The French government is arguably helping Big Pharma profit from the Covid-19 pandemic

France is set to tighten its coronavirus lockdown rules, closing open-air markets and limiting outdoor workouts, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has said. Stricter rules come as the nation's Covid-19 death toll continues to mount.

Speaking to TF1 TV on Monday, Philippe announced he was about to sign a new decree, imposing stricter lockdown in the country. The restrictions, he noted, might be in force for "several more weeks."

Police in Paris no-go zones are becoming overwhelmed trying to maintain the nationwide quarantine and have handed out record numbers of fines

On 12 March, Reuters broke that France would permit the use of some Huawei equipment in the country's future 5G infrastructure, citing two sources close to the matter. According to observers, European states are defying Washington's diktat and opening the door to Huawei because they want to gain a competitive edge.

According to the unnamed sources, ANSSI, the French cyber-security agency, has opted to use some of Huawei's 5G apparatus in non-core parts of France's networks.

The coronavirus lockdown in France literally forces citizens to ‘show their papers’; They have to fill out a form explaining why they are outside and present it to police.

by Gareth Porter Posted on March 21, 2020

The administration of President Donald Trump may escape the most recent conflict with Iran without war, however, a dangerous escalation is just over the horizon. And as before, the key factors driving the belligerence are not outraged Iraqi militia leaders or their allies in Iran, but Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long sought to draw the US into a military confrontation with Iran.

China is shipping one million surgical masks and gloves to France as it struggles to contain the coronavirus, with Europe becoming the new focal point of the global pandemic.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed the shipments on Wednesday in an interview with France's BFM TV. The first of two planes has already arrived via Belgium and a second will arrive on Thursday, he said.

China's gesture comes after France sent 17 tonnes of equipment to Beijing when the Covid-19 virus first broke out in Wuhan last December.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday announced restrictions on movement around the country that is expected to last at least two weeks.

The French government banned all public gatherings and social contact, placing the whole country on lockdown from midday on Tuesday for at least 15 days, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus.

President Emmanuel Macron has also said that EU and Schengen Area borders would be closed starting Tuesday for at least 30 days.

France will deploy 100,000 police officers along fixed checkpoints around the country to enforce President Emmanuel Macron’s two-week lockdown order, the latest dramatic measure taken to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Anyone caught violating the far-reaching restrictions “must be able to justify the reason for their movements,” or will face legal penalties, including a fine of up to €135, Castaner said.

Media in Germany reported on Sunday that the country would close its borders with Austria, France, and Switzerland starting Monday morning.

France will not be shutting down the border with Germany amid the coronavirus outbreak, but will ramp up border controls, a French presidency official was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The upcoming municipal election in France is scheduled to take place on Sunday followed by a second round that is slated to take place a week later, on 22 March.

Yellow Vests demonstrators are gathering in the French capital Paris in the lead-up to the first round of France's municipal election.

The Yellow Vests movement was triggered by a government plan to raise fuel taxes, which many French citizens saw as a serious blow to their purchasing power. The weekly protest movement, whose symbol became the highly-visible safety jackets that French drivers are required to have in their cars, has recently been replaced by another vast wave of protests against a government pension reform plan.

French authorities have rejected a request by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to visit the Louis XIV Palace which he bought for nearly $350 million a few years ago.

According to senior political sources in France, Bin Salman wanted to spend some time in his luxurious chateau on the outskirts of Paris, however, France had reservations.

Sources explained that Bin Salman’s visit will embarrass French President Emmanuel Macron who is going through a critical period before the public opinion due to the failure of his reform projects.

SOURCE: BREITBART
French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the seizure of all stocks and future production of medical face masks in the face of a growing threat from Coronavirus, and a spate of looting of masks from medical facilities.

The China-origin Coronavirus, which has already killed a known 3,190 people worldwide is becoming more established in Europe, with worst-impacted nation Italy’s death toll standing at 79. Neighbouring France has seen a comparatively modest four deaths, but the French government hasn’t baulked at launching a series of sweeping measures under the guise of public health.

Several people stationed at the 110 Creil airbase outside Paris have fallen ill with coronavirus, the French military confirmed, with the base effectively being placed on lockdown. Defense Minister Florence Parly confirmed on Friday that a number of coronavirus cases have been registered at the military facility, located to the North of the French capital, RT reported.

Marine Le Pen has called for a national referendum in order to stop what she called the “submersion” of France via a “globalist” program of mass immigration.

The French government will force through contested pension changes by decree, avoiding a parliamentary vote.

In a surprise announcement, the French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, said the controversial measure would be used to bypass parliament after opposition parties filed more than 41,000 amendments to the law in an attempt to stall its introduction.

The proposed reforms have sparked widespread protests and strikes since they were announced in December last year.

“I have decided to engage the government’s responsibility on the bill to create a universal retirement system, not to put an end to debate, but to end this period of non-debate,” Philippe told the assembly on Saturday evening.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s “scene” in Jerusalem during a visit in January, as he shouted at Israeli soldiers who were attempting to enter a French Roman Catholic church, has been described as that of a spoiled leader having a tantrum.

While this might describe some of his behaviour, in reality, the scene perfectly demonstrates something more important about the power relations between France, Israel and Palestine.

Coronavirus cases surged in Italy, and France closed the world-famous Louvre Museum as the epidemic that began in China sent fear rising across Western Europe, threatening its tourism industry.

The virus has spread to more than 60 countries, and more than 3,000 people have died from the COVID-19 illness it causes.

New battle fronts in the battle opened rapidly, deepening the sense of crisis that has already sent financial markets plummeting, emptied the streets in many cities and rewritten the routines of millions of people. More than 88,000 have been infected, on every continent but Antarctica.

French lawmakers from the left and right of the spectrum filed motions of no confidence in the government after it pushed a controversial pension reform through the parliament on Saturday.

"We have just lodged our motion of public censure," Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the leftist France Unbowed, said on Twitter, where he posted the photo of the document signed by 63 legislators.

A major fire occurred outside the iconic Gare de Lyon station in Paris. Reports say it was started by a crowd protesting against a concert by a Congolese star nearby, who tried to prevent firefighters from putting out the blaze.

The fire erupted near the station late on Friday. Footage from the scene shows open flames in the street outside the landmark, as well as a large plume of black smoke billowing over the area.

"The United States will use this opportunity to bring both Russia and China into the international arms control framework and head off a costly arms race", Reuters reported

A massive fire has broken out in southeastern Paris near the Gare de Lyon train station. The fire has prompted police to evacuate the area.

PM Breaking News
@PMBreakingNews
Breaking: Massive fire at Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, France. A protest against a Congolese singer who supports the current Congo President was taking place in the area.

French police said the train station was evacuated and advised people to avoid the area. They didn't elaborate on the cause of the fire.

Préfecture de Police
?
@prefpolice
#GareDeLyon | Les @PompiersParis ont maîtrisé le feu qui est en cours d'extinction.
Évitez le secteur. Intervention des secours toujours en cours.

The Turkish, Russian, German and French leaders will meet on March 5 to try to find a solution to the crisis in the city of Idlib as Turkey and Russian-backed Syrian forces risk confrontation in the region.

Following phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he will meet them all on March 5, without disclosing the location. As Turkey slides toward war, Ankara has appealed to the U.S. and its European allies for support in a conflict that risks undermining the friendly ties he’s built with Moscow.

READ: Turkey and Russia Near Breaking Point in Syrian Standoff

The National Observatory of Delinquency and Criminal Responses reports that “as violent crime continues to surge across France, it is estimated that as many as 120 knife attacks occur on average per day across the country.”

A Paris police official identifies a main source of the violence:

“There were many fights in the migrant camps, between Afghans, Eritreans and Somalis in particular, which ended with stabbings, in the north of Paris. The dismantling of these fixing points has been beneficial.”

Assange’s European defence team say it is their duty to raise case with Emmanuel Macron.

Julian Assange’s European defence team have said they will try to seek asylum for him in France. Hearings over Assange’s extradition from the UK to the US on spying charges are due to start next week in London.

Éric Dupond-Moretti said the “fate and the status of all journalists” was at stake in Assange’s case. “We consider the situation is sufficiently serious,” he said, “that our duty is to talk about it” with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

Donald Trump 'offered Julian Assange a pardon if he denied Russia link to hack'

He was one of a team of lawyers lined up at a Paris news conference to explain why they view the case against Assange as unfair, citing his poor health and alleged violations of his rights while in jail in London.

More than 230 years after the French Revolution, another one may be brewing in France.

Last week, at the National Conservatism Conference in Rome, French leader Marion Maréchal said, "Yellow Vests are the French version of Brexiteers."

Yellow Vests are ordinary French people who have been protesting throughout the country every week for over a year.

Fed up with President Emmanuel Macron's corrupt government, excessive taxes and repressive police tactics, they're fighting back.

A recent survey conducted by Ifop has revealed the more than half of French people believe that civilization as we know it will collapse in the coming decades, proving that the French are indeed a pessimistic people.

France’s trains may be running again but the whiff of discontent over the government’s pension reforms still hangs thick in the air as a waste disposal strike begins to bite. Sidewalks in several parts of Paris have become obstacle courses of overflowing wheelie bins after 10 days of blockades at the city’s incineration plants, AFP reported.

WikiLeaks has published yet another set of leaked internal documents from within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) adding even more material to the mountain of evidence that we’ve been lied to about an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria last year which resulted in airstrikes upon that nation from the US, UK and France.

This new WikiLeaks drop includes an email from the OPCW Chief of Cabinet Sebastien Braha (who is reportedly so detested by organisation inspectors that they code named him “Voldemort”) throwing a fit over the Ian Henderson Engineering Assessment which found that the Douma incident was likely a staged event. Braha is seen ordering OPCW staff to “remove all traces, if any, of its delivery/storage/whatever” from the organisation’s secure registry.

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

As that rail and subway strike continued to paralyze travel in Paris and across France into the third week, President Emmanuel Macron made a Christmas appeal to his dissatisfied countrymen:

“Strike action is justifiable and protected by the constitution, but I think there are moments in a nation’s life when it is good to observe a truce out of respect for families and family life.”

Macron’s appeal has gone largely unheeded.

“The public be damned!” seems to be the attitude of many of the workers who are tying up transit to protest Macron’s plan to reform a pension system that consumes 14% of GDP.

Macron wants to raise to 64 the age of eligibility for full retirement benefits. Not terribly high. And to set an example, he is surrendering his lifetime pension that is to begin when he becomes an ex-president.

France's trade unions on Wednesday defended a series of illegal power cuts to 150,000 homes, thousands of companies and the Bank of France in an effort to force the Macron government to quash its wide-ranging pension reform, according to Reuters.

Trade unions cut power to 50,000 homes in Bordeaux and 40,000 in Lyon.

Train services across France also remained disrupted as half a million protested.

President Emmanuel Macron is trying to reform pension system to make it equal.

Thousands of French homes, companies and even the Bank of France have been left without power as strikers march through the streets demanding President Emmanuel Macron drops his hated pension reforms.

Trade unions deliberately severed the electricity supply to 150,000 homes across Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes and Cherbourg yesterday, and threatened to repeat the action unless the government backs down.

Clinics, fire stations, and railway stations were also left with the lights off, said the government, as the capital Paris remained wracked by protests and without public transport.

French cops launched tear gas cannisters and charged protesters as tens of thousands of workers took to Paris streets to rally against the government's plan to raise the retirement age to 64.

Clashes broke out near the Nation square in eastern Paris during a demonstration, organised by trade unions, to demand that President Emmanuel Macron abandon his reforms.

Witnesses said police charged a group of protesters who ignored an ultimatum to disperse and were throwing Molotov cocktails.

The centrist government has expressed “solidarity” with the millions affected by the transport gridlock, but has so far refused to back down on its “historic reform”. France’s former military chief has urged President Emmanuel Macron to “restore order,” as disgruntled workers take to the streets on Tuesday on the 13th day of a transport strike against planned pension changes that has threatened to ruin Christmas for scores of French people. General Pierre de Villiers told RTL radio on Monday: “We must restore [public] order – we cannot continue like this.”

A RECORD number of police officers have been injured or killed on duty during 2019, a year which has seen massive civil unrest on the streets of President Emmanuel Macron’s France.

The French authorities, police and state media have faced angry and often violent Yellow Vest demonstrations every week.

On 3 December in Paris, the French parliament adopted a resolution approving the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

But the vote was far from unanimous, and the discomfort was such that the MP proposing the resolution, Sylvain Maillard, had to confirm in his official address that it “excludes the examples of the IHRA” - a statement that should considerably reduce the scope of this vote.

The unease felt by MPs revealed the violent clash between two logics: that of Israeli propaganda and its supporters in France, advanced under the mask of fighting “modern forms of antisemitism”, and that of the anti-racist and universalist tradition deeply anchored and active in France.

On 17 November, France’s most prominent protest movement marked one year since the beginning of rallies that have since spread across the country, with demonstrations leading to clashes with police and numerous arrests.

Yellow Vests protesters have gathered this Saturday in Paris to hold another demonstration, nearly a month after the movement celebrated its one-year anniversary.

France's parliament voted late on Tuesday to adopt a definition of anti-semitism that includes anti-Zionism, prompting anger from activists who believe it will restrict legitimate criticisms of Israel.

French lawmakers adopted the controversial bill, which was tabled by Paris MP Sylvain Maillard from Emmanuel Macron's La Republique en Marche centrist party, with 154 votes against 72.

The resolution adopts the definition issued by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which states that some criticism of Israel could be anti-semitic.

France’s National Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution conflating support for Palestinian equality with hatred of Jews – an initiative supported by the country’s Israel lobby.

But most lawmakers did not take part in the vote.

nder the new pensions regulations proposed by the Macron government, a single set of rules will be applied to all new pensioners, thus removing the current 42 pension regimes.

Most of France's trains are expected to stand idle, schools closed and the tourists have been warned not to visit the Eiffel Tower as French unions are holding mass rallies to protest the government's pension reform.

The authorities of Paris have deployed some 6,000 police in the city as the biggest rally is taking place in the French capital.

France is bracing for major transportation disruptions throughout the country starting Thursday, as trade unions launch a strike in response to changes President Emmanuel Macron wants to make to the country’s retirement system, while port blockades have resulted in widespread fuel shortages across the country. Much of the Paris Metro will be shut down, as will many national and international train lines, including certain Eurostar services. Flights will also be canceled, as air traffic controllers say they will join the protests through Saturday.

Hundreds of filling stations around western France have run out of gasoline and diesel as blockades of oil refineries enter their second week according to industry group UFIP. According to The Local, construction workers have been blockading refineries in Brittany since last week and a blockade at La Rochelle has resumed.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
The Israeli government is aiming to increase the volume of Israel’s defence exports, reported Globes, which has revealed the main points of the plan for the first time.

The project, being overseen by the Defence Ministry’s International Defence Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) led by Brigadier General (Res.) Yair Kulas, will begin to be rolled out in early 2020.

According to Globes, the plan is based on “focused seminars for senior commanders in foreign armies”, Israeli military “assistance for promoting sales of Israeli weapons”, and “subsidising small and medium-sized defence companies seeking to sell arms around the world”.

Speaking this week, Kulas said that SIBAT favours a major expansion of agreements between countries, resulting in significant deals for the large defence companies, especially Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.

French police have deployed tear gas and water cannon in the capital, Paris, in a bid to drive back protesters marking the first anniversary of anti-government "yellow vest" demonstrations.

Demonstrators on Saturday, some clad in black and hiding their faces, vandalised an HSBC bank branch at the Place d'Italie.