Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the resulting fall in the value of sterling have caused it to fall behind France in a world economic ranking produced by the independent think-tank CEBR, which also predicts strong rise in Asian economies over the coming years.
The teenagers, who were removed from the notorious 'jungle' camp in Calais and placed in a reception centre in south-west France, staged a protest at the refusal by British authorities to allow 39 of them to settle in the UK.
Charities report hunger strikes and absconding among the 1,600 children and young people evacuated from the Calais 'jungle' camp to centres across France where many are kept unaware of the progress of their applications to join relatives in Britain.
The evacuation and subsequent demolition of the makeshift camp estimated to shelter up to 10,000 migrants attempting to reach Britain in clandestine crossings of the English Channel will begin on October 24th, the French authorities have announced, when thousands of migrants will be bussed to refugee centres around France.
Diplomatic sources said Paris and London have also raised the prospect of sanctions on 12 Russians involved in the Syrian conflict, adding them to the EU's list of some 200 people that also includes three Iranians, with similar sanctions against Syrian individuals.
France's interior minister said ahead of a meeting on Monday with his British counterpart that he was 'solemnly asking Britain to assume its moral duty' to grant asylum to hundreds of children living in the makeshift migrant camp in the French Channel port.
The perceived threat of the 'Anglo-Saxon model' is the upcome of distinct communities based on ethnic identity, while France, said PM Manuel Valls, 'does not see itself as a juxtaposition of communities, each with their autonomous path'.
The trial of the former budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac for tax fraud and money laundering opened in Paris on Monday, the same day that it was revealed that French prosecutors want former president Nicolas Sarkozy to stand trial for “illegal financing” of his 2012 election campaign. Mediapart investigative reporter Fabrice Arfi says that such high-profile cases give us an insight into the ethics of public life in France. He argues that rather than simply looking the other way, the country needs to own up to the shameful nature of the situation.
Whichever way Britain votes in its referendum on EU membership this Thursday, French president François Hollande has promised new “initiatives” in the coming days to reinvigorate the European Union. Hollande himself has gone out on a limb by associating himself strongly with British premier David Cameron's opposition to so-called 'Brexit'. Meanwhile, as Lénaïg Bredoux reports, the French Left is itself split over the issue of Europe and how to approach it.
