Category Archives: France

Spain and Portugal power outage: what caused it, and was there a cyber-attack?

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Several countries in Europe have been scrambling to restore electricity after a huge power cut caused blackouts

Spain, Portugal and some of south-west France suffered a massive power cut on Monday, with major cities including Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon among those affected.

Houses, offices, trains, traffic lights and even the Madrid open tennis tournament were all hit, causing chaos for millions of people and prompting a scramble by the Spanish and Portuguese governments and network operators to understand the problem and race to fix it.

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Historians dispute Bayeux tapestry penis tally after lengthy debate

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Two Bayeux scholars at loggerheads over whether dangling shape depicts dagger or the embroidery’s 94th phallus

In a historical spat that could be subtitled “1066 with knobs on”, two medieval experts are engaged in a battle over how many male genitalia are embroidered into the Bayeux tapestry.

The Oxford professor George Garnett drew worldwide interest six years ago when he announced he had totted up 93 penises stitched into the embroidered account of the Norman conquest of England.

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French minister reports #SkinnyTok to regulator over anorexia concerns

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Digital media minister Clara Chappaz says TikTok videos promoting extreme thinness ‘revolting and unacceptable’

The French government is seeking to take action against a TikTok group promoting extreme thinness among young women and girls.

France’s minister for digital media, Clara Chappaz, has reported #SkinnyTok to the country’s audiovisual and digital watchdog and the EU over concerns that the trend is body-shaming victims into anorexia and that algorithms are targeting the most vulnerable.

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‘Grandpa robbers’ accused of Kim Kardashian jewel heist to face Paris trial

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Armed thieves broke into reality TV star’s flat in France in 2016, making off with possessions worth millions of euros

A group of pensioners nicknamed the “grandpa robbers” will go on trial in Paris next week, charged with stealing jewellery worth millions of euros from the US TV reality star Kim Kardashian when she attended Paris fashion week in 2016.

In what was considered the biggest robbery of an individual in France in 20 years, Kardashian was tied up and held hostage at gunpoint in her bedroom in central Paris by armed thieves dressed as police officers in the early hours of 3 October 2016. The thieves escaped with up to an estimated €10m in jewellery.

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Christian Dior appoints UK designer Jonathan Anderson as menswear boss

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Man behind puzzle and pigeon bags, who transformed Loewe, brings buzz to French house as creative director

Jonathan Anderson, the designer who brought success, cool and viral fame to the Spanish label Loewe during his 11-year reign, has been announced as the new creative director of Christian Dior’s menswear collection. Taking over from Kim Jones, Anderson’s first show for the brand will take place in Paris in June.

While this is confirmation of news that fashion insiders were long aware of, it will definitely bring new buzz to Christian Dior. Anderson, now 40, has become something of a unicorn in the industry, a designer with boundless energy and ideas who is able to create distinctive and original designs but also sell clothes.

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Macron hosts ‘excellent’ ceasefire talks with top US, European and Ukrainian officials

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Senior diplomats set to meet again in London next week after ‘very productive’ Paris summit to revive stalled efforts

Senior US, European and Ukrainian diplomats will meet again in London next week, the Élysée Palace has said, after what a French official described as an “excellent” day of talks in Paris aimed at reviving stalled ceasefire efforts.

“We have started a positive process in which Europeans are a part,” the spokesperson said after the meetings attended by top British, French, German and Ukrainian officials as well as the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.

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Macron announces joint commission with Haiti amid calls for reparations

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France imposed harsh ‘ransom’ after revolution that campaigners say stunted Caribbean country’s development

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has announced a joint commission with Haiti to examine the countries’ shared past as Haitian campaigners demand a reimbursement of billions of dollars worth of “ransom” paid to France.

Macron announced his intention to create the commission as campaigners renewed calls for reparations on the bicentenary of an agreement to pay 150m francs to France in 1825 to compensate slave-owning colonists after the Haitian Revolution.

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Ringleaders of attacks on French jails will be punished, Macron says

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Wave of assaults ‘declaration of war’ by drug gangs after crackdown on bosses operating from jail, French media say

Emmanuel Macron has warned that those behind a wave of apparently coordinated attacks on French prisons and staff will be “found, tried and punished”.

The president’s comments came after at least a dozen assaults on French jails in the past three days. In one attack, gunmen using automatic weapons fired at the entrance to Toulon prison in the south of France.

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In the red: global wine sales fall to lowest levels since 1961

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Consumption and production falls in almost every market as industry fears a ‘generational’ change in drinking habits

Worldwide consumption of wine fell in 2024 to its lowest level in more than 60 years, the main trade body has said, raising concerns about new risks from US tariffs.

The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said on Tuesday that 2024 sales fell 3.3% from the previous year to 214.2m hectolitres.

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France expels 12 Algerian officials as row over alleged kidnapping escalates

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Move follows Algiers’ expulsion of diplomats, after France’s arrest of man linked to abduction of influencer Amir DZ

France has expelled 12 Algerian consular and diplomatic officials and recalled its ambassador in Algiers, the French presidency said on Tuesday, in a retaliatory measure as a spat escalates between the two countries.

“The Algerian authorities are responsible for the sudden degradation of our bilateral relations,” President Emmanuel Macron’s office said.

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French prisons hit by wave of attacks after clampdown on drug traffickers

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Terrorism office launches investigation into assaults including gunmen opening fire on entrance to Toulon jail

France’s national terrorism office has launched an investigation into a wave of apparently coordinated attacks at multiple prisons across the country believed to be linked to a government clampdown on drug traffickers.

Gunmen with automatic weapons opened fire on the entrance to Toulon prison in southern France in the early hours of Tuesday, while in recent days cars have been set alight outside four other jails, and in Marseille a residential building housing prison guards was attacked.

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Fan hands himself in after bottle thrown at Van der Poel during Paris-Roubaix

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  • Dutchman struck on his way to victory in famous race
  • Alpecin-Deceuninck and UCI join with condemnation

French justice officials have launched an investigation after Mathieu van der Poel had a plastic bottle hurled at his face during his triumphant ride to a third consecutive Paris-Roubaix victory on Sunday.

“An investigation was opened into the charge of violence with a weapon in order to identify and arrest the perpetrator,” said the Lille prosecutor Carole Etienne on X. The Dutch Alpecin-Deceuninck rider was struck while powering solo over a cobbled section with 33km remaining in the prestigious one-day classic, often called “The Hell of the North”.

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France considers response after Algeria expels 12 embassy staff

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Move by Algiers follows arrest of Algerian consular official in Paris over alleged involvement in kidnap of influencer

France is considering its response after Algeria ordered the expulsion of 12 embassy staff over the arrest of an Algerian consulate official in Paris over alleged involvement in the kidnap of a TikTok influencer.

Algiers has given the French representatives 48 hours to leave the country in a move that has stretched already strained relations between the two countries to breaking point. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has warned that if the expulsions go ahead Paris would be forced to respond immediately.

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‘Unprecedented’ sightings of Asian hornets raise fears for UK bees

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Early reports have led experts to believe there could be a surge in the deadly invader, threatening native species

They have bright yellow legs, are about 25mm (almost 1in) long, and a single colony, if left unchecked, can “butcher” 90,000 pollinating insects in just one season.

Since the first UK sighting in 2016 of Vespa velutina – the Asian or yellow-legged hornet – beekeepers and scientists have waged a vigorous campaign to minimise the damage this invasive species can do to Britain’s biodiversity and bee colonies.

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France could recognise Palestinian state ‘in June’, says Emmanuel Macron – as it happened

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This blog is now closed, you can read more of our Middle East coverage here

Turkish and Israeli officials began talks on Wednesday aimed at preventing unwanted incidents in Syria, where militaries of the two regional powers are active, Turkish ministry sources said on Thursday.

According to Reuters, the sources said the technical talks, in Azerbaijan, marked the beginning of efforts to set up a channel to avoid potential clashes or misunderstandings over military operations in the region.

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Sexual violence and harassment ‘endemic’ in French entertainment industry, report finds

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Attitudes in France ‘barely evolving’ amid ‘collective denial’ years after the #MeToo movement began, according to parliamentary commission

Sexual violence and sexual harassment are “endemic” in France’s entertainment industry, a damning report by French politicians has found, concluding that women and children are still being routinely preyed on, despite the country’s #MeToo movement.

The Green MP Sandrine Rousseau and the centrist Erwan Balanant found that sexual violence, harassment and bullying were “systemic, endemic and persistent” in all sectors of the French culture and entertainment industry, from TV and cinema to theatre, radio, comedy, advertising, rock and classical music.

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Le Pen vows to fight ‘political’ ruling, as France’s main parties stage rival rallies

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Far-right leader tells supporters she is victim of ‘witch-hunt’, while radical left says RN’s mask has slipped

• What is Marine Le Pen guilty of in National Rally embezzlement case?

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has told supporters in Paris she would fight “a political, not a judicial ruling” that could bar her from the next presidential election, as a rival rally denounced an “existential threat” to the rule of law after her conviction for embezzling public funds.

“This decision has trampled on everything I hold most dear: my people, my country and my honour,” the figurehead of National Rally (RN) told a crowd of flag-waving supporters as the country’s three main political movements staged events in the Paris.

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Judiciary must be protected, says Macron, as judge who sentenced Le Pen put under guard

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French president tells ministers that judges are independent and ‘all litigants have the right of appeal’

Emmanuel Macron has said the French judiciary is independent and must be protected as a judge was put under police guard after sentencing Marine Le Pen to an immediate ban from running for office.

Speaking on Wednesday, two days after the far-right leader’s conviction for the embezzlement of European parliament funds, the French president told ministers that “judges must be protected” and that “all litigants have the right to appeal.”

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French ministers condemn threats to judges in Marine Le Pen case

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Senior figures also reject claim verdict against Le Pen on embezzlement charges was ‘political and partisan’

French ministers have condemned threats against the judges who convicted the far-right leader Marine Le Pen and banned her from public office for five years as the chief judge was placed under police protection after receiving death threats.

France’s prime minister, François Bayrou, told the Assemblée nationale the trial judges had his “unconditional support” after they found Le Pen guilty of embezzlement charges, threatening her 2027 presidential run and throwing France into political chaos.

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