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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.”
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Group of mainly French and Vietnamese nationals accused of organising migrants’ journey from Asia
Thirteen suspects arrested by French police over the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people found in a refrigerated lorry in Essex have been charged with people trafficking and manslaughter, a judicial source has said.
Six of the group – mainly Vietnamese and French nationals – were taken into custody on Tuesday in the Paris region, while the alleged key figure in the ring of smugglers was caught in Germany.
Continue reading...Campaign groups warn women across Europe risk being pushed back into traditional roles
Life during the coronavirus lockdown has reinforced gender inequality across Europe with research emphasising that the economic and social consequences of the crisis are far greater for women and threaten to push them back into traditional roles in the home which they will struggle to shake off once it is over.
Throughout the continent, campaign groups are warning that the burdens of the home office and home schooling together with additional household duties and extra cooking, has been unequally carried by women and that improvements made in their lives by the growth in equality over the past decades are in danger of being rolled back by the health crisis.
Continue reading...Country reverses easing plans; Philippines residents to enjoy free movement as daily infections pass 500; Mumbai’s hospital close to collapse
South Korea has postponed the planned reopening of more than 800 schools as it battles a renewed outbreak of the coronavirus, with cases now at their highest level for almost two months.
The country’s easing of lockdown measures has gone into reverse, with museums, parks and art galleries closed again on Friday for two weeks. Kindergarten pupils, and some primary and secondary school students were due back from Wednesday, in the last phase of school reopenings.
Continue reading...Patrick and Isabelle Balkany, Paris suburb’s mayor and deputy, hid €13m from tax authorities
A rightwing power couple who have run a rich Paris suburb for almost 40 years and who are close friends of the former president Nicolas Sarkozy have been given prison sentences for money laundering.
Patrick Balkany, the mayor of Levallois-Perret, and his wife, Isabelle, were convicted of hiding at least €13m from tax authorities via a complex network of offshore companies between 2007 and 2014.
Continue reading...France, Italy and Belgium respond to safety fears around drug; UN issues food insecurity warning for Africa; mosques reopen in Syria
France, Italy and Belgium have all taken steps against the use of hydroxychloroquine in treating patients with Covid-19 as safety concerns over the drug, touted by Donald Trump and Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, continue to grow.
Paris on Wednesday revoked a decree allowing doctors to use the drug with severely ill coronavirus patients, while the Italian and Belgian medicine agencies either suspended or warned against its use except in clinical trials.
Continue reading...Embroidered serviette used during coronation also went for several times its estimate
A travel bag belonging to Marie Antoinette has sold for more than five times its estimate in an auction of royal memorabilia near her one-time home in Versailles.
A large embroidered serviette used during the coronation of the Austrian-born monarch – who was executed during the French Revolution – also went for several times its estimate.
Continue reading...Xavier Niel, co-owner of Le Monde, says he worked for French security services in 1980s
A French billionaire has said he spied on a former president and on the car giant Renault for the country’s security agency.
Xavier Niel, a co-owner of Le Monde newspaper, claimed that as a teenager in the 1980s he worked for the state internal security services when they were interested in hacking, which was then a relatively new technique.
Continue reading...Property magnate Charles Cohen’s €8m renovation of La Pagode branded a ‘massacre’
When the property magnate Charles Cohen bought the La Pagode cinema in Paris, complete with its celebrated Japanese garden, three years ago, he announced that as an American in Paris he wanted “everyone to be happy”.
The cinema-loving Francophile promised to “restore and preserve” the magnificent listed building and pledged he would “not disappoint” with his €8m facelift.
Continue reading...Cybersecurity is ‘alpha and omega’ of global security, says DGSE director, in callout to young people ‘connected to technology’
The French secret service wants to recruit geeks rather than budding young James Bonds as it adapts to new demands in the post-coronavirus world, its technical director has said.
In rare public comments, Patrick Pailloux said there was a danger that many young tech-savvy French people did not consider themselves suitable for the stereotypes of France’s directorate-general for external security (DGSE).
Continue reading...Thomas le Bonniec says firm violating rights and continues massive collection of data
A former Apple contractor who helped blow the whistle on the company’s programme to listen to users’ Siri recordings has decided to go public, in protest at the lack of action taken as a result of the disclosures.
In a letter announcing his decision, sent to all European data protection regulators, Thomas le Bonniec said: “It is worrying that Apple (and undoubtedly not just Apple) keeps ignoring and violating fundamental rights and continues their massive collection of data.
Continue reading...Figures released on eve of International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia show 36% leap in offences
Homophobic attacks and insults in France rose by 36% last year, according to figures released by the interior ministry, prompting the government to talk of an “anchoring” of homophobia in the country.
The figures released on Saturday show a steady increase in offences and come on the eve of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, and 30 years after the withdrawal of homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses by the World Health Organization.
Continue reading...Officers find African country’s most-wanted man living under false identity in Paris
French police have ended a decades-long hunt for a fugitive accused of playing a key role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, arresting 84-year-old Félicien Kabuga during a dawn raid near Paris.
Kabuga, who is accused of financing the killings and frequently listed as one of the world’s most wanted men, was living under a false identity in the French capital’s suburbs, local police and prosecutors said in a statement on Saturday.
Continue reading...Nine-year-old from Marseille had Covid-19 but no symptoms before dying in hospital
A nine-year-old boy from Marseille is reported to have died of Kawasaki disease, the mysterious inflammatory syndrome linked to coronavirus.
The boy is the first victim of the disease in France and only the second in Europe after a teenager died of the syndrome in London last week.
Continue reading...Fariba Adelkhah to appeal against sentence on national security charges
Iran has sentenced the French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah to six years in prison on national security charges, her lawyer said.
“The court has sentenced her to six years. We have appealed and if accepted, the sentence will drop to five years,” Adelkhah’s lawyer, Saeid Dehghan, told Reuters on Saturday.
Continue reading...Downing Street rolls back on idea of exempting people from France from 14-day isolation
Downing Street has rolled back on the idea of exempting travellers from France from incoming quarantine rules, with only freight drivers and experts working on anti-Covid-19 efforts being able to avoid the 14-day isolation period.
Boris Johnson used his TV address last Sunday to announce that quarantine restrictions would soon be imposed on people entering the UK, but only mentioned those arriving by air. It later became clear that the rules would also apply to arrivals by road, rail and sea.
Continue reading...Restaurants reopen in parts of Germany, while Italy relaxes travel restrictions
Europe took a step towards post-virus normality on Friday when restaurants in Germany and Austria reopened for the first time in two months, and other countries loosened travel restrictions and threw open borders.
Berlin’s restaurants, cafes and snack kiosks were allowed to serve customers again, so long as they obeyed social distancing. People from two separate households could share a table, but had to keep a distance of 1.5m from each other.
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