The control centre of the Flamanville 3 EPR, pictured on April 25th 2024.

The first attempt to start up the process of nuclear reaction in the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) at the Flamanville nuclear power plant, situated on France’s Channel Coast close to Jersey and Guernsey, was aborted by an automatic shutdown last week. The process was finally successfully re-engaged four days later, but the failure was just the latest in a catalogue of incidents and delays at the site, now 12 years overdue. For one specialist, the flaws in the design of the reactor, which is the same design as that planned for Hinkley Point in England, are such that it ‘will never function properly’. Jade Lindgaard reports. 

Cathy Aberdam, café manager in Montpellier, joining the protests 'to get the energy back'. © Cécile Hautefeuille

Two days after the appointment of the conservative veteran Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister, supporters of the leftwing coalition, the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), which came first in parliamentary elections this summer, are holding around 150 protest demonstrations around the country. Originally organised in August after President Emmanuel Macron’s rejection of the NFP candidate for prime minister, the appointment of Barnier, who relies on the support of the far-right for his government, has become the focus of the protests. Cécile Hautefeuille reports from Montpellier, southern France, where she spoke with leftwing activists and non-activists, all equally fired up by outrage at Macron's move.

Michel Barnier (r) with Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in January 2020. © Photo Stéphane Lemouton / Pool / Sipa

Michel Barnier, 73, the former European Union commissioner and Brexit negotiator, a member of France’s conservative Les Républicains party, was on Thursday appointed by President Emmanuel Macron as the country's new prime minister. The move came after several days of discussions between Macron and the conservatives and the far-right, and two months after snap parliamentary elections produced a hung parliament, but in which the leftwing coalition, the Nouveau Front Populaire emerged as the largest single political force. Barnier’s appointment is a snub to the message of the urns, writes Mediapart political correspondent Ellen Salvi, and does nothing to resolve a situation which the French president is solely responsible for.

Pavel Durov pictured in San Francisco in 2015. © Steve Jennings / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

Following the arrest and placing under investigation in France of the boss of messaging app Telegram, Emmanuel Macron confirmed that he awarded French nationality to Pavel Durov using an exceptional and secretive process for naturalising foreigners. But a closer look at the case shows that Durov, who was also allowed to Frenchify his name to Paul du Rove, hardly meets the criteria for receiving what is called “citoyenneté émérite”. David Perrotin reports.

The Renault factory at Cléon in north-west France. © Photo Lou Benoist / AFP

The Renault factory at Cléon in north-west France specialises in engines and engine components. However, it has been revealed that the engine for the upcoming electric Twingo car – a vehicle on which the giant manufacturer is pinning great hopes - is to be produced in China. Trade unions representing workers at the French factory are concerned that the recent decline in workforce numbers will become even worse as the group offshores ever more of its production. Manuel Sanson reports.

Gendarmes take control of the roads around a Kanak roadblock mounted at Mont-Dore, New Caledonia, September 24th 2024. © Photo Delphine Mayeur / Hans Lucas via AFP

After expressing his intention of “personally” involving himself in seeking a solution to the crisis in France’s South Pacific territory of New Caledonia, where tensions were ignited earlier this year after a move by president Emmanuel Macron to reform the electoral register to the detriment of the pro-independence movement of the indigenous Kanak people, the new French prime minister, Michel Barnier, was forced into a U-turn by Macron, who doggedly refuses to recognise errors in his approach to the crisis, in which 13 people have died. Ellen Salvi reports.

French blind football player Hakim Arezki during a training session on August 14th ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. © Photo François Lo Presti / AFP

The Paralympic Games opened in Paris to great fanfare on Wednesday evening, ahead of ten days of a total 549 events in which more than 4,000 athletes will be competing. France is fielding a squad of 239 Paralympians, and while they are receiving better support than previously, many of the athletes are still being held back by a lack of resources. Cécile Hautefeuille and Faïza Zerouala report on the major disparities that remain for French Paralympians compared with able-bodied athletes.

Lucie Castets, the Nouveau Front Populaire's candidate to be prime minister, August 24th 2024. © Emmanuel Dunand / AFP

President Emmanuel Macron is due to announce the name of France's new prime minister in the coming days. So far he had declined to nominate a candidate from the leftwing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance, which became the biggest group in the National Assembly after July's parliamentary elections, largely because it includes the radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party in its ranks. Now, in a bold political gambit, LFI boss Jean-Luc Mélenchon has opened the door to supporting a NFP government without his own party's members taking part as ministers. Meanwhile three of the four main parties in the Nouveau Front Populaire held their summer conferences at the weekend. While differences in form and substance were expressed, the battle to form a government and the looming threat of the far-right are encouraging them to maintain a common strategy. And they warned of a turbulent political autumn ahead if their hopes of forming a government with their proposed candidate, Lucie Castets, as prime minister are dashed. Mathieu Dejean, Fabien Escalona, Névil Gagnepain and Clément Le Foll report.

Words in homage to the Ivorian civilians killed in Abidjan in November 2004. © Photo Kampbel Kambou Sia / AFP

In November 2004 a bloody intervention by the French military in former colony Ivory Coast cost the lives of a number of citizens and left many more injured. Twenty years later, these casualties of the shootings have still not received compensation. Attacking what they call “crimes against humanity” the victims continue to call on the French authorities to acknowledge its responsibilities and pay damages. In this concluding article of a four-part series, Fanny Pigeaud reports on the aftermath of these grim events in Ivory Coast which,  in addition to their human toll, damaged France's reputation across Africa.

© Photo Paul Hanna / UPI / Newscom / Sipa

Despite being cleared to work by an administrative investigation in February,  a technician at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport near Paris had his security clearance revoked during the Olympics on security grounds. The Paris police authority cited alleged links to an Islamist “environment”. Following an urgent appeal, the administrative court at Montreuil in the capital's eastern suburbs has just issued an injunction suspending the ban. Clément Le Foll reports.

© Photo Gile Michel / Sipa

Obesity is a global issue and despite its reputation for high quality produce and cuisine France is no exception. The proportion of French people who are obese has risen from 8.5% to around 18% in under 30 years. But is obesity hereditary or is a person's social status the cause – or both? Studies show that children of obese individuals are at significant risk of becoming obese themselves. Genetics, social environment, and junk food habits: specialists are increasingly understanding a problem that now affects nearly 10 million people in France. Mediapart's health correspondent Rozenn Le Saint reports.

Men trying to douse a fire at the Librairie de France bookshop in the upmarket Cocody district of Abidjan, November 6th 2004. © Photo Issouf Sanogo/ AFP

Two decades ago the French army repeatedly opened fire on civilians in France's former West African colony Ivory Coast. According to the authorities in the capital Abidjan this resulted in the death of 90 people; it was “around 20” according to Paris. Whatever the true figure, this type of event had not occurred since the colonial era. But was the episode an attempted coup d'état, or was it “merely” the result of catastrophic political and military mismanagement? In this report – part of a wider series on the events of November 2004 - Fanny Pigeaud examines how one of the most troubled and bloody chapters in contemporary Franco-Ivorian relations began.

© Photo Liewig Christian / Abaca

Critics say the French president is continuing to behave as if his political camp had not been defeated in last month's parliamentary elections and is still refusing to appoint the Left's candidate, Lucie Castets, as the country's new prime minister. As Macron's supporters battle to remain centre stage of the political scene, members of the Nouvelle Front Populaire, the leftwing alliance which has the largest number of MPs in the National Assembly, attack what they see as a denial of democracy on the part of the French head of state. Youmni Kezzouf reports.

© Photo Mourad Allili / Sipa

On Sunday evening the closing ceremony at the Stade de France brought the curtain down on the Paris Olympics, an event which has been widely praised both in France and abroad. President Emmanuel Macon claimed it showed the “true face of France”. However, in an interview with Mediapart, Sandrine Lemaire, the co-curator of a major Paris exhibition on Olympic history, places this “magical interlude” of the Paris Games in the context of the long history of the Olympiads, and against a backdrop of geopolitical conflicts, nationalism, and sporting achievements. Interview by François Bougon.

Across Europe, temperatures have been soaring over recent days, and in France large swathes of the country were placed on heatwave alert at the weekend ahead of peaks of 38°C in many parts. For the scientific community, the recurrent heatwaves affecting France are characteristic of intensifying climate change and, as Mickaël Correia and Manuel Magrez report, the daunting prospects are highlighted by the incapacity of counter measures to keep pace with the mounting meteorological havoc.