Category Archives: France

French authorities accused of ‘grave negligence’ over Notre Dame lead dust

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Workers and residents exposed to dangerous levels of toxic dust in wake of 2019 fire, lawyers claim

French and Paris authorities are facing further legal action over worrying lead levels around Notre Dame Cathedral in the wake of the devastating fire two years ago.

Lawyers for a branch of one of the country’s most powerful unions, which has joined forced with a health association and local residents, will submit a legal case on Tuesday for “endangering life … by persons unknown”.

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Shampanskoye: French champagne industry in a fizz over Russian law

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Non-Russian producers now required to mark their bottles as sparkling wine

If anything is guaranteed to get French wine producers in a fizz, it is the suggestion that champagne can be made anywhere outside the Champagne region in France.

As a protected appellation, the term is jealously guarded and legally defended. As the Champagne committee’s website clearly states: “Champagne only comes from Champagne.”

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Malawi Pride and press freedoms in Palestine: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia

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‘I had designed it a little too small’: Abraham Poincheval on spending a week inside a sculpture of himself

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He’s lived within a boulder, hatched a nest of hen’s eggs, and now plans to encase himself in a beehive. Is this France’s most extreme performance artist –and how does he go to the toilet?

Last month, in a smart gallery in Paris, the back of a sculpture was removed and a man was lifted out. He looked around, disoriented, as his body slowly unfurled. A doctor rushed to his side and, after inspecting him, announced he was in good health. The crowd cheered. He’d been in there for seven days.

Abraham Poincheval, possibly France’s most extreme performance artist, specialises in surreal feats of endurance, often in tight spots. He has lived inside a rock for seven days, and a stuffed bear for 13. For this latest work, Hartung, he decided to look at a painting by abstract artist Hans Hartung for seven days straight. He even built a special contraption for it: an aluminium shell of a man sitting on a block, looking down a large square funnel.

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Court rejects attempt to reopen investigation into Yasser Arafat’s death

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European court of human rights rules family’s appeal over French hearing is ‘manifestly ill-founded’

The widow and daughter of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat have lost an attempt to reopen an investigation into his death in 2004.

Suha El Kodwa Arafat and Zahwa El Kodwa Arafat, who are both French nationals, filed a criminal complaint to the European court of human rights that claimed Arafat had been the victim of premeditated murder.

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Switzerland’s Sommer saves Mbappé’s penalty to send France crashing out

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Kylian Mbappé was France’s sure thing. That is why he was fifth in their list of penalty takers and is why, when he stepped up to keep them in Euro 2020, the thought he might miss felt like too heady a twist in the narrative. Things like that have simply not happened to Mbappé during a young career of rare accomplishment, but here came the kind of horror that exposes even the preternaturally gifted as flesh-and-blood mortals: Yann Sommer, Switzerland’s exceptional goalkeeper, smelled weakness and read his intentions correctly, diving right and clawing the spot-kick away. France were out; their delirious opponents had made their own slice of history and a tournament of unstinting drama took its least plausible turn yet.

Related: ‘He is very affected by it’: Deschamps defends Mbappé as France crash out

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Five key takeaways from France’s regional elections

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Analysis: record low turnout makes it difficult to draw clear lessons but both Macron and Le Pen did badly

France’s regional elections produced a humiliating defeat for Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN), stinging failure for Emmanuel Macron and thumping wins for incumbents from the country’s traditional centre-right and centre-left parties.

A record low turnout of less than 35% makes it hard, however, to draw clear lessons for next year’s presidential elections, in which Macron and Le Pen remain clear frontrunners – although the race has certainly got a lot more interesting.

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Macron and Le Pen face new test as France votes again in regional polls

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Second-round voting begins after record low turnout in first round left the two rivals disappointed

France has begun voting in the second round of regional elections after a first round that resulted in a drubbing for Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party, disappointment for Marine Le Pen’s far right and a record low turnout.

For some observers, the outcome of the 20 June first round raised doubts over whether the 2022 presidential election would come down to a duel between the president and Le Pen in a runoff long seen as the most likely scenario.

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Le Pen looks to Provence for last hope of victory in French regional elections

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Poll on knife-edge as parties form alliances in a bid to defeat far-right RN party

At the 17th-century town hall in the Provençal city of Arles, a large tricolour flapped vigorously outside the open window of the mayor’s office last week, animated perhaps by what locals call the mistralet, a gentle summer version of the strong wind that blows through the Rhône valley.

The world heritage city – the largest commune in metropolitan France – has been marked by foreign influence throughout its history: the Romans conquered it in 123BC, leaving the magnificent arena, theatre, necropolis and aqueduct; much later came the artists, Dutchman Vincent Van Gogh and Spanish-born Pablo Picasso among them.

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Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens ‘scrabbling’ to attain post-Brexit status before deadline

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Pressure grows for UK to extend Wednesday’s settlement-scheme cut-off date as backlog of applications grows and helplines crash

EU citizens are struggling to apply for post-Brexit settled status as the Home Office reaches “breaking point” coping with a last-minute surge in applications.

With three days before the deadline of the EU settlement scheme this Wednesday, campaigners say late applicants are being stuck in online queues as others find it impossible to access advice on the government helpline.

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US and France warn Iran time is running out to return to nuclear deal

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On a visit to Paris, US secretary of state Antony Blinken says deal is at risk if Tehran fails to make concessions

The United States and France have warned Iran that time is running out to return to a nuclear deal, voicing fear that Tehran’s sensitive development program could advance if talks drag on.

On the first high-level visit to Paris by president Joe Biden’s administration, secretary of state Antony Blinken and his French hosts saluted a new spirit of cooperation after four years of turbulence under Donald Trump.

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Woman who killed stepfather after years of abuse in France found guilty

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Valérie Bacot convicted of the premeditated murder of Daniel Polette after suffering over 20 years of violence

A French woman who killed her stepfather, who raped her at the age of 12 and later became her husband, has been convicted of premeditated murder but spared any more time in prison.

Valérie Bacot was subject to more than 20 years of violence at the hands of Daniel Polette, with whom she had four children. The court heard she shot and killed him after he began prostituting her to strangers, fearing that he was about to begin abusing their teenage daughter.

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Frank Gehry’s Luma Arles tower to open in south of France

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Building is architect’s tribute to Arles’ most famous residents: the Romans and Vincent Van Gogh

Rising from the skyline of Arles, the tower appears like a futuristic structure from a Marvel movie with nearly 11,000 stainless steel panels gleaming in the Provençal sun.

Here, at what was once the centre of the Roman empire in France, this twisting structure is the 92-year-old architect Frank Gehry’s tribute to Arles’ most famous residents: the Romans and the artist Vincent Van Gogh.

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Fractious EU summit rejects Franco-German plan for Putin talks

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Bloc to explore sanctions instead, as gathering also holds ‘emotional’ debate over Hungary’s LGBT laws

A Franco-German plan to restart talks with Vladimir Putin has been rejected at a fractious EU summit that resulted in a decision to explore economic sanctions against Russia instead.

The two-day gathering in Brussels also included an “emotional” debate over LGBT rights in Hungary, as EU leaders confronted Viktor Orbán over a law that will ban gay people from being shown in educational and entertainment content for minors.

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French state sued for ‘failing to protect’ woman who killed rapist husband

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Lawyers say Valérie Bacot, on trial for murder, is victim of authorities’ gross negligence

Lawyers representing a woman who killed her stepfather turned husband after 24 years of violence that started when he raped her at 12 are taking legal action against the French state for “gross negligence” after claims the authorities failed to act on reports she was being abused.

Valérie Bacot’s defence team said a summons for liability had been filed with the Paris tribunal. Her lawyers point out that her children twice went to the police to report their father – who was Bacot’s stepfather – for abusing her but no action was taken.

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Moving on: why the EU is not missing Britain that much

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On the 5th anniversary of Brexit, commentators reflect on the EU’s success at rallying together after Britain’s exit

On the night of 23 June 2016 a storm broke out over Brussels. Rain poured, thunder rolled and lightning flashed over the headquarters of the European Union’s institutions.

Then in the small hours came a political thunderbolt almost no one had forecast: the UK had voted to leave the union. Five years on, the Brexit tempest has subsided – in Brussels, if not in London.

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Les Hijabeuses: the female footballers tackling France’s on-pitch hijab ban

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Young players excluded from matches because of their religious dress find a way to play on and encourage other hijab-wearing women into the sport

Founé Diawara was 15 years old when she was first told she could not wear her hijab in a football match.

It was an important game. She had recently got into the team of a club in Meaux, the town north-east of Paris where she grew up, and they were playing a local rival. Diawara had been wearing her hijab during training, but as she was about to walk on to the pitch, the referee said she must remove it if she wanted to play.

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Woman to stand trial in France for killing stepfather after years of abuse

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Valérie Bacot, who had four children with alleged abuser, will say she believed he would kill them all

On Monday, a French woman, Valérie Bacot, will walk into a court to be tried for killing her stepfather turned husband. She has admitted shooting him dead and believes she should be punished.

In her defence, she is expected to tell the the hearing at at Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy how Daniel “Dany” Polette made her life hell from the day he raped her when she was 12, to the day he died 24 years later while prostituting her.

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‘Slap in the face’ for Macron as French voters shun local elections

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Abstention rate estimated at 68%, and exit polls suggest Le Pen’s National Rally failed to get expected support

Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party received what one of its own MPs called a “slap in the face” in regional and department elections on Sunday.

The president and his government failed to mobilise supporters, with an estimated 68% of voters shunning the polling stations – an unprecedented rate of abstention. If there was any consolation for the ruling party it was that exit polls suggested Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally had failed to garner its expected support.

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