Lawyers, students and feminist groups joined in the seventh day of national strike action and demonstrations against proposed pension reforms by mostly public sector employees on Friday, when unions claimed 350,000 turned out for a march across Paris – 31,000 according to independent estimates – timed when ministers met at a cabinet meeting to approve the substance and schedule for the reforms due to begin their passage through parliament next month, and which the government plans to set out in legislation before the summer recess.
Bernard Arnault, CEO of the LVMH group (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), last Friday briefly, and for the second time in recent months, knocked Jeff Bezos of Amazon off his perch as the world's richest person, part of an ascension that has also seen him try to obtain Belgian nationality to escape taxes at home.
The dispute which began last year with France's planned levy of up to three percent on revenues earned by US tech companies in France, and which Washington threatened to retaliate against with higher tariffs on imports of French goods, de-escalated this week with both sides agreeing on negotiations that may continue throughoiut the year.
During a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem, French President Emmanuel Macron loudly reprimanded Israeli security officers who he accused of violating rules that prevent them from entering the Crusader-era Church of St Anne, which is considered French territory.
Around 1,500 inhabitants were evacuated from their homes and an estimated 23,000 households were without electricity in south-west France on Wednesday as storm Gloria, described as the most ferocious rainstorm to hit the region in almost 30 years, moved north from Spain, bursting river banks and whipping up huge waves which battered the Mediterranean coastline.
The French publishers of a manual on 20th-century history aimed at higher education students, including those of the elite Paris political sciences school, has apologised after it was discovered that it described the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11th 2001 as being 'no doubt orchestrated by the CIA'.
Prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation after videos filmed during a 'Yellow Vest' anti-government protest in the French capital on January 18th showed a man with a bloodied head being held down on his back by a helmeted officer, who then strikes him hard in the face.
To a backdrop of high social tensions over government pension reform plans, French President Emmanuel Macron had to be evacuated from a Parisian theatre after a group of protestors arrived during a performance, while hours later a fire was started at a Montparnasse restaurant well known as the place where he celebrated his first-round victory in the 2017 presidential elections.
Several French chefs have reacted with anger and dismay at the decision by the Michelin guide to remove a star from the Auberge du Pont de Collonges restaurant in Lyon managed until his death in 2018 by Paul Bocuse, dubbed 'the pope of cuisine' by his peers, and which had kept its coveted three-star rating since 1965.
Marine Le Pen, the 51-year-old leader of France’s far-right Rassemblement National party, the former Front National, and who reached but lost the second-round playoff against Emmanuel Macron in France's 2017 presidential elections, has announced she will stand in the country’s next presidential elections due in 2022.
US streaming giant Netflix on Friday inaugurated a vast new office in Paris and announced a catalogue of new content for its market in France, where it currently claims 6.7 million subscribers, as well as further production partnerships.
The union-led opposition to the French government’s planned pension reforms, which has notably seen transport services severely disrupted since early December, saw another day of widespread strike action and demonstrations on Thursday, although accoring to official figures turnout in the nationwide street protests was down on previous marches.
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