French

Five pairs of students and instructors dead along with pilot after plane reportedly fell suddenly near aerodromeA skydiving plane has crashed in north-eastern France, killing all 11 people on board, according to the region’s prefect.The parachuting-school plane crashed near Nancy at 11am, said Yves Séguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle region. Continue reading...

Election will determine balance of power in New Caledonia before fresh negotiations with France on the territory’s statusPolls opened in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia on Sunday for the archipelago’s first provincial elections since 2019, after the vote was delayed as talks stalled over its political future.The election, initially planned for 2024, will determine the balance of power in New Caledonia ahead of fresh negotiations with France on the territory’s status, with independence remaining the defining political issue. Continue reading...

Claims health of staff and children at risk as France struggles to adapt heat-trap school buildingsEurope live – latest updatesTeachers in France are risking their own and students’ health in overheated schools as a severe heatwave sets new record temperatures, education unions said, urging staff to strike over “unacceptable working conditions”.Several teaching unions on Thursday issued a joint statement denouncing a “blatant lack of preparation” by the government, after teachers have had to work in classrooms where temperatures reached up to 40C. Continue reading...

• President Emmanuel Macron announced that the French navy intercepted a Russian "shadow fleet" tanker off the coast of Sicily. • This operation is part of a broader effort by France and Britain to intensify sanctions and disrupt the clandestine shipping networks used by Russia to export oil. • The action matters as Western allies seek to tighten the economic blockade on Russia to limit its ability to fund the ongoing war in Ukraine.

• French police have launched a manslaughter investigation after children died inside a car during a severe heatwave with temperatures reaching 43°C. • Extreme weather is affecting Southern Europe, with Spain issuing red alerts for dangerous heat expected to hit 44°C and France seeing records shattered on Monday. • Italy's health ministry has issued its highest-level alert for 15 cities, prompting authorities to implement measures to curtail outdoor work.

Many of France’s buildings are not designed for hot weather – and low-income housing estates are suffering the worstLiving in a sweltering, seventh-floor flat on a concrete housing estate south of Paris, Samira said she was feeling desperate as France experienced its highest temperatures on record this week. “Yesterday I sat down and cried, I thought I’m going to die,” said the 35-year-old single parent and former building caretaker.Her flat in Ris-Orangis in Essonne is, like millions of apartments in France, poorly insulated and lacking in outside window shutters. “Blazing sun hits my windows all day – I can’t breathe, I feel dizzy, there is no air,” she said. Continue reading...

Husband arrested after Sylvie Yasmina, 54, and five children found at home in north-western provincePakistan police say they have rescued a French woman and her five children after she told authorities she had been held captive by her husband for more than a decade and subjected to years of domestic abuse in the country’s north-west.The woman, identified as 54-year-old Sylvie Yasmina, was rescued earlier this week from a mud-brick home in Bara, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, the district police chief, Waqar Ahmad, said. Continue reading...