Jean-Jacques Savin, a former paratrooper, wanted ‘to laugh at old age’ but got into difficulties off the Azores
A 75-year-old Frenchman attempting to row across the Atlantic “to laugh at old age” has been found dead in his cabin at sea, his support team said.
Portuguese coast guards found Jean-Jacques Savin’s overturned boat off the archipelago of the Azores on Friday.
Continue reading...France’s president hopes to restart four-ways talks between Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine
The EU must open its own talks with Russia rather than rely on Washington, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has said as he warned of the prospect of the “most tragic thing of all – war”.
In a wide-ranging speech in Strasbourg, Macron said it was not sufficient for the US to negotiate with the Kremlin over its threats to peace but that Europe needed to have its voice heard.
Continue reading...Cesar-winning star of A Very Long Engagement and Hannibal Rising involved in accident in the Alps
The French actor Gaspard Ulliel has died at the age of 37 after a skiing accident.
The star of A Very Long Engagement and Hannibal Rising was hospitalised after the accident in the Alps. Ulliel was transported via helicopter on Tuesday to Grenoble but did not survive his injuries, according to the actor’s family and agent.
Continue reading...City leaders concede ‘trashed Paris’ campaign has a point and commit to beautification
Paris city authorities have published a “manifesto for beauty” containing plans to spruce up the City of Lights, where an online campaign highlighting ugliness and filth has piled pressure on mayor Anne Hidalgo.
Deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said that several recent initiatives from the Socialist-Green alliance that runs the capital would be scrapped, including allowing Parisians to plant their own gardens on public space.
Continue reading...Novak Djokovic may not be allowed to defend his French Open title in May after the French government ruled that all athletes will have to be vaccinated in order to attend and compete in sporting events in France.
The French sports minister, Roxana Maracineanu, has announced that athletes would not be exempt from France’s Covid pass, which will soon come into effect for over 16s. “The vaccination pass has been adopted. As soon as the law is promulgated, it will become mandatory to enter public buildings already subject to the health pass (stadium, theatre or lounge) for all spectators, practitioners, French or foreign professionals,” she wrote on twitter.
Continue reading...Éric Zemmour drew widespread outrage in September 2020 after a tirade against child migrants
A French court has found the far-right presidential candidate Éric Zemmour guilty of racist hate speech for a tirade against unaccompanied child migrants.
Zemmour drew widespread outrage in September 2020 when he told the CNews channel that child migrants were “thieves, killers, they’re rapists. That’s all they are. We should send them back.”
Continue reading...Law will require people to have a certificate to enter public places such as restaurants and cinemas
France’s parliament has given final approval to the government’s latest measures to tackle Covid-19, including a vaccine pass contested by anti-vaccine protesters.
Lawmakers in the lower house of parliament voted 215 in favour to 58 against on Sunday, paving the way for the law to enter force in the coming days.
Continue reading...Man in his 40s held on suspicion of manslaughter after accident in region of Flaine, Haute-Savoie
A five-year-old British girl has died after being hit by a skier in the French Alps, according to French media.
A man in his 40s was being held on suspicion of manslaughter on Sunday after the accident in the resort of Flaine, Haute-Savoie, at about 11am on Saturday, Le Dauphine reported. The girl was said to have been taking part in a group ski lesson run by ESF (Ecole du Ski Français) with four other children on a blue (intermediate) piste.
Continue reading...Activists are gaining support for move to hold popular vote to decide who stands in presidential election
A group of political activists will make one desperate last attempt this month to save the bitterly divided French left from an electoral catastrophe in the presidential election with a “people’s primary” to designate a single candidate.
The Primaire Populaire was initiated by young people dismayed by the fractures that could mean no leftwing or socialist figure will reach the second round of the election in April.
Continue reading...Growing political divisions over Covid rules have emerged in run-up to presidential election in April
Emmanuel Macron is facing growing political divisions over Covid rules in the run-up to the spring presidential election, after his proposed vaccine pass was delayed and teachers took strike action, amid ongoing street demonstrations and a rise in violent threats against politicians.
With an increasing mood of fatigue among French voters after two years of the pandemic and a significant mistrust of the political class, the president –– who is likely to hold off declaring his re-election bid for several weeks as the coronavirus health crisis continues –– wants to be seen as reliable but firm.
Continue reading...Rescuers in France find 32 people with hypothermia, including five stranded on sandbank
A man has died while trying to cross the Channel to the UK.
The French authorities said the man was found unconscious and pulled from the water after going overboard.
Continue reading...Germany one of first countries in the world to recommend boosters for teenagers; Hungary to make fourth Covid jab available to people who ask for it
Daily coronavirus cases in Japan have exceeded 13,000 for the first time in more than four months, as the country confronts a sixth wave of infections driven by the Omicron variant.
It reported 13,244 new cases on Wednesday, including 2,198 in Tokyo and 1,711 in Osaka. The number of new infections in the Japanese capital was more than double that recorded the previous day and a fivefold increase from the same day the previous week.
Continue reading...Unions accuse government of lack of consultation and say teachers have been treated with ‘disdain’
French teachers are holding one of the biggest education strikes in recent years, forcing the closure of hundreds of primary schools in protest at the government’s handling of Covid-19 measures in the education sector.
Trade unions said they expected 75% of primary teachers to walk out and 62% of secondary teachers. The education ministry gave much lower figures on Thursday morning, saying there was an average of 38.5% of teachers on strike in primary schools, and just under 24% in high schools. Teachers and education support staff were expected to join a protest march through the centre of Paris to the education ministry.
Continue reading...Leclerc destroying ‘dignity’ of profession for selling a baguette for 29 cents (24p)
French bakers have taken aim at a major supermarket chain that is offering inflation-busting low prices for baguettes, saying the move will undermine competition in one of the country’s prized industries.
The Leclerc group said in newspaper ads on Tuesday that “because of inflation, the average price of baguettes could increase significantly. That’s unthinkable”, vowing to cut into its profit margins to cap the cost of the signature French loaf at 29 euro cents (24p).
Continue reading...Skiing holidays could soon be given the green light, following the ease of travel restrictions in the ‘next few days’
British skiers could soon be able to return to French slopes after an announcement that France is due to lift its blanket ban on non-essential travel from the UK.
The French government’s official spokesman, Gabriel Attal, said after a weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday that Paris would ease travel restrictions from the UK to France in the next few days.
Continue reading...No one has been charged over attacks on forest road near Lake Annecy in French Alps
A man has been detained in connection with the unsolved case of three British family members and a French cyclist who were shot dead in the French Alps in 2012.
Saad al-Hilli, an Iraqi-born engineer, his wife, Ikbal, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, were gunned down in a layby on remote forest road outside the village of Chevaline, near Lake Annecy. The couple’s two young daughters survived the attack.
Continue reading...Kärcher asserts political neutrality as presidential hopeful calls for pressure-washing criminals out of suburbs
One of the world’s leading makers of pressure washers and steam cleaners has formally asked French politicians not to use its name to score political points.
Kärcher, a German family-owned company, issued a statement on Tuesday objecting to rightwing presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse taking its brand in vain. It is the latest of several similar complaints it has issued in recent years.
Continue reading...China locks down city of Anyang, bringing total under stay-at-home orders to 20m; Canada will give eligible people a fourth dose ‘if necessary’
Five million residents in the central Chinese city of Anyang have started home confinement today in a new lockdown to curb the spread of Omicron variant, according to state media and as reported by Agence France-Presse.
Two Omicron cases were detected in the city in Henan province, prompting authorities to announce a lockdown late Monday, issuing a notice ordering residents not to leave their homes or drive cars on the roads, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Continue reading...Fellow politicians condemn attack on Stéphane Claireaux outside his home in St-Pierre-et-Miquelon
Protesters opposed to Covid regulations pelted a French MP with seaweed and stones outside his home in the overseas territory of St-Pierre-et-Miquelon at the weekend.
Stéphane Claireaux, a member of the governing La République en Marche (LREM) said he had made an official police complaint after the attack, which fellow MPs described as a “lynching”.
Continue reading...French government wants whole bloc to act despite warnings other member states have no appetite
France will press the EU to negotiate an asylum and migration treaty with the UK in an attempt to deter people from making the dangerous Channel crossing.
The French government, which last week took up the six-month rotating presidency of the EU council of ministers, wants the whole bloc to act, despite warnings that other member states have no appetite for a migration treaty with Britain.
Continue reading...