Category Archives: France

Macron supports Nakamura’s ‘rightful place’ at Olympic opening ceremony

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French president in favour of singer opening the Games amid racist backlash from far-right politicians

Emmanuel Macron has said the French pop superstar Aya Nakamura would be in her rightful place performing at an opening ceremony for the Olympic Games this summer, after suggestions that she could sing an Édith Piaf song sparked a racist backlash against the singer.

Asked about Nakamura, who is the most listened to French-speaking artist in the world, Macron said it would be a “good thing” if she performed at an opening or closing ceremony.

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Girl, 14, left in coma after attack by teenagers outside school in France

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Three minors have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after incident in Montpellier

The French government has launched an urgent investigation after a 14-year-old girl was severely wounded and left in a coma after being beaten outside her school by three other teenagers in the south of France.

The three alleged attackers, including a girl who was at the same school as the victim in the suburbs of the southern city of Montpellier, have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a minor.

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Mystery tunnel discovered near Paris prison

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Tunnel under construction found near La Santé prison does not appear to be part of an escape plan, local official says

A mysterious tunnel under construction has been discovered near a prison in southern Paris during routine electrical works, although police sources said it did not appear to be part of an escape plan.

The discovery was made on Tuesday by a technician from Enedis, which manages the electricity distribution network in France, who was working “in a well for electrical connections” about 450 metres from La Santé prison, a police source said.

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Remains of missing French toddler Émile Soleil found in French Alps

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Bones were discovered near the hamlet of Le Vernet, close to where the boy went missing in 2023

French police are searching for clues to how a boy who disappeared eight months ago died after the discovery this weekend of his partial remains.

In a case that shocked France, Émile Soleil, aged two and a half, vanished in July while staying with his grandparents in a hamlet in the French Alps. A massive air and land search at the time found no trace of the child.

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Disneyland Paris conjures up bumper profits despite strikes

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Theme park generates $343.4m in profit for Hollywood giant as it shores up wider business amid weaker box office returns

Disney’s Parisian theme park complex has delivered a welcome boost to the embattled Hollywood giant, generating $343.4m (€317m) in profits and royalties despite a wave of strikes last summer.

Sales at Disneyland Paris – Europe’s most-visited tourist destination – were driven to record levels by higher room rates and the opening of a site built around Marvel’s hit Avengers movies.

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Sister of beheaded teacher accuses France of failing to protect school staff

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Mickaëlle Paty, whose brother Samuel was killed by an extremist, speaks out after Paris head resigns following alleged death threats

The sister of Samuel Paty, the French teacher beheaded by an Islamist terrorist in 2020, has accused the authorities of failing to appreciate or act on the continuing threat extremists pose to school staff.

Speaking after alleged death threats to a Paris headteacher, who resigned last week, Mickaëlle Paty said the state appeared to have learned little from her brother’s killing.

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Macron rekindles France-Brazil relationship in widely memed Lula visit

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Photos of French president’s three-day trip to Brazil to reaffirm countries’ partnership delight internet observers

If the official photos are anything to go by, Emmanuel Macron’s three-day trip to Brazil has been more romantic getaway than international diplomacy.

The French president, who ended his tour of the South American country on Thursday with a state visit to the capital, Brasília, prompted online hilarity after the publication of photos showing him being particularly chummy with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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French parliament backs bill to stop hair discrimination against black women

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Draft law, which also affects redheads, blond people, and those with dreadlocks now goes to senate

France’s lower house of parliament has backed a bill banning discrimination based on hairstyle, colour or texture, in a “historic” move supporters say will help penalise workplace discrimination.

Olivier Serva, an independent deputy for the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe who sponsored the bill, has argued that there is a lot of suffering based on hair discrimination, and that women of African descent in France were often encouraged to change their hairstyle before job interviews.

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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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