Ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy appeared on Tuesday, as he was ordered to, as a witness at the trial of his former aides accused of misuse of public funds, but refused to answer questions, arguing that he was accountable 'to the French people, not to a court'.
Tensions between France and Australia on Tuesday reached their highest point yet over the recent cancellation by Canberra of a multi-billion French submarine sale, after Australian media published a leaked phone text message by President Emmanuel Macron to Australian PM Scott Morrison, in what appeared to be an attempt to imply Macron knew, contrary to what Paris has said, of looming problems with the deal.
Swiss prosecution services have ordered former French football star and ex-president of UEFA, Michel Platini, and former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, to stand trial over an allegedly fraudulent 1.8-million-euro payment made to Platini by the latter in 2011, a move that has yet to be approved by a federal court.
The French government has withdrawn its threat to clog cross-Channel trade by zealous checks on commercial vehicles and to ban UK fishers from landing their catches in ports after Jersey offered fast-track approval for fishing permits for up to six French vessels, according to British media reports.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome, was asked if he thought that Australia's PM Scott Morrison had lied to him before the abandonment by Canberra of a 56-billion-euro contract for French submarines in favour of a deal for US-designed nuclear submersibles, replied: "I don't 'think', I know".
Two 27-year-old French mountaineers and their French coach, aged 32, are reported missing since last week in Nepal during a climbing expedition close to Mount Everest, in an area where an avalanche struck on Wednesday.
French President Emmanuel Macron's staff said that his meeting on Sunday with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the row about post-Brexit fishing permits for French fishermen ended with agreement for more talks, while Johnson's staff denied the claim and said Macron had been told it is for France 'to step away from the threats they have made in recent days'.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said relations with France are fraught with 'turbulence' as diplomatic tensions mount in a post-Brexit dispute over the number of permits to be granted to French trawlers to fish in UK waters.
As French President Emmanuel Macron opens a museum dedicated to the exonerated Jewish soldier, ultra-nationalists like maverick far-right polemicist and expected candidate in next year's presidential elections, Éric Zemmour, again question his innocence.
A Scottish trawler has been intercepted and detained in Le Havre by the French authorities who said it was found fishing in the country's waters without a permit, a claim denied by the boat's owners, as a cross-Channel row over the number of post-Brexit licences given to French fishermen for trawling in UK national waters heats up.
