Having done plenty to irritate his supposed allies in Israel—in particular by undermining efforts to free the remaining hostages—French President Emmanuel Macron has found new friends in Hamas.
The terror group on Thursday praised the president’s proposal to recognise a Palestinian state, in the fanciful hope of getting Iran to recognise Israel, telling AFP this was an “important step.”
In 70% of the foiled attacks, the would-be perpetrator was under the age of 21.
A terrorist attack was foiled earlier this week in northern France, involving a 19-year-old man who claimed to be acting on behalf of Daesh—the Islamic State. No fewer than six attacks have been foiled in recent months. For the minister of the interior, the real danger today is no longer an external attack but the actions of a fringe of radicalised French youth.
On the rainy Grands Boulevards in Paris on Friday, the branches of McDonald’s and KFC were doing brisk business.
There was little sign of “le boycott” – a movement among French customers to reject American brands and products made in the US, in protest at Donald Trump’s trade tariffs and anti-Europe rhetoric.
A poll, which splashed the front page of the Libération newspaper last week, found that more than six out of 10 French people support shunning American products, and almost one in three are already avoiding them.
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for president in 2027 after a court found her guilty of a vast system of embezzlement of European parliament funds and banned her from running for public office with immediate effect.
The decision was a political earthquake for Le Pen, the leader of the far-right anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party, who had hoped to mount a fourth campaign to become president.
Le Pen, 56, said before the verdict that that any immediate ban on running for election would be like a “political death sentence” and that judges had “the power of life or death over our movement”. She is likely to immediately appeal against the verdict.
h/t DM and XC
The Republic can’t escape colonialism
Today marks the moment, 63 years ago, that France finally ceded control of Algeria. But speak to many in both countries and the war might have finished yesterday, with tensions between Paris and Algiers now higher than they’ve been for years. Consider, among other things, France’s recent decision to re-examine the “special” pact of 1968 that made it easier for Algerians to settle in France, with the Quai d’Orsay also presenting its former colony with a list of nationals it wants to send back home. Algiers reacted indignantly — but Algerian terrorists have attacked several French citizens over recent years, while many French Arabs continue to fiercely resent the land they call home.
The French government is reportedly planning to send a “survival manual” to every household in the country with instructions on how to prepare for an “imminent threat” including armed conflict, a health crisis or a natural disaster.
If approved by François Bayrou, the prime minister, the 20-page booklet will be sent to households before the summer, French media reported.
It will be divided into three parts with advice on how to protect “yourself and those around you”, what to do if a threat is imminent – with a list of emergency numbers, radio channels and a reminder to close doors and windows if the threat is nuclear – and details of how to get involved in defending your community, including signing up for reserve units or firefighting groups.
As France’s President Emmanuel Macron casts himself as Europe’s new leader in a joust against US President Donald Trump, he might do well to have a look at two great Frenchmen who advised against haste and hubris.
The first is that paragon of diplomacy, Talleyrand, who managed to survive four regimes, including one created by a bloody revolution and another that set Europe on fire before drowning it in blood.
Foreigners are convicted of up to a quarter of sex crimes, according to the first data analysis of its kind.
Data from the Ministry of Justice, obtained under freedom of information laws, show that 15 per cent of sexual offences, including rape, were accounted for by foreign nationals between 2021 and 2023.
A further eight per cent of convictions were recorded as unknown nationalities.
France: 86% increase in sexual violence on French public transport in 10 years, with mass immigration fueling the rise
7 out of 10 Paris women say they have been victims of sexual violence on public transport
H/T kiki9
A police officer has died and four more have been injured after an armed man, who was heard yelling Allahu Akbhar, attacked several people at a French market.
The bloodbath unfolded at a market in the eastern city of Mulhouse, on the border of Germany, on Saturday afternoon when witnesses heard the cry ‘Allahu Akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is the Greatest’.
The officers were slashed repeatedly by the man – an Algerian aged 37 who was on a terrorist watch list and faced deportation.
CHAOS IN FRANCE:
A man has stabbed several people at Mulhouse Market in France. Law enforcement/police is intervening.
Emergency services are also on the scene as authorities begin to investigate the attack.
Chilling social media footage shows a sheet being draped… pic.twitter.com/53fCwjnL1Q
— LeanneSpurs (@LeanneSpurs) February 22, 2025
BREAKING NEWS:
In France, a person reportedly from Algeria stabbed multiple people at a marketplace. pic.twitter.com/gurE8Yhwr2
— Update NEWS (@UpdateNews724) February 22, 2025
France’s churches are under attack, yet the media and political establishment are pretending not to notice. Last year, we saw blazes at historic churches in Rouen, Saint-Omer and Poitiers – each one another grim statistic in an escalating crisis. For years, we’ve seen Christian places of worship targeted in acts of arson and vandalism. Yet, until now, official confirmation of the scale of the problem has been curiously absent. That has changed. The French territorial intelligence service has reported a 30 per cent increase in criminal church fires in 2024. That’s not a handful of isolated incidents – it’s a surge. And a deeply troubling one at that.
Turf wars between rival trafficking gangs claimed 110 lives last year, and French families are despairing at the spiral of violence consuming their young
The murder of 15-year-old Azad Budak was filmed by a passer-by and posted on Telegram, an encrypted social media platform. Almost immediately, the video of him lying on the ground with a bullet in his chest spread through Besançon, the eastern French city where he lived. His two brothers, aged 11 and 16 at the time, saw the images, as did his neighbours, who phoned his parents to say what had happened.
“I couldn’t walk, talk or think,” said Sema Budak, his mother. “He was a baby to me.”
Each day in France there are 120 knife attacks. On Saturday, one such incident resulted in the death of 14-year-old Elias as he left his football training in central Paris. He was stabbed after refusing to surrender his mobile phone. A 17-year-old has admitted the killing to police.
France’s Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, expressed his horror at the death of Elias, and reiterated his determination to make France ‘a country where parents no longer have to fear seeing their child murdered for nothing’. He added that it ‘will be a long and difficult road’ and will require an end to the culture of excuses which ‘has plunged some of our young people into a deep sense of impunity’.
We may as well drop “President-elect” Donald Trump, which I’m still not tired of writing, and start using “Acting President Donald Trump,” because while doddering old Joe Biden is falling asleep in his chair in Africa, Donald Trump is out meeting with world leaders – and they are anxiously awaiting their turn to meet with him.
On Wednesday, extreme-right figurehead Marine Le Pen led the charge in a no-confidence vote by partnering with the left, leaving the country without a government for the second time in roughly six months. Though their actions plunge France into another phase of political chaos, many assign equal blame to President Emmanuel Macron.
