United States

Feared and revered: US views on France’s ‘yellow vests’

International — Analysis

The two-month-long ‘gilets jaunes’, or ‘yellow vest’, movement in France, protesting the fall in living standards for low- and middle-income earners and against the powers of the country’s social and political elite, continues largely unabated. It has attracted worldwide attention, and not least in the United States, where the Left sees it as an echo of the Occupy Wall Street movement, where also supporters of President Donald Trump have hi-jacked it as a new symbol of protest against the liberal establishment, and where the latter interpret it as a devil of populism. Mediapart’s US correspondent Mathieu Magnaudeix reports from New York on the confused reactions across the Atlantic to the largely misunderstood revolt in France.

What it's like being a socialist in the United States

International — Report

The very word has been anathema in America for so long. Yet in the wake of Bernie Sanders' strong showing in the Democratic Party primaries ahead of the last presidential election, more and more Americans are calling themselves “socialists”. Some are even winning elections. Mediapart's New York correspondent Mathieu Magnaudeix gives a pen portrait of some of these new candidates on the American Left who are fighting against capitalism as much as they are combating discrimination.

A year on: why the French #MeToo movement has lagged behind its US counterpart

France — Investigation

The different ways in which the two countries have reacted to the #MeToo movement has been striking. In the United States there was a strong and powerful response whereas in France there has been a backlash, in some quarters. To find out why France has been slower to embrace this movement, which began a year ago, Mediapart asked women who had supported or led the campaign on this side of the Atlantic. Marine Turchi reports.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz: 'Europe is on the brink'

International — Interview

In an interview with Mediapart the celebrated Nobel Prize winner for economics, Joseph Stiglitz, says he is worried about the continuing pursuit of austerity policies in the Eurozone. The economist say he is concerned, too, about President Donald Trump's policies and the explosion in inequality since the financial crisis of 2008. More than ever, he tells Mediapart, there is a need for wages to rise, for better regulation of the financial world and for a war on huge “monopolies”. Mathieu Magnaudeix reports.  

France says EU will hit back at 'illegal' US tariffs

International — Link

President Macron warned that the decision would penalise everyone, including US, and made his views clear to President Trump in phone call.

French oil firm Total seeks exemption from US sanctions over Iran

France — Link

The company said  it will end work on major South Pars 11 gas field  project it began in July 2017 unless it is exempted.

France asked US not to bomb Lafarge factory in Syria in 2014

France — Link

Email shows that France's Syrian envoy thought it 'legitimate' to approach US over cement plant in area controlled at the time by Islamic State.

Macron leaves home woes behind on trip to charm US

International — Analysis

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in the United States on Monday for a three-day state visit, the first of its kind by a foreign head-of-state since the election of Donald Trump as president. Mediapart’s US correspondent Mathieu Magnaudeix analyses American perceptions of the French president as a bulwark against the advance of populist politics and an antidote to Trump, who one US media commentator even ventured to describe as “a beacon for progressives hoping to find their way back to the halls of power across the democratic world”.  

Frenchwoman on US terror blacklist detained in Syria

France — Link

The 33-year-old daughter of a gendarme is 'being held in a Kurdish camp and has been 'interrogated and tortured' says her mother.

US to end active membership of Paris-based UNESCO

International — Link

The US has said it is to withdraw its membership of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization based in Paris, effective in December 2018, in protest at what it called 'anti-Israeli bias', the announcement coming just days before the body elects a new secretary general, with Qatar's Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari tipped as favourite to win the vote.

France was informed of US Syria strikes, says minister

International — Link

French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called the escalation of the US military role in Syria a 'warning' to a 'criminal regime'.

Emmanuel Macron urges uneasy US scientists: 'Move to France'

France — Link

Centrist presidential candidate calls on those alarmed by Donald Trump’s rhetoric to relocate to the ‘new land of innovation’.

France promises to defend Iran nuclear deal

France — Link

French foreign minister speaks out in Tehran as relations between Iran and Trump administration are strained by new US immigration orders.

US, France and Russia should form 'alliance' says Marine Le Pen

International — Link

Far-right Front National leader urged pact to fight Islamist fundamentalism as she took aim at her chief domestic rival, François Fillon.

Donald Trump's victory, a 'political 9/11'

International — Opinion

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections largely caught political experts, commentators, opinion poll agencies and the media by surprise. But, argues Mediapart editor François Bonnet in this op-ed article, Trump’s accession to the White House is a "political 9/11" and the most spectacular manifestation of a worldwide cycle that has seen the inexorable rise of strongman leaders, warmongering, nationalism and xenophobia, together with the arrival of extremists at the heart of the ideological landscape.