Author: Frank Deux

Icelanders are heading to the polls after their three-party coalition government collapsed last month. The election comes amid rising concerns over the economy, housing, and immigration, with voters hoping for change. Guillaume Gougeon reports. Icelanders head to the polls in snap election

Emmanuel Macron in the nave of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, November 29, 2024. CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON/AFP “We did it”: On Friday, November 29, Emmanuel Macron was so moved by the success of his gamble that he couldn’t wait any longer. A week before the grand ceremony scheduled for December 7 to mark the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, to which some 100 heads of state will be invited, the French president savored, almost on his own, the…

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as the US ambassador to France, in the latest of several controversial picks. Kushner “is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests,” Trump said on his Truth Social website, adding that Jared “worked closely with me in the White House.” The choice is in keeping with Trump’s pattern,…

Applause for the former senior socialist officials convicted by the ERE and acquitted by the Constitutional CourtThe president of the 41st Federal Congress of the PSOE and general secretary of the Andalusian socialists, Juan Espadas, began his speech by giving “special thanks” to some of the former senior officials of the Andalusian Junta who were convicted in the sentencing of the political piece of the ERE and that this summer were partially acquitted by the…

On Thursday the mandate of Manuel Marchena, president of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, who refused to direct the CGPJ, expires. Read The farewell of the judge who said ‘no’ to being a "instrument" of PP-PSOE and sentence the ‘process’: "A mistake was a catastrophe"

“I recommend, as a first step, that you go on this chat [platform] – it’s run by trained volunteer police officers and gendarmes who will answer your questions. They’ll help you through the process and tell you which police station to go to,” explained Cécile, with a calm and reassuring voice. The victim, an incest rape victim was speaking to her: She had decided to file a complaint, several years after being raped by her…

France’s hardline interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, on Friday, said Britain could no longer “sub-contract” Channel border security out to Paris. With no end in sight to the flows of migrants heading across the waterway. Retailleau is set to meet with his British counterpart on December 9 as tensions rise between the two countries over migration and border security. At least 72 people have died trying to reach Britain from northern France across the Channel this…

Frustration took over the PP after elections in which everything was blowing in its favour against a worn-out Government. The resistance of the socialists went beyond what could be expected. Against the odds, they managed to stay in power. But his euphoria faded within months. The PP did not give up and raised the volume of the opposition. The far right had powerful ammunition: the party in power began to grow scandals every day, and…

Those from Feijóo ask for sanctions of up to 600,000 euros for mayors who facilitate commemorations. Read The PP amends the Gag Law so that those who provide tributes to ETA members are punished

In this edition, we meet the Oprah Winfrey of China. Born a man and once crowned the country’s best male dancer, Jin Xing has gone on to become China’s first transgender icon and a star TV host. Now in Paris for her upcoming show, she shares her life story with FRANCE 24’s Yuka Royer. From Chinese army dancer to transgender icon: Jin Xing's extraordinary journey

Five years after images of the Notre-Dame Cathedral on fire shocked the world, French President Emmanuel Macron visited the monument on Friday, November 29, and praised the efforts of over 2,000 craftspeople who helped restore it to its former glory. Speaking in front of the designers, builders and architects who helped restore Notre-Dame, he said workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. “The blaze at…

Mathias Pogba, Paul Pogba’s brother, on his arrival at a Paris court, November 26, 2024. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP “What was planned was a meeting between friends, to have a good time.” On the second day of the trial of people close to Paul Pogba, on Wednesday, November 27, Machikour K., the first defendant to appear before the 16th correctional chamber of the Paris court for the attempted extortion of the football player, delivered a…

At the entrance to the Seville Congress Palace where the 41st PSOE congress began this Friday, there are two enormous red arches that mark the passage between the street and the interior with a sign that says “enter from the left”, a twist on the PSOE motto. PSOE are the Spanish workers socialist party, They have been in government longer than any other political party in modern democratic Spain. One after another, the leaders who…

That was a congress of socialist celebration, of light and color, of music, of exaltation of Sánchez’s internal peace, of the unity and fraternity of the family socialist around the patriarch Felipe González. The final photo of the 40th Congress with all the ge secretaries. “This is a Congress like there has never been before and it will surely not be repeated in the future.” A socialist veteran thus defined the 40th Congress held in…

This week, the guests gathered around Gavin LEE discuss the fragile ceasefire that was agreed between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah; how Donald Trump plans on launching a new tariff war with America’s neighbours; and what is happening in Sudan, where war is still raging, despite focus being displaced towards Ukraine and the Middle East. And as a Black Friday special deal, our set of experts also dive into Angela Merkel’s legacy book. Lebanon’s uneasy truce,…

In her early 20s, “in the village” in the far west of Kenya, Jacinta Nafula became pregnant by her boyfriend. The father of her son, named Richard, went to work in the capital. She joined him there and they got married. Then, one day, he disappeared. It wasn’t that he died; he just moved on. “He married another woman,” said this humble hair braider at a salon, who, due to unpaid rent, found herself homeless…

Paulette Brucale was shivering in her blue coat, but she didn’t complain she is from the older generation in France. They have seen of the second world war and live life with that dark memory etched into their lifestyle. Whilst she is waiting, she is patient subdued and quaint. Having arrived early, she was waiting in the long queue outside the café Le Saint-Louis, where Jordan Bardella was due to hold a book signing early…

What began with the separation of a young couple, Abraham Vargas and Nerea J., ended with an ambush and a crime. On March 16, 2022, evangelical pastor Joaquín Jiménez, 47, had just left his house in the Madrid district of San Blas, without knowing that a few meters ahead he was going to be shot by the Vargas. Jiménez tried to mediate a separation under gypsy laws, which establish that if there is a divorce,…

The lists that are currently competing for the leadership of the party – Junqueras, the ‘rovirista’ Godàs and Bosch – guarantee a hardening of the relationship with the PSOE Read The three candidates to lead ERC agree: "A new stage begins. If Sánchez does not comply, we will drop him"

In tonight’s edition, In town on a rare state visit to France. We speak to Nigeria’s Minister of Trade and Investment about her administration’s plans to woo more private funding. Also, after the distancing of Djamena and Senegal, it now looks like France will have to scale down again its military presence across Africa. And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, very few women rarely pursue scientific careers. To add context to the story, the investment…

France’s President Emmanuel Macron vowed Friday, November 29, to give Ukraine intense support in its battle against Russia’s “escalation” of its invasion, his office said. Macron condemned Russia’s “indiscriminate” strikes against Ukraine’s cities and power infrastructure in a telephone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Élysée Palace said. “These strikes, the growing cooperation with North Korea and the irresponsible rhetoric that accompanies them are of an unacceptable logic of escalation by Russia, which continues…

Ratings agency S&P maintained its grade for the French economy, saying on Friday, November 29, that the outlook was “stable” despite the European country’s mountain of debt and political troubles. S&P said it was keeping a “AA-/A-1+” rating for France’s credit ratings. “The outlook remains stable,” it said in a statement. “Despite ongoing political uncertainty, we expect France to comply – with a delay – with the EU fiscal framework and to gradually consolidate public…

The Palau Sant Jordi did not fail and hosted 15,000 people this Friday at the solidarity concert with the victims of the Valencia disaster. Organized by the Generalitat, Barcelona City Council, music sector associations and the company The Project, it raised 775,000 euros. The star of the concert, just one month after the flood, was Joan Manuel Serrat, who opened Barcelona and Valencia on an emotional Sant Jordi, who thought he would have definitively said…

“For the Sanchista supporters’ club to talk about credibility is like hearing Íñigo Errejón talk about respect for women” Read Stormy Congress

Béatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, in Avignon, November 26, 2024. CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP How to plead for Dominique Pelicot? What can you say in defense of a man who admitted to having both raped and arranged for other men to rape his wife, after drugging her, some 200 times over 10 years? With what words could Béatrice Zavarro conclude, on Wednesday, November 27, before the Vaucluse criminal court in southern France, this trial in…