The fatal shooting of a ten-year-old boy last month in Pissevin, a run-down, high-rise quarter on the outskirts of Nîmes in southern France, made national headlines and prompted the sending of riot police to the neighbourhood to contain the spiralling violence of drug traffickers engaged in turf wars. Two days later, an 18-year-old man was shot dead, after which France’s interior minister made a high-profile visit to the quarter, promising further reinforcements. But the sudden attention given to the dilapidated neighbourhood, built as a model public housing scheme in the early 1960s but where around 70% of the population now live below the poverty line, has done little to appease inhabitants, who complain of being abandoned for years in a crumbling environment. Prisca Borrel reports from Pissevin.

In a lengthy interview to mark the end of the political summer pause, the French president placed particular emphasis on the role of education. He sees this as the route by which he will accomplish his plan to “re-civilise” a “section of young people” following the recent unrest in the country. And he made clear that he regards education as his “exclusive preserve”, in which he will oversee and guide policy. However, as Mathilde Goanec argues in this op-ed article, the kind of policies that Emmanuel Macron wants to pursue are already outdated - and decidedly old school.

After ten years of investigation, judges have decided that there is sufficient evidence to send former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to stand trial in the affair concerning the alleged illegal Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign. The investigating judges are also sending three of the ex-president's ministers for trial in the same affair: Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux and Éric Woerth. As Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report, this is an unprecedented situation in French political and legal history.

The prominent French rapper Médine has been at the centre of a row after a Tweet aimed at essayist Rachel Khan – a Franco-Gambian woman whose Jewish maternal grandparents died in the Holocaust – was criticised as 'anti-Semitic'. The rapper himself has apologised and insisted he had not targeted Rachel Khan's Jewish heritage in any way. He also says that he accepts he has made errors in the past and that he fights “all forms of anti-Semitism”. But the row has continued and invitations for Médine to address the summer conferences of both the radical left La France Insoumise and France's green party Europe Écologie-Les Verts have caused a rift on the Left. Some prominent politicians have said they will not attend the events because of the controversy. Mathieu Dejean reports.

In October the Fifth Republic will become France's longest-surviving regime since the 1789 Revolution, its 65th anniversary eclipsing the previous record held by the Third Republic. In this first part of a Mediapart series devoted to the issue, Fabien Escalona looks at the unwitting role played in the establishment of the new republic by the attempted coup d'état staged by members of the French military and some senior officials in May 1958. Though the Fifth Republic which emerged later that year was formed without their involvement, this presidential regime owes at least some of its creation to the dramatic political mood caused by the attempted putsch.

In France’s overseas territories and départements, civil servants and other state employees continue to be paid vastly superior salaries compared to what they would receive on the mainland. It is a legacy of what was called the “supplément colonial”, a financial incentive to work in the country’s far-flung colonies. In modern times, the generous remunerations appear in stark contrast to the often dire social and economic conditions of local populations. In this report, one of a four-part series, Julien Sartre travelled to France’s poorest département (county), the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, where almost 80% of the population live in poverty, and where the salaries of the fonctionnaires from the mainland are bumped up by 43%.

Mediapart’s Paris offices, in the capital’s 11th arrondissement, sit above the former site of the cité Lesage-Bullourde, an insalubrious cluster of inhabited buildings and industrial workshops that were demolished in the early 1960s. That prompted Antoine Perraud to delve into the history of the Cité, the foundations of which date back to the end of the 18th century, in a four-part series of articles. Here he focuses on the period of the Second World War, and the German occupation of France, when the Cité’s Jewish population, many of whom had already fled persecution, were rounded up by French police and deported to Nazi death camps.

The July putsch in Niger has placed France, the former colonial ruler, in an impasse with regard to its use of the country as a base for operations against armed jihadist insurgents in the Sahel region. With around 1,500 troops stationed in Niger, which Paris turned to last year as its principal West African ally after being forced to withdraw its military from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, the outcome of the present standoff with the new junta is uncertain. Rémi Carayol reports on how the explosive situation follows a series of blunders in France’s strategy in West Africa, where its presence has become increasingly unpopular.

In the northern suburbs of Paris the urban renovation of a rundown neighbourhood has been put under extra pressure by the construction of the nearby Olympic Village for the 2024 Games. Nearly 300 households, including families with children and the elderly, have to leave their high-rise social housing as soon as possible. And as Jade Lindgaard reports, to accelerate the process some of the offers of alternative housing for the unhappy tenants have not complied with the normal rules.

A preliminary investigation into rape and sexual assault allegations concerning the actor and director, who is perhaps best known for directing the 2019 film 'La Belle Époque', was opened on July 5th by Paris prosecutors. When approached, Nicolas Bedos, who benefits from a presumption of innocence, declined to comment. Four women have spoken to Mediapart about the film director. Marine Turchi reports.