Court cites France’s constitution in ruling that only French is allowed in exercise of public office on Corsica
A court in Corsica has prompted outrage by banning the use of the Corsican language in the island’s local parliament.
The court in the city of Bastia cited France’s constitution it its ruling on Thursday that French was the only language allowed in the exercise of public office.
Continue reading...PM announces £500m package to stop people trying to cross Channel, after meeting Emmanuel Macron in Paris
Britain will help fund a detention centre in northern France as part of a £500m package to stop refugees trying to cross the Channel, Rishi Sunak has said, amid continuing criticism of his plans to lock up and deport those arriving in small boats.
After a meeting in Paris, Sunak and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said they had agreed joint funding for more French border patrols, including 500 additional officers and new drones.
Continue reading...Alternative für Deutschland leaders were among those lauding Sunak’s bill, while other EU figures raised doubts about its legality
European far-right leaders have praised Rishi Sunak’s illegal immigration bill, after a senior EU official repeated her doubts about the legality of the plans.
“Bravo,” wrote the Alternative für Deutschland party on social media. “Way to go! The current [British] government plans now to deny asylum to illegal immigrants and fly them out to Rwanda,” the party wrote on Facebook, saying Germany should follow this approach. “When will we finally have it?”
Continue reading...Paris gathering is first such UK-France summit in five years
Rishi Sunak and a series of his ministers are heading to Paris for a summit at which he will push Emmanuel Macron to assist him over Channel migrant crossings – but with little apparent chance of securing an immediate deal on returning people.
The gathering in Paris, the first such UK-France summit in five years, is also based around wider bilateral issues such as defence and Ukraine. However, for Sunak’s domestic focus, it seems set to be dominated by the issue of small boats.
Continue reading...Élysée sees moment as a turning of the page after a nightmare chapter in cross-Channel relations
As Emmanuel Macron prepares to welcomes Rishi Sunak to Paris’s Franco-British summit on Friday, the Élysée sees it as a “turning of the page” – the end of a nightmare chapter in cross-Channel relations.
The mood between France and the UK had in recent years plummeted to its worst state in decades with bitter rows over submarine contracts, fishing rights and who was to blame for the catastrophic deaths of people trying to reach the UK coast on small boats.
Continue reading...Protesters aim to ‘bring France to standstill’ as President Macron struggles to delay retirements by 2 years
Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in France on Tuesday as rail workers and refinery staff began rolling strikes and trade unions stepped up their campaign to try to stop Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the pension age to 64.
For the sixth time since the start of the year, trade unions called a nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations. Many protest rallies attracted bigger crowds than those organised since mid-January, including in Marseille, one of France’s biggest cities, authorities and local media said.
Continue reading...Geoffroy de Lagasnerie says focus on friendships over relationships or family is radical act in today’s society
Building your life around close friendships rather than family or romance is a joyous and necessary act of rebellion, and governments should put in place “friendship ministries” to radically rethink the way society is organised, a key French philosopher has argued.
Geoffroy de Lagasnerie this week publishes a manifesto for friendship, 3 Une Aspiration au Dehors, detailing his close friendship with two other writers, Didier Eribon and Édouard Louis. The three friends eat together in the evening, speak many times daily, wish each other goodnight and good morning every day and synch their schedules to make sure they prioritise friendship moments, namely meeting up for long chats. He described the friendship as the centre of their lives, “one long discussion that never ends”.
Continue reading...Decision means word cannot be restricted in US only for kind made originally in France or Switzerland
A US appeals court has ruled that the word “gruyere” is a common label for cheese and cannot be reserved just for the kind made originally in France or Switzerland.
The US does not have the same strict rules as Europe on the designation of origin for foods, said judges in the Richmond, Virginia-based US court of appeals for the fourth circuit.
Continue reading...Irish Ferries says all passengers and crew are accounted for after flames discovered in engine room
Three lifeboats and a French salvage tug were launched after a fire broke out on board a ferry in the Channel.
Irish Ferries, which owns the vessel, said all passengers and crew were safe and accounted for after flames were discovered in the engine room of the Isle of Innisfree at about 5:30pm on Friday. The ferry was about halfway across the Channel on a journey from Dover to Calais.
Continue reading...Boston Dynamics’ canine automatons steal show in Paris as maison stages modern fable, designers say
Welcome to the age of the super-robot.
With their impossible proportions, thousand-yard stares and supernatural ability to walk in 5in heels, catwalk models often appear a different species to regular humans.
But it was the models, including Kate Moss’s daughter Lila, who played the role of vulnerable, flesh and blood creatures at the Coperni fashion show in Paris, where they shared the stage with five robots.
Coperni partnered with Boston Dynamics for the first fashion show in which robots, rather than models, were the star turn.
As the lights went down, four pairs of green eyes began to flash in the darkness. When the “Spots” – Boston Dynamic’s robot canines, in tarantula stripes of yellow and black – stalked into the room, there was an audible collective intake of breath as each creature seemed to lock eyes with, and approach, an audience member.
Monarch will become first UK sovereign to address French senate and Bundestag on six-day trip
The king will make his first state visits to France and Germany, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
King Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, will travel to Paris and continue to Berlin during a six-day visit which begins on 26 March.
Continue reading...Drug with street value of £133m found in two batches of watertight packages
Sealed bags containing a total of 2.3 tonnes of cocaine have washed up on the northern French coast in the past few days, a source with knowledge of the find has said.
The drug was found in two batches of watertight packages on the Normandy coast, one on Sunday and one on Wednesday, the source told Agence France-Presse on Thursday.
Continue reading...Designer Julien Dossena thanks maison’s founder, who died last month, for his ‘radical expression’
In silver chainmail hoods and Perspex dresses, aluminium-foil suiting and gleaming white space boots, the faithful came to pay their respects. At the first Paco Rabanne catwalk show since the founder’s death last month at the age of 88, the loyal clients and fans who packed the front row alongside the eminent designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Nicolas Ghesquière mirrored a newly minted catwalk collection which was packed with dazzling silver and rustling tinsel in tribute to the futuristic fashion that made Rabanne famous.
Fake fur skirts and trousers made from shards of crystal rustled and shimmied in homage to Rabanne’s delight in fashioning clothes from unlikely materials. The delicate chainmail evening bags which have been a signature and house bestseller for decades made several appearances.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak lauded for making ‘adult relationship’ possible between UK and EU after post-Brexit dispute
Continental media have welcomed the deal settling the EU’s bitter post-Brexit dispute with the UK over Northern Ireland, hoping it may herald a new “adult relationship” that had been unthinkable while the “untrustworthy” Boris Johnson was in Downing Street.
In France, where the president, Emmanuel Macron, hailed “an important decision” that would “preserve the Good Friday agreement and protect our European internal market”, Le Monde called the Windsor framework a significant breakthrough.
Continue reading...Woman attacked in classroom at Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin school near Bordeaux
Police have arrested a 16-year-old pupil after a teacher was stabbed to death at a secondary school in south-west France.
The attack at the Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin, a Catholic private school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, near Bayonne, happened in a classroom when a teenager allegedly pulled a knife from his bag at about 10am on Wednesday and stabbed the 52-year-old woman once.
Continue reading...Moscow accused of attempting to source weapons parts through front companies in neighbouring states
A group of 10 EU member states have called for a crackdown on Russia’s attempts to source military parts through front companies in neighbouring countries, thereby evading western sanctions.
The 10 countries, which include France, Germany, Italy and the Baltic states, write that “2023 must be the year of success in countering circumvention”, warning that public support and international legitimacy of sanctions could wane if they are deemed ineffective.
Continue reading...Home Office rejects suggestions strikes by Border Force staff in Calais, Dunkirk, Dover and Coquelles impacting wait times
Children and teachers returning to the UK from half-term school trips have endured delays of more than six hours at Calais, amid strike action by Border Force staff.
P&O Ferries told customers that long wait times were “due to the queues at border control who are also on strike”, though the government rejected suggestions that industrial action was having an impact on wait times.
Continue reading...In Grasse, droughts, heatwaves, and excessive rainfall have made growing flowers increasingly difficult
When heatwaves used to hit the French town of Grasse, the perfume capital of the world, townspeople didn’t water their flowers. Instead, they marched along the town’s cobblestone streets, in a procession towards the church.
“They were calling for rain from the spirits,” says Carole Biancalana, a fourth-generation perfume flower producer whose grandmother participated in the rain ceremonies. “But I don’t think this procession would cut it in today’s climate.”
Continue reading...Case on alleged crimes by Gérald Marie in 1980s and 90s closed due to statute of limitations
French prosecutors have closed an investigation into possible rape and sexual assault by the model agency boss Gérald Marie, who was accused of a string of offences.
The Paris prosecutors’ office concluded that the alleged crimes in the 1980s and 1990s took place too long ago to be prosecuted under French law which sets time limits for offences to be tried in court.
Continue reading...Economic growth forecast to be 0.8% in 2023 but households still face cost of living pressures
The EU is predicted to narrowly avoid recession as a result of a milder-than-expected energy shock, although households face difficult times ahead as cost of living pressures ease only gradually, the European Commission has said.
Economic growth for the 27 countries of the EU is forecast to be 0.8% in 2023, compared with a 0.3% projection last autumn, when fears of winter power outages and the rising cost of living ran high. In the 20-country eurozone, the economy will expand by 0.9% in 2023, boosted by a better-than-expected performance in Germany and Italy, as well as relatively stronger growth in Spain.
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