Several hundred workers at an Amazon warehouse and shipping centre near Orléans in north-central France staged a strike on Wednesday over their fears of exposure to the Covid-19 coronavirus, calling for the site's closure or for a dispensation for those staff who wished to stay at home.
An exodus from Paris of the wealthy with second homes or those with provincial families to welcome them, hoping to enjoy greener environments with which to live out the nationwide home confinement order issued to contain the spread of the coronavirus, is causing concern in some relatively unaffected regions that the fleeing Parisians are bringing the virus with them.
French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and his finance minster Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that the government might nationalise big companies left reeling from the fallout from the Covid-19 virus epidemic, alongside 45 billion euros in emergency measures to help firms weather the storm, on top of 300 billion euros in government loan guarantees, while the state deficit is expected to blow out to 3.9 percent of gross domestic product from a target of 2.2 percent.
A French competition wtachdog has found US tech giant Apple guilty of unfairly agreeing prices for sales of its wares in France with certain wholesalers, to the detriment of others, and fined the company 1.1 billion euros.
As of midday on Tuesday, and initially announced for 15 days although few expect it to lend before May at least, the French capital, like the rest of the country, was placed under official lockdown in an effort to contain the coronavirus epidemic, with the population confined to their homes except for only essential movement outdoors.
French interior minister Christophe Castaner on Monday evening provided further details on the nationwide lockdown of the population announced earlier by President Emmanuel Macron, adding that 100,000 police officers would be deployed to ensure the public only left their homes for reasons that should be justified by a written statement, downloaded from an official website and signed, or face a fine of up to 135 euros.
In a televised address on Monday evening French President Emmanuel Macron announced a lockdown of the population, initially for a 15-day period, restricting all but non-essential movements of people outside of their homes in an effort to contain the Covid-19 coronvitrus outbeak, while also postponing the second round of municipal elections due next weekend.
Bernard Preynat, 74, a defrocked priest convicted of assaulting at least 80 young boys between the ages of seven and 15 between 1971 and 1991, was on Monday handed a five-year jail term.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced on Saturday the nationwide closure from midnight of entertainment venues, shops, cafés and restaurants in an effort to contain the accelerating spread of the coronavirus outbreak, essentiually exempting food stores, pharmacies and petrol stations.
The trial of retired surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, 69, on charges of sexually abusing four children has opened in south-west France, while he faces further prosecution after evidence was found by police, including his personal notebooks, suggesting he may have assaulted up to 349 children.
