Police launch investigation into escalation of dispute in bar in Évreux, Normandy, after five others injured
A man has driven a car into a crowd outside a bar in northern France after a dispute in which one person was killed and five others injured, according to prosecutors.
The incident took place in the town of Évreux, Normandy, at about 4am on Saturday.
Continue reading...Campaigners call for Paris-style parking charges amid fears big vehicles are taking up excessive public space
The number of giant cars in England’s cities has increased tenfold in recent years, according to researchers, who warn the vehicles are taking up excessive public space and posing a threat to public safety.
Analysis published by Clean Cities has found SUVs have gone from 3% to 30% of existing cars in the past two decades. In London, the number of SUVs has increased from about 80,000 in 2002 to about 800,000 in 2023.
Continue reading...Move by trio of European powers gives Tehran 30 days to improve access for inspection of its nuclear sites
The UK, France and Germany have formally notified the UN that they have triggered the restoration of sweeping UN sanctions against Iran, giving Tehran 30 days to make concessions on access to its nuclear sites or face deeper worldwide economic isolation.
UK officials said the decision had not been taken lightly and there had been intensive diplomacy to try to avert this step. The officials emphasised there was still room for last-ditch diplomacy before the sanctions “snapback” comes into force in 30 days’ time. The annual high-level UN general assembly in September is likely to involve more intensive diplomacy over the situation with Iran.
Continue reading...Spokesperson says government in ‘fighting spirit’ after PM called confidence vote he is expected to lose
Emmanuel Macron has given his “full support” to France’s beleaguered prime minister, François Bayrou, who is expected to lose a confidence vote next month, which would be likely to cause the government to collapse.
Macron chaired a cabinet meeting on Wednesday as France faces a fresh political crisis. The government spokesperson, Sophie Primas, said after the meeting that Macron fully supported Bayrou and the government was in a “fighting spirit”.
Continue reading...François Bayrou says he will ‘fight like a dog’ to stay in power but he appears almost certain to be toppled
France is braced for another political crisis as the minority government of François Bayrou appears almost certain to be toppled in a confidence vote next month, amid deep political divisions over an unpopular austerity budget and debt-reduction plan.
“I will fight like a dog,” the centrist prime minister told L’Express on Tuesday after his surprise decision to call a vote of confidence from parliamentarians.
Continue reading...Minister says Australian platform ‘did not do everything possible to stop the broadcast of dangerous content’
France will sue the Australian streaming platform Kick for alleged negligence after a user died during a livestream, a government minister has said.
The platform has come under scrutiny in France after a 46-year-old Frenchman died earlier this month during a 12-day livestreaming marathon on his channel, which specialised in him enduring abuse or humiliation dished out by other participants.
Continue reading...Trial to open in Nice of Thierry Fialek-Birles, accused of an ‘elaborate fraud’ against the actor and director Dany Boon
One of France’s most popular actors will have a starring role in court when a fake Irish aristocrat goes on trial accused of cheating him out of millions of euros.
Dany Boon, director and star of Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Welcome to the Sticks), France’s biggest box office hit, says an alleged conman, who claimed to be an Oxford-educated maritime lawyer, stole nearly €7m (£6m) from him as part of an elaborate scam.
Continue reading...Comments come after US ambassador accused government of failing to do enough to stem hate crimes against Jews
Cabinet ministers and Jewish groups have said France has “no lessons to take” from the US on tackling antisemitism, as Washington’s ambassador to Paris was summoned after accusing the government of failing to do enough to stem hate crimes against Jews.
Charles Kushner, who is Jewish, was ordered to report to the foreign ministry on Monday after he wrote a letter to Emmanuel Macron criticising a “lack of sufficient action” by the government to confront the “dramatic rise” in antisemitism in France.
Continue reading...François Bayrou to seek parliamentary backing for his unpopular plans to shore up France’s public finances
France’s embattled prime minister looks likely to be ousted and his government toppled next month in a high-stakes confidence vote that could plunge the EU’s second-biggest economy into even deeper political crisis.
François Bayrou said on Monday that he would seek parliamentary backing for his unpopular plans to shore up France’s ailing public finances on 8 September, asking deputies to “confirm the scale” of spending cuts he says are needed to save €44bn (£38bn) a year.
Continue reading...Kushner says in letter to Macron he’s concerned over ‘rise of antisemitism’ and ‘lack of sufficient action’ to confront it
France summoned the American ambassador Charles Kushner after he wrote a letter to President Emmanuel Macron alleging France had failed to do enough to stem antisemitic violence, a French foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.
Kushner, who is Jewish and whose son is married to US President Donald Trump’s daughter, published the open letter in the Wall Street Journal amid deep divides between France and the US and Israel.
Continue reading...Manager of zipline facility detained for alleged religious discrimination after group of eight- to 18-year-olds turned away
The manager of a leisure park in southern France has been detained for alleged religious discrimination after a group of Israeli children were refused access.
The children, aged eight to 16, were on holiday in Spain and had made a reservation for Thursday to use the Tyrovol zipline adventure park in Porté-Puymorens, near the Spanish border in the Pyrenees mountains, the Perpignan prosecutor’s office said.
Continue reading...French president responds to Israeli PM’s ‘erroneous’ allegations in relation to decision to recognise state of Palestine
Emmanuel Macron has hit out at Benjamin Netanyahu for his “abject” and “erroneous” remarks after Israel’s prime minister claimed that antisemitism had “surged” in France after the country’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state in September.
In a statement released late on Tuesday, the office of the French president pushed back against Netanyahu’s claim. “The analysis suggesting that France’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine in September is behind the rise in antisemitic violence in France is erroneous, abject, and will not go unanswered,” it said. “The current period calls for seriousness and responsibility, not generalisation and manipulation.”
Continue reading...Presidents, PMs and heads of Nato and European Commission accompany Ukraine’s leader at White House
European leaders gathered in Washington on Monday for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, in a show of support for the Ukrainian president. Their presence came amid expectations that Trump would try to bully Zelenskyy into accepting a pro-Russia “peace plan” that would include Kyiv handing territory to Moscow. The Europeans have been described as Zelenskyy’s “bodyguards”, with memories fresh of the mauling he received in February during his last Oval Office visit. So, who are they?
Continue reading...French president vows to punish those who felled tree planted in memory of Jewish man tortured to death in 2006
The felling of an olive tree planted in memory of a young French Jewish man tortured to death in 2006 caused outrage in France on Friday, with Emmanuel Macron promising to punish an act of “antisemitic hatred”.
Politicians across the political spectrum condemned the felling as an attack against the memory of Ilan Halimi, who was kidnapped by a gang of about 20 young people in January 2006 and tortured on a low-income housing estate in the southern Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron writes to Cameroonian president with findings of joint commission on country’s colonial past
France has acknowledged its role in decades of violent repression of independence movements in Cameroon, the latest stage in a slow process of reckoning with its brutal colonial past.
In a letter to the Cameroonian president, Paul Biya, dated 30 July, Emmanuel Macron said it was “up to me today to assume the role and responsibility of France in these events”.
Continue reading...Temperatures of 44C predicted as blazes rage across Europe
Almost 6,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in northern, central and southern Spain as wildfires continue to burn amid a heatwave that could bring temperatures of 44C to some parts of the country.
The deadly heat across large parts of Europe has created what scientists have called a “molotov cocktail” of climatic conditions that is fuelling vast wildfires.
Continue reading...Four-year-old boy dies of heatstroke in Italy as scientists warn of ‘molotov cocktail’ of climatic conditions
Deadly heat of up to 44C is searing southern Europe, as scientists warn of a “molotov cocktail” of climatic conditions that is fuelling vast wildfires across the Mediterranean.
In Italy, where temperatures of 40C are expected in Florence later this week, a four-year-old boy died of heatstroke, and a red alert warning was issued for seven major cities, including Bologna and Florence.
Continue reading...‘Massive and unpredictable’ swarm entered filter drums that pull in water, Gravelines operator EDF says
The Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France has been shut down after a swarm of jellyfish entered the filter drums that pull in cooling water, according to its state-owned operator, EDF.
The plant in northern France is one of the largest in the country and cooled from a canal connected to the North Sea.
Continue reading...Move comes as Germany warns White House against any deal hatched ‘over heads of Europeans and Ukrainians’
Europe’s leaders have raised the pressure on Donald Trump to involve Ukraine in a planned summit with Vladimir Putin, as Germany warned the White House against any deal hatched “over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians”.
Speaking before a bilateral meeting expected to take place between the US and Russian leaders on Friday in Alaska, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he hoped and assumed that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would also be involved.
Continue reading...Scrutiny of selling platforms grows as female users warning of harassment on sites after photos stolen and sexualised
Users of secondhand clothing websites such as Vinted are warning about the danger their images will be used against their will on pornography sites, and sounding the alarm about the spread of sexually charged harassment under their posts.
The potential for hijacking photos posted on the internet for real or faked erotic content has long been known, but victims and their advocates say culprits appear to have zeroed in on Vinted with targeted campaigns.
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