Category Archives: France

France assesses Paris Olympics terrorist threat in light of Moscow attack

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Minister and intelligence services meet to discuss security for Games that includes opening ceremony on the Seine

The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has met intelligence services to assess the terrorist threat to the country, after the Moscow concert hall attack claimed by Islamic State raised fresh security fears over the Paris Olympics.

One of the biggest security challenges facing the organisers of the Games in the French capital is to protect the opening ceremony on 26 July. It is planned to be an unprecedented, open-air extravaganza, which for the first time in Olympic history will not take place within the confines of a stadium, but instead involve a flotilla of 94 boats carrying thousands of waving athletes down a 6km (3.7-mile) stretch of the Seine, followed by a further 80 boats carrying media and security, while an estimated 222,000 people gather along the river’s edge and 200,000 more watch from buildings.

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‘Sport is never just sport’: Olympics exhibition in Paris reflects 20th century’s highs and lows

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Les Jeux Olympiques: Miroir des Sociétés opens ahead of Paris Olympics and puts previous games in context of conflicts and injustices

From the Nazi stadium propaganda in 1936 Berlin to the 1968 Mexico City podium protest of medal-winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who were expelled from the competition after raising their gloved fists in a Black Power salute against racial injustice, the Olympic Games have held a mirror up to some of the darkest moments of 20th-century history.

Now, as the Paris Olympics prepares to open this summer against a backdrop of war from Ukraine to the Middle East – with Emmanuel Macron saying Russia will be asked to observe a ceasefire in Ukraine during the Games – a new exhibition in Paris takes an unflinching look at the social and geopolitical impact of the Games over the last century.

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Macron calls proposed EU-Mercosur trade pact ‘very bad deal’ lacking strong climate commitments

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French president tells Brazil forum both parties need to be ‘much stronger’ on biodiversity and climate

Emmanuel Macron has called a proposed trade agreement between the EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc a “very bad deal” that lacks proper climate considerations.

“As it is negotiated today, it is a very bad deal, for you and for us,” the French president told Brazilian businessmen in São Paulo on Wednesday while on a three-day trip to Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy.

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French PM backs school head who faced death threats after Muslim veil row

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Gabriel Attal says state will file a complaint against student over accusation against principal who had to resign for his safety

The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, has defended French secularism following the resignation of a Paris school principal who received death threats after asking a student to remove her Muslim veil on the premises.

Attal, a former education minister, said the state would be filing a complaint against the student over falsely accusing the headteacher of mistreatment during the incident in late February.

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Laurent de Brunhoff, author of Babar children’s books, dies at 98

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Painter and storyteller, who revived father’s picture-book series about elephant king, said he didn’t consciously write for young people

Babar author Laurent de Brunhoff, who revived his father’s popular picture-book series about an elephant-king and presided over its rise to a global multimedia franchise, has died at the age of 98.

De Brunhoff, who was from Paris and moved to the US in the 1980s, died on Friday at his home in Key West, Florida, after being in hospice care for two weeks, according to his widow, Phyllis Rose.

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Revealed: UK-funded French forces putting migrants’ lives at risk with small-boat tactics

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Exclusive: newly obtained footage and leaked documents show how a ‘mass casualty event’ could arise from aggressive tactics employed by border forces

French police funded by the UK government have endangered the lives of vulnerable migrants by intercepting small boats in the Channel, using tactics that search and rescue experts say could cause a “mass casualty event”.

Shocking new evidence obtained by the Observer, Lighthouse Reports, Le Monde and Der Spiegel reveals for the first time that the French maritime police have tried physically to force small boats to turn around – manoeuvres known as “pullbacks” – in an attempt to prevent them reaching British shores.

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Historic meeting of French impressionists recreated in Paris exhibition

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Immersive tour at Musée d’Orsay takes visitors back to 15 April 1874 – the moment that marked the movement’s birth

In a lush red-and-gold carpeted photographer’s studio in northern Paris, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas are adding the final touches to the hanging of their paintings, while fellow artists Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro lament the lack of recognition for their work and Claude Monet bemoans being mistaken for Édouard Manet.

Outside, Parisian gentlemen in top hats and ladies in bustles are admiring the newly completed Opera House or enjoying an early evening drink on the café terraces while horse-drawn carriages clatter down Baron Haussmann’s new grands boulevards.

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Populist parties’ divisions jeopardise chances of setting European agenda

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Survey shows supporters of nationalist parties hold widely differing views on EU membership, migration and support for Ukraine

Populist and nationalist parties fighting the European elections in June are deeply divided on almost all key issues, according to a survey, in a finding that questions their chances of defining the bloc’s agenda even in the event of a predicted far-right surge.

However, the report, by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), also said pro-EU parties risked mobilising the Eurosceptic vote if they continued to ape hard-right policies rather than coming up with persuasive alternatives.

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Photos of Macron boxing raise eyebrows in France after he comes out swinging against Putin

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President sparks social media buzz as users ask whether he is getting ready to take on Vladimir Putin after images posted to Instagram

The release of official photos showing Emmanuel Macron hitting a punching bag have been met with a mixture of praise and consternation in France.

The photos of the French president, posted on Instagram on Tuesday by his official photographer, Soazig de la Moissonnière, are coloured in moody black and white, and show the president with teeth gritted and biceps bulging as he works out.

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Cross-channel ferry crews must be paid at least £9.95 an hour under French law

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New minimum wage law to be brought in two years after P&O Ferries replaced hundreds of workers with low-cost crew

Cross-Channel ferry operators will be required to pay their crew at least £9.95 an hour after France implemented a new minimum wage law aimed at preventing the exploitation of seafarers.

The move comes two years after P&O Ferries caused outrage on both sides of the Channel by sacking almost 800 workers and replacing them with low-cost crew.

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Michelin hails ‘cultural dynamism’ as 52 French restaurants earn their first stars

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One chef receives three stars at first attempt in 115th edition of the French foodies’ bible

A record 52 restaurants in France – including 23 that only opened in the past year – have been awarded one or more Michelin stars for the first time, which the French foodies’ bible said reflected the “cultural dynamism” of a new generation of innovative young chefs.

“This year’s is a generous vintage, and also true to our values,” said Gwendal Poullennec, the director of the Michelin Guide, at the launch of its 115th edition on Monday. Well over half of the new laureates were under the age of 40, he said.

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Aya Nakamura, the pop superstar at the centre of a Paris Olympic racism storm

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Outrage from the far right over rumours of a performance at the opening ceremony has exposed deep divisions in France

She is the most listened-to French singer in the world, whose relentlessly catchy hits about love and betrayal have been streamed 7bn times and who made history last year when she sold out three Paris gigs in 15 minutes.

But Aya Nakamura, France’s biggest pop superstar who is known for her unique French style influenced by Afrobeats and Caribbean zouk, called out racism and ignorance this week after far-right politicians expressed outrage over the possibility that she could sing at the Paris Olympics.

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Russia-Ukraine war: at least 16 killed and 70 wounded in Odesa strike – as it happened

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Day of mourning declared following devastating attack on Ukrainian port city; Bridget A Brink says ‘cruel attack’ shows Russia ‘will not stop’

Sergei Naryshkin, chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, said on Friday that French president Emmanuel Macron’s remarks about the possibility of sending soldiers from Nato countries to Ukraine were “crazy and paranoid dreams”, Reuters reports

Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, is reporting an explosion in Odesa. Regional governor Oleg Kiper has warned residents via Telegram to take shelter.

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German, French and Polish leaders hold emergency meeting on Ukraine

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European military powers try to dampen tensions between them over Russian war and US aid for Kyiv

The three leading military powers in mainland Europe – France, Germany and Poland – are holding an emergency session in Berlin to try to dampen tensions over their different responses to the twin spectres of Russian military advances in Ukraine and US Congress’s refusal to approve substantial further military aid for Kyiv.

The clash in approach – predominantly between the newly hawkish French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the perennially cautious German chancellor, Olaf Scholz – was laid bare in a dramatic French TV interview on Thursday night in which Macron said Europe’s security, even its existence, was at risk.

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New EU gig economy laws saved from oblivion by Belgian compromise

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Directive aims to give taxi and delivery drivers such as those working for Uber and Deliveroo rights similar to those enjoyed by full employees

New laws designed to improve the rights of gig economy workers in the EU contracted to companies such as Uber have been saved from oblivion after they won the majority backing of member states.

The legislation had been blocked by a group of countries last month, when France said it could not support the text on the table and Germany abstained.

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France’s appetite for frogs’ legs is endangering species in Asia, say campaigners

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Scientists and vets are urging the president to afford the world’s most traded species better protections

France’s hunger for frogs’ legs is “destructive to nature” and endangering amphibians in Asia and south-east Europe, a group of scientists and vets have warned.

More than 500 experts from research, veterinary and conservation groups have called on Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to “end the overexploitation of frogs” and afford the most traded species better protections.

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Head of France’s cinema body to face trial over alleged sexual assault of his godson

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Activists call for Dominique Boutonnat to step down saying allegations undermine his ability to lead change

Dominique Boutonnat, the head of France’s top cinema institution, is to be tried in June on charges of sexually assaulting his godson, prosecutors have said.

The announcement came as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning in which several big names, including the actor Gérard Depardieu, have been accused of sexual abuse.

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Nicolas Ghesquière marks Louis Vuitton with powerhouse show in Paris

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In a vast futuristic greenhouse at the Louvre, 4,000 guests were shown why the brand is the biggest of them all

Ten years to the day after his first show for Louis Vuitton, Nicolas Ghesquière celebrated a remarkable anniversary in the same Paris landmark where he made his debut. In the ruthless spit-em-out churn of fashion, and in the eye of that storm as the designer of the biggest brand of all, Ghesquière’s is quite the run.

A vast futuristic greenhouse lit from within with 13 vast globe-shaped chandeliers – Louis Vuitton, travel, get it? – filled an entire quadrangle of the Louvre, rising almost to the mansard roof of the museum.

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Roman Polanski tried in France for alleged defamation of British actor

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Film-maker held to account for dismissing claim of 1983 sexual assault against Charlotte Lewis as ‘heinous lie’

The film director Roman Polanski has gone on trial for libel in Paris after accusing a British actor who claimed he abused her of “a heinous lie”.

Charlotte Lewis, who was in court in Tuesday at the opening of the hearing, said she had been the victim of a “smear campaign” after she accused the film-maker of sexually abusing her as a teenager.

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Chanel brings Hollywood and seaside chic to Paris fashion week

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Penélope Cruz and Brad Pitt star in a remake of a French classic as designer Virginie Viard turns the catwalk into a coastal boardwalk

The lights dimmed, and the Chanel show opened with Penélope Cruz and Brad Pitt on the catwalk. Cruz smouldered in a chic black polo neck and discreet diamonds, Pitt twinkly eyed in an open-necked white shirt. They gazed into each other’s eyes, flirted a little, and then – how could either of them resist? – embarked on a clandestine affair.

Well, almost. Cruz was, in fact, sitting demurely in the front row in a leather skirt suit, and Pitt was not in attendance. The rendezvous was on a short film, made for the show and screened above the catwalk, a remake of a seminal scene in Claude Lelouch’s Un Homme et Une Femme, a classic Gallic romance about a widow and widower falling in love that won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes festival in 1966. Lelouch, now 86, was also a guest of honour at Chanel’s show.

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