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France’s Socialists Threaten to Oust Government by Monday Amid Fraught Budget Talks 

France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu reacts during a visit at the National Tax Investigation Directorate (DNEF) and the National and International Audit Directorate (DVNI), in Romainville, in the outskirts of Paris, on October 23, 2025. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu reacts during a visit at the National Tax Investigation Directorate (DNEF) and the National and International Audit Directorate (DVNI), in Romainville, in the outskirts of Paris, on October 23, 2025. (AFP)
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France’s Socialists Threaten to Oust Government by Monday Amid Fraught Budget Talks 

France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu reacts during a visit at the National Tax Investigation Directorate (DNEF) and the National and International Audit Directorate (DVNI), in Romainville, in the outskirts of Paris, on October 23, 2025. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu reacts during a visit at the National Tax Investigation Directorate (DNEF) and the National and International Audit Directorate (DVNI), in Romainville, in the outskirts of Paris, on October 23, 2025. (AFP)

France's Socialists have threatened to topple the government by Monday if their budget conditions are not met, saying on Friday they would file a no-confidence bill early next week if billionaires are not forced to pay more tax. 

"We have made an effort not to censure the prime minister, but so far we have not seen any sign of a willingness to compromise," Socialist party leader Olivier Faure told BFM on Friday. "If there is no change by Monday, it's all over." 

Given the arithmetic of France's starkly divided parliament, the Socialists have the power to topple Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's weak minority government if they partner with the far-left and the far-right, which have said they want to oust him. 

Lecornu had managed to win Socialist support by pledging to scrap a landmark pension reform, but the left clearly believes it can extract greater concessions as talks to pass the tax and revenue component of the 2026 budget began on Friday on the floor of the National Assembly. 

Faure, whose party has long argued for a billionaires' tax that the government has been reluctant to include, said the current bill unfairly targeted retirees, young people, and families. 

"It's unbearable. We cannot ask these segments of the population - working-class and middle-class people - to continue making sacrifices while the wealthiest are not contributing," he said, adding the budget should aim to find between 15 billion and 20 billion euros ($17 billion and $23 billion) in additional revenue. 

The threat of more instability is worrying for France's economy, with French business activity declining faster than expected in October, according to data released on Friday. 

Moody's could well downgrade French debt in a ratings decision later on Friday, just a week after S&P Global handed France, the euro zone's second-biggest economy, a surprise downgrade. 

Lecornu is under mounting pressure to trim down France's deficit, the euro zone's largest, but faces major pushback from opponents over how to achieve savings. He aims to put a more than 30 billion euro squeeze on the budget next year to get the fiscal deficit down to 4.7% of economic output. 

A formal vote on the income part of the budget is scheduled for November 4, before the bill moves on to the conservatives-held Senate. 

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World

China Says It Opposes Outside Interference in Iran’s Internal Affairs

Iranians walk next to a billboard reading "Iran is our Homeland" at Enqelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 13 January 2026. (EPA)
Iranians walk next to a billboard reading "Iran is our Homeland" at Enqelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 13 January 2026. (EPA)
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China Says It Opposes Outside Interference in Iran’s Internal Affairs

Iranians walk next to a billboard reading "Iran is our Homeland" at Enqelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 13 January 2026. (EPA)
Iranians walk next to a billboard reading "Iran is our Homeland" at Enqelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 13 January 2026. (EPA)

China opposes any outside interference in Iran's ​internal affairs, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump warned that Washington ‌would take "very ‌strong action" ‌against Tehran.

China ⁠does ​not ‌condone the use or the threat of force in international relations, Mao Ning, spokesperson at ⁠the Chinese foreign ministry, said ‌at a ‍regular ‍news conference when ‍asked about China's position following Trump's comments.

Trump told CBS News in ​an interview that the United States would take "very ⁠strong action" if Iran starts hanging protesters.

Trump also urged protesters to keep protesting and said that help was on the way.

World

South Korea Vows Legal Action Over Drone Incursion into North

A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-meter tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong in this picture taken from the Dora observatory near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. (Reuters)
A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-meter tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong in this picture taken from the Dora observatory near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. (Reuters)
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South Korea Vows Legal Action Over Drone Incursion into North

A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-meter tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong in this picture taken from the Dora observatory near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. (Reuters)
A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-meter tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong in this picture taken from the Dora observatory near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. (Reuters)

The South Korean president's top advisor vowed on Wednesday to punish whoever is found responsible for a recent drone incursion into North Korea, after a furious Pyongyang demanded an apology.

North Korea accused the South over the weekend of sending a drone across their shared border into the city of Kaesong this month, releasing photos of debris from what it said was the downed aircraft.

And on Tuesday the North Korean leader's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, demanded an apology over the incident from the "hooligans of the enemy state" responsible.

Seoul has denied any involvement but has left open the possibility that civilians may have flown the drone, a position reiterated by National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac on Wednesday.

"Our understanding so far is that neither the military nor the government carried out such an operation," Wi told reporters on the sidelines of a summit between the leaders of South Korea and Japan in the Japanese city of Nara.

"That leaves us the task to investigate if someone from the civilian sector may have done it," he said.

"If there is anything that warrants punishment, then there should be punishment."

South and North Korea remain technically at war, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Wi noted that despite Pyongyang's criticism and its demand for an apology, the North has also sent its own drones into South Korea.

"There have been incidents in which their drones fell near the Blue House, and others that reached Yongsan," he said, referring to the current and former locations of the presidential offices.

"These, too, are violations of the Armistice Agreement," he said.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has ordered a joint military-police probe into the drone case.

Any civilian involvement would be "a serious crime that threatens peace on the Korean peninsula", he warned.

World

Iran’s Judiciary Signals Fast Trials and Executions for Detained Protesters Despite Trump’s Warning

This video grab taken on January 14, 2026 from UGC images posted on social media on January 13, 2026, shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground at the Tehran Province Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre in Kahrizak, as grieving relatives search for their loved ones. (UGC / AFP)
This video grab taken on January 14, 2026 from UGC images posted on social media on January 13, 2026, shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground at the Tehran Province Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre in Kahrizak, as grieving relatives search for their loved ones. (UGC / AFP)
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Iran’s Judiciary Signals Fast Trials and Executions for Detained Protesters Despite Trump’s Warning

This video grab taken on January 14, 2026 from UGC images posted on social media on January 13, 2026, shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground at the Tehran Province Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre in Kahrizak, as grieving relatives search for their loved ones. (UGC / AFP)
This video grab taken on January 14, 2026 from UGC images posted on social media on January 13, 2026, shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground at the Tehran Province Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre in Kahrizak, as grieving relatives search for their loved ones. (UGC / AFP)

The head of Iran’s judiciary signaled Wednesday there would be fast trials and executions ahead for those detained in nationwide protests despite a warning from US President Donald Trump.

The comments from Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei come as activists had warned hangings of those detained could come soon.

Already, a bloody security force crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,571, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. That figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 revolution.

Trump repeatedly has warned that the United States may take military action over the killing of peaceful protesters, just months after it bombed Iranian nuclear sites during a 12-day war launched by Israel against the Islamic Republic in June.

Mohseni-Ejei made the comment in a video shared by Iranian state television online.

“If we want to do a job, we should do it now. If we want to do something, we have to do it quickly," he said. “If it becomes late, two months, three months later, it doesn’t have the same effect. If we want to do something, we have to do that fast.”

His comments stand as a direct challenge to Trump, who warned Iran about executions an interview with CBS aired Tuesday. “We will take very strong action,” Trump said. “If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.”

Meanwhile, activists said Wednesday that Starlink was offering free service in Iran. The satellite internet service has been key in getting around an internet shutdown launched by the theocracy on Jan. 8. Iran began allowing people to call out internationally on Tuesday via their mobile phones, but calls from people outside the country into Iran remain blocked.

“We can confirm that the free subscription for Starlink terminals is fully functional,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, a Los Angeles-based activist who has helped get the units into Iran. “We tested it using a newly activated Starlink terminal inside Iran.”

Starlink itself did not immediately acknowledge the decision.

Security service personnel also apparently were searching for Starlink dishes, as people in northern Tehran reported authorities raiding apartment buildings with satellite dishes. While satellite television dishes are illegal, many in the capital have them in homes, and officials broadly had given up on enforcing the law in recent years.