Browsing: France

An assailant targeted ‘passers-by’ in the Quai de Grenelle area of France’s capital, according to interior minister Gérald Darmanin.

Some 200 far-right demonstrators gathered in Paris on Friday night to protest the death of a French teenager who died last month after being stabbed during what appeared to be a brawl that broke out at a village dance. Although the circumstances of the incident remain unclear, the far right has framed it as a symbol of France’s increasingly insecure society amid immigration.

It all started with the tragic death of a teenage boy attending a village dance in southern France. Although the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear, members of France’s ultra-right immediately blamed it on “anti-French” sentiment, descending on the region en masse to avenge his death.

New documents surfaced in September indicating that Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel may have played a double role during World War II, serving not only as an informant for the Nazis but also as a member of the French Resistance. But a historian who has analysed the new evidence says he has “serious doubts” about her alleged membership in La Résistance, suggesting the French fashion icon may have used the documents to restore her reputation after the war.

Samuel Paty: Six French teenagers on trial over teacher’s murder The trial of a murdered school teacher starts today, with six French teenagers accused of…

Several thousand people marched in France on Saturday to condemn violence against women on the international day to combat the scourge.

Two migrants die crossing Channel in small boat Two migrants died after their small boat got into difficulty as they attempted to cross the Channel. …

Holding olive branches and white banners, French performers from different religious and ethnic backgrounds led thousands of people on a silent march through central Paris on Sunday to call for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and unity in France.

Auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat said the hat was one of Napoleon’s trademarks.

French Senator Joël Guerriau is facing preliminary charges of drugging a fellow lawmaker with the intent to commit “rape or sexual assault”, prosecutors confirmed Friday, in a case that has shocked France. Guerriau was suspended from both his Horizons party and his Senate group on Saturday. 

Thousands of protesters took part in rallies across France and Britain on Saturday calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

On June 27, 17-year-old Nahel was killed by a police officer. The incident sparked riots across France. The urban violence lasted almost a week and was the worst the country had seen in nearly twenty years. Nanterre, the Paris suburb where Nahel was from and where he was killed, was the epicentre. Northwest of Paris, it was already well-known for being a deprived neighbourhood. During the riots it became associated with images of smashed windows, burnt-out cars, and youths throwing fireworks at the police. But there’s a lot more to Nanterre than that. The town’s inhabitants found a strong community spirit, pride in Nanterre’s notorious tower blocks and a deep desire not to be known as a downtrodden place to live. FRANCE 24’s Claire Paccalin and David Gilberg report.

A third person has been left in a critical condition after being shot in the chest.

‘This has definitely put me off sleeping in other beds and I wouldn’t go to France again.’

A call for a weekend march in Paris against anti-Semitism sparked bitter squabbling between political parties Wednesday despite a surge in anti-Semitic incidents in the country.

Move over Bridgerton.

‘Early enquires suggest an anti-Semitic murder attempt.’

France has recorded more than 800 anti-Semitic attacks in the last month.

Much of northwestern Europe went on high alert Wednesday as a storm dubbed Ciaran threatened to bring gale force winds and extreme rainfall to the region. Three French departments — Finistere, Cotes-d’Armor and Manche — will be placed on red storm alert, the highest level, at midnight (2300 GMT), national weather agency Meteo-France said. Meanwhile thirty other departments including Paris and its surrounding regions are placed on orange alert.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Tuesday vowed a “merciless fight” against surging anti-Semitism after residents of the French capital discovered anti-Jewish graffiti on buildings in several districts. Paris prosecutors have launched a probe into the incident as a possible hate crime. “The Israel-Hamas conflict is clearly being imported into France,” representative council of French Jewish institutions Robert Ejnes said.

French President Emmanuel Macron looked to cement his legacy, and take on political opponents, with the inauguration on Monday of a monument to the French language deep in far-right heartland.

French football plunged into a new abyss of violence after the Olympique de Marseille v Olympique Lyonnais game was called off when the visitors’ bus was pelted with stones and beer bottles, injuring Lyon coach Fabio Grosso on Sunday.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday his government plans to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution to make them “irreversible”.

Thousands of demonstrators protested in Paris on Saturday in a banned march in “support of the Palestinian people” AFP correspondents saw.

Last year, ferocious wildfires destroyed thousands of hectares of one of France’s most picturesque forests. Now French authorities are battling an invasion of beetles that are devouring the weakened pines of La Teste-de-Buch, in the southwestern region of Gironde.