France will later this week begin airlifting its nationals from Wuhan, the locked-down Chinese city at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak where an estimated 500 French expatriates live, after reaching agreement for the evacuation with the Chinese authorities, health minister Agnès Buzyn has announced.
Two Chinese nationals in Paris, and another in Bordeaux, are being treated in hospitals after being diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus, confirmed the French health ministry, which announced on Saturday that several others are being monitored for the virus which has killed 41 people and infected an estimated 1,400 others since its discovery in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.
In an interview with The Guardian, Philippe Martinez, head of one of France's biggest cross-trades unions and which has spearheaded the opposition to Emmanuel Macron's plans to reform the pension scheme, said the French president 'is so sure of himself, but he’s playing with fire', warning that the 'rancour' created by the reforms will be paid by the government 'one day or another'.
Lawyers, students and feminist groups joined in the seventh day of national strike action and demonstrations against proposed pension reforms by mostly public sector employees on Friday, when unions claimed 350,000 turned out for a march across Paris – 31,000 according to independent estimates – timed when ministers met at a cabinet meeting to approve the substance and schedule for the reforms due to begin their passage through parliament next month, and which the government plans to set out in legislation before the summer recess.
Bernard Arnault, CEO of the LVMH group (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), last Friday briefly, and for the second time in recent months, knocked Jeff Bezos of Amazon off his perch as the world's richest person, part of an ascension that has also seen him try to obtain Belgian nationality to escape taxes at home.
The dispute which began last year with France's planned levy of up to three percent on revenues earned by US tech companies in France, and which Washington threatened to retaliate against with higher tariffs on imports of French goods, de-escalated this week with both sides agreeing on negotiations that may continue throughoiut the year.
During a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem, French President Emmanuel Macron loudly reprimanded Israeli security officers who he accused of violating rules that prevent them from entering the Crusader-era Church of St Anne, which is considered French territory.
Around 1,500 inhabitants were evacuated from their homes and an estimated 23,000 households were without electricity in south-west France on Wednesday as storm Gloria, described as the most ferocious rainstorm to hit the region in almost 30 years, moved north from Spain, bursting river banks and whipping up huge waves which battered the Mediterranean coastline.
The French publishers of a manual on 20th-century history aimed at higher education students, including those of the elite Paris political sciences school, has apologised after it was discovered that it described the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11th 2001 as being 'no doubt orchestrated by the CIA'.
Prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation after videos filmed during a 'Yellow Vest' anti-government protest in the French capital on January 18th showed a man with a bloodied head being held down on his back by a helmeted officer, who then strikes him hard in the face.
