© Photomontage Mediapart avec l'AFP

Several athletes who took part in swimming events in the River Seine during the Summer Olympics in Paris later fell ill with intestinal complaints, the latest among them being Irish swimmer Daniel Wiffen, who as a result missed Sunday’s closing ceremony where he was to be a flag bearer for Ireland. While no absolute proof indicates the cases of illness were due to the pollution in the river, the incidents will be of concern for those athletes taking part in the Summer Paralympics in Paris in two weeks time. Mediapart gained access to the results of the daily tests of the water which show that over a ten-day period during the Games, the amount of E. coli and intestinal Enterococcus bacteria in the water surpassed recommended levels. Jade Lindgaard, Pascale Pascariello and Antton Rouget report.

© Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy recently insisted that France was now politically a right-leaning country, probably more so than it has “ever been”. However, political scientist Vincent Tiberj disputes the widespread notion that there has been a rightwards shift “from the bottom up” in French society. Instead he prefers to point the finger of responsibility for recent voting patterns at media and political elites, against a backdrop of growing political disengagement among citizens. However, as Mediapart's Fabien Escalona writes, it would be unwise for the Left to seize on this as a reassuring counter-narrative.

Damage from shelling in the town of Sudzha, Kursk Oblast, on August 6th 2024. © Photo Governor of Kursk Region / AFP

An incursion by Ukrainian military forces into Russia’s western Kursk province continued for a fifth day on Saturday, amid claims they have penetrated up to 15 kilometres into the country. Conflicting reports announce casualties on both sides, while photos and video circulating on Telegram channels show burnt-out houses and, latterly, the decimation of a Russian military truck convoy. Russia has declared a state of emergency in the region, where the precise aims of the Ukrainian attack remain unclear. In this article by Mediapart’s Ukrainian media partner, The Kyiv Independent, Francis Farrell reports on the unfolding events.

A post on X by far-right MP Laurence Robert-Dehault, The photo caption reads: “Gold Medal for our forces of law and order!” © Photomontage Mediapart avec l'AFP

While numerous MPs and MEPs from France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party were fiercely critical of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, notably amid claims that it included a scene insulting Christianity, they have now settled down into virtually unanimous approval of the games themselves. Taking to social media to applaud the successes of French athletes, and in particular those from the police and armed forces, the RN representatives also express their delight at the flag-waving fervour of supporters and the massive police presence in the capital. All of which prompted one far-right MEP to comment that the games “very much resemble the France that we would like”. Youmni Kezzouf reports.

Ukrainian soldiers leaving positions at dusk in Donetsk Oblast, July 12th 2024. © Photo Francis Farrell / The Kyiv Independent

While Russia steps up its offensive operations in the eastern Ukrainian province of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine is struggling to replace its military losses through mobilization, placing its foot soldiers under greater pressure than ever. In this gritty report by Mediapart’s Ukrainian media partner, The Kyiv Independent, Francis Farrell recounts the long day he spent with the infantry in the frontline trenches near the Donetsk Oblast mining town of Toretsk, where little more than a hundred metres separates them from Russian troops.

(L-R) Brigitte Macron, Charles III, Emmanuel Macron and Queen Camilla share a toast at a September 2023 banquet in the British king’s honour at Versailles Palace, and which cost 474,000 euros, © Le Crédit : Photo Benoît Tessier / AFP

A report published this week by France’s national audit body, the Cour des comptes, sounds the alarm over a leap in spending by the country’s presidential office, which left a budget deficit in 2023 of 8 million euros. The auditors target the costs of lavish entertainment, state banquets and travel in France and abroad. Top of the list of eye-watering dinner bills was a banquet organised at Versailles Palace in honour of King Charles III last September, and which came to just over 474,000 euros. Ilyes Ramdani and Antton Rouget report. 

Idriss and his team have been running the market gardening social enterprise in Lannion since September 2022. © Photo Nejma Brahim / Mediapart

Idriss, who is originally from Sudan, has lived in Brittany in north-western France since 2016 and runs a market garden for an association which helps migrants interested in a career in agriculture. In early July, during the parliamentary election campaign which saw increased support for the far-right, this social enterprise was targeted by racist attacks on two successive nights. Idriss has reported both incidents to the authorities, and says he fears that someone could get hurt if there are similar episodes in the future. Nejma Brahim reports.

The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, in Paris, July 23rd 2024. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP

In order to host the 2024 Olympic Games, which were officially opened in Paris on Friday evening, the public authorities in France caved in to the demands of the International Olympic Committee. Yet, argues Mediapart's Antton Rouget in this op-ed article, the IOC is a clannish organisation that imposes its model and enriches itself without ever being accountable to anyone.

© Photo Christophe Ena / AFP

“That's not the issue,” the French president responded when asked about the prospect of nominating a prime minister from the Left. Speaking on France 2 television, Emmanuel Macron did finally acknowledge that he had lost the recent parliamentary elections but, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Carine Fouteau in this op-ed article, he still refuses to face up to the consequences, and instead imagines he can carry on with the policies that have led both him and France into a dead end. She argues that the president's continuing scheming to remain in power – which includes calling for a political 'truce' during the Paris Olympics - poses a threat to the rule of law.

Former cross-country skier Stéphane Passeron at a protest against staging the 2030 Olympics in the Alps. © Photo Thibaut Durand / Hans Lucas via AFP

Cross-country skier Stéphane Passeron, a former member of the French team and a Paralympic coach at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, argues that major sporting and cultural events are no longer compatible with the current climate crisis. As a campaign group asks for France's bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics to be scrapped, the veteran skier goes further and calls for an end to all major sporting events, such as the Olympics, the Tour de France and the football World Cup. Instead, argues Stéphane Passeron, we need to “make sport local”. Interview by Jade Lindgaard.

A press conference on energy poverty held by the Abbé Pierre Foundation in November 2022. © Photo Alexandra Bonnefoy / Rea

By revealing details of an internal investigation implicating their celebrated founder Abbé Pierre in sexual assault, the high-profile charities Emmaüs and the Abbé Pierre Foundation are now doing an exemplary job, despite past denials of any problem, argues Mediapart's joint editor-in-chief Lénaïg Bredoux in this op-ed article. The world of sport - notably football and rugby - is also experiencing similarly turbulent times, she says, amid signs that sections of French society are beginning to face up to the issue.

The podium or 'perchoir' where the president of the National Assembly sits. © Photo Stéphane De Sakutin / AFP

In an interview with Mediapart, French constitutional law specialist Jean-Marie Denquin analyses the implications of centrist MP Yaël Braun-Pivet's re-election as president of the National Assembly on Thursday, when she narrowly beat the Left's own candidate for this prestigious and important post. This was despite the fact that the Left had won more seats than anyone else in the recent elections, while Emmanuel Macron's centre-right alliance itself lost scores of MPs. The academic also outlines the broader challenges facing the Left with the advent of what he calls a “new system” - a parliamentary rather than the previous presidential one - that favours the concentration of power at the centre rather than the extremes. Interview by Fabien Escalona.

Obstacle course: French athlete David Séjor, a wheelchair race competitor, in a Paris Metro station, June 2023. © Photo Mohamad Alsayed / Anadolu via AFP

Paris is hosting the Paralympic Games and the organisation of infrastructures for the more than 4,000 competing athletes has been widely praised. But outside the Olympic village, the daily obstacles in the path of the disabled in the French capital, and in particular for wheelchair users, in taking public transport, accessing a GP’s surgery or entering shops, can be a major challenge. “It is an undeclared form of segregation,” commented Nicolas Mérille, national advisor on issues of accessibility for APF France Handicap, an association that champions the rights of the disabled. Cécile Hautefeuille reports.

© Eric Broncard / Hans Lucas via AFP

As the Paris Olympic Games get closer – the opening ceremony is on July 26th - France's Ministry of the Interior has been stepping up at an unprecedented rate the number of administrative control and surveillance measures on those they see as potential security threats. People's jobs and even their homes are under threat as house arrest orders are placed on individuals who have never been in trouble with the law before – or not for many years. Jérôme Hourdeaux reports.

A screenshot from the rushes of the video recording in Beirut of Ziad Takieddine's retraction, October 23rd 2020. © Document Mediapart

Mediapart has obtained the rushes, hitherto unseen in public, of a video interview with Ziad Takieddine, a key witness in the probe into the alleged Libyan funding of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign, in which the Franco-Lebanese business intermediary retracted his earlier testimony detailing how Sarkozy received the cash sums from Tripoli. The video was broadcast as an edited 32-second “exclusive” in November 2020 by French rolling news channel BFMTV, before Takieddine, who had been promised payment, finally disowned his retraction and an investigation into “witness tampering” was launched. The unedited video rushes, published in this report, reveal the extent of the manipulation by BFMTV in operation dubbed “Save Sarko”. Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget report.