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Chmouel Lubecki, a rabbi in Rouen, said today’s incident was “shocking.”
“It is important to light the candles of Shabbat to exactly show that we are not afraid,” he said.
Continue reading...Days of unrest in the French Pacific territory – sparked by a plan to change voting rules – have left five dead
Tensions remained high in Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia, on Friday after days of riots as the French government’s representative said areas of the Pacific territory have “escaped” state control.
Louis Le Franc, high commissioner of the Republic in New Caledonia, announced new security deployments. The number of police and gendarmes on the island will rise to 2,700 from 1,700 by Friday evening.
Continue reading...Opposition has seized upon killings that shine spotlight on two big issues: prisons crisis and violent drug trade
As police continued to hunt the gunmen who killed two prison guards at a Normandy toll booth and freed a convict linked to gangland drug killings, the debate on law and order in France has intensified before next month’s European elections.
Both Gérald Darmanin, the hardline interior minister, and Jordan Bardella, the far-right president of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, used the same dramatic vocabulary to warn of “savagery” in French society.
Continue reading...Macron holds crisis meeting amid unrest over plan to increase number of French nationals eligible to vote in Pacific territory
France has said it will impose a state of emergency in New Caledonia for at least 12 days, after a second night of unrest over changes to voting rights in the overseas territory that has resulted in the deaths of at least four people.
More than 130 people have been arrested and more than 300 injured, according to the french high commission.
Continue reading...Crisis management team reported to be in place as Meryl Streep heads roster of female stars and directors collecting accolades
For good and bad reasons, on and off the red carpet, the spotlight is trained on women in the run-up to the Cannes film festival this week. As the cream of female film talent, including Hollywood’s Meryl Streep and Britain’s Andrea Arnold, prepare to receive significant career awards, a dark cloud is threatening. It is expected that new allegations of the abuse of women in the European entertainment industry will be made public, which may overshadow the sparkle of a feminist Croisette.
Streep’s screen achievements will be celebrated with an honorary Palme d’Or at the opening ceremony, while a day later Arnold, the acclaimed British film director, will receive the prestigious Carosse d’Or from the French director’s guild. And on Sunday another influential British film personality will be saluted when diversity champion Dame Donna Langley, the chairman and chief content officer at NBCUniversal, is to be honoured with the Women in Motion Award at a lavish dinner. All this comes in a year that also sees the American director Greta Gerwig, best known for last summer’s Barbie, presiding over a jury that features the campaigning stars Eva Green and Lily Gladstone. But the story of the 77th festival will not be all positive for women.
Continue reading...Group will protest against government’s treatment of freelance workers at festivals across France
The Cannes film festival is facing strike action as it opens next week and could see protests by projectionists, floor managers and press agents who are demanding changes to the French government’s treatment of seasonal film festival staff.
The festival on France’s Côte d’Azur has faced major strike action only once before, during the student protests and workers’ strikes that began in May 1968.
Continue reading...Pop star thrills Paris crowds with songs from newest album The Tortured Poets Department
Taylor Swift has added her newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, to an already packed setlist as she returned to The Eras Tour after a two-month break.
Swift had described TTPD as “new works reflecting events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure”. In Paris on Thursday night she put it more succinctly: “Female rage, the musical.”
Continue reading...Chinese president hails two countries’ friendship before his arrival, after visiting Pyrenees with Macron
Chinese flags adorned highways as Serbia got ready to give a home-from-home welcome to Xi Jinping, contrasting tensions on the first leg of the Chinese president’s six-day European tour over a potential trade war with the EU.
Xi prepared for his arrival in Belgrade on Tuesday night by hitting out against Nato for its 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in the Serbian capital, in which three Chinese journalists were killed.
Continue reading...Beijing joins France in urging Israel against Rafah offensive in latest effort to make its diplomatic mark
Xi Jinping, sensing a diplomatic opening, is stepping up China’s intervention in the Middle East crisis, issuing a joint statement with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to urge Israel not to go ahead with an offensive in Rafah.
The rare moment of Sino-European synergy is the latest effort by China to make its diplomatic mark in a region in which it has deep economic interests, but more shallow diplomatic moorings.
Continue reading...Chinese premier has lunch with Emmanuel Macron before heading to Serbia on his closely watched trip to Europe. This live blog is closed
China hacked UK ministry: report
The Chinese state has hacked the British ministry of defence, Sky News reported this morning.
Continue reading...Vladimir Putin responds to recent statements from David Cameron and Emmanuel Macron over Ukraine war
Russia has threatened to strike British military facilities and ordered its military to hold battlefield nuclear weapons drills in a move the Kremlin described as a response to comments from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on western troops fighting in Ukraine and from the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, on using British-supplied weapons against Russia.
The Russian defence ministry said in a statement that troops from the southern military district would “practise the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons … in response to provocative statements and threats by certain western officials against the Russian Federation.”
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron and Viktor Orbán among leaders Xi is meeting, with several key issues on the table
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has begun a three-country tour of Europe – his first state visit to the continent in five years – at a time when China-EU ties are under strain from trade disputes and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Continue reading...Chinese premier meets Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen for talks, with trade and Ukraine on agenda
The trilateral meeting has kicked off.
Xi Jinping has arrived at the Élysée palace.
Continue reading...On his first visit to Europe since 2019, Xi is set to meet with Emmanuel Macron before heading to Serbia and Hungary
Xi Jinping has lauded China’s ties with France as a model for the international community as he arrived in Paris amid threats of a trade war over Chinese electric cars and French cognac.
On his first visit to the EU in five years, China’s president will meet his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who will urge him to reduce trade imbalances and use his influence with Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Parisian bakers have claimed victory over rivals in Italy who created a baguette almost 133 metres long in 2019
For the past five years, bragging rights over the world’s longest baguette have belonged not to the residents of a small village or a city in France, but rather to a clutch of bakers 500 miles away in Como, Italy.
On Sunday a crop of 12 bakers from France set out to rectify this, spending hours kneading, shaping and baking their way back to victory.
Continue reading...Prof Ghassan Abu-Sitta says Schengen-wide ban imposed by Germany appears to be attempt to silence witness testimony
A London surgeon who provided testimony on Israel’s war in Gaza after operating during the conflict has said he feels criminalised after being denied entry to France over the weekend.
Prof Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon was due to speak about the war to the French parliament’s upper house on Saturday. However, after arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris on a morning flight from London, he was informed by French authorities that Germany had enforced a Schengen-wide ban on his entry to Europe.
Continue reading...Charities say FoI disclosure that 369 such children were held over 21-month period is ‘hugely concerning’
More than 350 lone children were held in UK-run detention facilities in northern France over a 21-month period, according to documents disclosed under freedom of information laws.
The Home Office has admitted that it failed to keep data on how many properly trained staff looked after the children held in four short-term holding facilities near Calais and Dunkirk in 2022 and 2023.
Continue reading...Ghassan Abu-Sitta, who was due to speak in French senate, is told Germany has enforced Schengen-wide entry ban
A London surgeon who has provided testimony over the current war in Gaza after operating during the conflict has been denied entry to France, where he was due to speak in the French senate later on Saturday.
After arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris on Saturday morning on a flight from London, Prof Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, was informed by French authorities that Germany had enforced a Schengen-wide ban on his entry to Europe.
Continue reading...Third-party hospitality packages are outlawed, yet agency part-owned by associates of Rafael Nadal and LeBron James promises access to top events as well as to stars
Members of the global super-rich are spending as much as $500,000 (£400,000) on “ultra-exclusive” packages for the Paris 2024 Olympics that promoters claim include meeting athletes, access to the athletes’ village and “the chance to be part of the opening ceremony”.
GR8 Experience, an “international experience agency” part-owned by the business manager of the basketball star LeBron James and the PR manager of the tennis player Rafael Nadal, is selling Olympic packages that it claims include tickets to 14 events such as the men’s 100m finals and the opening ceremony for $381,600.
Continue reading...China’s president arrives as EU anti-subsidy investigations and tensions over espionage, Ukraine and Taiwan continue
China’s president, Xi Jinping, is to visit Europe next week for the first time in five years, in a tour that will take in the unlikely trifecta of France, Hungary and Serbia.
The visit comes as China pushes to avoid a trade war with the EU, while attitudes towards Beijing in the bloc are hardening after multiple spying scandals and China’s ongoing support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
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