France held a national day of mourning on Monday for those who lost their lives when Cyclone Chido, with winds of more than 220 kilometres per hour, devastated the Indian Ocean French archipelago territory of Mayotte on December 14th.
The Flamanville 3 European Pressurized Reactor in Normandy was finally connected to the national grid this weekend, 12 years behind schedule after technical setbacks which saw the cost of the project soar to an estimated 13.2 billion euros, four times the initial 3.3 billion-euro estimate.
At the end of their trial in Paris on Friday, eight defendants variously accused of organising a hate campaign online against murdered secondary school teacher Samuel Paty and of providing assistance to the perpetrator who beheaded him, were found guilty and handed jail sentences of between one and 16 years.
French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly used racist, sexist and homophobic jibes in discussions with ministers and staff according to French daily Le Monde, while the allegations were denied by the presidential office.
The French president, who on Friday ended his brief visit to France's cyclone-hit Indian Ocean territory, met with angry residents complaining over delays in the supply of drinking water and food, when he told them that, without France, 'you’d be in a bath of shit 10,000 times worse'.
Following the groundbreaking trial of 51 men found guilty this week of raping Gisèle Pelicot, her decision to refuse a trial behind closed doors, and which led to public outrage at what she had endured and admiration for her courage, one feminist lawyer sees a trend emerging of more women reporting sexual abuse and refusing closed-door trials.
French President Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to Gisèle Pelicot for her bravery during the trial of her husband and 50 other men who, over a peiod of several years, raped her after she was drugged into a comatose state, declaring that her 'dignity and courage moved and inspired France and the world'.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, was on Thursday sentenced to 20 years in jail for raping and organising the rape of his wife Gisèle over several years at their home in southern France, while the 50 men he invited to rape her after he had drugged her were also all convicted, but supporters of the victim spoke of their disappointment that the sentences were lighter than those demanded by prosecutors.
President Emmanuel Macron arrived on Thursday in Mayotte, France's Indian Ocean territory, to inspect the severe structural damage caused at the weekend by Cyclone Chido, powered by winds reaching 225 kilometres per hour which flattening vast areas of habitation.
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has lost his ultimate appeal against his conviction for corruption, centred on an offer to provide a magistrate with a coveted post in Monaco in exchange for confidential legal information concerning him, and his one-year jail sentence will be served at home wearing an electronic tag.
