Diplomacy:
Cheat mode used to facilitate agreed transactions.
The French policy of reciprocal free trade is modified as follows: Any nation which forbids French merchants may still make deliveries to French cities as long as they also forbid the merchants of Great Britain and her allies. So Russia and any country following a similar policy to Russia may still send goods to French ports.
At this time, the French Empire is not threatening war with those nations which allow British Merchants but not French Merchants. But be warned that we will not consider that a policy friendly towards France.
Though Napoleon III has suspended the French Democracy in favour of an "Imperial" government, the high luxury policy means that next turn most cities will re-attain trade arrow levels similar to the level enjoyed under Democracy. (So traders are very likely to get similar payouts to what they had before.)
French Domestic News:
Due to a bureaucratic error, the French Capital Building is moved to Bassam. Plans are made to move it back to Paris Forthwith, but the error caused some stuff not to be produced elsewhere.
French establish an "Imperial" Government.
French War News:
The French War News is stated based on Geography, not chronology.
Sub Saharan Africa:
Kousseri liberated without a fight, but of course, most infrastructure has been destroyed. Cavalry outside the city defeated.
I get a message that the British empire has "changed policy," apparently to despotism. If @Northerner didn't do this, but rather the AI, then this should be corrected in cheat mode before his turn.
Sepoys defeated outside El-Fashir, but they manage to defeat some marines first.
Assault on Lagos results in a lost Battleship and some light artillery and marines. Lagos captured. Fortified Gurka on hill defeats a Chasseurs unit, before being defeated.
Light cruiser defeated near Bassam.
Anane captured without a fight. Either the troops were supported elsewhere, or the French commander didn't notice the city was devoid of defenders.
An obsolete rifled gun lost attacking Accra. Battleships brought in to bombard defenders into submission. Accra captured. 2 Nearby armored cruisers sunk.
Granville bombarded, but 8 marine units lost in subsequent attack. Armoured cruiser lost attacking british equivalent nearby. Granville captured. Later discover that one heavy artillery never attacked the city...
Rabak assaulted by 2 Heavy artillery, then captured.
Djibouti assaulted from sea, 5 marines lost. Ships and nearby land units also borught in. Djibouti captured. Armoured cruiser lost attacking nearby equivalent.
Engineer and Steam Yacht killed near Durban. Loaded steam yacht killed near Port Elizabeth (3 units); engineer also killed.
Engineer killed near Ankober. Engineer near Asmara defeats force marched cannon.
India:
Madras Bombarded, light artillery lost, obsolete cannon lost. Madras Captured.
Some units killed outside Dacca.
Marines assault Cuttack, face minimal resistance. Cuttack captured.
Bangalore bombarded and captured.
Colombo captured by Marines and light cruisers without significant loss. Nearby armored cruiser defeated by battleship.
4 Marines lost assaulting Waltair (Armored cruiser and Battleship brought in as support). Waltari captured.
Far East:
Rangoon bombarded from land and then by sea, with no loss of French units. Rangoon Captured.
Battleship lost bombarding Maccau. 3 Marine units also lost. Maccau captured.
Hong Kong bombarded by land and sea, though a battleship is lost. Hong Kong captured.
9 Marines, 2 Battleship lost attacking Singapore. Light cruiser lost against nearby Armoured cruiser by accident. Singapore Captured, after many trains and ships destroyed. Light cruiser north of Singapore defeated, nearby armoured cruiser defeated also.
Taiping assaulted by marines and cruisers. Taiping captured. Most of the nearby units bombarded from the sea, or attacked by Chasseurs.
Europe and North Africa:
Counterattack on Brest costs only 2 units of marines. Brest Re-Captured.
Heavy artillery brought in to bombard Gibraltar. Locals report many units are stationed in the city, but the French commander gambles that most are not actually troops, but rather merchants avoiding the high seas. Rifled gun lost. Marine lost. Gibraltar captured, after sea bombardment and amphibious assaults.
Tunis re-captured. 4 damaged armoured cruisers destroyed nearby.
Quite a few damaged ships destroyed outside Brest and Brussels.
Several armoured cruisers destroyed near Messina, but they take one Battleship with them.
A small force of French Marines cross the channel and capture Southampton. The limited defences of that town seem to have been reported by Belgian refugees.
2 Marines lost testing the defences at Valletta.
Benghazi Assaulted, light artillery lost in bombardment. 2 Marines lost in the amphibious assault. Benghazi captured.
Brussels bombarded and captured, one rifled gun lost.
Engineer killed near Cairo by Chasseurs.
Middle East:
5 ships sunk near Socotra.
A secret task force of marines has marched through the desert to Mecca, with plans to stir up resentment against the Imperialists in the Middle East. With the abrupt closure of Russian ports to French traders, concerns about outrage spilling over into the Russian Middle East are overruled, and the plan goes forward. The French capture Mecca!
The occupation of the holy city of Mecca causes fury across the lands of the prophet! Many Muslim leaders put their old differences aside in order to duly punish the intruders for this act of arrogant sacrilege...
America and the Atlantic Ocean:
Engineer and trains destroyed near Georgetown.
British cargo ship attacked near Hamilton (4 units killed).
Light cruiser sunk by armored cruiser near Ascension.