Prime Minister Francois Bayrou felt compelled on Tuesday to defend remarks about immigrants "flooding" France after drawing sharp rebukes, including from his allies, but winning applause from the anti-immigration right.

The leftist opposition accused Bayrou of spreading far-right ideas and centrist allies also criticised him, while immigration hardliners in the government and outside praised his suggestion.

Google has said it will restore the name Mount McKinley to North America's highest peak and rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" on its Maps app, complying with executive orders by Donald Trump.

Congolese security forces on Tuesday tried to slow the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who say they have captured Goma after entering eastern Congo's largest city, as U.N. officials reported an unspecified number of bodies on the streets.

Hospitals are overwhelmed in Goma, while hundreds of thousands are fleeing gunfire and shelling, the officials said.

The U.S. Senate has narrowly confirmed former Fox News co-host Pete Hegseth as Pentagon chief, despite allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and other fears about his ability to lead the world's most powerful military.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, struggling to stabilize his minority government, said Friday he will seek to maintain regional security and prepare for tough negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump to win his commitment to maintain a strong American presence in the Asia-Pacific.

Ishiba has been seeking to meet with Trump since his election victory in November and is arranging a trip to Washington in the coming weeks.

The last time Belarus staged a presidential election in 2020, authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner with 80% of the vote. That triggered cries of fraud, months of protests and a harsh crackdown with thousands of arrests.

Not wanting to risk such unrest again by those opposing his three decades of iron-fisted rule, Lukashenko advanced the timing of the 2025 election — from the warmth of August to frigid January, when demonstrators are less likely to fill the streets.

Donald Trump returned to the White House ready to immediately overhaul the government using the fastest tool he has — the executive order.

He's looked on his first day to increase domestic energy production and stop diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government, among other actions.

Kyiv said Friday that Russia had returned the bodies of hundreds of Ukrainian troops, in one of the largest repatriation efforts of the nearly three-year war.

"The bodies of 757 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine," the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, a Ukrainian state agency, said in a post on social media.

The United Nations stressed Friday that the right to seek asylum is "universally recognized", following decisions by President Donald Trump to suspend all refugee admissions and halt the US asylum program.

"All states are entitled to exercise their jurisdiction along their international borders, (but) they need to do so in line with their human rights obligations," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva when asked about the decisions, stressing that "the right to seek asylum is a universally recognized human right".

Police in Hungary said Thursday they were investigating bomb threats that were sent to more than 240 schools across the country, resulting in classes being cancelled at some schools.

The threats, which came in the form of emails, were identical in their text and likely sent by a single sender, police said in a statement. Officers were being dispatched to all affected institutions. No explosives or explosive devices were found in the buildings inspected so far, police added.