The country’s total refinery output has been reduced by more than 60% over the past two weeks
Long tailbacks of vehicles continued to grow outside French service stations on Sunday as petrol supply was hit by pay strikes at refineries run by the oil giants, TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil.
The leftwing CGT union is leading a refinery workers’ strike for better pay during the cost-of-living crisis, and for a share of companies’ high profits.
Continue reading...Kunti Kamara charged with torture, cannibalism and complicity in crimes against humanity during civil war between 1989 and 1996
A former Liberian rebel commander will go on trial in Paris on Monday charged with acts of barbarity including torture, cannibalism, forced labour and complicity in crimes against humanity during the country’s first civil war more than 25 years ago.
It is the first trial in France of a non-Rwandan suspect accused of wartime atrocities since the special crimes against humanity tribunal was set up in Paris in 2012.
Continue reading...French auction house tells of build-up to bidding war that led to an expert losing his job and a seller being left ‘traumatised’
In the 41 years of wielding the gavel at his auction house a stone’s throw from the royal chateau at Fontainebleau, Jean-Pierre Osenat has never seen anything like it.
“This is a crazy story,” he said. “Quite extraordinary.”
Continue reading...Sotheby’s describes 17th-century Cervantes editions as a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for collectors
One day in the early 1930s, a young Bolivian diplomat named Jorge Ortiz Linares walked into the illustrious Maggs Bros bookshop in London to ask if they might have a particularly fine edition of Don Quixote for sale.
But even for Ortiz Linares – a dedicated bibliophile who also happened to be the son-in-law of Simón Patiño, the Bolivian tin magnate nicknamed the Andean Rockefeller – the answer was a polite no.
Continue reading...Celebrities including Juliette Binoche and Marion Cotillard stage protest after death of Mahsa Amini
More than 50 high-profile French women have filmed themselves cutting their hair in support of Iranian women and girls who have been killed in protests at the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by Iranian morality police.
They include some of the best-known names of French cinema; Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, Isabelle Adjani and Isabelle Huppert, as well as the Belgian singer Angèle. The British-born singer Jane Birkin – who is filmed with her daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg – and actor Charlotte Rampling, both of whom live in France, and Julie Gayet, wife of former French president François Hollande, were also shown cutting their hair “for freedom”.
Continue reading...Iconic ticket on one-way trip to transport history as city opts for payment by travelcards and mobiles
It has inspired French film-makers and songwriters, proven useful to cannabis smokers and aestheticians and served as an emergency bookmark or jotter – but now the Paris Métro ticket has reached the end of the line.
The city’s public transport authority is phasing out the rectangular pieces of cardboard that have kept the capital’s travellers on the move for the past 120 years.
Continue reading...French president’s ‘right-hand man’ allegedly failed to reveal family ties to public investment agency
The top official in Emmanuel Macron’s office has been charged with a conflict of interest.
The move against Alexis Kohler, who holds one of France’s most powerful jobs as Élysée secretary general, came hours after another ally of the French president, the justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, was ordered to stand trial in a separate case, also over a conflict of interest.
Continue reading...North Africa analysts believe new leader Ibrahim Traoré may seek help from Moscow in fight against Islamic extremists
Russian mercenaries may be poised for further expansion in Africa’s strategically important Sahel region after the latest coup d’etat in the region, western officials and analysts fear.
Ibrahim Traoré, a 34-year-old army captain, took power in Burkina Faso on Friday, overthrowing Lt Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, whom he accused of failing to effectively counter rising violence by Islamic extremists in the unstable and poverty-stricken country.
Continue reading...Tianqiuping-style porcelain sells for nearly 4,000 times its estimated value after buyers are convinced it is a rare artefact
An “ordinary” Chinese vase put up for auction in France and valued at €2,000 (£1,745) has sold for almost €8m after a ferocious bidding war among buyers convinced it was a rare 18th-century artefact.
At the sale in Fontainebleau near Paris, auctioneers were astonished as the offers from about 30 mainly Chinese bidders kept on coming. When the hammer fell the vase had been sold for €7.7m – almost 4,000 times its estimated value. With the seller’s fees, the final purchase price was €9.12m.
Continue reading...U-turn comes after months of protests over scheme that would have meant loss of mature trees
The Paris mayor’s office has abandoned plans for new buildings around the foot of the Eiffel Tower after months of protests from environmentalists and a petition signed by nearly 150,000 people.
Under the scheme, about 20 mature trees would have been cut down and four new buildings housing a cafe, shops, toilets and baggage drop-off constructed.
Continue reading...Burgundy insect farm ramps up production to offer a meat-free future
In a box-like building on an out-of-town industrial estate in Burgundy, trays of Alphitobius diaperinus – otherwise known as the lesser mealworm – are being fattened up by robots then cooked, dried and turned into protein-rich powder and oil.
This is the headquarters of Ÿnsect a French company that is building the world’s largest insect farm, to open at the end of the year in preparation for what the French company believes will be a large increase in demand for a healthy alternative to meat.
Continue reading...Parentless labels reveal collections, with Miyake’s fluid inventions repurposed for 2023
What happens to a fashion house after its founder dies? If you’re Issey Miyake and Off White, two labels made parentless in the past 12 months, you carry on making collections in their name while peering through the sartorial looking-glass as you figure out what to do next.
Closing was never an option for Issey Miyake. The first Japanese designer to crack Paris fashion week, Miyake’s name was already a byword for cutting-edge style and Steve Jobs polo necks when he died in August aged 84. Miyake had not designed at his label since 2020 (Satoshi Kondo is the current creative director) but his fingerprints have always been all over the label’s collections.
Continue reading...Salah Hamouri stages protest against being imprisoned without charge for the last six months
A prominent Palestinian-French human rights lawyer has gone on hunger strike in protest against his imprisonment without charge by Israeli authorities for the last six months.
Salah Hamouri, 37, a father of two from occupied East Jerusalem, has been held in administrative detention since 7 March, and his detention order has been renewed until at least early December based on undisclosed evidence.
Continue reading...€3 charge aims to gives independent booksellers a chance against e-commerce firms that use free delivery loophole
France’s crusade to protect independent booksellers against huge online retailers was stepped up on Friday as the government proposed a €3 (£2.66) minimum delivery fee for all online book orders of less than €35.
The government’s fixed fee for online deliveries is part of a quest to support independent bookshops against the domination of big tech firms, such as Amazon.
Continue reading...From Melbourne to Paris, New York to Delhi, the solemn events in London resonated around the globe
As the doors to Westminster Abbey opened to allow guests to take their seats, across the other side of the world, Australians sat down in front of their TVs to watch the historic event.
Continue reading...Alain Robert scaled the 187-metre Tour Total to show that being 60, the retirement age in France, is nothing
A free solo climber described as the “French Spiderman” has scaled a 48-storey skyscraper in Paris, fulfilling a goal he had set for himself once he reached the age of 60.
Alain Robert has climbed many of the world’s tallest buildings, often without permission.
Continue reading...Police aim to reunite stolen goods including 150 pieces of luggage with owners around the world
Police in Marseille are attempting to track down more than 100 first-class train passengers from around the world who had their luggage or wallets stolen by a gang whose leader would disguise himself in wigs.
When a woman leaving a high-speed train at Aix-en-Provence station earlier this year reported to police that her bag containing €50,000 of jewellery had disappeared during the journey, station CCTV footage led to a months-long investigation. Police discovered what they called an experienced operation by three thieves regularly targeting first-class carriages on high-speed trains.
Continue reading...Highest red alert issued in Shanghai as meteorological autumn does not give way to cooler temperature in France
Typhoon Muifa made landfall in eastern China on Wednesday evening, shortly after affecting Japan in previous days, arriving as a Category 2 storm and billed as the strongest on record to hit Shanghai, China’s largest city.
China’s central meteorological observatory issued its first highest typhoon red alert of the year. The tropical system brought sustained winds of 95mph, a threat of up to 200mm of rainfall and waves in excess of five metres.
Continue reading...LVMH announced measures after Emmanuel Macron urged France to reduce power consumption
LVMH, the owner of Louis Vuitton, plans to lower the thermostat at its stores around the world as part energy-saving measures this winter.
The French conglomerate will also turn off the lights at its stores earlier, starting in France in October before being deployed worldwide.
Continue reading...NGOs want investigation into border counter-terrorism operation that allegedly ended up bombing suspected smugglers
Two international NGOs have asked French prosecutors and the UN to investigate the French state’s involvement in Egypt allegedly committing crimes against humanity in a secret military operation on the Egyptian-Libyan border.
A 2021 leak appeared to show how French officers complained they were being asked to facilitate Egyptian airstrikes, codenamed Operation Sirli, on the Egyptian-Libyan border, even though the original counter-terrorism purpose had been subverted by the Egyptian military into taking out vehicles containing nothing more than contraband. Dozens are estimated to have been killed or injured.
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