Leo XIV landed at Orly at 10h, greeted by Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron as bells rang in 40,000 churches. His first address in French at the Elysée denounced surrogacy, genetic manipulation and 'programmed death,' warned against a 'paradise of machines' and argued laïcité cannot exclude religion from public space. The afternoon brought a UNESCO speech on war and AI, a papamobile ride down boulevard Montparnasse and vespers at Notre-Dame, the first papal visit since its reopening. At the Stade de France, 80,000 young people heard him hail 'the saints of France.'
Elsewhere, Roland Lescure confirmed no immediate fuel-tax cut and the RN rejected Macron's military deployment to Saudi Arabia. Zinedine Zidane opened his France tenure with a 0-1 win in Turkey, though Mbappé was injured scoring. The Aramburu trial ended with 26- and 19-year prison terms, and the Thélyson Orélien novel was pulled from the Goncourt selection over AI-plagiarism suspicions.