Defence ministry denies supplying weapons in breach of UN arms embargo
France has said some of its missiles were found at a Libyan base used by forces loyal to the military strongman Khalifa Haftar – an embarrassing admission that raises new questions about its role in the conflict.
Confirming a report in the New York Times, the French defence ministry said it had purchased the US-made Javelin missiles that were subsequently discovered at a camp south of Tripoli.
Continue reading...Princess Hassa accused of getting bodyguard to beat man for taking photo in Paris home
The sister of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is going on trial in absentia in Paris accused of conspiring to kidnap and beat a worker who was refurbishing her luxury apartment in Paris.
Hassa bint Salman’s French lawyer said she denied the charges of complicity in armed violence, complicity in holding someone against their will and theft against an Egyptian-born man who was carrying out repairs at her family’s Paris residence on the exclusive Avenue Foch in September 2016.
Continue reading...Vincent Lambert has been at the centre of a bitter case after becoming severely brain-damaged after car accident
The father of Vincent Lambert, a severely brain-damaged patient at the heart of a bitter right-to-die case, has denounced his son’s “murder” after a French hospital began removing him from life support.
“It’s murder in disguise, it’s euthanasia,” 90-year-old Pierre Lambert told journalists at Sebastopol hospital in the north-eastern city of Reims on Sunday, where his son has been in a vegetative state since a car accident in 2008.
Continue reading...After much derision, magazine says 5ft 5in ex-president was on step above wife, Carla Bruni
As soon as this week’s cover of Paris Match magazine featuring Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni was released, the questions began: how was the diminutive former French president seemingly taller than his towering wife?
The front-page photoshoot might have sparked speculation the 64-year-old rightwinger was thinking of a political comeback, coming hot on the heels of his new book called Passions, which has become a summer bestseller.
Continue reading...Exhibition of archive photographs shows how strip of land around Paris, established in 1844 as a defence initiative, became home to 40,000 people
The Zone at the Gates of Paris is on display at Croisière, at the Rencontres d’Arles, until 22 September
All images courtesy Galerie Lumière des Roses
Money will go towards paying Carola Rackete’s legal fees if charges are brought
Two online campaigns to help the German captain of a rescue ship under house arrest in Italy have between them raised more than €1m.
Carola Rackete’s arrest on Saturday, after she forced her way into port in Lampedusa carrying migrants and refugees she had rescued off Libya, prompted a fundraising appeal by two prominent German TV stars that by Tuesday morning had raised €917,195 from more than 33,000 donors.
Continue reading...Focus is on averting further breaches and UK says it remains committed to 2015 deal
European leaders have resisted calls to start reimposing sanctions on Iran after the country said it had for the first time broken the terms of the nuclear deal it signed with foreign powers in 2015.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Monday it had allowed its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to exceed 300kg. The move is a carefully calibrated and reversible step intended to put pressure on Europe to do more to help mitigate the effect of crippling US sanctions.
Continue reading...The south of France is like August in Death Valley, officials say, but lessons have been learnt from the deadly summer of 2003
“Where shall we put it?” asked Luc Gomel, the director of Montpellier zoo. “Right on the front gate, to make sure the joggers see it,” came the reply from the reception desk. “They always complain if bits of the park are shut.”
Gomel, sweat patches already blotting his armpits in the early morning heat, pinned the red notice to the gatepost. It warned that, because Montpellier was both on red alert for a heatwave and rated as a “severe” wildfire risk, special measures had been put in place at the zoo.
Continue reading...Abuse on social networks pushes MP to draw up law that could be copied across Europe
France’s tough new law against online hatred aims to wipe out racist and homophobic trolling on social networks and could be replicated across Europe, according to the politician spearheading it as she faces daily racist abuse on Twitter.
Laetitia Avia, a business lawyer who grew up in the low-income Paris banlieue suburbs where discrimination is rife, was hailed as a symbol of French diversity when she entered parliament for Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party in 2017.
Continue reading...• Coach Jill Ellis is unconcerned at Rapinoe speaking out
• France’s Corrine Diacre will not quit after 2-1 defeat
Megan Rapinoe showed no sign of stemming her outspoken ways after scoring the goals that saw USA march one step closer towards the World Cup final.
“Go gays!” she said after the 2-1 quarter-final victory over France in Paris and when asked to comment on whether it being Pride month made her contribution more personally significant. “You can’t win a championship without gays on your team - it’s never been done before, ever. That’s science, right there!
Continue reading...It was fitting that the social justice activist Megan Rapinoe, the focus of unwanted presidential attentions before the game for her “I’m not going to the fucking White House” comment, was the player to power the USA into a semi-final with England, her two goals emphatically ending France’s hopes of a men’s and women’s World Cup double.
“Le Grand Match” was a slightly more measured billing from Fifa than Rapinoe’s hopes of a “total shit-show circus” but either way this meeting between the holders and the hosts did not disappoint. Rapinoe is more than a mouthpiece, she is, in the words of her teammate Kelley O’Hara, “a baller”. No player has been directly involved in more goals in the World Cup than Rapinoe since she made her debut in the competition in 2011 and, although Wendie Renard’s header launched a spirited late fightback, Les Bleues were not able to find the equaliser in an end-to-end spectacle.
Continue reading...Amélie de Montchalin says EU 27 countries are not putting pressure on Britain over Brexit
France’s minister for European affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, has said it is up to the UK to decide the next step on Brexit and no single European Union country was pressuring London, least of all France.
Asked to respond to a report that Boris Johnson, the Conservative leadership favourite, had called the French “turds” over Brexit, De Montchalin declined to comment, saying she was unfamiliar with the word.
Continue reading...Record for mainland France falls in southern commune of Gallargues-le-Montueux as Europe swelters in heatwave
France recorded temperatures nearly two degrees higher than its previous record and firefighters continued to battle historic wildfires in Spain as much of western Europe remained in the grip of an extreme early-summer heatwave on Friday.
The French state weather forecaster, Météo-France, said the temperature in Gallargues-le-Montueux in the Gard département hit 45.9C at 4.20pm on Friday.
Continue reading...A group of Muslim women and other activists in France have protested against a local ban on the burkini by going into a public pool wearing the full-body swimwear. The women went to the pools twice at the initiative of the Alliance Citoyenne rights group
Continue reading...Country may be waiting on outcome of talks setting out plans to kickstart trade with EU
Iran has held back on its threat to make its first breach of the nuclear deal and may be waiting for the outcome of talks with EU powers, China and Russia in Vienna.
At the talks on Friday the EU countries will set out plans to kickstart trade between Tehran and the bloc, one of the Iranian preconditions for sticking with the deal.
Continue reading...Germany imposes speed limits on highways while schools in France remain closed
European cities are taking exceptional steps to limit the impact of a historic early summer heatwave as temperatures across the continent approached monthly and, in some places, all-time records.
Authorities have warned that temperatures could pass 40C and reach 45C in parts of the continent by Saturday as a plume of hot air moves north from the Sahara, sucked northwards by a stalled storm over the Atlantic and high pressure in central Europe.
Continue reading...Temperatures could hit 40C from Spain to Switzerland, with authorities urging children and older people to stay indoors
Authorities have urged children and older people to stay indoors and issued severe warnings against dehydration and heatstroke as an unprecedented week-long heatwave begins its advance across continental Europe.
Meteorologists said temperatures would reach or even exceed 40C from Spain to Switzerland as hot air was sucked up from the Sahara by the combination of a storm stalling over the Atlantic and high pressure over central Europe.
Continue reading...President accused of ‘flogging family silver’, as communists and Sarkozy MPs join forces
Emmanuel Macron’s plan for the biggest wave of French privatisations in a decade is under threat after opposition politicians took the unusual step of joining ranks to push for a referendum on the sale of Paris airports.
The centrist French president wants to sell the state’s controlling stake in Aéroports de Paris, the profitable operator of Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, which are used by more than 100 million passengers each year. It would be among the biggest privatisation operations in French history, alongside Macron’s plans to sell other stakes in the national lottery as well as the gas and power group ENGIE.
Continue reading...Authors of major report accuse institution of hiding from issue of looted colonial-era objects
The authors of an influential report on colonial-era artefacts, which recommended a restitution programme to transfer hundreds of items from European institutions to Africa, have criticised the British Museum for acting like “an ostrich with its head in the sand”.
The Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and the French art historian Bénédicte Savoy, who were asked to write the report by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, after he said the return of artefacts would be a priority during his tenure, said the British Museum was not addressing the issue.
Continue reading...French people’s ‘pathological’ relationship with the state may be a factor in anti-vax trend
France is more sceptical about vaccine safety than any other nation, research suggests. A third of French people disagree that vaccines are safe, according to the Wellcome Global Monitor survey.
This scepticism over vaccinations reflects the public’s comparatively high distrust of politicians, say experts on France’s anti-vaccine movement. The Wellcome study found France had among the highest levels of distrust of government.
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