Category Archives: France

French Olympic hopeful climber Luce Douady, 16, dies after cliff fall

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  • Douady seen as one of the sport’s brightest young talents
  • French climbing federation expresses ‘immense sadness’

Teenage French climbing prodigy Luce Douady was killed on Sunday when she fell on a footpath in a climbing area in the French Alps, the French Mountain Climbing Federation (FFME) and its club in Chambery said.

The 16-year-old reigning world junior champion fell 150m as she and a group of friends were crossing a tricky path equipped with a handrail between two climbing areas.

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Germany and France reopen borders as Europe emerges from lockdown

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Spain to reopen borders on 21 June but other countries are adopting more targeted approach

France and Germany became the latest European countries to reopen their borders as the continent emerges from its three-month Covid-19 lockdown.

Speaking on Sunday evening, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said the country’s Schengen borders would be open from Monday and its non-EU borders from 1 July.

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Cafe society spills on to Paris cobbles as drivers bid to reclaim post-lockdown streets

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With streets pedestrianised and the mayor turning parking spaces into cycle lanes, motorists fear being squeezed out of public spaces

It is evening rush hour and the Rue de Rivoli, a major east-west road through central Paris, is heaving. Pre-coronavirus, it would have been one long traffic jam, paralysed by increasingly frustrated and angry motorists. Now, though, with private cars banned, it is busy with pedestrians, cyclists and a smattering of taxis and buses.

North of Rue de Rivoli, in the Marais, a maze of narrow cobbled streets, cafes, restaurants and bars have spread out across pavements and parking places.

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Riot police fire teargas on anti-racism protesters in Paris

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Peaceful protest erupts into skirmishes as anger at death of George Floyd resonates in France

Riot police fired teargas to prevent thousands of anti-racism protesters marching through central Paris on Saturday, as a wave of anger continued to sweep the world following the death of African-American George Floyd.

The protesters gathered in Place de la Republique, where the crowd chanted “No justice, no peace” and some climbed the statue of Marianne, who personifies the French Republic. Police refused organisers permission to proceed to the Opera House.

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Militant crackdown in Sahel leads to hundreds of civilian deaths – report

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Amnesty records 200 state killings and forced disappearances in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, state members of internationally-backed G5 group

Hundreds of civilians have been killed by their own governments in Africa’s Sahel region since countries pledged a surge against militant groups at a regional meeting held by France in January.

Amnesty International said on Wednesday that it had documented 200 cases of unlawful state killings and forced disappearances in February and March in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which are members of the internationally backed G5 force set up to fight militants in the Sahel.

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Global report: EU nations continue steady exits from lockdown

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Infections keep falling in EU but reports suggest Russian death toll much higher than official figures

France is to lift its state of emergency on 10 July, Denmark said opening its bars, restaurants and malls had not led to a rise in infections, and Austria will reopen its border with Italy next week as EU nations pursue their steady exits from lockdown.

However, Germany extended its coronavirus travel warnings for more than 160 countries outside Europe until the end of August and reports suggested that Moscow’s death toll may be twice as high as Russia’s official figures.

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‘Call it out!’: global voices from George Floyd protests – video

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Floyd’s death in Minneapolis has been the trigger for a global wave of activism against prejudice and police brutality that has spread to more than 50 countries, becoming a mirror for racism and inequality in societies around the world. In Australia and Papua people protested for indigenous rights, as people took up the cry against injustices in New Zealand, Ghana, France, Germany and the UK

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Catherine Deneuve was Johnny Hallyday’s secret love, book claims

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Revelation that celebrated actor was late rocker’s ‘Lady L’ takes France by surprise

More than two years after his death, the French rocker Johnny Hallyday is still causing sparks between the women in his life.

The late star, a notorious womaniser, is at the centre of a love-triangle spat over claims the actor Catherine Deneuve was his lifelong soulmate and a factor in his split with his first wife, the singer Sylvie Vartan.

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France bans chokehold arrest as anger mounts over police brutality

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Interior minister says method will no longer be taught after outcry over George Floyd’s death in US puts focus back on police racism

France will ban the controversial chokehold used to detain suspects after the death in custody of George Floyd in the US intensified anger at the conduct of French police.

Floyd’s fatal arrest magnified attention on the 2016 death in French police custody of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man, and renewed controversy over claims of racism and brutality within the force.

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Anne Hidalgo likely to be reelected as Paris mayor after forging green alliance

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Opinion poll puts Socialist at 44% of intentions to vote, well ahead of her closest rival

The mayor of Paris has opened up a strong lead in her bid to be reelected after forging an alliance with the city’s ecologists.

An opinion poll put the Socialist Anne Hidalgo at 44% of intentions to vote, well ahead of her closest rival, the centre-right candidate Rachida Dati, a former justice minister under Nicolas Sarkozy. 

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French health ban keeps Allied D-day veterans away

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Normandy locals mourn the absence of the Allied soldiers forced to stay at home for the first time in 76 years

In Ranville cemetery, a lone piper playing Amazing Grace walked solemnly between the graves as the early morning sun reflected off the rows of white headstones.

Every 6 June for the last 75 years, the soldiers who made it off the Normandy beaches in 1944 have returned to remember comrades who did not. Every year, the pilgrimage became a different kind of battle but still they came, in fewer numbers but just as determined to overcome the odds as they were when they landed to liberate France.

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Europe’s big two kiss and make up for pandemic rescue deal

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Germany amazed the whole continent with last week’s stimulus package, but it paves the way for countries such as France to agree an effective coronavirus response

From champion of austerity to Europe’s biggest spender – Germany has travelled a long way in just a few months. The notoriously frugal ministry of finance has agreed to spend €130bn – a sum equal to 4% of national income – on more than 50 initiatives to promote growth across the country.

This breathtaking investment programme comes on top of the almost 30% of GDP the government has so far spent on rescuing businesses and protecting jobs during the coronavirus crisis.

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Merkel among winners as Europeans give verdict on anti-Covid battles

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Satisfaction levels across the continent have risen and fallen, but nowhere have they plunged as for Boris Johnson’s government

All across the continent, most Europeans now trust their leaders generally, and how they have handled the coronavirus pandemic in particular, a little less than when the crisis began – but nowhere has public confidence fallen as far and as fast as in the UK.

Even leaders seen as having managed Covid-19 the most successfully, such as Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel and Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen, have suffered slight dips in popular satisfaction as the weeks have worn on.

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French forces kill al-Qaida’s north Africa chief in Mali

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Abdelmalek Droukdel was one of the Maghreb’s most experienced Islamist militants

French forces in northern Mali have killed al-Qaida’s north Africa (AQMI) chief, a key Islamist fighter whom its forces had been hunting for more than seven years.

“On 3 June, French army forces with the support of their local partners, killed al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s emir, Abdelmalek Droukdel, and several of his closest collaborators, during an operation in northern Mali,” the French armed forces minister, Florence Parly, wrote on Twitter on Friday.

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Cafe culture returns to France after lockdown – in pictures

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In Paris, contented customers sit outside cafes and sip their morning espressos for the first time in 11 weeks. There are, however, strict rules: bars and restaurants have permission to sprawl across pavements but tables must be 1m apart. In the rest of France, customers can now be served inside while maintaining the same distance

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Global report: Germany eases travel ban and cafe culture returns to Paris

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Elsewhere, Italy’s president warns Covid-19 ‘is not over’, and former UK PMs join calls for a coordinated global response

Germany lifted its blanket European travel ban as coronavirus lockdowns across the EU continued to ease, with officials saying new cases in western Europe were now in steady decline.

Parisians reclaimed their cafe terraces and Berliners took back their bars as normal life inched closer to returning in many parts of the continent.

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UK fisheries accuse EU of using ‘nuclear option’ in Brexit talks

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Head of trade body warns of French blockades if deal over fishing rights is not agreed

The UK’s fishing industry has accused the EU of using a “nuclear option” to secure a Brexit deal, warning that it is prepared for blockades by the French if trade talks collapse.

Fishing leaders have also revealed they do not support an extension to the transition period despite being hit badly by the coronavirus pandemic, with the closure of restaurants and hotels affecting sales.

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Ryanair staff in France accuse airline of ‘redundancy blackmail’

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Budget carrier is imposing 20% pay cuts for flight crew and 10% for cabin staff

French flight crew have accused Ryanair of blackmailing them into taking pay cuts or losing their jobs.

The Irish airline, which has warned it may cut up to 3,000 jobs in Europe, told staff in France it was imposing 20% salary cuts for flight crew and 10% for attendants. Those who are already on legal minimum wages will have their hours reduced.

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‘We can’t relax’: Europeans face up to life after lockdown

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From Spain to Denmark, even those who have coped with coronavirus are aware the world has changed dramatically

Her customers may be back and there are, miraculously, more of them. Spring is here; the sun is out. No one wants to dwell on what happened; everyone wants to pick up their lives again, same as before.

“But still,” says Sophie Fornairon, “things have changed.”

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Global report: fears of coronavirus surge from US protests as world cases hit 6m

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The pope warns that people are more important than economies as countries ease lockdowns

Global coronavirus infections have passed the 6 million mark as Latin America hit the grim milestone of 50,000 deaths with Brazil alone accounting for half of those fatalities.

With at least 369,000 deaths confirmed worldwide since the pandemic began in China in January – and that number believed to be an underestimate – Brazil’s virus death toll of 28,834 has now surpassed that of France with the country reporting 33,274 new infections in the past 24 hours.

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