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Pop star thrills Paris crowds with songs from newest album The Tortured Poets DepartmentTaylor Swift has added her newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, to an already packed setlist as she returned to The Eras Tour after a two-month break.Swift had described TTPD as “new works reflecting events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both...

Beijing joins France in urging Israel against Rafah offensive in latest effort to make its diplomatic markXi Jinping, sensing a diplomatic opening, is stepping up China’s intervention in the Middle East crisis, issuing a joint statement with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to urge Israel not to go ahead with an offensive in Rafah.The rare moment of Sino-European synergy is the latest effort by...

Chinese premier to have lunch with Emmanuel Macron before heading to Serbia on his closely watched trip to EuropeThe Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has hit out against Nato over the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Serbia, when three people died in 1999 after a US strike accidentally hit the compound during Nato’s air campaign against Serb forces occupying Kosovo.In a letter to Serbian...

Emmanuel Macron and Viktor Orbán among leaders Xi is meeting, with several key issues on the tableChina’s president, Xi Jinping, has begun a three-country tour of Europe – his first state visit to the continent in five years – at a time when China-EU ties are under strain from trade disputes and Russia’s war on Ukraine. Continue reading...

Chinese premier arrives in Paris for talks with French leader and Ursula von der Leyen, with trade and Ukraine on agendaThe trilateral meeting has kicked off.Xi Jinping has arrived at the Élysée palace. Continue reading...

Third-party hospitality packages are outlawed, yet agency part-owned by associates of Rafael Nadal and LeBron James promises access to top events as well as to starsMembers of the global super-rich are spending as much as $500,000 (£400,000) on “ultra-exclusive” packages for the Paris 2024 Olympics that promoters claim include meeting athletes, access to the athletes’ village and “the chance to be part of the...

China’s president arrives as EU anti-subsidy investigations and tensions over espionage, Ukraine and Taiwan continueChina’s president, Xi Jinping, is to visit Europe next week for the first time in five years, in a tour that will take in the unlikely trifecta of France, Hungary and Serbia.The visit comes as China pushes to avoid a trade war with the EU, while attitudes towards Beijing in...

University students air frustration that sit-ins motivated by peace are being shut down instead of heededJack, 22, a student in public administration, was dragged out of his university building by the arms and legs on Friday, as police forcibly removed several dozen students who had been occupying Paris’s Sciences Po university overnight in a protest against civilian deaths in Gaza.“We’ll keep going,” said the...

One tornado in Oklahoma was the first of 2024 to be rated as EF-4, the second most severe categorySevere thunderstorms affected parts of the United States last week, spawning at least 129 tornadoes across midwestern and southern states between 25 and 28 April. The majority occurred on 26 April, with most touching down in Nebraska and Iowa.Two that formed were particularly large and long-lived,...

Met Office says storms may cause travel disruption and flooding, leading to difficult driving conditionsHeavy thunderstorms could give way to the warmest day of the year so far in Britain.The same storm caused mudslides in northern France, which started around midnight and killed at least one person, a 57-year-old woman, and injured her partner. Continue reading...

Ahmed Alhashimi’s seven-year-old daughter Sara was crushed to death after group of men rushed on to dinghyThe father of a seven-year-old girl crushed to death on a small boat has said they tried to cross the Channel after being informed his young family would be deported to Iraq after spending years in Europe.Ahmed Alhashimi, 41, lost grasp of his daughter, Sara, on an inflatable...

Two women say actor assaulted them, one on a film set in 2021 and the other on another shoot in 2014Gérard Depardieu will face a criminal trial in October over the alleged sexual assaults of two women on the set of a film in 2021, prosecutors have announced.Depardieu, 75, who previously has denied any wrongdoing, was questioned for several hours on Monday by officers...

New room would give thousands of daily visitors better experience, says museum presidentThe Mona Lisa, the world’s most famous portrait, could get a room of its own in the Louvre, the museum’s president said.Such a move would give visitors, many of whom visit the Louvre for the famous painting alone, a better experience, Laurence des Cars told the broadcaster France Inter. Continue reading...

Joint UK-French investigation alleges group advertised small-boat crossings of Channel on social mediaFour Vietnamese nationals have been arrested in London after an investigation into alleged people smugglers advertising small-boat crossings of the Channel on Facebook.The joint UK-French investigation alleges the group shared posts aimed at the Vietnamese community and charged migrants thousands of pounds to make the crossing. Continue reading...

Yien Both, from South Sudan, and Tajdeen Adbulaziz Juma, from Sudan, charged with immigration offences in UKTwo men have been charged with immigration offences in connection with the investigation into the deaths of five people, including a child, who were trying to cross the Channel.Yien Both, a 22-year-old from South Sudan, has been charged with assisting unlawful immigration and attempting to arrive in the...

Director of Palme d’Or-winning film Entre les Murs (The Class) was much praised for humanism in projectsLaurent Cantet, the award-winning film-maker whose creations tackled some of the most complex issues of modern French society, including meritocracy, the education system, diversity and class struggle, has died aged 63 after an illness.Cantet was best known outside France for his film Entre les Murs (The Class), which...

Blades of famous cabaret venue fall from roof overnightThe blades of the Moulin Rouge windmill, one of the most famous landmarks in Paris, have collapsed, firefighters have said, just months before the French capital hosts the Olympics.There was no risk of further collapse, Paris firefighters said after the incident overnight. Continue reading...

Attempt to cross via overcrowded dinghy from Wimereux aborted after engine stalls and five people drownThey could have been on a school trip. Fifty teenagers from Vietnam, dressed for the biting cold in puffer jackets, smart trainers and woolly beanies, sat on the pavement by the bus shelter outside Gare Calais listening to music and watching videos on their smartphones.They were waiting for the...

French coastguard says small boat was carrying more than 100 people during failed crossing attemptFive people have died in an attempt to cross the Channel near the town of Wimereux, south of Calais, French police have said.A spokesperson for France’s national police told Reuters that five asylum seekers had died, while the French coastguard confirmed there was a failed attempt to cross the Channel...

Faced with competition from rival sporting events, the future of the Games hung in the balance. A century on, new hurdles are loomingParis 1924 was the sixth and last Olympics presided over by Baron de Coubertin, the modern movement’s founder. He had good reason to be pleased with his work. The French government had enthusiastically backed the enterprise, providing a budget of 20m francs...

Coalition of civil society groups says Paris should return harsh reparations imposed on Caribbean state two hundred years agoFrance should repay billions of dollars to Haiti to cover a debt formerly enslaved people were forced to pay in return for recognising the island’s independence, according to a coalition of civil society groups that is launching a new push for reparations.The Caribbean island state became...

Health, jobs, defence, security and climate crisis all seen as more important than immigration with June elections approachingIrregular migration is not the top priority for European voters despite the prominence of the issue in the media and political campaigning by rightwing parties over the last year, a new survey commissioned by the European parliament shows.The Eurobarometer poll which tracks public opinions every quarter puts...

Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, says ‘every life counts equally, whether in Ukraine, in Gaza, or in Sudan’The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has warned of a further escalation in violence in Sudan.“The Sudanese people have been subjected to untold suffering during the conflict which has been marked by indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas, ethnically-motivated attacks, and a high...

Heavy rain forecast in Saudi Arabia and UAE as France and Spain cool down after weekend of high temperaturesIntense thunderstorms are forecast across parts of the Gulf on Monday and Tuesday, bringing very high rainfall to the region and a significant flooding risk in parts.Low pressure over the Arabian peninsula will deepen on Monday while a flow of moist tropical air moves into the...