France

The French government published detailed rules for visa requirements for British citizens who want to spend lengthy periods in France after January 1st, 2021.

From January on "UK citizens will need a Long Stay visa if staying in France or in a French Oversea territory for more than 90 days whatever the purpose of stay". UK citizens with a second home in France, who are spending between 3-6 months a year in France, are "not considered as a resident in France and cannot apply for a carte de séjour under the withdrawal agreement" and "will have to apply for a temporary visitor visa - visa de long séjour temporaire visiteur."

France is mobilising 100,000 police and gendarmes on New Year's Eve to enforce a coronavirus curfew and gathering rules as well as preventing vandalism. "The priority in the next few days must be to fight against unauthorised public gatherings and the phenomenon of urban violence," Interior minister Gérald Darmanin announced on Tuesday.

The French medical regulator has approved the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on Thursday.

"The vaccine can be used for people aged 16 and over, including elderly", said the Haute Autorité de la Santé (HAS).

The French government has fast-tracked hundreds of citizenship applications from migrant frontline workers. Over 700 healthcare professionals, cleaners and shop workers have already been granted citizenship or will receive it soon.

The office of Marlene Schiappa, junior minister for citizenship: "Health professionals, cleaning ladies, childcare workers, checkout staff: They all proved their commitment to the nation, and it is now the turn of the republic to take a step towards them."

Emmanuel Macron published a video to Twitter where he talked about the state of his health.

"After experiencing first symptoms, I did the test and after being positive I immediately isolated myself as the health rules ask us to do," he explained and added that he had seen "seen many politicians, members of the government and international leaders also members of my close security or relatives and family members."

He continued: "I wanted to reassure you. I'm fine. I have the same symptoms as yesterday, that is to say fatigue, headaches, dry cough, like hundreds of thousands of you who have had to experience this virus or who are experiencing it today [...] There is normally no reason for it to progress badly but I am subject to medical surveillance and I will report it to you in a completely transparent manner."

Further saying: "Yesterday I was tested positive, which shows that the virus can really affect everyone, because I am very protected, I am very careful, I respect the barrier gestures, the distances I put on the mask, I put on hydroalcoholic gel and despite everything, I caught the virus."

France's President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for the coronavirus. As the Élysée Palace announced on Thursday, he had previously shown initial symptoms. Accordingly, Macron will isolate himself for seven days in accordance with current regulations. He will continue his work from home.

A Parisian court has found fourteen accomplices of the French Islamist militants guilty of the attacks in January 2015. Seventeen people were killed in the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine, a Jewish supermarket and a policewoman. Eleven of the defendants appeared in court, while three were tried in absentia. All accomplices were found guilty, their charges range from belonging to a criminal network to direct complicity in the January 2015 attacks.

Hayat Boumeddiene, the former partner of Amedy Coulibaly, did not appear in court but was found guilty of financing terrorism and belonging to a criminal terrorist network. Boumeddiene is thought to be alive but on the run.

The government of France has delayed easing Coronavirus restrictions for another three weeks as infection rates are still not decreasing fast enough. In addition, a nighttime curfew (8pm-6am) will be imposed on December 15th, and will include New Year's Eve as well but an exception will be made on Christmas Eve. Museums, cinemas and other cultural venues will remain closed into early January.

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal has said that France will delay lockdown easing if necessary to avoid the further spread of the Coronavirus. France is due to ease many restrictions on December 15th.

“If we consider that ... we must modify this second phase (of lifting lockdown measures), then of course we will do it,” Attal told CNews television.

France's President Emmanuel Macron has approved the construction of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that is set to replace the country's FS Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier.

"Charles de Gaulle, as you know, will come to the end of its life in 2038. This is why I have decided that the future aircraft carrier that will equip our country and our navy will be nuclear-powered like the Charles de Gaulle,” Macron said and adding that he has pledged 500 million euros in investment in the nuclear industry.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, president of France from 1974 to 1981, has died at the age of 94 of Coronavirus complications. He died surrounded by his family in his home in central France. Giscard d'Estaing was pro-Europe and liberalised laws on divorce, abortion and contraception during his tenure.

President Emmanuel Macron praised Giscard d'Estaing for transforming France and its direction: "A servant of the state, a politician of progress and freedom, his death has plunged the French nation into mourning."

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Paris and other French cities to protest against the "Global Security" law.

Syrian photographer Ameer al-Halbi, a war correspondent known for his coverage of the fall of Aleppo and winner of a World Press Photo award in 2017, was wounded during a police charge while covering the march on Saturday afternoon, AFP reported.

The "Global Security" law would punish punishes the so-called "malicious" dissemination of the image of police officers, particularly during demonstrations.

Controversy over the law was heightened by the heavy-handed evacuation of a migrant camp in Paris on Monday and the revelation on Thursday of the beating of music producer Michel Zecler by four police officers.

Police fired tear gas in the French capital after thousands of critics of a proposed security law that would restrict sharing images of police officers in France joined a demonstration in Paris.

The crowd included journalists, journalism students, left-wing activists, migrants rights groups and citizens of varied political stripes expressing anger over what they perceive as a hardening police tactics in recent years, especially since France's Yellow Vest protests against economic hardship in 2018.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said images of police beating a Black music producer in Paris put "shame" on the country, with top politicians and sportsmen expressing outrage over the incident.

French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the Anglophone media for their suggestion that the core issue on hand is not violence from Islamists, but the racism and Islamophobia in France.

Macron states that the Anglophone media seems to him not able to understand one of the core principles of the French republic, laïcité. France will not give up its special brand of secularism and freedom of speech, which very much includes every kind of satire, Macron says.

In response to criticism from small shops that are forced to close down during the second in the Covid-19 lockdown, supermarkets also need to close certain sections selling for example books, clothes and household appliances. Many local and regional politicians have criticised the new Covid-19 rule on the closure of shops selling non-essential products because it leads to inequalities. Only vital sectors of the economy, the civil service and schools up to secondary level may remain open.

The knife attack in Nice, which left three people dead, was an "Islamist terrorist attack," according to French head of state Emmanuel Macron.

According to initial police reports, he killed a 70-year-old woman and the parish assistant. A second woman, also injured in the neck, managed to escape to a neighboring bar, but died there shortly thereafter.

France makes masks mandatory in class for schoolchildren aged six and over, PM Castex said. Up until now, masks were only mandatory for children aged 11 and older.

"From Monday, when children return to school, the sanitary protocol will be made stricter. The requirement to wear a face mask will be extended to primary school children over the age of six."

The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, has confirmed that a knife attack has happened in the Notre Dame sector.

The attacker has been arrested and people are asked to avoid the area.

Further backgrounds and the number of casualties and their conditions are still unkown.

"Hospitals won’t manage if we don’t take drastic measures,” said French President Emmanuel Macron in a prime-time televised address Wednesday, when he announced new lockdown measures for France.

Macron said that under the new measures, starting on Friday, people would only be allowed to leave home for essential work or medical reasons, that EU borders would still be open. Still, travel between regions in the country is banned.

The French government had been loath to impose a new lockdown that will pummel the economy even harder, and business chiefs have warned a total shutdown will force another wave of layoffs and bankruptcies.

Governments across Europe have been under fire for lack of coordination and for failing to use a lull in cases over the summer to bolster defences, leaving hospitals unprepared and forcing people on to packed public transport to get to work.

The ICU of French hospitals will be at capacity levels with Coronavirus patients by November 11th, assuming the current surge in cases can't be contained.

Lawmaker André Chassaigne told reporters: "He [PM Jean Castex] told us that on 11 November, our hospitals will be at a saturation level equivalent to that of the first wave, so a level of extreme saturation. So the situation is particularly serious. If we can’t flatten the curve, in the next 15 days, our hospitals won’t be able to treat patients."

No measures were discussed.

Samuel Paty, the teacher decapitated in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, has been posthumously awarded the Légion d’honneur.

On October 21, during a private ceremony in the Sorbonne university, President Emmanuel Macron bestowed the country’s highest honour on the family of Paty.

After a lower number on Monday, France again reported more than 20,000 new Covid-19 cases in a day: 20,468. The total number of cases is now at 930,745 and its expected to break the 1 million mark before Saturday.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of France on Sunday in support of Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his pupils.

A protester carried a sign reading "zero tolerance to all enemies of the Republic", another "I am a professor. I'm thinking of you, Samuel."

Over Twitter, the hashtag #JeSuisSamuel was being used to express support for the late teacher.

The French teacher who was brutally murdered in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine had been the target of threats prior to his death, France's anti-terrorism prosecutorJean-François Ricard said.

The suspect is an 18-year-old Chechen born refugee living in France. Before the attack, he had asked pupils to point out his victim.

French President Emmanuel Macron has publicly said the beheading of a teacher in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine was an "Islamist terrorist attack". Macron said the teacher, who has yet to be named, was killed because he "taught freedom of expression."

The victim had made a recent intervention in class about freedom of speech where he mentioned the Muhammad cartoons controversy, which pushed the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office to take over the investigation.

The assaillant has been shot by the police.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a curfew for Paris region and several other French cities. Under the curfew, people must be at home between 9 pm and 6 am. If curfew is broken, people will face a fine of €135. The curfew will last for up to four weeks, depending on Coronavirus cases.

Other cities include: Rouen, Lille, St Etienne, Lyon, Grenoble, Montpellier, Marseille and Toulouse

France's ministry of health reported Saturday 26,896 new Covid-19 infections, the biggest daily number since the start of the outbreak. The ministry also reported 54 deaths in the same period.

The cumulative number of cases in the country is 718,873, with a death toll of 32,684.

The French National Assembly has approved a restitution law for the return of art treasures. France now plans to return 26 statues and other works of art from the so-called treasure of Béhanzin to Benin. The treasures were previously on display at the Paris Museum of Non-European Art. Furthermore, a sabre will be returned to Senegal, which was previously on display in the Paris Army Museum.

After Marseille and Paris, the cities of Lyon, Lille, Grenoble and Saint-Etienne will close their bars and restaurants from Saturday.

The maximum-alert level in the country comes into effect when infection rates in a locality exceed 250 cases per 100,000 people, and at least 30% of intensive care beds are reserved for Covid-19 patients.

The French government announced the measures as the country had a near-record of 18,129 new cases in a day.