US rapper will conclude torch’s relay through Saint-Denis and Olympic Village to mark start of 33rd Games
Snoop Dogg will carry the Olympic torch through the final stages when it passes through Paris before the opening ceremony on Friday.
The US rapper will be hoping he won’t Drop It Like It’s Hot when he holds the torch in Saint-Denis to mark the start of the 33rd Games.
Continue reading...France’s president says delay is to avoid disorder, after leftist coalition announces Lucie Castet as its pick to become PM
Emmanuel Macron has said he will maintain the country’s centrist caretaker government until the end of the Olympic Games in mid-August to avoid disorder, dismissing an effort by a leftwing alliance to name a prime minister.
His announcement in a TV interview came shortly after the leftist coalition that won the most votes in this month’s parliamentary elections selected the little-known civil servant Lucie Castets as its choice for prime minister.
Continue reading...Australian chef de mission Anna Meares says athletes have been advised to take care outside Olympic village after reports of assault
Olympic team officials have been briefed on the alleged sexual assault of an Australian woman in Paris.
French police are investigating the allegation that the tourist was sexually assaulted by five men, according to local media.
Continue reading...The picturesque Ile-de-Bréhat follows major cities such as Amsterdam and Venice with measures to reduce visitors
A small, picturesque island off the north coast of Brittany has imposed a summer tourist quota in an effort to ensure visitors have a more enjoyable experience and its 400-odd permanent residents do not feel swamped.
From this week until 23 August, the number of people allowed on to Ile-de-Bréhat – excluding local people, second homeowners and workers – between 8.30am and 2.30pm must not exceed 4,700, said the island’s mayor, Olivier Carré.
Continue reading...Thomas Portes accused of ‘putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes’ with remarks at protest against Gaza war
An MP for the radical-left France Unbowed party has sparked outrage after saying Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics and calling for protests against their presence.
Citing Israel’s war in Gaza, Thomas Portes told a pro-Palestinian gathering in Paris on Saturday: “We are just a few days away from an international event to be held in Paris, the Olympic Games. And I’m here to say that no, the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris. We have to use this deadline and all the levers we have to mobilise.”
Continue reading...2024 Games organiser Tony Estanguet tells how chats with British sporting legend Sebastian Coe have kept him on an even keel
It has to feel pretty weird. You’re in charge of the biggest event your country’s ever organised. You have worked on it to the exclusion, basically, of everything else in your life, for very nearly a decade. And now – it’s a week away.
“It’s a very strange feeling,” confirms Tony Estanguet, head of the 2024 Olympic Games organising committee. “I come from this small town in south-west France. My sport is a very minor one. It’s been … quite a ride. But here I am. And now, well, here we all are.”
Continue reading...Violence erupts after about 4,000 gather in La Rochelle amid heightened tensions over water resources
A police officer and five protesters were injured when violence erupted after about 4,000 people turned out for a demonstration in La Rochelle over the use of reservoirs to supply large-scale agriculture, local officials said.
Police fired teargas and brought in water cannon trucks and reinforcements to disperse the demonstrators after the unrest broke out on Saturday afternoon, with several shop fronts smashed and at least seven people arrested.
Continue reading...Police say Serbian man detained near Paris after 74-year-old Ian Cameron was stabbed to death at home in Germany
The alleged killer of a British former Rolls-Royce designer who was stabbed to death at his home in Bavaria last week has been arrested outside Paris after a Europe-wide search, German police said. A motive was not immediately established.
Ian Cameron, 74, was attacked with a knife on 12 July and fatally wounded. A Serbian citizen, 22, was identified as the prime suspect based on tips from the public, the Fürstenfeldbruck police department said.
Continue reading...Vote for centrist MP Yaël Braun-Pivet marks first step out of governing limbo since snap elections left country divided
French lawmakers have re-elected a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist bloc as president of parliament’s lower house, a possible breakthrough in attempts to form a majority amid deadlock.
French politics have been in gridlock after a snap election this month left the country without any clear path to forming a new government as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games.
Continue reading...PM wants to rethink UK’s immigration policies but did not make progress on returns deal at summit with EU leaders
Keir Starmer is looking into plans to process asylum seekers outside the UK as part of a rethink of the government’s immigration policies, even as a returns agreement with the EU appears more distant than ever.
The prime minister said on Thursday he was open to the idea of Britain processing claims offshore, after a day spent discussing illegal migration with fellow European leaders at Blenheim Palace. Those talks, as part of the European Political Community summit, included a meeting with Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, whose country processes asylum claims on behalf of Italy.
Continue reading...French and British coastguards rescued a further 71 people who had tried to cross in an overcrowded dinghy on Wednesday
A person has died trying to cross the Channel to reach Britain in an overcrowded dinghy, French officials have said.
A further 71 people were rescued after the vessel deflated off Gravelines on France’s northern coast on Wednesday, the regional maritime police authority said in a statement.
Continue reading...Anne Hidalgo fulfils pledge after cleanup operation makes water quality safe enough to host events at Games
It has been the dream and promise of Paris mayors for decades and a nightmare for Olympic organisers: could the Seine be cleaned up enough to swim in and hold triathlon and other events?
For the last 100 years and up until a few days ago, the answer seemed to be no.
Continue reading...A week after election, unity in NFP has fractured with LFI suspending talks with other alliance members
The leftwing coalition that won most seats in France’s snap general election is facing division after its leading party said it was suspending negotiations with the others over a failure to agree on a prime minister.
Just one week after the election, the fragile unity within the New Popular Front (NFP) fractured on Monday when France Unbowed (LFI) accused the Socialist party (PS) of “unacceptable methods” in vetoing suggestions over who should lead any new administration.
Continue reading...The new national assembly meets this week, but what will happen if the three almost equal political blocs cannot agree on a prime minister?
One week after a snap general election that nobody won, and two weeks before it welcomes the world for the Olympic Games, France is still without a new prime minister or government and in political chaos.
As the French celebrate Bastille Day, the national 14 July holiday, the squabbling and stalemate between the three groupings that took the most seats but failed to secure a parliamentary majority continued with warnings that it could be two months before a solution is found.
Continue reading...Officials in Mendoza say players met the victim at a nightclub and violently assaulted her in a hotel room
Prosecutors in Argentina have charged two French rugby players with aggravated rape, in the grisly case of a woman who said she was repeatedly assaulted by the athletes after they took her back to their hotel room and prevented her from leaving.
The prosecutor’s office in the western city of Mendoza – where the alleged assault took place last Sunday following the French team’s test match against the Argentinian Pumas – ordered the two players, Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, to remain in detention until trial.
After being arrested in Buenos Aires, Jegou, 21, and Auradou, 20, were transferred 1,000km (620 miles) to Mendoza on Thursday for their first court appearance. They chose not to testify in Friday’s hearing.
The French Rugby Federation had previously said that the players admitted to having consensual sex with the alleged victim and denied any acts of violence.
The prosecutors said the court would soon decide whether to grant the defendants’ request for house arrest.
The account of the assault – provided by Natacha Romano, the lawyer of the victim – has drawn outrage in France and caused a stir in Argentina, where recent scandals involving professional athletes have prompted questions within the greater sports community about misogyny and sexual violence.
The woman says that after meeting the players at a nightclub, she was taken to their hotel room and subjected to violent, non-consensual sexual acts and prevented from leaving. After escaping the hotel room, Romano said the victim filed a police complaint and underwent physical examinations.
The charges of aggravated sexual assault in Argentina carry the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The mandatory minimum is eight years.
Authorities said that they would move the defendants to another jail later on Friday.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Continue reading...At least 56 people survive after early morning rescue involving French coastguard, navy boat and helicopter
Four people died overnight trying to cross the Channel to reach Britain, French officials have said.
A rescue operation took place off Boulogne-sur-Mer on France’s northern coast after reports of people in the sea. Four of those pulled from the sea had drowned.
Continue reading...Analysis by Dutch researchers shows coordinated activity in France, Germany and Italy in run-up to ballot
Coordinated networks of accounts spreading disinformation “flooded” social media in France, Germany and Italy before the elections to the European parliament, Dutch researchers have found.
After an in-depth analysis of disinformation on the platform X in four EU countries, the researchers concluded that many of the accounts had been set up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but were cranked up in the weeks and days before the vote, with growth in their numbers of followers rocketing.
Continue reading...Marine Tondelier, whose party forms part of the election-winning New Popular Front, says politics must change to regain voters’ trust
The French Green leader, Marine Tondelier, has said the risk of the far right rising to power in France has not disappeared after the snap election, and politics must urgently change to regain voters’ trust.
“It was a warning,” Tondelier said of this month’s election, where a spectacular rush of tactical voting in the final round held back Marine Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigration National Rally. The RN’s first-round surge had brought it the closest it had ever been to a parliament majority and entering government.
Continue reading...City authorities say blaze in spire contained after plume of smoke seen rising from 12th-century gothic building
Firefighters in the Normandy city of Rouen have managed to bring a fire in its world-famous gothic cathedral under control, calming fears of another disaster at one of France’s architectural jewels five years after the devastation of Notre Dame.
Initial television images showed a dark plume of smoke rising from the cathedral spire and people in the streets below looking up in horror.
Continue reading...Snap election brings three roughly equal blocs and unwillingness to compromise or form ‘unnatural alliances’
Sweden has been run by coalitions since the 1970s, Germany has not known single-party government since 1961 and in Italy, multiparty rule has been the norm since the early 1940s. The Netherlands was last run by just one party in 1879.
In France, however, political leaders from left and right have lined up to rule out a coalition government after Sunday’s snap election produced a parliament of three roughly equal blocs – none with a majority, and all with wildly differing platforms.
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