The management of the snow-deprived Luchon-Superbagnères ski resort in the Pyrenees mountains in south-west France this weekend avoided closure of much of the domain by renting a helicopter to bring down around 50 tonnes of fresh snow lying at higher altitude.
Petr Pavlensky, a dissident Russian activist granted asylum in France in 2017, and an unnamed woman were being questioned in police custody this weekend as part of an investigation into a complaint for violation of personal privacy after explicit sexual images and texts were posted on the internet forcing President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party candidate in Paris mayoral elections to stand down on Friday.
Environmentalist organisation Extinction Rebellion posted photos on social media protesting at police dousing what it called a 'peaceful' sit-in by its activists at an airport near Chambéry, south-east France, who were calling for fewer flights and 'coherence between political decisions and acts'.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Germany on the second day of the Munich Security Conference, said sancions slapped on Russia by the European Union for its actions in Ukraine had changed 'absolutely nothing' and, while not proposing their lifting, urged what he said was a more 'credible' approach of re-engaging 'in a strategic dialogue'.
French health minister Agnès Buzyn on Saturday announced that an 80-year-old Chinese tourist who had been hospitalized in Paris since January 25th after being diagnosed as carrying the coronavirus had died, while his daughter, who also fell ill with the virus, had recovered and would be leaving hospital soon.
French carmaker Renault on Friday announced it would seek a cut in operating costs of 2 billion euros over the next three years, hinting at a major cull in jobs, after it reported net losses of 141 million euros in 2019, the first in a decade, due to lower sales and a falling contribution from its Japanese partner Nissan.
Benjamin Griveaux, 42, a former spokesman for the French government and a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, who was running to become mayor of Paris in elections in March, announced on Friday that he had ended his bid after a lewd video of him, apparently addressed to a young woman, appeared on the internet.
The resignation announced Thursday of the 21-member board of France's Association for the Promotion of Cinema – the organisation that oversees the country's highest cinema awards body, the César Academy – comes on the heels of an open letter by leading screen stars and filmmakers denouncing its elitist and jobs-for-life membership, and a feminist backlash following 12 César nominations for An Officer and a Spy directed by Roman Polanski.
After a government 'environmental defence council' meeting at which the French government announced a series of measures to combat climate change and protect bio-diversity, President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday visited a vast, shrinking glacier at the foot of the Mont Blanc where he said its melting 'is irrefutable proof of global warming'.
An unexpected fall in the unemployment rate in France, down from 8.5 percent in the third quarter of 2019 to 8.1 percent in the last according to the national statistics office INSEE, represents the lowest rate since the last quarter of 2008.
