Emmanuel Macron has banned Israeli companies from the Euronaval Salon defence fair in Paris next month
Israel’s foreign minister has announced he is taking “legal and diplomatic measures” against the decision by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to ban Israeli companies from showing their wares at an arms fair in Paris next month.
Israel Katz described the “boycott” as an anti-democratic measure that was “not acceptable, especially between friendly nations”.
Continue reading...Jean-Noël Barrot says Russian victory would ‘push the international order toward chaos’ as he backs negotiations
France’s foreign minister pledged his support for Ukraine’s plan for ending the war with Russia, telling reporters in Kyiv on Saturday that he would work with Ukrainian officials to secure other nations’ backing for the proposal.
Presented by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this week, Kyiv’s “victory plan” hopes to compel Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine through negotiations.
Continue reading...Researchers hope to uncover how people died and how diseases have developed over 1,000 years
Deep beneath the streets of Paris, the dead are having their last word. They are recounting 1,000 years of death in the city: how many are buried in the labyrinth of tunnels that make up Les Catacombes, what killed them and how the diseases that may have led to their demise have developed over the centuries.
In the first ever scientific study of the site, a team of archeologists, anthropologists, biologists and doctors is examining some of the skeletons of an estimated 5-6 million people whose bones were literally dumped down quarry shafts at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th.
Continue reading...World Without End topped bestseller lists but was criticised for embracing nuclear power
In 2019, France’s best known climate expert sat down to work with its most feted graphic novelist. The result? Perhaps the most terrifying comic ever drawn.
Part history, part analysis, part vision for the future, World Without End weaves the story of humanity’s rapacious appetite for fossil fuel energy, how it has made possible the society people take for granted, and its disastrous effects on the climate.
Continue reading...Motorist accused of deliberately targeting 27-year-old Paul Varry in road rage incident
A motorist accused of deliberately running over a cyclist in a Paris road rage incident has been formally put under investigation for murder and remanded in custody.
The 52-year-old SUV driver, named only as Ariel M, is accused of deliberately targeting the cyclist, who was named by the Paris public prosecutor’s office as Paul Varry, 27.
Continue reading...French authorities say 65 people rescued after overloaded boat sinks off coast of Wissant
A baby died after a boat carrying people in the Channel towards Britain capsized off the French coast, local coastguards have said.
Sixty-five people were rescued after the overloaded boat started to sink off the coast of Wissant, in northern France, on Thursday night. Some people were in the water when rescuers arrived. An unconscious baby found in the water was later declared dead.
Continue reading...Hail swath estimated at 120 miles damages crops in western Victoria as winds break windows and rip tiles from roofs
On Wednesday, the Australian state of Victoria was hit by thunderstorms. The town of Casterton was particularly badly affected, receiving 21mm of rain in just 30 minutes, followed by large hailstones.
Vehicles and properties were severely damaged, with reports of broken windows and tiles blown off roofs due to strong winds.
Continue reading...Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd organisation faces extradition to Japan after arrest in Nuuk in July
Paul Watson, the anti-whaling activist detained in Greenland and awaiting possible extradition to Japan, has appealed to Emmanuel Macron for political asylum in France.
Watson was detained in July after a Japanese request to Interpol over his confrontational tactics aimed at disrupting whaling operations in the Antarctic, and could face up to 15 years in prison if he is extradited and convicted.
Continue reading...Organisations assisting deserters hope France’s decision will lead to more soldiers fleeing war
Six Russian soldiers who fled the war in Ukraine have been granted temporary entry permits as they apply for political asylum in France, in what human rights activists describe as the first major case of a group of deserters being admitted to a EU country.
The men arrived in Paris on separate flights over the last few months after initially fleeing Russia to Kazakhstan in 2022 and 2023, according to an organisation that assists soldiers in fleeing, and to accounts from the deserters.
Continue reading...French far-right leader denies embezzling EU funds and compares European parliament to a ‘blob’
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has denied embezzling EU funds in a fake jobs scam when questioned in court for the first time, and used her appearance in the dock to attack the European parliament as a slow-moving, alien “blob”.
Le Pen is one of 27 members and employees of the party then known as the National Front (FN) who are on trial in Paris for allegedly using EU money to finance domestic political activities between 2006 and 2016.
Continue reading...French navy helicopter winched woman from the sea, but she was later pronounced dead
A woman has died after going overboard from a passenger ship off the Channel Islands.
The French coastguard said it received a distress message saying a woman in her 20s had gone overboard north of Les Casquets rocks, west of Alderney, shortly after midnight on Saturday. The woman went overboard from the Maltese-flagged cruise ship MSC Virtuosa.
Continue reading...Flooding is separate from typical US home insurance and many homeowners are not adequately covered
As millions of US residents begin working to file insurance claims on their homes in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, many could be denied, particularly if their homes were damaged by flooding.
A quirk in the US home insurance market is that flood insurance is separate from typical home insurance, which usually covers wind damage from hurricanes but not flooding. Homeowners must purchase flood insurance separately if they want their homes protected against flooding.
Continue reading...Ex-Australia rugby captain has been sentenced in his absence to five years in prison by a French court for misuse of corporate assets, lawyer says
An international arrest warrant has been issued against the former Australia rugby captain Rocky Elsom who was sentenced in his absence to five years in prison by a French court for misuse of corporate assets, a lawyer in the case told AFP.
Charges were brought after Elsom’s spell as president of French club Narbonne between 2015 and 2016.
Continue reading...Bill aims to find €60bn to plug deficit but opposition parties could demand concessions and even topple the administration
The new French government is facing its first major test in a hostile parliament as it tries to push through a budget of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy and big companies aimed at saving €60bn (£50bn) and reining in a ballooning fiscal deficit.
The rightwing prime minister, Michel Barnier – who was appointed last month by Emmanuel Macron in an attempt to end the political paralysis following an inconclusive snap election – said France was facing a debt crisis and had to act.
Continue reading...Hugely successful Netflix show has been a boon to French tourism but latest season takes events to Rome
It is shameless fantasy, from high heels on cobblestones to sanitised streets free of litter and dog poo, a suspiciously blue River Seine, no homelessness and a main character so cut off from reality that French media refer to her as “the overdressed American”.
But the hugely successful Netflix series Emily in Paris – for all its stereotyping about a Chicago marketing executive’s culture clashes in France – did bring hordes of tourists to the country, boost trade and increase inquiries to estate agents in the capital. So now its departure to Rome for series 5 has become a political issue, with the president, Emmanuel Macron, announcing he’ll fight hard to keep it in France.
Continue reading...Labour clamps down on poor working conditions at sea with laws on collective dismissal and minimum wage on cross-Channel ferries
Laws to ensure that the P&O Ferries mass sackings scandal can never recur will be laid before parliament this week as Labour clamps downs on poor working conditions at sea, with cruise and cargo ships also in its sights.
The transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said the new laws would close the loopholes exploited by P&O when it fired 800 crew without warning in 2022, and any company would now face unlimited fines for acting in such a way.
Continue reading...Police forces in France, Italy and Spain join cold-case initiative after launch last year of Operation Identify Me
Police have expanded a cold-case campaign aimed at identifying dozens of women who were murdered or who died in suspicious circumstances across Europe, taking in three new countries and more than doubling the number of cases.
The international policing organisation Interpol said on Tuesday that forces from France, Italy and Spain had joined those in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, which last year launched Operation Identify Me to help name 22 female victims.
Continue reading...Local people and businesses left ‘in lurch’ after council says it cannot afford to support or develop Alpe du Grand Serre
A large French Alpine ski resort has announced it is to close, citing a lack of funds to become a year-round destination, as low- and medium-altitude mountain areas around Europe struggle with a truncated season due to global heating and declining snowfalls.
Local councillors voted not to reopen Alpe du Grand Serre in the Isère this winter, saying they could no longer pay for the mountain lifts or pay to complete a programme to diversify as an all-year tourist destination.
Continue reading...Israeli prime minister turns on French counterpart’s continuing efforts towards a ceasefire and end to violence in Lebanon
A call by Emmanuel Macron for a halt in arms supplies to Israel for use in Gaza has been met with an angry rebuttal from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The French president’s comments were directed mainly at the US and were part of continuing French efforts to revive its call for a ceasefire in Lebanon.
Continue reading...Teenager alleged to have been recruited by prisoner who later called police to report him over killing of taxi driver
Marseille’s long-running drug turf wars are under a renewed spotlight after a 14-year-old boy was allegedly hired as a hitman via social media and promised €50,000 (£42,000) by a prisoner to carry out a revenge killing.
The teenager is alleged to have been recruited by the 23-year-old inmate who later called the police from his prison cell to report the boy after he allegedly shot dead a 36-year-old man.
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