Author: Frank Deux

France’s richest man, LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, testified on Thursday, November 28, in the influence-peddling trial of the former head of France’s domestic intelligence agency, denying any knowledge of an alleged scheme to protect the luxury group. Bernard Squarcini, ex-head of the DCRI security service (since renamed the DGSI), is one of 10 men on trial and charged with using his security contacts for private gain, including obtaining confidential information on behalf of LVMH. Squarcini faces 11 charges in the Paris criminal court case, including influence peddling, misuse of public funds and compromising national security information. “I would like to…

The invitation had been belatedly extended by the Elysée Palace. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to Paris for the November 11 Remembrance Day ceremonies went far beyond the historic tribute to the soldiers who died in the Great War. As France and the United Kingdom celebrate the 120th anniversary of their Entente Cordiale this year, Starmer, above all, came to flesh out his plans for rapprochement with the European Union and its main member states. At a time when Donald Trump’s return to the White House is prompting a large part of the European continent to quake in fear,…

In August 2018, the real estate portal Idealista hung a sign from a block of flats in Madrid that has since been seen daily by hundreds of thousands of drivers traveling in the north of the capital’s most famous ring road: “There is more life.” beyond the M-30″. When this message appeared, it could be understood as an invitation to explore the real estate market beyond the central area, where prices were already excessive for an average Madrid family. The fact is that the cartel is still there in 2024, but things have changed substantially. In these years, rent has…

“How is it possible that with everything donated, there are people in Valencia who have nowhere to live or what to eat?” “They need to explain to me where the money from so many donations is… I have many friends affected and so far no one has seen a euro.” “Where are the donations? Who controls the money? Will it get lost along the way?” These are some messages from users of the the enormous amount raised in a wave of solidarity unprecedented in the history of Spain. This newspaper has asked the main NGOs what amount they have collected…

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday announced a major concession in a bid to end a standoff with the opposition over the budget, which has caused jitters on financial markets and risks bringing down his minority government. FRANCE 24’s Sharon Gaffney speaks to Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, at Lancaster University. French PM Barnier announces concession in bid to end budget standoff

French authorities arrested 26 people and seized €11 million as they smashed a migrant trafficking ring suspected of bringing several thousand people from South Asia into France, border police told AFP on Thursday, November 28. Charging between €15,000 and €26,000 per person, the traffickers are suspected of having smuggled several thousand people from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal into France since September 2021, the force said. Authorities estimate the network generated several million euros in illegal profits, which were laundered through construction companies, gold trafficking and informal transfers of money back to South Asia. The arrests took place between March…

The feminist lawyer, and Joséphine Baker’s grand-niece, was impressed by the women in her family who transcended their conditions and misfortunes to move forward. Lawyer Anne Bouillon: ‘In defending women, I discovered a continent of suffering’

The Government delegate, Pialar Barnabé, on the left, along with Carlos Mazón, the Minister of Emergencies and the Interior, Juan Carlos Valderrama, the Vice President Susana Camarero, and the Vice President Francisco José Gan Pampols, at a Cecopi meeting this week.The political fight between the PP and the PSOE at the expense of the management of the dana, which has caused 222 deaths in the province of Valencia, is being fought on all fronts. Perhaps the most unexpected was the one that was revealed this Thursday in the control session of the Valencian Cortes: that of the clothing used. The…

Valle Fernández, who was Secretary of Circles and Extension of Podemos Andalucía, points out in her story to Raquel Martínez as one of the perpetrators. Read The complaint of a former Podemos leader against the favorite to be leader in Andalusia: "There was institutional and organizational violence"

A march is organized in tribute to the 27 migrants who died in the Channel on November 24, 2021, in Dunkirk, on November 23, 2024 PASCAL BONNIERE / PHOTOPQR/VOIX DU NORD/MAXPPP Thirty-one white roses were thrown into the port of Dunkirk, northern France, on Saturday, November 23. Thirty-one, the number of people who died or went missing at sea on the night of November 23, 2021, off the coast of Calais. More than 200 people gathered in Dunkirk to mark the third anniversary of the worst migrant shipwreck in the English Channel since the explosion, at the end of 2018,…

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen talks to journalists after a meeting with the French prime minister to discuss the 2025 budget at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, France, November 25, 2024. CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / REUTERS French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Monday, November 25, threatened to back a no-confidence motion that could topple the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a standoff over the budget, saying after talks that both sides were entrenched in their positions. Months of political tensions since right-winger Barnier became prime minister at the helm of a minority government appointed by President Emmanuel…

When this Wednesday, after two-thirty in the afternoon, Juan Lobato announced his resignation, few were those who loudly showed any support. Those who thought he would resign in his message on Tuesday only had to wait one day to find a response to the clamor: Lobato is a political corpse who would not even be well received in the Congress that the PSOE will hold this weekend. “You have to be flat to appear in Seville,” a Madrid mayor told this newspaper hours before learning of her resignation.More information“He doesn’t respond to messages or answer calls. “He is absent,” explained…

The ruling of the Seville Court that condemns five former senior UGT officials in Andalusia constitutes an endorsement of the journalistic investigation that EL MUNDO began in July 2013. Read Briefcases, parties at the April fair, ‘boat management’: this is how the UGT fraud was deciphered, cover by cover

London’s Metropolitan Police has opened a new investigation into the late Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, identifying 90 alleged sexual assault victims. Triggered by a BBC documentary in September, over 400 women and witnesses have come forward, prompting scrutiny of the police’s handling of decades-old complaints. Al-Fayed died in August 2023, aged 94. UK police identify 90 women in Al Fayed sexual assault case

A lawyer for the chief defendant in a French mass rape trial on Wednesday, November 27, urged the court to recall his good side after prosecutors demanded lengthy jail terms for the dozens of suspects. The main defendant, Dominique Pelicot, has admitted enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his then-wife while she was drugged and unconscious.

Provisions for immunity from prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC) apply to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the French foreign ministry said on Wednesday, November 27. In a statement the ministry reaffirmed its commitment to international justice after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, but also said that the Israeli leader was covered by immunity rules that apply to states which are not a party to the ICC. Israeli is not an ICC member.

Juan Lobato made the decision to resign as general secretary of the Madrid PSOE on Tuesday night. State Treasury Technician, if he knows anything, it is figures, and the numbers had stopped proving him right. “He had practically no support left in the party,” summarize his trusted sources. The shock of his most faithful organic supports and the pressure that came to him from many of the general secretaries of key groups in his victory in the 2021 primaries, in which he obtained 61% support, a discreet percentage despite being the candidate official party, that is, the one indicated by…

In recent times, disagreement with the leadership of the PSOE was not limited to Page and Lambán. Read With Lobato’s lesson, Ferraz tries to stop the rebellion of the critics of the "I will not die in silence"

US President-elect Donald Trump named retired general Keith Kellogg as Ukraine envoy, tasked with ending Russia’s invasion. Trump, pledging a swift resolution to the war, aims to mediate a ceasefire between Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

A new page was turned in the Pelicot rape trial on Wednesday, November 27, with the end of three days of the prosecutions’ closing arguments against the 51 defendants, one of whom is still at large. Taking the floor one last time, the lead prosecutor, Laure Chabaud, attempted to “look to the future.” Calling on the defendants to stop hiding behind their “magic formula” – “I recognize the facts, not the intention” – she expressed the wish for a “real awareness” of what they are accused of and of “the notion of consent.” Read more Subscribers only 51 men are…

She sees everything. Hitler’s too-black mustache, the missing centimeters on a barricade, an actor’s stumble. She hears everything. The creak of a pulley, the music starting too early, fatigue in the voices. From her seat in the middle of the stands, microphone in one hand and pen in the other, Ariane Mnouchkine observes every tiny detail that appears and happens on the stage of the Théâtre du Soleil. Nothing escapes her, neither in the detail nor the wider view. Does she have a perfect ear and eye? “I watch, listen and believe what the actors do. If I stop believing…

The Administration has defeated the illusion. In Motril, the pro-Three Kings parade association, organizer of the arrival of their majesties to the town since 1971, has taken a step back. After 53 rides, she is leaving tired of “the increasing technical requirements and the associated administrative burden,” as she wrote in a statement. As Manuel Martín Muñoz, president of the entity for the last two decades, explains, they step aside due to the demands of the City Council, which makes them ultimately responsible for any incident that occurs. They say this is too much for them, even taking out insurance.…

The Madrid federation, seasoned in crisis, has among its members Sánchez, three ministers -López, Bolaños and Albares- and the Government-Congress nexus Read The great paradox of the PSM: maximum power in Moncloa and chronic convulsion, from Tamayazo to Lobato’s ‘whatsapps’

Several of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, including Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin, faced bomb threats and “swatting” this week, the transition team said Wednesday. Threats occurred Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Law enforcement ensured safety swiftly, according to spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. Both Stefanik and Zeldin confirmed being targeted.

The Palestinian cause lost one of its most active defenders before international judicial bodies. Gilles Devers, a lawyer from Lyon who helped bring this issue before the International Criminal Court (ICC), died on November 26 at the age of 68, after a long battle with illness. His death came five days after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since 2009, Devers had filed dozens of reports with the Court’s prosecutor’s office on behalf of Palestinian victims. His son, Manuel Devers, made…