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The latest French city to declare that it won’t be erecting massive screens and fan zones for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar is Paris. Concerns about the host country’s ecology and human rights were mentioned.

On ethical concerns, Lille, Marseille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Reims are also abstaining from the competition. The event’s location in the winter, according to Pierre Rabadan, head of sport at Paris City Hall, was also taken into consideration. After the Socialist mayor of Lille, Martine Aubry, criticised the Qatar World Cup as “nonsense in terms of human rights, the environment, and sport,” the movement got underway on Saturday.

She laid the blame on worries about workers’ rights in Qatar, the allegedly high number of deaths among foreign employees, and the environmental impact of the stadiums, which are all outfitted with outside air conditioning, just like other mayors on the left and right.

A massive screening that was scheduled to take place in Marseille if France advanced to the final has since been cancelled.

The competition “has gradually converted itself into a human and environmental catastrophe, incompatible with the principles which we expect sport – and especially football – to promote,” the city’s socialist mayor, Benoit Payan, said.

Uncertainty surrounded the number of French cities actually setting up outdoor locations where fans could follow the development of the French team, the 2018 world champions in Russia.

The mayor of Angoulême in southwest France stated that his choice had more to do with finances than it did with Qatar’s human rights situation.

A huge screen costs “many tens of thousands of euros,” according to Xavier Bonnefont. “It seemed paradoxical to us to risk this sort of money at a time when we are trying to find economies to bear the escalating cost of energy,” he said.

“In any case, I don’t think many people would have shown up in the cold. In a bar, customers will be just as content.”

The number of boycott requests for the World Cup, which is being held in France from November 21 to December 18, has been rising, albeit they are still not widely accepted.

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Europe’s biggest tourist attraction, Disneyland Paris, will be hosting a mass Covid-19 vaccination site at its convention center as France is trying to speed up its inoculation drive, as the officials said Wednesday.

The amusement park was being closed since October 30, when non-essential businesses were asked to close amid a surge in infections, putting its 17,000 employees out of work. Later it had plans to re-admit visitors on April 2, but the conditions kept worsening forcing it to postpone. The vaccination site will be conducted outside the amusement park proper at its Newport Bay Club, a convention center near its hotel complex.

As per the reports, it will be run by local authorities and the regional ARS health center service and will be only on weekends. Its goal is to give shots to at least 10,000 people a day, wherein France aims to give at least one jab to 20 million people by mid-May.

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News

In a dramatic development, the administration of the European city of Paris has been filed for being ‘Too Feminist’.  

The fine has been imposed as against the action of the administration to appoint women to at least 69 per cent of the managerial roles under the administration.

The action contradicts the 2013 rule which requires the city administration to respect the gender equality in the area of employment.

The information regarding the fine has been publicised by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo herself. While speaking in the council, she has mocked the decision to impose fine against her administration.

She has expressed her happiness in the development.

The surprising development has triggered a serious discussion in the social media platform.

It is the first time that a city administration in the country has been fined for being ‘Too Feminist’.

It seems that the Paris Mayor considers the fine as a credit.

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News

A severe protest has broken out in the French city of Paris against a bill, seeking to make taking photos of police with malevolent intent a criminal offence.

The protesters have clashed with the police during the protest. The police have used violent methods to quell the protest. They have thrown tear gas shells at the protesters.

The violence has broken out when the protesters have thrown stone and fire workers at the police.

The opposition has strongly criticised the bill. They have termed the action as an attempt to undermine press freedom.

The government, at the same time, has defended the bill, saying that the bill was necessary to protect the officials from online abuse.

The protest is expected to spread swiftly to other locations in the country. It has already spread to Bordeaux, Montpellier, Lille and Nantes.   

Earlier, this week, footage emerged of three white policemen racially abusing and beating a black music producer.

The images, which show Michel Zecler being kicked and punched at his Paris studio, have shocked the nation.

French President Emanuel Macron termed the action unacceptable.

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News

Once again, an act of terror has occurred in connection with satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo – which came to spotlight after several journalists had been killed during a terror attack in the year 2015.

In the latest attack, at least two people has been injured. The latest has taken place just outside the office.

As many as seven people have been booked in connection with an attack in Paris.

The attack has been carried out with a meat cleaver.

Shockingly, the main suspect of the attack is a eighteen year old man from Pakistan.

He has been taken into custody by the Paris police from the crime scene itself.

It is alleged that the police have miscalculated the security threat emerged as part of a trial that opened up recently in connection with the 2015 attack.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said it was an act of Islamist terrorism.

The building where the attack take place is no longer occupied by Charlie Hebdo, through it had been the office of the magazine since the year 2015 when a terrorist ravaged the office.

It is at present occupied by a production company.

The latest development is seen seriously by the French government. It is expected that it will prompt the country to increase its security installations in several key locations.

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Over 400 doctors, nurses and medical staffs have entered the streets of the capital of France, Paris, to express their disagreement against the poor funding for the hospitals in the country.

As many as 50 healthcare workers have been charged in connection with the case and a small fine has been imposed against them.

Another three people have been booked in connection with the case. They may face strict legal action in the coming days.

Many have expressed their disagreement over the way in which the French authority has handled the issue.

The French police have justified their action on the ground that the protesters have violated the measures imposed to curb the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Several French citizens have come out openly with their support to the medical workers who have entered the streets of the country to express their plight.

The workers have demanded a reasonable hike in their wages.

The protest has brought the country in an unpleasant state. The protest is expected to trigger a serious discussion over this matter in the coming days.


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News

Paris is a favorite spot or photographers and instagrammers. ‘Rue Cremieux’, the pretty cobbled street has become a trending destination for instagrammers.

The residents of this street are disturbed by these activities. BBC reports that these residents are calling on the city council to restrict access at certain times.

Reports says that the residents of this street have requested the city council to provide a gate that can be closed at peak times – evenings, weekends and at sunrise and sunset.

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News

At least seven people had been dead in the Paris fire that occurred in a blaze at a residential building in western Paris on Monday night. Several people are reported to be injured during the accident. The fire broke out in an eight-storied building in the city’s fashionable 16th district.

The firefighters have evacuated the block on Erlanger Street at 3:30 a.m. local time. The seventh and eighth floors were still on fire as of Tuesday morning, when about 200 firefighters were on the scene, the news agency reported, citing the fire service.

Some of the people had scattered on to the nearby roofs to escape from the fire and smoke. About 200 firefighters were positioned at the accident area in order to escape the people trapped at the roofs. The surrounded buildings, which are close to the Eiffel Tower were also evacuated.

Sunaya Paison
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Crime News

Two Paris police officers, have been sent to jail for seven years for gang-raping a Canadian tourist women (39), at a renowned Paris police headquarters in 2014.

Nicolas Redouane (49), and Antoine Quirin (40) are jailed for seven years by a Paris court, three years after the case was put for another trial. The case has got wide media coverage in France and has been debating sexual assault and the Me Too movement.

The victim, is the daughter of a Canadian ex-detective. She said that she was raped by three, in which the third person could not be identified. Medical examinations were carried out for the case, and it showed that she was drunk during the rape. The police officers had always argued about the victim’s statements at the court.

One of the lawyers for the officers claimed that the DNA traces are not able to prove the rape. But a guard on duty told the trial that he had seen the lady afterwards in tears, saying that she had been raped by several officers. Paris prosecutor and Ms Spanton took the case, which was initially thrown out, for re appeal. The two officers will have to pay the victim €20,000 (£17,500; $22,900) in damages.

Sunaya Paison
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News Politics

A ground of youngsters wearing red scarves has organised counter-protest in the capital city of France, Paris, against the yellow-vest movement, which has been disturbing the political hemisphere of France with persistent violent protests for last few days in the name of a sudden hike in the price of fuel.

The youngsters’ group has identified itself as the red scarves. In the protest organised against the yellow-vest movement, as many as ten thousand people have participated.

A social media page created by the group has already attracted tens of thousands of French youngsters.

The group, it seems, is not against the demands the yellow-vest movement has raised, but is against the means the movement has followed to achieve the demands. In short, the red scarves are against the yellow-vest’s widely recognised mean of violent protests.

Yellow-vest protesters confront red scarves protesters in the latest rally.

The yellow-vest is the most powerful political movement the country has witnessed in the recent history. The movement appeals for a change in the way the establishment looks at the issues that directly affect the common people of France such as the fuel price hike and rent hikes.

The movement’s excessive reliance to violent means is what that makes these genuine appeals less audible among the common people who always prefer peace over violence.

The red scarves’ counter-protest has come a few hours after the yellow-vest announced its plan to contest in the upcoming European Union parliament election.

If someone is worried about this latest political development in France in connection with the rise of yellow-vest movement, it is none other than Emanuel Macron, the man who was inducted to the top post by the anti-establishment faction with the hope of developing an new system free from the clutches of establishment.

Definitely, that timing evokes suspension in many minds. Do you think the red scarves’ counter-protest will reduce the prospects of the yellow-vest members in the upcoming EU parliament election?

Vignesh. S. G
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