© Photo Fred Marvaux / REA

The world of natural wine – which is made with little or no chemicals – has a reputation for breaking the normal rules in order to produce a more ethical drink. However, there appears to be another, hidden, side to this small community of wine producers and sellers, following the emergence of numerous accusations of sexism. Though as Julie Reux reports, the claims appear to have had little impact on some people's attitudes within the sector. And now feminist activists and victims say they feel under pressure to keep quiet.

A minor in the Kawéni shanty town in Mayotte, November 2022. © Photo David Lemor / Abaca

Mediapart can reveal details of a report compiled by six French ministries about the tragic situation faced by France's Indian Ocean archipelago. Covering issues such as health, housing, law and order, education and the legal system, the report's contents are devastating for the French state. Drawn up in January 2022, the document shows that the security-focused approach of interior minister Gérald Darmanin cannot, on its own, solve Mayotte's many problems. Fabrice Arfi and Nejma Brahim report.

The demonstration against the pension reforms in Paris, March 7th 2023. © Photo Laurent Hazgui pour Mediapart

The battle against the French government's pension reform is not simply just another protest movement. Three crucial issues are at stake here: social, democratic and civilisational, as shown by the exceptional unity among trade unions opposed to the changes, argues Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article. All the more reason, he writes, to put all our energy into supporting this combat.

© Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart

German aerospace engineer Lutz Kayser was the first to develop, as of the 1970s, a technology for the private launching of satellite-carrying rockets at relatively low cost. But the dreams of the Nazi nostalgist would fall to earth with a bump when he became caught up in the geopolitical realities of the Cold War amid his attempts to set up his operations with the help of two African dictators. His story is the subject of Projet Wotan, a book recently published in France by the journalist Joëlle Stolz.

Journalists in Libreville, Gabon, watching the broadcast of Emmanuel Macron's speech, February 27th 2023. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP

The French president has just completed a five-day tour of four African countries, Gabon, Angola, Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Before he left Paris, Emmanuel Macron delivered what was billed as a keynote speech on the future of France's relations with the continent. Yet as Justine Brabant and Ilyes Ramdani say in this analysis of that speech, the French head of state instead delivered a series of clichés and untruths. And, they say, he showed himself incapable of acknowledging his own policy failures in his dealings with African nations.

© Illustration Justine Vernier / Mediapart

With the help of leaked documents and witness accounts, Mediapart reveals the inside story on the United Arab Emirates' strategy to influence opinion in France, an operation involving private intelligence gathering and the manipulation of information . The story features an Emirati intelligence agent, a private intelligence agency in Switzerland, academics and two well-known French journalists. Another name that also crops up is that of President Emmanuel Macron's former bodyguard Alexandre Benalla. Yann Philippin and Antton Rouget investigate.

Tunisian president Kaïs Saïed in Washington on December 14th 2022. © Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images via AFP

Comments from Tunisian president Kaïs Saïed over the presence of sub-Saharan migrants in the North African country and his talk of a “criminal plan” to change the nation's demographics have provoked a row. Students who come from sub-Saharan Africa now say they are living in fear and have been told to stay indoors to avoid being targeted. Meanwhile some migrant workers have been forcibly evicted from their homes. Lilia Blaise reports on a controversy in Tunisia which is also being exploited by France's far-right failed presidential candidate Éric Zemmour.

A patient placed in an isolation room in a psychiatric hospital at Bondy in the north-east suburbs of Paris, 2020. © Photo Loïc Venance / AFP

Earlier this month a nurse was stabbed to death at a hospital in the northern French city of Reims; the person arrested over the killing is a psychiatric patient. This follows two other cases in recent decades in which staff have been killed by patients suffering from serious mental health issues. Politicians have now promised greater security in hospital settings. But as Mediapart's health correspondent Caroline Coq-Chodorge writes, it is government policies themselves that are behind the growing number of violent cases, with an undermined psychiatric service losing its relationship of trust with the mentally ill.

More than 100,000 French farms ceased activity between 2010 and 2020. © Photo Vincent Feuray / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP

Access to ownership or rental of agricultural land for French farmers setting up an activity is proving increasingly difficult, in part because of the rising prices fuelled by private and agribusiness investors in mega-farms, and also because of the increasing fragmentation of smallholdings, according to two reports published this week. Both call for the swift introduction of measures to reverse a trend that threatens a profound change in French agriculture. Amélie Poinssot reports.

Ginette and Claude Bac pictured at their first trial in 1954. © Photo DR

In July 1955, Ginette and Claude Bac were handed a two-year prison sentence for involuntarily causing the death through lack of care of their fourth child, eight-month-old Danielle. The tragedy of how Ginette Bac became lost in a deep depression after falling pregnant four times in as many years became a turning point in France for the campaign to legalise contraception, and led to the creation of the country’s family planning association. Mathilde Blézat reports.

When schoolteacher Tetiana Bondarieva refused to collaborate she was forced to flee her village. © Olga Ivashchenko for Mediapart

After the recapture by Ukraine last autumn of territories occupied by Russia since its invasion of the country in February 2022, there is a strong public demand that those who collaborated with the occupier should be brought to account before the courts. Beyond the most flagrant cases, the legal process of identifying collaboration can be both complicated and sensitive, with some having acted voluntarily, others under duress. The prosecution services, meanwhile, are under pressure to act swiftly. Carine Fouteau reports from the city of Kharkiv and its surrounds, liberated last September.

The still unidentified little girl was found on December 24th on a beach on Tunisia’s Kerkennah Islands. © Photo Boulbeba Bougacha

The washed-up corpse of an infant girl (photo) was found on December 24th on a beach in Tunisia’s Kerkennah Islands, in almost identical circumstances as that of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, found on a beach in Turkey in 2015. Both drowned during an attempted crossing of the Mediterranean Sea. But while the shocking photo of the little boy’s body made headlines around the world, that of the unidentified little girl has prompted no such interest, nor any political reaction, highlighting a creeping indifference towards such tragedies. Nejma Brahim reports from Tunisia, where she spoke with those who routinely face the horrors of the Mediterranean ‘graveyard’.

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin and the minister for citizenship, Sonia Backès, in Paris on January 16th 2023. © Photo Amaury Cornu / Hans Lucas via AFP

The revelation that dozens of schools in southern France were asked to provide data on the number of pupils who had been absent during the festival of Eid has sparked controversy. Some of the schools involved refused, fearing that the demand was a form of discrimination. Senior education officials who had appeared to support the requests later backtracked, telling schools they did not have to comply with them. Meanwhile the Ministry of the Interior has got itself in a tangle trying to explain the reasons for requesting this data. Mathilde Goanec reports.

© Nicolas Guyonnet / Hans Lucas via AFP

The food chain in France, from production to plate, is officially estimated to account for around 22% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, while supermarkets are estimated to account for about 70% of all food purchases. Réseau Climat Action (RCA), the French branch of the Climate Action Network, the umbrella group for hundreds of environmental protection NGOs, has completed a study of the practices of the major supermarket chains with regard to their contribution to gas emissions, and efforts to reduce them, and this month published its damning findings. Jade Bourgery reports.

Noël Le Graët. © Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

A report concluding a five-month administrative investigation into the management of the French Football Federation has found that its president, Noël Le Graët, repeatedly sent sexually explicit phone text messages to female staff, that his “offensive” comments “may be accentuated by the excessive consumption of alcohol,” and that he oversaw a “sexist and violent” atmosphere within the federation. Sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has called on the 81-year-old to resign amid the latest of several scandals that have rocked the world of sport in France. Youmni Kezzouf reports.