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The trial has opened in Aix-en-Provence of nine people, including two former French military pilots, a customs officer and a celebrity bodyguard, accused of running a trans-Atlantic cocaine smuggling scam between the Dominican Republic and France using a Dassault executive jet, in a case marked by intrigue and derring-do escapes.

Veteran French academic philosopher and media commentator Alain Finkielkraut, a member of the prestigious Académie Française, was filmed this weekend being insulted by a group of 'yellow vest' protestors during a chance encounter on the streets of Paris, when he was the subject of anti-Semitic abuse from some marchers of the movement against falling living standards and the political establishment. 

Migrants from Africa and the Middle East, desperate to reach a better life, continue to attempt to cross to France from Italy, where they are increasingly evicted from refugee centres by the country's coalition government of populists and far-right, using the deadly route of Alpine passes for which they are ill-equipped to traverse.

A play about how French dramatist Edmond Rostand created the hugely popular tale Cyrano de Bergerac in 1897 has in turn become one of the most successful productions in France of modern times, performed since 2016 more than 1,000 times to a total audience of about 750,000.

The French 'yellow vest' movement of revolt over falling living conditions for lower income households and against the political establishment held a 14th day successive day of action on Saturday, when contested interior ministry estimates said turnout across the country was around 41,500, down on last weekend.

The French ambassador to Rome, recalled last week in protest at what Paris described as 'unfounded attacks and outlandish claims' by Italy's populist coalition government, as well as a recent unannounced visit to France by deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio to meet with anti-government 'yellow vest' prostestors, returned to the Italian capital on Friday.

A group of around 30 men from French media organisations founded an informal club called the League of LOL which for years regularly harassed feminists, people of colour, and gay men with vividly pornographic, racist and sexist abuse online, and who were exposed this week by the daily Libération after it discovered that some of its staff were among them.  

The Paris public prosecution services have opened an investigation into a complaint lodged by a male employee of the capital's City Hall against the Vatican's envoy to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, who he said repeatedly touched him in a sexual approach during a New Year's ceremony on January 17th.

An opinion survey published this week has found a majority of those questioned wish an end to the rolling 'yellow vest' street protests centred on falling standards of living for low-and middle-income earners, although most still continue to sympathise with the demands of the movement.

France's continued propping up of Chadian President Idriss Déby, a repressive autocrat, in whose country French troops are based for their counter-jihadist mission in the Sahel, appears to some like a return to the didgy old practices of the Françafrique system, opines The Economist.