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Olympic athletes are going to be on the hot seat this summer in Paris. Not just metaphorically; the Paris Olympic Committee wants this Olympics to be the greenest ever (take that, Classical Greeks!), and one of the measures they have taken is to build the Olympic village without any air conditioning. There will be no air conditioning in athletes' rooms at #Paris2024, which pledged to host the ‘greenest ever’ Olympic Games. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo spoke to @Reuters about the city's plans to keep athletes cool https://t.co/Js9skXtWoF pic.twitter.com/uVBMusztdi— Reuters (@Reuters) March 14, 2024I think this is one virtue signal that...

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Western powers against showing any signs of weakness to Russia as he reiterated his position Thursday that sending Western troops into Ukraine shouldn’t be ruled out, though he said today’s situation doesn’t require it. ... “We’re not in that situation today,” he said, but added that “all these options are possible.” Macron, who is the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, declined to describe in which situation France would be ready to send troops. He said the responsibility for prompting such a move would lie with Moscow — “It wouldn’t be us” — and said...

Kéthévane Gorjestani spent time as president of the White House Foreign Press Group, meaning she helped spearhead efforts to get more access to Joe Biden. While Trump was at the White House press podium “all the time,” Gorjestani says there was a feeling among the media corps that Biden’s handlers were more reluctant to engage. The France 24 journalist thinks this has been to Biden’s detriment. Gorjestani argues that the president’s blunders or moments of brain fog appear worse when he is on-script. “Let Joe be Joe,” she says, turning to a phrase she has heard in Washington D.C. Gorjestani...

The European Commission will propose on Tuesday ways for the European Union to boost its arms industry so it can shift to “war economy mode” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Thierry Breton, the European industry commissioner, will lay out proposals to encourage EU countries to buy more weapons together from European companies, and to help such firms increase production capacity, according to EU officials. “We need to change the paradigm and move into war economy mode. This also means that the European defense industry must take more risks, with our support,” said Breton, previewing the package. Breton, a...

Large NATO drills in the frigid fjords of northern Norway may be just war games meant to hone the fighting skills of the newly expanded 32-nation military alliance. But for troops taking part, they are very real. This week, crew members aboard the French frigate Normandie, one of France’s most modern warships, were roused from sleep and scrambled to hunt down and kill a submarine that snuck into cold Norwegian waters. The submarine belongs to Germany, also a NATO member. But for the purpose of the war games dubbed Nordic Response 2024, it was acting as an enemy vessel. The...

Moldova and France will sign a defence cooperation accord on Thursday as part of the West's efforts to strengthen the former Soviet state's capabilities amid what they fear are increasing efforts by Russia to destabilise Moldova. Moldova, a western neighbour of Ukraine, has a tiny defence budget and has long had tense relations with Moscow, which have worsened as Chisinau backs Ukraine in the war against Russia. Russia has troops and peacekeepers based in Transdniestria, a breakaway statelet of Moldova that has maintained its autonomy for three decades with the Kremlin's support. The French presidency said in a statement on...

At the start of World War II, the invading Wehrmacht made swift progress through France and by 14 June 1940, they had occupied Paris. They wasted no time in raising their military flag on the Eiffel tower and the swastika above the Palace of Versailles. Naturally, such triumphant use of these flags was highly symbolic. Versailles had been the venue both for the Proclamation of the German Empire (Deutsche Reichsgründung) in January 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War, and, on 28 June 1919, it had been where the Treaty which bore its name was to conclude the First World War. Hitler...

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned on Thursday that NATO will be drawn into war if Ukraine is defeated by invading Russian forces. Speaking at a Republican-led House Armed Services Committee hearing to discuss his recent absence while hospitalized for complications from prostate cancer surgery, Austin predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not "stop" if Moscow wins the war in Ukraine. Austin made the remarks after being asked about Congress failing to approve a $60 billion military aid package for Ukraine, as requested by President Joe Biden. Despite significant bipartisan support for Ukraine aid, the measure has stalled amid...

France’s Senate is to vote on Wednesday on a bill meant to enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the constitution, a measure promised by President Emmanuel Macron following a rollback on rulings in the United States. Wednesday’s vote comes after the lower house, the National Assembly, overwhelmingly approved the proposal in January. A majority of senators appear to be in favor of the constitutional change, but some conservatives have criticized its wording, casting doubt over the outcome of the vote. Macron’s government wants Article 34 of the constitution amended to specify that “the law determines the conditions by...

A conflict between Russia and NATO would be inevitable if Western troops go to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said today. The Kremlin's comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out putting boots on the ground in Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to fend off Russia's full-scale invasion. While Macron noted that there was no consensus about troops at this stage, Ukraine has not asked allies for soldiers to fight its cause and other Western governments even scrambled Tuesday to insist troops were not set to be deployed, the mere suggestion sparked a furious response from Moscow....

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that sending Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not “ruled out” in the future after the issue was debated at a gathering of European leaders in Paris, as Russia’s full-scale invasion grinds into a third year. The French leader said that “we will do everything needed so Russia cannot win the war” after the meeting of over 20 European heads of state and government and other Western officials. “There’s no consensus today to send in an official, endorsed manner troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing...

The President of the Republic spoke at the end of an international conference in support of Ukraine, two years after the start of the war against Russia. "We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war" The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron estimated that the sending of Western troops in the future to Ukraine cannot "be excluded". "There is no consensus today to send ground troops in an official assumed and endorsed manner. But dynamically, nothing should be excluded," declared the head of state. The president did not wish to say more about France's...

January 30, 2024. The French weekly, Le Journal du Dimanche, publishes the most comprehensive and detailed survey on what French Muslims think. Not surprisingly, the results are disturbing. The first question in the survey was about Jews. 17% of French Muslims admit that they hate Jews. 39% say they have a bad, or very bad, opinion of Judaism. France is the only country in 21st-century Europe where Jews regularly have been murdered simply because they are Jews. Since the kidnapping, torture and murder of Ilan Halimi in January 2006, all Jews murdered in France have been killed by Muslims. Sammy...

Russia has made an explosive claim about NATO's involvement in the Ukraine war. Moscow claimed that NATO troops, disguised as mercenaries, are operating in Ukraine. The claim has been made by the chief of the main operational directorate of the Russian general staff, Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy. He said that NATO troops control multiple launch rocket systems and air defences in Ukraine. The startling statement comes as the Ukrainian army is unable to defend its territory. In the latest blow, the Ukrainian military lost control over Avdiivka. Watch this report to learn more.

After some deliberations, on February 14 the French government and National Assembly managed to pass a bill that includes an Article 4 that essentially creates a new crime of “provocation to abstention from medical care.” It reads as follows:Art. 223-1-2 . – Provocation to abandon or abstain from following therapeutic or prophylactic medical treatment is punishable by one year of imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros, when this abandonment or abstention is presented as beneficial for the health of the persons targeted when it is, in the state of medical knowledge, clearly likely to result in serious consequences for...

Way back in 2005, when I was an MP in the Netherlands, my party was strategising about the upcoming local elections. I belonged to the centre-right VVD, and we were particularly concerned about appealing to the nation’s growing migrant community. After much discussion, the leaders settled on Laetitia Griffith to represent us in Amsterdam. She was black and had roots in Suriname, a former Dutch colony in the Caribbean. She could pull in the city’s Creole vote. More importantly, the VVD’s strategists thought she could win over some of the city’s Muslim population. In the hope of making this task...

Instead of a statue of Queen Elizabeth, Trafalgar Square will feature "transgender sex workers". Satire is practically pointless nowadays. I’ve done plenty of satire over the years and I doubt that I could make up wilder headlines than the reality. Take this one up above. I’d like to say that I made it up, but we ended up living in a world in which it’s just everyday reality. Sadiq Khan has been criticised for effectively blocking a statue of Queen Elizabeth II in Trafalgar Square until 2030 at the earliest – with “woke art” going there instead. The London Mayor...

The European Union is good at coming up with inoffensive-sounding terminology to talk about unpleasant things. For example, the phrase “strategic autonomy” is a nice way of saying, “We don’t trust the Americans” — and, with Donald Trump leading the polls and boasting about encouraging Vladimir Putin to invade European countries, it is impossible to blame them. It is important to get the context of Trump’s remarks straight: Trump says he told an unidentified NATO counterpart whose country hadn’t met the organization’s target for defense spending, “No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage [Russia] to do...

Severe penalties for countries that refuse to take them.. The EU has passed a migration pact dubbed “the suicide of Europe” which could lead to the continent being flooded with as many as 75 million new migrants. The European Parliament’s LIBE committee passed the act on Wednesday, which formalizes the distribution of migrants to member states and punishes those that refuse to take them. Because cultural enrichment and diversity is “our greatest strength,” countries that try to maintain their national identity without being subsumed by migrants will be hit with severe financial penalties. Marine Le Pen, the leader of National...

The European Union should form its own combined army that could play a role in peacekeeping and preventing conflict, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said. In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, Tajani said that closer European cooperation on defence was a priority for the Forza Italia party that he leads. "If we want to be peacekeepers in the world, we need a European military. And this is a fundamental precondition to be able to have an effective European foreign policy," he said in an interview published on Sunday. "In a world with powerful players like the United States,...