMT© ANDREJ IVANOV / AFPFRANCE24https://www.france24.com/en/video/20261009-french-high-school-students-react-to-education-minister-s-measures In response to the massive high school student protests in France, Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced emergency measures on Thursday, October 8. Some students reacted to these measures in interviews with France 24.  dcf0ebca-c3e2-11f1-931f-7b20d2998052Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:35:53 GMTFRANCE24Internationalhttps://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261009-turkey-warns-opposition-press-over-investment-fund-crisis The country has been grappling with the fallout from an investment fund scandal which erupted in mid-September, prompting prosecutors to investigate allegations of widespread market manipulation. So far, a senior figure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP has resigned, and on Thursday, the main opposition Yeni party raised questions about whether two ministers had profited through investments in the suspect funds. Both Trade Minister Omer Bolat and Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas have denied any wrongdoing. Early Friday, police arrested two journalists who shared an image on X suggesting a link between AKP spokesman Omer Celik and one of the main investment fund suspects, on grounds of "publicly disseminating misleading information". Speaking to NTV private television, AKP secretary general Eyyup Kadir Inan said the party was facing a "network of lies". "We will absolutely not let our party and government be targeted, whether by Yeni or the journalists they paid to act as their mouthpiece," he said. "Legally, we will hold them accountable for all attacks on our party." 'Record profits The crisis erupted when several funds were unable to satisfy investor redemption demands. Regulators quickly placed seven companies into liquidation that manage 131 investment funds with assets reportedly worth some $17 billion. More than 455,000 individual investors have been affected, regulators say. Investigators found 214 individuals and legal entities had earned a total of 187.6 billion lira ($3.8 billion) through funds managed by three firms: Tera, Pusula and Hedef, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on Friday. Those who had invested in funds managed by Tera had earned record profits over 90 billion lira, he told Sabah newspaper. Those who sold shares in the days before the crisis hit the headlines were being "specifically" looked at by investigators, who had found they "exited the funds with prior knowledge and based on information provided to them". Prosecutors sent a list of names to the TMSF deposit insurance fund "which has started officially notifying the individuals about the return of the money" to a voluntary restitution account run by the regulator, he said. It was not clear whether they would face prosecution if they returned the funds. Meanwhile, parliament was to vote Friday on an AKP bill regarding fund liquidation and investor repayments, media reports said. 'We will hold them accountable' The two ministers whose investments were questioned on Thursday hit back with legal action. Bolat filed suit against two journalists, Ismail Saymaz and Murat Agirel from Sozcu TV, over a report raising similar questions about him on grounds of publicly spreading misleading information. And on Friday, Goktas said she had sued three Yeni lawmakers for slander and vowed to pursue "media outlets that spread these allegations". Meanwhile, the two journalists arrested over the image on X -- Mustafa Balci of the pro-opposition Sozcu newspaper, and Saban Sevinc, editor-in-chief of online news channel Bizim TV -- were being quizzed by prosecutors at an Istanbul court, media reports said. "Ozgur Ozel and his colleagues will pay the price for these lies and slanders," AKP's Inan warned, referring to the main opposition leader who heads the Yeni Parti. "Legally, we will hold them accountable for all attacks on our party." 154f70da-c3e4-11f1-897d-9ffee2c8abe1Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:19:39 GMT© Ozan KOSE / AFP/FileFRANCE24Olympic Gameshttps://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261009-lombardia-promises-gripping-end-to-season-in-pogacar-absence With the injured Pogacar missing, the field will be wide-open, giving hope to any number of riders that they could write their name in Monument history. The 27-year-old Slovenian has been the dominant rider in cycling for the last half dozen years, and nowhere has that been starker than at the Classic of the Falling Leaves. He won the autumn Monument in each of the last five years -- the only man to have won a single Monument that many times consecutively. And while his first two victories came in two-up sprint finishes -- beating Fausto Masnada in 2021 and Enric Mas in the following year -- since then he has attacked from far out and ridden off into the distance with minimal fuss. But without him, his bridesmaid in the last two editions, newly-crowned European champion Remco Evenepoel is possibly a narrow favourite, although he has proved just a notch under the best climbers over the last month. Instead, it is Pogacar's team-mates at UAE Emirates-XRG who pose the biggest collective threat. Brandon McNulty is fresh from the greatest result of his career when he shocked the bigger names to win the World Championships two weeks ago. Isaac Del Toro has shown his strength in winning the Montreal GP and finishing a strong fifth at the worlds in the same city. In Adam Yates, Jan Christen, Felix Grossschartner and Pavel Sivakov, they have some impressive support riders. "We go into Lombardia as defending champions and we'll have a clear goal to keep that title. The team is very strong and we have many options for victory," said Del Toro on the UAE team's website. "Obviously Brandon is flying in the rainbows at the moment and personally I'm in good form also. The key will be to have numbers as deep into the race as possible and then play our cards on the road." Evenepoel struggles Evenepoel, who retained his world time-trial title three weeks ago, has had perhaps the best season of his career. A second place at the Tour de France behind Pogacar and victories at Amstel Gold, Clasica San Sebastian, Quebec and the Europeans show that his form and climbing legs have been good all year long. But in the 273km worlds road race and at the 214km Montreal GP, Evenepoel simply did not have the legs to follow the likes of Del Toro, McNulty, Frenchman Paul Seixas, Briton Tom Pidcock or even American Quinn Simmons and Italian Giulio Ciccone on the climbs deep into those races. Evenepoel also has dark memories from Lombardia, overcooking a bend on the descent of the Muro di Sormano hill in 2020 and plunging 10 metres into a ravine, breaking his pelvis. The hilly Lombardia course is 239km long with eight main climbs -- the steepest with a 9.7 percent average gradient, and the longest at just over 10km -- with 4,600-metres of elevation gain. Vuelta a Espana winner Mas, Ireland's Ben Healy, Giro dell'Emilia winner Davide Piganzoli, American Matteo Jorgensen, Dane Anthon Charmig, Italian Christian Scaroni, European time-trial champion Primoz Roglic -- the list of potential challengers to Evenepoel showing impressive late-season form simply goes on and on. The racing since Pogacar broke his collarbone at the Vuelta has been thrilling and unpredictable. Lombardia promises no less. 8789bb70-c3e3-11f1-8f84-a103feeb14eaFri, 09 Oct 2026 13:15:41 GMT© JURE MAKOVEC / AFPFRANCE24Access Asiahttps://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/access-asia/20261009-india-protests-grow-over-election-commission-mistrust In this edition of Access Asia, we find out why multiple protests have broken out in India after an investigation by The Indian Express raised concerns about the integrity of the country's Election Commission. Journalist Faye D'Souza joins us to unpack how Narendra Modi's government is facing mounting pressure from the political opposition and the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party. She also discusses the wider sense of discontent in India. 34b9ba68-c3d8-11f1-ae80-a3a60b2bef46Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:08:49 GMTJoanna COCKERELLSportshttps://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/sports/20261009-morocco-and-senegal-await-afcon-final-verdict-after-arbitration-hearing Thursday saw the Court of Arbitration for Sport hold a long-awaited hearing in Lausanne, as sport's highest court considered Senegal's appeal over the decision to award Morocco this year's Africa Cup of Nations title. While Senegal won the match on the pitch in Rabat 10 months ago, the Confederation of African Football later overturned the result because the Lions of Teranga had left the pitch in protest mid-game before coming back on. The three-judge panel is expected to issue a verdict soon. 3631727a-c39f-11f1-a90f-fd416716f075Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:59:25 GMTFRANCE 24Sporthttps://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261009-djokovic-crashes-out-of-shanghai-masters-in-his-first-match Big-serving Hurkacz, the 2023 champion in Shanghai, won 6-4, 6-3 as the 39-year-old former world number one faltered against an opponent a decade his junior. "I didn't feel myself on the court," the Serbian veteran said afterwards. "It's a super-quick surface, completely different from Beijing. If you lose your serve, it's enough to lose a match." Djokovic was playing three days after winning the title in Beijing, where he has still never lost a match on the professional Tour. He hunched over and squatted down between points on a cool evening in Shanghai while a lively Hurkacz refused to give much away. Djokovic was broken in the fourth game of the second set as he double-faulted to give Hurkacz a 3-1 lead. The Pole held his serve to see out the win and will face either Italy's Lorenzo Musetti or Chinese wildcard Zhou Yi in the third round. "It's very difficult to return his serve, almost impossible," Djokovic said of his opponent, who sent down 13 aces across the one-hour-and-28-minute match. "I didn't adjust, and it was a really tough draw for me to play him in the first match-up." Hurkacz had advanced to the Beijing semi-finals but ended his match early due to a strained muscle. It was his first-ever victory against Djokovic in nine meetings on the Tour. "It was a challenging match, always," Hurkacz said. "I was pleased with how I performed, how I received in important moments." Zverev survives scare Earlier, top seed Alexander Zverev churned out a win over Chinese wildcard Wu Yibing 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), and will next play Quentin Halys of France. A dive left the German world number two grimacing and grabbing his left ankle during the 11th game of the second set, with Wu, ranked 113th, going 6-5 up. But the 29-year-old held serve and forced a tie-break, capitalising on a series of errors to win on his second match point when the home hope fired long. "Credit to him, he was playing amazing tennis," Zverev told the crowd afterwards. "He hits every ball as hard as he can." Zverev is on track to end the year at number one after Jannik Sinner announced he was ending his season due to injury. Birthday joy for Shelton A gritty Ben Shelton beat Germany's Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) and will play France's Arthur Gea in the third round. It was a fitting present for the American third seed, who turned 24 on Friday, though he hinted he may go easy on the celebrations, telling an on-court interviewer: "I hate cake." Frenchman Adrian Mannarino upset sixth-seeded Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to set up a tie against Karen Khachanov. And Japanese qualifier Rei Sakamoto beat Russia's Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-4 to earn a match against ninth-seeded Alex de Minaur. bd09736a-c3e0-11f1-bc30-aba549b97e0cFri, 09 Oct 2026 12:55:42 GMT© Hector RETAMAL / AFPFRANCE24Truth or Fakehttps://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20261009-no-the-french-army-did-not-deploy-tanks-against-protesting-students France's student protests have sparked a wave of misleading content online. A viral TikTok falsely claimed the French army had deployed an armoured vehicle against protesters, when it was actually returning to a nearby military base. Other posts recycle 2023 footage of retirement protests as current events, while an AI-generated image was falsely presented as showing a police officer being attacked. Vedika Bahl examines how old, out-of-context and AI-generated content is fuelling misinformation.  a26889ae-c35b-11f1-acf2-e5cdbb2956f2Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:49:32 GMTSporthttps://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261009-barca-skipper-raphinha-out-against-getafe-and-galatasaray "The picture shows something and it's not a big injury," Flick, who said that it nonetheless required attention, told reporters. "We have to take care about this because he has last season a lot of injuries about this. I think three injuries. "And we take care. So, he's not available tomorrow (Saturday against Getafe in La Liga) and also not available in Istanbul against Galatasaray (on Tuesday in the Champions League)." The German manager was furious at the schedule imposed on the players which resulted in the Brazilian taking the knock during a friendly match in Australia. Repositioned as a centre-forward at Barcelona since the start of the season, Raphinha is the top scorer in Europe's main leagues with 14 goals in eight matches across all competitions. But he has been plagued by recurring muscle problems throughout his career, returning injured from the March 2026 international break, during which he faced France in a friendly in Boston. The 29-year-old's absence was sorely felt by Barcelona during the season's final stretch, particularly in the Champions League when they fell in the quarter-finals to Atletico Madrid. The Brazilian forward also suffered a hamstring injury while playing for Brazil during the 2026 World Cup. The reigning two-time Spanish champions are unbeaten in La Liga this season and sit top of the table, five points ahead of Atletico Madrid. f012d2a4-c3dd-11f1-8f3b-8f6cc4049b7dFri, 09 Oct 2026 12:35:40 GMT© Patrick HAMILTON / AFPFRANCE24