Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport.
Iran has declared that the Strait of Hormuz is ‘completely open’ in an announcement that has been welcomed by Donald Trump. In response to the statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the US President declared his gratitude on social media. Iran says the shipping lane will remain open for the ‘remaining period of ceasefire’;
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Belgium is becoming the new point of departure for the gangs who traffic migrants across the Channel to England. It is reported that small boats are being launched from the Belgian coast, which then sail west to France, collecting migrants as if they were passengers waiting for a bus. The Belgian towns of Middelkerke, Nieuwpoort,
Princess Maria Carolina de Bourbon des Deux-Siciles isn’t a name that rolls off the tongue – but it’s now on the lips of every socialite and political pundit in France. The 22-year-old Italian aristocrat, who is the elder daughter of the Duke of Castro, was splashed across the cover of gossip magazine Paris Match last
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Four migrants drowned in the Channel yesterday when they were swept away by strong currents. The two men and two women who died were among dozens of migrants whose overloaded boat foundered off the coast of Boulogne early this morning. Thirty-eight people were rescued by the French authorities Six people have died so far this month
It’s the most talked about comeback in France since Charles de Gaulle came out of retirement in 1958. The general may have launched the Fifth Republic, but Céline Dion is limiting herself to ten evenings at the Paris La Défense Arena between September 12 and October 14. Dion is French Canadian, but the French have adopted her as their own, as they did
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According to a report in the French press today, the border between France and the United Kingdom is ‘at risk of being left unprotected’. The cynic might say that’s been the case for years, given the vast numbers of migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats since 2018. Over 41,000 made the journey
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The left achieved a rare success in Paris on Sunday with the victory of Emmanuel Grégoire in the capital’s mayoral election. The Socialist candidate saw off the challenge of the centre-right candidate Rachida Dati in the second round. Grégoire is the third consecutive Socialist mayor of the French capital, a run that stretches back to
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The first round of voting in France’s municipal elections has laid bare the country’s deep fractures. In a turnout of 56 per cent yesterday, none of the parties emerged dominant ahead of this Sunday’s second round, but the results underlined the mainstream support now enjoyed by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Jean-Luc Melenchon’s la
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A French soldier was killed on Thursday evening in the Erbil region of Iraq. In announcing the death of chief warrant officer Arnaud Frion, President Emmanuel Macron said he ‘died for France…engaged in the fight against Daesh [Islamic State]’. France has deployed hundreds of soldiers to Erbil – the Kurdistan region of Iraq – as part of
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Humiliated, disparaged and the object of global scorn for their lily-livered incompetence. But enough about the England rugby team. Last week was also deeply embarrassing for Sir Keir Starmer and his government. As President Donald Trump said of Britain’s Prime Minister: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with.’ One might say something similar about Steve Borthwick, England’s head
French President Emmanuel Macron’s approval rating rose by six points last week. It will likely continue to climb following his visit to the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier on Monday. The pride of the French navy recently arrived in the eastern Mediterranean to protect Cyprus, and Macron was in his element as he strode across
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It is not just Donald Trump who believes Keir Starmer has failed to channel Winston Churchill. Now Cyprus have given the Prime Minister’s leadership a tongue-lashing. Kyriacos Kouros, the country’s high commissioner to the UK, has drawn unfavourable comparisons between the responses of France and Britain to Iran’s drone attack on the RAF base on
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As of Monday, migrants arriving in Britain no longer have the right to claim permanent asylum. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has changed the rules so that now migrants will be eligible only for temporary refugee status. Asylum seekers’ applications will be reviewed every 30 months, and they could be returned to their country of origin
America’s war on Iran has revealed much about its allies. Israel is as steadfast as ever, as secretary of war Pete Hegseth pointed out on Monday. Australia and Canada have also made clear their unequivocal support for the military action. Russia, for all its malevolence, does not have the means to stoke civil unrest in
An editorial in Friday’s Le Figaro (France’s equivalent to the New York Times) is headlined “Mélenchon or the moral suicide of the left.” The same statement could be applied to Britain’s Green party. Their open pandering to the Muslim vote in Thursday’s Gorton & Denton by-election was arguably a new low in British politics. It
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An avalanche in the French Alps claimed the lives of two skiers this week. In total, 30 skiers have lost their lives in one of the most deadly Alpine winters in memory. Like the majority of victims this season in France, the skiers had ignored avalanche warnings and ventured off-piste. Among the fatalities are two British skiers who were caught in
Washington’s warning last week about the spread of far-left violence in France did not go down well in Paris. In an interview on Sunday, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot accused America of wading into a matter that “concerns only our national community”. This doesn’t surprise conservative commentators in France who have coined the phrase “Red
Police in France arrested nine people on Tuesday evening in connection with the death of a 23-year-old student in Lyon last Thursday. Most of those in custody are members of the ‘Young Guard’, a extremist splinter group of Antifa. Among them is reportedly a parliamentary assistant to an MP from Jean-Luc Melenchon’s La France Insoumise
Did Mariah Carey mime or not when she headlined the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan? That was the main takeaway from last Friday’s jamboree. Organisers have since suggested that the US singer did indeed lip-sync to Domenico Modugno’s ‘Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu’ and the song that followed, her very own, ‘Nothing is Impossible’. ‘The technical, logistical and organisational complexities of an Olympic ceremony
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The news in France over the weekend was dominated by the resignation of Jack Lang as head of the prestigious Arab World Institute in Paris. In more ways than one, Lang is France’s answer to Peter Mandelson, a figurehead for the bourgeois left and a figure of loathing for those on the other side of
