PARIS (TIP): Gabriel Attal was named January 9 as France’s youngest-ever prime minister, as President Emmanuel Macron seeks a fresh start for the rest of his term amid growing political pressure from the far right. Attal, 34, rose to prominence as the government spokesman and education minister and had polled as the most popular minister in the outgoing government.
He is France’s first openly gay prime minister.
His predecessor Elisabeth Borne resigned Monday following recent political turmoil over an immigration law that strengthens the government’s ability to deport foreigners.
Macron’s office announced the appointment in a statement. He will work with Attal to name a new government in the coming days, though some key ministers are expected to continue in their posts.
”I know I can count on your energy and your commitment,” Macron posted on X in a message to Attal. The president made a reference to Attal reviving the ”spirit of 2017,” when Macron shook up French politics and shot to a surprise victory as France’s youngest-ever president on a pro-business centrist platform aimed at reviving one of the world’s biggest economies.
The 46-year-old president has shifted rightward on security and migration issues since then, notably as far-right rival Marine Le Pen and her anti-immigration, anti-Islam National Rally have gained political influence. Macron’s second term lasts until 2027, and he is constitutionally barred from a third consecutive term.
Political observers also suggested that Macron, a staunch supporter of European integration, wants his new government to get ready for June’s European Union elections, where far-right, anti-EU populists are expected to increase their influence. (AP)
Tag: Paris
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Gabriel Attal is France’s youngest-ever and first openly gay prime minister
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German tourist stabbed to death in Paris ‘terror’ attack
PARIS, FRANCE (TIP): A person known to the French authorities as a radical Islamist with mental health troubles stabbed a German tourist to death and wounded two people in central Paris on December 7 before being arrested, officials said. The attack took place close to the Eiffel Tower during a busy weekend night and came with the country on its highest alert for attacks as tensions rise against the background of the war between Israel and Hamas. “We will not give in to terrorism,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after the attack. President Emmanuel Macron said he was sending his condolences to the family of a German killed in the “terrorist attack”.
French anti-terror prosecutors said that they would now take on the investigation.
The attacker was known to authorities as a radical Islamist and was being treated for mental illness, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said at the scene by the River Seine , adding that the man had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) before being arrested.
He fatally stabbed the German tourist, born in 1999, with a knife and then used a hammer to attack others as he sought to escape on the other side of the River Seine.
The area by Bir Hakeim bridge, usually thronging with tourists and locals, was cordoned off by police and bright with the flashing lights of security forces and emergency services.
‘Violently threatened them’
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the attacker, born in 1997, is French and has been arrested in an investigation into murder and attempted murder. Darmanin said the man had already been sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for planning another attack which he failed to carry out. “A man attacked a couple who were foreign tourists. A German tourist who was born in the Philippines died from the stabbing,” he said.
A taxi driver who witnessed the scene intervened, Darmanin said. The attacker then crossed the Seine attacking others and injuring one with a hammer.
Police chased in pursuit and used a taser to neutralise the man, who was then arrested. “He had threatened them very violently… he will now have to answer for his actions before justice,” Darmanin said.
The suspect, who lived with his parents in the Esonnne region south of Paris, told police he could not stand Muslims being killed in “Afghanistan and Palestine”, according to the minister.
Macron, writing on X, thanked security forces for their quick arrest of the suspected attacker and said justice should be served “in the name of the French people”. “Paris is in mourning after this terrible attack,” Transport Minister Clement Beaune wrote on X.
Joseph S., 37 years old, a supermarket manager who asked not to give his last name, witnessed the scene, as he sat in a bar. He heard screams and people shouting “help, help” as they ran. A man wielding an object attacked a man who had fallen down, and within 10 minutes the police arrived, he told AFP. The country has suffered several attacks by Islamist extremists, including the November 2015 suicide and gun attacks in Paris claimed by the Islamic State group in which 130 people were killed. (AFP) -
Eiffel Tower evacuated after bomb threat: French police
PARIS (TIP): The Eiffel Tower in Paris, among the most visited tourist sites in the world, was closed to the public on Saturday, August 12, after being evacuated as a precautionary measure following a bomb threat, a French police source said. Le Parisien said Bomb disposals experts were dispatched there.
It is a developing story. -
Two arrested over suspected rape of tourist in Paris park: prosecutors
PARIS (TIP): French authorities have detained two men on suspicion of taking part in an alleged gang rape of a Mexican tourist in the Champ de Mars park, which lies at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in central Paris, prosecutors said on July 28. The men were detained on Thursday in an ongoing investigation into the suspected rape of the woman, Paris prosecutors said.
The Le Parisien daily, which first reported the incident, said that the 27-year-old woman was attacked by five men, meaning that three suspects were still at large. This has not been confirmed by prosecutors.
The Champ de Mars is a large park extending from the Eiffel Tower which is hugely popular with tourists and locals.
It will be a key site during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris when beach volleyball is to be held at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and judo and wrestling at the temporary Arena Champ de Mars at the other end of the park.
Unlike most Paris parks which close during the night, the Champ de Mars can be accessed round-the-clock.
The reported rape revived pressure on Paris’s Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo to close the park at night for safety reasons.
“How many sexual assaults and rapes does Anne Hidalgo expect there to be before she agrees to close the Champ de Mars at night so that Parisians and tourists are safe?” said Rachida Dati right-wing mayor of Paris 7th district where the park is located arrondissement, on Twitter which is being rebranded as X. (AFP) -
‘Geneva patient’ declared the sixth person in HIV remission, will need to be watched closely
PARIS (TIP): A man dubbed the “Geneva patient” is the latest person with HIV to be declared in long-term remission — however he did not receive a transplant with a virus-blocking gene mutation like previous cases, researchers said on July 20. But they stopped short of saying the man was “cured” of HIV, warning there was still a chance the virus could still return.
All had bone marrow transplants to treat serious cases of cancer, receiving stem cells from a donor with a mutation of the CCR5 gene. This mutation is known to block HIV from entering the body’s cells. In 2018, the Geneva patient similarly received a stem cell transplant to treat a particularly aggressive form of leukaemia. But this time the transplant came from a donor who did not carry the CCR5 mutation, French and Swiss researchers told a press conference in the Australian city of Brisbane as part of an AIDS conference that begins at the weekend. (AFP) -
Flower protest in Paris for Iranian no-headscarf activist
Paris (TIP): Activists laid flowers near the Iranian Embassy in Paris on Monday to show support to a women’s rights campaigner sentenced to prison after handing out flowers to women on the Tehran metro while not wearing a headscarf. AP
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Rare Tintin comic book art set to sell for millions in Paris
Paris (TIP): Not even the coronavirus can get in the way of intrepid Belgian reporter and comic book legend Tintin.
Comic book lovers and tourists alike can catch a socially distanced glimpse of a Tintin drawing by Herge in Paris before it goes under the hammer on Thursday, estimated to sell between 2 and 3 million euros and possibly break the record for the most expensive comic book art in history.
The 1936 work in Chinese ink, gouache and watercolor, was destined as a cover for The Blue Lotus, the fifth volume of the Belgian journalist’s adventures. But it never sat on any book store shelves because it was rejected for being too expensive to reproduce on a wide scale – a victim of its own rare craftsmanship.
“They had to do a four colour process printing, so an additional colour and (the publisher) thought that the comic albums were already expensive and reproducing this cover would increase the production costs,” said comics expert Eric Leroy at Art Curial auction house by the Champs-Elysees avenue.
As the name “Blue Lotus” suggests, the art work places Tintin in Asia. A huge red dragon appears on a black background by the Belgian reporter’s petrified face. It is a prized addition to the universe of Tintin, the subject of recent shows in London and Barcelona, a 2011 Hollywood adaptation, a videogame and an app.
In “Blue Lotus”, Tintin travels to China during the 1931 Japanese invasion to investigate and expose – along with his dog Snowy – Japanese spy networks, drug-smuggling rings and other crimes.
But the huge interest in this work has raised a host of questions among French media regarding the work’s provenance – whether it was a gift to the son of Tintin’s printer or a drawing simply never returned to the artist.
There is no question, however, of its authenticity. On Thursday, Hergé, whose real name was Georges Remi, could break the record for the most expensive piece of comic book art at 2.6 million euros that was previously set by himself.
“We set the previous record for the ‘Pages de Garde’ in 2014…it would be fair for this piece to break this record. Hergé had done only five comic covers using this technique of direct color so it’s very rare,” said Leroy. AP
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US can rejoin Paris pact: fairer deal might coax us back into climate agreement, says Trump
WASHINGTON (TIP): President Donald Trump said, January 11, his primary concern with the Paris climate accord was that it treated the United States unfairly and that if a better deal could be reached, Washington might be persuaded to rejoin the agreement.
“It treated the US very unfairly,” Trump said during a news conference with Norwegian PM Erna Solberg. He said he had no problem with agreeing to a climate deal, but the Paris accord was “a bad deal. So, we could conceivably go back in.” However, he did not indicate any move in that direction.
In June, Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and decided to renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries during the previous Obama administration.
Defending his decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Trump said: “The Paris Agreement as drawn and as we signed was very unfair to the United States. It put great penalties on us. It made it very difficult for us to deal in terms of business. It took away a lot of our asset values.” “Frankly, it’s an agreement that I have no problem with, but I had a problem with the agreement that they signed, because, as usual, they made a bad deal,” Trump told a news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
“So, we could conceivably go back in,” Trump said, stressing his administration’s commitment to environmental issues, “clean water, clean air”, but added “we also want businesses that can compete”.
Trump justified his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate accord, saying there was a “tremendous” penalty for using the country’s rich in gas and coal and oil and that hurt American businesses.
The US has appeared to be so far globally isolated on this issue, but Trump strongly defended his decision. Trump insisted that his administration feels very strongly about the environment.
“I feel very strongly about the environment. Our EPA (environment protection agency) and our EPA commissioners are very, very powerful, in the sense that they want to have clean water, clean air, but we also want businesses that can compete,” he said.
“The Paris Accord really would have taken away our competitive edge, and we’re not going to let that happen. I’m not going to let that happen,” Trump asserted. — PTI
Climate accord goals
The Paris agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise in this century well below 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5° Celsius
The landmark agreement, which entered into force last November, calls on countries to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future, and to adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change.
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FRENCH MILITARY CHIEF RESIGNS AFTER ROW WITH MACRON
PARIS: France’s top military chief resigned after a war of words with Emmanuel Macron over budget cuts that tested the new president’s authority.
The row between Macron and General Pierre de Villiers erupted last week when the chief of staff told a parliamentary committee he would not allow the armed forces to be “screwed” by the government’s plans to slash 850 million ($980 million) from this year’s defence budget.
Macron, 39, slapped down the 60-yearold 5-star general in front of army chiefs at their annual summer party last week, saying “I am the boss” and that he deeply regretted the budget dispute had been dragged into the “public sphere”. De Villiers, a widely respected figure who had been in the job for three years and was popular with the rank and file, said he had no choice but to stand down.
“I no longer feel able to ensure the sustainability of the model of the armed forces that I think is necessary to guarantee the protection of France and the French people,” he said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Macron stood by his handling of the disagreement, telling France 2 television that de Villiers was a “fine soldier” it was “not the role” of the chief of staff to question the budget.
The president also reiterated his promise to raise the defence budget again in 2018. “I’m behind our troops,” he assured.
He named General Francois Lecointre, a 55-year-old hero of the Balkans wars, as de Villiers’s replacement.
Seen as one of the finest officers of his generation, de Villiers’s departure triggered howls of indignation from the opposition.
The leader of the hard-left France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Melenchon, called it an “enormous mistake” on Macron’s part.
De Villiers’s leaked remarks about the budget were made behind closed doors to a committee that expected him to “respond frankly”, Melenchon argued. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whom Macron beat in the presidential run-off election, claimed de Villiers’s resignation showed “the very serious abuses and worrying limits” of Macron’s leadership.
Damien Abad, a lawmaker from the conservatives Republicans, also took issue with what he termed Macron’s “excessive authoritarianism”.
De Villiers had repeatedly complained that the military was overstretched and said he saw it as his duty to inform politicians.
In a Facebook “letter to a young recruit” last week, he wrote: “As everyone has their shortcomings, no one should be blindly followed.”
Macron’s defence cuts — part of a 4.5 billion reduction in spending aimed at reducing France’s budget deficit — were viewed by the military as a betrayal after his strong show of support for the armed forces during his first weeks in office. Hours after being inaugurated Macron visited a hospital treating injured soldiers and his maiden foreign trip as leader took him to Mali to meet French troops engaged in counterterrorism operations.
Today, he is set to visit an air base in the southwestern city of Istres, addressing the military for the first time since de Villiers’ departure, with Lecointre accompanying him.
The president, his office said, will “reiterate his support for the armed forces, reminding them of his campaign pledge to increase the defence budget as well as his ambitious plans for them in a difficult international environment”.
Retired general Dominique Trinquand, an adviser to Macron during his campaign, said the row had cast a pall over his otherwise “remarkable” debut.
“This is a hitch that will probably be a bit difficult to get past,” he said in an interview with AFP. Uniformed troops formed a guard of honour and applauded de Villiers as he left the defence ministry, according to a one-minute video posted with the message “Merci” (thank you) on the chiefs of staff Twitter account.
Macron says the belt-tightening is temporary and that he remains committed to boosting defence spending to 2.0 per cent of gross domestic product by 2025 (around 50 billion), in line with Nato targets. (AFP)
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Indian Dr Pradeep Mahajan receives the Paris Appreciation Award
PARIS (TIP): Dr Pradeep V Mahajan, Chairman and Managing Director of StemRx Bioscience Solutions Pvt Ltd received the Paris appreciation award, 2017 for Excellence in stem cell therapy. The award was given by Robby Wells. It was a historic event of global research and significance and the event was held atop the Eiffel tower on July 8, 2017. It was an initiative of the French European Indian Organization based in Paris, World News Network and Art for Peace awards Beverly Hills, USA.
“Being honored at an international platform in the presence of many dignitaries was a very special and indeed the most memorable moment of my life. I am glad to have received this opportunity to represent India in the field of Cellular Therapy,” said Dr P V Mahajan, Chairman and Managing Director of StemRx Bioscience solutions Pvt Ltd.
This global phenomenon displayed an array of entrepreneurial success stories across industries, like pharmaceuticals, aviation, fashion, cosmetic, e-commerce, manufacturing, FMCG, real estate, jewelry, BFSI, and so on. Dr P V Mahajan’s brainchild is StemRx Bioscience Solutions Pvt. Ltd wherein a dedicated clinical and research team works 24/7 to develop new protocols for various untreatable diseases. A multidirectional approach is employed at StemRx comprising of education, research and therapeutics.
This vast knowledge and experience has gained Dr Mahajan the Excellence in stem cell therapy award. This coveted award ceremony was held in the presence of many well known dignitaries. To name a few; Robby Wells, a U.S. presidential candidate for the Democratic Party; Consuls General (Ms. Pinkey Ahluwalia, Vice Consul General of Belgium) , Ambassadors of various countries; Ashish Chauhan, the Managing Director of the Bombay Stock Exchange; Anurag Kashyap, a renowned filmmaker; Dr. B.K. Modi of the Modi Group and also a well-known philanthropist; heads of organizations like Google; Hollywood celebrities and socialites; the top Fashion Weeks of the world; mayors and senators; top brands; French and Indian actors; Naypadmasagar Maharaj, the Jain Spiritual Guru; Indian Bullion & Jewelry Association; and many more.
The award is an initiative of the French European Indian Organization based in Paris, World News Network and Art for Peace awards Beverly Hills, USA. The French European Indian Organization is a registered body with the French Government.
(Press Release)
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France and Britain announce anti-terror action plan
PARIS (TIP): The leaders of France and Britain on June 14 announced an antiterror action plan to crack down on radicalisation through social media.
After talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron said both countries agreed that social networks were not doing enough to stamp out terror propaganda.
Speaking after terror attacks in Manchester and London, Macron said the two countries had worked on a “very concrete” action plan. He said one of the key measures would aim at preventing the incitement of “hate and terrorism” on the internet.
May said she and Macron agreed that “more should be done to tackle the terrorist threat online”. She said the British and French campaign was aimed to “ensure the internet cannot… be used to host the radicalizing material that leads to so much harm.”
May said the British government was already working with social media companies “to halt the spread of extremist material and poisonous propaganda that warps young minds”, adding: “But we know they need to do more.
“Today we can announce that the UK and France will work together to encourage organisations to do more and abide by their social responsibility to step up their efforts to remove harmful content from their networks.”The campaign includes exploring the possibility of legal penalties against tech companies if they fail to take the necessary action to remove unacceptable content, May said.
Britain was rocked by a suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester on May 22 which killed 22 people, including children, followed two weeks later by a knife and van attack in central London, which left eight dead.
France has been a constant target for jihadist attacks since 2015, with more than 230 people killed. After their press conference the two leaders headed to the Stade de France to watch a friendly match between the French and English football teams. (AFP)