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France is to complete a total military withdrawal from Burkina Faso after the ruling junta of the West African country demanded on Monday that the around 400 French soldiers stationed there leave within a month, amid speculation that the Burkinabè regime will now turn to the Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group for support in its war with jihadist insurgents.

Best-selling French author Constance Debré, born into a prominent French political dynasty, who was once a criminal defence lawyer and who almost lost custody of her son after coming out as gay, is interviewed by The Guardian as her work is published for the first time in Britain.

In a report delivered this week, the High Council for Equality between Women and Men finds that sexism is far from retreating in France, noting that French society remains 'highly sexist at every level' and that 'younger generations are the most affected'.  

Mickaël Philétas, 41, who described himself online as a 'seduction coach', fatally stabbed his ex-partner more than 80 times, attempted to murder her new partner and her younger sister, who he also tried to sexually assault.

The French finance ministry has said the assets of the the French arm of the Russian state broadcaster were frozen in compliance with the most recent EU sanctions, and not on Paris's initiative, while the Kremlin has promised retaliation for the move.

Giuliano da Empoli's novel The Wizard of the Kremlin has become a bestseller in France since its publication shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but some critics are concerned that its broadly sympathic portrayal of Vladimir Putin may influence French policy towards the ongoing war.

The French president said the increased spending on defence over the next seven years would include a 60% increase in the military intelligence budget, adapted to 'high-intensity' conflict, along with investment in drones, cyber-defence and improved air defences, adding that, 'We need to be one war ahead'.

Strikes and demonstrations on Thursday against Emmanuel Macron's proposed reform of France's pensions system, which includes raising the age of retirement on full rights from 62 to 64 by 2030, brought more than 2 million people onto streets across France, according to trade unions, while interior ministry figures estimated turnout at 1.12 million.

The mayor of Amiens in northern France has contacted Madonna to ask for the return of Diane et Endymion, a 19th-century artwork by neoclassical painter Jérôme-Martin Langlois, which disappeared from the town's art museum during WWI until it, or a fine copy of it, appeared in a photograph of the US singer at home published by weekly Paris Match.

Noël Le Graët, 81, the head of the French football federation who was this month forced to take leave from his post pending the outcome of an administrative inquiry into his alleged misconduct, has been formally placed under investigation in a judicial probe into his suspected sexual harassment of a football agent.