POLITICS

Shutting out the far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), the effort to find a way forward comes as caretaker ministers scramble to clarify France's 2025 finances, after the previous administration fell over its cost-cutting budget plans.

Last week far-right and hard-left lawmakers joined efforts to oust the minority government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a historic no-confidence vote following a standoff over an austerity budget.

His win marks a historic victory, making him the first president in the three decades of Ghana's Fourth Republic -- since the 1992 return to multi-party democracy -- to reclaim the presidency after being voted out.

Macron adopted a defiant tone in an address to the nation late Thursday, 24 hours after Prime Minister Michel Barnier's government was ousted in a historic no-confidence vote.

Poised to be contemporary France's shortest-serving premier, Barnier arrived at the Elysee Palace just after 0900 GMT for the resignation formality, with the outgoing premier and government constitutionally obliged to step down after the defeat in parliament.

Far-right politician Calin Georgescu, a former senior civil servant, shocked the eastern European nation when he topped the first round of the presidential elections on November 24.

The Labour leader is to lay out six "ambitious milestones" on which voters can judge his administration, seeking to move on from several unpopular decisions that have overshadowed his young premiership.

Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, becomes the first woman to rule the mineral-rich southern African country that has been governed by the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.

The toppling of the Barnier government after just three months in office would present President Emmanuel Macron with an unenviable dilemma over how to go forwards and who to appoint in his place.

Even their slogan dared to say they would be "Breaking the eight" -- a reference to going beyond President Nana Akufo-Addo's two terms of four years to reach a third mandate.

Deepfakes -- which manipulate genuine audio, photos or video of people into false likenesses -- are becoming increasingly convincing and easier to make as artificial intelligence (AI) enters the mainstream.

Barnier, a conservative appointed by President Emmanuel Macron in September after an inconclusive general election, has no majority in parliament and lives under the constant threat of a no-confidence vote that would, if successful, force him and his team to step down.

Voting got under way in Ireland on Friday in a general election in which the two centre-right coalition partners are neck-and-neck with opposition party Sinn Fein after a campaign marked by rancour over housing and cost-of-living crises.

Donald Trump's tariff threats have rattled foreign businesses and governments, with many fearing it could signal the opening salvo of an all-out trade war when he returns to the White House next year.

Donald Trump on Tuesday named Jamieson Greer his trade representative, a key figure in implementing the president-elect's economic agenda, particularly his plans to use tariffs to raise revenue and help bring more manufacturing to US shores.

President-elect Donald Trump's hardline immigration proposals -- including a controversial mass deportation plan -- could prove economically damaging, analysts say, with US sectors that rely heavily on foreign workers like agriculture and construction especially hard hit.

US President-elect Donald Trump tapped Pam Bondi, a staunch ally who helped defend the ex-leader against impeachment, as US attorney general on Thursday following firebrand Matt Gaetz's withdrawal from the running.

The $2.9 billion loan secured early last year required Colombo to sharply raise taxes, remove generous energy subsidies and agree to restructure more than 50 loss-making state enterprises.

The European Union and the United States have called for a probe into "irregularities" during the October 26 election won by the governing Georgian Dream party in the Caucasus country, which has candidate status for EU membership.

Carr has "fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans' Freedoms" and will "end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America," Trump said in the statement.

Dissanayake, a self-avowed Marxist, swept September presidential elections on a promise to combat graft and recover stolen assets, two years after a slow-motion financial crash imposed widespread hardships on the island nation.

District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, had dismissed the case against the former president in July on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed.

The 55-year-old hopes to grab two-thirds of the legislature's 225 seats to press ahead with reforms after the country's economic meltdown two years ago, when then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted.

Trump's meeting with Biden comes as he moves swiftly to name his top team, including the world's richest man Elon Musk as head of a new group aimed at slashing government waste.

Both Rubio and Congressman Michael Waltz, who has been lined up for the powerful National Security Advisor role, have notably hawkish views on China, which they see as a threat and challenge to US economic and military might.

Sri Lanka's new leftist leader has drawn strong support from an unlikely source as he seeks to expand his three parliamentary seats to a house majority in elections on Thursday.

The territory on the northwest point of Somalia unilaterally declared independence in 1991 and has been far more stable and peaceful than the rest of the country since then.

Scholz, whose coalition collapsed on Wednesday, said that "asking for the vote of confidence before Christmas, if all sides agree, is no problem at all for me".

Ishiba, 67, took office in early October and called a snap election which he hoped would shore up his mandate as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).