Category Archives: France

West African leaders to meet after Niger junta defies deadline

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Ecowas to hold talks on Thursday as west African country ignores demands to reinstate ousted president

The West African bloc Ecowas will meet on Thursday to discuss the coup in Niger, as cracks appeared in its unity and the military junta in Niamey refused to cave in to international pressure to stand down.

The announcement that the Economic Community of West African States would gather in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, came hours after the coup leaders ignored a deadline to reinstate the ousted president after the power grab on 26 July – a move the bloc had earlier warned could lead it to authorise a military intervention.

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Military intervention in Niger is ‘last resort’, says west African bloc

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Defence chiefs demand reinstatement of president after coup, which triggered exodus of foreign nationals

Defence heads from west Africa’s regional political and security bloc have said a military intervention in junta-ruled Niger was “the last resort”, as European countries continued to evacuate foreign nationals after last week’s coup against its democratically elected president.

The 15-nation regional bloc Ecowas – the Economic Community of West African States – has threatened to use force to put down the coup in Niger after giving an ultimatum to those behind it to restore Mohamed Bazoum as president and reinstate the constitution and democratic institutions.

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France begins evacuating its citizens and other Europeans from Niger

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Airlift follows coup that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum, as tensions grow between the two countries

France has started evacuating its citizens and other Europeans from Niger, days after a junta toppled the president, Mohamed Bazoum, and seized power in the west African country.

Tensions between Niger and former colonial power France have escalated after the coup on 26 July overthrew one of the last pro-western leaders in Africa’s Sahel region. France’s decision to swiftly evacuate its citizens goes further than its reaction to putsches in recent years in the other former French colonies of Mali and Burkina Faso, where French citizens were not evacuated after military coups.

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Armed robbers escape with up to €15m in jewellery from Piaget store in Paris

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Investigation under way after theft at Swiss luxury watch shop on Rue de la Paix in high-end Place Vendôme area

Armed robbers have raided a store of the luxury Swiss watch brand Piaget in central Paris, escaping with between €10m to €15m ( £8.5m to 12.8m) worth of jewellery, the Paris prosecutors office said.

The robbery took place around lunchtime on Tuesday at the store on the Rue de la Paix in the high-end Place Vendôme area, home to several jewellers, watchmakers and luxury brands. The area has seen a spate of armed robberies in recent years.

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British woman among three killed in French motorway collision

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Miriam Posen, from London, killed in three-vehicle crash on A26 that left five others in a critical condition

A British woman has died along with two other people in a three-car collision on a motorway in northern France.

More than 65 firefighters and nine ambulances attended the crash on Sunday evening, which involved eight children and involved a British nine-seater family vehicle and two other cars on the A26 near Neuville-Saint-Vaast and Thélus.

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Niger coup leaders accuse France of plotting military intervention

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Junta that seized power claims Paris is aiming to reinstate deposed president as regional tensions grow

The military junta that seized power in Niger has accused France of plotting military intervention to reinstate the deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, as tensions in the region continued to grow in the wake of the coup.

The junta said on national TV that France was searching “for ways and means to intervene militarily in Niger” and had held a meeting with the chief of staff of Niger’s national guard “to obtain the necessary political and military authorisation”.

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French climber dies in suspected fall during ‘stunt’ at Hong Kong high-rise

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Remi Lucidi, 30, who had a large social media following, found dead on a patio at apartment block

A man identified as the French climber Remi Lucidi has been found dead in Hong Kong and is believed to have fallen from a high-rise building while attempting a stunt.

Police said the body of a 30-year-old man believed to have engaged in extreme sports was found on a patio of an apartment block in the city’s Mid-Levels area. He was named in local media as Lucidi, who had gained a large social media following under the name “Remi Enigma” as he posted photographs from tall structures around the world.

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Niger coup leader calls for support amid claims he is now head of state

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Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani appeals to governments who backed democratically elected Mohamed Bazoum

Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani, the Nigerien military leader behind the coup against the country’s democratically elected president, has been declared head of state by soldiers backing him as he made a televised address calling for support.

Tchiani, the head of Niger’s presidential guard, which first acted against President Mohamed Bazoum on Wednesday, identified himself as the leader of the group of soldiers behind the coup.

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Jim Ratcliffe’s charity cleared by regulator after preliminary investigation

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Foundation set up by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the UK’s richest person, had provided funding for a luxury clubhouse at ski club

The Charity Commission has closed a preliminary investigation into concerns about governance at a charity set up by the UK’s richest person, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, which helped fund a £16m luxury clubhouse for an exclusive French Alps club where he and his daughter have skied for years.

The UK charity watchdog announced on Thursday that it had closed its “regulatory compliance case” into the Jim Ratcliffe Foundation after finding that “the charity’s activities further its purposes and that there is no further role for the regulator”.

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Arrest of French publisher in London referred to police watchdog

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Report says detention of Ernest Moret was wrong after he was held for almost 24 hours by counter-terrorist police

The arrest in London of a radical French publisher under counter-terrorist powers has been referred to the police watchdog after the reviewer of terrorism legislation found that it was wrong.

Ernest Moret, 28, was held for almost 24 hours by counter-terrorist police and asked about his opinion of Emmanuel Macron and participation in anti-Macron protests after he arrived at St Pancras station in April for a book fair.

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Investigation over fund for French policeman who shot dead teenager

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Prosecutors look into GoFundMe collection set up by far-right commentator for officer whose action sparked nationwide riots

French prosecutors have opened an investigation into an online collection for a policeman who shot a teenager dead in a Paris suburb in late June sparking nationwide riots.

The initiative on GoFundMe.com, launched by far-right media commentator Jean Messiha, received pledges of more than €1.6m (£1.4m) before it was closed in early July.

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France clamps down on dangerous drivers with new ‘road killing’ offence

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No tougher penalties announces for offence formerly known as involuntary homicide by a driver

The French government has announced a clampdown on people who drive while unfit, months after a crash involving a high-profile comedian accused of drug-driving.

The prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, announced the creation of a new offence, of causing a “road killing”, specifically aimed at those who are unfit to be behind the wheel.

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Cage director banned from France as ‘threat to public order’

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Human rights campaigner Muhammad Rabbani accused of spreading conspiracy theories about ‘Islamophobic persecution’

The director of the campaign group Cage was detained in Paris for almost 24 hours last week and then sent back to London after the French government accused him of spreading conspiracy theories about “Islamophobic persecution”.

In 2020, Cage, which campaigns on behalf of communities affected by the “war on terror”, overturned a French travel ban for its director, Muhammad Rabbani. But on arrival in Paris last Tuesday for meetings with French journalists and civil society leaders, Rabbani was told that the interior ministry had imposed a new travel ban preventing him from entering the country. He was questioned and then sent back on a flight to London.

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Jane Birkin, actor and singer, dies aged 76

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Best known for the sexually explicit 1969 hit Je t’aime … moi non plus, her adopted France took her to its heart

France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, the British-born singer and actor Jane Birkin, has died at her home in Paris aged 76.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Birkin, saying she “embodied freedom and sang the most beautiful words in our language”.

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French film-maker’s family fight to keep link to chateau that inspired his stories

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Marcel Pagnol based his famous movies on a Provencal manor he’d known as a child. Now his legacy is at risk, says his grandson

In 1941 the French novelist, playwright and film-maker Marcel Pagnol bought a chateau in a Provençal valley outside Marseille on the advice of his solicitor without even seeing it.

He proposed to transform the property into a “cinema city”, a French Hollywood set in the hills and lavender fields of southern France where he had holidayed as a child.

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Stitch in time: France to help pay for clothes to be mended to cut waste

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People will be able to claim back €6-€25 of cost of repairing clothes and shoes in latest environmental measure

A broken heel, a rip in trousers, buttons missing from a shirt? Don’t throw them away if you live in France, where the government will pay a “repair bonus” to have them mended in a new scheme aimed at cutting waste.

An estimated 700,000 tonnes of clothing is thrown away in France every year, two-thirds ending up in landfill.

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French policing called into question again after brutal arrest at peaceful march

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Youssouf Traoré in hospital after being tackled to ground at rally in memory of his brother, as government bans fireworks for Bastille Day

A brutal arrest during a peaceful march against police violence has again put French law and order under the spotlight, as the government, fearing further unrest, banned fireworks outside authorised displays during the Bastille Day holiday weekend.

Amid continuing tensions after rioting sparked by last month’s fatal shooting of a teenager, police faced further accusations of brutality on Sunday when video emerged of the arrest of the brother of a black man who died in custody seven years ago.

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Seine to open for public swimming after Paris Olympics, mayor says

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Three monitored river bathing zones in the French capital will open in 2025, said the mayor, Anne Hidalgo

A quarter of a century after the late president Jacques Chirac promised Parisians they would be able to swim in the Seine within three years, the French capital’s mayor has confirmed three river bathing areas are to open in the city in 2025.

The sites – opposite the central Île Saint-Louis in the centre, by the Quai de Grenelle in the 15th arrondissement to the west, and at Bercy in the eastern 12th arrondissement – will be monitored by lifeguards and marked by buoys, Anne Hidalgo said on Sunday.

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French officials ban Paris march for black man who died in police custody

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Annual rally in memory of Adama Traoré had been moved to Paris after it was banned in Val-d’Oise

The French authorities have banned people from marching in central Paris to honour Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody in 2016.

After a court challenge to overrule a ban on the march being held in the Val-d’Oise, north-west of Paris, failed on Friday, organisers announced it would take place instead at Place de la Républic in the capital.

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Macron accused of authoritarianism after threat to cut off social media

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Élysée insists French president not advocating general blackout as ministers say rioters using platforms to organise violence

Emmanuel Macron is facing a backlash after threatening to cut off social media networks as a means of stopping the spread of violence during periods of unrest.

Élysée officials and government ministers responded on Wednesday by insisting the president was not threatening a “general blackout” but instead the “occasional and temporary” suspension of platforms.

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