Latest news with #FranceUnbowed
Saudi Gazette
2 days ago
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
French interior minister slammed for calling PSG fans 'barbarians' after Champions League victory
PARIS — French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is facing sharp criticism from opposition lawmakers and civil rights advocates after referring to Paris Saint-Germain supporters as 'barbarians' in the wake of their UEFA Champions League victory celebrations. PSG defeated Italy's Inter Milan 5–0 in the final, prompting street celebrations across France that saw moments of unrest. According to the Paris Police Department, 131 individuals were taken into custody nationwide. Authorities reported incidents including two cars set ablaze, a store looted, and three pedestrians injured in Grenoble after a vehicle plowed into a crowd. In a post on X, Retailleau stated that while 'true fans enjoyed the match,' others 'took to the streets of Paris to commit crimes and provoke law enforcement.' He instructed police to respond 'firmly' and condemned 'the savagery of a minority of thugs who respect nothing.' His language quickly drew rebuke from the left-wing opposition. Antoine Léaument of the France Unbowed party criticized police for deploying tear gas near the Madeleine metro station and accused the minister of escalating tensions. 'The barbarian is at Beauvau,' he wrote, referencing the Interior Ministry's location. Lawmaker Alexis Corbière also condemned the rhetoric, questioning Retailleau's use of the terms 'barbarian' and 'savage,' which he said 'imply foreignness and dehumanization.' He added, 'Even when people are happy, this man is full of hatred." Thomas Portes, also with France Unbowed, directly accused Retailleau of racism, stating: 'The word 'barbarian' has no place coming from the mouth of the Interior Minister. Bruno Retailleau confirms tonight that he is a racist Interior Minister.' Retailleau has not responded to the criticism. — Agencies
Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Times
French Ulez to be scrapped in victory for hard-right
Low-emission zones in Paris and other cities are to be scrapped after a parliamentary vote responding to a popular backlash against environmental restrictions in France. Marine Le Pen, leader of the hard-right National Rally, and the radical left France Unbowed both claimed victory after joining forces, along with conservatives, to abolish a six-year-old law that has barred higher polluting vehicles from city centres. The victory, by 98 votes to 51, came hours after a defeat for environmental campaigners as a court decided to allow work to restart on the highly contested A69 motorway in southwestern France. In February a court ordered a halt to construction after two years of environmental protests and objections from farmers and rural residents in the path of the 38-mile motorway between Toulouse and Castres. Backed by 80 per cent of the public, according to polls, the opponents of the urban 'Zones à faibles émissions' — equivalent to Britain's Ulez — argued that they discriminate against poorer car owners. The zones, which require all vehicles to display windscreen stickers with their emission class, ban diesel cars built before 2006 and more modern vehicles in periods of high air pollution. Fines of €68 are imposed on drivers in zones prohibited to their vehicles, although they are often not enforced. 'This is a defeat for the punitive environmental campaigners, the ones who are constantly hammering the French people to no effect,' Le Pen said. France Unbowed saluted 'a triumph against an unjust regulation'. • Marine Le Pen: I am the Martin Luther King Jr of France The conservative Republicans, who are part of the coalition government, defended their opposition to the zones. 'Everyone is in favour of improving air quality. But we think that it can't be done at the price of social exclusion,' Ian Boucard, a party MP, told parliament. The vote was a blow to President Macron's wing in the conservative-centrist government, which campaigned to keep the law that he introduced in 2019 to curb fine particles and other pollutants in Paris, Marseilles, Lyons and a dozen other cities. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the environment minister, deplored the vote and the rejection of a compromise she backed to maintain the zones in Paris and Marseilles. 'Air pollution causes 40,000 premature deaths a year and the low-pollution zones helped reduce these,' she said. Motoring organisations, meanwhile, cheered the government's defeat of a system that opponents argue creates a social divide, limiting access to urban centres for low-income drivers. Scrapping the scheme means the government will have to reimburse part of the €3.3 billion in EU funds that have been spent on it this year. Macron's centrist bloc and the centre-left Socialist parties joined environmental groups in deploring what they see as part of a populist-led rejection of progress towards combating climate change. Farmers blocked highways and rallied outside parliament this week, demanding that restrictions on pesticides and water use be eased. A bill to do this was eventually defeated on Wednesday. • Air pollution linked to acute mental illness The government welcomed the court ruling on the A69 motorway, whose sites were the scene of violent protests for two years until February. Police arrested hundreds, including protesters dragged out of trees that were due to be felled. That month a court accepted opponents' arguments that the motorway should be stopped pending a full trial on their claim that it would inflict unjustified destruction of nature and disrupt the lives of residents in towns and villages in its path. Philippe Tabarot, the transport minister, called the latest ruling 'a real relief' because the court had accepted that there was a strong economic and social argument in favour of the motorway, he said. The Toulouse Administrative Court of Appeal issued a stay on the February halt and allowed work to resume on the €450 million project pending a full appeal trial within the next 12 months. Atosca, the firm building the toll motorway, is to restart its earth-moving and construction in June and intends to complete the already half-built road next year. Environmental campaigners said they were stunned by the court reversal and called for protests to resume. Julie Rover, a lawyer for opponents of the A69, said it made no sense to complete the motorway now, laying down miles of asphalt across the countryside. 'There's a risk now that in eight or ten months the court will confirm its cancellation,' she said.
France 24
27-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
French PM Bayrou denies prior knowledge of Catholic school abuse claims
French Prime Minister François Bayrou struck a defiant tone in parliament on Wednesday as he insisted during a tense hearing that he only knew of claims of sexual abuse at a Catholic school from media reports. The 73-year-old politician faced one of the most delicate moments of his five months in office as he responded to questions from a committee investigating claims of sexual abuse at a Catholic school. Bayrou has faced opposition claims that as education minister between 1993 and 1997 he knew of widespread physical and sexual abuse at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school in southwestern France over many decades. But on Wednesday he stuck by his previous statements and said that during his time as education minister he had "not received any information other than what was reported in the press". "I had nothing to hide," he said. He signalled his desire to co-operate, saying the inquiry into what he called the "MeToo for children" was finally taking place. "For me, this hearing is very important. It is very important for the boys and girls who have been victims of violence, particularly sexual violence, for decades," he added. But tensions were on full display as the two co-rapporteurs of the commission, Paul Vannier and Violette Spillebout, questioned Bayrou about what he knew about alleged violence, sexual assault and rape committed at the school near the southwestern town of Pau where Bayrou has been mayor since 2014. During the hearing Bayrou accused Vannier, a lawmaker with the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI), of seeking to "fuel a scandal". The French prime minister also said he did not feel that the commission was "completely objective". Several of Bayrou's children attended the school, and his wife taught religious studies there. French PM Bayrou testifies on child abuse scandal 05:35 Bayrou has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and denounced what he calls a campaign of "destruction" against him. 'I have confidence in him' Centrist Bayrou, the sixth prime minister of President Emmanuel Macron 's mandate, was named head of government last December. He has been given the daunting task of hauling France out of months of political crisis. Until now Bayrou has managed to survive a no-confidence vote in a divided parliament but the Bétharram affair has damaged his credibility and his approval rating has been declining in recent weeks. Bayrou's popularity rating has dropped below that of Macron, according to a poll published last week, with only 27 percent of French people approving of his work. Analysts have said Bayrou could face further pressure depending on his performance during the hearing. "The Bétharram school scandal may not be sufficient in itself to bring down Bayrou but could embolden his parliamentary enemies, and supposed friends, to pull the plug on the government for other reasons," said the Eurasia Group. "Reasons for dissatisfaction abound," the political risk consultancy added, pointing to France's budgetary crisis. Macron threw his support behind the embattled prime minister. French PM Bayrou's daughter reveals abuse at Catholic camp 00:54 "We have talked about it a lot and I know that I have confidence in him," he told TF1 television Tuesday evening, referring to the Bétharram affair. Bayrou's statements have been contradicted by a number of people including his own daughter. In April, Bayrou's eldest daughter accused the clergy running the school of systemic abuse, saying a priest beat her during summer camp when she was 14. Helene Perlant, who is now 53 and uses her mother's name, said however that her father did not know about the incident. 'If he lies, he's dead' Few in Bayrou's team believe that he will be brought down over the scandal. But "if he lies before parliament, he's dead", said a supporter of Macron, asking not to be named. A Bayrou associate stressed that the prime minister was not the subject of the inquiry. The inquiry focuses on "the methods used by the state to monitor and prevent violence in schools". After hearing witnesses, victims and former ministers, the two rapporteurs plan to deliver their conclusions in June. Around 200 legal complaints have been filed since February last year accusing priests and staff at Bétharram of physical or sexual abuse from 1957 to 2004. Some of the boarders said the experience had scarred them for life, recounting how some priests visited boys at night. "The state has failed and has not protected the children of Bétharram," said Alain Esquerre, who represents a collective of school survivors.
Saba Yemen
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Mass demonstrations in Paris condemn genocide in Gaza
Paris - Saba: Thousands of French people demonstrated on Sunday in the Place de la République in Paris to condemn the genocide committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrators, who came out in response to a call from the opposition party "France Insoumise" (France Unbowed), civil society organizations supporting the Palestinian cause, and student associations, demanded an end to the Israeli war on Gaza, protection for the Palestinian people, and the imposition of effective and immediate sanctions on Israel. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
France 24
21-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
What AI detection tools got wrong in the case of a photo tweeted by a French politician
"I bet a 100 bucks that this is AI,' reads a comment on a May 11 tweet by the three-time French presidential candidate and far-left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The comment, left by an account named Lapin du Futur (Futuristic Rabbit), accuses the leader of the French far-left political party France Unbowed (LFI) of having used artificial intelligence to modify a photo he shared of an anti-Islamophobia protest that took place the same day in Paris. One of the photos tweeted by Mélenchon shows him standing with several deputies from his party on the front lines of a protest. Behind them, there are thousands of protesters brandishing many different flags, including the French flag, the Palestinian flag and LFI's flag. A number of social media users, like Lapin du Futur, claimed that the photo was generated by AI and that the French flags were added. Lapin du Futur's post alone garnered more than two million views. "The prompt [Editor's note: the request provided to AI software] was 'add French flags'. None of the French flags are real,' claimed another social media account in a post that garnered more than 700,000 views. Some social media users have pointed to certain details in the photo that often indicate that an image has been AI-generated, like people's hands looking strange or deformed. In the case of this photo, one protester holding up a flag appears to have only four fingers. Another person seems to have six fingers. Another social media user shared screenshots from an AI-detection tool, which determined that it was 'likely' that the image was generated by AI. AI-detection tool Sightengine determined that there was a 90% probability that the image was generated by AI. Another tool, Decopy AI, said there was a 95% probability. And yet, there were French flags However, this image was not AI-generated and the French flags were not added to the image. No other elements were either. A number of LFI deputies also took to social media to post photos taken during the protest on Place de la Bastille in Paris, including Thomas Portes and Aly Diouara. Other accounts with links to France Unbowed also shared images. In all of the photos, you can see several French flags held by protesters. You can also see the French flags in videos of the protest posted by French media outlet BFM and images published by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on their website and YouTube page. Some social media users have also raised questions about the number of protesters in the photo, claiming that the numbers have been artificially inflated. However, the photos by other sources show the same crowd sizes on Place de la Bastille. The Paris police prefecture counted 3,700 protesters, while protest organisers said that 15,000 people had attended. As for the hands that appear to have four or six fingers, a close verification of the image reveals that each hand does actually have five fingers. If you look closely at the photo, then you can see the fifth finger of the hand holding the flagpole, partially hidden by the pole. As for the other hand, what looks like a sixth finger is actually an effect created by the angle of the hand and the shadow cast on the person's wrist (see more details below). False positives detected from minor edits to contrast and colours The FRANCE 24 Observers team contacted the press service of France Unbowed (LFI), who refuted all accusations that the image had been AI-generated. However, the party did clarify that 'contrast was added, the brightness was reduced and the vibrancy of the photo was accentuated' during the editing process. It turns out that basic edits like this can actually confuse tools meant to detect AI-generated images like Sightengine, which was cited by a number of social media users who said Mélenchon's photo was false. Our team contacted Sightengine, who confirmed that their tool detected both 'images completely generated by AI but also real photos that contained elements generated or modified by AI' like some of the above edits. "It might flag partial modifications or small edits or improvements carried out using generative AI tools,' said representatives of Sightengine. France Unbowed sent the original image – without any changes to contrast or colours – to our team. When we ran it through Sightengine, it didn't detect any possible use of AI. This supports the theory that the tool initially concluded that the photo was likely AI-generated only because of the colour and contrast correction. The same is true for the tool which initially concluded that there was a 99.13% probability that the photo posted by Mélenchon was AI-generated. In an email to our team sent on May 15, the company behind the tool said that its product 'may have some errors in the accuracy of multi-person photo recognition', indicating that it was primarily a tool 'aimed at the recognition of single-person photos'. The company promised that they would 'make immediate improvements' to the tool, following this error. 'There is AI integrated into almost all photo editing tools' "Today, there are elements of generative AI integrated into nearly all of the [photo editing] tools that we use,' said Emmanuelle Saliba, who runs the investigation bureau at GetReal, a company that detects deepfakes. The company was founded by Hany Farid, an expert in the analysis of manipulated photos and videos. Saliba explained that Photoshop, for example, "uses AI in the 'enhance' function as well as in editing". That's also the case for Lightroom, the photo editing programme that was used by France Unbowed. Lightroom explains on its site that it uses AI to improve the sharpness of images or to adjust " colours and tones'. After a careful analysis of the image using both detection algorithms and analysis of the shadows, GetReal concluded that the photo posted by Mélenchon is 'real'. A number of other AI-detection tools also did not conclude that the flags were AI-generated, including the algorithms developed by a European research and development project focused on disinformation analysis. "None of these algorithms shows any sign of AI generation in these images,' said Denis Teyssou, the editorial lead at AFP's Medialab and "We are looking for something tangible, especially signs left by image generators in the signal,' he said, unlike other AI detectors, which might say that an image is likely generated by AI because of small edits on colour or contrast. Due to the proliferation of audio, video, and images generated by AI, numerous free AI-detection tools are now available. However, it is important to remain prudent as these tools can produce false positives, wrongly identifying content as artificially generated. This is a major challenge as most of these tools do not explain their criteria for detection, nor the technical aspects that led to images being detected as AI-generated.
