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Police in France have opened an investigation after video images were published on Snapchat and Twitter apparently showing a young woman being raped near a nightclub in the south-west city of Toulouse, and which were blocked after the authorities were alerted by users of the social media.

Alexandre Benalla, the 27-year-old security aide for French President Emmanuel Macon whose ambiguous role inside the Élysée Palace came under scrutiny after video published on social media showed him beating participants in May Day demonstrations while illegally wearing police insignia, reluctantly submitted to questions by a Senate commission of inquiry in parallel to a judicial investigation into his actions.  

Speaking at a yearly gathering in tribute to victims of terrorism in France and French victims in other countries, President Emmanuel Macron announced the future creation of a memorial in their honour, together with a dedicated public body of support for all those affected by attacks, and promised increased financial support for relatives of victims of terrorism abroad.  

Saad Lamjarred, a Moroccan singer and a star in his home country who fled bail in the US after being charged with beating and raping a woman in New York in 2010, and who was accused of another rape of a woman in Paris in 2016, has been refused bail on appeal after he was arrested in France for the alleged rape of a woman in the Rivierra resort of Saint-Tropez.

A four-year programme of reform of France's healthcare services, costed at 3.4 billion euros, was unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, which involves the reorganisation of hospitals, the recruitment of hundreds of doctors in so-called 'medical deserts', and the use of digital technologies.

The trial has opened in the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence of ten people accused of taking part in the killings in the Rivierra city of Nice four years ago of Monaco multi-billionaire Hélène Pastor and her chauffeur, including Pastor's son-in-law who is alleged to have hired two hitmen with the aim of inheriting the property owner's huge fortune.

Since its launch last Friday, an official Élysée Palace online shop has turned over 350,000 euros in sales of goods made in France ranging from mugs and postcards bearing the portrait of President Emmanuel Macron to T-shirts and watches promoting French culture, in a controversial initiative which is partly to raise money for the restoration of the ageing presidential office building.

During an open-day to the public to visit the grounds of the French presidential office, the Élysée Palace, Emmanuel Macron met with visitors who included a jobless man complaining about his difficulties in obtaining work as a gardener, to which the president replied he should simply choose an undermanned sector like the construction or catering industries.

In a speech on Sunday to supporters of her Rassemblement National (National Rally) party in the southern French town of Fréjus, far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her party would campaign 'in liaison' with its Europe of Nations and Freedom party allies for next May’s European Parliament elections, which President Emmanuel Macron has billed as a battle between anti-immigrant populists like Le Pen and pro-European Union progressives like himself.