Latest France News
France has a new government, again. Politics and crushing debt complicate next steps
PARIS (AP) — France’s president and prime minister managed to form a new government just in time for the holidays. Now comes the hard part. Crushing debt, intensifying pressure from the nationalist far right, wars in Europe and the Mideast: Challenges abound for President...
France has a new government. Now it must fix the budget while avoiding collapse
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron’s office announced a new government Monday, after the previous Cabinet collapsed in a historic vote prompted by fighting over the country's budget. The government, put together by newly named Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, includes...
France observes a day of mourning for victims of Cyclone Chido in its Mayotte territory off Africa
PARIS (AP) — France marked a day of mourning Monday for victims of Cyclone Chido, which devastated its poorest territory, Mayotte, over a week ago. The cyclone was the most destructive to hit Mayotte in 90 years and caused extensive damage to the island off Africa's east coast. At...
Destructive Cyclone Chido unearths a rift between locals and migrants in France's Mayotte
MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (AP) — When Cyclone Chido ravaged Mayotte’s fragile infrastructure, it also exposed deep-seated tensions between the island’s residents and its large migrant population. Thousands of people who have entered the island illegally bore the brunt of the storm...
Gisèle Pelicot's Australian supporters are moved that their French heroine wore an Aboriginal scarf
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A group of Gisèle Pelicot’s Australian admirers said Friday they're moved that the victim in France’s notorious drugging-and-rape case has acknowledged her distant supporters Down Under by wearing a scarf adorned with Aboriginal art. The 72-year-old...
France's anti-terrorism court convicts 8 people of involvement in the 2020 beheading of a teacher
PARIS (AP) — France’s anti-terrorism court on Friday convicted eight people of involvement in the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty outside his school near Paris four years ago, a horrific death that shocked the country. Paty, 47, was killed by an Islamic extremist outside his...
France's military is being ousted from more African countries. Here's why
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — It's been a tumultuous month for France and its relationship with former colonies in Africa, as its influence on the continent faces the biggest challenge in decades. As Paris was devising a new military strategy that would sharply reduce its permanent troop...
Gisèle Pelicot thanks backers after her ex-husband and his co-defendants are convicted in rape trial
AVIGNON, France (AP) — Gisèle Pelicot spoke of her “very difficult ordeal” after 51 men were convicted Thursday in the drugging-and-rape trial that riveted France and turned her into an icon, expressing support for other victims whose cases don't get such attention and “whose stories...
Burkina Faso releases four French nationals after detaining them for a year
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Burkina Faso's junta-led government said Thursday that it had released four French nationals it called spies, following Morocco-mediated negotiations with France. The West African nation's information agency said in a statement that Capt. Ibrahim...
France’s highest court upholds corruption conviction of former President Nicolas Sarkozy
PARIS (AP) — France’s highest court has upheld an appeal court decision which had found former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling while he was the country's head of state. Sarkozy, 69, faces a year in prison, but is expected to ask to be...
