The French parliament has approved legislation imposing on websites and social media the requirement to delete posts posts inciting hatred, violence, racism, and sexual harassment within 24 hours, or face a fine in each case of up to 1.25 million euros, amid concern from rights groups and opposition politicians that the new law could impede the right to free expression.
French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe on Thursday presented an 18-billion-euro package to help the country's tourist industry weather the coronavirus crisis, including cash investments and deferred loan payments, while also announcing that restaurants and bars in regions less affected by the epidemic could re-openshortly before the summer, conditional to no upsurge of cases, when French tourists would be able to holiday in the country.
Comments by French pharma group Sanofi's CEO Paul Hudson that US funding of its research into a vaccine against the Covid-19 virus would make the country first to receive it were dismissed as 'unacceptable' by French junior economy minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, while the head of Sanofi's French operations, Olivier Bogillot, said 'I don’t confirm it', adding, 'it will be available to all'.
Stéphane Bourgoin, 67, who for several decades has enjoyed a role as leading expert on serial killers in France and abroad, author of more than 40 books on the subject and a regular media guest offering insight into the minds of murderers, has admitted that his claims of training with the FBI, interviewing 70 serial killers and having lost an American wife to one, were all made up.
Three days after the lifting of total lockdown measures in France, the health ministry reported deaths from the Covid-19 virus had tumbled over the 24 hours up to Wednesday evening, at 83 against 348 the previous day, while patients in intensive care for the infection fell by 114 to 2,428, and total hospitalisations for the disease continued a downward trend at 21,071.
Crowds of mostly young people in Paris gathered together with drinks and without masks at sites beside the River Seine and the Saint-Martin canal to celebrate the end on Monday of the lockdown on public movement, prompting the capital's police prefect to ban alcohol consumption at the locations for fear of a spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Amazon’s six French warehouses, which employ around 10,000 workers on permanent and interim contracts, have been shut since April 16th after court rulings said the company could only continue to operate if it limits deliveries to a list of essential goods only and carry out an assessment of the health risks to its employees in consultation with French trades unions.
Official figures released on Monday evening reported 263 deaths in France from the Covid-19 coronavirus over the previous 24 hours, compared with 70 registered over the previous day on Sunday, with 22,284 people infected with the virus hospitalised, while the numbers of intensive care patients were reported to have fallen by 64.
French finance minister Bruno Le Maire on Monday said emergency government aid for the country's carmakers, an industry severely hit by the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic, is conditional to them bringing certain manufacturing activity home to France from abroad.
Broadcaster FRANCE 24 summarises how the daily French press titles on Monday reacted to the end of the country's two-month lockdown on public movement.
