Félix Kir was a priest, an honorary canon, briefly a journalist, a one-time supporter of the wartime collaborationist leader Marshal Philippe Pétain before joining with the Resistance, a cassock-wearing Member of Parliament and mayor of the town of Dijon, a conservative anti-Gaullist who was admired by USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev. Ordinary he was not. In this, one of a series of articles about some of the most unusual, stand-out characters in the history of France’s parliament, Pierre Januel traces Kir’s extraordinary life and career (and whose legacy includes the eponymous apéritif).

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. “The word 'massacre' passes through the ears of Gazans like a morning greeting with a dark tone,” writes Ibrahim Badra in this, his third contribution. “We ask 'where is so-and-so?' knowing already the answer. The word no longer arouses astonishment or shock. It has become part of our daily lexicon.” 

Presenting the key features of the government’s planned draft legislation for the 2026 budget on Tuesday, French Prime Minister François Bayrou adopted a grim, alarmist style, warning that the country was in “mortal danger” at this “critical moment”, his measures representing a “last stop before the cliff” and the “crushing of France by debt”, justifying budget cuts totalling a massive 44 billion euros. Mathias Thépot reports.

Representatives of the pro- and anti-independence camps of France’s strife-torn Pacific Ocean territory of New Caledonia on Saturday announced they had reached an agreement for a package of institutional and economic reforms aimed at defusing the volatile situation on the archipelago, where 14 people died in a separatist revolt last year. It includes the creation of a state of New Caledonia, but which would remain a part of France. “We’ve given work to jurists for the next twenty years,” jokingly commented one negotiator. Ellen Salvi reports.

Lawyer Maxime Tessier, 33, a defence counsel for former surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, who was handed a 20-year jail sentence in May for variously raping and sexually assaulting 299 victims, mostly child patients, died in an apparent suicide overnight on Tuesday. Amid the shocked reactions to Tessier’s death, which one psychiatrist said may have been the result of vicarious trauma caused by the horror of Le Scouarnec’s crimes, a number criticised the lack of psychological support offered to lawyers faced with such harrowing cases. Hugo Lemonier and Mathilde Mathieu report.

A criminal investigation was launched in France in 2021 over the sale of 36 Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter aircraft to India in a deal concluded in 2016 and worth 7.8 billion euros. The judge-led probe is examining the involvement of India's Reliance Group, owned and run by businessman Anil Ambani, who became Dassault's industrial partner in the massive contract signed by the French and Indian governments. Detectives are also looking into the funding by Anil Ambani's company at the same time of a film produced by actor and producer Julie Gayet, the partner of the then French president François Hollande. She has been questioned by detectives as part of the investigation. Will the former president himself now be interviewed? Karl Laske reports.

For culture minister Rachida Dati the stakes this summer  could not be much higher. She is overseeing legislation on the reform of public broadcasting – which got off to a bad start on Monday when the National Assembly voted not to discuss it - has been taking a close personal interest in impending moves to change the electoral system in Paris, and is facing her own legal troubles in an ongoing criminal investigation. Indeed, these next ten days will be critical for the culture minister as she seeks to fulfil her dream; that of being mayor of Paris. As Ilyes Ramdani and Ellen Salvi report, her intention to be a candidate for the high-profile position at next year's elections is as clear as it is feared within her own political camp, where her methods continue to divide opinion.

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.

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.