World
France’s Macron defeats far-right, pledges change
Emmanuel Macron comfortably defeated far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Sunday, heading off a political earthquake for Europe but acknowledging dissatisfaction with his first term and saying he would seek to make amends.
His supporters erupted with joy as the results appeared on a giant screen at the Champ de Mars park by the Eiffel tower.
Leaders in Berlin, Brussels, London and beyond welcomed his defeat of the nationalist, eurosceptic Le Pen.
With 97% of votes counted, Macron was on course for a solid 57.4% of the vote, interior ministry figures showed. But in his victory speech he acknowledged that many had only voted for him only to keep Le Pen out and he promised to address the sense of many French that their living standards are slipping.
“Many in this country voted for me not because they support my ideas but to keep out those of the far-right. I want to thank them and know I owe them a debt in the years to come,” he said.
“No one in France will be left by the wayside,” he said in a message that had already been spread by senior ministers doing the rounds on French TV stations.
Two years of disruption from the pandemic and surging energy prices exacerbated by the Ukraine war catapulted economic issues to the fore of the campaign. The rising cost of living has become an increasing strain for the poorest in the country.
“He needs to be closer to the people and to listen to them,” digital sales worker Virginie, 51, said at the Macron rally, adding he needed to overcome a reputation for arrogance and soften a leadership style Macron himself called “Jupiterian”.
Le Pen, who at one stage of the campaign had trailed Macron by just a few points in opinion polls, quickly admitted defeat. But she vowed to keep up the fight with parliamentary elections in June.
“I will never abandon the French,” she told supporters chanting “Marine! Marine!”
Macron can expect little or no grace period in a country whose stark political divisions have been brought into the open by an election in which radical parties scored well. Many expect the street protests that marred part of his first term to erupt again as he presses on with pro-business reforms.
“There will be continuity in government policy because the president has been reelected,” Health Minister Olivier Veran said. “But we have also heard the French people’s message.”
How Macron now fares will depend on the looming parliamentary elections. Le Pen wants a nationalist alliance in a move that raises the prospect of her working with rival far-rightists like Eric Zemmour and her niece, Marion Marechal.
Hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon, who emerged as by far the strongest force on the left of French politics, said he deserves to be prime minister – something that would force Macron into an awkward and stalemate-prone “cohabitation”.
“Melenchon as prime minister. That would be fun. Macron would be upset, but that’s the point,” said Philippe Lagrue, 63, technical director at a Paris theatre, who voted for Macron in the run-off after backing Melenchon in the first round.
Outside France, Macron’s victory was hailed as a reprieve for mainstream politics rocked in recent years by Britain’s exit from the European Union, the 2016 election of Donald Trump and the rise of a new generation of nationalist leaders.
“Bravo Emmanuel,” European Council President Charles Michel, wrote on Twitter. “In this turbulent period, we need a solid Europe and a France totally committed to a more sovereign and more strategic European Union.”
“Congratulations to the President and a true friend @EmmanuelMacron on the election victory,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on his Twitter account in early hours on Monday.
“The financial markets will breathe a collective sigh of relief following Macron’s election victory,” said Seema Shah, Chief Strategist at Principal Global Investors.
The disillusion with Macron was reflected in an abstention rate expected to settle around 28%, the highest since 1969.
Initial polling showed the vote was sharply split both by age and socio-economic status: Two-thirds of working class voters backed le Pen, while similar proportions of white-collar executives and pensioners backed Macron, an Elabe poll showed.
Macron won around 59% of votes by 18-24 year-olds with the vote almost evenly split in other age categories.
During the campaign, Le Pen homed in on the rising cost of living and Macron’s sometimes abrasive style as some of his weakest points.
She promised sharp cuts to fuel tax, zero-percent sales tax on essential items from pasta to diapers, income exemptions for young workers and a “French first” stance on jobs and welfare.
“I’m shocked to see that a majority of French people want to reelect a president that looked down on them for five years,” Adrien Caligiuri, a 27-year-old project manager said at the Le Pen rally.
Macron meanwhile pointed to Le Pen’s past admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin as showing she could not be trusted on the world stage, while insisting she still harboured plans to pull France out of the European Union – something she denies.
World
US military operations killed 153 civilians in 2025, Pentagon assessment shows
A Pentagon report submitted to the U.S. Congress and published by U.S. media said all civilian deaths and injuries recorded in 2025 resulted from three U.S. strikes in Yemen.
U.S. military operations killed 153 civilians and wounded 243 others in 2025, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, citing Pentagon assessments.
According to Reuters, the figures represent a sharp increase from 2024, when Pentagon assessments recorded two civilian deaths and two injuries linked to U.S. military operations.
A Pentagon report submitted to the U.S. Congress and published by U.S. media said all civilian deaths and injuries recorded in 2025 resulted from three U.S. strikes in Yemen.
The report said the U.S. Central Command assessed that the three strikes carried out in April 2025 in Yemen “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm.
As of February 2026, the report said, 15 other incidents in Yemen were still being assessed by U.S. Central Command following reports received through non-governmental organizations.
The U.S. military says its operations in Yemen aim to degrade the capabilities of Iran-backed Houthi militants.
The Pentagon report did not include casualties from U.S. strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. It said that as of February 1, 2026, the U.S. Southern Command had assessed that no incidents in its area of responsibility in 2025 “more likely than not” resulted in civilian casualties.
The Trump administration has also carried out strikes on vessels it accuses of transporting narcotics in the Eastern Pacific, describing the targets as “narco-terrorists.” According to a Reuters tally based on death tolls published after each strike, more than 200 people have been killed in such operations since September 2025.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have described the strikes as unlawful extrajudicial killings, while the American Civil Liberties Union has called the Trump administration’s claims about those targeted “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.”
World
Trump took secret flight out of Turkey due to Iran threat, the Washington Post reports
The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.
U.S. President Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard Air Force One, an extraordinary move prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, the Washington Post reported Monday.
Trump had taken the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet to Ankara for the NATO summit but he unexpectedly used an older Air Force One when departing the country, a move that prompted questions about the newer plane’s security, Reuters reported.
The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.
Before departing Ankara, Trump said on Truth Social that he would use an older baby blue Air Force One plane “for old time’s sake” to RAF Mildenhall in Britain while the new plane stopped at the same base so U.S. service members stationed there could tour the aircraft.
After Trump boarded the old Air Force One in front of cameras in Ankara, he was secretly shuttled by an airport catering truck to a smaller plane, an Air Force C-32A, the Post reported citing a U.S. official familiar with the operation and corroborating material it reviewed.
The deception operation was triggered by a credible threat to Trump, the Post reported. A similar operation had taken place in 2000, when President Bill Clinton used an unmarked executive jet to fly into Pakistan while sending his formal Air Force One as decoy.
On this occasion, the journalists who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older Air Force One, which was effectively used as a decoy, reported being advised to keep their window shades in the press cabin closed. The Post said aside from reporters, some White House staff also believed that the president was on board.
When asked later by reporters why they had to keep their shades shut during the flight, Trump said it was because they were “probably on a dangerous flight.” He went onto say: “But if I go, you go. Right?”
The C-32A carrying Trump flew to Britain and arrived at around 10:20 p.m. while the older Air Force One and media, arriving minutes later, the Post reported. It was not clear, the paper said, how Trump was moved from the C-32A back to the older Air Force One.
Trump’s traveling press pool reported he climbed down the stairs of the older Air Force One at 10:56 p.m. UK local time.
He gave press a peace sign but didn’t walk over to talk to them. He then spent some time greeting service members before walking to the new, Qatar-donated plane.
When asked for comment on the revelation of a secret flight on a third plane, the White House provided a statement from Communications Director Steve Cheung saying the Qatari-donated jet has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.
“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” Cheung said. It was the same statement provided to the Post.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new plane, with red, white, dark blue and gold livery chosen by Trump, is a Boeing 747 gifted to the United States by Qatar last year and refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies. It was intended to serve as a temporary placement while Boeing (BA.N) struggled to deliver long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes.
World
More than 100 killed after strongest quake this century hits western Colombia
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.
More than 100 people were killed after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, toppling buildings, damaging hospitals and infrastructure and trapping people beneath the rubble in the country’s strongest earthquake this century.
The quake struck just days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela in June, Reuters reported.
“The national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed,” he said in a national address around 1 p.m. local time, upon declaring a national state of emergency and giving a death toll of 111. “The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble.”
De La Espriella visited Quibdo, the capital of coastal Choco province, where he promised rent subsidies for those who have lost homes, and then traveled to Cali, western Colombia’s largest city.
Though he had been expected to give an updated national death toll on Monday evening, De La Espriella offered only figures for Valle del Cauca province, where Cali is located, saying 35 people had died there, while 700 had been injured. Some local media have cited a national total of 132 deaths, though the origin of the figure is unclear.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.
As night fell, rescue workers and volunteers with headlamps hurried to find people still trapped under rubble.
Authorities in Cali, Armenia and Manizales announced curfews, with Cali’s mayor saying threats of looting had forced him to deploy police and military personnel to the streets. De La Espriella promised 1,000 additional security personnel for the city.
Cali authorities said the Petronio Alvarez festival, an annual celebration of Pacific music which was due to start on Wednesday, has been postponed.
Video broadcast by Caracol Television showed a group of people pulling a small baby covered in dust from under a pile of rubble. Caracol reported the six-month-old girl and her mother were rescued from under a five-story building in Cali.
Video from Cali also showed rescue workers rappelling people out from the windows of a local hospital.
BUILDINGS CRUMBLE, AIRPORTS CLOSED
In the hard-hit city of Pereira, rescue workers told local television they were in contact with a young boy trapped under a bakery, and crane operators were working to remove badly damaged parts of buildings.
A four-story building crumbled in Pereira during the quake, according to Reuters-verified video, while footage from Manizales showed one of the side towers of the city’s landmark neo-Gothic cathedral collapsing and scattering debris onto nearby streets.
Reuters video showed rescue workers, police and volunteers shoveling debris by hand and loading rubble into trucks as they searched for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings. Other footage showed damage to residential towers and emergency-service facilities, with debris crashing onto ambulances parked below.
Mauricio Andrade, a firefighter in Cali, said his team had rescued two adult women and two children from a collapsed building. As he spoke to Reuters, his team was preparing to rescue more people from the rubble.
“They are alive,” he said. “We are making space so we can free them and get them out.”
Carmen Yasmin Garcia, 43, a Cali resident and rescue volunteer, said her group had helped seven people out of a fallen building but there were still four people and a dog trapped underneath.
“A moment ago there was scratching but now we can’t hear anything, we still have faith that the dog is alive and we can get these people out,” she said. “The more people lending a hand the better.”
Saul Paz, 69, a resident of a Cali residential complex that partially collapsed, told Reuters he had been in the dining room with his son and wife when the shaking began.
“I think if it had lasted five seconds more there would be nothing left,” he said. “There are people who went to bed last night with a house and a car and today they won’t have anything.”
Colombia’s civil aviation authority suspended operations at several airports in the region, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, while engineers carried out structural inspections.
RING OF FIRE
Colombia sits along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire and records thousands of mostly minor earthquakes each month.
Northwestern University seismologist Suzan van der Lee said the quake’s powerful magnitude, inland location and strike-slip motion may have amplified damage in populated valleys despite its considerable depth.
“This one was far below the crust, and in theory it shouldn’t cause as much shaking. At this magnitude, it did actually cause a lot of shaking,” she said, adding Colombia is particularly difficult for seismologists to analyze due to the interaction of several major tectonic plates.
The Colombian Geological Service said it had recorded 21 aftershocks by late Monday and warned that additional tremors were likely.
Colombia’s coffee region was devastated by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 1,000 people, particularly around Armenia and Pereira.
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