France news

France news

The splintered National Assembly will vote on the Social Security budget on Tuesday, December 9th. There is a slender chance that the budget can pass with a hotch-potch majority assembled from the quarrelsome Centre, the divided Centre-Right and the wary Socialists. If so, Lecornu's experiment in parliamentary democracy allowing the National Assembly to control the most important French budget-making for decades will have achieved its first important success.

A provision in last year's delayed Budget lowered the threshold at which micro-enterprises had to start collecting and paying VAT to €25,000 in annual turnover, rather than the current €37,500 for services and €85,000 for commercial activities. The micro-enterprise status is most commonly used by freelancers, contractors, sole traders and small businesses - it has a maximum earning threshold so most of those on the status are low to medium earners.

In a message to AFP, the European aircraft manufacturer said the figure represented the "total number of potentially impacted aircraft" but "it doesn't mean all these aircraft are necessarily impacted". It added that the number of planes earmarked for checks was "reducing day by day as inspections progress to identify those needing a specific action to be taken". On Monday, Airbus said it had detected the "supplier quality issue" but asserted the problem was "contained" and affected only "a limited number of A320 metal panels".

The leaders of France and Germany have a strong willingness to build a new fighter jet together despite bitter internal rivalries, according to the chief executive of engine manufacturer Safran. A row over who should lead between French aerospace company Dassault and the German unit of Airbus has threatened to break apart the countries' efforts to make a next-generation fighter jet.

The mayor of a small French town suffering from an influx of tourists to its famous Christmas market has decided to introduce an order of silence in the street, after noise complaints from locals. The town of Riquewihr in Alsace, north-east France, has introduced a 'Rue du Silence' in the town centre, after numerous complaints from locals about noise from tourists. Mayor Daniel Klack says that creating the 'silent street' in a main artery of the town will allow people to 'take a breather' among the bustle and noise of the town's Christmas market, which attracts 450,000 visitors a year.

Ronan O'Gara was sent off in last night's Top 14 defeat in Pau, the La Rochelle chief picking up a second yellow card during an astonishing 13-try clash that saw his out-half Antoine Hastoy ship the fastest red card in league history - 34 seconds.

A EuroMillions jackpot of 157 million (179 million euros) has been won by a player in France. The winning ticket holder has not yet come forward to claim the life-changing sum. The winning numbers were 5, 29, 33, 39, 42, with Lucky Stars 3 and 9.

Paris Saint-Germain suffered only their second Ligue 1 loss of the season as they fell to a 1-0 defeat against Monaco on Saturday. Former Liverpool striker Takumi Minamino scored his second goal in as many games for the hosts, who also saw Thilo Kehrer sent off with 10 minutes remaining after hauling down Ibrahim Mbaye. Coming on 68-minutes, the goal proved to be the difference as Monaco held on to record a famous victory at Stade Louis II.

This is definitely not the kind of post we thought we'd write as the holidays approach. We've been robbed and our fresh and frozen snails stash has been robbed, the post stated. The coming weeks are usually the most important for us... so this is a shock, a misunderstanding, and a real blow to the entire team. We are trying our best to restock our stocks to satisfy you for the holidays.

As part of that influence, Kevin Roberts -- president of the powerful Heritage Foundation and a key influence on Trump's policy decisions -- earlier this year visited Paris to speak to what he called "leaders of the French right", whom he declined to name. Roberts said during the trip in May that, while the foundation did not officially represent the US government, it could still knit together a network of ideologically aligned groups.

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday unveiled a new program meant to bolster France's armed forces by training thousands of volunteers aged 18 and 19 starting next year, part of a broader response to concerns over Russia's threat to European nations beyond the war in Ukraine. The young volunteers will serve in uniform for 10 months in France's mainland and oversea territories only, not in military operations abroad, Macron said in a speech at the Varces military base, which is located in the French Alps.

Unions representing French doctors have called for 'unprecedented' strike action starting on January 5th, in opposition to the draft 2026 social security bill. Seven doctors' unions issued a unified call for strike action on Wednesday, urging doctors to 'prepare for an unprecedented strike starting on Monday, January 5th.' The call for strikes specifically affects médecins libéraux, meaning self-employed doctors, such as GPs and specialists with their own practices, as well as medical students and interns (doctors in training).

Young Danes are selected at random, according to the armed forces' needs. Conscripts in Finland serve between six, nine, or 12 months, depending on their specialty and rank. They are then placed in the reserves, where they can be called back to active duty, until the age of 50 or 60 -- a limit the government is considering raising to 65. Military service is voluntary for women.

In May this year, France extended its smoking ban to include outdoor spaces such as beaches, parks, bus stops and outside schools (although café terraces are not included in the ban). It went a bit under the radar at the time - because there's not much skiing in May - but the ban also includes ski resorts. Smoking is now banned in ski lifts, the queues for the ski lifts and on the piste, on pain of a €135 fine. Smoking is still allowed while skiing off-piste or in the streets of the ski resorts. Smoking in indoor spaces such as bars, restaurants or hotels has been banned since 2007.

During the winter of 1628-29 a violent outbreak of plague had wiped out almost half the city, a suffering still raw when the plague came knocking on Lyon's door once again in 1643. Terrified that history would repeat itself, on September 8th 1643, Lyonnais citizens climbed up Fourvière Hill by candlelight to pray to the Virgin Mary for salvation. Their prayers were answered, and the plague never spread.

Growing up in India, I had an idea of Christmas that was entirely shaped by Hallmark movies: snowy streets, warm lights everywhere, and a whole town wrapped in one cozy celebration. Where I live, decorations are mostly limited to malls, and the few Christmas markets are smaller embassy events with entry fees. So, my vision of a charming winter wonderland always felt like a faraway fantasy I hoped to experience someday. Last winter, I finally did.

The thieves parked a moving truck with a ladder below the museum's Apollo Gallery housing the French crown jewels, ascended in a bucket, broke a window and used angle grinders to cut into glass display booths containing the treasures. Four people have already been arrested and charged over the theft - three men and a woman. One of those men, a 37-year-old, was in a couple with the woman and they have children, Beccuau said earlier this month.

We would be wrong to show weakness in the face of this threat from Russia. If we want to protect ourselves, we French - which is my sole concern - we must demonstrate that we are not weak against the power that threatens us the most,

Two pandas at a zoo in central France are to return to China on Tuesday after the female was diagnosed with kidney failure, drawing hundreds of visitors for a final goodbye. Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi arrived at the Beauval Zoo in 2012 as part of China's "panda diplomacy" programme, which sees the black-and-white bears dispatched across the globe as soft-power ambassadors.

Parts of south-west France have been placed on alert for flooding with up to 70mm of rain forecast on Monday. The départements of Dordogne, Gironde and Corrèze have been placed on orange alert for heavy rain and flooding on Monday. Météo France is predicting up to 70mm of rain in the course of 24 hours, warning that this could lead to rivers bursting their banks and localised flooding.

The price of some cloud services will have to rise by five to ten percent by mid-2026, maybe sooner, according to Octave Klaba, CEO of French cloud OVH. In a weekend post to his X account, Klaba opened with the observation that the price of RAM and NVMe drives will increase significantly in around six months. The CEO attributed that increase to demand for AI hardware, which he said has seen memory-makers shift production to the HBM memory used in GPUs.

In May, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the launch of a citizens' council on children's school days and free time. He said the aim was, to "ensure that the organisation of pupils' days is more favourable to their development and learning, and that we find a balance to make life easier for families." School days - and especially school holidays - is a hot button topic on France.