Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has called on France to stop turning back migrants who succeed in crossing into the country from Italy at the Rivierra town of Ventimiglia, adding that French President Emmanuel Macron 'is the first who should show solidarity and sensibility by reopening the border'.
A fleet of French fishing trawlers surrounded British boats fishing scallops off the Normandy coast, when heated exchanges included stone-throwing by the French who are angry that their scallop reserves, which they are prohibited from fishing between June and September, were being depleted by the British.
French environment minister Nicolas Hulot, one of the most popular ministers, resigned during a live radio interview, citing 'an accumulation of disappointments' with the environmental 'mini-steps' decided by President Emmanuel Macron and his government which he said were too influenced by lobbyists.
The popular Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred, whose 2015 hit Lmaallem has become the most-viewed song by an Arab artist on YouTube, and who also jumped bail on rape charges in the US in 2010, has been detained in France after a third accusation of rape lodged against him, this time by a woman who says he forced himself upon her in a hotel in Saint-Tropez.
In a speech to French ambassadors in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron said 'Europe cannot rely on the United States only for its security' and that 'it's up to us to meet our responsibilities and guarantee our security, and therefore European sovereignty', including in cooperation with Russia.
A three-metre bottlenose dolphin nicknamed Zafar which was previously adopted as a harmless and welcome presence for swimmers and kayakers at a seaside resort in Brittany, north-west France, has developed a fiesty nature, latterly upturning a female swimmer, after apparently entering a period of sexual arousal.
Prime Minister Édouard Philippe has asked ministers to discuss plans ahead of a possible exit of Britain from the European Union without mutual agreement terms, and to prepare measures necessary to mitigate difficulties 'linked with this unprecedented challenge', including facilitating the stay of British citizens currently living in France and ensuring smooth border controls.
Interviewed about his budgetary plans for 2019, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said 4,500 public sector jobs would be shed next year when pensions and family and housing benefits will no longer be pegged to inflation, while also forecasting economic growth of 1.7 percent, down on previous predictions.
French railways operator SNCF said there will be disruption to trains arriving at and departing from Marseille over the coming days after a high-speed train from Paris derailed, without causing injuries, on its low-speed approach to the Mediterranean port city for reasons that remain unexplained.
A vegan festival due to be held in the centre of Lille in north-east France in early September has been called off by the City Hall for 'safety' reasons after a butchers' federation announced they would hold a nearby counter-barbeque for carnivors in anger at vanadalsim of several butchers' shops in the region allegedly by vegan acitivists.
