Author: Frank Deux

In tonight’s edition, more than 700 people have been killed in El-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur state since May, according to the UN. Also, France began withdrawing soldiers from Chad. And we’re just a few days away before Christmas, Chef Sonia Marty Sokouri is the most Parisian of the African cooks, and she will share with us her gourmet tips.  Over 700 killed in siege of Sudan's El-Fasher

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Hours to go before a midnight government shutdown, the House approved a new plan late Friday from Speaker Mike Johnson that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, but drops president-elect Donald Trump’s demands for a debt limit increase into the new year. The bill was approved 366-34, and now goes to the Senate, for expected quick passage. “We’re excited about this outcome,” Johnson said afterward, adding he had spoken with Trump and the president-elect “was certainly happy about this outcome, as well.”It was the third attempt from Johnson, the beleaguered House speaker, to achieve one of the basic…

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France began withdrawing soldiers from Chad on Friday, Chad’s ministry of the armed forces said, after N’Djamena last month abruptly ended military cooperation with the former colonial power. A contingent of 120 soldiers departed for France from a military airport in the capital, the ministry said in a statement on Facebook, 10 days after French fighter aircraft left the Sahelian country for good. Chad had been a key link in France’s military presence in Africa and its last foothold in the wider Sahel region after the forced withdrawal of its troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in the wake…

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In profile, he looks a bit like Emmanuel Macron. Same antique straight nose, same height, same look. His official title: “Special envoy for Libya.” Hardly anyone knows his name. Paul Soler, 45, a former special forces soldier, is one of the most secretive advisors at the Elysée, where he is hardly ever present, busy traveling as he is. In truth, he is much more than that: a sort of personal diplomat to the president. His missions stretch from North Africa to the Sahel region of West Africa, but also as far as Ukraine and Russia, Côte d’Ivoire, the Central African…

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The constant pilgrimage to the Soria Lottery administrations means queues in front of the counter and, with them, extracts of delicious conversations for Christmas gossips. “I had a feeling!” exclaims one. “Sweet blood sausage is typical from here!” comments another, more concerned with things to eat than things to dream. The line moves forward and the lotteries send out endings, ugly and handsome numbers, the bar or company ticket, the anniversary of I don’t know who, the number of I don’t know how many… So up to the 285.04 euros that are spent per person, on average, in the province…

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Maria Schneider and Marlon Brando, in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris.” CINEMATHEQUE On Friday, December 20, as part of the 100th anniversary of Marlon Brando’s birth, New York’s Film Forum screened Last Tango in Paris (1972). On its website, prominently displayed, the cinema warned that the film contained a “sexually humiliating” scene for actress Maria Schneider, which she had not been informed about before shooting it. The site encouraged viewers to learn more about what happened. The same film, in the same context, was due to be screened at La Cinémathèque Française in Paris on December 15. But the…

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France’s anti-terrorism court on Friday convicted eight people of involvement in the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty four years ago. Paty was killed outside his school near Paris on October 16, 2020, days after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a debate on free expression. The assailant, an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin, was shot to death by police. Those who have been on trial on terrorism charges at a special court in Paris since the end of November are accused, in some cases, of providing assistance to the perpetrator and, in others, of organizing a hate…

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A former member of the Colla Castellera de Sant Pere i Sant Pau de Tarragona has denounced in a letter to the entity that in 2018, when she was only 13 years old, she was a victim of sexual abuse by the current president of the colla, according to this report. Friday the media Porta Enrere and sources from the group have confirmed to EFE. In October, the young woman sent a letter to the group in which she details that her alleged attacker, who was vocal at the time, touched her, kissed her and sent her messages of sexual…

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France’s President Emmanuel Macron speaks with medical staff members of the intensive care unit of the Mayotte hospital center in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean department of Mayotte, on December 19, 2024. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP France will observe a day of national mourning, on Monday, December 23, for the French overseas department of Mayotte, President Emmanuel Macron said, after the department’s Indian Ocean archipelago was devastated by a cyclone, with lacking water and food, and fear of looting gripping residents. In a post on X, on Thursday, Macron said flags would fly at half-mast on Monday, and “all…

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Mathias Pogba, brother of Paul Pogba, arrives to attend the verdict in his trial with 5 others in extortion case targeting French soccer player Paul Pogba at Paris criminal court, France, December 19, 2024. ABDUL SABOOR / REUTERS A Paris court on Thursday, December 19, sentenced a brother of France midfielder Paul Pogba to a three-year prison term, with two years suspended, after convicting him in a high-profile extortion case. Mathias Pogba will be able to serve his one-year sentence with an electronic bracelet rather than behind bars. The court also fined Paul Pogba’s brother €20,000 for participating in the…

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If the use of rubber balls by security forces to deal with street altercations was one of the discrepancies that caused the second attempt to reform the citizen security law, known as gag lawin the current legislature it is once again one of its great obstacles. Junts, Podemos and BNG – three of the parties that support the parliamentary majority of the Government and whose support is essential to carry out the modification of a law approved by the PP in 2015 – have presented amendments so that this anti-riot material is definitively prohibited. Two others, EH Bildu and ERC,…

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French President Emmanuel Macron extended his stay in Mayotte on Friday after distraught and angry locals jeered and shouted out their grievances as he toured the storm-ravaged Indian Ocean archipelago. Emergency efforts continue as the death toll from Cyclone Chido reaches 31, with thousands more potentially affected. Macron extends visit to cyclone-ravaged Mayotte amid local anger

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“I’m socialist.” Emmanuel Macron was 36 years old, and had just been appointed as economy minister. In front of an audience of startuppers and business leaders on December 4, 2014, he unfolded a paper on which he had copied a vintage quote from historic socialist figure Jean Jaurès, published in the newspaper The Dispatch in 1887: “All politics of caste and egoism must disappear.” “Me, I’m socialist and I say it,” insisted Macron, despite having been the architect of the corporate tax credits that marked the start of President François Hollande’s liberal. Two years later, in August 2016, Macron was…

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Judge Santiago Pedraz has refused to delve deeper into the investigation into the police espionage of Podemos ordered by the Ministry of the Interior in 2016, the objective of which was to discredit the leaders of that political formation by leaking false information to certain media, according to the numerous evidence that already appears in the summary opened for this case.The investigation opened months ago into these events managed to uncover the existence within the ministry of two secret operations against Podemos leaders, called Venus and Bolívar, which were leaked to media related to the PP Government with attributions of…

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“Pedro Sánchez, who is not reminded of the fulfillment of any promise, presents any information that questions it as a hoax. By default, only what he says can be true” Read The wall of Buenos Aires

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Starbucks employees will strike on Friday in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle, escalating labour tensions during the pre-Christmas rush. The strike, organized by Starbucks Workers United, targets improved pay and conditions following stalled negotiations. The action coincides with an Amazon walkout, amplifying holiday season disruptions. Starbucks workers to strike in three US cities, threaten nationwide action Workers at Starbucks will walk off the job Friday in three US cities in a strike their union threatened could spread around the country in the busy run-up to Christmas. The announcement, which will initially affect stores in Los Angeles, Chicago and the firm’s…

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If we were to compress Earth’s 4.54 billion years of history into a single year, primitive life would have emerged early, before February ended. However, organisms with nucleated cells like ours would not have appeared until August. From then until November, hardly anything new would have happened. These three months, in the context of the analogy, represent a billion years — an unimaginably vast span of time. Now, a new study has helped illuminate this gap by detailing just how slowly life evolved during that period.Roughly 2.5 billion years ago, Earth entered the Proterozoic Eon, the third of its four…

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On Wednesday, December 18, the Cour de Cassation, France’s highest court of appeals, upheld the sentence to which former president Nicolas Sarkozy had been condemned – a three-year jail term, two of which would be suspended and one that would take the form of home detention with an electronic tag allowing his movements to be monitored – in the “Paul Bismuth” corruption case. He was found guilty of having tried to obtain secret information about another case concerning him from a magistrate at the Cour de Cassation. This decision comes as part of a long litany of judicial cases implicating…

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French President Emmanuel Macron extended his visit to cyclone-devastated Mayotte on Friday, December 19, after angry residents vented exasperation and despair over the scale of the disaster. Locals jeered and shouted their grievances Thursday during Macron’s visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago, five days after Cyclone Chido left a trail of destruction in its wake. “I decided to sleep here because I considered that given what the population is going through,” leaving the same day could have “installed the idea that we come, we look, we leave,” he told reporters late Thursday. “It is a mark of respect, of consideration.”…

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