France will launch its first battery factory for electric cars on Tuesday, taking a big step in its race to build up a sector dominated by China.

French medical bodies on Sunday called on authorities to punish researcher Didier Raoult for “the largest ‘unauthorised’ clinical trial ever seen” into the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.

The final stretch of the world’s premier film festival has seen Cannes roll out the red carpet for a cavalcade of veteran auteurs, including two-time Palme d’Or laureate Ken Loach, past winners Wim Wenders and Nanni Moretti, and fellow Italian Marco Bellocchio, whose magnificent “Kidnapped” joined the list of frontrunners for this year’s top award. Meanwhile, the 1994 laureate Quentin Tarantino delighted his Riviera fans with a lengthy chat about his taste for violence in movies – provided no animals get hurt.

France confirmed its aim to launch a vaccination programme against bird flu in the autumn after results from a series of tests on the vaccination of ducks showed “satisfactory effectiveness”, the farm ministry said.

Paris police on Friday fired tear gas to disperse climate protesters trying to block an annual general meeting of French oil giant TotalEnergies.

French magistrates on Thursday filed preliminary charges against five French maritime rescue personnel in a probe of the deadly sinking of a flimsy migrant craft in the English Channel in 2021 that killed 27 people. 

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Wednesday that France faces an “uncivilising process”, a government source said, following the violent deaths of a nurse and three policemen and repeated attacks on elected officials.

The French government plans to move homeless people out of Paris ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in the capital, sparking criticism from some mayors of regional towns and villages which are expected to house them. 

The 2024 summer Olympics in Paris will mark the first time an opening ceremony has not been held inside a stadium – instead, the extravaganza will unfold along the River Seine, with spectators lining streets and bridges in the heart of the French capital. The plan is not without risks, and organisers revealed extensive safety protocols on Tuesday.  

France is to try 19 men over a people-smuggling plot that led to the 2019 deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in the back of a lorry, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

France on Tuesday formally banned domestic flights on short routes that can be covered by train in less than two-and-a-half hours — a move aimed at reducing airline emissions that has also irked the industry.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be put on trial following “hundreds of thousands of deaths” and “chemical arms use” during the country’s civil war, the French foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Authorities on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte on Monday began demolishing homes in a large slum in an operation against sub-standard housing and illegal migration, AFP journalists saw.

A tsunami warning in the Pacific has been lifted after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck on Friday, sending many islanders fleeing the coast.

Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron over Europe’s priorities on Taiwan have raised questions over the EU’s relationship with both the U.S. and China, on the eve of his planned speech on the bloc’s sovereignty in The Netherlands.

Two bodies were found in the rubble of a building that collapsed in Marseille following a major explosion, French authorities said Monday, as rescue workers scrambled to find six people still unaccounted for.

Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by top French business executives, concluded his trip to China on Friday with a visit to the southern city of Canton, where he met with more Chinese investors. With trade talks on the agenda, several deals between companies from both countries have already been sealed during the French president’s first visit to China since the Covid-19 pandemic. A French economist shares with FRANCE 24 her insight on the concerns surrounding trade ties between Paris and Beijing.  

French prosecutors are seeking to try 14 people over the beheading of a teacher by an Islamic extremist in 2020, a crime that shocked France, a source close to the case told AFP on Friday.

A major exhibition opens in Paris on Friday that showcases some of the greatest treasures of Ancient Egypt. Called “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs”, the exhibition at the Grande Halle de la Villette displays among other wonders the sarcophagus of Ramses II. FRANCE 24’s Eve Jackson reports.

French President Emmanuel Macron meets students and dines with Xi Jinping in the southern city of Guangzhou Friday, wrapping up a three-day state visit to China that has been dominated by discussions of how Beijing could mediate the Ukraine conflict.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators hit French streets on Thursday for an eleventh day of protests and strikes against President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular pension reform, with protesters determined to keep up the pressure ahead of a key court ruling.

Protesters disrupted vehicle traffic at Paris’s main airport and police fired clouds of teargas in other French cities as people marched in their thousands in a new round of strikes and nationwide demonstrations Thursday, seeking to get President Emmanuel Macron to scrap pension reforms that have ignited a months-long firestorm of public anger. Follow FRANCE 24’s live blog for all the latest developments.

Like past Olympic host nations France plans to deploy soldiers for securing the 2024 summer games in Paris, but army and government sources have told AFP that they fear the forces being overloaded.

Prosecutors in Paris have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that pollution in the capital’s metro system is putting travellers’ lives at risk, an NGO and authorities said on Wednesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrive in Beijing on Wednesday for a three-day state visit in a bid to dissuade China from supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But will the latest European leaders to visit China be able to manage the fine balance between trade and geopolitics? 

French judges have ordered senior officials of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria to stand trial for collusion in crimes against humanity, a first in France, according to court documents seen by AFP Tuesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit China from Wednesday, hoping to dissuade Beijing from supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but without alienating a crucial trade and geopolitical player.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday France must improve the availability of palliative care and there would be a draft bill by the end of the summer on whether some form of assisted dying should be allowed.

Parisians voted Sunday in a referendum to ban self-service e-scooter rentals in the French capital. While they have become commonplace since they were first introduced in 2018, a rising accident toll has hardened attitudes towards the “trottinette”.

Self-service e-scooters have become commonplace on the streets of Paris since they were first introduced five years ago, but irresponsible use and a rising accident toll have hardened city hall’s attitude towards the popular mode of transport. On April 2 residents in the capital will vote on whether to ban them altogether.

France’s hard-left CGT union has elected its first woman leader, two CGT sources told Reuters on Friday. 

A tenth of people living in France in 2021 were born foreigners, national statistics agency INSEE said on Thursday, in its first study on immigration in a decade.

French President Emmanuel Macron sought to rally citizens around a plan to save water on Thursday and stressed that protests will not stop reforms, in a nod to both climate change and an unpopular pension bill.

A woman in northern France is to be put on trial on charges of insulting President Emmanuel Macron after describing him as ‘filth’ in a Facebook post, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. The woman risks a fine of 12,000 euros but not prison if convicted at the trial due to be held in June.

Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally or RN) party hopes to use the national crisis to continue its long ascent in French politics, adopting a balancing act as its strategy. RN opposes President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms along with most of the French public, while presenting itself as the party of order by condemning public disorder.

Nearly two weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron rammed pension reforms through parliament, hundreds of thousands of people are set to take part in strikes and demonstrations across France on Tuesday. The day of action called by unions is the tenth such mobilisation since protests erupted in mid-January against the law, which includes raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. Follow FRANCE 24’s live coverage of the protests. All times are Paris time (GMT + 1)

Annie Ernaux, the 2022 Nobel literature laureate, has backed calls for a thorough investigation after four female students said they were sexually assaulted by police in the western city of Nantes following a protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply contentious pension reform.

French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Monday is set to start a series of consultations over the next three weeks with opposition MPs, political parties and local leaders after weeks of protests over pension reforms.

They ride in pairs, are armed with handguns, expandable batons and tear gas grenades, and have been specially trained to prevent protests from spiralling out of control. But since France’s pension protests began, officers belonging to France’s special Brav-M motorbike unit have increasingly been accused of taking the law into their own hands, intimidating and threatening people, and in some cases, resorting to the use of excessive force.

France’s National Assembly is due to adopt a law on Tuesday ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Article 7 is the most controversial aspect of this law, as it will allow AI video surveillance to be used to detect abnormal behaviour. Human rights organisations and the French left have condemned the measure.  

French security forces again clashed with protesters Saturday as campaigners sought to stop the construction of reservoirs for the agricultural industry in the southwest of the country, AFP correspondents said.

Fury at President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to bypass parliament on pension reform has sparked days of unrest across the country, reviving scrutiny of police’s heavy-handed tactics and leaving French cities shrouded in tear gas and smoke – with no end in sight to an increasingly bitter standoff.

Britain’s King Charles on Friday cancelled a state visit to France after social unrest over President Emmanuel Macron’s new pension law erupted into some of the worst street violence seen in years across the country.

French protesters downed their tools and marched once again in Paris and other cities on Thursday, galvanised by President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to ram his deeply unpopular pension reform through parliament without a vote, in what critics have branded a “denial of democracy”.

French public sector trade unionists have warned they will not provide red carpets during the visit of Britain’s King Charles III to Paris next week, but non-striking workers are expected to roll them out. 

President Emmanuel Macron will go live on television Wednesday, hoping to heal deep divisions across France caused by a brutal fight over his pensions reform that has dented his popularity.

After the French government this week survived two no-confidence votes sparked by the use of special executive power to push pension reforms through parliament, President Emmanuel Macron faces public outrage and constitutional appeals amid swirling rumours of a dissolution of parliament, a change of government and even a referendum on the new retirement measures. FRANCE 24 takes stock of what’s next in French politics.

French President Emmanuel Macron told allies Tuesday he plans to keep the government in place and not dissolve parliament, defying opponents and widespread public anger over his pensions reform. 

Dozens of people were arrested across France after sporadic protests broke out hours after President Emmanuel Macron’s government narrowly survived a no-confidence motion in parliament on Monday over a deeply unpopular pension reform. 

Protests erupted across France on Monday night, hours after the government adopted deeply unpopular pension reforms after surviving two no-confidence votes. Opposition lawmakers have vowed to continue their fight against the new law. Follow FRANCE 24’s live coverage of the proceedings. All times are Paris time [GMT+1].

Olivier Dubois, a French journalist who was abducted in Mali’s Gao region (north) on April 8, 2021 by the al Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), was released on Monday and taken to neighbouring Niger. Dubois’s release came as US hostage Jeff Woodke was freed after more than six years in captivity in Africa. 

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Monday faces two motions of no confidence in the National Assembly lower house, after forcing through an unpopular pension reform last week without a vote. 

French President Emanuel Macron faces a critical test on Monday when the National Assembly is due to examine no-confidence motions filed after his government bypassed parliament on Thursday to push through a deeply unpopular pension reform, sparking days of unrest.

Several consequences could follow the French government’s use of Article 49.3 of the constitution to pass President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform without a vote in the National Assembly on Thursday. They include no-confidence motion against the government, the dissolution of the Assembly, and ongoing street protests. FRANCE 24 breaks down the options for the opposition and the president.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s move to force through his deeply unpopular pension reform, without a vote in parliament, could rekindle social unrest reminiscent of the Yellow Vest movement, union leaders and analysts have warned as protests continue to sweep the country.

In an interview with FRANCE 24 after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan said it was an important day for international justice. The warrant marked “the first time ever that a head of state from a P5 has been charged” by the international court, said Khan referring to the UN Security Council’s permanent five members.

Widespread rejection of French President Emmanuel Macron’s planned pension overhaul was a key factor in his failure to win a parliamentary majority following his re-election last year. His decision to ram through his deeply unpopular reform, without a vote, turns an already festering dispute into a political and institutional crisis.

The amount of trash uncollected on Paris streets due to a waste workers strike has surged to 10,000 tonnes, despite efforts to force them back to duty, authorities said Friday. 

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi announced on Thursday it would cut the US price of its most prescribed insulin by 78 percent, falling in line with two other major drug makers.