France news

France news

He stepped down from the role in September 2024, reportedly after disagreements with Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and since then has been officially retired. While in post however, he made the most of the role and came to global attention in 2023 after the launch of the first investigations under a new EU law into X (formerly Twitter), Facebook owner Meta and TikTok over the spread of false information and hate speech following the Hamas-Israel conflict.

France has two government-ordained sales periods, one in summer, one in winter; the rest of the time discounts and special offers shops can offer consumers are strictly limited. While you might be able to get a deal at other times, the best bargains are reserved for the period of les soldes, when retailers are allowed to sell items at below cost price.

Postal services in France are severely disrupted in the final days before Christmas after a cyber-attack upon La Poste. The French post operator La Poste was the victim of a cyber-attack on Saturday, leading to severe disruption in mail services in the final days before Christmas. A director of La Poste told French media that customer details were not affected, but the attack was having a serious effect on deliveries. The group said that deliveries of packages and letters were "disrupted but continuing" on Tuesday. Parcels can still be collected from post offices, but other services such as online tracking of deliveries are not available.

La Poste, France's postal service, is largely offline, possibly due to an unexplained incident. At the time of writing, the organization's website offers only a brief message that opens "Notre site est indisponible" - our site is unavailable - and adds that its teams are doing all they can to resolve the situation quickly. On its Facebook page, La Poste published a notice that states "A major network incident is currently disrupting all of our information systems."

The highest water levels in the region were recorded just to the south of Montpellier in the coastal town of Agde, where the River Herault reached more than 11 feet, leading to what forecasters said was likely the worst flooding the region had experienced since November 1994. Local residents posted footage of flooded promenades along the banks of the river but no major damage or human casualties were reported.

An explosion at a chemical factory in Lyon, in eastern France, has led to the closure of road and rail links, while local residents have been advised to stay indoors. The blast happened at a factory in the Saint-Fons area, south of Lyon, on Monday afternoon. The factory was classed as a Seveso site - a European classification meaning a site with a potential risk to health.

Charles Dubouloz is only 36 years old, but the Frenchman is an icon of world mountaineering, a specialist in major solo winter challenges, a young man who grew up devouring mountaineering literature, and who knows all too well that premature death awaits the best climbers. Last Sunday, December 14, he reached the summit of Mont Blanc 18 pounds lighter after spending six days and five nights on the Grand Pilier d'Angle, the first feat of a trilogy that will be his farewell, his tribute.

France's presidential silverware keeper and two other men are set to stand trial over the alleged theft of porcelain and other tableware worth thousands of euros, the Paris prosecution office has said. Prosecutors said the silverware keeper Thomas M and his partner Damien G were arrested on suspicion of theft on Tuesday. Another man, Ghislain M, was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen goods. Their full names were not given due to French privacy customs.

Investigators arrested the man and two alleged accomplices last week. They are accused of taking the objects from the official Paris residence of the French president and trying to sell them on online auction websites such as Vinted. The head steward at the palace alerted authorities to the missing objects, some of which are deemed items of national heritage. The items are estimated to have a combined value of up to 40,000 (35,000).

In line with the last two military programming laws, and after a thorough and comprehensive review, I have decided to equip France with a new aircraft carrier,

In times of aggression, we must be strong to be feared. I have decided to equip France with a new aircraft carrier,

Putin is ready to talk with France's Emmanuel Macron over the war in Ukraine, the Russian president's spokesman said in an interview published Sunday. Putin has "expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Macron", Dmitry Peskov told state news agency RIA Novosti. "Therefore, if there is mutual political will, then this can only be assessed positively."

Ferry passengers at the Port of Dover faced delays of up to an hour on Saturday due to IT issues affecting French border controls. The disruption began on Saturday morning, coinciding with the peak Christmas getaway period, which is expected to be the busiest on record. The Port of Dover is working with partner agencies to resolve the problems and has advised passengers not to arrive more than two hours before their sailing.

Most Europe-centric alternative proposals approach the issue from a traditional hard security perspective, not fully severing Nato ties but prioritising EU-led decision-making, often starting as a Nato-plus complement before evolving into a standalone entity. Such thinking also generally proposes major increases in military spending, an EU-based command structure independent of the US, integrated European military capabilities, a shared European nuclear deterrent, and binding mutual defence commitments.

With its cuisine, culture, climates, cityscapes, and coastlines, France remains the world's most visited country, attracting over 100 million international visitors in 2024, and the World Travel and Tourism Council expected 2025 to be even bigger, surpassing all records. Its capital, Paris, ranks as the world's top city among 100 destinations in Euromonitor International's 2025 index. And France remains a top choice for Americans seeking a fresh start abroad:

Its text recognises that enforcement of previous laws "criminalising the use of, practice of, access to, and information about abortion" constituted "an infringement of the protection of women's health, of sexual and reproductive autonomy", as well as "of women's rights". The pre-1975 laws led to "numerous deaths" and caused "physical and moral suffering", it adds.

The possible indictment concerns the sudden retraction of Ziad Takieddine, a key accuser of the former head of state, in a case over alleged illegal campaign financing from late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Takieddine, who died in late September, had claimed several times that he helped deliver up to €5 million in cash from Kadhafi to Sarkozy and the former president's chief of staff in 2006 and 2007.

The deal would pave the way for British students to participate in the scheme from January 2027, according to the two papers and the BBC. Britain left the Erasmus scheme, in which it had participated since 1987, when it left the EU at the beginning of 2021. The move caused consternation among students and higher education bodies. Work towards rejoining was announced as part of Starmer's post-Brexit reset deal agreed with Brussels at a summit in May.

French shoppers had been clamouring for the Intermarché supermarkets to make a plush-toy wolf available in time for Christmas, and Cotillard had previously vowed to do his best to make that happen. But on Monday, he admitted that that only "a hundred" could be produced by the end of the year. "We took the choice to be consistent and to not import them from China," he said. The hundred soft toys that will be made will be given away to children's charities, he added.

While only 4% of working people in France worked remotely in 2019, more than one out of every five employees does so today. Employee monitoring has developed in parallel, explains Vincent Meyer, a professor and researcher in labor sociology at EM Normandie Business School. He analyzes how digital tools are redefining trust between employers and employees, and how young professionals, seeking autonomy and balance, are adapting to this new environment.

For more than a month, the court has heard about rape used as a weapon of war, sexual slavery, forced labour, torture, mutilation, summary executions, systematic looting, extortion, and the plundering of resources, including diamonds. The alleged atrocities were committed in 2002-2003 during Operation "Erase the Slate", conducted in the northeast of the country by the Rally of Congolese Democrats and Nationalists (RCD-N) -- Lumbala's rebel group.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

It is the latest of several trials in France targeting smugglers, but one of the first to target a group using so-called "taxi boats", a technique used since 2023 in which they taxi along the shore in dinghies to pick up migrants after they have already waded into the water. France and Britain have vowed to crack down on people smugglers who heap migrants on flimsy vessels to make the dangerous crossing in exchange for thousands of dollars.

The investigation, ordered by the culture ministry after the embarrassing daylight heist, revealed that only one of two security cameras was working near the site where the intruders broke in on the morning of Sunday 19 October. Agents in the security control room did not have enough screens to follow the images in real-time, while a lack of coordination meant police were initially sent to the wrong place once the alarm was raised, the report unveiled at the French senate's culture commission stated.

These offensive remarks and this behaviour runs completely contrary to the values that our committees strive to uphold,