Category Archives: France

French ‘anti-maskers’ most likely to be educated women in 50s, says study

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Results show 94% of Covid sceptics would refuse vaccine and most describe themselves as free-thinkers

French people who reject mask-wearing are more likely to be older, educated women who support the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protest movement and the controversial virus specialist Didier Raoult, and would refuse to have a coronavirus vaccination if one were available, according to a new study.

They also describe themselves as free-thinkers who believe the government is meddling too much in their lives, have a distrust of public institutions and often support conspiracy theories, it found.

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Facebook blocks livestream of assisted dying campaigner’s death

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Terminally ill French man is told his plan was blocked because it could promote self-harm

Facebook has blocked a terminally ill French campaigner for assisted dying from livestreaming his own death.

Alain Cocq, who has been suffering for 34 years from a rare and incurable degenerative disease, has stopped taking food, drink or medicine, and says he wants his death to be seen to help persuade French authorities to lift a ban on medically assisted suicide.

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Mali’s military junta open talks on transition to civilian rule

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Country’s deposed president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, flying out to UAE for medical treatment

Mali’s military junta began talks with opposition groups on Saturday on its promise to hand power back to civilians, after mounting pressure from neighbouring countries in the weeks since it overthrew the nation’s leader.

The West African country has long been plagued by instability, a simmering jihadist revolt, ethnic violence and endemic corruption, prompting a clique of rebel soldiers to detain the president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, last month.

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Ibex population thrives in French Pyrenees a century after being wiped out

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A bumper litter of kids has helped the distinctive, long-horned wild goats to prosper after being introduced from Spain

The population of ibex recently introduced to the French Pyrenees is thriving more than a century after the native species was wiped out in France.

Officials have counted 70 newborn ibex this year at the Pyrenees national park and nearby Ariege regional park in the craggy mountains that separate France and Spain.

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France launches €100bn stimulus plan to drive Covid-19 recovery – business live

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US stock market is suffering its worst day since June, as Apple and Tesla lead stock markets into the red

Earlier:

US traders can now catch their collectives breath after the choppiest trading session in several weeks.

It wasn’t as dramatic as the massive selloffs back in February and March (which still give me the shivers), but certainly a volatile day.

Related: Coronavirus live news: Robert Pattinson 'tests positive for Covid-19, halting Batman production'

Today’s losses mean the Dow is slightly negative for 2020, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index is still up 27% since January.

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Oedipus vex: French philosopher disowns son over novel

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Jean-Paul Enthoven forgave Raphaël for relationship with Carla Bruni but autobiographical novel too much

Is it possible to know anything, philosophers have pondered for centuries. In the case of two heavyweight French thinkers, the question is more: is it possible to know too much?

A respected French philosopher has publicly disowned his equally famous philosopher son, not for stealing his girlfriend, but for writing a book he claims has left him “heartbroken” and loved ones “drowning in a sea of ingratitude”.

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French PM says jobs and green economy at heart of Covid recovery plan

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Jean Castex unveils €100bn plan aimed at returning France to pre-pandemic economic strength

France’s prime minister has stressed the importance of getting the country back on its feet within 18 months and “transforming” the French economy with a green makeover as he unveiled a €100bn (£89bn) coronavirus recovery plan.

Jean Castex outlined how France would spend its way out of the crisis, rather than create “social misery” through austerity measures, with a plan that had the environment, competitiveness and employment as its three pillars.

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France’s ‘big green recovery plan’ not big enough for campaigners

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A third of €100bn post-Covid package to be used for greener future, but critics say it falls short

Billed by the economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, as a “big green recovery plan”, one-third of France’s €100bn (£90bn) post-Covid economic stimulus package will be spent, in the government’s words, on “ecological transition” and “greening the economy”.

Environmental groups said the plan, presented on Thursday by the prime minister, Jean Castex, and other cabinet members, marked a welcome first step – but criticised a missed opportunity to break decisively with a growth-driven, high-carbon economy.

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Charlie Hebdo attack: suspected accomplices go on trial in Paris

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Fourteen charged over killing of 17 people at satirical magazine and kosher supermarket

The trial of 14 suspects accused of involvement in the 2015 attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket Hyper Cacher has opened in Paris.

The hearing, expected to last 49 days and recorded live for “the historical record”, began amid high security and will relive the three days of terror in January 2015 that left 17 people dead and others injured.

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European tour tests Chinese foreign minister’s pulling power

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The reassessment of China highlighted by Wang Yi’s trip has political, economic and security implications

The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi did not exactly end his week-long European tour with his tail between his legs but he may have been chastened if he ever believed Beijing could simply win over Europe by pointing to the extremist cold war rhetoric of Europe’s natural ally America.

The five-nation tour surely marked the end of an era where China can any longer get away with simple homilies on win-win solutions, multilateralism and non-interference in another’s internal affairs. Pointing to Donald Trump is also no longer enough to win European friends.

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Coronavirus live news: Hungary shuts borders with second wave ‘knocking on door’; Greece delays school reopening

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Hungary introduces measures stricter than at height of pandemic; Greek pupils’ return delayed for a week; Spain saw 75% drop in tourists

Spain recorded 8,115 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday evening, 2,731 of them diagnosed in the previous 24 hours, according to the latest figures from the national health ministry.

The latest statistics bring the country’s total to 470,973 cases, of which 99,889 have been logged over the past fortnight. Over the past seven days, 159 people have died from the virus, bringing the death toll to 29,152.

Cuban authorities launched a strict 15-day lockdown of Havana on Tuesday in order to stamp out the low level but persistent spread of coronavirus in the capital.

Aggressive anti-virus measures, including closing down air travel, have virtually eliminated Covid-19 in Cuba with the exception of the capital, where cases have increased from a handful a day to dozens daily over the last month.

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Global report: schools across Europe reopen as Covid cases grow

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Parents and teachers fear face masks and other measures not enough to prevent second wave

Tens of millions of pupils, most wearing face masks, have headed back to class in France, Belgium, Poland and Russia, as schools across Europe cautiously reopened amid spiralling numbers of new coronavirus cases in several countries.

Parents and teachers around the continent have expressed fears that strict physical distancing and hygiene measures such as hand cleansing stations will not be able to prevent a second Covid-19 wave, maybe coinciding with the autumn flu season.

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Macron visits Lebanese singer in bid to change political soundtrack

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French leader meets Fairouz, 85, amid frustration with ruling class unwilling to change

The French president had tried it all before: rebuking his counterpart, cajoling ministers, withholding aid and imploring the Lebanese ruling class to change its ways in order to save the country.

This time Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beirut with a different approach – a visit to one of the country’s most unifying figures. His first port of call was to the home of the illustrious singer, Fairouz, whose songs of loss and lament have been a soundtrack to Lebanese life for more than 50 years.

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‘Hot, sweaty … just very unpleasant’: Parisians adjust to Covid mask law

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Face coverings now mandatory ‘in all shared and enclosed spaces’ as Covid-19 infections rise in France

It had not – really not – been a pleasant experience. Queuing for their banh mi and bibimbap, sushi or Thai salad outside the fast-food takeaways of the Rue Saint-Lazare, young office workers in central Paris spoke with one voice.

“I thought I wasn’t going to last an hour, it was so uncomfortable,” said Egé, gesturing at her blue surgical mask. “Hot, sweaty, the smell of your own breath … Just very unpleasant. But you get used to it. In any case, we have no choice.”

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Charlie Hebdo reprints cartoons of prophet ahead of terror trial

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Images depicting Muhammad on cover as alleged accomplices in 2015 attack due in court

The French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo is to republish controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to mark the start of a trial of suspected accomplices of terrorist gunmen who attacked its offices in January 2015.

The attack on the publication’s offices by brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi left 12 people dead, including several of France’s most famous cartoonists.

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Racism investigation after French magazine shows black MP as slave

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Prosecutors’ inquiry follows outcry over images of Danièle Obono in Valeurs Actuelles

French prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations of racism after a rightwing magazine published images depicting a black female MP as a slave, prompting a nationwide outcry.

The Valeurs Actuelles weekly triggered controversy after publishing images of the leftwing MP Danièle Obono with a chain fixed to an iron collar around her neck.

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Ruth Mackenzie: the British change-maker sacked by Paris’s artistic elite

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Despite fulfilling her brief to bring diversity to the Châtelet Theatre, the veteran director was brusquely dismissed. So what went wrong?

When the British arts supremo Ruth Mackenzie was named artistic director of Paris’s Châtelet theatre she thought everyone knew what they were getting.

Her pitch for the job, approved by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, after a gruelling four interview panels, was to reinvent the historic Paris venue – known as “Broadway sur Seine” after the previous director’s penchant for American musicals – as a more diverse and inclusive people’s theatre.

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France: senior military officer suspected of spying for Russia

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Defence minister confirms security breach that may have supplied sensitive documents to Kremlin

The French government is investigating a senior military officer over a “security breach”, the defence minister has said, following a report the person was suspected of spying for Russia.

“What I can confirm is that a senior officer is facing legal proceedings for a security breach,” Florence Parly said. She gave no further details.

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Marseille’s maverick Covid scientist: why the city took doctor to its heart

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Didier Raoult has touted many dubious treatments but is a hero in France’s second city, which has long railed against Paris

The people of Provence in the south of France have a word for a particularly comic or bizarrely dramatic situation: pagnolesque.

It is a tribute to one of the region’s most famous sons, the author Marcel Pagnol, who declared in his play Les Marchands de Gloire (The Glory Merchants): “In politics everything is a comedy.”

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Horses slashed and ears cut off in macabre attacks across France

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About 30 incidents have been reported in stables and equine clubs in suspected ritual mutilations

Attackers are targeting horses and ponies in pastures across France armed with knives in what may be ritual mutilations.

Police are baffled by the macabre attacks, which include slashings. Most often, an ear – usually the right one – has been cut off, recalling the matador’s trophy in a bullring.

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