France

Starting April 24 France will order a strict 10-day quarantine for all travellers coming from Brazil in a bid to prevent the spread of a coronavirus variant first found in the South American county. Also, only people residing in France or holding a French or European Union passport will be allowed to fly to the country.

The same measures will also gradually be put in place by April 24 for people returning from Argentina, Chile and South Africa, where the presence of other coronavirus variants were detected, the prime minister's office said.

The French parliamentarians voted by a majority for a ban on domestic flights on routes that can be covered by train in less than two and a half hours. Flights from Paris to Lyon or Bordeaux could thus soon be a thing of the past.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had already voiced such ideas in May 2020, when state aid for AirFrance-KLM was decided. The weekend's vote picks up on these plans and aims to help reduce CO₂ emissions permanently - even if the air travel industry picks up again after the global pandemic. The ban is part of a broader climate law that aims to reduce French carbon dioxide emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

French President Emmanuel Macron is closing the elite French university École Nationale d'Administration, or Ena for short, as he announced on Thursday. The elite cadre school is to be replaced by the Institute of Public Service (ISP).

The aim of the reform is to make the French civil service "more efficient, more transparent and more benevolent", according to sources close to the president. In addition, more young people from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds are to be recruited for the civil service. The "social lift" works "less well today than it did 50 years ago", Macron had complained at the beginning of this year.

President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday a third national, month-long lockdown for France starting Saturday. All schools, nurseries and universities will be closed until April 26th. The country will resume reopening from Mid-May on with strict rules.

Macron: "I know that there is a lot of weariness, fatigue. I know that there is also sometimes nervousness, anger. The success of this month of April and of this strategy depends on each of us, on our spirit of responsibility. This is how we can rebuild this path of hope, the one that will allow us to gradually find a life again. normal."

France bears a "grave and overwhelming share of responsibility" for the genocide, says the 1,200-page report prepared by historian Vincent Duclert and 12 collaborators for the attention of Emmanuel Macron.

It says French authorities "failed" during the four years of escalation in Rwanda: they "strengthened" the corrupt, racist dictatorship in the capital, Kigali, and themselves pursued an "ethnicist" view of the conflict. Specifically, France had trained the Rwandan army - from whose circles the Hutu killers came - and supplied it with "considerable quantities of weapons and ammunition."

However, the Duclert report also states that France did not directly equip the murder gangs. Rather, Paris "did not understand" what was going on in Rwanda. There was therefore no actual complicity in the genocide. In short, the report, for which the authors had unrestricted access to the archives, including those of the Élysée Palace, concludes that there was joint responsibility, but not joint guilt.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Paris would reopen its embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli next Monday to show its support for the new authorities.

Speaking alongside Mohammed al-Menfi, the head of the Libyan presidency council, Macron said France and its European partners would back Libya's political efforts and called for Turkish and Russian forces to leave the country as soon as possible.

France will move on to Phase 2 of Coronavirus vaccination. Appointments will be authorized for all people over 70 from Saturday March 27th on, Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday. The country now has "an acceleration of the delivery of the number of doses and therefore we can move on to a second phase of more massive vaccination," Macron said.

Alain Fischer, France's vaccination chief, said Monday that he excepts a return to some kind of "normal" life by either Summer or Autumn. France has just resumed use of the AstraZeneca Coronavirus vaccine last week and Prime Minister Jean Castex received the first dose of the vaccine on Thursday.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a four-week lockdown for 16 regions, including Paris, the Île-de-France region, Hauts-de-France and parts of la Normandie, will start Friday at midnight. Essential stores and schools will remain open and the curfew will start at 7pm. The lockdown is imposed to prevent a third wave.

Members of the lower house of parliament unanimously approved France's consent laws on Monday. The minimum age of sexual consent is now set at 15. Sexual intercourse with children under that age will considered rape and will be punishable with up to 20 years in jail.

Intensive care units in hospitals in Paris are nearing full capacity as severe Coronavirus cases increase. Paris hospitals currently treat almost 1,000 people in ICU and are being force to put of non-urgent surgeries.

French billionaire Olivier Dassault was killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash, a police source said, with President Emmanuel Macron paying tribute to the 69-year old conservative politician.

Olivier, seen as the favourite of founder Marcel, was once considered favoured to succeed Serge at the head of the family holding, but that role went to former Dassault Aviation CEO Charles Edelstenne.

"Great sadness at the news of the sudden passing of Olivier Dassault," Valerie Pecresse, a conservative politician who is president of the Paris region, said on Twitter.

Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday that France will have enough Coronavirus vaccines doses to vaccinate over 30 million people (two-thirds of the population) by this summer. The aim is to vaccinate 10 million people by mid-April and 20 million by mid-May as "deliveries of doses to France will increase in the coming weeks."

“Between January and February, we received seven million doses of all vaccines. In March, we should receive 22 million doses, three times as many. We can't vaccinate everyone right away. You will still have to be patient but don't have any doubt - you will be vaccinated,” he said.

France has lifted the age restriction of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine will now be offered to "people aged 50 and above who have comorbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure or a history of cancer can be vaccinated with AstraZeneca, including those aged 65 to 74."

“The Haute Autorité de Santé now considers as of today that all three vaccines that we have in France have a remarkable efficacy to protect people against the risk of severe forms of Covid-19,” Health minister Olivier Véran said.

The former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was found guilty of having tried to obtain confidential information about him from a magistrate, and to obtain a dismissal in an older case.

He has been sentenced to 3 years in prison (1 year custodial and 2 non-custodial).

He can still appeal against this conviction.

Prime Minister Jean Castex said that B117 (the UK strain) now accounts for about half of people infected with Covid-19 in France". France is considering stricter measures for affected areas, including weekend lockdowns for Paris and 19 other departments.

Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has said the city of Paris is considering a three-week-long strict lockdown, known as "Zero Covid". The measure would give the city "the prospect of reopening everything", instead of "half-measures with bad results" and "semi-prison for months". Currently Paris is under a night-curfew, all eaters and culture venues are closed.

Health Minister Olivier Véran announced a weekend lockdown for the northern French Dunkirk area. Véran called the Dunkirk area situation "alarming" as infection rates are over 900 infections per 100,000 people.

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said "requires rapid and strong measures" were necessary due to "a worsening situation" and to "avoid having to impose another national lockdown."

French President Emmanuel Macron is urging the United States and European countries to allocate up to 5% of Coronavirus vaccine supplies to poor and developing countries.

Macron: “If we allow to take root the idea that hundreds of millions of vaccines are made in rich countries and that we don’t start in poor countries, that idea is unsustainable.”

At least 37 people have died in the US state of Texas due to a severe winter onset, and hundreds of thousands of people are cut off from electricity after heavy storms. The information has now surfaced that Republican Senator Ted Cruz travelled to Cancún, Mexico, for a holiday. Cruz himself did not initially comment on the trip and did not respond to numerous media enquiries.

Génération Identitaire, a French far-right group declaring a "war on migrants", faces dissolution as the French government tries to tackle far-right extremism. A bill to fight Islamist extremism and separatism was approved by the National Assembly on February 16th.

B.1.1.7, the variant first discovered in the United Kingdom, is now found in 25% of the new coronavirus infections in France.

Health minister Olivier Véran warns: "Scientists fear a new epidemic if this variant were to become dominant."

The French government may soon introduce the age of sexual consent. France’s nonexistent age-of-consent laws make it hard to prosecute sexual perpetrators. The move comes after loud protests, online testimonies about domestic sexual child abuse and growing pressure from the public.

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said: "An act of sexual penetration by an adult on a minor under 15 will be considered a rape."

A couple have been jailed in France over the death of a 3 year old boy.

The jailing comes after the mother, Caroline Létoile, inadvertently revealed herself beating the three year old - called Tony - in a call to emergency services.

Loïc Vantal, 28, the mothers boyfriend received a 20 year sentence for dealing the blows that caused the death in 2016.

The mother was recorded on the emergency call saying "I said he fell down the stairs. The stair will do, right? The stairs to the apartment... And I'm hiding all the stuff from the argument."

She received a 3-year jail sentence.

Following the complaint supported by millions of French citizens, the Paris administrative court concluded that the government's actions to combat global warming were insufficient and declared the French state guilty.

The 4 NGOs that initiated this lawsuit say it is "a first historic victory for climate" and a "victory for truth" as France has never acknowledged the "insufficiency of its climate policies" (President Macron has always boasted about his commitment to climate change).

French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said that the decision whether the government would impose a third lockdown will be coming "in the coming days". France has seen a rise in infections as well as hospitalisation. Over the past two days, 1000 people were hospitalised for Coronavirus in France. Jean-François Delfraissy, the head of France's advisory Scientific Council, said on TV that a third lockdown in France "will probably be necessary".

France imposed new border controls on Sunday. Incoming travellers from the EU must have a negative PCR test result not older than 72 hours, though this does not apply to travellers crossing the borders on land.

The Twitter campaign "#MeTooInceste" was started by NousToutes activist known as Marie Chenevance after French political commentator, Olivier Duhamel was accused of abusing his teenage stepson. Thousands of French survivors of incest spoke out about their own abuse experiences on Twitter.

Tweets:

• "I was 11 the first time, I thought it was by accident that he touched my private area, and later realized that it can’t be, because he was clearly sober. #metooinceste."
• "I was 13, him 26. He was my uncle."
• "I was six years old when the touching started, 15 when I had to live maritally with my father, be prostituted and raped on his order, 16 when I had to abort his work, 17 when I denounced him and was rejected by the family."
• "I was between 11 and 14 years old. It was my brother. I'm 57 years old and I am still a victim of this past."

Tens of thousands of protestors have taken to the street in many French cities on Saturday, protesting a security bill that would restrict the filming and publication of police, especially regarding cases of police brutality. The bill will be considered in March by the French Senate after its proposal was approved by the National Assembly last year.

According to Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, the famous Champs-Élysées will undergo a transformation "an extraordinary garden". The plan for the 1.9 kilometers long area in central Paris had been unveiled in 2019 and has now gotten the green light. The costs are estimated to be around €250 million and include cutting space for vehicles by half, adding more space for pedestrians and planting trees and other greens.