The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Thursday that he would step up the deployment of soldiers to protect places of worship and schools after a knife attack in Nice in which three people were killed. Speaking from the scene, a defiant Macron said France had been attacked 'because of our values, our taste for freedom, the possibility there is here to believe freely'
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Nice attack: knife attacker kills three people at church in France – video report
France will not give in to terrorism, Emmanuel Macron has said in a call for firmness and unity after the country’s latest terrorist attack left three people dead.
On Thursday morning, a man armed with a knife killed two women and a man at the Notre-Dame Basilica in the city centre of Nice on the Côte d’Azur
Continue reading...Attacks in France put Islamist extremism back in spotlight
Many of the factors in the surge in violence of a few years ago have gone but some still remain
The “vision of horror” in Nice, as police described the scene of a fatal knife attack in a church on Thursday, is a serious challenge for Emmanuel Macron. The French president has promised a crackdown on Islamist extremism, including shutting down mosques and other organisations accused of fomenting radicalism and violence, and said France was engaged in an existential battle against radical Islamic ideologies and separatism. His hardline interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has spoken of extremists as the enemy within.
There was also a stabbing outside the French consulate in Saudi Arabia on Thursday and an incident in the French city of Avignon involving a man armed with a knife who tried to attack police. It follows the murder two weeks ago of a schoolteacher in Conflans on the outskirts of Paris after he had shown students a caricature of the prophet Muhammad, and the wounding of two people outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo.
Continue reading...France will not give in to terror after Nice attack, Macron says
President calls for firmness and unity after man with knife kills three people in church
France will not give in to terror, Emmanuel Macron has said, in a call for firmness and unity after the country’s latest terrorist attack left three people dead.
The president issued a sombre but defiant message after a man armed with a knife killed two women and a man in the Notre-Dame basilica in central Nice, the second such attack in France in less than a fortnight.
Continue reading...Nice attack: gunfire heard during police standoff outside church – video
A video captured the sound of gunfire as police responded at the scene of a deadly church attack in the French city of Nice on Thursday. A man armed with a knife has killed three people – two women and a man – during the terrorist attack inside the Notre-Dame Basilica in the city centre. Police described the scene as a 'vision of horror'. The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said the attacker had said 'Allahu Akbar' several times while he was being arrested and handcuffed by police
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Angela Merkel heckled in parliament; UK job retention scheme to end
Merkel said populists who call coronavirus harmless are dangerous; UK furlough scheme to end on Saturday; France reimposes national lockdown
- India passes 8m cases as Germany sees record infections
- EU leaders urged to aid transfer of patients between countries
- See all our coronavirus coverage
As the row over the discharge of Covid-positive patients into Scotland’s care homes during the early days of the pandemic deepens, health secretary Jeane Freeman has insisted that a new report does not diminish government accountability, writes Libby Brookes, the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.
The report – which concluded the risk of an outbreak linked to discharge of positive or untested patients was “not statistically significant” - prompted anger from opposition parties, care chiefs and unions, who argued that it failed to properly explain why dozens of patients who tested positive for coronavirus, along with thousands who went untested, were discharged from Scottish hospitals into care homes in April and May.
For relatives and families of people who have died in care homes during this pandemic, I want them to know really clearly that I am not saying that this report says there is no accountability here or that I think that report in any way offers them comfort. It’s a very technical report and it comes to a statistical conclusion but that doesn’t take away from the human impact of this virus…
Angela Merkel faced shouts and heckles in Germany’s parliament this morning as she outlined her government’s plans for a “soft” second lockdown, writes Philip Oltermann, the Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief.
From Monday, bars, restaurants, theatres, swimming pools and fitness studios will close for a month, and public gatherings be limited to two households or up to ten people. Unnecessary travel is discouraged and hotels advised not to host tourists. Schools, nurseries and shops will stay open, however.
Continue reading...Three people killed and several injured in Nice knife attack
Mayor says suspect arrested after attack near church in southern French city
A knifeman killed three people and injured several others in an attack inside a church in Nice on the Côte d’Azur.
The killings happened at 9am on Thursday morning inside the Notre-Dame basilica in the city centre. There were unconfirmed reports in the French media that at least one of the victims had been beheaded.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron orders France back into Covid-19 lockdown – video
France will go back into a nationwide lockdown starting this week to try to contain the Covid-19 pandemic that is again threatening to spiral out of control, French president Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday. The new measures he announced – which come into force on Friday – will mean people have to stay in their homes except to buy essential goods, seek medical attention or use their daily one-hour allocation of exercise.
Continue reading...Turkey threatens legal action over Charlie Hebdo’s caricature of president
French satirical newspaper depicted Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his underwear
Turkey has threatened “legal and diplomatic” action against the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo after it published a caricature of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on its latest front page.
The drawing described as “disgusting” by the Turkish leader and Ankara’s announcement that prosecutors have launched an official investigation into the publication have worsened already heightened tensions between the two countries.
Continue reading...Four Iranians who died crossing Channel were part of same family
Rasul Iran Nezhad and Shiva Mohammad Panahi drowned along with their children Anita and Armin
Four Iranian Kurds who died trying to cross the Channel in high winds were members of one family who paid smugglers thousands of euros after two failed attempts to reach Britain, the Guardian has been told.
Rasul Iran Nezhad and his wife, Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, and two of their children, Anita, nine, and Armin, six, drowned as they tried to reach Britain by boat, according to a relative of the family and the Iranian-Kurdish human rights organisation Hengaw.
Continue reading...Protests grow across Muslim world against French president Emmanuel Macron – video report
Demonstrations are growing across the Muslim world against the French president Emmanuel Macron and his perceived attacks on Islam and the prophet Muhammad.
In Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, about 40,000 people were involved in a demonstration organised by the country’s largest Islamist party, while protests took place in Pakistan, Palestine, Iran and Afghanistan.
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons of Muhammad in September, before the trial of 14 people accused of involvement in a terrorist attack against the publication’s offices in 2015 for publishing the same caricatures.
Macron has defended the publication, pledged to fight ‘Islamist separatists’ and said his country ‘would not give up cartoons’
Continue reading...France expected to impose four-week national lockdown
Emmanuel Macron reportedly planning move after record number of new Covid cases
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to impose a new four-week national lockdown to halt the spread of Covid-19, according to French media.
The announcement would follow record numbers of new cases in France that have put pressure on hospitals, and a startling rise in coronavirus deaths.
Continue reading...Anger towards Emmanuel Macron grows in Muslim world
Protests take place in several countries against French president in aftermath of crackdown
On the front page of a hardline Iranian newspaper, he was the “Demon of Paris”. In the streets of Dhaka he was decried as a leader who “worships Satan”. Outside Baghdad’s French embassy, a likeness of Emmanuel Macron was burned along with France’s flag.
Rage is growing across the Muslim world at the French president and his perceived attacks on Islam and the prophet Muhammad, leading to calls for boycotts of the French products and security warnings for France’s citizens in majority-Muslim states.
Continue reading...Muslim backlash against Macron gathers pace after police raids
Iran calls Paris’s response to teacher’s killing ‘unwise’ amid protests across Muslim world
The backlash against Emmanuel Macron following his insistence that publication of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad is fundamental to freedom of speech has spread, with angry international protests, cyber-attacks against French websites and warnings that the president’s response is “unwise”.
Muslims in France – and elsewhere – are also furious at what they claim is a heavy-handed government clampdown on their communities in the wake of the killing 11 days ago of the high school teacher Samuel Paty.
Continue reading...Global report: Merkel says Germany faces ‘difficult months ahead’ in Covid fight
Chancellor says country is on verge of losing control as Europe death toll passes 250k
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said her country is on the verge of losing control of its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, telling colleagues from her Christian Democratic Union party “the situation is threatening” and “every day counts”.
In leaked comments to an internal party meeting, she told those attending of “very, very difficult months ahead” and added that “every day [would] count” in tackling the virus’s spread.
Continue reading...Macron’s clash with Islam sends jolt through France’s long debate about secularism
President has become a hate figure in Islamic world over response to death of Samuel Paty
On 6 October, when Samuel Paty, a popular history and geography teacher at a school in a quiet Paris suburb, presented a copy of the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that provoked the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine five years ago, he self-evidently had no idea of the tragic consequence for his own life, French society or France’s relations with the Islamic world. What was intended as a classroom exploration of the freedom of thought has turned into a mini-clash of civilisations.
Ten days later, Paty was killed, allegedly by a Russian-born teenager of Chechen heritage, sending an electric shock into France’s long debate about secularism, or laïcité. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, responded by saying France would not “renounce the caricatures”.
Continue reading...France urges end to boycott of French goods as Macron defends Muhammad cartoons
Calls for boycott of French goods after president’s remarks at tribute to murdered teacher Samuel Paty
France has appealed for foreign governments to stamp out calls by what it calls a “radical minority” for a boycott of French products after Emmanuel Macron’s public backing of the Muhammad caricatures.
The appeal came as anger escalated across the Islamic world over the president’s remarks at a national tribute to the murdered high-school teacher Samuel Paty last week, with Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling on Monday for a complete boycott of French products in Turkey.
Continue reading...Australia is part of a Black region, it should recognise Kanaky ambition in New Caledonia | Hamish McDonald
Australia’s un-nuanced support for French dominion is unhelpful in a region where decolonisation is unfinished business
Kicking the can down the road is a time-honoured solution to deadlocks over statehood and identity: hoping time, consultation and money can end up in agreement.
But in New Caledonia, the French territory of 290,000 people in the Melanesian island chain to Australia’s north-east, the road is running out after more than two decades of can-kicking.
Continue reading...Turkey’s Erdoğan questions Macron’s mental state – video
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart needed mental health treatment, the latest sign of a growing backlash in the Islamic world sparked by Macron’s claim that Islam is in crisis.
Ankara has been particularly incensed by a campaign championed by Macron to protect France’s secular values against radical Islam, a debate given fresh impetus by the murder of a teacher who showed his class a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad
Continue reading...Who in Europe is getting it right on Covid?
Different approaches are having notably different outcomes
A second coronavirus wave is sweeping continental Europe, with new infection records broken daily in many countries. There are wide variations, but almost no country has been left untouched – even those that fared well in the first wave.
Across the 31 countries from which the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control collects national data, the average 14-day case incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants has multiplied from just 13 in mid-July to almost 250 last week.
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