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14 Jun, 2023

Musk to talk Tesla Gigafactory with Macron again

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For the second time in just over a month, Musk will meet with Macron to discuss building a Tesla Gigafactory in France. France has been courting Tesla to build factories in the country, but is competing with other EU countries like Spain, which is also in talks with Tesla. Macron:

I’m going (into that meeting) with an agenda. We’re going to talk about artificial intelligence, in which he is involved, social media, regulation framework… And then I’ll also talk to him about cars, batteries, to promote French and European attractiveness.

Asked specifically whether he was hoping to secure a Tesla Gigafactory, Macron says: “It’s up to the company to look at these different issues in Europe. So we’ll be selling France” as an investment destination. In addition to saying that France has invested in an “entire sector of electric batteries” and will try to convince Musk “that France is the best possible place in Europe to establish the next Tesla factory,” French minister for digital affairs Jean-Noel Barrot says:

It will be great to have a Tesla factory in France. There has been a lot of effort and energy to make sure this is possible and this can happen.

Musk and Macron will also discuss tech regulation.

24 Aug, 2016

France sued over Titanic artefacts

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Premier Exhibitions sues the French government, in a Florida federal bankruptcy court, to be allowed to sell some of thousands of artifacts salvaged from the Titanic. The company filed the suit to press the French government to clarify it has no interest in the artifacts that would prevent their sale.

A declaration of rights is both necessary and appropriate to establish that France does not have any interest in the French artifacts.

15 Nov, 2015

France bombs Syria

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French fighter planes carry out their biggest bombing raid in Syria, dropping 20 bombs on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa. The fighters were launched from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said France had the “legitimacy” to take action against ISIS after the terror attacks in Paris. ISIS casualties are reported, but no civilian casualties. The French Defence Ministry

The first target destroyed was used by ISIS as a commanding post, a jihad recruitment center and a depot for arms and munitions. The second target housed a terrorist training camp.

9 Nov, 2015

France: gay men can donate blood

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By Spring of 2016, gay men in France will be allowed to donate blood, ending a 33 year ban that was put in place in1983. Under new rules, men who haven’t had sex in four months before donating, or have only had one partner will be allowed to donate. If this restriction shows no risk within the year, they will be able to donate blood regularly like the general population. French health minister:

Giving blood is an act of generosity, of citizenship, which cannot be conditioned to sexual orientation. While respecting complete patient safety, today we are ending a taboo and discrimination

26 May, 2015

France suspends co-operation

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France suspends aid to Burundi’s police and defense establishment, amid a crackdown on anti-government protesters in the Central African country. France helps train the Burundian police, who engage in a violent suppression of anti-government street protests. It also helps train the Burundian army for international peacekeeping missions.

8 Sep, 2014

‘Planned Paris attack’

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Four French journalists who allege that Nemmouche was their ISIS captor in Syria say he was planning a much bigger attack than the Jewish Museum shooting in Brussels, for which he is the prime suspect. French-language Liberation newspaper reports that the journalists say he planned the attack to take place on the Champs Elysees boulevard on July 14 to coincide with Bastille Day celebrations, and hoped to do much more damage than the March 2012 Toulouse attacks targeting Jews and soldiers that left seven dead and five injured.

[He planned] at least one attack in France, in the heart of Paris, which would be at least five times bigger than the attacks in Toulouse.

31 Aug, 2014

Arrests 16-year-old female ‘jihadi’

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French authorities arrest a 16-year-old girl at Nice airport as she attempts to depart for Syria ‘for jihad.’ Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says a man around the age of 20 has also been arrested on suspicion of being her handler and purchasing her airline ticket to Turkey.

29 Aug, 2014

14-year-old ‘jihadi’ girl arrested

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French authorities arrest a 14-year-old girl in the western city of Quimper on suspicion that she is planning to conduct jihad in Syria. She is moved to Paris to be questioned by an anti-terror judge on possible connections to the disappearance of another 14-year-old girl from the Paris area in June, as part of an enquiry that has also led to the arrests of a 15-year-old and 17-year old girl a week earlier.

26 Aug, 2014

Poll: 16% of French support ISIS

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A poll of European attitudes towards ISIS shows that around one in six people in France support the group. The poll, carried out by ICM for Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya, shows 16% of French citizens have a positive opinion of ISIS, also known as Islamic state, with the percentage increasing among younger respondents and peaking at 27% for those aged 18-24.

20 Aug, 2014

Teen girls arrested for jihad plans

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France arrests two girls aged 17 and 15 in Lyon, Rhone, and Tarbes in the Hautes-Pyrenees for alleged involvement in jihad. The arrests form part of a broader enquiry into jihadism in the country. Around 900 French citizens are implicated in jihad – meaning that they have either taken part in a conflict, plan to participate in one, or are returning from one. Both girls are reported to have been planning to travel to Syria to join militant activities there. Paris-based international security consultant Samuel Laurent:

Obviously this is proof of how appealing caliphate ideology is for French and European citizens

8 Aug, 2014

Newsweek cover

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newsweek-coverNewsweek devotes its cover story to Jewish emigration from Europe, which it says is being driven by anti-Semitism. Author Adam LeBor:

The mob howled for vengeance, the missiles raining down on the synagogue walls as the worshippers huddled inside. It was a scene from Europe in the 1930s – except this was eastern Paris on the evening of July 13th, 2014. LeBor says the 2014 Gaza conflict is partly to blame, but the rise in ‘the world’s oldest hatred’ predates the war:

One weekend in May seemed to epitomise the darkness. On May 24th a gunman pulled out a Kalashnikov assault rifle at the Jewish Museum in Brussels and opened fire, killing four people. The next day the results of the elections to the European parliament showed a surge in support for extreme-right ­parties in France, Greece, Hungary and Germany.

American Jewish journalist Jeffrey Goldberg:

At what point do the Jews of America and the Jews of Israel tell the Jews of Europe that it might be time to get out?

7 Aug, 2014

‘More profound’ than opposition to Gaza conflict

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Leaders of Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France say heightened anti-Jewish threats, hate speech and violent attacks in Europe are less attributable to reaction against specific Israeli government policies or issues than previous rises in anti-Jewish sentiment such as during Israel’s three-week Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008 and 2009, when 66 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in France. Crif president Roger Cukierman:

They are not screaming ‘Death to the Israelis’ on the streets of Paris. They are screaming ‘Death to Jews’

Crif vice president Yonathan Arfi on whether the anti-Jewish sentiment is caused by the 2014 Gaza conflict:

They have laid bare something far more profound.

 

31 Jul, 2014

Paris riot police deploy

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paris_pro_israel_demonstrationHundreds of riot police deploy near the Israeli embassy as several thousand demonstrators turn out in Paris for France’s first pro-Israel rally of the 2014 Gaza conflict. Among signs carried by protestors:

Gaza hostage of Hamas

The protest comes amid reports that France may ban the Jewish Defence League, or LDJ, blamed for provoking violence at pro-Palestinian rallies.

26 Jul, 2014

‘Reverse Nazi’ salutes

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quenelle_saluteDemonstrators in in Paris protesting the 2014 Gaza conflict display the quenelle, a reversed Nazi salute. Several thousand gather at the Place de la République  despite a state ban on such protests. A chant by the crowd:

Israel is an assassin, Holland is an accomplice […] we are all Palestinians

21 Jul, 2014

Hotels allow guests to ‘pay what you want’

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Five hotels in Paris launch a scheme to allow guests to “pay what you want”. The participating three- and four-star hotels are located in the city’s 9th and 11th districts, a bit far from Paris’ tourist centers. The idea came from Aldric Duval, the head of the Tour d’Auvergne hotel, and it is intended to attract more tourists in their area. Guests are expected to pay based on the room, the hotel service, and their impressions of the hotel. The participating hotels are confident that guests will pay fairly. The scheme will run until August 10 and is available for online bookings made through the website www.payezcequevousvoulez.net (Pay what you want).  The experiment may be extended if successful. Duval:

It’s a fair price operation, one of confidence in the client.

20 Jul, 2014

Clashes at French protest

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France Gaza ProtestSeveral hundred protestors in the northern suburb of Sarcelles break away from an otherwise peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration and attack two synagogues as well as setting fire to cars and pillaging stores. The demonstration in the northern suburb of Sarcelles, home to a large Jewish community, is held in defiance of a ban which also extends to Paris and the Mediterranean city of Nice after a previous day of protests also resulted in violence. Jewish group CRIF says that the Sarcelles synagogue has been attacked while in nearby Garges les Gonesse, Molotov cocktails are thrown at another synagogue and start a small fire that is quickly extinguished. The group says that the violence shows anti-Semitic incidents are increasing:

It is time to treat it as a form of terrorist deviation

19 Jul, 2014

French protest ban ‘first in Europe’

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A ban placed by the government of France on protests against Israeli action in Gaza is unprecedented in Europe and draws criticism for creating a threat to public order. The Socialist administration bars demonstrations against the conflict in the capital Paris, the Mediterranean city of Nice and the suburb of Sarcelles.  A statement issued by the Greens Party:

This ban on demonstrations, which was decided at the last minute, actually increases the risk of public disorder. It’s a first in Europe.

A spokesman for the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic (PIR):

France is criminalising any show of solidarity with the Palestinian people. This is an absolute outrage, it is a continuation of attempts to muzzle the Palestinian people and to get them and their supporters in France to surrender absolutely to Israel’s oppression

18 Jul, 2014

Paris protests

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Thousands march in French cities to condemn violence in Gaza, defying a ban on imposed by the French government on demonstrations in Paris, the Sarcelles suburb and the Mediterranean city of Nice. Demonstrators in northern Paris throw projectiles at police, who respond with tear gas and stun grenades, and demonstrators climb atop a building and set a car alight. A police spokesman says 38 demonstrators have been arrested by early evening. President Francois Hollande to journalists during a visit to Chad:

That’s why I asked the interior minister, after an investigation, to ensure that such protests would not take place.