Category Archives: France

At least 31 reported dead after dinghy capsizes in Channel

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Two survivors in intensive care as four are arrested over drownings in boat described as like ‘a pool you blow up in your garden’


At least thirty one people including five women and a young girl have died trying to cross the Channel to the UK in an inflatable dinghy, officials say, in what is the deadliest incident since the current crisis began.

Two survivors are in intensive care while police have arrested four people suspected of being linked to the drownings. The International Organisation for Migration said it was the biggest single loss of life in the Channel since it began collecting data in 2014.

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Channel crossing tragedy: Priti Patel offers joint patrols with France – latest updates

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UK home secretary addresses Commons after 27 people – including at least one pregnant woman and three children - drown off UK coast

The MP for Calais Pierre Henri Dumont told Sky News that he believes 29 bodies have been found.

British Red Cross chief executive Mike Adamson said: “Reports of more lives lost today in theChannel are truly heartbreaking and come far too soon after other recent deaths on this route.

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Priti Patel under ‘immense pressure’ from No 10 over Channel crossings

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Downing Street declines to praise home secretary over attempts to stop crossings in small boats

Priti Patel is being put under “immense pressure” from Downing Street and Conservative MPs over government efforts to halt Channel crossings in small boats, with No 10 refusing to say the home secretary had done a good job.

As figures revealed, the number of people making perilous crossings has tripled since 2020, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson twice declined to praise Patel’s strategy on Monday. He said the prime minister had “confidence in the home secretary” but would only say she has “worked extremely hard and no one can doubt this is a priority for her”.

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Pandemic hits mental health of women and young people hardest, survey finds

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Survey also finds adults aged 18-24 and women more concerned about personal finances than other groups

Young people and women have taken the hardest psychological and financial hit from the pandemic, a YouGov survey has found – but few people anywhere are considering changing their lives as a result of it.

The annual YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project found that in many of the 27 countries surveyed, young people were consistently more likely than their elders to feel the Covid crisis had made their financial and mental health concerns worse.

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As China threat rises, can Aukus alliance recover from rancorous birth?

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Questions mount about pact’s ultimate purpose and implications for other Asean countries

It was initially seen as an audacious enlistment by Joe Biden of Australia into the 21st-century struggle against China, elevating the country in the process to a significant regional military power and finally giving substance to Global Britain and its tilt to the Indo-Pacific.

But since then the “ruckus” about Aukus, as Boris Johnson described it, has not stopped. If this was the start of a new “anti-hegemonic coalition” to balance China’s rise, it has not quite blown up on the launchpad, but nor has it taken off as smoothly as intended.

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Instability grips a weakened Europe as global predators smell blood

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Threats from Russia and China, a weaker US security alliance and internal discord expose fundamental strategic weaknesses

Is Europe entering a dangerous new age of instability? Not since the height of the cold war with the Soviet Union has it looked so vulnerable to hostile forces.

Accumulating external threats and internal divisions, coupled with a weakening US security alliance, relentless Russian subversion, and power-hungry China’s war on western values are exposing fundamental strategic weaknesses.

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Covid live: Dutch police open fire at protest; German government not ruling out full lockdown — as it happened

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Two injured as police in Rotterdam fire warning shots; German health minister says nothing can be ruled out

A quick snap from Reuters here that the UK government has announced it will add booster shot status to the Covid-19 pass for outbound international travel, though it said they would not be added to the domestic pass at this time.

The health ministry said that travellers who have had a booster or a third dose would be able to demonstrate their vaccine status through the NHS Covid pass from Friday, adding that a booster was not necessary to travel into England.

This pandemic has exposed a vulnerability to whole-system emergencies – that is, emergencies that are so broad that they engage the entire system. Although the government had plans for an influenza pandemic, it did not have detailed plans for many non-health consequences and some health consequences of a pandemic like Covid-19. There were lessons from previous simulation exercises that were not fully implemented and would have helped prepare for a pandemic like Covid-19. There was limited oversight and assurance of plans in place, and many pre-pandemic plans were not adequate. In addition, there is variation in capacity, capability and maturity of risk management across government departments.

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Michel Barnier in French election spotlight as lurch to right pays off

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Mild-mannered former centrist has become a surprise favourite to win Les Républicains’ nomination

In a restaurant in prosperous western Paris, fans of the EU’s former negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, crowded in to hear their hero speak, cheering the mild-mannered 70-year-old who has gone from rank outsider to potential favourite in the contest to choose a presidential candidate for the right’s Les Républicains.

Barnier is one of the big surprises of the unpredictable pre-election season in France. He was known for almost 50 years in right-wing French politics as a centrist, liberal-minded neo-Gaullist, devoted to the European cause. But he has amazed observers by significantly hardening his stance as the rightwing party prepared to decide on its candidate early next month.

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Support for populist sentiment falls across Europe, survey finds

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YouGov/Guardian poll finds ‘clear pattern of decreasing support for populism’ in European countries

Support for populist sentiment in Europe has fallen sharply over the past three years, according to a major YouGov survey, with markedly fewer people agreeing with key statements designed to measure it.

The YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project’s annual populism tracker, produced with the Guardian, found populist beliefs in broadly sustained decline in 10 European countries, prompting its authors to suggest the wider electoral appeal of some may have peaked.

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Royal Institution cancels event with far-right French pundit Éric Zemmour

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Function in London cancelled over ‘due diligence’ of Zemmour, who has convictions for inciting racial hatred

London’s prestigious Royal Institution has cancelled an event at which the far-right French TV pundit Éric Zemmour was due to speak on Friday.

Zemmour, who has convictions for inciting racial hatred, is due to arrive in London on Thursday as he ponders a potential run in France’s presidential elections next year.

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French dictionary accused of ‘wokeism’ over gender-inclusive pronoun

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Education minister condemns use of ‘iel’, saying inclusive writing is not the future of the French language

A French reference dictionary has defended its official recognition of a gender-inclusive pronoun, after traditionalists pounced on what they called the latest incursion of US-inspired “wokeism”.

While the everyday use of “iel” – a neologism combining the French words for he and she (“il” and “elle”) – remains largely anecdotal for now, critics deem it a linguistic affront that needs to be banned.

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French presidential hopeful Éric Zemmour begins race hate trial

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Far-right TV pundit on trial for calling unaccompanied child migrants ‘thieves, killers and rapists’

Éric Zemmour, the far-right TV pundit who is preparing to run for French president claiming that Islam and immigration are destroying France, has gone on trial in Paris on charges of incitement to racial hatred.

The case relates to remarks the 63-year-old polemicist made on television last year when he called unaccompanied child migrants “thieves, killers and rapists”.

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‘We are not in the mood for campaigning’: Covid threatens to derail independence vote in New Caledonia

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Kanak leaders have urged a postponement of the vote, saying that the priority for indigenous people once lockdown lifts will be mourning customs, not campaigning

The credibility of New Caledonia’s third and final independence referendum has been questioned after indigenous leaders warned that participation could be adversely affected by the Covid pandemic.

The French government has announced that the referendum will proceed as planned in December after the coronavirus crisis eased.

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Union considers legal action over Channel refugee ‘pushbacks’

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Border Force staff express concern at Priti Patel’s proposed tactic of forcing boats back to France

Border Force guards, who the government says will be asked to turn refugee boats in the Channel around, are considering applying for a judicial review to stop the tactic from being used.

Officers from the PCS union have said they are prepared to launch a high court challenge to the lawfulness of Priti Patel’s plans. The home secretary has maintained that the tactic of intercepting and sending back boats to France would be within the law.

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Macron defence staffer allegedly raped after Élysée Palace party

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French prosecutors investigate alleged assault of female soldier by colleague after party in July

French prosecutors are investigating allegations that a female soldier in Emmanuel Macron’s defence staff was raped by a serviceman colleague after a farewell party at the Élysée Palace in July.

The alleged assault took place this summer after a going-away reception for a general and two others that was attended by Macron, according to French daily Libération, which first reported the accusations.

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Life sentence for murderer of French Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll

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Yacine Mihoub sentenced for ‘savage’ antisemitic murder of 85-year-old in her apartment

A French court has sentenced the killer of an elderly Jewish woman to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 22 years, in a case which caused an outcry over antisemitism in France.

Yacine Mihoub was convicted of the murder of Mireille Knoll, 85, who was stabbed 11 times and whose body was partly burned after her Paris apartment was set alight on 23 March 2018.

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Covid live: Brazil reports 12,273 new cases with daily deaths down to 240; Russia’s death toll passes 250,000

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Brazil’s total deaths rise to 610,036; Russia reports 1,239 fatalities to take official death toll to 250,454

There’s been a lot of news recently about reopened travel routes, including the opening of the US-Mexico border and the resumption of transatlantic flights. One person not looking to take advantage of that is the World Health Organization’s Dr David Nabarro. As part of his Sky News interview in the UK this morning he had this to say about travel:

Why am I not travelling very much? Because I don’t want to get Covid – I’m in the wrong age group and I’ve got other adverse factors as well.

So, I’m trying to say to everybody travel if you must – and there are often essential emotional reasons as well as essential economic and another reasons – but try not to travel if you don’t have to.

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Emmanuel Macron urges acceleration of France’s Covid booster rollout

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French president also announces many people will need third jab to keep valid health pass

Emmanuel Macron has called for an acceleration of Covid-19 booster shots for elderly and vulnerable people in France and announced that many citizens will need a third vaccination for a valid health pass from next month.

In a televised address, the French president said “the pandemic is not over” and warned of the emergence of a fifth wave of infections in Europe, citing a significant rise in cases in the UK and Germany. He said the incidence rate of Covid infections in France had also recently risen.

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French couple wins legal fight over wind ‘turbine syndrome’

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Christel and Luc Fockaert awarded €110,000 after experiencing windfarm-related health problems

A French court has recognised “turbine syndrome” after a couple complained their health was damaged by living near a windfarm.

In what is believed to be the first judgment of its kind in France, Belgians Christel and Luc Fockaert were awarded more than €100,000 in compensation by the judge in Toulouse.

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