'Mimi' Marchand during a tribute to the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo at the Hôtel des Invalides in central Paris on September 9th 2021. © Photo Romain Gaillard / REA

Previously-deleted digital conversations that have been retrieved by an IT expert show that well-connected Paris paparazzi boss Michèle 'Mimi' Marchand oversaw from start to finish an operation which led to the false retraction of a witness statement by Ziad Takieddine. Takieddine is a key witness in the affair that centres on claims that the Libyan regime helped fund Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign. In those same messages Marchand stated that she was keeping the former president – who was given the nickname 'Zébulon' – informed in real time of events concerning the Takieddine evidence retraction saga. Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget report.

Photos of the living conditions experienced by French soldiers deployed at Cincu in Romania since February 2022. © Documents Mediapart

On November 3rd France's armed forces minister Sébastien Lecornu visited French troops who have been deployed in Romania as part of a NATO mission. However, despite the upbeat photo opportunities, some of the soldiers stationed there complain of logistical failings, a lack of food and poor living conditions. Justine Brabant reports.

Then Qatari ruler Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani celebrates the awarding to Qatar, on December 2nd 2010, of the 2022 World Cup. © Reuters

A joint investigation by The Sunday Times and the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported that a group of Indian hackers were hired to spy on journalists and other individuals “who threatened to expose wrongdoing” over the awarding to Qatar of this year’s football World Cup. Among the “dozen” people reported to have been targeted are former UEFA president Michel Platini, French senator Nathalie Goulet, and Mediapart journalist Yann Philippin. Qatar denies any involvement in the hacking operation. Fabrice Arfi and Michaël Hajdenberg report.

The Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) teaching hospital at Saint-Étienne in 2020. © Photo Philippe Desmazes / AFP

In early June 2022 state officials signed an order obliging an Algerian doctor who has been working in France for seven years to leave the country within 30 days. This order was finally annulled by a court at the end of September but while he waits for a new visa to be issued the doctor is still prevented from working. Meanwhile his prolonged absence hastened the closure of cancer ward beds at the hospital where he was an intern. Camille Polloni reports.

The town of Khairpur Nathan Shah is slowly re-emerging from the waters. © Photo Nejma Brahim / Mediapart

In this particularly poor area of south-east Pakistan, several towns and villages are still under water nearly three months after the monsoon rains this summer which caused widespread and massive flooding. As Mediapart's Nejma Brahim reports from the province, poverty and illness are rife among those left homeless, some of whom feel abandoned to their fate.

Muammar Gaddafi and Nicolas Sarkozy pictured at the Élysée Palace in December 2007. © Photo Sébastien Calvet

Active investigations in a mammoth and unprecedented nine-year judicial probe into the suspected illegal funding of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign by the regime of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi drew to a close this month, leading to a second legal phase before charges are brought and a trial ordered. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske detail the principal conclusions of the investigations and the roles of the key suspects in this extraordinary and complex case.  

Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv take delivery of US anti-tank missiles, February 11th 2022. © Photo Sergei Supinsky / AFP

The war in Ukraine has both demonstrated and heightened the dependence of European countries on US military support, while also creating divisions in their defence strategies, notably between Germany and France. In this interview with Justine Brabant, retired French army lieutenant general Jean-Paul Perruche, who served at a senior level in NATO and as director general of the European Union military staff, offers his analysis of the challenges now facing Europe. He argues why it must build a structure to allow for common military autonomy with pragmatic plans to deal with future threats. “It’s really quite pitiful that we are incapable of doing anything, whereas we have four times the budget of the Russians,” he says. “It’s tragic.”

© Illustration Justine Vernier / Mediapart

President Emmanuel Macron has launched a series of national consultations aimed at a possible reform by the end of next year of current legislation in France which prohibits euthanasia and assisted suicide, and limits medical intervention to the administration of deep sedation only in the final stages of a patient’s illness. In the meantime, those already in deep suffering from incurable degenerative diseases and who wish to end their lives before the worst stages have only the option of doing so in countries which allow euthanasia or assisted suicide, notably Belgium and Switzerland. Sarah Boucault reports.   

Bullet points: ‘Don’t get into a debate’, ‘Reply with assurance’ and ’Never reply to the question directly’. © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart

French aerospace group Dassault Aviation, designer and maker of the Rafale multi-role fighter plane and the Falcon business jet, has instructed its staff on how to respond to, and notably how to avoid directly answering, prickly questions over its weapons exports to "dictatorships" and its sales of private jets for carbon-rich travel by the wealthy few. Justine Brabant and Mickaël Correia reveal here the group’s bullet-point internal documents on how to evade the issues, and detail the hypocrisy of its PR campaign.

Flowers and tributes left in front of the Paris apartment building where Lola's body was found. © Geoffroy Van der Hasselt / AFP

The shocking sequestration, rape and murder in Paris last week of Lola, a 12-year-old girl whose body was found in a trunk in front of her apartment building home, has been transformed by the far-right and conservative hardliners into a political row over immigration policy after it was revealed that the arrested suspect is a young Algerian woman who since August was the subject of an expulsion order. The controversy snowballed this week, forcing the government onto the defence despite an appeal by Lola’s parents that no political gain should be made of the atrocious crime. Lucie Delaporte and Christophe Gueugneau report.

The worldwide headquarters of TotalEnergies at La Défence, close to Paris. © Photo Xose Bouzas / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP

In what is the first legal move of its kind in France, oil and gas and giant TotalEnergies, the former Total, is the subject of an investigation by French public prosecutors which was opened after three NGOs filed a complaint accusing the group of “misleading commercial practices”. The complaint centres on the multinational’s claims over its credentials in policies for environmental protection and the limiting of global warming, including being a “major player” in energy transition, which the NGOs say amounts to deliberately deceptive “greenwashing”. Mickaël Correia reports.

Prime minister Élisabeth Borne, President Emmanuel Macron and sports minister Amélia Oudéa-Castéra at the Élysée on September 29th 2022. © Photo Benoit Tessier / AFP

President Emmanuel Macron's government is facing a potentially difficult week, haunted by the fear that the ongoing petrol crisis could lead to a wider social crisis. On Sunday the leftwing opposition staged a protest against the cost of living. Then on Tuesday a number of trade unions have called a day of national strikes over pay and the right to take industrial action. Ilyes Ramdani takes the temperature ahead of what could be a tumultuous few days in French politics.

The Malian head of state Assimi Goïta, right, and the Guinea head of state Mamadi Doumbouya, left, both of whom came to power through a coup d’état, during a military parade on September 22nd, 2022, in the Mali capital Bamako. © Photo Ousmane Makaveli / AFP

The seizure of power by Captain Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso on September 30th brings to five the number of successful coups d’état that have taken place in West Africa in the last two years. One of the main reasons for these coups has been the failure of the fight against terrorism in the Sahel region, which has led to growing insecurity. Another factor is the increasing role of Russia there. Justine Brabant reports.

Annie Ernaux at home in Cergy Pontoise, north west of Paris, in 2019. © Photo Bruno Arbesu/REA

The news that French author Annie Ernaux – who has written a string of acclaimed books - has been awarded the Nobel prize for literature is a cause for celebration, writes Mediapart journalist and literature lecturer Lise Wajeman. But how should one interpret the bestowal of this prestigious prize to the French writer, given that she herself once declared: “What I also want to destroy is literature”?

Hussam Hammoud. © Photo Abdo Saffaf

The Turkish-based Syrian journalist and Mediapart contributor Hussam Hammoud was refused a visa by the French authorities on September 5th. A month later, on Wednesday October 5th, his legal team appeared at the administrative court in Nantes to appeal against this decision. The journalist's lawyers highlighted the vague approximations and errors in the arguments used by France's Ministry of the Interior to refuse him the humanitarian visa and called for the application to be looked at again. François Bougon reports.