French

• Niger's transitional government announced a three-month extension to its military cooperation agreement with France, pausing its expulsion of French troops and reversing its February timeline for withdrawal. • The reversal follows intense negotiations between Paris and Niamey, with France agreeing to reduce its military footprint from 1,500 to 900 personnel and committing €200 million in civilian development aid. • The compromise addresses security challenges in the Sahel region, where French and US military presence remains crucial to counterterrorism operations despite growing anti-Western sentiment among portions of Niger's military leadership.

Owner of X summoned along with former CEO Linda Yaccarino over investigation by cybercrime unitBusiness live – latest updatesEurope live – latest updatesElon Musk has been summoned to Paris, where investigators are looking into allegations of misconduct related to the social media platform X, including the spread of child sexual abuse material and deepfake content.The world’s richest man and Linda Yaccarino – the former chief executive of X – were on Monday summoned for “voluntary interviews”, while other employees of the platform were scheduled to be heard as witnesses throughout this week, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. Continue reading...

Jeremy Hansen praised for speaking French in space after Air Canada chief’s linguistic snub exposed tensions and drew rebuke from PMFew people foresaw humanity’s quest for the moon as accurately as the 19th-century French author Jules Verne, whose two works –From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon – anticipated many of the features of modern lunar exploration.But Verne’s language had never been spoken in deep space until the Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen uttered four words during Nasa’s recent Artemis II mission. Continue reading...

Actor who worked with the great French auteurs in the 1970s and 80s and starred in Spielberg’s Catch Me if You Can died of Lewy body dementia, says familyThe French film star Nathalie Baye, who starred in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, has died at the age of 77, her family said on Saturday.Baye, a stalwart of French cinema, starred in about 80 films and took home the best actress César, France’s equivalent of the Oscars, four times, including three years running from 1981 to 1983. She died on Friday evening at her home in Paris from Lewy body dementia, her family told AFP. Continue reading...

Marie-Thérèse Ross was arrested on 1 April and held in a Louisiana facility by immigration officials A French woman in her eighties who was arrested and placed in a US immigration detention centre has flown home.Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Marie-Thérèse Ross in Alabama on 1 April after she overstayed her 90-day visa, according to the US Department of Homeland Security. The 86-year-old widow was being held at a federal immigration detention facility in Louisiana. Continue reading...

In open letter, writers criticise Bollaré for promoting reactionary and far-right ideas and say ‘we refuse to be hostages in ideological war’More than 100 writers have quit the historic French publishing house, Grasset, in protest at its billionaire conservative owner, Vincent Bolloré, whose media empire has been accused of promoting reactionary and far-right ideas.In an unprecedented walk-out, dozens of writers including the acclaimed punk feminist novelist Virginie Despentes and the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, signed an open letter against Bolloré, 74, who is close to far-right figures. Continue reading...

Agents detained Marie-Therese Ross in Alabama on 1 April after she overstayed her 90-day visa, according to DHSThe French government is pressing the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release the 86-year-old French widow of a military veteran from immigration custody after she was detained earlier this month.US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained Marie-Therese Ross in Alabama on 1 April after she overstayed her 90-day visa, according to DHS. Ross is now being held at a federal immigration detention facility in Louisiana. Continue reading...