French shoppers had been clamouring for the Intermarché supermarkets to make a plush-toy wolf available in time for Christmas, and Cotillard had previously vowed to do his best to make that happen. But on Monday, he admitted that that only "a hundred" could be produced by the end of the year. "We took the choice to be consistent and to not import them from China," he said. The hundred soft toys that will be made will be given away to children's charities, he added.
While only 4% of working people in France worked remotely in 2019, more than one out of every five employees does so today. Employee monitoring has developed in parallel, explains Vincent Meyer, a professor and researcher in labor sociology at EM Normandie Business School. He analyzes how digital tools are redefining trust between employers and employees, and how young professionals, seeking autonomy and balance, are adapting to this new environment.
For more than a month, the court has heard about rape used as a weapon of war, sexual slavery, forced labour, torture, mutilation, summary executions, systematic looting, extortion, and the plundering of resources, including diamonds. The alleged atrocities were committed in 2002-2003 during Operation "Erase the Slate", conducted in the northeast of the country by the Rally of Congolese Democrats and Nationalists (RCD-N) -- Lumbala's rebel group.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
The investigation, ordered by the culture ministry after the embarrassing daylight heist, revealed that only one of two security cameras was working near the site where the intruders broke in on the morning of Sunday 19 October. Agents in the security control room did not have enough screens to follow the images in real-time, while a lack of coordination meant police were initially sent to the wrong place once the alarm was raised, the report unveiled at the French senate's culture commission stated.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Bardella told the BBC's Nick Robinson he believed the "extremely resilient" Reform UK leader would become the UK's next prime minister. The 30-year-old French MEP is leading in opinion polls to win the first round of the next presidential election due in 2027. A Reform source said the two politicians discussed small boat crossings and energy policy, particularly nuclear energy. Farage has in the past kept his distance from NR, the successor party to the National Front (FN), formerly led by Marine Le Pen.
If you're due to send or receive money at the end of December, you may have to wait for the funds to arrive due a combination of European Central Bank rules and the day that Christmas falls on this year. Every weekend, as well as on certain public holidays, the payment transfer systems operated by the European Central Bank are closed. These public holidays include Christmas - bank transfers will not go through on December 25th or December 26th.
The vast majority of plots in rural areas are not authorised for construction, with the majority of plots outside the built up part of a village likely zoned as agricultural or natural. Whilst these parcelles of land have an attractive price tag it is, more often than not, very difficult to build on them as they have very strict planning policies attached. You might not even be able to install a cabin or use it for a caravan or motorhome.
The widow of slain Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi filed a legal complaint in France on Monday accusing Saudi Arabia of using Israeli spyware to steal data from her phones before he was killed, her lawyers said. Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, whose husband was murdered at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in October 2018, alleged her data was in part stolen in France, where she landed repeatedly while working as an air hostess, according to a copy of the complaint seen by AFP.
The French military used anti-drone measures after five unmanned vehicles flew over a closely guarded base housing nuclear ballistic submarines, a source told AFP on Friday. The drones were detected above the base on Île Longue, a peninsula off the Brittany coast in northwestern France near Brest, at around 7:30pm on Thursday, said the source close to the operation. An anti-drone and search operation was launched by the marine battalion, which protects the base, the source said.
Councillors late Thursday approved the plan to offer future mothers vouchers worth €1,000 to spend at local businesses if they agreed to bring their child into the world in the town, instead of travelling to a bigger hospital. "We're not paying women to have babies, we're giving money to women who are already pregnant and decide to give birth in Saint-Armand," right-wing mayor Emmanuel Riotte told AFP. He said mothers would have to come in for prenatal check-ups first.
42UP: A Vertical Campus in Paris Redefining Educational Architecture. In the heart of Paris's 17th arrondissement, AR Studio d'Architectures has completed 42UP, a radical extension of Ecole 42 that doubles its capacity while minimizing its footprint. The project transforms 3,600 m into a 9,025 m vertical campus, accommodating 1,400 workstations in an institution operating 24/7, without teachers, without courses, and completely free.
The splintered National Assembly will vote on the Social Security budget on Tuesday, December 9th. There is a slender chance that the budget can pass with a hotch-potch majority assembled from the quarrelsome Centre, the divided Centre-Right and the wary Socialists. If so, Lecornu's experiment in parliamentary democracy allowing the National Assembly to control the most important French budget-making for decades will have achieved its first important success.
The departure of Ryanair has accelerated the pace, but given the current situation we are above all consolidating our position. This winter we have increased our offer by 10.5 percent and we have made year-round some routes between Bordeaux and the UK. We currently have 41 routes, which is our record in Bordeaux. We're reassured by the region's potential and we're continuing to develop, to the point of strengthening Bordeaux. We already have four aircraft and 200 employees at Bordeaux Airport.
A provision in last year's delayed Budget lowered the threshold at which micro-enterprises had to start collecting and paying VAT to €25,000 in annual turnover, rather than the current €37,500 for services and €85,000 for commercial activities. The micro-enterprise status is most commonly used by freelancers, contractors, sole traders and small businesses - it has a maximum earning threshold so most of those on the status are low to medium earners.
