On January 22nd, state-owned French utilities group EDF announced new delays in the construction of two EPR nuclear reactors at the British plant of Hinkley Point. Originally planned to enter service in 2024, the first of the two reactors is now expected to be, at best, operational in 2029, or possibly “2030 or 2031”, while costs have soared above initial estimates. Seven years after the project was launched, all the warnings against EDF’s involvement in it made by the group’s staff have proved be right, writes Mediapart economics correspondent Martine Orange in this op-ed article. The state-owned group now finds itself in a fatal trap created by Emmanuel Macron.

The roadblocks and demonstrations by French farmers protesting a series of grievances, including low incomes, fuel costs, bureaucracy and competition from cheap imports, entered a second week on Thursday amid escalation of the unrest. Farmers’ unions have announced they will block roads around Paris on Friday, when the government is due to announce measures it hopes will defuse the movement. Mathieu Dejean reports from the town of Guéret in central France, where he met with protesting farmers who blocked the streets in a massive turnout that even surprised union officials.

A snowballing protest movement by French farmers is the latest of a series of revolts by farmers across Europe, notably in the Netherlands, in Germany and in Spain. In France, where roadblocks and rallies began last week in the south-west of the country, the unrest is essentially over farmers’ dwindling incomes, squeezed by ever-tighter margins imposed by retail chains and energy costs, while some complain over what they argue are “punitive” environmental protection laws. As elsewhere on the continent, the far-right are attempting to make the most of the discontent, notably with an eye on European Parliament elections in early June. Ludovic Lamant reports.

The birth rate in France fell in 2023 by 6.6% year-on-year, according to figures released this week by France’s national institute for statistics and economic studies, INSEE. Just hours after the figures were released on January 16th, French President Emmanuel Macron raised the issue during a televised press conference, when he notably raised issues of appeal to a rightwing electorate, when he argued for a “demographic rearming”. In this interview with Mediapart's Youmni Kezzouf, the eminent and veteran French demographer and historian Hervé Le Bras, director of studies at the prestigious School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, gives his view of what he calls the “grotesque” comments by Macron, and the reasons behind the fall in births both in France, in Europe and beyond.

Shortly after Amélie Oudéa-Castéra's appointment last week, Mediapart revealed that Emmanuel Macron's new education minister sent her three children, now aged 13 to 18, to a “reactionary” Catholic private school near her home in Paris. The minister's defence of her actions – she claims her local state school did not properly cover staff absences – went down badly with teaching unions and parents' groups as well as opposition politicians. Her argument has also now been undermined by comments from a teacher at that state school where Amélie Oudéa-Castéra briefly sent one of her children, leading to damaging claims that the new minister has lied.

Europe's and North America's claims to support the universality of human rights are constantly contradicted by their actions. As they stand by and do nothing while the state of Israel destroys Palestine, it is instead South Africa that is today defending these universal values, argues Mediapart's publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article.

Since the October 7th Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza, the German authorities and cultural institutions have embarked on a heavy-handed censorship against those who denounce the massive death toll of Palestinian civilians. Along with bans on demonstrations, there has been a wave of cancellations of cultural events involving artists, writers and thinkers who, because of their opposition to the war in Gaza, are accused of anti-Semitism, including Jewish critics of the Israeli government. As Mathieu Magnaudeix reports from Berlin, the gagging frenzy and staunch support for Israel across the German political class, regarded as a raison d’état, is rooted in the country’s shame of its Nazi past.

Emmanuel Macron has chosen the current director of the French Treasury to take up the strategically-vital position of chief of staff to the new prime minister Gabriel Attal. Like Attal himself, the new chief of staff Emmanuel Moulin represents 'Macronism' in his own style. He has a network of contacts that includes supporters of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, has moved seamlessly between the public and private sectors, and has a distinctly pro-business vision of the economy. Ilyes Ramdan and Mathias Thépot report on the career of this key behind-the-scenes figure who will help shape the new government.

On Tuesday  French president Emmanuel Macron chose  Gabriel Attal to replace prime minister Élisabeth Borne, who had been dismissed the day before. At the age of 34, the former socialist activist becomes the youngest head of government in France since the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958. Yet as Mediapart's political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani reports, though former education minister Attal is popular with the public, unless there is a change of direction or style in the government his future political path could turn out to be just as impossible as that of his predecessor.

The food nutrition labelling system known as Nutri-Score was first introduced in France in 2017 and later adopted by Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Holland and Luxembourg. The aim of the five-coloured label scheme is to help guide consumers towards eating healthier produce. But on the pretext of defending Italian food, Giorgia Meloni's government and the Italian far right have so far prevented this system from being rolled out across the rest of the European Union. Karl Laske reports.