France held a national day of mourning on Monday for those who lost their lives when Cyclone Chido, with winds of more than 220 kilometres per hour, devastated the Indian Ocean French archipelago territory of Mayotte on December 14th.
The Flamanville 3 European Pressurized Reactor in Normandy was finally connected to the national grid this weekend, 12 years behind schedule after technical setbacks which saw the cost of the project soar to an estimated 13.2 billion euros, four times the initial 3.3 billion-euro estimate.
At the end of their trial in Paris on Friday, eight defendants variously accused of organising a hate campaign online against murdered secondary school teacher Samuel Paty and of providing assistance to the perpetrator who beheaded him, were found guilty and handed jail sentences of between one and 16 years.
President Emmanuel Macron’s brief visit to France’s Indian Ocean territory Mayotte this week was marked by heated exchanges with local residents who are angry at the struggling authorities’ inability to provide adequate water and food supplies almost one week after Cyclone Chido flattened most of the archipelago. While the official death toll stands at 31, there is rising concern over the fate of inhabitants, mostly illegal immigrants, of the numerous shantytowns on the territory, where few searches have yet been carried out. Jéromine Doux reports from Mayotte.
French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly used racist, sexist and homophobic jibes in discussions with ministers and staff according to French daily Le Monde, while the allegations were denied by the presidential office.
The French president, who on Friday ended his brief visit to France's cyclone-hit Indian Ocean territory, met with angry residents complaining over delays in the supply of drinking water and food, when he told them that, without France, 'you’d be in a bath of shit 10,000 times worse'.
French President Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to Gisèle Pelicot for her bravery during the trial of her husband and 50 other men who, over a peiod of several years, raped her after she was drugged into a comatose state, declaring that her 'dignity and courage moved and inspired France and the world'.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, was on Thursday sentenced to 20 years in jail for raping and organising the rape of his wife Gisèle over several years at their home in southern France, while the 50 men he invited to rape her after he had drugged her were also all convicted, but supporters of the victim spoke of their disappointment that the sentences were lighter than those demanded by prosecutors.
President Emmanuel Macron arrived on Thursday in Mayotte, France's Indian Ocean territory, to inspect the severe structural damage caused at the weekend by Cyclone Chido, powered by winds reaching 225 kilometres per hour which flattening vast areas of habitation.
Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday lost his ultimate appeal against his conviction in 2021 for “active corruption” and “influence peddling”. France’s highest appeal court also upheld the sentence he was handed of three years in prison, two of them suspended, and a three-year ban on holding public office and voting. Sarkozy, 69, will serve his prison sentence at home wearing and electronic tag. Michel Deléan reports.
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has lost his ultimate appeal against his conviction for corruption, centred on an offer to provide a magistrate with a coveted post in Monaco in exchange for confidential legal information concerning him, and his one-year jail sentence will be served at home wearing an electronic tag.
Marine Le Pen, figurehead and presidential candidate of the far-right Rassemblement National party has told French daily Le Parisien that 'Emmanuel Macron is finished, or nearly' and that she is 'preparing for early presidential elections'.
With Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House, billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X, the former Twitter, has become transformed into a weapon of mass disinformation. Mediapart refuses to serve the cause of the enemies of journalism and the public general interest, explains publishing editor Carine Fouteau.
Since the Covid-19 crisis, the use by patients of companies who provide telephone and online health consultations with doctors has soared in France. Financial groups are now investing in what has become a fast-growing sector. However, these services are becoming increasingly expensive for the state health insurance system, which has to reimburse the cost of them. Caroline Coq-Chodorge and Manuel Magrez report on the growing role of remote healthcare providers in the country.
