An international investigation called 'Dirty Payments', conducted by Mediapart and 20 other global media outlets, reveals the billions of euros in dubious transactions processed by the French online payments giant Worldline, a group run by the cream of France's elite. The probe shows how for ten years, and with complete impunity, the group handled these fraudulent or unethical payments on behalf of the worst figures in e-commerce: online swindlers, illegal casinos, shady pornography groups and prostitution websites. Following the initial publication of the revelations by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network, prosecutors in Belgium announced they were launching an investigation into alleged “money laundering” in relation to Worldline's Belgian operation. In a statement, Worldline said it would cooperate with the authorities in Brussels. Yann Philippin and Clément Rabu report.

There have been accusations of anti-Semitism, calls for its dissolution, and now a parliamentary investigation has begun into its supposed “links” with Islamist organisations: criticism of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's radical-left La France Insoumise has reached unprecedented levels in recent times. In fact, the party now operates on the fringes of political debate, rather like the French Communist Party did in the last century. As such, the leftwing group represents a convenient and strategically-useful bogeyman for political rivals to attack, as some opponents have admitted. Pauline Graulle and Ilyes Ramdani report.

On Wednesday a parliamentary inquiry led by MPs published its reported on the scandal at the prestigious Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram private Catholic school in south-west France and the wider issue of the abuse of pupils in French schools. Prime minister François Bayrou, a former education minister and local politician whose own children attended that school, was criticised by the inquiry for “failing to act” in relation to the scandal. However, in their report, the MPs also refer to the “Pélussin affair”, which broke in 1995 at a Catholic boarding school in the south-east of France. According to documents uncovered by Mediapart, in that case, too, François Bayrou ignored whistleblowers, who have now attacked his “inaction”. Mathilde Mathieu and David Perrotin report.

With the fate of the world depending on the erratic and criminal strategies of autocrats who flout international law, the citizen protests seen across the globe, and in particular those against the genocidal operations in Gaza, bear witness to a shared conscience and a collective ability to stand together, writes Mediapart's publishing editor Carine Fouteau in this op-ed article. She argues that only these protests and this unity can halt the unfolding catastrophe, a looming disaster exemplified by the American bombing of Iranian sites this weekend.

The war declared on Iran by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has completely changed the stance of French diplomacy. A planned conference in New York that would have highlighted France's position on events in Gaza and the wider Palestinian situation was postponed, and French recognition of the state of Palestine currently seems to be on hold once more. Once again, Paris is back to showing public support for Israel. Mediapart's Ilyes Ramdani analyses the impact of the Israeli air strikes on the French president's Middle East diplomacy.

In a series of confessions before US and German prosecutors, the transcripts of which have been obtained by Mediapart, former Libyan secret services agent Musbah Eter detailed how intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, Muammar Gaddafi’s brother-in-law, and his bomb-maker “Masud”, planned and carried out a series of bombings in the 1980s, including that which downed a Pan Am Boeing 747 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988. Eter’s statements, given in a series of interrogations between 2013 and 2015, have never before been made public and remained unexploited by prosecution services. That may change ahead of a new trial over the Lockerbie bombing due in the US next April. Karl Laske and Vincent Nouzille report.  

Mediapart is publishing a series of reports regularly sent to it from inside the Gaza Strip by two young Palestinians. Nour Elassy, a 22-year-old journalist, who is also a poet and writer, and Ibrahim Badra, a 23-year-old journalist and human rights activist, chronicle the grim reality of life and death in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to wage a genocidal war against the population of about 2.1 million. “Famine is not a natural disaster,” writes Ibrahim Badra in his first contributions published here. “Famine is a despicable, deliberate policy used by the occupation to collectively oppress the people of Gaza.”

In June 2024 President Emmanuel Macron caught many by surprise when he dissolved the National Assembly and called snap parliamentary elections. His aim was to strengthen his hand in the Assembly where his party and its allies lacked an absolute majority. However, the ploy backfired and the outcome of the new elections left the Assembly more politically divided than before, with even less chance of being able to produce a stable government with a full legislative programme. So, deprived of influence over major legislation, MPs now paradoxically find themselves swamped with a flood of largely small-scale bills on diverse issues. Though amid the apparent chaos some new parliamentary habits are beginning to take root. Pauline Graulle reports.

Mediapart is publishing a series of reports regularly sent to it from inside the Gaza Strip by two young Palestinians. Nour Elassy, a 22-year-old journalist, who is also a poet and writer, and Ibrahim Badra, a 23-year-old journalist and human rights activist, chronicle the grim reality of life and death in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to wage a genocidal war against the population of about 2.1 million. “Israel’s goal is no longer hidden, it wants Gaza emptied of Palestinians,” writes Nour Elassy in her first contributions presented here, “and we are beginning to let go of our belief that we can live here, grow here, raise our children here.”

The number of suicides among prisoners in France is steadily increasing, while overcrowding of prisons is soaring. Often, the families and close entourage of the deceased face a lengthy legal battle to establish the circumstances of their deaths and the eventual responsibility of the prison authorities who, some complain, treat them with insensitivity and even disdain. Feriel Alouti reports on their distressing experiences.