Tag: france

France Summons U.S. Ambassador After Washington Condemns Killing of Conservative Activist, Insists There Are ‘No Lessons to Learn’

France announced Sunday it will summon U.S. Ambassador Charles Kushner after Washington publicly condemned the killing of French conservative activist Quentin Deranque.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the U.S. Embassy’s comments about the case amounted to interference in a matter that “concerns the national community.”

He added that France “rejects any instrumentalisation of this tragedy” and insisted the country has “no lessons to learn” from what he described as an “international reactionary movement.”

Barrot said he plans to raise additional concerns with Ambassador Kushner, including U.S. sanctions imposed on former EU commissioner Thierry Breton and French judge Nicolas Guillou.

He described the sanctions as “unjustified and unjustifiable,” while Macron has reportedly written to President Trump requesting that certain sanctions on European citizens be lifted.

Deranque was beaten to death during a clash with far-left thugs, an attack that has sparked nationwide outrage and renewed debate over political violence in France.

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French lawmakers vote to ban social media use by under-15s

French lawmakers have passed a bill that would ban social media use by under-15s, a move championed by president Emmanuel Macron as a way to protect children from excessive screen time.

The lower national assembly adopted the text by a vote of 130 to 21 in a lengthy overnight session from Monday to Tuesday.

It will now go to the Senate, France’s upper house, ahead of becoming law.

Macron hailed the vote as a “major step” to protect French children and teenagers in a post on X.

The legislation, which also provides for a ban on mobile phones in high schools, would make France the second country to take such a step following Australia’s ban for under-16s in December.

As social media has grown, so has concern that too much screen time is harming child development and contributing to mental health problems.

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Macron Calls Online Free Speech Argument “Pure Bullshit”

European governments framing social media bans for minors as child protection are quiet about what those bans actually require: identity checks for everyone. Every adult who wants to use Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube in France, Spain, or Germany would need to verify their real-world identity to access the platform. Anonymity, one of the oldest protections for dissenting speech, goes with it.

That’s the context Emmanuel Macron left out when he called free speech online “pure bullshit” in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The French president was addressing companies and their American backers as European governments push social media restrictions, as well as curbs on “hate speech,” a move the Trump administration has criticized as censorship.

Macron’s counterargument is based on algorithmic opacity. “Having no clue about how their algorithm is made, how it’s tested, trained, and where it will guide you, the democratic consequences of this bias could be huge,” he said.

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11 arrested in France for beating death of far-right student

 French police investigating the beating of a far-right militant who died of brain injuries have arrested 11 people, prosecutors said Wednesday, in a case adding fuel to long-standing divides in French politics ahead of presidential elections in 2027.

Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old student described as a fervent nationalist, died in a hospital on Saturday.

He was beaten two days earlier by a group of people in the city of Lyon, in fighting that erupted between far-left and far-right supporters on the margins of a student meeting where a far-left lawmaker, Rima Hassan, was a keynote speaker.

An autopsy found that Deranque suffered a fractured skull and fatal brain injuries, according to Lyon’s prosecutor, Thierry Dran.

He launched the police investigation for homicide and other potential criminal charges.

Dran’s office said police detained a man and a woman on Wednesday morning, with nine other people taken into custody on Tuesday night.

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French Patriots Turn Out in Huge Numbers Demanding Justice for 23-Yr-Old Conservative Quentin Who Was Murdered by Antifa Thugs

Thousands of French patriots turned out in Paris on Sunday demanding justice for 23-year-old Quentin who was murdered by Antifa thugs this weekend.

On Friday, The Gateway Pundit’s Robert Semonsen reported that young French nationalist activist is fighting for his life after a brutal street assault in the city of Lyon that has reignited national outrage over radical-left wing political violence and the climate of impunity surrounding self-described “anti-fascist” groups.

The victim, a 23-year-old man identified as Quentin, remains in critical condition—and is said to be braindead—following a savage attack that took place on the evening of February 12.

The violence erupted on the margins of a conference held at Sciences Po Lyon featuring Rima Hassan, a European Parliament member aligned with the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI). It’s worth noting that weeks ago, LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, during a campaign event, said that his party is the party of “The Great Replacement.”

The event, focused on EU relations and the Middle East, was warmly received inside the venue, while tensions simmered outside.

According to various accounts from eye witnesses at the scene, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Female protesters on the nationalist-feminist side were allegedly surrounded, pushed, and physically attacked, with at least one 19-year-old woman reportedly strangled and dragged during the initial confrontation.

Quentin, who was part of an informal security detail tasked with protecting the women, intervened as the group attempted to disperse. He and another man were then allegedly followed through nearby streets by a group of masked attackers.

What followed, witnesses say, was a coordinated ambush. The two men were set upon in a quiet area of Lyon’s 5th arrondissement, where Quentin was knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked after his head struck the pavement.

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French police raid Arab World Institute in Paris as Epstein fallout widens

French police searched the Arab World Institute in Paris on Monday as part of a probe into its former head, ex-culture minister Jack Lang, and his links to late convicted U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said.

France’s National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) said in a statement that the Arab World Institute was among several locations being raided.

Prosecutors this month opened a preliminary investigation of Lang and his daughter Caroline on suspicion of tax fraud following the release of documents on Epstein in the U.S.

Lang, who was culture minister under late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, resigned this month from the Arab World Institute, which he had led since 2013.

He has said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes despite corresponding with him between 2012 and 2019, 11 years after the financier was convicted of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Epstein died in prison by suicide in 2019.

The Institute, which is overseen by France’s foreign ministry, said it could not immediately comment on the police action.

Both Jack and Caroline Lang have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and receiving financial benefits from Epstein. Their lawyer Laurent Merlet told French broadcaster BFMTV this month that “there was no movement of funds”.

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Macron’s AI Clown Show: Europe’s Digital Dilemma

The European Union has lost its place in the global race for artificial intelligence. In a single tweet on platform X, France’s President Emmanuel Macron inadvertently outlined the convoluted situation while simultaneously revealing his personal emotional fragility.

The leading representatives of the European Union like to present themselves as emotionless technocrats. Maintaining the greatest possible distance from citizens, they execute their agenda of societal transformation toward what they understand as a net-zero transformation economy. 

This ostentatious distance from the citizenry acts as a simulacrum of power, which, in politicians like Emmanuel Macron, often veers into the caricatural.

Macron’s striking presence in foreign affairs—whether regarding the Ukraine war or recurring provocations toward the United States—correlates with his aggressive censorship policy toward his own population. A president without a people, steering his minority government through a budgetary crisis that brings France ever closer to the fiscal abyss.

In Macron’s persona, the European misstep is condensed: economically failed, deeply unpopular among his own people, geopolitically essentially irrelevant—and yet imbued with lofty, messianic plans. 

This performative play of power, coupled with hardly disguised impotence and incompetence, inevitably produces an effect that can be described as clownish. It is the expression of a political style that can no longer reconcile claim with reality—and thus delivers less leadership than a tragicomic performance.

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Young French Conservative Activist Left Brain-Dead After Violent Antifa Attack in Lyon

A young French nationalist activist is fighting for his life after a brutal street assault in the city of Lyon that has reignited national outrage over radical-left wing political violence and the climate of impunity surrounding self-described “anti-fascist” groups.

The victim, a 23-year-old man identified as Quentin, remains in critical condition—and is said to be braindead—following a savage attack that took place on the evening of February 12.

The violence erupted on the margins of a conference held at Sciences Po Lyon featuring Rima Hassan, a European Parliament member aligned with the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI). It’s worth noting that weeks ago, LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, during a campaign event, said that his party is the party of “The Great Replacement.”

The event, focused on EU relations and the Middle East, was warmly received inside the venue, while tensions simmered outside.

Demonstrators from Collectif Némésis, a nationalist feminist group known for opposing mass immigration and Islamist influence, gathered to protest Hassan’s appearance. The activists unfurled banners criticizing what they describe as the “Islamo-left,” drawing immediate hostility from black clad, masked counter-protesters.

According to various accounts from eye witnesses at the scene, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Female protesters on the nationalist-feminist side were allegedly surrounded, pushed, and physically attacked, with at least one 19-year-old woman reportedly strangled and dragged during the initial confrontation.

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Head of prestigious French institute resigns over Epstein links

Jack Lang, the president of France’s Arab World Institute, has offered his resignation after his past contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein triggered a money laundering probe at home, according to several media outlets.

The move followed the announcement on Friday by French prosecutors that they opened a preliminary investigation into Lang – a veteran French politician who has served as culture and education minister – and his daughter Caroline for alleged “aggravated tax fraud laundering.”

The probe was launched after revelations by investigative outlet Mediapart into possible financial links to Epstein. The files do not suggest that Lang was involved in the late financier’s sexual crimes.

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France’s Raid on X Opens New Front in Europe’s War Over Online Speech

French prosecutors staged a morning raid at the Paris offices of social media platform X, part of a criminal investigation coordinated with Europol.

The operation, launched in 2025, targets allegations ranging from the alleged distribution of sexual deepfakes to algorithmic manipulation.

The cybercrime division in Paris is exploring whether X’s automated systems may have been used in an “organized structure” to distort data or suppress information.

The alleged offenses are as follows:

  • Denial of crimes against humanity (Holocaust denial)
  • Fraudulent extraction of data from an ⁠automated data processing system ​by an organized group
  • Falsification of the operation ‌of ‌an automated data processing system by an organized group
  • Defamation of a person’s image (deepfakes of ​sexual nature, including minors)
  • Operating of an illegal online platform by an organized group

Prosecutors have now summoned Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for questioning in April. “Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr. Elon Musk and Ms. Linda Yaccarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events,” the office said.

Yaccarino, who left in mid-2025, might find herself reliving the company’s most volatile months, when X faced regulatory crossfire across the continent for refusing to comply with what it called political censorship demands.

The case actually began with two complaints in January 2025, including one from French lawmaker Eric Bothorel, who accused X of narrowing “diversity of voices and options” after Musk’s takeover.

Bothorel cited “personal interventions” in moderation decisions, a line that seemed more about ideology than algorithms.

As the investigation grew, prosecutors took interest in Grok, X’s AI system, which allegedly produced “Holocaust denial content” and “sexual deepfakes.” The Paris prosecutor’s office soon announced it was examining “biased algorithms.”

Musk called the whole affair a “politically-motivated criminal investigation,” and considering Europe’s recent appetite for speech regulation, it’s not a stretch to see why he’d think that.

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