French agriculture minister Marc Fesneau has announced the end of a controversial exemption granted to sugar beet producers to use a family of insecticides dubbed “bee killers” and which were banned by the European Union in 2018. The move follows a ruling last week by the European Court of Justice, the EU’s supreme court, which outlaws member states from any further use of a legal loophole which allowed for "emergency" dispensation from the ban on neonicotinoids, which scientific studies have linked to a collapse of colonies of honey bees and other pollinators, and also bird populations. Amélie Poinssot reports.
France's parliament will on Thursday debate a proposal by a leftwing member to introduce a ban on bullfighting, which is still practiced in southern French towns, prompting street protests by corrida supporters and counter-demonstrations by those supporting the bill.
A French law banning advertising for the sale of fossil fuels, one of several measures in legislation to combat climate change, came into effect this week, with a temporary exemption on publicity for natural gas.
France's junior minister for the protection of children has announced a government plan to criminalise incestuous relationships between adults, extending the current ban which applies only to those that involve children, in a move that follows widespreadl controversy over the issue prompted by revelations that high-profile political scientist Olivier Duhamel sexually abused his teenage stepson.
Environmentalist associations have applauded a ruling by France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, which bans the use of netting and cages to capture birds, a traditional and indiscriminate method of hunting practiced in the north-east and south-west of the country.
The organisers of a demonstration planned for this weekend in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Israel-Gaza military conflict said they will go ahead with their march despite an official ban on the gathering which, authorities argue, carried the threat of public disturbance.
The French parliament earlier this week approved a three-year exemption for sugar beet growers from a ban on the use of a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. The sugar beet sector has argued that its future was at stake because it was otherwise unarmed to counter the loss of crops caused by an aphid-borne virus disease. But the move outraged environmentalists who point to the inevitable effects of soil and water contamination by neonicotinoids, which are notably harmful for bees, and the dangers for human health. Amélie Poinssot highlights the ill-informed arguments presented in parliament in favour of a return of the controversial pesticides.
French environment minister Barbara Pompili has announced the beginning of a 'process' for the prohibition of keeping wild animals in captivity, notably for public entertainment such as in circuses or aquatic shows, and an end to mink rearing for the fur trade.
The until-now familiar heating devices to allow more comfortable al fresco conditions for clients of French bars and cafés, notably allowing smokers a space outside tobacco-free indoor drinking and dining, are to be banned after the coming winter as part of what is officially decribed as an environmental measure to clampdown on superfluous energy consumption.
Crowds of mostly young people in Paris gathered together with drinks and without masks at sites beside the River Seine and the Saint-Martin canal to celebrate the end on Monday of the lockdown on public movement, prompting the capital's police prefect to ban alcohol consumption at the locations for fear of a spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Single-use plates, cups, and cotton buds were banned from January 1st; more will be banned next year, in first steps towards goal of phasing out all single-use plastics by 2040.
The French government has announced that a food additive containing titanium dioxide, which appears on labels under the code E171, and which is used mostly for colouring sweet products and sauces, but also employed in sunscreens, will be banned from January 1st 2020 after evidence that it is possibly carcinogenic.
Israeli police interrupted an event at an official French cultural centre in Jerusalem on Thursday, claiming it intended to host an event organized with a women’s association 'sponsored or financed by the Palestinian Authority' and 'without authorization'.
France's civil aviation authority, the DGAC, has announced a ban on Boeing 737 MAX airliners from flying 'into, out of, or over French territory', a move mirrored by several other European countries, in what it called 'a precaution' following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane of the same model on Sunday in which all 157 passengers and crew were killed.
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