Local mayor speaks out after the bodies of Dawn and Andrew Searle, who were in their sixties, were discovered by a neighbour on Thursday at their home in south west France.
It is thought that, on average, a child dies at the hands of their parents every five days in France. But this is just an estimate as no detailed and centralised record is kept of the number of children killed in this way each year. In an investigation Mediapart has examined the deaths of 46 young children who met a violent end within their family in 2024. Often these killings are treated as isolated “cases”. But the sheer number of such deaths shows the extent to which fatal violence against young children is systemic in the country. “Infanticide is the tip of the iceberg of the particular violence inflicted on children in a society where adults dominate them in countless ways,” says one campaigner. Mathilde Mathieu reports.
Nicolas Sarkozy and three former ministers are standing trial in Paris over claims that the former president's successful 2007 election campaign was part-funded by the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. And that the North African country – whose leader was one of the most notorious dictators on the planet – received favours in exchange. There are 13 defendants in all. In Wednesday's court hearing Nicolas Sarkozy appeared to be in difficulty when questioned on two issues in the case. One was the nuclear power plant that France wanted to sell to the Libyan dictator in 2007. The other was the exfiltration in 2011 – first from Libya, later from France - of Gaddafi's former chief of staff Bashir Saleh when the latter was the object of an Interpol arrest warrant. Fabrice Arfi reports on Wednesday's hearing.
According to an investigation the government allowed food and beverage giant Nestlé to continue selling mineral water that did not comply with health regulations. President Macron has denied claims of a wide-ranging cover-up.
Decision to use executive measure known as ‘49.3’ was also taken in December, toppling the previous administration, but government under François Bayrou is expected to survive a confidence vote this Wednesday.
Five years after Mediapart's revelations on the case, actor Adèle Haenel has been vindicated in court. On February 3rd filmmaker Christophe Ruggia was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, two of which are suspended, with the other two to be served wearing an electronic bracelet, for sexually assaulting her when she was a minor. The court said that the director had “taken advantage of the power” which he had over the young actor at the time. After the verdict – in what has widely been seen as a landmark case for the #MeToo movement in France - Adèle Haenel told supporters: “Thank you for being here to advance human rights.” Marine Turchi reports.
A French court on Monday found the filmmaker guilty of sexually assaulting actress Adéle Haenel when she was a child in what is seen as a #MeToo landmark trial in France.
Last month gendarmes in north-east France arrived at a school during morning break in order to escort a 14-year-old pupil off the premises and deport her and her family to Belgium. Since then, both the local state prefecture and the gendarmes have been forced to admit that in doing so they committed “errors”. And despite the toxic political climate in France, the immediate reaction from teachers, parents and some local politicians to the “scandalous” incident has managed to transform the debate on how migrants - and especially migrant children - are treated in the country. Mathilde Goanec reports.
Political uncertainty is again looming in France after prime minister François Bayrou warned that he would use special executive powers this week to get his budget approved without a vote by lawmakers.
