Author: Jourdain David

PARIS — The Palace of Versailles and three airports in cities across France were evacuated for security reasons and temporarily closed Wednesday, the latest in a spate of evacuations in the past five days around France. The former royal chateau of Versailles apologized to visitors for forcing them to evacuate from the sumptuous 17th-century palace “for security reasons.” The tourist attraction said on X, formerly Twitter, that it reopened hours later after checks. It was the third time since the weekend that the palace had to evacuate visitors. Meanwhile three airports in the cities of Lyon, Toulouse and Lille received emailed threats Wednesday,…

PARIS — The sumptuous Palace of Versailles was forced to evacuate visitors for the fourth time in less than a week for a security check after a bomb alert. Airports and schools around France also fell victim to bomb alerts and forced evacuations after similar warnings a day earlier. Even a nuclear research institute received a threat Thursday. Pranksters or plotters? No bombs have been found, but authorities can’t take risks with the lives of travelers, students or workers. Still, the government is growing impatient, threatening prison terms and heavy fines for those making fake bomb threats. A rash of false…

ROME, Nov 6 – Italy, France and Germany on Monday have reached a deal underpinning future launches of the delayed Ariane 6 and Avio’s (AVI.MI) smaller Vega-C rockets, Italy’s industry minister said. Europe’s new heavyweight launcher built by ArianeGroup – an Airbus-Safran (AIR.PA), (SAF.PA) joint-venture – has been delayed by technical glitches and is due to stage its first test launch in 2024, four years behind the original plan. The previous generation of rockets for heavy payloads, Ariane 5, was retired in July. Beyond resolving the immediate technical problems, European states have been at odds over medium-term budgets and schedules stretching beyond the…

The evacuations at Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse and Beauvais airport near Paris would allow authorities to “clear up any doubts” that the threats might be real, the source said. The incidents followed other bomb threats in France since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and Friday’s fatal stabbing of a teacher in the northern city of Arras by a man claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group. The Palace of Versailles, one of France’s most visited tourist attractions, was evacuated Wednesday because of a security scare for the third time in five days. A spokesman for France’s DGAC aviation authority confirmed evacuations over bomb warnings only at…

John Bellinger, co-chair of Arnold & Porter’s Global Law and Public Policy group, was awarded France’s Ordre national du Mérite (National Order of Merit) on October 18, 2023, for his contributions to international law. “More than ever, we need people like John who bring international law to life by using it to pursue peace,” Ambassador of France to the United States Laurent Bili said while presenting Bellinger with the distinction. France’s National Order of Merit, the country’s highest award for non-French nationals, is given to individuals who demonstrate “acts of devotion, bravery, generosity, real merit or a measurable commitment to…

ARRAS, France — A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by French security services over suspected Islamic radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and wounded three other people Friday in northern France, authorities said. France raised its threat alert to its highest level, and the attack was being investigated by anti-terrorism prosecutors amid soaring global tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas. It also happened almost three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a radicalized Chechen near a Paris area school. The suspected attacker had been under surveillance since the summer on…

A French museum says it has fixed a waxwork of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson after he complained about it. The Grevin Museum in Paris proudly revealed the life-sized figure of the wrestler-turned-actor earlier this month and got a wave of criticism back. One of the biggest was over the model’s skin tone, with fans accusing the creator of “whitewashing” the star, who has dual heritage. After The Rock joined the pile-on, museum bosses vowed to “rework” it. He called on them to update the model “with some important details, starting with my skin colour”. The Grevin Museum has since accepted that The…

For a man who died in 1890, Vincent van Gogh seemed remarkably au fait with 21st-century parlance. Asked why he had cut off his left ear, the artist replied that this was a misconception and he had in fact only cut off “part of my earlobe”. So why did he shoot himself in the chest with a revolver, causing injuries from which he died two days later? “This is still a subject of speculation among historians and specialists. The truth of my motivation remains a mystery even to me. Thank you for understanding my mental health struggles,” he says. This is artificial…

The UK director of the campaign group Cage has claimed he has been deported from Poland at the behest of French authorities because he criticised Emmanuel Macron’s government for Islamophobia. Muhammad Rabbani, who heads a group that campaigns on behalf of those affected by the “war on terror”, was due to give a speech this week at an international security conference in Warsaw that would have been critical of France’s handling of anti-government protests. But he was detained and then deported back to the UK on Monday night. He claimed France shared information about him with the Polish authorities. In…

In the usually bustling “Little Jerusalem” area of Sarcelles, north of Paris, the popular falafel and grill restaurant was eerily quiet. “People are not going out,” said Jérémy, the 33-year-old restaurant owner. Lunchtime and evening crowds are common in one of the largest Jewish communities on the Paris outskirts. But many thought it wiser to stay at home, fearing a growing number of antisemitic incidents in France and across Europe since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza. In France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, police recorded more than 320 physical acts of antisemitism, and…