France’s first lady Brigitte Macron apologised on Monday for using a slur against activists that triggered a feminist backlash and a social media trend against her. Speaking to Brut, Macron, 72, said she was sorry if she hurt women, but defended the remarks as private comments.

The government of Trinidad and Tobago said on Monday it would allow the US military access to its airports in the coming weeks, as tensions rise between Washington and Venezuela. Authorities said a newly installed US radar in Tobago is for crime-fighting and denied the country would be used to launch attacks.

European leaders meeting in Berlin on Monday agreed that Ukraine required robust security guarantees, including a European-led "multinational force" with US support, before making any decisions on potential territorial concessions to Russia. A statement issued by 10 European leaders said security guarantees should also include a US-led ceasefire monitoring mechanism.

Once prized fighters under the Tsars, Russia’s Cossack population was ostracised by authorities during the Soviet era. Under President Vladimir Putin, they have reintegrated into Russian society, acting as a supplementary police force and restoring their military status on the front lines in Ukraine.

 A French court on Monday sentenced ex-rebel leader Roger Lumbala to 30 years in jail after finding him guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002-2003.

Hollywood director Rob Reiner’s son, Nick Reiner, was taken into custody after deaths of the director-writer and his wife Michele, a law enforcement official said Monday. Reiner and his wife, Michele…

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called for pushing back the final approval vote on the landmark EU free trade deal with the Mercosur group of Latin American countries after outbreaks of the highly contagious lumpy skin disease sparked livestock culls and protests by cattle farmers. French farmers fear a flood of cheap imports with less stringent environmental rules could undercut their products in their home markets. 

Social media users have been sharing footage said to come from the surveillance camera in a liquor store that shows a masked bandit who ransacked the place, drank his fill and was then discovered passed out in the store restroom: a raccoon. While the remarkable story did actually take place, the surveillance camera video is fake and was AI-generated.

In a phone call from prison, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nargis Mohammadi said she endured blows during her incarceration that were so "heavy, forceful and repeated" that she had to be hospitalised twice, the family-run Narges Foundation said Monday. Mohammadi was re-arrested in Tehran on Friday.

FRANCE 24 and Mother Jones have won a UN journalism award for their reporting on the testimony of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation contractor Anthony Aguilar. In their report he describes the "war crimes" he witnessed whilst working as a contractor for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.