Author: Frank Deux

French President Emmanuel Macron in the Saudi city of AlUla, on December 4, 2024. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP Michel Barnier resigned as French prime minister on Thursday, December 5, after losing a no-confidence motion but will remain in office on a caretaker basis with his ministers until a new government is named, the presidency said. “The prime minister today submitted the resignation of his government” to President Emmanuel Macron, who has “taken note” of the…

The agreement seems impossible. The 5,300 migrant minors hosted in the Canary Islands will continue to live in overcrowded centers and without adequate care. Also the 400 from Ceuta. The fourth face-to-face meeting between the Canary Islands, Ceuta, the PP and the Government to negotiate the redistribution of children who emigrate alone throughout the autonomous communities has exposed the PP’s lack of will to reach an agreement. After this two-hour meeting, the discourse has changed…

The PP demands that the Executive put on the table a more in-depth debate on immigration policy. Read The meeting on the reception of migrant minors ends without agreement

South Korea’s ruling People Power party had said it was against impeachment, but that stance may be shifting. South Korea’s ruling party leader has said President Yoon Suk Yeol needs to be removed from authority for the safety of the country for trying to impose martial law. It looks increasingly likely that lawmakers may vote to impeach the president. South Korea's ruling party demands President Yoon step down

The Paris stock market rose at the start of trading Thursday, December 5, as President Emmanuel Macron seeks a way out of France’s political crisis. The Paris CAC 40 index won 0.4% to 7,328.79 points and the euro advanced 0.3% versus the dollar. Frankfurt’s DAX edged up 0.1% to 20,255.25 points and outside the eurozone, London’s FTSE 100 was flat at 8,337.22. “Markets remain calm for now, but if the far left and right succeed…

President Emmanuel Macron has reminded European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen that France still considers an EU trade agreement with South America’s Mercosur bloc “unacceptable,” his office said on Thursday, December 5. France is strongly opposed to the EU signing off on the deal with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, saying French farmers would face unfair competition undercutting their livelihoods. “The project of an agreement between the EU and Mercosur is unacceptable in its…

When the former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos is asked if he hides a fortune abroad due to the collection of illegal commissions, as investigated by the Civil Guard, the current deputy of the Mixed Group denies it: “I find the question very funny. I have no money, no assets or anything. Neither directly nor through third parties,” the one who was until 2021 one of the heavyweights of the PSOE and the Government…

The Santa María is right now the only ship deployed in the area as part of ‘operation Atalanta’ Read A Spanish frigate monitors a Chinese fishing vessel attacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean

Investigators probing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder uncovered key leads Thursday, including a suspect’s possible New York trip from Atlanta and ammunition marked “deny, defend, depose.” The phrase, linked to insurance critics, was written in marker, officials revealed anonymously. New clues emerge as hunt for US healthcare CEO killer continues

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Paris this weekend for the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral, a spokesperson for the executive said on Thursday, December 5. About 50 heads of state and government are expected in the French capital for the ceremony on Saturday, including US President-elect Donald Trump. It will be the first time that von der Leyen will meet Trump since his election last month and before his inauguration…

  For the second time in the history of the French Fifth Republic, a prime minister has fallen victim to a vote of no confidence. For the first time, it happened in the absence of the main driving force of his debacle. When Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the Assemblée Nationale, announced Michel Barnier’s forced resignation on Wednesday, December 4, Marine Le Pen was nowhere to be seen. The troops of the far-right Rassemblement National…

The explosion of lights that adorn the streets of Madrid, the Christmas markets that seem to come out of a story and the people running from one place to another trying to buy gifts now so as not to fall into last-minute trouble remind us that Christmas is almost here. Madrid is trying these days to emulate that magical place where you can make plans with family and friends to toast the year that is…

He accuses the PP of having turned the region into the “epicenter of corruption and hoax” Read Óscar López launches his candidacy to lead the PSOE of Madrid with the end of Ayuso’s presidency as his objective: "It is a public service mission"

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a free-trade deal with South America’s Mercosur bloc is “in sight” but faces resistance ahead of a two-day summit in Uruguay. Leaders from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay are negotiating the pact to establish the world’s largest free trade zone. However, Italy’s opposition threatens to derail the 20-year effort to create the world’s largest free-trade zone. EU chief makes final push to secure Mercosur free trade agreement

French President Emmanuel Macron is seen on monitors in a control room at Agence France-Presse headquarters as he addresses the nation during a televised broadcast from the presidential Elysée Palace, on the day of the prime minister’s resignation on December 5, 2024. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, December 5, vowed to name a new prime minister “in the coming days” after the resignation of Michel Barnier, whose government was toppled…

“The roof woodwork, the woodwork, I’m a bit fed up with the woodwork, it’s all anyone ever talks about,” grumbled Priest Henry de Villefranche, canon of Notre-Dame. Does he mean there has been too little talk of God in the years of work that followed the fire on April 15, 2019? “For the past two years, we’ve been hearing too little about interesting things and too much about this construction site, which is constantly being…

The cartoonist Naoki Urasawa, three-time winner of the Shōgakukan Manga Prize and collaborator of the Louvre Museum, has kicked off Manga Barcelona this Thursday at the Fira Barcelona venue with tickets sold out for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in which the organization hopes will be the congress with the largest number of guests in its history. The festival, which ends on Sunday, is expected to receive around 165,000 attendees, a similar number to previous editions,…

Judge Hurtado rejects García Ortiz’s claims and supports the work of the Civil Guard: “There is no room to criticize the expert evidence.” Read The attorney general attacks the UCO and accuses it of committing "irregularities" in the report on the leak of Ayuso’s boyfriend

video On April 15, 2019, the roof and spire of the famous Paris monument went up in smoke. It was a disaster, but one that could have been far worse. Using exclusive 3D modeling to reconstruct the fire, Le Monde identified the crucial decision that saved the monument. Notre-Dame could have collapsed in April 2019. Here’s how firefighters saved the cathedral from total destruction

An unexpected consequence of Donald Trump’s election as US president was the return to public debate of an old American public health measure: Water fluoridation. Robert F. Kennedy Jr, set to become the health secretary, is not only a notorious anti-vaxer but also a fierce opponent of adding fluoride to drinking water. He claimed that the practice is “associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.” While some of…

At the beginning of November, the National Police arrested three local police officers from Santa Susanna (Barcelona) and the PP councilor of the municipality, Inmaculada Casilla, suspected of being part of a network dedicated to the regularization of foreigners. The police accuse the four involved of simulating contracts for a criminal organization that allegedly fraudulently processed residence permits for forty people, according to sources in the case. Those investigated allegedly pretended to employ various people…

The central Executive, the PP and the governments of the Canary Islands and Ceuta hold a meeting this Thursday to try to move towards a migration agreement Read Clavijo devises a new distribution of minors so that the State can pay for 6,000 migrants

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) said on Thursday it would block the opposition’s motion to impeach South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for his short-lived attempt at martial law, but the motion only needs a handful of PPP defectors to pass and few are ready to forgive Yoon’s “unconstitutional” move. South Korea's ruling party says it will block impeachment motion against President Yoon

Why are girls struggling in math? This is the question on everyone’s mind when reading the French results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), conducted in 2023, as it is every four years, in some 50 countries among pupils in fourth and eighth grade, and made public on Wednesday, December 4. Along with Australia and Italy, France is one of the countries with the biggest performance gap between genders in fourth…

For five days now, Mathias Pogba, 34, has been waiting in his charcoal grey suit, twisting his shoulders and turning his neck as if to shake off tension. Sitting in the front row of the courtroom at the Paris Tribunal, where the trial for kidnapping and extortion against his brother Paul Pogba is taking place, he has had to listen through all the hearings of the other five defendants, trying, unconvincingly, to clear their name.…