Author: Frank Deux

The French navy rescued 85 migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to England on Wednesday, December 4, maritime authorities said, the latest in a deadly series of dangerous crossings. One of “numerous” migrant boats that set out to sea called for help after hitting a sandbank off the Pas-de-Calais region, France’s Channel and North Sea maritime prefecture said in a statement. A navy tugboat saved 80 passengers from that boat and five more from a second migrant vessel at another location, it said. The migrants were brought back to land at Boulogne-sur-Mer and attended to by emergency services…

The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, despised this Wednesday the landing of Óscar López as general secretary of the PSOE of Madrid, replacing the resigned Juan Lobato. During a television interview, the conservative baroness ruled out that the minister would be a candidate in the 2027 regional elections, recalled his electoral defeat in the 2011 regional elections of Castilla y León, and accused him of being “an errand boy” for the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with the mission, he has said, of doing the greatest possible damage to Madrid. This Thursday, López will present…

“We must put an end to the rubbish of socialism once and for all,” he later stated before hundreds of Argentine and foreign supporters gathered at CPAC Argentina 2024. Read “Tortures suffered by the poor Spaniards”: Milei attacks Zapatero and Sánchez and compares them with Maduro

In Trump: The Art of the Deal, the 1987 bestseller that made him a household name, the future American president outlines his negotiating methods. Show his strength, surprise even if it means slamming the door, put his adversary’s back against the wall and, above all, putting his name on the deal and taking credit for it matters more than the actual content of the deal. Has far-right leader Marine Le Pen read the book of a man she has long supported and whose counterpart she dreams of becoming? In recent weeks, she has applied the “art of the deal” to…

The visit was arranged two days ago, during a call between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron. On Monday, December 2, the American president-elect confirmed his trip to Paris for the much anticipated Saturday reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, among some 50 foreign heads of state and government. “It will be a very special day for all!” he wrote on his network, Truth Social: “President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so,” he added. When the fire broke out on April 15, 2019, Trump, then…

The Government believes that the summons of Miguel Ángel Rodríguez in the case brought against the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, gives it fresh air after several difficult days following the resignation of the leader of the PSOE in Madrid, Juan Lobato, over this case. The Executive considers that the judicial call to Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s chief of staff, who will have to testify as a witness and, therefore, is obliged to tell the truth before the judge, will allow him to put the focus back on the hoax that the squire of the Madrid president launched to defend…

He elects Urtasun’s Chief of Staff to the position, the first diplomatic appointment to the liking of the coalition partner and Zapatero. Read Sánchez gives another nod to Maduro and appoints a protégé of Moratinos and akin to Sumar as ambassador to Venezuela

Two days after US President Joe Biden’s controversial pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, President-elect Donald Trump formally requested on Tuesday that a New York judge annul his May felony conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money agreement with porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati (right) and her Saudi counterpart Prince Badr Bin Farhan Al Saoud at the Ministry of Culture in Paris, France, November 11, 2024. BALKIS PRESS/ABACA The French companies escorting Emmanuel Macron on his three-day state visit to Saudi Arabia don’t yet know if they’ll be leaving with any lucrative contracts in their suitcases. For the time being, France has capitalized on the only asset that the conflagration in the Middle East and Donald Trump’s return to the White House are unlikely to compromise: culture. It is a key element in the vast societal transformation operation undertaken by…

This handout picture released by the Saudi Ministry of Media shows French President Emmanuel Macron speaking in the One Water Summit during an official visit in the capital Riyadh on December 3, 2024. – / AFP French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, December 3, rejected calls to resign to break a political impasse in the country, saying such a scenario amounted to “political fiction.” “It doesn’t make sense… it’s frankly not up to scratch to say these things,” Macron, whose government faces a no-confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday, told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to Saudi Arabia.…

This Thursday, two months after the last and fruitless meeting, representatives of the Government of Spain will sit at the table with those of the Canarian Executive, that of Ceuta and the Popular Party to try to close an agreement on the reform of the law of Immigration, which must allow the mandatory referral of these minors throughout the State. The meeting takes place in a context of increasing migrant arrivals. According to the latest balance sheet from the Ministry of the Interior, as of November 30, 41,425 people arrived on the islands, 3.7% more than in 2023.This Monday, the…

Genoa renounces vetoing the Government’s tax reform in the Senate in order to be able to introduce amendments with an eye on the support of Basque and Catalan sovereigntists. Read The PP once again tempts Junts and PNV with two proposals for taxation and housing for young people in the midst of the PSOE’s judicial crisis

The UN General Assembly passed a new resolution on Tuesday which professes its “unwavering support” for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine, calling for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories and the creation of a Palestinian state. Read our liveblog for the latest developments.  Live: New UN General Assembly resolution calls for creation of Palestinian state

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the Saudi-French Business Forum during an official visit in Riyadh on December 3, 2024. JEANNE ACCORSINI / AFP French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday, December 3, that he and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, would co-chair a conference on the establishment of a Palestinian state in June. “We have decided to co-chair a conference for the two states in June next year,” Macron said, referring to Israel and a potential Palestinian state. “In the coming months, together we will multiply and combine our diplomatic initiatives to bring everyone…

December is rich in choices in all areas of the performing arts in Paris and futher afield. There’s a stripped-down Shakespeare in Lyon, an almost complete The Satin Slipper in Paris, a dizzying Polyphemus in Versailles, the glorious voguing/waacking/hip hopping of dancer Amala Dianor and an abundance of children’s events in Le Havre. It’s enough to keep the long evenings lit up until Christmas. THEATER Haribo KimchiJaha Koo’s theatrical cuisine Artist Jaha Koo presents his show “Haribo Kimchi” at the Théâtre de la Bastille, Paris, in November 2024. BEA BORGES South Korean artist Jaha Koo had already made a name…

Exhausting weeks with only one day off, working as interns caring for dependent elderly people or doing housework. Without the right to vacations, without health or accident coverage and with just two consecutive hours a day to rest. The more than 185 victims of a criminal organization that, under the umbrella of a fictitious company, took advantage of immigrants in an irregular situation to offer care services to dependent people and cleaning services on the island of Mallorca worked under these conditions. Five people have been arrested accused of alleged crimes of labor exploitation, document falsification and favoring irregular immigration,…

“Sanchez has an inexplicable desire to surround himself with people of his intellectual and moral level” Read In his image and likeness

Opposition lawmakers on Wednesday called for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to step down after Yoon succumbed to a vote against his shocking bid to implement martial law, calling the attempt an “insurrection”. South Korea's Suk Yeol pressured to resign after retracting martial law bid

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Tuesday, December 3, said it was possible his government could survive a no-confidence vote in parliament, evoking a possible “reflex of responsibility” from MPs. With no majority in the Assemblée Nationale, Barnier used Article 49.3 of the Constitution on Monday to pass his social security budget bill without a vote.

The quarrel over contemporary stained-glass windows at Notre-Dame de Paris could well one day be the subject of a play. Act I, scene 1. 2019. Location: Elysée Palace. Stéphane Bern, a high-profile heritage advocate, followed Brigitte Macron to the office of General Georgelin, a few meters away from the first lady’s residence. Gorgelin was leading the reconstruction of the cathedral with a firm and commanding presence. That day, in the former chapel that serves as his headquarters, they met architect Jean-Marie Duthilleul, who had been called in to rethink the liturgical layout. In the background was a priest with the…

Feijóo, about his desire to fire Sánchez: “Me, anxiety? None. “Anxiety belongs to the Spanish”The leader of the PP has rejected being eager to evict the President of the Government from La Moncloa. “Me, anxiety? None. Anxiety belongs to the Spanish.” Meanwhile, he has recognized that none of the democratic scenarios exist for a change of Government to be possible. Neither the motion of censure – for which he has denied contacts with Junts – nor the resignation of Sánchez, nor the early call for elections, “which is not in his interest [a Sánchez]because I would lose them.”Therefore, Feijóo is…

Abascal aligns his councilors to define his strategy against the arrival of “illegals” and redoubles the warning to the ‘popular’ in the midst of the negotiation of the regional and municipal budgets. Read Vox’s wake-up call to the PP on the eve of the meeting on immigration: "committee of wise men" and regional deployment in the midst of budget negotiations

Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to accept U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Ukraine peace deal unless it includes significant concessions to Moscow, according to Kremlin confidant and sanctioned Russian tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev. Russia Will Likely Reject Trump’s Ukraine Deal, Putin Ally Says In interviews with the Financial Times and Bloomberg, Malofeyev highlighted a “50-50” chance of reaching an agreement, emphasizing that one of Moscow’s key demands is a legally binding neutral status for Kyiv. Additionally, Russia expects Trump to reverse U.S. approval for Ukraine’s use of missiles within Russian territory, remove Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from power, and address…

  French Prime Minister Michel Barnier faces the biggest risk yet of being deposed by a hostile Assemblée Nationale as his government presents on Monday, December 2, a social security financing bill that has the opposition up in arms. Barnier, a conservative appointed by President Emmanuel Macron in September in the wake of an inconclusive snap legislative election this past summer, has no majority in parliament and lives under the constant threat of a no-confidence vote that would, if successful, force him and his team to step down. Key to any such vote is Marine Le Pen, the parliamentary leader…

By deciding to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale on June 9, French President Emmanuel Macron sought a “return to the people” following European parliamentary election results that were not favorable to his political camp. Has the “democratic breath” Macron hoped for materialized, and more importantly, has it achieved its desired effects? It does not appear that way, given the looming risk of a no-confidence vote for Prime Minister Michel Barnier as he prepares to pass the government budget bill and the social security budget for 2025. The political crisis Macron cited to justify his dissolution has not halted. If anything, it…