French judges are leading an investigation into claims of corruption surrounding the 7.8-billion-euro sale to India in 2016 of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter aircraft. But four months after searching the headquarters of the French defence and aviation group, investigators were refused access by France's Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to classified documents concerning the contract negotiations. Yann Philippin reports.

Between June and August 2022 France saw “excess deaths that were in all probability due in part to the heatwave”. That is the verdict of the country's official statistics agency INSEE. If one compares the 2022 mortality figures with the same period in 2019, an additional 11,124 people lost their lives this summer. These initial estimates of the impact of this year's heat inevitably revive memories of the tragic heatwave of 2003, which led to the deaths of many thousands of people. Donatien Huet and Jade Lindgaard report.

Earlier this month judges in Paris dismissed a legal case brought by residents from the French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe over the widespread use of the pesticide chlordecone which has polluted local ecosystems. The Green mayor of Pointe-à-Pitrre in Guadeloupe, Harry Durimel, who is also a lawyer acting for victims of the pesticide, has announced his intention to appeal. In an interview with Mediapart's Mickaël Correia, he talks about the harmful impact of the court ruling – including on how France's overseas citizens will now view the French state.

Le Monde newspaper recently depublished an opinion article about Algeria that had attracted the ire of President Emmanuel Macron. As Mediapart's Joseph Confavreux says in this analysis piece, this was not a one-off example of the Élysée confusing journalism with public relations. As he explains, a number of academics, politicians and journalists are concerned about the way the presidency appears to be systematically equating the two.

With next June's Turkish presidential election fast approaching, the issue of Syrian refugees in the country has become a major topic for political parties. Politicians' speeches on the subject, repeated at every opportunity, are contributing to the growing wave of racism shown by many Turkish citizens towards immigrants in general - and Syrians in particular. Mediapart correspondent Hussam Hammoud reports from Gaziantep in southern Turkey on the plight of his fellow Syrians in the country.

On July 14th 2016, in the French Riviera city of Nice, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel ran a heavy truck into and over crowds celebrating Bastille Day, taking the lives of 86 people and injuring hundreds of others, before he was shot dead by police. The 31-year-old Tunisian had a history of mental problems and violence, raising the question of whether his act was solely that of a deranged individual. As the trial begins in Paris of eight people accused of helping him prepare the attack, Matthieu Suc details how the judicial investigation established beyond doubt that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's hideous crime was that of a terrorist, long drawn to jihadism.

The trial opened in Paris on Monday of eight people accused of involvement in a terrorist attack in the Riviera city of Nice in July 2016, when Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a heavy truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day, causing the deaths of 86 people and injuring hundreds of others. But, as Matthieu Suc reports, the more than 850 civil parties – including direct and indirect victims – are likely to be left frustrated by the hearings, not only because of the absence of Bouhlel who died in a firefight with police, but also because of the weakness of the cases against the accused.

France’s far-right Rassemblement National party, the former Front National, is to choose its next president in November, replacing Marine Le Pen who is standing down after 11 years at the helm of the party founded by her father. The two candidates for her succession are her former partner and mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot, 52, and the caretaker party president, Jordan Bardella, 27, who officialised his bid this week. Both have been keen to reassure the party of their loyalty to Le Pen and, as Christophe Gueugneau reports, whichever one the party chooses, it will remain firmly under her grip.

France’s Council of State has ruled against a lower court’s suspension of an expulsion order against imam Hassan Iquioussen for propagating anti-Semitism and misogyny and being an apologist for terrorism. Immediately after the ruling, which capped a month-long legal battle, police were sent to arrest Iquioussen at his home in north-east France but the 58-year-old imam had already disappeared. Camille Polloni reports.

In a legal battle that began in July, France’s Council of State is to rule early next week on the legality of interior minister Gérald Darmanin’s order for the expulsion to Morocco of imam Hassan Iquioussen, accused of promoting anti-Semitism and opposition to gender equality, and acting as an apologist for terrorism. Mediapart can reveal that the high-profile, hardline interior minister in fact once enjoyed cordial relations with the imam when he sought to woo Muslim voters while campaigning for election as mayor of the town of Tourcoing, and when Iquioussen’s anti-Semitic diatribes were already known. Lou Syrah reports.