Category Archives: France

Macron thinks he can handle Trump, but G7 will put that to the test

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Trump’s mood is volatile, and the French leader’s approach has had only limited success

Emmanuel Macron reckons he has found the best way of dealing with Donald Trump. It involves acceptance that the US president’s mind will not be changed where a campaign promise is involved. But on everything else – keep talking.

Macron’s method is about to be put to the test once more as Trump arrives on Saturday to join the G7 summit of the world’s major industrialised democracies in Biarritz. So far, the results have been thin at best.

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Macron tells Johnson Brexit backstop is indispensable

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French president tells Boris Johnson he must present concrete proposals for UK exit

Emmanuel Macron has described the Irish backstop as “indispensable” to a Brexit deal and urged Boris Johnson to set out his proposed alternatives as soon as possible, as he met the British prime minister in Paris.

The French president told Johnson on Thursday that the EU would like “visibility” on London’s concrete proposals for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU within a month, echoing language used by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Wednesday.

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Johnson and Macron to hold ‘frank’ Brexit talks in Paris

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French observers fear Britain’s PM is setting up France to take blame over no-deal departure

Emmanuel Macron will hold a friendly but “frank” working lunch with Boris Johnson on Thursday after dismissing his request to renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal agreement and scrap the Irish backstop as “not an option”.

The French president told reporters on Wednesday night that there was a “British democratic crisis” over Brexit and he was seeking “clarification” from Johnson on his proposals as the 31 October exit date approaches.

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French musician killed by bear in Canada

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Julien Gauthier, 44, was on an expedition recording sounds of nature for his music

A French artist who used sounds of nature in his music has been killed by a bear in Canada.

Friends said Julien Gauthier, 44, was the victim of an attack after a bear entered a camp near the village of Tulita, in the Northwest Territories, in the early hours of Thursday last week. The police have not yet publicly identified the victim.

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French tourists face six years in jail over claims they stole Sardinia sand

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Couple in hot water as Italian authorities get tough on issue blighting island for years

A pair of French tourists could face up to six years in jail after allegedly stealing 40kg (6st 3lbs) of sand from one of Sardinia’s pristine beaches.

Border police found the white sand, taken from Chia beach in the south of the Italian island, stashed into 14 large plastic bottles in the boot of the couple’s car. The pair were about to board a ferry for Toulon, in southern France, from Porto Torres.

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French waiter shot dead for being ‘too slow with sandwich’, say witnesses

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Police open murder inquiry after customer attacked waiter at a pizzeria on the outskirts of Paris

A customer fatally shot a waiter at a pizzeria on the outskirts of Paris, apparently enraged at being made to wait for a sandwich, according to witnesses.

The waiter’s colleagues called police after he was shot in the shoulder with a handgun in the Noisy-le-Grand suburb, 15km east of Paris’s city centre on Friday night.

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Notre Dame cathedral sealed off for huge lead decontamination operation

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Area around site sealed off for 10 days to remove hazardous dust that has settled since fire in April

Clean-up workers have begun a huge “decontamination” operation around Notre Dame Cathedral after a health scare over lead particles from the fire.

It is the second attempt to remove hazardous dust spread across a swath of central Paris that settled on homes, schools and on the ground after the blaze in April that destroyed the cathedral’s roof and spire.

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World’s largest urban farm to open – on a Paris rooftop

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The 14,000m² farm is set to open in the south-west of Paris early next year

It’s a warm afternoon in late spring and before us rows of strawberry plants rustle in the breeze as the scent of fragrant herbs wafts across the air. Nearby, a bee buzzes lazily past. Contrary to appearances, however, we are not in an idyllic corner of the countryside but standing on the top of a six-storey building in the heart of the French capital.

Welcome to the future of farming in Paris – where a whole host of rooftop plantations, such as this one on the edge of the Marais, have been springing up of late. Yet this thriving operation is just a drop in the ocean compared to its new sister site. When that one opens, in the spring of 2020, it will be the largest rooftop farm in the world.

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Man killed while riding e-scooter on French motorway

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Rider was reportedly in the fast lane when he was hit from behind by a motorbike

A 30-year-old man has been killed after being hit by a motorbike while riding his e-scooter on a French motorway.

It is the third death linked to the increasingly popular mode of transport in the Paris region in four months, and has sparked further safety concerns and renewed calls for their regulation.

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Ex-French spy chief admits 1980s pact with Palestinian terrorists

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Families of victims of 1982 Paris attack demand parliamentary inquiry over claims

Families of the victims of a 1982 terrorist attack in Paris are demanding a parliamentary inquiry after reports that the former chief of French intelligence made a secret pact with the perpetrators.

They have called on President Emmanuel Macron to declassify the top-secret file of the attack, which killed six and injured 22 others.

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Notre Dame fire: lead decontamination of schools begins

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Work to protect children from risks of poisoning to be completed before schools open

Workers have started decontaminating schools in Paris that were found to have unsafe levels of lead following the blaze at the Notre Dame Cathedral, as part of efforts to protect children from risks of poisoning.

Related: Notre Dame fire: activists launch lawsuit over 'toxic fallout'

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The women fighting back in Kenya’s biggest slum – podcast

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Edita Ochieng and like-minded women are taking a stand against endemic sexual violence and police corruption in Kibera. Plus: Angelique Chrisafis on why climate protesters in France are stealing portraits of Emmanuel Macron. Warning: this podcast contains references to sexual abuse

Edita Ochieng, like many women in Kibera, has been a victim of sexual violence. But with police corruption rife, she has banded together with several other women to bring perpetrators to justice as well as providing advice and counselling.

The Guardian’s Tracy McVeigh and Rod Austin spent time in Kenya’s largest slum with Ochieng and describe her extraordinary story to India Rakusen.

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Taking Macron down: climate protesters strip French town halls of portraits

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More than 100 portraits of president removed in symbolic civil disobedience movement

It was a quiet Monday afternoon in the picturesque town hall of Lingolsheim, outside Strasbourg. The school summer holidays had started and it was exceptionally hot. But at 4pm something extraordinary happened.

Eleven people calmly walked in, politely greeted the receptionists, then headed to the room usually reserved for council meetings. They carefully unhooked the picture of the French president, Emmanuel Macron – the type of portrait that hangs in all local administration buildings – gently placing it in a special protective pouch, and then walked out.

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I followed the advice for Paris’s hottest day – it didn’t help | Megan Clement

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From walking the dog at midnight to a dip in the canal, I tested the heatwave plan as the city reached 42.6C. Here’s how it went

Last week, as Paris faced down its hottest day since records began, the city authorities declared their readiness. Since the notorious heatwave of 2003 that killed thousands across France, the capital has put in place a heat strategy: cooling areas, a checking system for vulnerable people, shady parks kept open all night.

Could these strategies actually work against a predicted record temperature of 42C (107.6F)? A study released this week shows that the world has never warmed faster than now. By 2050, the average temperature in the hottest month in Paris will rise by six degrees. This heatwave might be the new normal.

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UK calls meeting with US and France to discuss Hormuz plan

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Aim is to create international mission to safeguard shipping through strait near Iran

The UK has invited military representatives of the US, France and other European countries to a meeting in Bahrain on Wednesday in an attempt to create an international mission to safeguard shipping through the strait of Hormuz.

Britain hopes it can act as bridge between the US – which has the largest military presence of a western nation in the region – and countries such as Germany, which is reluctant to getting involved in any mission led by Washington.

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All-time temperature records tumble again as heatwave sears Europe

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Highs in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium exceeded for second time in 24 hours

Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium have recorded all-time national temperature highs for the second day running and Paris has had its hottest day ever as the second dangerous heatwave of the summer sears western Europe.

The extreme temperatures follow a similar heatwave last month that made it the hottest June on record. Scientists say the climate crisis is making summer heatwaves five times more likely and significantly more intense.

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