New Caledonia Groups Sign Accord on French Territory's Future
The draft deal signed early Saturday among the groups and the government would create a New Caledonia state that would nevertheless remain part of France, according to a post by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou. While details of the agreement weren't immediately released, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a post on X that it includes 'expanded local powers, an unfreezing of the electorate and possible international recognition.'
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Gaza student leaves France over anti-Semitic social media posts spat
A Gazan student on a French scholarship left for Qatar after anti-Semitic posts were found on her social media, the foreign ministry said on Sunday. The case sparked political backlash and led the government to suspend its scholarship programme for students evacuated from Gaza. A student from Gaza who had been studying in France on a scholarship left for Qatar Sunday, ordered out over anti-Semitic comments found on her social media accounts, the foreign ministry said. Foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot "stressed the unacceptable nature of the comments made by Ms. Nour Attaalah, a Gazan student, before she entered French territory", said the ministry statement. "Given their seriousness, Ms. Attaalah could not remain on French territory. She left France today to go to Qatar to continue her studies there," it added. The student's lawyer, Ossama Dahmane, said Attaalah had chosen to "pursue her studies in another country in a spirit of appeasement and to guarantee her security", even if "she firmly denies the accusations made against her". Read moreFrance suspends intake of Gazan evacuees over student's antisemitic posts The young woman, who had received a student visa and a government scholarship as part of a programme for Gazan students, had been due to join Sciences Po Lille in the fall. She arrived in France on July 11, according to a French diplomatic source. But social media posts from the past two years calling for the killing of Jews, since deleted, were discovered. That led to a judicial investigation for condoning terrorism, and an inquiry to determine why the posts had not been detected in advance. FRANCE 24 was unable to confirm the screen shots attributed to her by internet users and media outlets, but Sciences Po Lille said Wednesday that her social media comments had been confirmed, without elaborating. Dahmane, the lawyer, said the "alleged facts are largely based on shared tweets, taken out of context". Barrot said Friday that France was freezing all its student evacuation programmes from Gaza pending the outcome of the investigation into how the posts had been missed. The foreign ministry would not say how many students have been affected, citing privacy reasons. France has allowed in several hundred students from Gaza since the start of the war between Israel and the Hamas movement. (FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Yahoo
8 hours ago
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Comer agrees to postpone Maxwell's testimony to House on Epstein
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) agreed Friday to a request from Ghislaine Maxwell to delay deposing her until after the Supreme Court considers her petition to overturn her conviction for sex trafficking. Comer, however, declined requests from an attorney for Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, to grant her immunity or to send her questions in advance. Pursuant to a motion that garnered bipartisan support in the committee last month, Comer had subpoenaed Maxwell for a deposition to occur at Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee on Aug. 11 — though she was quietly moved to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Bryan, Texas, a Bureau of Prisons official confirmed Friday. 'Your testimony is vital to the Committee's efforts regarding Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, including the 2007 non-prosecution agreement and the circumstances surrounding Mr. Epstein's Death,' Comer said in a letter to Maxwell on Friday. 'These investigative efforts may be used to inform potential legislation to improve federal efforts to combat sex trafficking and reform the use of non-prosecution agreements and/or plea agreements in sex-crime investigations.' Maxwell's attorney David Oscar Markus wrote to the committee Monday seeking to delay the interview until after the Supreme Court weighs Maxwell's petition. Comer agreed to the delay: 'On July 30, the U.S. Supreme Court noticed that your petition for writ of certiorari will be considered at its conference on September 29. In light of this notice, the Committee is willing to delay your deposition until a date following the Court's certiorari determination,' he wrote. Comer then rejected the immunity request. 'The Committee is unwilling to grant you congressional immunity pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 6005 at this time. Further, while the Committee is unwilling to send you questions in advance, the Committee will continue its long-standing practice of engaging in forthright and detailed discussions about scoping,' Comer wrote. In her appeal to the Supreme Court, Maxwell argues her conviction violates a nonprosecution agreement Epstein signed with federal prosecutors in 2007. Lower courts previously ruled the agreement applied only to the Southern District of Florida and not the New York district where Maxwell was sentenced. Maxwell last week sat for a two-day interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Markus, Maxwell's attorney, said that it was a 'thorough, comprehensive interview' and that 'no person and no topic were off-limits.' He added, 'The truth will come out.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
9 hours ago
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Yvette Cooper pours extra £100m into efforts to smash people-smuggling gangs
The government will pour an extra £100m into efforts to tackle migration as pressure piles on ministers to crack down on small boat crossings. The money will support the pilot of the new "one in, one out" returns agreement between the UK and France, paying for up to 300 more National Crime Agency (NCA) officers and new technology and equipment to step up intelligence-gathering on smuggling gangs. There will be more overtime for immigration compliance and enforcement teams as well as funding for interventions in transit countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the government said. Labour has put a pledge to crack down on the number of people coming to the UK on small boats at the centre of its plan for government. But with boat crossings at a record high, and the asylum backlog still above 75,000, there is mounting pressure on ministers to take more drastic action - pressure which is exacerbated by the success of Reform UK in the polls. It comes as tensions over asylum hotels continue to flare up, with a protest and counter-protests taking place on Saturday outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in north London, and also in Newcastle and Manchester. Last week figures showed that the number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel topped 25,000 in record time, piling pressure on the government to take further action. It is the earliest point in a calendar year at which the 25,000 mark has been passed since data on Channel crossings was first reported in 2018. The government has announced a number of measures to deter migrants from coming to the UK, with the "one in, one out" deal agreed last month meaning the UK will for the first time be able to send migrants back to France in exchange for asylum seekers with links to Britain. Meanwhile, anyone who advertises small boat crossings or fake passports on social media could be face up to five years in prison under a new offence to be introduced under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. The home secretary, who said Labour had set the foundations for a "new and much stronger law enforcement approach" over the last year, is also planning a major overhaul of the asylum system to speed up the processing of claims and make a dent in the backlog. 'Now this additional funding will strengthen every aspect of our plan and will turbo-charge the ability of our law enforcement agencies to track the gangs and bring them down, working with our partners overseas, and using state-of-the-art technology and equipment', Yvette Cooper said. 'Alongside our new agreements with France, this will help us drive forward our plan for change commitments to protect the UK's border security and restore order to our immigration system.' The NCA has 91 ongoing investigations into people-smuggling networks affecting the UK, the agency's director general of operations Rob Jones said. But the Conservatives dismissed the funding announcement as a "desperate grab for headlines which will make no real difference". Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: "Labour has failed and their laughable claim to smash the gangs lies in tatters. They have no serious plan, just excuses, while ruthless criminal gangs flood our borders with illegal immigrants. "The British public deserves real action, not empty slogans and tinkering at the edges. The Conservative Deportation Bill is the only real solution. Immediate detention, rapid removal and shutting down these illegal networks for good."
