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One accused of terrorism and three of helping Chérif Chekatt procure weapons for deadly assault at Christmas marketFour men go on trial today accused of involvement in the 2018 terrorist attack on Strasbourg’s Christmas market, in which a gunman killed five people and injured 11 others in an assault that was later claimed by Islamic State.Chérif Chekatt, 29, who was born and raised in...

Officials say 179 people trying to cross Channel were rescued after four French-led operationsOne person has died and two others are missing in the Channel after an incident involving a small boat, French rescue services have said.According to the Préfecture maritime Manche et mer du Nord, four French-led rescue operations took place in the Channel on Wednesday, coordinated by the regional operational surveillance and...

Senior church officials in Rome decline to act, citing worsening health of French clergyman known as ‘devil priest’A French clergyman dubbed the “devil priest” who stands accused of sexually abusing Inuit children in Canada’s north will not be dismissed from his congregation after senior church officials in Rome declined to act, citing the nonagenarian’s declining health.Johannes Rivoire, a priest with the Missionary Oblates of...

City hall engineer had put bag with sensitive data in overhead luggage rack on train at Gare du NordA bag containing a computer and two USB memory sticks holding police security plans for the Paris Olympic Games has been stolen from a train at the capital’s Gare du Nord station.The bag belonged to an engineer from Paris city hall, the police said late on...

Four ski mountaineers from a nearby club killed and three injured while off piste with a guideFour people have been killed in an avalanche in the mountainous Auvergne region of central France, local authorities said.The avalanche took place on Sunday at an altitude of 1,600 metres (5,250 feet) above the village of Mont-Dore in an area known as the Val d’Enfer, the prefecture of...

French president greeted by whistles from hundreds of demonstrators as some clash with policeHundreds of protesting farmers clashed with police in Paris as Emmanuel Macron toured the annual agricultural fair on Saturday. The French president had opened the fair as angry farmers blew whistles and shouted insults.Riot police initially kept the protesters at a safe distance as he toured the fair, tasting honey from...

Network operating in western Europe is ‘paving way for new wave of online manipulation’ in crucial election year, French agency saysFrench military and cybersecurity experts say they have identified a Moscow-based network spreading propaganda and disinformation in western Europe.France’s Viginum agency, which was set up in 2021 to detect digital interference from foreign entities aimed at influencing public opinion, says Russia is paving the...

Seine-Port is introducing restrictions on phone use in streets, shops and parks – but young people say there’s little else to doA picture of a smartphone with a red line through it serves as a warning in the window of a hairdresser’s shop in a French village that has voted to ban people scrolling on their phones in public. “Everyone is struggling with too...

Guinness World Records initially said 7.2-metre structure made from more than 700,000 matches broke rulesA man has been awarded the Guinness world record for creating the tallest structure using matchsticks – after his Eiffel Tower replica was initially rejected.Richard Plaud, from France, said he had been on an “emotional rollercoaster” this week, after spending 4,200 hours building his model from more than 706,000 matches...

French actor alleges arthouse film-maker Benoît Jacquot groomed her when she was 14 and he was 39French prosecutors have opened a rape inquiry after the actor Judith Godrèche filed a complaint against the arthouse film director Benoît Jacquot, who she says groomed her when she was 14 and he was 39.A formal complaint was filed against Jacquot, 77, for the alleged rape of a...

Two victims have light wounds while third person has serious but non-life threatening injuries, say policeThree people have been wounded in a knife attack in the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris and the suspect has been arrested, police have said.Two of the victims suffered light wounds while the third person was more seriously injured but was not in a life-threatening situation, police...

French agriculture minister set to hold takes in Brussels as around 10,000 protesters turn outValérie Hayer, a French politician and president of the Renew Europe group in the European parliament, has spoken out about the impact of Brexit.“Four years ago, the United Kingdom left us,” she wrote, adding:Purchasing power, social security, global influence, border protection: nothing, absolutely nothing, has been a success. The populists...

Constitutional change could face fight in Senate after national assembly approves measure by 493 votes to 30France’s lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a measure to inscribe abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” in the constitution, a pledge made by the president, Emmanuel Macron, last year.But the controversial plan now goes to the upper-house Senate, where it faces resistance from the conservative Republicans and...

France and UK also agree to deploy more drones and sea barriers to stop small boats crossing ChannelUK security experts will help France to protect the Paris Olympics in a sign of closer cooperation, the Home Office has said.Both governments also plan to deploy more drones and sea barriers to prevent small boats carrying asylum seekers from crossing the Channel. Continue reading...

French government set to respond after being surprised by scale and fury of grassroots demonstrations in agriculture sectorPierre Bretagne woke at 4am to feed the cows on his organic farm near the coastal town of Pornic in western France, then did something he had never dared to before.He made a cardboard protest banner about the nightmare of French bureaucracy and went to cheer on...

Impetus for change was US supreme court overturning Roe v Wade, while Germany passes law banning harassment of women at abortion clinicsThe French parliament has begun debating moves for France to become the first country in the world to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right, guaranteeing women access to the means to end a pregnancy voluntarily.The justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, told the lower house...

France, Poland and Austria among nine countries where radical rightwing parties predicted to finish firstPopulist “anti-European” parties are heading for big gains in June’s European elections that could shift the parliament’s balance sharply to the right and jeopardise key pillars of the EU’s agenda including climate action, polling suggests.Polling in all 27 EU member states, combined with modelling of how national parties performed in...

Three people questioned on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter after collision in Pamiers, south of Toulouse A woman and her teenage daughter have died in southern France after a car hit a roadblock where they were standing. The blockade had been set up by farmers taking part in growing anti-government protests.The 35-year-old woman and her 14-year-old daughter were killed at 5.45am when a car went...

Lax employment law cited as motivation for ice-cold crossing in which five people died off WimereuxThe mayor of the French seaside resort where five people died off the coast trying to reach the UK has blamed the British immigration system for the crisis that engulfed the town at the weekend.“What’s happening today is their fault,” said Jean-Luc Dubaële, the mayor of Wimereux, claiming Britain...

Hiring of figures close to former rightwing leader Nicolas Sarkozy confirms president’s rightward shiftEmmanuel Macron has tilted the French government significantly to the right, bringing in key figures close to the former rightwing president Nicolas Sarkozy in an attempt to reinvigorate his second term and limit possible gains by the far right at the European elections.“I don’t want managers, I want revolutionaries,” Macron told...

Dati, who previously served under Sarkozy, is named culture minister by new PM Gabriel AttalRachida Dati, a former minister for the rightwing French president Nicolas Sarkozy, has been appointed as culture minister in a surprise return to government under Emmanuel Macron.Dati, who is serving as the mayor of Paris’s 7th arrondissement for the rightwing party Les Républicains, was announced as part of a cabinet...

Gabriel Attal attempts to set tone as Macron government tries to counter rise of Marine Le Pen’s far-rightThe new French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, has sent a strong message on law and order on his first full day in office, visiting a police station and promising to deliver security to “responsible working French people”, who he said wanted calm.“There is no security without our...

Customers can collect their parcels and try on items in one trip during trial at La Poste branchesIt is an increasingly common irritant of modern life. You order an item of clothing online; you wait with anticipation for it to arrive, and five minutes after it has arrived you’re packaging it up because it doesn’t fit.For shoppers in France, however, the national post office...

Attal, 34, rose in opinion polls during his time as education minister and may help ruling party in EU electionsProfile: who is the new French prime minister?Emmanuel Macron has appointed France’s youngest-ever prime minister, Gabriel Attal, as he seeks to reinvigorate a difficult second term as president and limit any possible gains for the far right in the forthcoming European elections in June.Attal, 34,...