As the clock ticks down for next April's presidential elections in France, the divided French Left, which with several candidates is split and poorly positioned for success against the conservative and far-right hopefuls, is set to have yet another challenger in the race after Christiane Taubira, a Black Guyanese former socialist justice minister, announced that she will probably stand and 'use all my strength' to unite her political camp.
The French government has announced a ban from Saturday on arrivals from the UK except for its nationals, others with official residency in the country and people who can justify 'essential' reasons for travelling in France, in a move prompted by the sharp rise in Britain of the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The identities of 26 of the 27 recorded victims of the sinking in the Channel last month of a boat carrying migrants trying to cross the sea from France to the UK have been identified by the French authorities.
French interior minister Gérald Darmanin has announced legal moves to dissolve an ultra-right group called Zouaves Paris after its members were identified assaulting anti-racist demonstrators at a meeting of far-right presidential election candidate Éric Zemmour.
Addressing Scholz as "dear Olaf" and using the informal "tu" pronoun in French, Macron said he welcomed the show of unity between the men at their meeting.
In her first address as the French conservatives' presidential candidate, Valérie Pécresse vowed to break with President Emmanuel Macron's centrist policies and to defeat the extremism of her far-right presidential rivals.
France's decision to hold the last of a series of three votes on Sunday, against the wishes of Indigenous Kanaks, has drawn condemnation in neighboring Pacific islands where sensitivities over colonization are high.
France’s aim is "to move towards a Europe that is powerful in the world, fully sovereign, free in its choices and in charge of its own destiny", Macron said.
