Rail workers, air-traffic controllers, teachers and public sector staff staged walkouts and took to the streets across France to protest against proposed changes to the pension system.
The strike is the biggest in Emmanuel Macron's presidency and 90% of regional trains were cancelled on 5 December
Continue reading...Transport workers bring country to standstill amid anger over pension changes
More than 800,000 people have marched in cities across France as railway workers, teachers and hospital staff held one of the biggest public sector strikes in decades against Emmanuel Macron’s plans to overhaul the pension system.
A nationwide transport strike brought much of France to a standstill and was expected to continue for the next few days as unions dug in, saying the president’s pension changes would force millions of people to work longer or receive lower payments.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has cut short his attendance at the Nato summit in London and accused Justin Trudeau of being 'two-faced' after the Canadian leader was heard apparently mocking the president's predilection for long, impromptu press conferences at a Nato reception at Buckingham Palace. 'He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,' Trudeau could be heard saying, as other world leaders laughed. Boris Johnson, one of those present, denied they had been joking about Trump
Continue reading...Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron appear to be joking about Donald Trump at the opening of this week’s Nato summit in London along with other world leaders. In the video, Johnson asks Macron: 'Is that why you were late' before Trudeau interjects: 'He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top.'
Trump is never mentioned by name in the video, which was widely shared on social media, but the exchange could relate to the US president, who is known for his long, rambling press conferences
Continue reading...The French president has defended calling Nato 'brain dead' during the opening day of the alliance’s summit in London, after he was reproached by Donald Trump, who said the comment was 'insulting'. Macron’s original condemnation of Nato’s 'brain death' stemmed from his anger at the lack of Turkish cooperation with the rest of Nato over its decision to invade Syria
Continue reading...French president is rebuked by Trump over Nato criticism after row with Turkey about Kurds
Nato disunity was on full display on the opening day of the alliance’s summit in London as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, accused Turkey of colluding with Islamic State proxies while Donald Trump described Macron’s criticisms of Nato’s “brain death” as insulting and “very, very nasty”.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for his part threatened again to veto Nato’s defence plan for the Baltics unless Nato endorsed its own assessment that Syrian Kurdish fighters on Turkey’s borders were terrorists, a definition that Macron and the Pentagon rejected.
Continue reading...US president calls French leader’s comments ‘nasty’ and says Paris could leave alliance
Donald Trump has lashed out at Emmanuel Macron on the first morning of a two-day Nato meeting, saying the French president’s description of Nato as brain dead was insulting and a “very, very nasty statement”.
At a news conference alongside the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, the US president also accused Macron of trying to break away from Nato, as well as running a failing economy – while discarding the fact he himself has described Nato as obsolete on previous occasions.
Continue reading...French president says comments ‘a necessary wake-up call’ and criticises Turkey
Emmanuel Macron has said his claim this month that Nato was “brain-dead” was a necessary wake-up call before a summit in London next week at which he will urge members of the alliance to take a greater interest in its southern flank, including the fight against terrorism in the Sahel.
The French president defended his comments in Paris alongside the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who had previously warned Macron not to expect that a European defence formation could replace the Nato transatlantic structure.
Continue reading...Police forces fire teargas and water cannon against protesters in French capital
The gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement marked a year of weekend demonstrations with protests across France. In Paris, groups of black-clad youths caused damages at a central square, smashing bus shelters, a bank and torching vehicles.
Police responded by firing teargas and using water cannon against the protesters, only a few of whom were wearing the yellow vests affiliated with the movement. French media blamed “ultra radical” black bloc protesters for the violence.
Continue reading...French president says in interview that Europe is in danger of disappearing geopolitically
Emmanuel Macron has said Nato is in the throes of “brain death” and European countries can no longer rely on the US to defend its allies, drawing criticism from both the US and Germany.
“What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of Nato,” the French president told the Economist in an interview. “You have no coordination whatsoever of strategic decision-making between the United States and its Nato allies. None. You have an uncoordinated aggressive action by another Nato ally, Turkey, in an area where our interests are at stake.”
Continue reading...French police officers have begun clearing more than 1,000 migrants and refugees from a makeshift camp in northern Paris, where they had been sleeping rough in squalid conditions for months. The move comes after the country’s centrist government set out Emmanuel Macron’s tougher stance on immigration this week and vowed to clear the camps
Continue reading...More than 1,000 people have been sleeping rough for months in squalid conditions
Hundreds of French police have begun clearing more than 1,000 migrants and refugees from a makeshift camp in northern Paris, where they had been sleeping rough for months in squalid conditions.
Police arrived at the site near Porte de La Chapelle before 6am local time (0500 GMT) on Thursday, after the country’s centrist government set out Emmanuel Macron’s tougher stance on immigration this week and vowed to clear the camps.
Continue reading...In exclusive interview, leftwinger Albin Kurti condemns the bloc’s refusal to halt Balkan enlargement
The leftwinger set to become Kosovo’s surprise new prime minister has condemned the EU’s decision to halt further Balkans enlargement, saying it showed western leaders had forgotten the lessons of two world wars and instead were in retreat in the face of fascism and populism.
Albin Kurti said the stance could damage the chances of Kovoso reaching a deal with Serbia, which has refused to recognise it as independent since the end of the 1998-99 war, as Belgrade has less incentive to act without the prospect of EU membership.
Continue reading...Prime minister has said he is ‘very confident’ deal will be approved in historic Commons vote on Saturday
The Labour MP Sarah Champion says she will vote for Boris Johnson’s deal, BuzzFeed’s Alex Wickham reports (assuming MPs get the chance to vote on the deal tomorrow).
NEW: Another Labour MP switcher
Sarah Champion signals she will vote FOR the deal in an email to a constituent this afternoonhttps://t.co/LXj8LW5nu4 pic.twitter.com/foKgazJ03p
Sir Oliver Letwin has released a note to journalists explaining what his amendment will do. (See 4.05pm.) Here it is.
I am writing this as somebody that voted three times for Theresa May’s deal, who has guaranteed publicly to vote for any deal that provides for an orderly exit, and who will vote for Boris’s excellent deal at all stages through to third reading of the implementing legislation, without any changes whatsoever.
The one issue that concerns me is to keep the Benn Act extension in place as an insurance policy until the implementing legislation is passed by both Houses of Parliament and the UK’s withdrawal Is ratified.
Continue reading...French president’s insistence that UK should give way raises chances of talks imploding
The French president has given Boris Johnson until the end of the week to fundamentally revise his Brexit plan, in a move that increases the chances of the negotiations imploding within days.
The UK proposals tabled last week are not regarded in Brussels as being a basis for a deal and Emmanuel Macron emphasised it was up to the UK to think again before an upcoming EU summit.
Continue reading...Iranian president tells cabinet the country had been ready to accept terms of French UN plan
The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has told his cabinet that while the country had been ready to end its nuclear stand-off with the US broadly on terms set out by France at the United Nations, Donald Trump was not prepared to make public an apparent private offer to lift sanctions.
Although his account is inherently not impartial, it is the fullest version of behind-the-scenes diplomacy at the UN general assembly provided by the Iranians.
Continue reading...The Observer’s report on the French capital hit a nerve in the press and on social media – especially as an election looms
In Paris, the municipal election campaign has well and truly begun. If anyone still doubted it, they just had to note the reactions to the Observer’s article last weekend on the dirtiness of the French capital. Under a headline condemning Paris as “the dirty man of Europe”, Kim Willsher wrote how, despite the efforts of the city’s authorities to improve the cleanliness of streets, this is an issue that is causing considerable concern to Parisians. She quoted an American professor who has lived in the city for the best part of 30 years as saying that Paris was “filthy everywhere”. And even if the piece reminded us of the large amount city hall spends on cleaning the city – around €500m (£445m) a year – and noted its “grand schemes” to combat air pollution, it certainly touched a nerve.
Paris was no worse than any other major city, insisted some angry readers on social media. Le Parisien described it as a “vitriolic article”. The mayor, Anne Hidalgo, had to go on French radio to defend her record and said the same sort of article had been written about Rome and London. She couldn’t put a rubbish collector behind every Parisian, she declared.
Continue reading...Bill is Emmanuel Macron’s biggest social reform since he was elected in 2017
France has taken a step towards allowing lesbian and single women to conceive children with medical help, setting the stage for a clash with the country’s religious conservatives.
To loud applause, France’s lower house of parliament approved a draft bioethics law in a move that has already sparked outrage from opponents, including some in President Emmanuel Macron’s own centrist party.
Continue reading...EU warns it may have no choice if Iran takes further steps away from deal
The European Union has privately warned Iran that it will be forced to start withdrawing from the nuclear deal in November if Tehran goes ahead with its threat to take new steps away from the deal.
Iran has already taken three separate calibrated steps away from the deal, and has warned it will take a fourth in November unless the US lifts economic sanctions.
Continue reading...French president’s visit to hotline was supposed to showcase crackdown on domestic violence
It was supposed to be a showcase of the French government’s new crackdown on domestic violence.
But instead, when the French president, Emmanuel Macron, visited the national domestic violence hotline and listened in to the morning’s calls, he heard in real time how a local police officer was refusing to help a woman in danger.
Continue reading...