Author: Frank Deux

The first time The World met him, he was wearing a Roman collar and a small silver cross pinned to his jacket pocket, and went by the name “Father Matthieu.” A year later, he was dressed in a hoodie, gray jeans and sneakers, his hair lightly tousled with gel and sporting stubble. At 39, he reclaimed his birth name, Matthieu Jasseron, after leaving the priesthood last summer. Just before our mid-November meeting at a Parisian café, he lit up a cigarette on the sidewalk, a little nervously. France’s best-known priest, with a million and a half followers on various social…

David Sánchez in Badajoz on November 5.José Luis Real. (EFE)The defense of David Sánchez, brother of the President of the Government investigated for alleged irregularities in his hiring by the Badajoz Provincial Council, interprets the recent UCO report on the case as an opportunity to settle it. Emilio Cortés pointed out tonight in Hour 25 from the SER that the investigation by the Civil Guard, on which the judge has relied to charge Sánchez, clears up some of the accusations directed at his client, such as that he had enriched himself and owned 1.4 million shares of BBVA. “Confusing nothing…

The Ethics and Guarantees Commission took just 24 hours to suspend the primaries in Castilla y León Read A PSOE activist denounces that he has been waiting for 17 months for a response from Ferraz to a complaint about the "insults" from a fellow member of the ranks: "It is unworthy"

“Between going to Congress to listen to Pedro Sánchez or going to Cope to attend Carlos Herrera’s interview with Víctor de Aldama, I chose the one who deserves the most credibility” Read Rosa Nostra’s petals fall off

Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants have begun a ceasefire in a major step toward ending nearly 14 months of fighting. As a region on edge wonders whether it would hold, FRANCE 24’s Mark Owen welcomes Yossi Mekelberg, Associate Fellow in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Programme at Chatham House in London. 'At a certain point, a war must end with some political arrangement'

It’s hard to believe she’s only been out of power for three years. While no one expects Angela Merkel’s supporters to rally behind calls to “make Germany great again”, the excitement surrounding the release of her memoirs highlights a sense of nostalgia for a leader whose record-breaking tenure came to embody stability in a changing world. But what is Merkel’s true legacy?  What's left of the German model? The Merkel years revisited

Displaced people living in Sudan’s North Darfur state cheer at the arrival of the first convoy of food and supplies in months, but the glimmer of hope is still vastly short of what’s needed. Also, Namibia heads into general elections, with the ruling party SWAPO facing stiffer than ever competition amid popular frustration over disparities. Plus we head to the Gambia, which plans to reduce plastic waste by 86 percent over the next 10 years. But some fear economic fallout for the poorest. World Food Programme scales up operations to deliver aid in famine-hit Sudan

Rumours about the US returning nuclear weapons to Ukraine have been circulating since November 21, when The New York Times published an article citing several unnamed US officials who “suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union”. At this stage, these are baseless claims since Washington does not even have these nuclear weapons to begin with. We explain in this edition of Truth or Fake.

They had become a real threat. The six arrested last Friday in Ceuta, Ibiza and Madrid as alleged members of a terrorist cell linked to the Sahel branch of the Islamic State (ISIS) had an increasing determination to commit an action and had sought potential targets in their environment, according to sources close to the investigation. It was a “cohesive group” that had collected knives and cartridges, in addition to handling “very explicit” Islamic State material, in which reference was made to how to carry out attacks or how to manufacture devices. The arrest of the group, aged between 30…

Short, poorly paid working hours. Combine several schools if you want to complete the day. Contracts as leisure instructors. Uncertainty about whether the next course will have a contract. These are some of the situations and working conditions that those known as vigilancewho are educational support personnel who serve students with educational needs related to a disability or behavioral disorder. The complaints from this sector are recurring because their situation is not improving and this Tuesday they staged a protest in Vallès Occidental (which they want to extend to other territories in the coming weeks) to denounce that they feel…

The situation left investigators stumped. One of the gardeners crowded into the plantation that had just been dismantled did not even know that people on the street had been wearing masks for months, because of Covid. He had been locked in that room for more than a year, with mattresses on the floor, one against the other, pots scattered on tables, bottles with yellow liquid, cardboard as a bed with duvets thrown on top. Pseudorooms without windows, with clothes hanging on lines and full of dirt. Three years after that police operation, a pioneering ruling by the Barcelona Court has…

This Wednesday, Pedro Sánchez pointed directly – although without citing him – to Carlos Mazón (PP), president of the Generalitat Valenciana, as the person responsible for the erroneous decisions taken during the management of the tragedy of the dana in Valencia, which has claimed the lives of at least 122 people. The president has used a calm tone in his first intervention in Congress to report on this crisis, a month after it occurred, but he has made it clear that he believes that the institutions that depend on the central Government, such as the State Agency for Meteorology (Aemet)…

The former general secretary of UGT in Andalusia, Francisco Fernández, and three other former senior officials of the union have been sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of 50 million euros, respectively, as perpetrators of a continuing crime of document falsification in competition with a crime of subsidy fraud for the “conscious and fraudulent application of funds received specifically from subsidy for the implementation of training courses for unemployed and employed people for purposes other than those provided by UGT-A to finance the union’s own activities,” according to the sentence drafted by the Third Section of the…

Abascal accuses Sánchez of abandoning the Valencians “out of political calculation, that is, out of evil” The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has charged against the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, accusing him of “not alerting them due to incompetence” and “not helping them due to political calculation, that is, due to evil.” He has told a story of victims of the dana who “day after day, for eternal days” woke up without light, water and without “anyone showing up, not a firefighter, not a soldier.” “All abandoned for days and days by a failed autonomous State,” he said.…

France announced Monday, November 25, a new campaign to combat violence against women, including raising awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse, as the country reckons with a mass rape trial that has shocked the public. Equality Minister Salima Saa unveiled a raft of initiatives two days after tens of thousands of people staged new demonstrations in French cities against violence targeting women, where protesters denounced government actions as “window-dressing.” The case of Dominique Pelicot has caused outrage in France. The 71-year-old is on trial over raping and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated…

It was the last week of May. A bourgeois Parisian dinner party was being held near the Luxembourg Gardens. The evening’s hosts were entertaining three other couples. All were in their seventies and eighties, with the tanned complexions that mark the leisure time of a retired business class that remains proudly active. A tall, light-eyed redhead introduced herself, holding out her hand: “Aude de Thuin, entrepreneur.” This calling card is important to her. A high priestess of corporate trade shows since the 1980s and the founder, in 2005, of the famed Women’s Forum de Deauville, which brings together the worlds…

Six men linked to Juventus and France midfielder Paul Pogba face trial from Tuesday, November 26, accused of blackmail, attempted extorsion of millions of euros and holding the player at gunpoint. The case at the Paris criminal court has shocked the French football world – all the more so because the perpetrators include three childhood friends and Pogba’s own brother Mathias. In total, the group are accused of attempting to squeeze €13 million ($13.5 million) out of the player. The trial comes as Pogba battles professional woes, as Juventus this month cancelled his contract following his suspension until March 2025…

In line for a book signing by the far-right Rassemblement National party’s president, Jordan Bardella, in southern France, November 22, 2024. SANDRA MEHL FOR THE WORLD Amid a troubled period for the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), the annual barometer on its image, conducted by the Verian institute for The Worldin partnership with the periodical The Hemicyclepublished on Monday, November 25, comes as a piece of good news for the party. It confirms its ideas’ surge in public opinion, spurred on by its leaders, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella; as well as its normalization, which has been demonstrated in elections.…

A US-France-brokered ceasefire agreement to the 14-month conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah came into power on Wednesday morning, but Israel’s vow to double down on its war in Gaza and focus on its main enemy, Iran, could soon challenge the deal’s solidity.  Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire begins after nearly 14 months of conflict

The needs of the Valencian municipalities flooded by the flood, far from disappearing, are evolving or becoming entrenched. At first, after the Dana tsunami that devastated a good part of the towns in the industrial belt of Valencia on October 29, the main need in ground zero of the disaster was bottled water, boots to walk through the mud, food basics and cleaning and hygiene products. However, in addition to all that, tons of unsorted clothing, boxes and boxes of baby food and milk, and even high-heeled shoes arrived in the towns. Days later, what was urgently needed was heavy…

On September 12, 2020, Jean-François Mayet, on call at the prosecutor’s office in the southeastern French town of Carpentras, was informed about the arrest of a man called Dominique Pelicot, who had been caught filming up supermarket customers’ skirts. At the time, Mayet had no idea that, four years later, alongside his colleague Laure Chabaud, he would be standing up in court to request sentences for 51 defendants an extraordinary rape trial, before the local, national and international press. In the nearby city of Avignon, on the first of two days of closing arguments from the prosecution, on Monday, November…

  Hold me back or you’ll see! Despite being hampered by a trial for charges of embezzling EU Parliament funds in a fake jobs scheme – a case that could render her banned from running for public office – far-right leader Marine Le Pen put herself back at the center of the political game on Monday, November 25, amid the unfolding budget tragedy. She was the first to meet with officials to voice her grievances and the first to publicly make her demands on the steps of the prime minister’s office. Le Pen relishes her role as kingmaker, holding the…

Mark Twain wrote that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” A lie has gone around Spain several times, pushed by complicit media. This anomaly has triggered, with the invaluable collaboration of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid and the Supreme Court, the accusation of the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, investigated for an alleged crime of revealing secrets consisting of unmasking a rude hoax with data of an ongoing judicial procedure. The supposedly criminal action consisted of destroying a lie with exact information that had previously been…

Secretary-General of the Elysée Palace Alexis Kohler in Strasbourg, France, November 23, 2024. SARAH MEYSSONNIER / REUTERS French President Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff Alexis Kohler can be prosecuted over an alleged conflict of interest in a previous job, a Paris court ruled on Tuesday, November 26. Kohler can be prosecuted on suspicion of illegally favoring a company to which he had family ties while working as a senior civil servant from 2009 to 2016, the Paris appeals court said, according to several people familiar with the case. He and two fellow accused still have the option of appealing the…

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City remains winless in six consecutive games after blowing a three-goal lead to Feyenoord on Tuesday, while Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, and Atlanta piled on the goals, and Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski became the third player to score 100 goals in the Champions League. Champions League: Manchester City’s woes continue as Lewandowski makes history