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  • British-born actress, singer Jane Birkin dies at 76

    By Associated Press: Actor and singer Jane Birkin, who charmed France together with her English grace, pure model and accented French and made the nation her dwelling, has died at age 76.

    The London-born star and trend icon was recognized for her musical and romantic relationship with French singer Serge Gainsbourg. Their songs notably included the steamy “Je t’aime moi non-plus” (“I Love You, Me Neither”), with Birkin’s ethereal, British-accented singing voice interlacing along with his gruff baritone.

    The model Birkin displayed within the Nineteen Sixties and early Nineteen Seventies — lengthy hair with bangs, denims paired with white tops, knit mini attire and basket luggage — nonetheless epitomizes the peak of French stylish for a lot of ladies all over the world.

    Birkin was additionally celebrated in France for her political activism. In 2022, she joined different display and music stars in France in chopping off locks of their hair in assist of protesters in Iran. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Birkin’s daughter with Gainsbourg and likewise an actor in her personal proper, minimize off a lock of her mom’s hair for the “HairForFreedom” marketing campaign as Iran was engulfed by anti-government protests.

    French President Emmanuel Macron hailed Birkin as a “complete artist.”

    “Jane Birkin was a French icon because she was the incarnation of freedom, sang the most beautiful words of our language,” he tweeted.

    Parce qu’elle incarnait la liberté, qu’elle chantait les plus beaux mots de notre langue, Jane Birkin était une icône française.

    Artiste complète, sa voix était aussi douce que ses engagements étaient ardents.

    Elle nous lègue des airs et des photographs qui ne nous quitteront pas. pic.twitter.com/Ad27ngF54R
    — Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 16, 2023

    French media reported that Birkin was discovered lifeless at her Paris dwelling. The French Culture Ministry tweeted that Birkin died Sunday. It hailed her as a “timeless Francophone icon.”

    Birkin’s early film credit included “Blow-Up” in 1966, credited with serving to introduce French audiences to her “Swinging Sixties” model and sweetness.

    Birkin and Gainsbourg met two years later. She remained his muse even after the couple separated in 1980.

    She additionally had a daughter, Kate, with James Bond composer John Barry. Kate Barry died in 2013 at age 46. Birkin had her third daughter, singer and mannequin Lou Doillon, with French director Jacques Doillon.

    French newspaper Le Figaro reported that Birkin had suffered from well being points up to now few years that saved her from performing and her public appearances grew to become sparse.

    BFM TV mentioned Birkin suffered a light stroke in 2021, forcing her to cancel exhibits that 12 months. She cancelled her exhibits once more in March as a result of a damaged shoulder blade.

    A return to performing in May was delay, the French broadcaster mentioned, quoting the singer as saying she wanted a bit extra time and promising her followers she would see them once more come the autumn.

  • French President Macron presents PM Modi Proust’s novels, Charlemagne chessmen’s duplicate

    By Press Trust of India: French President Emmanuel Macron has gifted Prime Minister Narendra Modi a framed facsimile of a 1916 {photograph} of a Parisian presenting flowers to a Sikh officer and a duplicate of the Charlemagne chessmen, courting again to the eleventh Century, officers mentioned right here.

    Macron additionally gifted Modi a sequence of novels – A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) – by Marcel Proust printed between 1913 and 1927 and regarded a very powerful works of French literature of the early twentieth century.

    The {photograph} courting again to 1916 was clicked on the Champs-Elysees through the army parade on July 14 by a photograph reporter from the Meurisse information company. The authentic is situated on the National Library of France.

    The picture depicts a passer-by giving flowers to a Sikh viceroy’s commissioned officer (VCO) from the Indian Expeditionary Force (IEF) deployed in France.

    ALSO READ | France essential associate in Make in India, Aatmanirbhar Bharat: PM Modi

    At the time this snapshot was taken, the Battle of the Somme, wherein the IEF had been preventing, had already begun.

    In World War I, some 1.3 million Indians volunteered to struggle for Britain, together with 8,77,000 combatants. Over 70,000 of them misplaced their lives, together with about 9,000 in France and Belgium.

    Most of those combatants had been from “warrior peoples” within the north of the Indian subcontinent, just like the Sikh troopers marching on the Champs-Elysees.

    This picture pays tribute to the Indian troopers who fought in Europe alongside France in 1914-1918, within the context of a number of Indian battalions partaking within the parade on 14 July 2023.

    It additionally evokes India and France’s long-standing shared battle to defend common values.

    Officials mentioned Chaturanga, the widespread ancestor of European and Chinese chess, appeared in India from the seventh century CE.

    The “Charlemagne” chessmen get their title from the legend that they got as a present to the Frankish Emperor by the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid.

    ALSO READ | PM Modi says France is pure associate in India’s journey to changing into developed

    In actuality, they had been made on the finish of the eleventh century, most likely in Southern Italy, given the tools utilized by the characters and the presence of elephants as bishops.

    The authentic chessmen are saved on the Cabinet des Medailles on the National Library of France and had been previously on the Treasury of the Basilica of Saint-Denis.

    This copy, gifted to the Prime Minister, is manufactured from bronze-filled PLA comprising the 16 items out there to the participant at first of a sport of chess – king, queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks and eight pawns.

    The chessmen had been made by the French start-up Cosmyx 3D, which specialises within the 3D printing of artwork and technical objects, and which took half within the Fabriqué en France (Made in France) exhibition this yr.

    “This unique item represents both the long history of trade between India and Europe, with the elephant piece recalling the Indian origins of the game of chess, and the expertise of French companies in terms of innovation and new technologies,” officers mentioned.

    ALSO READ | Sandalwood sitar, Pochampally ikat: PM Modi’s presents for French President, First Lady

    Macron additionally gifted Modi Le temps retrouve (Time Regained), the seventh and remaining quantity of Proust’s acclaimed sequence of novels A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time).

    This quantity IV of A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) from the Bibliothèque de la Pleiade consists of the ultimate two volumes of the unique work, Albertine disparue (The Fugitive) and Le temps retrouve (Time Regained), numerous drafts and descriptions by the writer and far educational commentary. It was printed in 1989.

    Macron additionally gifted Modi the English version, Everyman’s Library, which additionally consists of the ultimate two volumes of A la recherche du temps perdu.

    The translation is by C Ok Scott Moncrieff (1889-1930), a recent of Proust and the unique translator of Proust into English, as revised by Terence Kilmartin (1922-1991).

    ALSO READ | Watch: PM Modi attends France’s Bastille Day parade as visitor of honour

    This model is taken into account to be among the best English translations of Proust.

    The Bibliotheque de la Pleiade assortment represents educational excellence and probably the most excellent contributions of French authors to world tradition. As Prime Minister Modi doesn’t communicate French, this version comes with an English translation.

  • France set to permit police to spy on suspects by way of telephones, laptops

    By Agence France-Presse: French police ought to be capable of spy on suspects by remotely activating the digicam, microphone and GPS of their telephones and different units, lawmakers agreed late on Wednesday, July 5.

    Part of a wider justice reform invoice, the spying provision has been attacked by each the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian snoopers’ constitution, although Justice Minister ‰ric Dupond-Moretti insists it could have an effect on solely “dozens of cases a year.”

    Covering laptops, automobiles and different linked objects in addition to telephones, the measure would enable the geolocation of suspects in crimes punishable by no less than 5 years’ jail. Devices is also remotely activated to report sound and pictures of individuals suspected of terror offences, in addition to delinquency and arranged crime.

    The provisions “raise serious concerns over infringements of fundamental liberties,” digital rights group La Quadrature du Net wrote in a May assertion.

    It cited the “right to security, right to a private life and to private correspondence” and “the right to come and go freely”, calling the proposal a part of a “slide into heavy-handed security”.

    During a debate on Wednesday, MPs in President Emmanuel Macron‘s camp inserted an amendment limiting the use of remote spying to “when justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime” and “for a strictly proportional duration.” Any use of the provision must be approved by a judge, while the total duration of the surveillance cannot exceed six months. And sensitive professions including doctors, journalists, lawyers, judges and MPs would not be legitimate targets.

    “We’re far-off from the totalitarianism of 1984,” George Orwell’s novel a few society below whole surveillance, Dupond-Moretti stated. “People’s lives will be saved” by the regulation, he added.

    The contested measure, a part of an article containing a number of different provisions, was voted by way of by Assemblée Nationale members as a wider justice overhaul invoice making its method by way of parliament.

  • Tensions on France’s streets ease, fewer arrests in a single day

    By Reuters: Fewer than 160 folks had been arrested in a single day in connection to riots which have rocked cities throughout France following the killing of a young person of North African descent by a police officer, the inside ministry mentioned on Monday.

    The relative calm following 5 nights of heavy riots supplied some aid to the federal government of Emmanuel Macron in its battle to regain management of the state of affairs, simply months after widespread protests over an unpopular pension reform and a yr out from internet hosting the Olympics.

    The loss of life of Nahel, a 17-year-old with Algerian and Moroccan dad and mom, has stoked longstanding complaints of discrimination, police violence and systemic racism amongst legislation enforcement – denied by authorities – from rights teams and throughout the low-income, racially blended suburbs that ring main French cities.

    Since he was shot on Tuesday, rioters have torched vehicles, looted shops and focused city halls and different properties, with flashpoints in cities together with Paris, Strasbourg within the east and Marseille and Nice within the south.

    Also Read: France faces fifth evening of riots over teen’s loss of life, indicators of subsiding violence

    The Interior Ministry has poured as much as 45,000 police onto the streets every evening to quell the unrest, which has principally been confined to the suburbs however often erupted into clashes in vacationer areas similar to Paris’ Champs-Elysees avenue.

    The ministry mentioned 157 folks had been arrested in a single day, down from over 700 arrests the evening earlier than and over 1,300 on Friday evening.

    Three law enforcement officials had been injured, the ministry mentioned, whereas 300 automobiles had been broken by hearth, in line with provisional figures.

    The grandmother of Nahel, who was shot by police throughout a site visitors cease within the Paris suburb of Nanterre, mentioned on Sunday the rioters had been utilizing his loss of life as an excuse to trigger havoc and mentioned the household needed calm.

    “I tell them to stop it. It’s mothers who take buses, it’s mothers who walk outside. We should calm things, we don’t want them to break things,” the girl recognized on BFM TV as Nadia mentioned. “Nahel is dead, that’s all there is.”

    MEETING MAYORS

    The riots quantity to the worst disaster for Macron because the “Yellow Vest” protests over gas costs gripped a lot of France in late 2018.

    In mid-April, Macron gave himself 100 days to carry reconciliation and unity to a divided nation after rolling strikes and sometimes-violent protests over his elevating of the retirement age, which he had promised in his election marketing campaign.

    Macron postponed a state go to to Germany to cope with the disaster and needed to go away an EU summit early. He is because of meet the leaders of parliament on Monday and greater than 220 mayors of cities and cities which were affected by riots on Tuesday.

    Vincent Jeanbrun, the mayor of the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses, whose residence was attacked whereas his spouse and kids had been asleep inside on Saturday, on Monday described the state of affairs as “a real nightmare”.

    Also Read: Why social media is being blamed for fueling riots in France

    “We have been going through a state of siege”, Jeanbrun, a member of the centre-right Les Republicains occasion, advised BFM TV on Monday.

    “I have myself grown up in L’Hay-les-Roses in these large housing blocks”, he mentioned. “We were modest, we didn’t have much, but we wanted to overcome it, we had hope that we would make it with hard work.”

    In Nanterre, within the west of Paris, flowers and different tributes mark the spot the place Nahel was shot virtually per week in the past. Graffiti requires revenge and criticises the police.

    And whereas tensions had been nonetheless excessive, some residents mentioned the fabric harm to automobile and companies ought to cease.

    Forty-nine-year-old Josie Oranger mentioned individuals who labored arduous or borrowed to purchase themselves a automotive or arrange a enterprise had been being deprived.

    “All it takes is one evening of bother, and so they’ve misplaced all the things. It’s not their fault, all the things that occurred.”

    The police officer concerned has acknowledged firing a deadly shot, the state prosecutor says, telling investigators he needed to forestall a harmful police chase. His lawyer Laurent-Franck Lienard has mentioned he didn’t intend to kill {the teenager}.

    Also Read: Grandmother of French teen shot useless by cop pleads with rioters to cease violence

  • Clashes, torched vehicles: Fury in France over police killing of African teen

    By Reuters: Protesters shot fireworks at police and set vehicles ablaze within the working class Paris suburb of Nanterre on Wednesday, in a second night time of unrest following the deadly capturing of a 17-year-old boy throughout a visitors cease there.

    The use of deadly pressure by officers towards {the teenager}, who was of North African origin, has fed right into a deep-rooted notion of police brutality within the ethnically various suburbs of France’s largest cities.

    Shortly earlier than midnight, a path of overturned automobiles burned as fireworks fizzed at police traces on Nanterre’s Avenue Pablo Picasso.

    Police clashed with protesters within the northern metropolis of Lille and in Toulouse within the southwest and there was additionally unrest in Amiens, Dijon and the Essonne administrative division south of the French capital, a police spokesman mentioned.

    French media reported incidents in quite a few different places throughout the larger Paris area. Videos on social media confirmed dozens of fireworks being directed on the Montreuil city corridor, on the japanese fringe of Paris.

    Earlier, President Emmanuel Macron known as the capturing “unexplainable and inexcusable”.

    ALSO READ | France braces for protests after ‘unforgivable’ police capturing

    A police officer is being investigated for voluntary murder for capturing the youth. Prosecutors say he didn’t adjust to an order to cease his automobile.

    The inside ministry has known as for calm, and mentioned 2,000 police have been mobilised within the Paris area.

    Rights teams allege systemic racism inside legislation enforcement companies in France, a cost Macron has beforehand denied.

    A video shared on social media, verified by Reuters, exhibits two cops beside the automobile, a Mercedes AMG, with one capturing on the driver at shut vary because the automobile pulled away. He died shortly afterwards from his wounds, the native prosecutor mentioned.

    “You have a video that is very clear: a police officer killed a young man of 17 years. You can see that the shooting is not within the rules,” mentioned Yassine Bouzrou, a lawyer for the household.

    Lawmakers held a minute’s silence within the National Assembly, the place Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne mentioned the capturing “seems clearly not to comply with the rules.”

    The household has filed a authorized criticism towards the officers for murder, complicity in murder and false testimony, the lawyer mentioned.

    In a video shared on TikTook, a lady recognized because the sufferer’s mom known as for a memorial march in Nanterre on Thursday. “Everyone come, we will lead a revolt for my son,” she mentioned.

    ALSO READ | France stabbing: 2 toddlers steady, President Macron hails ‘backpack hero’

    UNUSUALLY FRANK

    Tuesday’s killing was the third deadly capturing throughout visitors stops in France thus far in 2023, down from a file 13 final yr, a spokesperson for the nationwide police mentioned.

    There have been three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020, in line with a Reuters tally, which exhibits nearly all of victims since 2017 have been Black or of Arab origin.

    France’s human rights ombudsman has opened an inquiry into the demise, the sixth such inquiry into comparable incidents in 2022 and 2023.

    Macron’s remarks have been unusually frank in a rustic the place senior politicians are sometimes reticent to criticise police given voters’ safety considerations.

    Two main police unions fought again, saying the detained police officer must be presumed harmless till discovered in any other case.

    He has confronted criticism from rivals who accuse him of being tender on drug sellers and petty criminals and has carried out insurance policies geared toward curbing city crime, together with larger authority for police to situation fines.

    Before the violence erupted for a second night time, Some in Nanterre had expressed hope the unrest would finish swiftly.

    “To revolt like we did yesterday won’t change things, we need to discuss and talk,” native resident Fatima mentioned.

  • Outrage in Paris suburbs after 17-year-old shot useless by cop

    Protests and unrest ensued in Paris suburbs after a youngster was killed by a police official. The 17-year-old was shot useless by a police officer on Tuesday. The sufferer was a supply agent and he was killed allegedly for not stopping the automobile after the police officer’s directions. The instruction to cease was beneath common visitors verify. 

    The incident drew nationwide consideration and uproar. On the opposite hand, the accused police official has been detained on suspicion of manslaughter.

  • Thousands, along with undocumented migrants, protest in France in direction of govt’s immigration plans

    By Agence France-Presse: Thousands of people, along with many undocumented migrants, marched in Paris and completely different French cities on Saturday (native time), protesting deliberate changes to immigration authorized pointers and evictions from the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte.

    In the French capital, demonstrators marched behind a banner proclaiming “No to the Darmanin law. Against repression, imprisonment and deportations, for a welcoming migration policy”, a reference to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

    Organisers acknowledged that 2,300 people turned out for the protest in Paris.

    The immigration bill, which the federal authorities has merely postponed until the autumn, “is a racist law, which aims to criminalise foreigners” and end in “more deportations”, acknowledged Aboubacar (31), an undocumented Malian.

    “The problem is not immigration. It’s exploitation and rogue bosses,” acknowledged the submit office sub-contractor who, with colleagues, has been combating for 17 months to accumulate his official paperwork to reside and work in France.

    ALSO READ | More than 1 million take part in France pension protests, tear gasoline fired, metropolis hall blazed

    The protesters moreover took intention at Operation Wuambushi (Take Back) being carried out by the authorities on the French Indian Ocean Island of Mayotte to ship once more illegal immigrants, most from neighbouring Comoros, in the intervening time housed in unsanitary shanty cities.

    “The way undocumented Comorans are treated is unworthy of a country like France,” acknowledged Marie-Christine Vergiat, vice-president of the French Human Rights League and a former member of the European parliament.

    The Darmanin bill and the operation in Mayotte are linked, Said Mhamadi, a Comoran civil chief, acknowledged throughout the southern port metropolis of Marseille, the place as a lot as 300 people demonstrated.

    ‘CONTROLLING IMMIGRATION’

    The controversial bill, entitled “Controlling immigration while improving integration”, is aimed, amongst completely different points, at providing higher scope for deportation, notably for foreigners who commit crimes.

    It would require a minimal stage of French sooner than a multi-year residence permit might very nicely be granted, would introduce compulsory fingerprinting, and tighten requirements for the renewal of long-term permits.

    On Wednesday, the French authorities as quickly as as soon as extra failed to achieve consensus on the immigration bill, which is taken under consideration too divisive in an already abrasive social native climate.

    The authorities is promising a steadiness between the expulsion of foreigners who threaten public order and better integration of undocumented migrants, notably by regularising workers in sectors the place manpower is required.

    ALSO READ | Emmanuel Macron indicators much-contested pension regulation no matter months-long protests, unions say won’t once more off

    But whereas its critics contemplate the reforms are too authoritarian, Eric Ciotti, the head of the right-wing Republicans, believes they don’t go far ample.

    “No more rights for illegal immigrants, no more social benefits from the first day” for regular immigrants, he acknowledged.

    The authorities desires the help of the Republicans, as a result of it has a majority throughout the upper-house Senate. President Emmanuel Macron misplaced his parliamentary majority in elections last June.

    On Saturday, In the northwestern metropolis of Rennes, over 1,500 people took to the streets chanting “down with the police state”.

    “I came in solidarity with the Comoros and to protest against the brutal measures taken by France in Mayotte, it’s very violent and there are other ways of dealing with it,” 32-year-old Theodore Sobezy suggested AFP.

  • French employees stage protest towards Macron’s plan to lift retirement age | In pics

    Polls counsel most French folks oppose the reform, and Thursday was the primary public response to Macron’s plan. Strikes severely disrupted transport, colleges and different public companies, and greater than 200 rallies had been staged round France. In image: Union leaders, with CGT union Secretary General Philippe Martinez, fourth left, stand behind a banner studying “Pensions reform, working more, it’s no” earlier than an illustration in Paris. (Photo: AP)

  • Fuel scarcity hits France | In pics

    Fuel scarcity hits France | In pics

  • Wildfires rage in France, 1000’s evacuated from properties

    Wildfires tore by way of the Gironde area of southwestern France on Wednesday, destroying properties and forcing the evacuation of 10,000 residents, a few of whom had clambered onto rooftops because the flames received nearer.

    Black-and-orange skies, darkened by the smoke billowing from forests and lit up by the flames, have been seen throughout the world because the fires continued to burn uncontrolled regardless of the efforts of firefighters backed by water-bombing plane.

    Fires, which have razed about 6,200 hectares (15,320), have now crossed within the neighbouring Landes area.

    France, like the remainder of Europe, has been struggling this summer time with successive heatwaves and its worst drought on document. Dozens of wildfires are ablaze throughout the nation, together with at the least eight main ones.

    “Prepare your papers, the animals you can take with you, some belongings,” the Gironde municipality of Belin-Beliet mentioned on Facebook earlier than evacuating components of the city.

    In the close by village of Hostens, police had earlier been door to door telling residents to depart as the hearth superior. Camille Delay fled together with her associate and her son, grabbing their two cats, chickens and home insurance coverage papers.

    “Everyone in the village climbed onto their rooftops to see what was happening – within ten minutes a little twist of smoke became enormous,” the 30-year-old informed Reuters by phone.

    Firefighters mentioned extra evacuations have been seemingly. Even so, some Hostens residents have been reluctant to desert their properties.

    “It’s complicated to go with the dogs and we cannot leave them here,” mentioned Allisson Horan, 18, who stayed behind together with her father.

    “I’m getting worried because the fire is in a plot of land behind ours and the wind is starting to change direction.”

    Numerous small roads and a freeway have been closed.

    HEATWAVES

    More than 57,200 hectares have gone up in flames to date in France this yr, almost six occasions the full-year common for 2006-2021, knowledge from the European Forest Fire Information System exhibits.

    “The fire is creating its own wind,” senior native official Martin Guespereau informed reporters, including that efforts to struggle it have been made tougher by how unpredictable it was.

    Sweden and Italy are amongst nations making ready to ship assist to France, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin mentioned.

    He repeated calls for everybody to be accountable – 9 out of 10 fires are both voluntarily or involuntarily brought on by individuals, he mentioned.

    The Gironde wildfire is certainly one of many who have damaged out throughout Europe this summer time, triggered by heatwaves which have baked the continent and introduced document temperatures.

    In Portugal, almost 1,200 firefighters backed by eight plane have battled a blaze within the mountainous Covilha space some 280 km (174 miles) northeast of Lisbon that has burned greater than 3,000 hectares of forest since Saturday.

    Spain and Greece have additionally needed to sort out a number of fires over the previous few weeks.

    The Gironde was hit by main wildfires in July which destroyed greater than 20,000 hectares of forest and briefly compelled virtually 40,000 individuals from their properties.

    Authorities consider the most recent inferno was a results of the earlier fires nonetheless smouldering within the space’s peaty soil.

    Fires have been additionally raging within the southern departments of Lozere and Aveyron. In the Maine et Loire division in western France, greater than 1,200 hectares have been scorched by one other fireplace.

    READ | 13 killed, 35 wounded in fireplace at nightclub in Thailand

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