News in Brief

Date: 24 September 2025 - 21:45

News ID: ۱۴۳۸۹۳

PARIS (Reuters) - French unions will hold another day of strike and protests on October 2 to put pressure on new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu over their demands to scrap his predecessor’s austerity fiscal program, union leaders said. Union leaders who met with Lecornu on Wednesday said they were not satisfied by his response to their last day of protest, attended by hundreds of thousands of people on September 18. “The prime minister did not provide any clear answers to the workers’ demands, so for the unions, it’s a missed opportunity. It doesn’t add up,” said Marylise Leon, the head of CFDT, France’s largest union. Just over two weeks after President Emmanuel Macron appointed Lecornu as his fifth prime minister in less than two years, the 39-year-old loyalist has yet to pull together a government or a draft budget for 2026. He has to deal with a divided parliament and pressure to fix France’s finances.

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PARIS (AP) — Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison if a Paris court convicts him of secretly using funds from the Libyan government of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi to finance his presidential campaign in 2007. The verdict is expected on Thursday. If convicted, the 70-year-old Sarkozy would be the first former French president found guilty of accepting illegal foreign funds to win office. Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007 but lost his bid for reelection in 2012, has denied all wrongdoing during a three-month trial earlier this year that also involved 11 co-defendants, including three former ministers.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s approval ticked slightly lower in recent weeks as Americans worried about the health of the U.S. economy and the Republican’s ability to contain rising prices, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The three-day poll, showed 41% of respondents approved of Trump’s performance as president, down from 42% in a September 5-9 poll. Some 54% of people surveyed said the national economy was on the wrong track, up from 53% in an August poll and 52% in July. sOnly 35% of poll respondents approved of Trump’s stewardship over the economy, and 28% gave him a thumbs up on his handling of their cost of living, with both readings slightly lower than in previous polls. Trump returned to the White House this year after promising in his election campaign last year to fix the economy.

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PARIS (AFP) - A man in his 40s has been arrested in southern England over an alleged cyberattack that caused disruption at several European airports in recent days, including at London Heathrow, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. The UK’s National Crime Agency said the suspect was held in West Sussex on Tuesday on suspicion of offenses involving the misuse of computers. The man has been released on conditional bail. Although this arrest is a positive step, the investigation into this incident is in its early stages and remains ongoing,” said Paul Foster, head of the NCA’s national cyber crime unit. “Cybercrime is a persistent global threat that continues to cause significant disruption to the UK.”

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SEOUL (Reuters) - Kim Keon Hee, the wife of South Korea’s ousted former president Yoon Suk Yeol, appeared in court on Wednesday at the start of her corruption trial, part of a criminal probe that has ensnared high-profile political and religious figures. Kim, who faces charges including bribery and stock manipulation, arrived at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul wearing a black suit, making her first public appearance since her arrest in August. In brief remarks to the court she confirmed her personal information and asked for a trial by judge, rather than a jury, but did not address any of the charges.