Author: Philibert Dupont

The military putsch in Niger on 26 July, which ousted the democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum, is a pivotal event with local, regional and global consequences. Immediately, of course, it matters most in Niger itself and to its estimated 27 million inhabitants, whose average income per capita is among the lowest in Africa. Nevertheless, in an unstable multipolar world in which geopolitics and natural resources are umbilically linked, and in which climate damage and migration are intertwined too, Niger is inescapably also a pawn on larger boards. Mr Bazoum, who was elected in 2021, had achievements to his name. The economy is growing…

At the start of Paris Memories, Alice Winocour’s thoughtful drama about coping with trauma in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, Mia (Virginie Efira) drops a water glass. It smashes into fragments that Mia, sighing with annoyance, collects and discards. It’s a seemingly banal moment, given a slight sense of unease by the evocative choice of music – Arvo Pärt’s pensive Fratres for strings and percussion – but it foreshadows Mia’s own fate. A stylish, self-assured translator who is fluent in Russian, she finds herself completely broken by the experience of being caught in a terrorist attack on a busy Paris brasserie. Three…

Heavy rain in Paris has led to the cancellation of a swimming event on the River Seine that was to be a test for the Olympic Games next year, but organisers insist the waterway will be better prepared in 2024. The Open Water Swimming World Cup event was aborted because “the water quality in the Seine has remained below acceptable standards for safeguarding swimmers’ health”, the French Swimming Federation said on Sunday in a statement. Water quality falls below acceptable standards when rain causes overflows of untreated waste into the Seine. Paris is spending massively on water-management projects that officials say will make pollution caused by…

During the working trip to Washington, D.C., Minister of National Economy Alibek Kuantyrov met with the leading experts of the World Bank on taxation, human capital development, infrastructure, fair economic growth and green economy, for discussing the areas of further joint work, Azernews reports, citing Kazinform. Director of Strategy and Operations for Europe and Central Asia region at the World Bank Carolina Sánchez-Páramo noted the importance of the joint work of the Kazakh Government and the World Bank on achievement of sustainable development of the economy of Kazakhstan and Central Asian region by implementing various reforms and implementation of the…

The pop star will play twenty-six stadium dates, including four nights at Wembley, following huge success in the US leg of the career-spanning tour Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, whose three-hour, career-spanning shows have made it a huge critical and commercial success in the US, is to arrive in the UK and Europe. The tour encompasses 26 stadium dates, beginning 9 May 2024 in Paris, followed by gigs in Stockholm, Madrid, Lisbon and Lyon. The UK leg then begins on 7 June with two dates in Edinburgh, followed by two in Liverpool, one in Cardiff, and two in London’s Wembley Stadium. Dublin, Amsterdam, Zurich,…

President Emmanuel Macron has loosened labour laws and cut taxes among other reforms to transform the economy, but has not broken France’s addiction to spending big to buy social peace. Eager to turn the page on months of protests against his plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 64, Macron promised last month to cut taxes on the middle class by 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion). With France’s debt among the highest in Europe at nearly 110% of economic output, his plans met with stern warnings from the public audit office and the central bank that France…

A delegation from the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) led by its Vice President Nguyen Thi Minh Huong paid a working visit to France from May 30 to June 1, during which they met and discussed with representatives from international organisations and Vietnamese associations in France. On June 1, the delegation and Ambassador Le Thi Hong Van, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to UNESCO, met Chairperson of the UNESCO’s Executive Board Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili and Begona Lasagabaster, Director of UNESCO Division of Gender Equality. VWU Vice President Nguyen Thi Minh Huong informed the UNESCO officials about the guidelines and policies of Vietnam…

Hundreds of practitioners gathered in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a commune located in the western suburbs of Paris, last weekend as the fifth edition of the Taichi Demonstration and Xiang’bo International tournament took place. Yuan Zumou, the organizer of the event, has been promoting Taichi and other kinds of classic Chinese martial arts like wrestling, or “Shuai Jiao” in Chinese, in France for over three decades. “In European countries like France and Italy, more and more people are learning Taichi, but it was usually more popular among senior people,” Yuan said. “This is why I try to combine Taichi and traditional Chinese wrestling.…

Some House Foreign Affairs Committee members appeared grossly dissatisfied with a briefing on the State Department’s Afghanistan dissent cable, with one representative going so far as to call it “insulting” to the fallen or forgotten Americans in Kabul.   “Today’s briefing by the State Department wasn’t only insufficient and incomplete, it was an insult to the fallen in Afghanistan and every American who was abandoned there by Joe Biden,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital in exclusive comments. “What we read today puts the lie to everything Joe Biden has said,” he added, stressing that the Biden Administration “has…

In the final months of 2023, the price of medical appointments in France will rise. Here’s the new price structure and how reimbursement will work. France’s Ministry of Health announced in April that rates for some medical consultations will increase in the final months of 2023. It will take approximately six months for the new rules to be applied, with the earliest possible date of application being around the end of October, according to AFP. There are basically two areas to charging in French healthcare – appointments with medical professionals and then the cost of any treatment (medication, tests, scans…