Israeli strike on Lebanon 'unacceptable' ceasefire violation, Macron says


Israel on Friday conducted drone strikes on a southern Beirut suburb, according to Lebanese official media, shortly after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order. The strike occurred as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and is the first such attack since a November ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.

Issued on: 28/03/2025 -
By: FRANCE 24

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli strike in southern Beirut on March 28, 2025. © Ibrahim Amro, AFP

Official media in Lebanon reported an air strike Friday on south Beirut following an Israeli military warning, the first such move since a November ceasefire that has been seriously disrupted over the past week.

"Israeli warplanes struck the Hadath neighbourhood in Beirut's southern suburbs," the National News Agency said, referring to a densely populated area home to residential buildings and schools, after unclaimed rocket fire from Lebanon towards Israel earlier in the day.

Shortly before the strike, Israel's army issued an evacuation order to residents of Hadath in Beirut's southern suburbs. The military told them to leave the area around "Hezbollah facilities" immediately.

"Anyone located in the building marked in red as shown on the map, and the surrounding buildings... are near Hezbollah facilities... you must immediately evacuate these buildings", military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that included a map showing the building.

The order came as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun began talks in Paris on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss economic reforms and efforts to stabilise the country.

Macron said Friday's strikes on Beirut were "unacceptable" and a violation of the ceasefire after the meeting with Aoun.

Speaking at a joint press conference alongside Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun, Macron said the renewed tensions “mark a turning point".

“Today’s strikes and the failure to respect the ceasefire are unilateral actions that betray a given promise and play into Hezbollah’s hands,” he said.

He said he will speak with US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the coming hours over the situation in Lebanon.

“I call on Lebanon’s friends to act quickly to stop the deterioration and help Lebanon implement international resolutions,” Aoun added.

Making his first trip to a Western nation, Aoun was seeking to shore up support from Paris after the new prime minister, Nawaf Salam, succeeded in putting together a government after two years of stalemate.

Under a ceasefire deal brokered by France and the United States in November, armed group Hezbollah was to remove its weapons from southern Lebanon, Israeli ground forces were to withdraw, and the Lebanese army was to deploy in the area. Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israel have all accused each other of violating the accords.

Watch more US, France are 'guarantors of ceasefire deal', Lebanese President Joseph Aoun says

“It seems to us today that we have to move forward on the possibility of a complete respect of the ceasefire,” a French presidency official told reporters ahead of the visit, whose country, along with the US, is a guarantor of the accord.

The official said Paris was in contact with President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his deputy Morgan Ortagus on the issue.
Israel strikes Hadath neighbourhood

The Israeli military said on Friday it was striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, hours after missiles were fired from Lebanese territory into Israel.
Lebanese President Aoun in Paris on first Europe visit since election

03:38

France's President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun at the Élysée presidential Palace in Paris on March 28, 2025. © Ludovic Marin, AFP

In the Hadath neighbourhood in Beirut's southern suburbs, residents were seen fleeing in panic, rushing to escape by car and on foot after Israel issued the evacuation order, witnesses said.

A limited drone strike, which security sources said appeared to be a warning shot or designed to mark the building intended to be hit, struck a building roughly an hour later.

Israel bombarded Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon on Friday after intercepting a rocket fired from its northern neighbour, the Israeli military said, although Hezbollah denied involvement in the incident.

Israel had vowed a strong response to protect its security, in what amounted to a further blow to the shaky ceasefire deal between the sides that ended the year-long war, a spillover of the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

A senior Hezbollah official denied in a statement that the group was involved in Friday's rocket launch, which followed a rocket salvo into northern Israel on March 22 for which the Iranian-backed group also denied responsibility.

Hezbollah said the incidents appeared to be part of what it called attempts to create pretexts for the continuation of Israeli military action in Lebanon.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP and AP)

Macron urges Israel to 'put an end to strikes' on Gaza, Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire" in a phone call between the two leaders on Sunday. He also called on Israel to respect the truce in place with Hamas-ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.


Issued on: 31/03/2025

By: RFI

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip 31 March, 2025. © Hatem Khaled / Reuters

Macron's intervention comes at a time when Israel has resumed its bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory following the collapse of a fragile truce with the Islamist group Hamas.

"I called on the Israeli prime minister to put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire, which Hamas must accept. I underlined that humanitarian aid must be delivered again immediately," the French leader wrote on the X social network.

Israel resumed intense bombing of the Palestinian territory on 18 March and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war with Hamas which the Palestinian militant group sparked with its 7 October, 2023 attac

On Sunday, Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike in Khan Yunis killed at least eight people, including five children, as the displaced Palestinians sheltering there were observing Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Fragile truce

Macron likewise "called on Israel to strictly respect the ceasefire" in Lebanon, a former French protectorate where Israel on Friday bombed the southern Beirut stronghold of Hamas's ally Hezbollah for the first time after four months of truce.

The Beirut strike came after rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Israel on Friday, testing the fragile agreement.

Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Israel's arch-rival Iran, has denied involvement.

Lebanese army soldiers inspect the site that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday 28 March, 2025. © Hussein Malla / AP
Netanyahu has insisted Israel will target anywhere in Lebanon it deems a threat, warning in a statement on Friday that "the equation has changed".

Macron had previously denounced the Beirut strikes, which Lebanon's health ministry reported had killed five people, as an "unacceptable" violation.

(with AFP)

'ISRAEL OWN GOAL'

French-Israeli academic Eva Illouz denied top prize over ‘anti-Israel ideology’

Renowned sociologist Eva Illouz has been disqualified from receiving the Israel Prize, the country’s top cultural award, over her past support for a petition asking the International Criminal Court to investigate possible war crimes in Gaza, in a move critics say is indicative of the government’s efforts to muzzle academia and silence dissent.


Issued on: 28/03/2025 -
By: Benjamin DODMAN

FRANCE24

Eva Illouz has been a vocal critic of both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government and what she views as anti-Israeli bias on the progressive left. © Emmanuel Durand, AFP file photo

A globally acclaimed academic, Eva Illouz has been a vocal advocate of Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks that sparked the war in Gaza.

That advocacy, however, has not shielded the French-Israeli academic from the wrath of Israel’s hard-right government, whose increasingly authoritarian bent she has frequently denounced.

Education Minister Yoav Kisch on Monday said he had chosen to disqualify Illouz from receiving the Israel Prize, the country’s highest cultural and academic award, over her decision to sign a 2021 petition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Kisch, a member of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, cited the court’s alleged bias against Israel in a letter to the prize committee, in which he accused Illouz of ideological “hostility” towards her home country.


“There is absolutely no place for awarding Israel's highest state honour to someone who – clearly motivated by anti-Israel sentiment – chose to appeal to an institution (the ICC) that eagerly files false complaints against [Israeli army] commanders and soldiers,” he wrote.

Kisch added that he would reconsider Illouz’s candidacy if she retracted her position and “chooses to publicly apologise”.

ICC petition

Illouz, 63, was the jury’s unanimous choice for this year’s Israel Prize, whose past recipients include writers A. B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz, former prime minister Golda Meir, and the Yad Vashem Holocaust institute.

A French-Israeli dual national of Moroccan origin, the sociologist has published a dozen books and has been translated into more than 20 languages. She currently teaches at the prestigious École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris after a distinguished career in Israeli academia.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz described her as “arguably the leading authority in the sociology of emotions worldwide”.

In 2021, Illouz was among more than 180 Israeli scientists, public figures and intellectuals who signed a petition calling on the ICC to investigate whether Israel had committed war crimes in the Palestinian territories. The text, whose signatories included 10 past winners of the Israel Prize, urged the ICC not to rely solely on Israeli authorities to carry out such an investigation.

Earlier that year, in a landmark decision that angered Israel, the Hague-based court ruled that it had jurisdiction over the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza because Palestine was determined to be a member of the court.

The ICC further infuriated the Israeli government last year by issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and then defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.

Defending Israel

A regular contributor to publications including Haaretz, French daily Le Monde and Germany’s Die Zeit, Illouz has been a relentless critic of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, whom she accuses of dividing the country, sapping its democracy and undermining the rule of law.

But she has also been fiercely critical of the anti-Israeli bias she attributes to parts of the progressive left in Western countries, lamenting a lack of empathy in the wake of the October 7 attacks and accusing pro-Palestinian protesters in US campuses of effectively denying Israel’s right to exit.

In a recent Le Monde op-ed co-authored with other French intellectuals, Illouz denounced the radical left’s use of the word “Zionist” as an insult, writing: “Only Jews who declare themselves to be ‘anti-Zionist’ are now forgiven for being Jewish.”

Speaking to the French newspaper on Wednesday, Shai Lavi, the head of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, described the government’s veto of Illouz as a tragic own goal for Israel.

“I know of no academic, let alone one of Professor Illouz's international reputation, who has devoted as much time and energy as she has to fighting anti-Semitism and defending Israel in a balanced way over the past eighteen months,” Lavi told Le Monde, lambasting an “extremely stupid decision”.

‘Dismantling democracy’

The controversy comes amid growing concern in Israel about democratic backsliding and an encroachment on academic freedom under Netanyahu’s hardline government – echoing similar concerns in the US under President Donald trump.

“Not a week goes by without scandalous measures being taken against liberal institutions in Israel, particularly higher education establishments,” said Lavi.

Illouz described her case “as a small cog in a larger process of dismantling democracy”. The education minister’s actions, she told Le Monde, “show that Israel is now going down the road of authoritarian regimes, and all Zionist Jews should be very worried”.

While Netanyahu’s government presses ahead with its plans to rein in the judiciary, despite days of mass street protests, judges may yet thwart Kisch’s efforts to deny Illouz her Israel Prize.

Jury members have the option of appealing to the Supreme Court, which has ruled in the past that the prize should be awarded strictly on professional merit.

In 2022, the court ruled that the education minister had no right to deny computer scientist Oded Goldreich the prize over his alleged support for anti-Israel boycotts. In the ruling, Justice Isaac Amit, who now serves as the court’s president, warned that disqualifying Goldreich due to statements he made was “a surefire recipe for politicising the prize” and “an invitation to monitoring, surveilling and persecuting academics”.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER WAR  CRIME

Red Cross 'outraged' by killing of medics in Gaza as Macron calls on Netanyahu to stop bombing

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday it had recovered the bodies of 15 rescuers, including eight of its medics, who were killed a week ago when Israeli forces targeted ambulances in the Gaza Strip. The international Red Cross federation said it was "outraged" by the medics' deaths.

Issued on: 30/03/2025
By: FRANCE 24

A file photo showing Palestinian Red Crescent volunteers handing water to drivers waiting to cross an Israeli army checkpoint in Beit Furik east of Nablus, on March 26, 2025, during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. © Zain Jaafar, AFP


The Red Cross federation voiced outrage Sunday after eight medical colleagues were killed while on duty in the Gaza Strip, asking: "When will this stop?"

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said earlier Sunday it had recovered the bodies of the medics, killed a week ago when Israeli forces fired on ambulances in southern Gaza.

The PRCS said the bodies were found along with those of six members of Gaza's civil defence agency and one UN agency employee. One Red Crescent ambulance officer remains missing.

"The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is outraged at the deaths of eight medics from PRCS, killed on duty in Gaza," the world's largest humanitarian network said in a statement.

Gazans outside a hospital in the territory's south after the Red Crescent announced the deaths of formerly missing rescuers © - / AFP

The IFRC said the bodies were retrieved after "seven days of silence" and of having access denied to the area of Rafah where they were last seen.

"I am heartbroken," IFRC secretary general Jagan Chapagain said in a statement.

"These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned to their families; they did not."

He stressed that under the rules of International Humanitarian Law, civilians, humanitarians and health services must be protected.

"Instead of another call on all parties to protect and respect humanitarians and civilians, I pose a question: when will this stop?

"All parties must stop the killing."

The IFRC said it was the single most deadly attack on its colleagues anywhere in the world since 2017.

The number of PRCS volunteers and staff killed since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023 is now 30, the global federation said.
Israel's bombing campaign continues

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike on a house and tent sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least eight people on Sunday, including five children.

The strike hit Khan Younis on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to "put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire", adding in a post on X after a phone call with the Israeli leader that "humanitarian aid must be delivered again immediately".

Samah Dahliz, 38, whose young relative was among the dead, said: "What kind of Eid is this that we are going through?"

"He's a child, his parents had bought him new clothes for Eid to make him happy," she told AFP.

"They bombed them in their tent while they were sleeping."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Israel admits firing at ambulances and fire trucks during Gaza offensive

The Israeli army on Saturday admitted its troops had opened fire on “suspicious vehicles” in the Gaza Strip that turned out to be “ambulances and fire trucks” during an offensive launched earlier this month. Hamas has condemned the attack and accused Israel of committing a war crime.


Issued on: 29/03/2025 
By: FRANCE 24

Palestinians inspect the damage at an ambulance repair yard that was hit by Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip on March 24, 2025. © Eyad Baba, AFP


Israel's military admitted Saturday it had fired on ambulances in the Gaza Strip after identifying them as "suspicious vehicles", with Hamas condemning it as a "war crime" that killed at least one person.

The incident took place last Sunday in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in the southern city of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.

Israeli troops launched an offensive there on March 20, two days after the army resumed aerial bombardments of Gaza following an almost two-month-long truce.

Read moreIsrael expands Gaza ground offensive into Rafah as missiles intercepted


Israeli troops had "opened fire toward Hamas vehicles and eliminated several Hamas terrorists", the military said in a statement to AFP.

"A few minutes afterward, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops ... The troops responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles, eliminating a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists."

The military did not say if there was fire coming from the vehicles.

It added that "after an initial inquiry, it was determined that some of the suspicious vehicles ... were ambulances and fire trucks", and condemned "the repeated use" by "terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip of ambulances for terrorist purposes".

The day after the incident, Gaza's civil defence agency said in a statement that it had not heard from a team of six rescuers from Tal al-Sulta who had been urgently dispatched to respond to deaths and injuries.

On Friday, it reported finding the body of the team leader and the rescue vehicles – an ambulance and a firefighting vehicle – and said a vehicle from the Palestine Red Crescent Society was also "reduced to a pile of scrap metal".

Basem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau, accused Israel of carrying out "a deliberate and brutal massacre against Civil Defense and Palestinian Red Crescent teams in the city of Rafah".

"The targeted killing of rescue workers – who are protected under international humanitarian law – constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime," he said.

Tom Fletcher, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that since March 18, "Israeli airstrikes in densely populated areas have killed hundreds of children and other civilians".

"Patients killed in their hospital beds. Ambulances shot at. First responders killed," he said in a statement.

"If the basic principles of humanitarian law still count, the international community must act while it can to uphold them."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

WWIII

Khamenei warns of 'strong' response if Iran attacked

Tehran (AFP) – Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Monday of a forceful retaliation if the United States or its allies bomb the Islamic republic, following a threat by President Donald Trump.


Issued on: 31/03/2025 - 

A handout picture shows Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ahead of Eid al-Fitr prayer in Tehran © - / KHAMENEI.IR/AFP


"They threaten to do mischief," Khamenei said of Trump's latest threat, during a speech on Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"If it is carried out, they will definitely receive a strong counterattack."

In an interview on Saturday, Trump said "there will be bombing" if Iran does not agree to a deal to curb its nuclear programme.

"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," he said, according to NBC News, which said he also threatened to punish Iran with what he called "secondary tariffs".


It was not clear whether Trump was threatening bombing by US planes alone or perhaps in an operation coordinated with another country, possibly Iran's nemesis Israel.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, in a post on X, said that "an open threat of bombing by a head of state against Iran is a shocking affront to the very essence of international peace and security."

Baqaei warned of unspecified "consequences" should the United State choose a path of "violence".

A statement on Monday also said the foreign ministry summoned the charge d'affaires of the Swiss embassy, which represents US interests in Iran, "following the threats by the US president".

Since taking office in January, Trump has reinstated his "maximum pressure" policy, which in his first term saw the United States withdraw from a landmark agreement on Iran's nuclear programme and reimpose biting sanctions on Tehran.

Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapon, which Tehran has denied, insisting its enrichment activities were solely for peaceful purposes.
'Indirect' channel

The 2015 nuclear deal, sealed between Tehran and world powers, required Iran to limit its nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief.

On March 7, Trump said he had written to Khamenei to call for nuclear negotiations and warn of possible military action if Tehran refused.

The letter was delivered to Tehran on March 12 by UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash, Iranian news agency Fars reported at the time.

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the country had delivered a response via intermediary Oman, without delineating its content.

Araghchi said Iran would not engage in direct talks "under maximum pressure and the threat of military action".

In his remarks, however, the minister left open the door for "indirect negotiations".

President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday said that Khamenei, who as supreme leader has the final say in major state policies, had permitted indirect talks.

Oman has served as an intermediary in the past, in the absence of US-Iranian diplomatic relations severed after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Beyond its nuclear programme, Iran is also accused by the West of using proxy forces to expand its influence in the region, a charge Tehran rejects.

Iran leads the so-called "axis of resistance" against Israel, which includes Palestinian movement Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and other armed group widely proscribed as "terrorist" by Western countries.

Iran does not recognise Israel, its arch enemy and the United States' main ally in the region, and frequently calls for attacks against it.

"There is only one proxy force in this region, and that is the corrupt usurper Zionist regime," Khamenei said, calling for Israel to be "eradicated".

© 2025 AFP

Deported by Trump, in a grey area in Costa Rica, with the fear of a return to their country

Paso Canoas (Costa Rica) (AFP) - Marwa fled Afghanistan and the persecution of women under the Taliban regime. Deported by the United States, she is now being held in a migrant shelter in Costa Rica, saying she fears being sent back: "The Taliban will kill me," she told AFP.

Published : 31/03/2025 - 

Afghan Marwa and her husband Asadi, deported from the United States, at a temporary reception center for migrants in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, on March 28, 2025 

© Ezequiel BECERRA / AFP

Behind the fences of the Temporary Reception Centre for Migrants (Catem), near the border with Panama, the 27-year-old Afghan woman says her husband is also in danger and that there is no future in Afghanistan for her two-year-old daughter.

"If I go back there, I will die. The Taliban will kill me. I lost my father and my uncle. I don't want to lose my husband or my baby," she told an AFP team that, hidden outside the compound, in a place without police surveillance, was able to speak with several deportees.

In addition to Costa Rica, the United States has reached agreements with Panama, which has taken in 300 migrants from Asia, and El Salvador, which has placed 238 Venezuelans in its maximum security prison, alleging their membership in the Tren de Aragua gang, considered a "terrorist organization" by Washington.


"Death penalty"

Of the migrants expelled at the same time as Marwa, 74 have been repatriated to their country of origin, a dozen should soon be repatriated, but more than a hundred are in a grey area: they refuse to return to their country but no other, including Costa Rica, which has a long tradition of welcoming them, grants them asylum.

Aerial view of the Temporary Reception Centre for Migrants (Catem) in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, on March 23, 2025 © Armando ACEVEDO / AFP

"We can't go back, but we can't stay here either. We don't know the culture, we don't speak Spanish. We don't have family in Canada, the United States or Europe," said Marwa, who covered her hair with a hijab.

She said her husband Mohammad, 31, sold building materials to American companies before the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

They then fled, first to Iran for two and a half years before going to Brazil from where they began the long march to the United States, notably through the dangerous Darien jungle, between Colombia and Panama.

"There are a lot of cartels on the way that have taken our money and tortured us physically and mentally," said Alireza Salimivir, a 35-year-old Iranian who went through a similar odyssey with his wife. They have been separated, she is being deported from the United States and Salimivir hopes to find her soon.

Russia's German Smirnov at the Temporary Reception Centre for Migrants (Catem) in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, on March 23, 2025 © Ezequiel BECERRA / AFP

For them, a return to Iran is not an option: "Because of our conversion from Islam to Christianity, they will inflict the death penalty on us," he says.

Deported with his wife and six-year-old child, German Smirnov, 36, fears that if he returns to Russia he will be "tortured" for denouncing anomalies as an observer during the 2024 elections. "I will be given no other choice but prison or go to war," he said.
"Accomplice"

All of them say they were not treated well by the American migration officers: "Like garbage," Smirnov said.

In Catem, 350 km south of San José, they say they are well fed, have access to phones but cannot go out despite having no criminal record. Their passports are withheld by the police.

Russian German Smirnov behind a fence at the Temporary Reception Centre for Migrants (Catem) in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, on March 23, 2025 © Ezequiel BECERRA / AFP

"There is a systematic pattern of human rights violations in a country that has always prided itself on defending them. This is a very serious setback for Costa Rica," said former diplomat Mauricio Herrera, who has submitted a habeas corpus in favor of the deportees so that they can be presented to a judge who will examine the legality of their placement.

Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves justified the agreement to receive the deportees from the United States as aid "to the powerful brother in the north".

"Costa Rica should not be complicit in the United States' flagrant violations," said Michael Garcia Bochenek of Human Rights Watch.

Marwa does not know what will happen, but categorically refuses to return to Afghanistan where she will be forced to wear the burka, without access to public space.

She wants even less of this future for her daughter. "Everything is closed there for women... schools, universities," she laments. "I'm a human being, I choose how I want to be," she says, pointing to the jeans she wears, before turning, hand in hand with her husband, to a more than uncertain future.

© 2025 AFP

US will not 'get' Greenland, island's new PM says in response to Trump comments

The United States will not get Greenland, newly elected Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Sunday in a Facebook post in response to Donald Trump's statements he wants to take control of the vast Arctic country. Trump said he had "absolutely" had real conversations about annexing the semi-autonomous Danish territory.


30/03/2025 
By FRANCE 24

Leader of Greenland's centre-right Demokraatit party Jens Frederik Nielsen talks to journalists during a march to the US consulate during a demonstration on March 15, 2025. © Christian Klindt, AFP


Greenland will decide its own future and the autonomous Danish territory will not become part of the United States, its new prime minister said on Sunday, responding to Donald Trump's latest comments about wanting the resource-rich island.

"President Trump says the United States 'will get Greenland.' Let me be clear: The United States will not get Greenland. We don't belong to anyone else. We decide our own future," Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post.

"We'll get Greenland. Yeah, 100 percent", Trump said on Saturday in an interview with NBC News. He told interviewer Kristen Walker that he had "absolutely" had real conversations about annexing the semi-autonomous Danish territory.

06:50© France 24



This latest exchange culminates a week of heightened tensions between the United States, Denmark, and Greenland, marked by Vice President JD Vance's visit to a US military base on the vast Arctic island.

Danish diplomacy on Saturday criticised Vance's "tone", after he said Denmark "has not done a good job by the people of Greenland".

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will be in Greenland from Wednesday to Friday to "strengthen unity" between the kingdom and its Arctic territory.

Four of the five parties represented in the Greenlandic Parliament reached an agreement on Friday to form a coalition government.

Greenland's main parties all want independence, but they disagree on the roadmap. American pressure convinced them to form a coalition as quickly as possible with only the Naleraq party, which advocates rapid independence, declining to join.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)

CAPPLETALI$M

France fines Apple 150 million euros over privacy feature

Paris (AFP) – French antitrust authorities handed Apple a 150-million-euro ($162-million) fine on Monday over its app tracking privacy feature, which is also under scrutiny in several other European countries.

Issued on: 31/03/2025 

Apple's privacy feature requires apps to obtain user consent through a pop-up window before tracking their activity across other apps and websites © JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

The watchdog said the way Apple implemented its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) software was "neither necessary nor proportionate to the company's stated goal to protect user data" and also penalised third-party publishers.

In addition to the fine, Apple will have to publish the decision on its website for seven days.

Authorities in Germany, Italy, Romania and Poland have opened similar probes over ATT, which Apple promotes as a privacy safeguard.

"While we are disappointed with today's decision, the French Competition Authority has not required any specific changes to ATT," Apple said in a statement.


The feature, introduced by Apple in 2021, requires apps to obtain user consent through a pop-up window before tracking their activity across other apps and websites.

If they decline, the app loses access to information on that user which enables ad targeting.

Critics have accused Apple of using the system to promote its own advertising services while restricting competitors.
'More control over privacy'

In its decision, France's Competition Authority said the ATT feature leads to an excessive number of consent windows for third-party apps on iPhones and iPads, making the experience more cumbersome.

It also found that Apple's system required users to opt out of ad tracking twice rather than once, "undermining the neutrality of the feature" and causing economic harm to app publishers and ad service providers.

The authority added that Apple's approach disproportionately affects smaller publishers, who rely heavily on third-party data collection to fund their businesses.

Following complaints from advertising industry players who claimed ATT hindered their ability to target users, France's competition watchdog initially declined to impose emergency measures in 2021 but continued its investigation.

Apple said on Monday that ATT "gives users more control of their privacy through a required, clear, and easy-to-understand prompt about one thing: tracking".

"That prompt is consistent for all developers, including Apple, and we have received strong support for this feature from consumers, privacy advocates, and data protection authorities around the world," it said.

© 2025 AFP

Apple heavily condemned in France for its ad targeting system

Paris (AFP) - Apple was fined €150 million by the French Competition Authority on Monday for abuse of a dominant position in the context of targeted advertising on its devices, as similar investigations target the company in other European countries.


Published: 31/03/2025 - 

Apple was fined €150 million by the French Competition Authority on Monday for abuse of a dominant position in the context of advertising targeting on its devices © Philippe HUGUEN / AFP/Archives

The American giant has been sanctioned for the use of its ATT ("App Tracking Transparency") device, presented as an additional protection of users' private data.

The "implementation methods (of this system) are neither necessary nor proportionate to Apple's stated objective of data protection", which penalises third-party publishers, the body stressed on Monday at a press conference.

"While we are disappointed by today's decision, the French Competition Authority has not required specific changes to App Tracking Transparency (ATT)," Apple said in a statement.

The French antitrust authority has indicated that it is up to the American company to comply.

This amount of 150 million euros "seemed appropriate" and "reasonable" to us, explained Benoît Coeuré, the president of the French competition watchdog, which he said represents "a fairly modest sum when you take into account Apple's turnover", which is close to $400 billion in 2024.

Apple will also have to publish a summary of the decision on its website for seven days.
Small publishers penalised

To justify its decision, the Competition Authority notes that this device "leads to a multiplication of consent collection windows, excessively complicating the journey of users of third-party applications" on iPhones and iPads.

In addition, the fact that the user has to refuse advertising tracking on third-party applications twice, instead of once, "undermines the neutrality of the system, causing a certain economic damage to application publishers and advertising service providers".

The regulator believes that the system as it is implemented by Apple "penalizes in particular the smallest publishers" who "depend largely on the collection of third-party data to finance their activity".

Introduced by the American giant in early 2021, the ATT system opens a consent window for the opening of each application.

If a user clicks "no," the app loses access to that person's advertising ID, a unique number that allows them to be tracked online.

This device was suspected of favoring Apple's own services to the detriment of third-party applications.

"Important victory"

"This decision marks an important victory for the 9,000 companies in the media and online advertising ecosystem," several players in the sector, including Alliance Digitale, the Syndicat des Régies Internet and the Union of Media Consulting and Buying Companies, said in a joint statement.

They had referred the matter to the French competition watchdog in 2020 to denounce an obstacle to their targeting capacity, which had initially rejected a request for interim measures in 2021 but had continued the investigation on the merits.

This decision should be observed in Germany, where Apple has been in the crosshairs since June 2022.

The American firm suffered a legal setback in mid-March after the courts confirmed that it had been placed under enhanced surveillance, leaving the group under the threat of measures to regulate its activity.

The competition authorities of Italy, Romania and Poland have also launched similar investigations.

For its part, the European Union reaffirmed in February that it would strongly defend its legislation on digital services targeting American tech giants.

And this, even in the event of retaliatory measures from Washington: President Trump has indicated that he will consider customs duties in response to the "taxes, fines and regulatory constraints on digital services" that would apply to American companies in the EU, and in particular the "tech" giants.

© 2025 AFP

France accuses US diplomats of meddling with French companies through DEI 'diktat'

French minister Aurore Bergé on Sunday accused the US embassy in Paris of trying to "impose a diktat" on French businesses after local media reported that companies had received a letter from embassy staff calling on them to comply with US President Donald Trump's executive order terminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.

30/03/2025 - 
By:FRANCE 24

Aurore Bergé, France's minister for equality between women and men and combating discrimination, speaks during a session of questions to the government at the National Assembly in Paris on March 25, 2025. © Bertrand Guay, AFP

A French minister on Sunday accused US diplomats of interfering in the operations of French companies by sending them a letter reportedly telling them that US President Donald Trump's rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives could also apply outside of the United States.

French media said that the letter received by major French companies was signed by an officer of the US State Department who is on the staff at the US Embassy in Paris. The embassy didn't respond to questions this weekend from The Associated Press.

Le Figaro daily newspaper published what it said was a copy of the letter. The document said that an executive order that Trump signed in January terminating DEI programmes within the federal government also “applies to all suppliers and service providers of the US Government, regardless of their nationality and the country in which they operate”.

Read moreThe death of DEI? Trump wages war on diversity, equity and inclusion

The document asked recipients to complete, sign and return within five days a separate certification form to demonstrate that they are in compliance.

That form, also published by Le Figaro, said: “All Department of State contractors must certify that they do not operate any programmes promoting DEI that violate any applicable anti-discrimination laws.”

The form asked recipients to tick a box to confirm that they “do not operate any programmes promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws”.

The letter added: “If you do not agree to sign this document, we would appreciate it if you could provide detailed reasons, which we will forward to our legal services.”

Most affirmative action policies are in fact illegal in France, which bans treatment based on origin, ethnic group or religion, though many large companies have sought to diversify their recruitment pools.

France does however require companies with more than 1,000 employees to promote equality for women under a 2021 law, with benchmarks such as having at least 30 percent women executives.

Read more  Do or DEI: Trump's assault on diversity divides America

Aurore Bergé, France's minister for equality between women and men and combating discrimination, said Sunday that the letter is "a form, obviously, of interference".

"That’s to say it’s an attempt to impose a diktat on our businesses,” she said.

Speaking to broadcaster BFMTV, she said that France's government is “following the situation very closely” and working to determine how many companies received the letter.

The minister said that “many” companies have told the government that they don’t plan to reply, “because they don’t have a respond, in fact, to a sort of ultimatum laid out by the US Embassy in our country”.

“It's out of the question that we'll prevent our business from promoting social progress,” the minister said. “Thankfully, a lot of French companies don't plan to change their rules.”

(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)

Trump crackdown on anti-discrimination law hits French firms, sparking backlash

A directive targeting French companies with US government contracts has raised concerns about the widening reach of President Donald Trump's policies abroad. With transatlantic relations already under strain, French officials are pushing back, questioning the implications of Washington’s hardline approach.


Issued on: 29/03/2025 - RFI

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on 26 March 26, 2025 in Washington DC. Getty Images via AFP - WIN MCNAMEE


The Trump administration has issued a directive to French companies holding US government contracts, instructing them to comply with an executive order that bans diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes.

The firms have reportedly been asked to confirm their compliance by completing a separate questionnaire entitled "Certification Regarding Compliance With Applicable Federal Anti-Discrimination Law."

This move is likely to ruffle feathers in European boardrooms, as concerns mount that the Trump administration is expanding its crackdown on DEI initiatives beyond US borders.

The directive comes at a time when President Donald Trump's stance on tariffs and security cooperation has already shaken transatlantic relations.

French business daily Les Echos first reported on Friday that the letter had been dispatched to firms by the US mission in Paris, posting on X: "Several dozen French companies have received a letter from the US embassy".


UN rights chief deeply worried about 'fundamental shift' in direction in US

According to a version published by French newspaper Le Figaro the letter states: "We inform you that Executive Order 14173 – Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-based Opportunities – signed by President Trump, applies to all suppliers and service providers of the US government, regardless of their nationality or the country in which they operate".

The letter further requests that recipients sign and return the document in English within five days.

"If you do not agree to sign this document, we would appreciate if you could provide detailed reasons, which we will forward to our legal services," it adds, referring to the certification seen.

The US embassy in Paris has yet to comment on the matter.

French scientists join US protests in face of Trump administration's 'sabotage'

Reaction from France

The directive has sparked a strong reaction in France. A senior official close to Finance Minister Eric Lombard indicated that the French government would be addressing the issue with US authorities.

"This practice reflects the values of the new US administration. They are not the same as ours. The minister will make this clear to his counterparts in Washington," the official told the Reuters news agency.

It has yet to be confirmed which companies received the letter, though media reports suggest that defence and infrastructure firms could be among those affected.

It also remains unclear whether similar letters and questionnaires have been sent to other European nations.

Trump has made eliminating DEI initiatives a priority, arguing that such programmes are themselves discriminatory – a stance that continues to fuel debate both in the US and internationally.

French Court bans far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running for office

A French court has found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of misusing EU funds to pay staff from her National Rally party between 2004 and 2016 and followed up the verdict on Friday with a sentence barring her from running for office, dashing her political ambitions of standing in the next presidential race.


Issued on: 31/03/2025 

By:FRANCE 24 

Video by:Shirli SITBON

03:47President of the parliamentary group of the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Marine Le Pen arrives at the Paris courthouse for her trial verdict on March 31, 2025. © Alain Jocard, AFP


A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty Monday in an embezzlement case and followed up the verdict with a sentence barring her from running for office.

Le Pen and 24 other officials from her National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants deny wrongdoing.

The biggest concern for Le Pen was that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office preventing her from running for president in 2027 -- a scenario she described as a “political death.”

The Constitutional Council ruled Friday, in a separate case, that imposing the punishment immediately was constitutional.

Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.

'Marine Le Pen has indeed been condemned'

03:17© France 24

During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchise her supporters.

“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election,” she told the panel of three judges.

With Le Pen unable to run in 2027, her seeming natural successor would be Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 29-year-old protégé who succeeded her at the helm of the party in 2021.

Le Pen denied accusations she was at the head of “a system” meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021.

She argued instead that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some highly political work related to the party, which was called the National Front at the time.

While testifying, Le Pen told the court: “I absolutely don’t feel I have committed the slightest irregularity, the slightest illegal move.”

Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard — who was once her father's bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant.

Prosecutors asked the court to declare Le Pen guilty, requesting a two-year prison sentence and a five-year period of ineligibility.

Le Pen said she felt they were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president.

Prosecutors also requested a guilty verdict for all the other co-defendants, including various sentences of up to one year in prison and a €2 million ($2.2 million) fine for the party.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)

LIVE: Marine Le Pen sentenced to ineligibility

Published: 31/03/2025 
By: FRANCE 24
Irène SULMONT

Marine Le Pen arrives with her lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut at the Paris courthouse for the verdict of her trial on suspicions of embezzlement of European public funds, on March 31, 2025. © Alain Jocarda, AFP

In the Paris court, Marine Le Pen and the elected officials tried in the case of the European parliamentary assistants of the National Front were sentenced to ineligibility. Follow our live stream.


SUMMARY
The Paris criminal court began to hand down its judgment at 10 a.m.
Marine Le Pen and her co-defendants sentenced to a sentence of ineligibility with immediate execution.
Marine Le Pen and eight MEPs were found guilty of embezzlement of public funds.
The twelve assistants tried alongside them were also found guilty of receiving stolen goods.
The prosecution has requested a sentence of five years of ineligibility with provisional execution in addition to five years in prison, two of which will be suspended, as well as a fine of 300,000 euros.
The finalist in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections as well as 24 other defendants are accused of having paid with European Parliament funds the parliamentary assistants of MEPs of the far-right party for an estimated damage of more than 3.2 million euros.
Marine Le Pen and the 24 other defendants have always disputed this embezzlement of public money.

Marine Le Pen and her co-defendants sentenced to a sentence of ineligibility with immediate execution.

The Ultra-Rich Have Exploited Our Tax System Long Enough—Make Them Pay!

Funny how these same apologists for our richest don’t have much sympathy for ordinary Americans who lack the “wherewithal” to pay for medical care, adequate housing, and other necessities.

Bob Lord
Mar 30, 2025

Inequality.org

The most gaping loophole in our tax law? The tax-free compounding of gains on investments.

This classic loophole enables the two most lucrative inequality-driving income tax avoidance strategies. The first, buy-borrow-die, allows wealthy Americans to avoid income tax entirely on even billions in investment gains.

These wealthy need only hold on to their appreciated assets until death. What if they need cash before then? They merely borrow against the appreciated assets, typically at very low interest rates.

Are rich Americans, including billionaires, truly unable to pay tax on their investment gains before they sell the assets yielding those gains? Wanna buy a bridge?

The second avoidance strategy, buy-hold for decades-sell, lets wealthy investors pay a super low effective annual tax rate on investments that appreciate at high rates over long periods of time. These investors typically experience decades of compounding gains without taxation.

The effective tax rates involved in this second strategy won’t reach buy-borrow-die’s zero tax, but may in some cases get as low as a 4% effective annual rate. A 4% effective annual tax rate would have an investment with a pre-tax growth rate of 20% per year enjoying an after-tax growth rate of 19.2% per year.

Congressional apologists for the ultra-rich on both sides of the aisle regularly claim that their wealthy patrons should be entitled to endless tax-free compounding of investment gains. Without this tax-free compounding, the argument goes, our richest wouldn’t have the “wherewithal to pay” tax on their investment gains before their assets get sold. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) invoked this tired canard at a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing.

Funny how these same apologists for our richest don’t have much sympathy for ordinary Americans who lack the “wherewithal” to pay for medical care, adequate housing, and other necessities. Average wage earners, under current law, can’t even wait until year-end to pay Uncle Sam their taxes. Those taxes come out of each paycheck, wherewithal to pay or not.

Are rich Americans, including billionaires, truly unable to pay tax on their investment gains before they sell the assets yielding those gains? Wanna buy a bridge?

Let’s start with the easiest case: a publicly traded investment that can be sold in smaller units, an investment in stocks, for instance. Say Rich, a wealthy investor, buys 1 million shares of Nvidia at $100 per share, and those shares, by year’s end, increase in value to $120 per share.

Our investor Rich now has a $20 million gain. If that annual gain faced a 25% tax rate, Rich would have a $5 million tax liability. To raise the cash to pay that tax, Rich could sell off 41,667 of his shares, leaving him with 958,333 shares, now worth just under $115 million.

That doesn’t seem very painful.

Now, let’s say Rich didn’t want to sell any shares. He could instead just borrow $5 million against the shares to pay the tax.

Or what if Rich had bought a parcel of land instead of Nvidia shares and, for whatever reason, having him borrow to pay tax on his annual investment gains didn’t turn out to be feasible?

Still no problem for Rich. For gains on illiquid assets, Rich could defer the payment of tax until he sold the assets, but the tax could be computed as if it accrued annually. How might this work? Say, for example, that Rich’s $100 million parcel of land grew at an annual rate of 10% for 20 years, at which point he sold it at its appreciated value of $672,749,995.

Had Rich paid tax at 25% on his gain each year, his rate of return would have been 7.5% per year, and after 20 years his investment would be worth $424,785,110.

The $247,964,885 difference between his sale price and the value of his investment with its actual rate of return reduced by the tax paid would be his tax liability upon sale. Payment of that amount would leave Rich with the same sum, $424,785,110, had he been able to sell a small share of his parcel each year, to pay the tax on his investment gain.

Put another way, Rich would be left with the same amount using this tax computation as he would if he sold his parcel each year, paid tax on the gain, and reinvested the remaining proceeds in another parcel.

And if Rich died before selling his parcel? His income tax could be determined for the year of his death in the same fashion as if he’d sold the parcel for its fair market value at the time of his death. Or, in the alternative, his inheritors could step into his shoes and pay the same tax when they sold the parcel as Rich would have had he survived and sold it at that time.

The bottom line: If we closed the tax-free compounding of investment gains loophole, some situations might exist where the immediate payment of tax on investment gains could pose a problem. But we can address those situations by deferring payment of the tax until investments get sold and accounting for the tax-free compounding in the determination of the tax.

These problematic situations, in other words, don’t justify leaving a gaping loophole in place.

So the obstacle to shutting down buy-borrow-die and buy-hold for decades-sell has absolutely nothing to do with ultra-rich investors lacking the wherewithal to pay taxes. That obstacle remains the politicians in Washington, D.C. who lack the wherewithal to summon the courage to make our rich pay the taxes they owe our nation.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.


Bob Lord is Senior Advisor, Tax Policy at Patriotic Millionaires and an Institute for Policy Studies associate fellow.
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