Page 37 - France

More than 780,000 take part in French May Day protests over pension reform

On April 14, France's Constitutional Council ruled that the legal retirement age would be gradually raised from 62 to 64 by 2030

May Day Protest: World's workers rally, France sees pension anger

People squeezed by inflation and demanding economic justice took to the streets across Asia and Europe to mark May Day on Monday, in a global outpouring of worker discontent not seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic sent the world into lockdowns. French police charged at radical protesters smashing bank windows as unions pushed the president to scrap a higher retirement age. South Koreans pleaded for higher wages. Spanish lawyers demanded the right to take days off. Migrant domestic workers in Lebanon marched in a country plunged in economic crisis. While May Day is marked around the world on May 1 as a celebration of labour rights, this year's rallies tapped into broader frustrations. Climate activists spray painted a Louis Vuitton museum in Paris, and protesters in Germany demonstrated against violence targeting women and LGBTQ+ people. Celebrations were forced indoors in Pakistan and tinged with political tensions in Turkey, as both countries face high-stakes elections. Russi

ChatGPT back in Italy after meeting watchdog demands, says OpenAI

ChatGPT's maker said on Friday that the artificial intelligence chatbot is available again in Italy after the company met the demands of regulators who temporarily blocked it over privacy concerns. OpenAI said it fulfilled a raft of conditions that the Italian data protection authority wanted satisfied by an April 30 deadline to have the ban on the AI software lifted. ChatGPT is available again to our users in Italy, San Francisco-based OpenAI said by email. We are excited to welcome them back, and we remain dedicated to protecting their privacy. Generative AI systems like ChatGPT, which use vast pools of online data like digital books, blog posts and other media to generate text, images and other content mimicking human work, have created buzz in the tech world and beyond. But their rapid development has stirred fears among officials and even tech leaders about possible ethical and societal risks, with European Union negotiators scrambling to update draft artificial intelligence

Luxury brand LVMH's market value surpasses $500 bn, a first in Europe

Shares of Paris-based LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, as the company is formally known, climbed 0.3% to €903.70 at 10:43 a.m. Monday, valuing the company at €454 billion ($500 billion)

France evacuates 27 people including some Indian nationals from Sudan

France has evacuated some Indians along with citizens of 27 other countries as part of its evacuation mission from violence-hit Sudan. The French embassy in New Delhi said on Monday that 388 people from 28 countries, including India, were evacuated. "French evacuation operations are underway. Last night, two military flight rotations evacuated 388 people of 28 countries, including Indian nationals," it tweeted. The number of Indians evacuated by France is not immediately known. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia said it has evacuated from Sudan 66 citizens from "brotherly and friendly" foreign countries that included a few Indian nationals. People familiar with the matter said in New Delhi that Saudi Arabia evacuated three Indians, who were part of the crew of a Saudi flight and stuck in Sudanese capital Khartoum. Sudan has been witnessing deadly fighting between the country's army and a paramilitary group for the last 11 days that has reportedly left around 400 people dead. India has alre

Sudan war intensifies, countries start evacuation drive, rescue operations

Countries have started to evacuate their stranded citizens as fierce fighting continues to rage in Khartoum, with France being the latest one to evacuate around 100 people of multiple nationalities

Hundreds of firefighters battle France's 1st major forest fire of 2023

Hundreds of firefighters are steadily wrestling under control France's first major forest fire of the year, which has ripped through swaths of woods and scrub straddling the country's southern border with Spain. Rescue services spokesman Arnaud Wilm told broadcaster FranceInfo on Monday morning that the blaze is being successfully contained and that its biggest flames have been extinguished but fire crews have yet to completely stop its spread and put it out. He said more than 500 firefighters remain on hand. The blaze erupted Sunday and burned on hundreds of hectares (acres) of land between Banyuls-sur-Mer and Cerbre on the Mediterranean coast, and spread across the border into Spain.

Despite heavy protests, French Prez Macron signs pension reform into law

French President Emmanuel Macron, despite severe protests across the country, has signed a pension bill into law to raise the country's retirement age by two years, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday

President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular pension plan enacted into French law

French President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular plan to raise France's retirement age from 62 to 64 was enacted into law Saturday, the day after the country's constitutional body approved the change. Macron's signature and publication in the Official Journal of the French Republic allowed the law to enter into force. On Friday, the Constitutional Council rejected some parts of the government's pension legislation but approved the higher minimum retirement age, which was central to Macron's plan and the focus of opponents' protests. The nine-member council's decision capped months of tumultuous debates in parliament and fervour in the streets. Spontaneous demonstrations took place in Paris and across the country after the ruling. France's main labour unions, which organised 12 nationwide protests since January in hopes of defeating the plan, have vowed to continue fighting until it is withdrawn. They called for another mass protest on May 1, which is International Workers' Day. The .

Emmanuel Macron's controversial pension reform passes constitutional test

Macron and his government will hope such an outcome would discourage further trade union-led protests, which have at times turned violent

French constitutional council yet to rule on higher retirement age

An elite French institution was expected to rule on Friday on whether President Emmanuel Macron's contested plan to raise the retirement age is constitutional, a decision that could calm or further enrage opponents of the change. All eyes were on the heavily guarded Constitutional Council, which can nix all or parts of a complex pension reform plan that Macron pushed through without a vote by the lower house of parliament. Spontaneous demonstrations were likely around France ahead of the nine-member court's ruling. The president's drive to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 has provoked months of labour strikes and protests. Violence by pockets of ultra-left radicals marked the 12 otherwise peaceful nationwide marches that unions organised since January. In addition to ruling on the pension reforms, the Constitutional Council also will decide on a request by lawmakers who oppose the plan to use a little-used and lengthy process that could ultimately lead to a referendum on a

IAF to deploy four Rafale jets in first overseas exercise in France

India will deploy four Rafale jets, two C-17 aircraft and two IL-78 mid-air refuellers for a nearly three-week multinational air exercise at France's Mont-de-Marsan military base. It will be the first overseas exercise for the Indian Air Force's Rafale jets. The contingent of the Indian Air Force will leave for France on Friday. "An Indian Air Force (IAF) contingent will be departing tomorrow for France to participate in Exercise Orion at Mont-de-Marsan," the IAF said. "The exercise will be conducted from April 17 to May 5 with the IAF contingent comprising four Rafale jets, two C-17, two ll-78 aircraft and 165 air warriors. Besides the IAF and the French Air and Space Force (FASF), the exercise will be participated by air forces from Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States. "Participation in this exercise would further enrich the employment philosophy of the India Air Force, by imbibing the best practices from other Air Forces," t

India, France's trade ministers discuss progress on India-EU trade pact

Trade ministers of India and France have held discussions related to the ongoing talks for a free trade agreement between India and the European Union, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was here to attend India-France Business Summit and CEOs roundtable meet. He held bilateral meetings with several CEOs and French minister for Foreign Trade, Economic Attractiveness and French Nationals Abroad Olivier Becht. The ministers discussed priority areas related to India - EU FTA (free trade agreement) negotiations where issues related to market access were deliberated," it said. Goyal also said India is looking to buy 2,000 commercial aircraft in the next 10 years and there is a huge opportunity to make commercial aircraft in India to meet domestic and international demand. With the purchase of Rafale and the recent Airbus order, more value has been added to this partnership, he added. In January last year, India and the EU resumed ...

France's Macron calls for 'European sovereignty' during Netherlands visit

French President Emmanuel Macron emphasised the importance of 'European sovereignty' during his visit to the Netherlands

India deeply values strategic partnership with France: Piyush Goyal

The minister further noted that this year India is celebrating 25 years of partnership with France and 75 years of India's Independence

Goyal to hold meetings with Italy, France leaders next week to boost trade

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will hold a series of meetings with leaders and top CEOs of France and Italy next week during his three-day visit to these two countries to further boost trade and investment ties. The minister will be on an official visit to France (Paris) and Italy (Rome) on April 11-13. He will be accompanied by a delegation of top Indian CEOs. In France, Goyal along with Olivier Becht, Minister delegate of Foreign Trade, Attractiveness and French Nationals Abroad, Government of France, will co-chair the India-France Business Summit on April 11, the commerce ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The summit will focus on various themes, including building a green future, emerging technologies, defence cooperation and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific regions, it added. Goyal is also scheduled to meet with French business leaders across various sectors and will attend a CEOs roundtable. Both Indian and French ministers will participate in an event that

French court of appeal rules against extradition of Ukrainian billionaire

A French court of appeal ruled Thursday not to extradite to Ukraine the Ukrainian billionaire businessman Kostyantin Zhevago, who was temporarily detained in France in December. Ukraine's National Bureau of Investigation had said Zhevago, who owns a majority stake in mining group Ferrexpo, was wanted on suspicion of embezzlement and money laundering related to the bankruptcy of Ukrainian bank Finance and Credit. Zhevago was detained in Courchevel, a ski resort in the French Alps. At the time, French judicial officials in Chambery said he was detained pending a formal request for extradition by Ukraine which was ultimately refused. Zhevago was released under judicial supervision in France in January. The court in Chambery said Thursday it had an unfavourable opinion on the extradition request. Zhevago's lawyers said in a joint statement that beyond the respect of the human rights, this decision carries the mark of good sense. The decision can be appealed at the Court of Cassation

In Macron's France, streets and fields seethe with protest against him

A big day has come for French high school student Elisa Fares. At age 17, she is taking part in her first protest. In a country that taught the world about people power with its revolution of 1789 and a country again seething with anger against its leaders graduating from bystander to demonstrator is a generations-old rite of passage. Fares looks both excited and nervous as she prepares to march down Paris streets where people for centuries have similarly defied authority and declared: Non! Two friends, neither older than 18 but already protest veterans whose parents took them to demonstrations when they were little, are showing Fares the ropes. They've readied eyedrops and gas masks in case police fire tear gas as they have done repeatedly in recent weeks. The French are known for fighting and we'll fight," says one of the friends, Coline Marionneau, also 17. My mother goes to a lot of demonstrations ... She says if you have things to say, you should protest. For French Preside

Over 1 mn people join nationwide protests against pension reform in France

More than one million people in France joined nationwide protests, rejecting the government's proposed pension reform bill that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64

Macron pushes forward controversial pension reform despite tensions

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that his government's controversial pension reform plan should become law before the end of the year