Ukraine's Zelensky tries to limit backlash over law curbing anti-graft agencies
23/07/2025
ICJ: World's top court to hand down watershed climate opinion
23/07/2025
Gaza hunger crisis: 'The situation seems to be rapidly deteriorating'
23/07/2025
France: Culture minister Rachida Dati to be tried on corruption charges
23/07/2025
Venezuela to investigate Bukele, other officials for alleged detainee abuse
23/07/2025
Restoring sea floor after mining may not be possible, researchers warn
23/07/2025
Russian delegation departs Moscow for Istanbul talks with Ukraine
23/07/2025
Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne dies at 76
23/07/2025
More than 100 aid groups warn 'mass starvation' spreading across Gaza
22/07/2025
Brazil: Bolsonaro flashes ankle monitor as judge threatens imprisonment
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France 24
18 minutes ago
- France 24
France's Macron says EU-US trade deal 'not the end of it'
France 's President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday the European Union had not been "feared" enough in negotiations with the United States towards a trade deal, pledging to be "firm" in follow-up talks. "It's not the end of it," Macron told ministers during a cabinet meeting, according to participants. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clinched the framework accord with US President Donald Trump on Sunday after dashing to Scotland as the August 1 deadline loomed for steep levies that threatened to cripple Europe's economy. EU exports are now set to face tariffs of 15 percent on most products – higher than customs duties before Trump returned to the White House, but lower than his threatened 30 percent. The EU also committed to buy $750 billion of liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear fuels from the United States split equally over three years, and pour $600 billion more in additional investments in the United States. "Europe does not see itself enough as a power yet. To be free, you have to be feared. We were not feared enough," Macron said. "France has always held a stance of being firm and demanding. It will continue to do so," he added. The European Union could obtain "new exemptions" in follow-up talks to firm up the deal in details, he said. He however said that negotiations had been held in "difficult circumstances" and that the deal at least "offered visibility and predictability" in the short term. "It preserved French and European interests" in important exporting sectors including aviation, he added. French Finance Minister Éric Lombard told reporters later on Wednesday that the EU's negotiating strategy with the US had not been vigorous enough. "There is the issue of the negotiation method, which within the European Union ... has perhaps not been as energetic or vigorous in certain phases, and this is what the President of the Republic said when he stated that we must improve our ability to be feared and to carry weight in negotiations," Lombard said after a meeting at the finance ministry.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
France's Luc Besson resurrects new 'romantic' Dracula
Besson, best known for "The Fifth Element" and embroiled in sexual assault allegations and financial problems in recent years, has produced what he believes is a "romantic" vision of one of the most notorious Gothic figures. Titled "Dracula: A Love Story" and based on a relatively minor plotline in the original Bram Stoker book, the 66-year-old director puts Dracula's search for the reincarnation of his late wife at the heart of his story. "I'm not a fan of horror films, nor of Dracula," Besson told Le Parisien newspaper about his production, which straddles several centuries in the life of the immortal blood-sucking count. It was sparked by discussions with Landry Jones, the star of "X-Men: First Class", whom Besson directed in his last film, 2023's "Dogman". "I'd love to do all my films with him. He's a genius," Besson told RMC radio in France this week of the 35-year-old Texas-born actor. Releasing first in France on Wednesday and then in other European and South American countries over the next month, the film is the biggest-budget French film of the year, according to media reports. Besson's career and personal finances took a major blow in 2017 with his hugely expensive flop "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", which cost an estimated $180 million and had an A-list cast that included Rihanna. The year after, the man behind the popular thrillers "Leon" and "Nikita" faced rape allegations from the Dutch actress Sand van Roy, which he always denied. The case was dropped without charges after a legal battle that went all the way to France's top court in 2023. Initial reviews for Besson's "Dracula" are mixed, with Paris Match magazine calling it the "best horror film of the summer" while Le Figaro newspaper said it "unfortunately failed to bring fresh blood to the vampire myth." The original 1897 book has been adapted over a hundred times to the silver screen, with the two modern classics considered to be the 1958 version by British director Terence Fisher and a 1992 production by Francis Ford Coppola. Another Gothic literary masterpiece, "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, is to get another overhaul later this year in a big-budget Netflix-funded production by Guillermo del Toro which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
LeMonde
an hour ago
- LeMonde
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati's dangerous game
Rachida Dati wants to become the next mayor of Paris. It is her obsession. The more obstacles she faces, the more France's culture minister embraces transgression. On Monday, July 28, she announced she would run for the Assemblée Nationale's open seat in Paris's 2 nd constituency, without waiting for the decision of the conservative Les Républicains (LR) party, which chose to nominate Michel Barnier. It was an unelegant snub of the former prime minister under whom she served last year, reigniting the French right's old poison of division. It is hard to say whether she is still a member of LR or has now joined President Emmanuel Macron's camp. The former protégée of Nicolas Sarkozy now works for herself, and herself alone. Among the many adversaries she likes to make, Dati also counts judges. On Tuesday, July 22, she was ordered to stand criminal trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling, over suspicions that she engaged in illegal lobbying in the European Parliament on behalf of Carlos Ghosn, the former head of Renault-Nissan, in exchange for €900,000 in fees. Dati counterattacked in pure Sarkozy style. Criticizing what she called a "procedure marred by incidents," she tried to put the prosecutor for financial crimes, Jean-François Bohnert, in an awkward position with the office over which he has authority. Prime Minister François Bayrou had to remind her of what she should not have pretended to ignore: Respect for the judicial institution is "a state duty." Protected by the president and supported by the current justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, Dati has no fans on the left. But she is also divisive within the right, the government, the president's party and other groups in the governing bloc. To some, she is an electoral asset not to be overlooked; to others, a dangerous firebrand ready to exploit every populist sentiment of the time: distrust of judges, the media, the elites, the "system." If passed, the "Paris-Lyon-Marseille" law modifying the methods of electing mayors in the three cities, currently under review in Parliament, would allow her to limit the influence of local power brokers who have opposed her rise in Paris ever since she established herself as mayor of the 7 th arrondissement. The free rein she has managed to carve out for herself by being both popular and disruptive is undeniable, but there are limits that must not be crossed. There is a whiff of Trumpism in the way Dati fights her political battles: there is only one truth, her own; threats against those who dare to question her, such as against the journalist Patrick Cohen on June 18 on the television show C à vous; heavy artillery against the judiciary. A year ahead of the 2027 presidential campaign, next March's municipal elections will provide an important indication of the tone of the political debate, especially as much of the right and far right now also target the judiciary and the rule of law. Banned from running for office for five years following her conviction of embezzlement, far-right leader Marine Le Pen has just stated that, in the event of new snap legislative elections, she would still stand as a candidate, intending to rely on her electoral base to put maximum pressure on the electoral judge and the Constitutional Council. In the past, such a statement would have sparked an outcry, but that is no longer the case today.
