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...Category Archives: France
Xi Jinping arrives in France with Ukraine and EU trade row at top of agenda
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...France reclaims world record after baking baguette measuring 140.53m
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...Gaza war surgeon feels ‘criminalised’ after being denied entry to France
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...‘Alarming’ number of lone children held in UK-run facilities in France
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...UK surgeon who described Gaza ‘massacre’ denied entry to France
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...Super-rich spending up to $500,000 on exclusive Paris Olympics packages
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...Xi Jinping to visit France, Hungary and Serbia amid EU trade tariff row
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.
Continue reading...‘We’re infantilised or demonised’: French students criticise Gaza protests crackdown
University students air frustration that sit-ins motivated by peace are being shut down instead of heeded
Jack, 22, a student in public administration, was dragged out of his university building by the arms and legs on Friday, as police forcibly removed several dozen students who had been occupying Paris’s Sciences Po university overnight in a protest against civilian deaths in Gaza.
“We’ll keep going,” said the French-American student in his final year at the prestigious political science school, whose alumni include the president, Emmanuel Macron. “This is about speaking out against a genocide, it’s an international movement. We occupied the building peacefully.”
Continue reading...Father of girl who died in Channel says family feared being deported to Iraq
Ahmed Alhashimi’s seven-year-old daughter Sara was crushed to death after group of men rushed on to dinghy
The father of a seven-year-old girl crushed to death on a small boat has said they tried to cross the Channel after being informed his young family would be deported to Iraq after spending years in Europe.
Ahmed Alhashimi, 41, lost grasp of his daughter, Sara, on an inflatable dinghy after a large group of men rushed onboard as it was pulling away from the shores of Wimereux, south of Calais.
Continue reading...Stop children using smartphones until they are 13, says French report
Children should be banned from most social media until 18 amid attempts to ‘monetise’ them, says Macron-commissioned study
Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they are 18, according to a report by experts commissioned by Emmanuel Macron.
The French president had asked scientists and experts to suggest screen use guidelines for children with a view to France taking unprecedented steps on limiting their exposure. It was unclear how the government might now proceed after the report’s publication. Macron said in January: “There might be bans, there might be restrictions.”
Continue reading...Paris regional leader suspends Sciences Po funding over Gaza protests
French left denounces rightwinger Valérie Pécresse’s move against prestigious university
The Paris regional authority has temporarily suspending funding for Sciences Po, one of France’s most prestigious universities, after it was rocked by pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
“I have decided to suspend all regional funding for Sciences Po until calm and security have been restored at the school,” Valérie Pécresse, the rightwing head of the greater Paris Île-de-France region, said on social media on Monday.
Continue reading...Von der Leyen criticises European far right for being ‘Putin’s proxies’
Commission president, who is seeking another term, took aim at group that includes AfD and National Rally in pre-election debate
The European Commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, has criticised the far right as “Putin’s proxies”, while refusing to rule out working with other rightwing nationalists, as campaigning began ahead of June’s European elections.
Von der Leyen is seeking a second five-year term leading the commission, in the looming reshuffle of EU top jobs that follows the European elections.
Continue reading...Gérard Depardieu questioned by French police over sexual assault allegations
Two women say actor assaulted them, one on a film set in 2021 and the other on another shoot in 2014
Gérard Depardieu was summoned by French police on Monday for questioning over fresh allegations of sexual assault, French media have reported.
Depardieu, 75, was being questioned by officers at a police station in the 14th arrondissement of Paris over allegations by two women that he had assaulted them, one on a film set in 2021 and the other on another shoot in 2014.
Continue reading...It’s hard being black in France, says Omar Sy after Aya Nakamura racism row
Star of Lupin says notions of justice, equality and fraternity have been shaken along with his optimism
The French actor Omar Sy, the star of the hit Netflix series Lupin, has said France must move away from the individualism that is fragmenting society and rebuild a sense of the collective if it is to hold back the far right.
In a series of media interviews to promote a new book about his life, Sy said the notions of justice, equality and fraternity had been shaken, and it was hard to be a black person in France.
Continue reading...A room of her own: Mona Lisa could be moved, says Louvre
New room would give thousands of daily visitors better experience, says museum president
The Mona Lisa, the world’s most famous portrait, could get a room of its own in the Louvre, the museum’s president said.
Such a move would give visitors, many of whom visit the Louvre for the famous painting alone, a better experience, Laurence des Cars told the broadcaster France Inter.
Continue reading...Four Vietnamese nationals arrested in London over people smuggling
Joint UK-French investigation alleges group advertised small-boat crossings of Channel on social media
Four Vietnamese nationals have been arrested in London after an investigation into alleged people smugglers advertising small-boat crossings of the Channel on Facebook.
The joint UK-French investigation alleges the group shared posts aimed at the Vietnamese community and charged migrants thousands of pounds to make the crossing.
Continue reading...Aya Nakamura thanks fans for support over Olympics racism as she wins awards
French singer dedicates top prizes at Les Flammes ‘to all black women’ after backlash over rumoured Paris show
The French pop star Aya Nakamura, who found herself at the centre of a racist row after rumours she was going to sing at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, has thanked fans for their support after winning three big prizes at France’s Les Flammes awards for rap, R&B and pop.
“I’m very honoured because being a black artist and coming from the banlieue is very difficult,” Nakamura told the audience at the ceremony, which she opened with a medley of her songs. She dedicated her awards – female artist of the year, pop album of the year, and international star of the year – “to all black women”.
Continue reading...Laurent Cantet, film-maker who tackled diversity and class in France, dies aged 63
Director of Palme d’Or-winning film Entre les Murs (The Class) was much praised for humanism in projects
Laurent Cantet, the award-winning film-maker whose creations tackled some of the most complex issues of modern French society, including meritocracy, the education system, diversity and class struggle, has died aged 63 after an illness.
Cantet was best known outside France for his film Entre les Murs (The Class), which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival in 2008. It depicted life inside the classroom of a secondary school in Paris’s diverse 20th arrondissement and the relationship between students – compellingly improvised by non-professional teenagers – and their at times exasperated teacher.
Continue reading...‘England is hope’: some say they will try again – despite Channel deaths
Attempt to cross via overcrowded dinghy from Wimereux aborted after engine stalls and five people drown
They could have been on a school trip. Fifty teenagers from Vietnam, dressed for the biting cold in puffer jackets, smart trainers and woolly beanies, sat on the pavement by the bus shelter outside Gare Calais listening to music and watching videos on their smartphones.
They were waiting for the 423 bus to take them back to a forest outside Dunkirk, where they have been staying at night with about a thousand others. It had been a disappointing morning for the group.
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