Police braced for unrest after funeral for Nahel, killed by police on Tuesday, held near Paris on Saturday
More than 1,000 people were arrested in the fourth night of unrest, as family and friends prepare to bury the 17-year-old fatally shot by police.
Associated Press reports that France’s interior ministry said that 1,311 people were arrested as protesters once again clashed with police.
Continue reading...Fourth night of demonstrations sees 45,000 police deployed as authorities claim the situation is calmer
Nearly 1,000 people in France were arrested and 80 police injured during a fourth night of unrest triggered by the fatal police shooting of a teenager, but officials claimed the situation was calmer than on the previous night.
Forty-five thousand police officers, including special forces, were deployed to respond to rioting across the country on Friday night, with the situation in two major cities – Marseille and Lyon – highlighted as particular chaotic, with buildings and vehicles torched and stores looted.
Continue reading...Government struggles to contain continuing unrest after police shooting of teenager in Paris suburb
• French riots – latest updates
Emmanuel Macron has urged parents to keep teenagers at home as France’s government said it was reviewing “all options” to contain escalating violence after three nights of rioting sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager at a traffic stop.
Promising additional security forces would be deployed on Friday night, Macron, who left an EU summit in Brussels early to attend a crisis cabinet meeting, appealed to “the responsibility of mothers and fathers” and said it was not the job of the French republic to take their place.
Continue reading...Nationwide ban on bus and tram services follows violence triggered by the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old on Tuesday. This blog is now closed
An ambulance driver was filmed berating police after Nahel’s death. In the video, which has circulated widely online, he shouted at officers:
He’s 17, you see he has a baby face. For a driving licence offence. For a driving licence offence, brother. I know the lad, I watched him grow up. His mother brought him up all alone, his dad left. She’s going to bury her son. For a driving licence offence.
You’re going to see how it goes tonight. Everyone’s sleeping right now – you’re going to see how Nanterre awakens.
Continue reading...Police fire teargas at rioters as 6,000 march through Nanterre to protest against shooting of 17-year-old
Violence has erupted for a third consecutive night in France as Emmanuel Macron struggles to contain mounting anger after the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy of north African descent during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb.
The officer concerned was charged with voluntary homicide on Thursday and placed in provisional detention in the capital as an estimated 6,000 people marched through the streets of Nanterre in memory of the teenager, identified as Nahel M.
Continue reading...Changes to the World Bank could unlock developing states access to loans and to the means of staving off disaster
The Netherlands has almost the same amount of solar generating capacity as the whole continent of Africa. That must be, in part, because the interest on a loan to set up a windfarm in Africa is about 17% more than one to do the same in Europe.
Many poor countries enjoy vast natural resources of wind and sun yet struggle to access renewable energy because of the crippling cost of capital imposed on them. Private sector companies perceive far greater risk in poor countries, penalising most heavily the countries in greatest need of investment.
Continue reading...UK defence secretary had earlier shown interest in the role, but the US is believed to want Jens Stoltenberg to stay in post
The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said he does not expect to be the next head of Nato, amid claims that the US wants the current leader to stay.
In an interview with the Economist, the Conservative MP said “it’s not going to happen”, adding that he thinks the United States wants the current secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, to remain in post for another year.
Continue reading...Disagreement over possible successors may mean secretary general is asked to remain in role at next month’s summit in Lithuania
Political disagreements, vetoes and personal reluctance make it increasingly likely that the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, will be asked to remain in post for another year at the Nato summit in Lithuania next month.
It would be the third time the former Norwegian prime minister has been asked to extend his almost 10-year term.
Continue reading...Accused among eight arrested after Jean-Baptiste Trogneux was beaten up outside family’s chocolate shop
Three men have appeared in court in France accused of attacking Brigitte Macron’s great-nephew outside her family’s chocolate shop.
The accused were among eight people arrested after Jean-Baptiste Trogneux, 30, was beaten up while reportedly trying to protect the windows of the store in Amiens in the Somme last month.
Continue reading...In speech in Bratislava, French president will warn of steady erosion of European strategic stability
Emmanuel Macron is to make a diplomatic push to reassure central and eastern European countries that France understands that the continent’s security environment has been permanently changed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Macron has often been viewed with suspicion across eastern Europe, especially in Poland, as someone who sees Russia as ultimately part of Europe’s security architecture and wants to use the war in Ukraine to boost European defence autonomy in a way that loosens Europe’s security ties to the US.
Continue reading...French first lady condemns what appears to be politically motivated attack in Amiens
The French president’s wife, Brigitte Macron, has denounced an attack on her great-nephew, who was beaten up outside her family’s chocolate shop in an apparent politically motivated assault.
Jean-Baptiste Trogneux was returning to his apartment on Monday evening above the Trogneux chocolate shop that he runs in Amiens in northern France, when he was set upon by anti-government protesters.
Continue reading...Sex scene in Bruno Le Maire’s book provokes ridicule and anger among opposition politicians
An explicit sex scene in a newly published novel by the French economy minister has left the government facing fresh accusations it is not listening to the concerns of the country just as it tries to contain anger over the unpopular rise in the pension age.
The toe-curling sexual descriptions in the novel, Fugue Américaine, written by the economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, have angered opposition politicians and inspired anti-government slogans and graffiti at street demonstrations as the government struggles to contain the political crisis over Emmanuel Macron raising the minimum pension age to 64.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary warns a war across Taiwan strait and likely destruction of semiconductor industry would have global effects
A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would destroy world trade, and distance would offer no protection to the inevitable catastrophic blow to the global economy, the UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, warned in a set piece speech on Britain’s relations with Beijing.
In remarks that differ from French president Emmanuel Macron’s attempts to distance Europe from any potential US involvement in a future conflict over Taiwan, and which firmly support continued if guarded engagement with Beijing, Cleverly said “no country could shield itself from the repercussions of a war in Taiwan”.
Continue reading...The tradition of bashing pots and pans in protest has been revived, with ministers facing a cookware cacophony across the country
The French have turned protesting into an art form. A country synonymous with revolution has given the world the “manure protest”, where tonnes of muck were dumped outside parliament; the “vegetable protest”, with carrots and rotten tomatoes spread on the steps of public buildings; and the “dairy protest”, in which gallons of milk were spilled. Earlier this month, opponents of Emmanuel Macron’s bill to raise the state pension age to 64 dumped gas and electricity meters outside Marseilles city hall.
For the past week, furious French people have revived a much older form of protest: the casserolade, or “pots and pans protest”, after Macron pushed through the unpopular law.
Continue reading...Josep Borrell says safeguard would show Europe’s commitment to the ‘absolutely crucial’ area
European navies should patrol the disputed Taiwan Strait, the EU foreign policy chief has said, echoing earlier comments stressing how crucial Taiwan is to Europe.
Josep Borrell wrote in an opinion piece in the Journal Du Dimanche that Taiwan “concerns us economically, commercially and technologically”.
Continue reading...Ernest Moret was interrogated by UK counter-terrorist police when he arrived in London on Tuesday
Suella Braverman has been condemned by a group of MEPs over the arrest in London of a French publisher who was interrogated by counter-terrorist police about his political views and “anti-government” contacts.
Twelve MEPs wrote to the home secretary to express their outrage at the “scandalous treatment” of Ernest Moret, who was detained for almost 24 hours and whose iPhone and laptop remain in the hands of the British police.
Continue reading...President tours rural France in attempt to calm tensions over his unpopular pensions changes
Emmanuel Macron has said that banging saucepans at him will not move France forward, as about 100 protesters bashing pots were pushed back by police when the French president visited a factory in Alsace in an attempt to contain anger over raising the pension age from 62 to 64.
Members of the CGT and CFDT trade unions had gathered in front of the mayor’s office in the village of Muttersholtz on Wednesday, where Macron began a series of visits to rural France to try to calm tensions over his unpopular pensions changes.
Continue reading...France’s highest constitutional court approved the law on Friday, leading to widespread demonstrations
French president Emmanuel Macron has signed his controversial pension reform into law, defying three months of protests and pleas from unions not to implement the legislation.
The alterations became law on Saturday, after the text was published overnight in France’s official journal. This followed the approval on Friday by France’s highest constitutional court of the essence of the legislation, including the banner change of raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Continue reading...Constitutional council’s ruling means government can pass law to increase minimum eligible age as early as next week
France’s highest constitutional court has approved Emmanuel Macron’s proposals to raise the minimum pension age from 62 to 64.
The ruling means the government can pass the French president’s unpopular plans to increase the minimum eligible pension age as early as next week, to be in force by the end of this year.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron back from Netherlands amid sustained unrest over plan to raise pension age to 64
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across France on Thursday, with trade unionists and strikers briefly storming into the Paris headquarters of the luxury goods company LVMH, in a fresh round of protests against Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plans to raise the minimum pension age from 62 to 64.
“You’re looking for money to finance pensions? Take it from the pockets of billionaires,” said the Sud Rail trade unionist Fabien Villedieu, as the LVMH headquarters filled with red smoke from flares.
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