The mayors of seven major French cities say they have been “backed up against a wall” by an unending influx of refugees. Paris must address the strain on the areas, which are struggling to accommodate new arrivals, they wrote.

The mayors of Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Rennes, Toulouse and Nantes have called out the government for inaction, asking it to do more to tackle the refugee crisis. The resources at the mayors’ disposal are far from adequate to cover the needs of asylum seekers who want to stay at already-overcrowded shelters, the mayors wrote in an article to Le Monde on Saturday.

Parisians are up in arms over hundreds of migrants sleeping on their streets, queuing up in long lines, day and night, while waiting for their asylum requests to be processed, and some residents say they will start a hunger strike if the unkempt street camps are not removed.

Locals in the 10 and 19th districts, located near the famous Sacré-Cœur Basilica, are urging authorities to relocate a center that processes asylum requests in northern Paris, voicing their concern over the unsanitary and unhygienic conditions migrants are forced to live in.

“We had to install this fence to protect our communal parking from liters and liters of urine – this obviously cost money. And this was the only solution we came up with, but it is not sufficient,” Oscar, a concerned resident, told RT.

A NATIONALIST coalition won a majority in the regional elections on the French island of Corsica and it is now calling for President Macron to negotiate the island’s independence.

EMMANUEL Macron and Angela Merkel are in conflict over the EU as France’s plans for a “United States of Europe” move forward.

EMMANUEL Macron could face a tough new challenger after populist candidate Laurent Wauquiez was elected president of France’s Conservative party in a landslide victory.

“Is it right that Parisian streets bear the names of slavers and generals who made racist remarks?” asks a book to be published next month, whose Communist authors hope to launch an all-out war on the riot-plagued French capital’s heritage.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have gathered in the centre of Paris to protest against the upcoming visit of Benjamin Netanyahu to the French capital. The Israeli Prime Minister is due to meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday.

People carrying Palestinian flags gathered in Place de la République in the capital on Saturday, as seen from photos and videos on social media. Some protestors were holding signs reading “Boycott Israel” and “Free Palestine.” Others held banners saying that US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu “follow Nazi steps”.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit Paris and meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday amid a global uproar after US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

Activists from the Sud-Education 93 teachers union are preparing to hold educational training which white French residents will be excluded from attending to discuss the problem of racism on the state level. Speaking to Russian journalist Igor Gashkov, opponents of this exclusionary policy outlined why it amounts to "racism in reverse."

The EU has managed to prolong the license for Monsanto's controversial glyphosate weed killer for five years with Germany's unexpected support, but the French president vowed to ban it in France within three years.

“I have asked the government to take the necessary measures for the use of glyphosate to be banned in France as soon as alternatives are found, and at the latest in three years,” Macron said on Twitter, supplementing the statement with the hashtag #MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain.

A car carrying migrants sped toward police officers in the northern French city of Calais, with at least one serviceman receiving injuries, the LCI broadcaster reported on Saturday night. The incident took place when the officers stopped the vehicle to carry out the search of the car.

"As a result of the hit, an officer received a knee injury, [after which] security forces had to open fire," local authorities said as quoted by the broadcaster.

FRANCE is growing increasingly impatient over Angela Merkel's failure to form a government - as politicians in Paris raise the possibility of finally resolving its "over-reliance" on Germany.

FRENCH president Emmanuel Macron once again seized the opportunity to elevate the role of France in global affairs on Thursday by saying that his country was only “great” when it was open to the world, adding that he had taken his foreign policy inspiration from former conservative president Jacques Chirac.

In a bizarre turn of events, the group of “free thinkers” that fought to have a cross removed from public property in northwest France is now fighting to save a mosque.

On November 9, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a press conference in Dubai that the Iranian nuclear deal must be preserved, but needed several amendments. In particular, Macron proposed that Iran should engage in talks on its "extremely dangerous" ballistic program, as well as on determination of limitations on the nuclear program.

The UK will give more taxpayers’ money to France to stop a wave of migrants following a surge in attempted illegal crossings, according to French officials.

Though the Home Office has not confirmed how much would be handed over to ensure continued security in the region, operations at Eurotunnel terminals and ports in Coquelles, Calais, and Dunkirk alone could cost up to £80 million, reports The Times.

Last week, Home Secretary Amber Rudd met with the Minister of the Interior of France, Gérard Collomb, in London to discuss the border. A Home Office spokesman later confirmed that the UK will “work closely with the French authorities at all levels to reduce migrant pressures”.

The Russian diplomatic mission in France is working to facilitate the release of Senator Suleiman Kerimov, who was detained in Nice late on Monday. Moscow has called the move “a provocation.”

“Russia’s foreign missions in France are currently in constant contact with the French authorities, pushing for an immediate release of Kerimov,” Anna Slychkova, spokeswoman for the Russian embassy in France, said.

According to Slychkova, the member of the Russian upper house was detained and “transferred to a police station” after arriving from Moscow to Nice late on Monday.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that it has informed French authorities that Kerimov is a Russian senator with a diplomatic passport, and as such, entitled to immunity.

MARINE Le Pen said France’s two leading right-wing parties, Front National and The Republicans, should form a strategic political alliance to counter centrist president Emmanuel Macron’s radical reform agenda

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in early December to discuss threats against Israel from Hizbullah and Iran and "ideas to stabilize the situation in Lebanon."

The French stealth frigate La Fayette has been tracked by the radar stations of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, a Crimean security source told RIA Novosti on Monday.

According to the source, Russian radars are capable of detecting ships of this class hundreds of kilometers away.

"The much-hyped stealth technology [of the French frigate] has been disrupted by the Russian radioelectronic industry. The Black Sea's electronic warfare units detected the La Fayette frigate as it passed through the Bosporus," the source said, adding that the warship is still under surveillance.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in early December for talks expected to include developments in Lebanon, Netanyahu's office said on Sunday.

In a phone call on Sunday, "President Macron updated Prime Minister Netanyahu with the measures he is taking in the crisis in Lebanon," the office said in a Hebrew-language statement.

"The two leaders decided to speak again in the coming days and to meet in Paris at the beginning of next month."

The United States and France agreed on the need to work with allies to counter the “destabilising” activities of Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hizbollah, in the Middle East.

US president Donald Trump spoke with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about the situation in Lebanon and Syria, said a White House statement on Saturday.

“Both presidents agreed on the need to work with allies to counter Hizbollah’s and Iran’s destabilising activities in the region,” it said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Tehran should be less aggressive in the region and should clarify the strategy around its ballistic missile programme.

"It does not benefit Mr. Macron and France to interfere on the missile issue and the strategic affairs of the Islamic Republic, which we have great sensitivities about," Velayati said.

THE French conservative widely tipped to become chief rival of Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party has raged at European Union officials and said the only way to “save” the bloc from collapse was to “re-found” the project.

The (outgoing) Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has arrived in the French capital city of Paris after finally being allowed to depart Saudi Arabia.

On Saturday morning, a Boeing aircraft carrying Hariri landed at Le Bourget Airport in Paris where a Lebanese delegation was waiting.

Hariri was accompanied only by his wife Lara, however, the Lebanese media said that his eldest son Hossam arrived n France yesterday already.

His two other children reportedly stayed in Saudi Arabia.

Hariri is expected to meet with the French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace later in the day.

French President Emmanuel Macron has blamed France for the rise of Islamism and said the Republic was not good enough for “youths”, as he outlined a series of social programmes for the country’s migrant-dominated, low-income neighbourhoods.

“Radicalisation has taken hold because the French Republic has resigned,” Macron said on Tuesday in the northern French city of Tourcoing, near Lille, as he outlined 15 social policy plans.

This video shows lawmakers walking out of France’s National Assembly on Wednesday in protest at an anti-Palestinian diatribe by one of their colleagues, Meyer Habib.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri told reporters that he would not be answering questions on details of his plans to travel to France, following a meeting with the French foreign minister in Riyadh Thursday.

Analysis: European countries are being forced to borrow well before the year ends — and sooner or later, that debt will catch up with them

The European Union and the French government appear to be giving Israel a pass over its decision Monday to bar the entry of French and European elected officials who planned to travel on a solidarity mission to Palestine.

Israel’s interior ministry announced Monday that it was barring entry to seven officials scheduled to be part of a delegation made up of European Parliament members, national lawmakers and mayors.

Israel’s public security minister Gilad Erdan, who is tasked with thwarting the global movement for Palestinian rights, called the banned officials “senior politicians who consistently support the boycott against Israel and promote it.”

Eight French officers including a high-profile former police chief have committed suicide in just a week sparking renewed concern among the forces of law and order and the government.

The worrying issue of the high number of suicides among French police officers is once again back on the agenda.

These latest suicides brought the number of French police officers to have taken their lives this year to 45. There have also been 16 suicides by members of France's military police the gendarmerie nationale.

“IT’S A true catastrophe, monsieur,” says a baker in central Paris as she places warm, flaky croissants in a paper bag. The price of local butter has soared in the past year, she says: “We are used to costs going up, but this is really extreme.” Her pastry counter is well stocked, but margins per croissant are squeezed.

A French mayor and dozens of other MPs and elected councillors from around the Paris region sang the Marseillaise on Friday as they marched towards around 200 Muslim worshippers in a bid to stop them praying in the street.

The stand off which was caught in several video clips (see below) took place in the Paris suburb of Clichy on Friday afternoon.

The local right wing mayor Remi Muzeau led the march after growing infuriated by the presence of hundreds of Muslim worshippers praying on the town's market square every Friday for the past nine months.

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron held hastily scheduled talks in Riyadh with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, notably over Lebanon and Yemen.

France's National Assembly on Wednesday lifted the immunity from prosecution of far-right leader Marine Le Pen for tweeting pictures of Islamic State group atrocities, parliamentary sources said.

The decision was taken by a cross-party committee in charge of the internal functioning of the assembly, after a request from the authorities to lift Le Pen's parliamentary immunity over a crime that carries up to three years in prison.

The leader of the National Front, who ran a failed campaign for president this year, in 2015 tweeted three pictures of IS atrocities, including one of James Foley, an American journalist beheaded by the extremists.

"Daesh is THIS!" she wrote in a post accompanying the photos, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Faced with outrage on social media and from Foley's family, Le Pen later deleted the picture of the American, saying she had been unaware he was the man in the picture.

French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed to amend the nuclear deal with Iran to cover ballistic missile development to avoid a “North Korean” scenario in the Middle East.

France's authorities and elites are tearing up, piece by piece, the country's historical, religious and cultural legacy so that nothing remains. A nation dispossessed of its identity will see its inner strength broken.

The French government said Tuesday that it probably would not be able to keep its 2025 deadline for reducing the proportion of electricity generated from nuclear to 50 percent, an admission which angered ecologists.

PARIS motorways were brought to a standstill by an army of furious workers after the city’s main Christmas market was banned for being too tacky.

Angry stallholders caused chaos as they blocked main roads with their lorries and vans after councillors said the market on the Champs-Élysées was too “mediocre” in quality for sophisticated French tastes.

France's highest court has demanded that a cross overhanging a statue of former Pope John Paul II be removed from a a square in a Breton town, provoking anger among those who believe France's Catholic heritage is being destroyed.

The Conseil d'Etat (State Council) says that the presence of the cross goes against the 1905 French law which officially separates church and state.

France will do everything to protect its interests in Niger after an attack on a uranium plant run by nuclear reactor maker Areva near the northern town of Arlit earlier on Thursday, French President Francois Hollande said.

“We will have the same will to co-operate (with Niger) to fight against terrorism and will also protect our interests,” he told reporters.

The US must step up support for French troops fighting Islamic State in West Africa, the French defense minister said during a visit to Washington, even as US officials sparred over the ambush in Niger that left four US service members dead.

“Much more needs to be done,” Defense Minister Florence Parly said after a meeting Friday with her US counterpart James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, according to Reuters. “We can’t be and don’t want to be, the praetorian (guards) of sovereign African countries. They must be made able to defeat terror on their own.”

Without US support, Parly said, the mission is likely to fail.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis thanked French Defence Minister Florence Parly for France's help after four US soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger, sparking controversy over American operations in the west African country. The Iran nuclear deal and Chad, which is affected by President Donald Trump's travel ban, were among other questions raised by Parly during her visit.

"Thank you for your support and for your letter of condolences for our fallen following this attack," Mattis told Parly when they met on Friday.

French helicopters, backed up by warplanes, arrived to evacuate the US victims within 30 minutes of the ambush by about 50 attackers, thought to be jihadists, near the Mali border.

Despite being one of the world's wealthiest nations, France has a shocking 16,000 people living in more than 570 squalid slums across the country. The race is on to clear them out but critics say no solution is in place.

"We live in France under the myth that slums have disappeared. It's not true." Yvan Gastaut, a historian from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis told Le Monde newspaper.

According to a census, there are more than 570 slums in France, including 113 in the greater Paris region of Ile-de-France.

Among the 16,000 people living in squalid conditions, 36 percent are children, according to figures quoted by Le Monde.

Today’s victims brought to at least 239 the official total number of people killed in France by jihadists since 2015. (This figure doesn’t include a large number of other attacks where the police claimed the perpetrators were psychologically disturbed and therefore could not be sure the attacks were Islamicly motivated even though the perpetrators on many occasions shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they carried them out.)

A state of emergency continues in France. Over 7,000 troops are still guarding transport hubs, tourist sites and prominent churches and synagogues.

These are wartime figures.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that he was opposed to a “tougher” approach toward Iran.

Speaking to TF1 and LCI in his first live TV interview since taking office, the French president said he had told Trump not to scrap the Iran deal.

Macron said Trump “wants to get tougher with Iran. I told him I thought this was the wrong approach because we have to look at where we are now with North Korea.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif renewed his country's support for the nuclear agreement signed between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) in Vienna in July 2015.

The citizens of France and neighboring European nations will suffer major damage should terrorists attack French nuclear facilities, Greenpeace warns in a report released Tuesday.

Tensions have mounted yet again just hours after thousands of people took to the streets of the French capital to vent their anger over President Macron's planned labor reform.

EMMANUEL Macron is battling to save his political reputation after a new poll revealed French voters don’t trust him to sort the country’s problems.

The French region of Pyrenees-Orientales -- known to some as "Northern Catalonia" -- is keeping an anxious eye on the crisis just across the border.
Taken over by France in the 17th century, many in this region nestled between the Pyrenees mountains and the Mediterranean retain close cultural links with Catalonia to the south.

"They have family ties, they go there on weekends," said Jean-Luc Pujol, co-founder of the political party Yes To A Catalan Country, which pushes for greater autonomy in the French region.

A new French counter-terrorism bill has attracted criticism from organizations, including the United Nations, concerned that the additional security powers the bill grants could harm liberty, security, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has abused Angela Merkel’s underwhelming election result by pushing for France to lead a European Empire, a Paris-based journalist has claimed.

Two people have been killed during a knife attack at a Marseille train station, according to police. The assailant, who was reportedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar,’ was shot dead by an army patrol at the scene.

The incident took place at the Saint-Charles train station in Marseille on Sunday, when a man attacked passers-by with a knife. One person was killed by the assailant at the scene, while another succumbed a short while after, according to police chief Olivier de Mazières.

Other anomalies are cause for skepticism. How did the terrorists get ahold of military-grade weaponry undetected? Journalist Gearoid O Colmain told Russia Today that the two deceased suspects, French-born Said and Cherif Kouachi, had received military training from militants in Syria and had also traveled to Yemen to meet with al-Qaeda leaders there. And yet the pair was able to return to France without interference from authorities. Other reports indicate that the brothers were known and being monitored by French intelligence, but were still able to obtain the necessary armaments to conduct Wednesday’s attack without a hiccup.

Head of France's Union of Rubber and Plastics showed interest in training Iranian industrialist to make car parts.

EMMANUEL Macron today outlined his aims to take the reigns of the European Union (EU) with a "decisive" Franco-German partnership as he revealed his plans to launch a breakaway group dedicated to the "re-foundation of Europe".

FRENCH president Emmanuel Macron suffered his first major electoral setback when his Republic on the Move party won fewer seats than expected in elections for the French Senate.

The ongoing protests of the French citizens against the reform of the country's labor code may escalate in the future and become a "monstrous problem" for French President Emmanuel Macron, experts told Sputnik.