France

ALLONNES, France, April 5 (Reuters) - For three years, Karim Daoud ran the mosque in this small town in northwest France. He also coached kids’ soccer teams and for more than two decades has worked for the local council's youth services.

Daoud was among those who visited a nearby Catholic church to express solidarity following a deadly Islamist extremist attack at a church in southern France in 2020.

Last October, the interior ministry’s local office gave the 46-year old a medal to recognise his long service as a public employee.

PARIS, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN climate experts are set to release what is expected to be the definitive guide to halting global warming on Monday, in a report that lays out how societies and economies must transform to ensure a “liveable” future.

   With war in Ukraine spurring an urgent energy rethink in the West, analysts say the latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will also be an important resource for nations seeking a rapid
transition away from Russian oil and gas.

PARIS, April 4 (Reuters) - French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, whose presidential campaign has gained momentum in recent days, on Monday captured 48.5% of voter intentions in an opinion poll of a likely runoff against Emmanuel Macron, the highest score she has ever notched.

Harris Interactive in a poll for business weekly Challenges said that a victory by Macron - which pollsters considered almost a foregone conclusion in past months - was now within the margin of error.

PARIS (AP) — French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen has softened her rhetoric and her image to broaden her appeal in next week’s presidential election — but is under threat from a provocative rival who has broken her monopoly as the watchdog of the country’s identity that they claim is under threat.

For more than a decade, Le Pen has been known for her fierce anti-immigration stance, seeing herself as standing guard at the parapets of French civilization. Now she is honing in on consumers’ buying power, the top concern for voters.

PARIS, April 2 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron warned of the risk of a Brexit-style election upset in his only campaign rally before the first round of the presidential election, in a bid to convince dispirited voters and re-energise a lacklustre campaign.

A week or so before the April 10 vote, Macron finds himself on the defensive, with far-right leader Marine Le Pen staging a comeback in the polls and the race tightening between the two frontrunners for the crucial April 24 runoff. 

PARIS (AP) — As French President Emmanuel Macron prepares to hold his first big rally Saturday in his race for reelection, his campaign has hit a roadbump.

It’s been dubbed “the McKinsey Affair,” named after an American consulting company hired to advise the French government on its COVID-19 vaccination campaign and other policy. A new French Senate report questions the government’s use of private consultants, and accuses McKinsey of tax dodging. The issue is mobilizing Macron’s rivals and dogging him at campaign stops ahead of the April 10 first-round vote.

PARIS, March 27 (Reuters) - Protesters jeered and swarmed around far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, streaming into a hotel in the overseas territory of Guadeloupe where she was recording a television program, BFM TV reported on Sunday.

Protestors chanted “out Le Pen” and “racist Le Pen,” as they surrounded the candidate on Saturday while she was escorted out of the room and through the hotel.

Her campaign intends to file a complaint, her spokesman Julien Odoul told Franceinfo.

PARIS (AP) — Without Russian help, climate scientists worry how they’ll keep up their important work of documenting warming in the Arctic.

Europe’s space agency is wrestling with how its planned Mars rover might survive freezing nights on the Red Planet without its Russian heating unit.

And what of the world’s quest for carbon-free energy if 35 nations cooperating on an experimental fusion-power reactor in France can’t ship vital components from Russia?

PARIS, March 26. /TASS/: French President Emmanuel Macron said he planned to hold another conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

"I expect a new conversation with President Putin in the next 48-72 hours," Macron said after the European Council meeting in Brussels on Friday, adding that holding a humanitarian operation in Mariupol will be among the issues to be discussed.

PARIS, March 25 (Reuters) - Some members of French President Emmanuel Macron's camp are concerned that his re-election campaign is failing to engage voters, with little new to enthuse them as the war in Ukraine overshadows domestic policy.

With less than three weeks to go before the first round of voting, Macron has a comfortable lead in opinion polls. But with pollsters warning that abstentions could reach a record level, he needs to get supporters fired up enough to make the effort to go out and vote for him.