French police on Wednesday raided the headquarters of Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National party as part of an investigation into suspected illegal funding of its election campaigns in 2022 and 2024, a move described by the party's chairman, Jordan Bardella, as 'a serious attack on pluralism and democratic choice'.
Wildfires that reached the edges of the port city of Marseille were still active on Wednesday but no longer advancing, according to the local prefecture which confirmed firefighters and police officers were among 97 people injured, 24 of whom were admitted to hospital, while 750 hectares of land was burnt by the wind-fuelled flames.
On the second of a three-day state visit to the UK, French President Emmanuel Macron met for talks on Wednesday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer whose office announced the pair had agreed to 'make progress on new and innovative solutions' to stem the number of England-bound migrant crossings of the Channel from France.
A fast-spreading wildfire has reached the periphery of Marseille, where around 1,000 firefighters are engaged in preventing it entering the Mediterranean port city where they are 'waging guerrilla warfare, hoses in hand' according to the local mayor.
The French president on Tuesday addressed several hundred MPs and guests at the start of a three-day state visit to Britain, the first of a European leader since Brexit, when he spoke of a new Europe beyond the boundaries of the 27-member EU bloc, one in which France and Britain were at its core, and argued that the two countries must end 'excessive dependencies on both the US and China'.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Britain on Tuesday at the start of a state visit accompanied by his wife Brigitte, when the couple were hosted by King Charles at Windsor Castle before beginning wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Keir Stamer, with the issue of clandestine crossings of the Channel from France high on the agenda.
