Gavin Mortimer

France has become the first EU country to ban social media access for under 15s. The National Assembly passed a Bill on Tuesday evening that will prevent children using platforms such as TikTok and snapchat. The Bill also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools. In a message on X, a jubilant President Emmanuel Macron hailed the legislation and expressed his gratitude to MPs, who approved it by 279 votes to 81. ‘It’s up to the Constitutional Council to rule, then on to action to make this measure concrete and protect our children online,’ he said. Macron would like the legislation to take effect from September, the start of the new school year, but first the Bill will be examined by the Constitutional Council, the highest constitutional authority in the Republic.

Emmanuel Macron has lost a friend in Keir Starmer. The French President paid tribute to the outgoing British Prime Minister last week, describing him as a man of ‘dignity, decency and courage’. When one door closes another one opens, and while Starmer was organising the removal vans, Macron was welcoming Giorgia Meloni to the Côte d’Azur. Last week’s Franco-Italian summit was the first of its kind since 2020; Meloni was elected prime minister two years later. For Macron, she posed a threat to European ‘values’ because her party had its roots in postwar fascism Her victory did not go down well with Macron and his centrist government.

Norway plays the Ivory Coast tomorrow afternoon in the first knockout phase of the soccer World Cup, and one suspects the New York Times will be backing the Norsemen. The Gray Lady has gone gaga for Norway’s "Viking Row," a synchronized routine where fans mime the rowing of a Viking longboat to the bang of a drum. It’s caught on among the Norwegian players as well as politicians back in Norway, who performed the row in parliament last week. For the last two weeks the NYT has been publishing breathless pieces about the zany Norwegians and their Viking antics. “The 'Viking Row' is in full flow” was one headline on June 18; five days later they described how it "has taken the World Cup by storm." And their editorial office from the sound of things.

Britain and France have rewritten the ‘one in, one out’ migrant deal nearly a year after it came into effect. The treaty, described as ‘groundbreaking’ by both countries last summer, has struggled to stem the numbers of migrants heading from France to England in small boats. It soon became apparent that the deal contained a loophole that enabled a handful of deported migrants to return to Britain in the back of a lorry. The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has agreed with her French counterpart, Laurent Nuñez, to close this loophole by tweaking the treaty to stipulate that its terms apply to any returning migrant regardless of whether they enter a second time by boat or by vehicle.

France kick off their World Cup campaign today against Senegal – and it seems almost inevitable that, win or lose, there will be ugly scenes on the streets of France during the tournament. Shops were looted, cars burned and police officers attacked by mobs In some cities, a curfew have been imposed. Clermont and Toulouse have ordered all unaccompanied under 16s to stay indoors between the hours of 10pm and 5am. The curfew applies only to certain matches, those judged to be ‘high-risk’; these include all France matches and some involving Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Jean-Luc Moudenc, the centre-right mayor of Toulouse, justified the curfew by pointing to the “incidents during the Champions League final”.

The Sudanese man who is in custody in Belfast settled in the city after travelling through Paris and Dublin. In 2023, he was given asylum by the British Home Office. That same year, Sudan descended into civil war, a conflict that continues to rage with appalling accounts of barbarity. On the one side are the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and on the other the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Caught in the middle are civilians, particularly women and children, who are being abused by both sides. Earlier this year, the UN’s Human Rights Council accused combatants of displaying ‘utter disregard for human life’. Schools, hospitals and markets have been targeted indiscriminately, and ‘bodies of Sudanese women and girls have been weaponised to terrorise communities’.