Israel's slaughter of journalists in Gaza is an admission of its crimes

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 © Photo Omar Al-Qataa / AFP © Photo Omar Al-Qataa / AFP

Israel has claimed responsibility for the assassinations in Gaza on August 10th of a group of Gazan journalists working for the TV channel Al Jazeera, and alleged that one of them, reporter Anas al-Sharif, was "the head of a Hamas terrorist cell". The Israeli military have carried out an unprecedented number of executions of Palestinian journalists, writes Mediapart co-founder Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article. He argues that the slaughter of local reporters in Gaza, to where no international media can gain access, is in order to eliminate the evidence of the crimes being committed there. 

The lessons to be learnt from France's worst wildfire in decades

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Firefighters take a break on August 6th during the major wildfire that ripped through the Corbières region in southern France. © Photo Pascal Rodriguez / Sipa Firefighters take a break on August 6th during the major wildfire that ripped through the Corbières region in southern France. © Photo Pascal Rodriguez / Sipa

The gigantic wildfire which, in barely more than 48 hours, burnt through about 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of vegetation and forestland in southern France this week has finally been halted. For an explanation of the magnitude of this exceptional wildfire, the tactics employed to contain it, and the lessons to be learned from it, Mickaël Correia turned to Éric Brocardi, a senior firefighter and spokesman for France's National Federation of Firefighters, who described the events this week as a "turning point".

The chronicles of a genocide in Gaza (part five)

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 © Illustration Mediapart © Illustration Mediapart

Beginning in May, Mediapart has been publishing a series of reports regularly sent to it from inside the Gaza Strip by two young Palestinians. Nour Elassy, a 22-year-old journalist, who is also a poet and writer, and Ibrahim Badra, a 23-year-old journalist and human rights activist, have been chronicling the grim reality of life and death in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to wage a genocidal war against the population of about 2.1 million. Elassy last month arrived in France to study political sciences, while Badra remains in Gaza where “famine shows no mercy”, he writes in this latest despatch. “It steals our lives silently, weakens our bodies, and leaves us to face death alone.”

The bloody 19th-century military mission that still sours relations between France and Niger

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 © Photomontage Mediapart avec captures d'écran du trailer "African Apocalypse" de Rob Lemkin. © Photomontage Mediapart avec captures d'écran du trailer "African Apocalypse" de Rob Lemkin.

In 1899 a French-led military expedition left widespread carnage and death in its wake as it marched across parts of West Africa. Soldiers from the so-called Voulet-Chanoine Mission – otherwise known as the Central African Mission – looted, killed and raped in areas that are today part of the nation of Niger. Descendants of those communities hit by the military mission's rampage are now calling on France, via organisations at the United Nations, to acknowledge and make amends for those colonial crimes. Paris has flatly refused, amid a major breakdown in diplomatic relations with Niger. Report by Rémi Carayol.

The forgotten suicide victims of France's Catholic school abuse scandals

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 © Document Mediapart © Document Mediapart

Stories of the abuse of pupils at Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram private Catholic school in south-west France have grabbed the headlines in recent months, and have been the subject of parliamentary debate and a high-profile report by Members of Parliament. But how many pupils and former pupils have taken their own lives after suffering abuse at this and other such schools? That question has been notably absent from the many debates sparked by the Bétharram affair. Yet there are many such cases. Mediapart has spoken to witnesses and loved ones, who tell of lives and families that have been torn apart. Sarah Brethes and Mathilde Mathieu report.

What the US-EU trade deal says about France's diminishing voice in Europe

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Emmanuel Macron with EU Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen. © Photo Euc / Ropi - Rea Emmanuel Macron with EU Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen. © Photo Euc / Ropi - Rea

Last weekend the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen flew to Scotland where she met President Donald Trump to discuss and ultimately agree on a trade deal between the European Union and the United States. But no sooner had the pair shaken hands on the agreement than the entire French political class slammed the deal, with government ministers also making clear their dismay. Yet for the French executive as a whole, this “deal” raised even more awkward questions: for it reveals Paris's diminishing influence on the European stage. Ilyes Ramdani reports.

How beleaguered minister Rachida Dati terrorises France's media with total impunity

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 © Photomontage Mediapart © Photomontage Mediapart

Last week a judge ruled that France's culture minister Rachida Dati should stand trial on corruption and abuse of power charges. However, this did not stop Dati – who denies the allegations – from continuing her tough approach towards the country's broadcast media. Over the years the culture minister, part of whose remit is to uphold the independence of the press, has launched ferocious attacks on every newsroom that has dared mention cases that cast doubt on her integrity in public life. After targeting the country's public service broadcaster, the minister’s inner circle has once again turned on commercial news channel BFMTV, this time by insulting its editorial director. David Perrotin reports.

French anti-pesticide petition highlights clash between 'elite democracy and people’s democracy'

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Protests against the new law. © Photo Jérôme Gilles / NurPhoto via AFP Protests against the new law. © Photo Jérôme Gilles / NurPhoto via AFP

A public petition launched in France against new legislation that will allow the use of a previously-banned pesticide has gathered close to two million signatures. Among other measures aimed at the agriculture industry, the so-called 'loi Duplomb' will once again permit farmers to spray crops with acetamiprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide known to be harmful to pollinators such as bees. In an interview with Mediapart, political scientist Vincent Tiberj says he views the success of the petition as a sign of the strength of citizen democracy and its resistance against a rightwards shift in French political life. Interview by Mathieu Dejean.

France's recognition of Palestinian state: why Macron has finally taken the plunge

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 © Photo Felix Zahn / Photothek Media Lab / dpa via AFP © Photo Felix Zahn / Photothek Media Lab / dpa via AFP

The French president has announced that Paris will formally recognise the state of Palestine during the United Nations General Assembly in September. After long waiting for backing from both Western and Arab allies, the French head of state has now decided to go it alone. As Mediapart's political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani reports, the impact of this decision - which has already been angrily condemned in Tel Aviv and criticised in the United States - will largely depend on Paris’s ability to stand firm against Israeli pressure.

The chronicles of a genocide in Gaza (part four)

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In a refugee camp in Gaza, a Palestinian mother holds her 18-month-old son, Muhammad, who is suffering from malnutrition, July 21st 2025. © Photo Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini / Anadolu via AFP In a refugee camp in Gaza, a Palestinian mother holds her 18-month-old son, Muhammad, who is suffering from malnutrition, July 21st 2025. © Photo Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini / Anadolu via AFP

Mediapart has since May been publishing a series of reports regularly sent to it from inside the Gaza Strip by two young Palestinians. Nour Elassy, a 22-year-old journalist, who is also a poet and writer, and Ibrahim Badra, a 23-year-old journalist and human rights activist, chronicle the grim reality of life and death in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to wage a genocidal war against the population of about 2.1 million. In this episode, Elassy recounts the pain and sorrow of her evacuation from Gaza earlier this month, after being offered a place at France’s prestigious social sciences school, the EHESS, while Badra, who remains in Gaza, recounts more of the dire plight of the population facing starvation.

The pull of the far-right, as seen from a small town in Normandy

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 © Photo Nejma Brahim / Mediapart © Photo Nejma Brahim / Mediapart

As one of a series of reports looking into the rise of support for the far-right in France, Mediapart chose to visit the small town of Gaillon, in southern Normandy, about 100 kilometres north of Paris, with a population of around 6,500. Nejma Brahim travelled to Gaillon to interview inhabitants of an apartment building in the centre of the town, after they agreed to talk about their hopes and fears and political choices, shedding light on the tensions and dissatisfaction that may well drive a far-right victory in nationwide municipal elections next year, and presidential and parliamentary elections due in 2027. 

The extraordinary life and career of French MP Félix Kir

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 © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec Assemblée nationale © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec Assemblée nationale

Félix Kir was a priest, an honorary canon, briefly a journalist, a one-time supporter of the wartime collaborationist leader Marshal Philippe Pétain before joining with the Resistance, a cassock-wearing Member of Parliament and mayor of the town of Dijon, a conservative anti-Gaullist who was admired by USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev. Ordinary he was not. In this, one of a series of articles about some of the most unusual, stand-out characters in the history of France’s parliament, Pierre Januel traces Kir’s extraordinary life and career (and whose legacy includes the eponymous apéritif).

The chronicles of a genocide in Gaza (part three)

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 © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart avec AFP © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart avec AFP

Mediapart is publishing a series of reports regularly sent to it from inside the Gaza Strip by two young Palestinians. Nour Elassy, a 22-year-old journalist, who is also a poet and writer, and Ibrahim Badra, a 23-year-old journalist and human rights activist, chronicle the grim reality of life and death in Gaza. “The word 'massacre' passes through the ears of Gazans like a morning greeting with a dark tone,” writes Ibrahim Badra in this, his third contribution. “We ask 'where is so-and-so?' knowing already the answer. The word no longer arouses astonishment or shock. It has become part of our daily lexicon.” 

French PM presents 'last stop before the cliff' budget of massive spending cuts

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French PM François Bayrou presenting his 2026 budget on Tuesday. © Photo Aurélien Morissard / AP via Sipa French PM François Bayrou presenting his 2026 budget on Tuesday. © Photo Aurélien Morissard / AP via Sipa

Presenting the key features of the government’s planned draft legislation for the 2026 budget on Tuesday, French Prime Minister François Bayrou adopted a grim, alarmist style, warning that the country was in “mortal danger” at this “critical moment”, his measures representing a “last stop before the cliff” and the “crushing of France by debt”, justifying budget cuts totalling a massive 44 billion euros. Mathias Thépot reports.

New Caledonia: political opponents agree 'state within a state' deal

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French president Emmanuel Macron (left) attends a customary law ceremony at the Élysée Palace for the opening of the negotiations on the future of New Caledonia, July 2nd 2025. Photo : Ludovic MARIN (AFP). French president Emmanuel Macron (left) attends a customary law ceremony at the Élysée Palace for the opening of the negotiations on the future of New Caledonia, July 2nd 2025. Photo : Ludovic MARIN (AFP).

Representatives of the pro- and anti-independence camps of France’s strife-torn Pacific Ocean territory of New Caledonia on Saturday announced they had reached an agreement for a package of institutional and economic reforms aimed at defusing the volatile situation on the archipelago, where 14 people died in a separatist revolt last year. It includes the creation of a state of New Caledonia, but which would remain a part of France. “We’ve given work to jurists for the next twenty years,” jokingly commented one negotiator. Ellen Salvi reports.