Links

The so-called 'Yellow Vest' movement of protests at falling living stanadards among low- and middle-income earners is expected to continue with a fifth day of action across France on Saturday, notably with marches in Paris where previous protests have been marred by violence and vandalism by extremists and hooligans.

As  phone companies in France begin seeking suppliers to build 5G networks, parts of the country’s telecoms infrastructure is being made inaccessible to Chinese telecom and electronic equipment company Huawei through legal and regulatory revisions, many classified, with the country's largest telecoms operator, Orange, saying it will not use Huawei products after 'a call to prudence by French authorities'.

The French government is looking for candidates to replace Renault's boss Carlos Ghosn, currently detained in Japan over financial misconduct allegations, after several of the carmaker's board of directors, led by Cherie Blair, the wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair, urged Ghosn's dismissal amid deep strains his arrest has caused in Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, according to an exclusive report by news agency Reuters.

French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux on Thursday called on the so-called Yellow Vest movement demanding better living standards for low- and midlle income earners not to hold another weekend of protests because of the strain placed on police and security forces after this week's terrorist attack in Strasbourg.

The Bank of France announced Thursday it has revised downwards its growth forcasts for 2018 and 2019 to 1.5%, instead of a previous prediction of 1.6%, but did not include 10 billion euros in tax cuts brought forward to next year and extra spending announced this week by President Emmanuel Macron in a major concession to protestors demanding higher living standards for low- and middle-income earners.

A massive manhunt for Cherif Chekatt, the chief suspect in the Tuesday evening shooting spree on the streets of Strasbourg, which left three people dead and 13 others wounded, including one who is described as brain-dead, ended on Thursday evening when the 29-year-old died in a firefight with police in a wharehouse in the eastern French city.

A Thai tourist was among two people killed and an Italian journalist and a garagist of Afghan origin were reported to be among the 13 others wounded in a shooting spree on the streets of Strasbourg on Tuesday evening when a gunman, apparently acting alone and who witnesses say shouted "god is greater" in Arabic, succeeded in escaping the scene.   

In a message he posted on Twitter on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump, currently battling for approval of a budget to beef up immigration barriers with a wall on the US border with Mexico, cited the terrorist shooting spree on Tuesday in Strasbourg to justify a clampdown on migrants, apparently ignorant of the fact that the suspect in the attack was born in the the eastern French city.

Chérif Chekatt, the 29-year-old Strasbourg-born man currently wanted as the chief suspect for the deadly street shooting spree in the city on Tuesday evening when two people were killed and 13 others wounded, had served prison sentences for 27 different convictions in France, Germany and Switzerland, notably for armed robbery and assault, and was, according to the French interior ministry, drawn to radical Islamic circles while in jail. 

More than 700 French police and security personnel are involved in the search for a 29-year-old man, who had been monitered by internal intelligence services as a potential terrorist risk, after two people were killed and 13 others wounded, one of who was left brain-dead, in a shooting on Tuesday evening the streets of the eastern city of Strasbourg.