Category Archives: France

Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter launches awareness campaign for potential victims of drugging and sexual assault

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Campaign broadcast across France encourages people to come forward even if they have little to no memory of attack

Gisèle Pelicot is the figurehead of a new campaign run by her daughter to encourage people who suspect they have been drugged and sexually assaulted to come forward, even if they have little to no memory of the attack.

Caroline Darian, 47, who believes she was also drugged and assaulted by her father, Dominique Pelicot – her mother’s ex-husband – launched a primetime public information push on Monday across France’s television network, on social media, in the press and on posters.

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Three people dead, including a child, in attempt to cross Channel to UK

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Official says deaths – and dozens of injuries – were probably caused by crushing on boat carrying 105 people

A 10-year-old child and two women died ⁠attempting ​to cross the Channel on Monday, French authorities have said.

Their deaths and the injuries of dozens of others in a large dinghy were probably caused by crushing, according to a French official.

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Marine Le Pen hails RN senate surge as ‘milestone’ towards French presidency

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National Rally and allies gain record 14 seats and can form senate group for first time after indirect vote by local officials

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has said her 2027 presidential campaign will be boosted after her anti-immigration party, the National Rally (RN), and its allies improved to a record 14 seats in partial senate elections this weekend.

Le Pen called the results a “historic victory” and a “major milestone” after her party cleared the 10-seat threshold to be able to form a senate group for the first time, after an indirect vote by local officials including mayors and councillors.

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Pope Leo urges healing of ‘deep wounds’ before meeting child sexual abuse survivors in France

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Pontiff also uses visit to Catholic shrine at Lourdes to criticise assisted dying as ‘false compassion’

The pope has called on the Catholic church to heal “deep wounds” and “painful errors”, before a meeting with survivors of child sexual abuse as he continues his four-day visit to France.

Addressing a crowd in a large field near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called on the church to reckon with its past, without directly referencing sexual abuse scandals in France that affected at least 330,000 children over seven decades.

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Pope Leo celebrates open-air mass before 700,000 people in Paris

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Crowds line Place de la Concorde on second day of pontiff’s first official papal visit to France in 18 years

Hundreds of thousands of people lined the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in ⁠Paris on Saturday to attend an open-air mass with Pope Leo, on the second day of his visit to France.

The Vatican estimated 700,000 people turned out for the outdoor mass with the 71-year-old American pope – about 100,000 more than the number of people who had registered to attend.

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Drones could speed up getting defibrillators to people having cardiac arrests, study suggests

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New research suggests the technology could be used to increase out-of-hospital access to life-saving devices

Drones could help cut the time it takes to get a defibrillator to people experiencing cardiac arrests when not in hospital, researchers have suggested.

In the UK alone, there are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests a year where emergency medical services attempt to resuscitate the individual, according to the British Heart Foundation. However, fewer than one in 10 people survive such an event, and some who do are left with neurological problems.

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Novelist accused of using AI to write book removed from French prize list

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Thélyson Orélien had been in the running to win a top literary prize before the AI claim emerged on social media

The organisers of France’s most prestigious literary prize said they had removed a critically acclaimed novel by a Canadian-Haitian writer from the longlist after an anonymous online account claimed the book was “almost entirely” written by AI.

The Académie Goncourt, a Paris-based literary organisation, said on Friday its decision to withdraw Thélyson Orélien’s novel C’était ça ou mourir (It Was That or Die) was “driven by the desire to preserve the integrity of the Goncourt prize and the academy itself, whose central role is to promote and honour literature written by women and men”.

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Pope Leo warns of AI threat to humanity at start of three-day France visit

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Pontiff says artificial intelligence must remain at service of people in first official papal visit to country in 18 years

Pope Leo has warned against losing humanity in a “paradise of machines” as he addressed global concerns over the dangers of artificial intelligence at the start of a three-day visit to France.

“If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for people to be educated in ethical discernment, capable of seeing what is morally right,” he said in a speech at the Élysée.

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Tall, dark and hated: plan to renovate ‘Paris’s ugliest building’ put on hold

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Tour Montparnasse modernisation project at a standstill after clashes over pricing and other issues

It has been called a carbuncle on the Paris skyline, a sombre skyscraper where visitors to its viewing platform often joke that the city looks better when you can’t see the building itself.

The much-maligned Tour Montparnasse, a lone, dark monolith with tinted windows rising above a historic neighbourhood in the south of the city, is once again at the centre of controversy after its long-awaited renovation was halted this week because of disagreements between its many private co-owners.

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EU removes two oligarchs from Russia sanctions list as deadline looms

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Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman delisted in what Ireland’s EU presidency calls ‘a difficult compromise’ for the bloc

The EU has agreed to remove two Russian billionaires, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, from its sanctions list, while extending restrictions on nearly 3,000 individuals and companies accused of supporting the war on Ukraine for the next three years.

With an end-of-Tuesday deadline looming to preserve the Russia blacklist, the EU’s 27 member states found a compromise that meant delisting the two oligarchs in spite of very few countries wanting this outcome. EU sanctions have to be approved unanimously.

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Brigitte Bardot’s personal items sell for nearly €1m at auction in Paris

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Dog collars, guitars and self-portraits among 285 objects, with money going to her animal welfare foundation and son

An auction of the French film star turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot’s personal items has fetched nearly €1m (£858,000, US$1.15m, A$1.61m) in Paris, almost 20 times the estimate, according to the auction house Millon.

A total of 285 objects were auctioned, ranging from straw hats, sunglasses and nightgowns to tableware and furniture from Bardot’s homes in Paris and Saint-Tropez, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

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Macron and Carney announce closer France-Canada ties amid Trump tensions

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Two leaders meet in French territory off Canada as Ottawa seeks stronger relations with EU while fighting trade war with US

The leaders of France and Canada have pledged closer ties to grapple with rising geopolitical tensions, climate change and the erosion of democratic values, after ⁠they met in a ⁠French territory off Canada’s Atlantic coast.

The two leaders’ visit to Saint-Pierre ​and Miquelon – the first by a French president since 2014 and the first by a Canadian prime minister – came just weeks ⁠after Donald Trump posted an image showing the islands, as well as all of Canada and other countries in North America, covered by the US flag.

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Former French culture minister goes on trial over corruption charges

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Rachida Dati accused of lobbying for carmaker Renault-Nissan when she was member of European parliament

Rachida Dati, a former French culture minister, has gone on trial in Paris on corruption charges linked to dealings with the Renault-Nissan carmaking group.

Dati, 60, is accused of illegal lobbying when she accepted €900,000 (£770,000) in lawyer’s fees from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault-Nissan while she was a member of the European parliament. The court will have to decide what the money was for.

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UK paying £56,000 for each person returned to France under ‘one in one out’ scheme

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Home secretary defends cost, saying it is about the same or cheaper than putting someone up in a hotel for a year

The government’s “one in, one out” deal is costing about £56,000 for every person sent back to France, Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.

The home secretary disclosed the figure as she was questioned by the home affairs select committee over whether the scheme was delivering value for taxpayers.

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UK paying £56,000 for each person returned to France under ‘one in one out’ scheme

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Home secretary defends cost, saying it is about the same or cheaper than putting someone up in a hotel for a year

The government’s “one in, one out” deal is costing about £56,000 for every person sent back to France, Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.

The home secretary disclosed the figure as she was questioned by the home affairs select committee over whether the scheme was delivering value for taxpayers.

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UK paying £56,000 for each person returned to France under ‘one in one out’ scheme

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Home secretary defends cost, saying it is about the same or cheaper than putting someone up in a hotel for a year

The government’s “one in, one out” deal is costing about £56,000 for every person sent back to France, Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.

The home secretary disclosed the figure as she was questioned by the home affairs select committee over whether the scheme was delivering value for taxpayers.

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UK paying £56,000 for each person returned to France under ‘one in one out’ scheme

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Home secretary defends cost, saying it is about the same or cheaper than putting someone up in a hotel for a year

The government’s “one in, one out” deal is costing about £56,000 for every person sent back to France, Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.

The home secretary disclosed the figure as she was questioned by the home affairs select committee over whether the scheme was delivering value for taxpayers.

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UK paying £56,000 for each person returned to France under ‘one in one out’ scheme

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Home secretary defends cost, saying it is about the same or cheaper than putting someone up in a hotel for a year

The government’s “one in, one out” deal is costing about £56,000 for every person sent back to France, Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.

The home secretary disclosed the figure as she was questioned by the home affairs select committee over whether the scheme was delivering value for taxpayers.

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UK paying £56,000 for each person returned to France under ‘one in one out’ scheme

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Home secretary defends cost, saying it is about the same or cheaper than putting someone up in a hotel for a year

The government’s “one in, one out” deal is costing about £56,000 for every person sent back to France, Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.

The home secretary disclosed the figure as she was questioned by the home affairs select committee over whether the scheme was delivering value for taxpayers.

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Tuesday briefing: How to understand Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland’s joint call for change

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In today’s newsletter: Plaid Cymru, the SNP and Sinn Féin have signed an agreement for greater powers, as pressure grows on Westminster over the UK’s future

Good morning. Back in May, the shape of British politics shifted dramatically. I’ll forgive you if you were too preoccupied refreshing Andrew Sparrow’s live blog for the latest speculation about Keir Starmer to notice, but since 7 May, centre-left nationalist parties that ultimately aspire to leave the UK have been in government for the first time simultaneously in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

This week sees the initial codification of that shift. In Cardiff yesterday, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, Scottish National party leader John Swinney and Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill (who shares power with the Democratic Unionist party) affirmed their countries’ right to seek independence from the UK. Along with the leader of the opposition in Ireland, Mary Lou McDonald, they signed a memorandum of understanding that called on Westminster “to prepare, plan and facilitate constitutional change in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland”. And they posed for a fair number of group photos too.

Reform UK | Andy Burnham’s government could thwart Reform’s unprecedented £72m donations with retrospective restrictions on political donors that will include tough new residency requirements, ministers have announced.

AI | Donald Trump has dismissed calls to increase controls on AI as a “sick conspiracy”, as stocks linked to the technology slumped after appeals from Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX leaders on the weekend for the industry to slow down.

Nato | Nato fighter jets shot down a drone over Lithuania after an alert was issued in the ‌capital and surrounding region, while Poland scrambled fighter jets less than a day after retrieving a suspected Russian drone adrift in its waters.

Middle East | Yemen’s Houthi rebels have seized two strategic islands in the Red Sea, reinforcing the Iran-backed group’s ability to control a key shipping route, as concerns mount that the world is facing a new oil supply crisis.

Lucy Letby | Two leading experts have quit Lucy Letby’s defence team over concerns about the “scientific credibility” of some of its evidence.

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