Author: Looys Martel

France is planning to use social media influencers to encourage tourists to stay away from some of the country’s most popular destinations. The country’s new campaign will promote some of its lesser-known destinations in a bid to combat overtourism. In 2019, before the pandemic, over 90 million international tourists visited France and it’s the world’s most visited country. Destinations under pressure from tourist hordes include Mont Saint-Michel and venues featured in the Netflix series, Emily in Paris. The cliffs of Étretat in Normandy are also on the list after they became popular since being used as a location in Lupin. France’s tourism minister,…

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Saturday it was “essential” to renew dialogue with China to avoid “misunderstandings” that could lead to a conflict between the two superpowers. The United States had invited Austin’s Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu to meet on the sidelines of a defence summit in Singapore, but the Pentagon said Beijing declined. A member of China’s delegation told AFP that the removal of US sanctions on its minister is a precondition for talks. “The United States believes that open lines of communication with the People’s Republic of China are essential — especially between our defence and…

Is French romance really full of dangerous liaisons and the legendary ‘cinq à sept’? 1. Le couple The concept of dating is not really current in France. You hang out with someone, you talk to them a bit, have some laughs, maybe get a bit pie-eyed together, indulge in some skin-on-skin action and that is it, you are a couple. It’s all cool. There’s no need to spell it out. Et voilà! 2. L’amour However exciting or humdrum their private lives might be, French people can give the impression that they are having illicit liaisons with a variety of amazing…

French authorities have put up for sale a luxurious multi-million-euro chateau seized from the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky who died in 2013 and was a sworn opponent of President Vladimir Putin, the agency handling confiscated assets said Friday. Berezovsky acquired the Chateau de la Garoupe on the Cote d’Azur in the 1990s while post-Soviet Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin was in power and the tycoon was considered one of the most powerful people in the country. But it was confiscated by French authorities in 2015, two years after Berezovsky was found dead in exile at his home in England in…

Representatives of the State Customs Service of Turkmenistan met with representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program on the CAREC Advanced Transit System and Information Common Exchange (CATS/ICE) project. During the meeting, the parties discussed further practical steps for implementation, reviewed the text of the Memorandum of Understanding on CATS/ICE, and also announced the appointment of the State Customs Service of Turkmenistan as the coordinating body for this project. CATS/ICE is an Electronic System for controlling the movement of transit goods through the CAREC member States (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, People’s Republic of…

Rafale jets of India and France have been jointly carrying out aerial drills as part of a multinational air exercise at the French airbase of Mont-de-Marsan, officials said on Tuesday. Shivangi Singh, the Indian Air Force’s first woman Rafale pilot is part of the Indian team that is participating in the Exercise Orion, they said. In January, Squadron Leader Avani Chaturvedi scripted history by becoming the first IAF woman fighter pilot to take part in an aerial wargame abroad. Ms Chaturvedi, a Su-30MKI pilot, was part of the IAF’s contingent that participated in the 16-day mega air combat exercise with…

Western deliveries of weapons to Kyiv are not a guarantee of the success of the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). This was reported by The New York Times on Thursday . According to her, the Ukrainian military admits that Western weapons “are not a guarantee of success” because Russia still retains an advantage in heavy weapons, aviation and armored vehicles. “I don’t know where the Russians have so much artillery from <…>. We can’t even leave our positions, the fire is so intense,” the Ukrainian military said. “I’m not going to say that everything is going well <…>. We have lost our…

FlyArystan, a Kazakh low-cost flight operator, will launch direct flights from Astana, Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent, trend reports, citing FlyArystan. The air carrier says that the first flight on Astana – Tashkent – Astana route is scheduled for July 3, 2023. Regular flights in this direction will be carried on Airbus A320/neo aircraft, twice a week – on Mondays and Wednesdays. The price of the one-way ticket in this direction is set at 21,800 Kazakh tenge ($48). The price includes a seat and the right to carry one piece of luggage. The tickets can be purchased via the company…

France’s highest court ruled Tuesday against extraditing 10 former far-left militants who were convicted of attacks in Italy carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. The two women and eight men fled Italy after their convictions and before they could be sent to prison. Now ranging in age from 62 to 79, they have lived freely in France for decades. The crimes of which they were convicted include the killing of a Carabinieri paramilitary general and the kidnapping of a judge, both in 1980. A Paris court also had ruled against their extraditions, and the decision was appealed last year. But Tuesday’s decision by…

At the Place de la Bastille, young people have jumped onto the monumental turquoise pillar, setting off colorful smoke bombs. Reggae music blares out of trade union truck speakers, and a Brazilian drumming group has everyone dancing. It’s not exactly 1789 and the storming of the Bastille, but it is apropos. After all, it was here that the French revolution began. “We think and we hope that these protests will do something,” says Linda Blanchard, a psychiatric nurse who is only a few years from retiring, and is one of the more than 1 million nationwide expressing their discontent with…