France General Discussion IV: Yellow Fever

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/23/france-president-macron-assesses-his-chances-ahead-of-2022-election.html

French President Emmanuel Macron is facing a new dilemma that could hurt his chances for re-election in 2022.

Recent opinion polls have shown that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is more popular than President Macron. According to polling firm Ifop, in June, the prime minister had an approval rating of 50% — well above Macron’s, which stood at 38%. In a political system where the president is the main political figure, Macron is studying his political alternatives.

“He is certainly tempted to make a change,” Mujtaba Rahman, managing director at the research firm Eurasia Group, told CNBC amid speculation that Macron is considering changing prime minister.

“But, Philippe is very popular,” he said. “Dumping him (even amicably) will be risky. Keeping him is also problematic, if his popularity puts Macron in the shade.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53319441

President Emmanuel Macron and his new government have defended choosing a man under investigation for alleged rape to lead France's interior ministry.

Gérald Darmanin firmly denies the accusation that he raped Sophie Patterson-Spatz in 2009 when she sought his legal help.

Mr Darmanin says they had consensual sex and has accused her of slander.

But his promotion caused shock and anger from feminist groups and government critics.

This feels like a massive misstep for Macron.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/french-bus-driver-beaten-death-after-asking-passengers-wear-face-n1233603

The wife of a French bus driver who was beaten to death after he asked four passengers to wear face masks aboard his vehicle called Saturday for “exemplary punishment” for his killers.

The assault on Philippe Monguillot has scandalized France. President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday dispatched the interior minister to meet the driver’s widow after his death was announced Friday. He had been hospitalized in critical condition after the July 5 attack.

<snip>

The Bayonne prosecutor said Monguillot was assaulted after he asked four passengers on his No. 810 bus to wear face coverings, which are required aboard French public transport because of the coronavirus pandemic. The driver was insulted, pushed off the bus and violently beaten and kicked in the head, the prosecutor said.

Four people are in custody.

[NewYorkExpress]

Bit of a yikes article from "Valeurs" Actuelles causing a big scandal today. Although in reality, its probably not that surprising given the radicalisation of much of the French mainstream media in recent years.

What was it?

Picturing Danielle Obono, a black FI, députée as a slave so as to "show role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade"

Does France have laws about this (I imagine things like libel laws might apply, as might any anti-racism laws France might have)? Forcibly shutting down the magazine or forcing the sacking of person involved would probably be the right outcome here.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-france-horse-killing-20200829-pwqsidbeq5aifavns3roje2cna-story.html

Armed with knives, some knowledge of their prey and a large dose of cruelty, attackers are going after horses and ponies in pastures across France in what may be ritual mutilations.

Police are stymied by the macabre attacks that include slashings and worse. Most often, an ear — usually the right one — has been cut off, recalling the matador’s trophy in a bullring.


Up to 30 attacks have been reported in France, from the mountainous Jura region in the east to the Atlantic coast, many this summer, the agriculture minister said Friday. One attack was registered in February, according to the newsmagazine Le Point. With each attack, the mystery only seems to grow.

“We are excluding nothing,” Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie said Friday on France-Info, before heading to a riding club in the Saone-et-Loire region, in east central France, where a horse was attacked a day earlier.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/06/europe/facebook-french-man-streaming-death-intl/index.html

Facebook has prevented a French man with an incurable illness from streaming his own death on the social media site, according to a company statement.

Alain Cocq, 57, from Dijon in eastern France, has a rare incurable medical condition that causes his arteries to stick together.

He estimates he will only have days to live after stopping all medication, food and drink, which he planned to do on Friday evening.

Cocq had intended to broadcast his dying days on the platform, to raise awareness about France's laws on assisted dying.

In a statement Saturday Facebook said the live stream was prevented to avoid promoting self-harm.

<snip>

Cocq previously lobbied President Emmanuel Macron to allow him to die by "active medical assistance" but was unsuccessful.

Euthanasia is illegal in France. French law also dictates that deep and continuous sedation, which can hasten a person's death and render them unconscious until they die, is not legal unless under specific circumstances set out by the 2016 Claeys-Leonetti Law, which also requires a person's death to be imminent. But French citizens do have the right to stop medical care, and under French law there is no prosecution for suicide.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.foxnews.com/world/man-chasing-fly-accidentally-blows-up-part-house-france-report

A man in France was injured Friday after he blew up part of his home while trying to kill a fly with an electric swatter, according to reports.


The man, who is in his 80s, was about to eat dinner when he spotted the insect.

He picked up the bug-killing racket and start swatting at it -- unaware a gas canister was leaking from the home, located in the village of Parcoul-Chenaud in southwestern France, according to the BBC.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://in.reuters.com/article/us-france-security-eiffel/eiffel-tower-reopens-after-bomb-hoax-idUSKCN26E1V0

The Eiffel Tower was evacuated for several hours on Wednesday after police received a call suggesting a bomb had been placed there.

The Paris monument had been searched and no explosives found, a police spokeswoman said. It reopened at about 2.25 p.m. (1225 GMT).

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2020-09-23/france-wants-to-require-fathers-to-take-parental-leave

FRANCE’S president wants to expand paternity leave to one month — and require fathers to take time off with their newborns.

President Emmanuel Macron announced the plan on Instagram before visiting a child-care facility on Wednesday.

“When a baby arrives in the world, there is no reason it should be only the mom who takes care of it. It’s important to have greater equality in sharing responsibilities,” Macron said, noting the importance of the “intimate" moments early in a child's life.

Currently fathers or other partners in France can take up to 14 days off work after the birth of a child. Macron's government wants to expand that to 28 days, with daily allowances paid by the French state health insurance system — and to make it obligatory for at least a week.

[NewYorkExpress]

Does France have laws about this (I imagine things like libel laws might apply, as might any anti-racism laws France might have)? Forcibly shutting down the magazine or forcing the sacking of person involved would probably be the right outcome here.

What kind of American thinks magazines should be shut down for being racist?

The kind of American who thinks hate speech shouldn't be covered by the First Amendment?

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/europe/paris-knife-attack-charlie-hebdo-intl/index.html

Two people were seriously injured in a knife attack Friday near the former offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the site of a 2015 terrorist attack, the Paris police told CNN.

The two victims are in a serious condition but their lives are not in danger, according to the police spokesperson. Police had previously said there were four people wounded in the attack
Not long after the attack, a suspect was arrested near Place de la Bastille, in Paris's 11th district, but the person was not immediately identified by police. French prosecutors have opened up a terror investigation.

"The main perpetrator has been arrested and is currently in police custody. The second individual was placed in custody for his relations with the main perpetrator," Jean-François Ricard, the national anti-terror prosecutor, said on Friday afternoon.

Seven people in total have been arrested in connection to the attack, a judicial source told CNN on Friday. That number includes the two suspects Ricard discussed.

The other five people were arrested at an apartment linked to the attack.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54277235

French police have opened an investigation after a woman in Strasbourg said she was attacked in broad daylight for wearing a skirt.

The student, identified only as Elisabeth, 22, said she was punched in the face "by three individuals who complained about me wearing a skirt".

....

On Wednesday, junior interior minister Marlene Schiappa - who is in charge of citizenship and was previously in charge of equality issues - visited the eastern city to discuss the safety of women in public.

She told France Bleu Alsace that "the skirt is not responsible for the attack and the woman even less".

"A woman is never hit because she wears a skirt. A woman is hit because there are people who are misogynistic, sexist, violent, and who free themselves from any law and any rule of civility by striking them.

"When you're a student and you have to think about the outfit you have to wear and the message it sends, it's an overwhelming mental load," Ms Schiappa said.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/france-ban-wild-animals-circuses-marine-parks-73307384

France's environment minister has announced a gradual ban on using wild animals in traveling circuses, on keeping dolphins and killer whales in captivity in marine parks and on raising mink on fur farms.

Barbara Pompili, France's minister of ecological transition, said in a news conference Tuesday that bears, tigers, lions, elephants and other wild animals won't be allowed any more in travelling circuses “in the coming years.”


In addition, starting immediately, France’s three marine parks won’t be able to bring in nor breed dolphins and killer whales any more, she said.

“It is time to open a new era in our relationship with these (wild) animals,” she said, arguing that animal welfare is a priority.

Pompili said the measures will also bring an end to mink farming, where animals are raised for their fur, within the next five years.

The ban does not apply to wild animals in other permanent shows and in zoos.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://ca.reuters.com/article/us-france-macron-separatism/macron-launches-crackdown-on-islamist-separatism-in-muslim-communities-idUSKBN26N213

French President Emmanuel Macron pledged on Friday to fight “Islamist separatism”, which he said was threatening to take control in some Muslim communities around France.


France has struggled with homegrown Islamist militancy for years, but Macron’s government is increasingly worried by broader signs of radicalisation - often non-violent - within Muslim communities, French officials say.

They cite the refusal of some Muslim men to shake women’s hands, swimming pools that impose alternate time slots for men and women, girls of as young as four being told to wear full-face veils, and a proliferation of ‘madrassa’ religious schools.

Macron said a bill tackling Islamist separatism would be sent to parliament early next year. Under the new law, home-schooling would be severely restricted to avoid children being “indoctrinated” in unregistered schools that deviate from the national curriculum, he said.

“What we need to fight is Islamist separatism,” Macron said during a visit to the impoverished Paris suburb of Les Mureaux. “The problem is an ideology which claims its own laws should be superior to those of the Republic.”




Among other measures, the teaching of Arabic in France would be encouraged and an Institute of Islamology created, Macron said. But foreign imams would no longer be able to train clerics in France.

Prefects - local representatives of the central government - would be given powers to annul decisions by mayors to restrict school cafeterias or swimming pools to women or men only.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/11/europe/paris-police-station-attack-intl/index.html

Dozens of people attacked a police station in Paris on Saturday night, launching projectiles at the building and attempting to force their way in with metal bars.

French authorities decried the attack, which took place in Champigny-sur-Marne, a suburb located roughly 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles) to the south east of the city center.

In a tweet on Saturday, authorities confirmed that the unknown attackers had launched a variety of projectiles in a "violent attack" against the the building, and tried to storm the building.

...

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has labeled the attackers as "little bullies" and offered his "complete support" to the police.

Darmanin said he would visit the investigating team in Champigny once they had completed their investigation, adding that he had demanded from them "the greatest firmness" in "identifying the troublemakers."

Laurent Jeanne, the Mayor of Champigny, told BFMTV Sunday that the "we are clearly talking about a very organized attack," adding that in recent days "there has been a certain tension between people who instil a certain desire to do battle with the police."

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54571540

French investigating magistrates have issued a fourth charge against ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy for allegedly accepting Libyan cash to fund his 2007 presidential campaign.

He is accused of "membership in a criminal conspiracy", in the long-running investigation. The charges could lead to a trial.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/22/two-french-women-charged-over-racist-stabbing-of-veiled-muslim

Two women accused of stabbing two other women wearing Muslim headscarves near the Eiffel Tower in Paris and trying to rip off their veils have been charged with assault and racist slurs, legal sources told AFP news agency on Thursday.

The case comes amid heightened racial tensions following the killing last week of a French teacher who had shown his pupils caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.


The women accused over the assault were drunk when they came across a group of Muslim women and children in the Champ de Mars park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

The Muslim family complained about the other women’s dog, saying they felt threatened by it.

In the ensuing argument, one of the women with the dog pulled a knife and stabbed two of the veiled women, aged 19 and 40.

The 40-year-old woman sustained six stab wounds and is being treated in hospital for a perforated lung. The younger victim was stabbed three times and was also treated in hospital but has since been discharged.





Both victims claimed their attackers called them “dirty Arabs” and told them: “This is not your home.”

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54839434

French police have arrested seven people accused of offering fake negative Covid-19 test certificates to departing passengers at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

The six men and one woman were found to have more than 200 counterfeit certificates on their mobile phones.

The fakes would have been sold for up to €300 (£271) each, prosecutors say.

The arrests came after the certificate of a passenger bound for Ethiopia was found to be false.

The fake certificates bore the names of real Parisian medical laboratories.

Some airlines and destinations now require passengers to show a recent negative test certificate, under tighter immigration rules.

The seven had been running an unlicensed business as luggage-wrappers, but that had suffered when passenger numbers crashed in the coronavirus pandemic, AFP news agency reported, quoting an airport source.

They face charges of forgery and complicity in fraud, which carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a €375,000 fine.

[NewYorkExpress]

Macron accuses English-langauge media of "legitimizing violence"

Facing protests in the Muslim world over his response to terror attacks in France, President Emmanuel Macron phoned a New York Times media columnist to rail against “bias” in the English-language media and accuse some newspapers of “legitimising this violence”.

In the New York Times interview, Macron claimed media outside France did not understand the concept of the separation of church and state, and condemned newspapers which criticised France’s policy towards Muslims.

Macron has been the subject of protests for his perceived attacks on Islam, after he backed the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad and claimed in a speech that Islam “is in crisis all over the world today”. Protesters in some countries have called for a boycott of French products.

[NewYorkExpress]

Macron calls for Europe to "build our independence" from the United States

French President Emanuel Macron said European Union nations must continue efforts to become independent from the U.S. in the areas of defense and finance even after President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

“The United States will only respect us as allies if we are earnest, and if we are sovereign with respect to our defense,” Macron told French policy journal Le Grand Continent, according to Bloomberg. “We need to continue to build our independence for ourselves.”

Macron also reportedly cited the U.S. dollar’s status as a worldwide reserve currency, which he noted left Europe at an economic disadvantage in disagreements over the Iran nuclear agreement, which the U.S. exited in 2018.


The French president has frequently opined that Europe should take the lead on building up independent defense and foreign policies. He said last year that EU countries are over-reliant on the U.S. and NATO, saying the latter was experiencing “brain death.”

Macron in the new interview also pushed back on German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer’s claim that Europe was incapable of doing what the U.S. does to maintain European security.

“That it is a historical misinterpretation,” he said, according to Bloomberg. “Fortunately, if I understood things correctly, [German Chancellor Angela Merkel] does not share this point of view.”

[NewYorkExpress]

Macron demands French Muslims accept "Charter of Republican Values"

French President Emmanuel Macron has asked Muslim leaders to accept a "charter of republican values" as part of a broad clampdown on radical Islam.

On Wednesday he gave the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) a 15-day ultimatum to accept the charter.

The CFCM has agreed to create a National Council of Imams, which will reportedly issue imams with official accreditation which could be withdrawn.

It follows three suspected Islamist attacks in little more than a month.

The charter will state that Islam is a religion and not a political movement, while also prohibiting "foreign interference" in Muslim groups.

Mr Macron has strongly defended French secularism in the wake of the attacks, which included the beheading of a teacher who showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class discussion last month.[/quote

Lawmakers debating a bill that would ban the publishing of images of police officers with intent to cause harm.

French lawmakers start debating a security bill Tuesday that would ban the publication of images of police officers with intent to cause them harm, a measure that has provoked outrage from journalist organizations and rights campaigners.

Critics, including the United Nations, France’s human rights ombudsman and Reporters Without Borders, say the proposed law would hurt press freedoms.

Over a hundred people from journalists' unions and human rights groups protested Tuesday afternoon in front of the National Assembly in Paris, ahead of the debate that was scheduled to begin in the evening.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations expressed fears in a report that the bill “could lead to significant violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the right to privacy and the right to freedom of expression.”

The proposed law is championed by lawmakers of President Emmanuel Macron’s party, which has a majority at the National Assembly.

Its most controversial measure would make it a new criminal offense “to disseminate, by whatever means and on whatever media, with the intent of causing physical or psychological harm, an image of the face or any other element that could identify a police officer.”

Offenders would face up to one year in prison and a 45,000-euro ($53,000) fine.

[NewYorkExpress]

Nicolas Sarkozy's corruption trial has begun.

He was nicknamed the "bling-bling" president for what many in France saw as his lavish tastes - but now Nicolas Sarkozy faces the stark reality of a soulless courtroom.

He has gone on trial accused of corruption and influence-peddling, for allegedly trying to bribe a magistrate in return for information about an investigation into his party finances.

...

His first court appearance was brief, however. The session was suspended after 30 minutes - until Thursday - because a key figure in the case, former senior judge Gilbert Azibert, is required to have a medical examination.

He is 73 and did not appear in the dock with his co-accused - Mr Sarkozy, 65, and the ex-president's former lawyer Thierry Herzog. There is a question mark over the court proceedings because of the general coronavirus disruption.

The trial is set to run until 10 December. If found guilty, Mr Sarkozy could face a 10-year prison sentence and €1m (£889,000) fine.

[NewYorkExpress]

Several Parisian Police Officers were suspended after video was published showing them beating and racially abusing a black man who wasn't wearing a mask.

Several French police officers were suspended Thursday after a video emerged of them beating a Black man in Paris.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he personally ordered the suspensions after the security camera footage was published by the news website Loopsider.

The video from Saturday shows the man, identified by his lawyer as Michel Zecler, being beaten by the officers.

"These images are unspeakable, extremely shocking and as soon as I learned about them, and about what happened, I asked for the suspension of those police officers," Darmanin said in a televised address Thursday night.

"As soon as the facts will be confirmed by justice, since it is looking into it, I will ask for the dismissal of those police officers," he added.

Loopsider published an interview with an unnamed man with facial injuries which it said was the victim of the beating. "At that moment, I'm scared, I'm telling myself maybe today is my last day, here's what I thought to myself, it's my last day and I don't know why," he said in the video.

Reuters said the man told reporters he was walking near his studio without a face mask, a breach of French Covid-19 rules. He said he ducked into the studio when he saw the police officers to avoid a fine. The man said the officers then physically beat and racially abused him.

[NewYorkExpress]

New bill being presented by the Government that would ban "virginity certificates" for Muslim women, restricts home schooling and would allow for further restrictions on hate speech on social media.

French President Emmanuel Macron planned to present an anti-religious extremism bill on Wednesday that would ban “virginity certificates” for Muslim women and restrict home-schooling in the nation.

The administration is unveiling the bill with the goal of protecting “republican principles” and curbing Islamist extremism within France after extremists carried out two fatal terror attacks in October, the Financial Times reported. The French president intended to present the bill at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Macron’s bill would extend France’s traditional secular neutrality in government services to private-sector companies if they are contacted by the government.


The French president has received backlash for the bill and has been condemned for alleged Islamophobia by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. Macron has dismissed these concerns, saying the proposal is designed to target Islamist extremists in particular, not all Muslims.

“We are not targeting Muslims,” one of Macron’s advisers said, according to the Financial Times. “We are targeting movements that in the name of religion have a discourse against the republic.”

[NewYorkExpress]

Facebook accuses the French Military of running a troll farm targeting several African countries.

Facebook accused people linked to the French military on Tuesday of running a covert online influence operation targeting parts of Africa. It is the first time Facebook has publicly linked a campaign like this to individuals connected to a Western military.

The deceptive tactics allegedly used, which include using Facebook to pose as locals in the targeted countries, mirror misinformation campaigns run by the Russian government.

Facebook staff told reporters on a press call Tuesday that the company could not say if the operation was directed by the French military itself -- they only said it was run by "individuals associated" with the military.

According to Facebook, the operations targeted the "Central African Republic and Mali, and to a lesser extent Niger, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Chad."

Facebook removed the accounts and also announced on Tuesday that it had removed accounts, also posing as Africans, that were linked to Russian troll group.

In some cases, Facebook said, the fake French and Russian accounts even interacted with each other.

....

Facebook said the alleged French accounts "posted primarily in French and Arabic about news and current events including France's policies in Francophone Africa, the security situation in various African countries, claims of potential Russian interference in the election in the Central African Republic (CAR), supportive commentary about French military, and criticism of Russia's involvement in CAR."

Elections are due to take place in CAR later this month.

One post in French read, "The Russian imperialists are a gangrene on Mali! Watch out for the tsarist lobotomy!"

The alleged Russian accounts, in turn, criticized the French.

"While we've seen influence operations target the same regions in the past, this was the first time our team found two campaigns — from France and Russia — actively engage with one another, including by befriending, commenting and criticizing the opposing side for being fake," the authors of the Facebook blog post, Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy, and David Agranovich, global threat disruption lead, wrote.