France

Published on 07/03/2026 – 8:00 GMT+1•Updated
14/09/2026 – 11:46 GMT+2

France will push back against a European Commission plan to fast-track ratification of trade agreements by circulating only English-language versions during talks with EU governments and lawmakers, skipping translation into the bloc’s 24 official languages, according to several sources.

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The slow ratification of the contentious EU–Mercosur trade deal has frustrated the Commission, which wants to accelerate negotiations and bring deals into force more quickly as it seeks new markets amid rising geopolitical tensions.

Translating the agreements into every official EU language can take months due to the legal scrubbing required before the ratification process begins.

The EU executive has confirmed to Euronews that trade chief Maroš Šefčovič told EU trade ministers in February that the trade deal with India concluded on 27 January could serve as a test case for using English as the main language during ratification.

“We lost almost €300 billion by not having the Mercosur agreement in place since 2021, if it comes to the GDP, and more than €200 billion in export opportunities,” Šefčovič told journalists after meeting ministers on 20 February, adding that once negotiations end it can take up to 2.5 years before businesses can operate in partner countries.

“In today’s world, we cannot simply lose the time,” he said.

Šefčovič said the Commission would ensure the agreements are translated into all 24 official EU languages once published in the Official Journal, i.e. after ratification. He added the proposal was backed by at least seven member states at the meeting, though not all countries had time to speak.

French sources who spoke to Euronews were insistent that Paris would vigorously oppose the move to English-only agreements if necessary.

“As a matter of principle, we defend the use of all the languages of the Union, and in particular French, which is one of the EU’s working languages,” one official told Euronews.

‘Transparency, precision and understanding’

Language policy in the bloc’s institutions remains politically sensitive for countries such as France, whose language has declined sharply over the past decades as English massively dominates daily work in the European Union institutions – despite French, German and English being the three official working languages.

“Switching entirely to English raises a legal and democratic issue, and the Commission is well aware of it,” another French official told Euronews.

On its website, the European Commission says linguistic diversity is essential and that the EU promotes multilingualism in its institutional work.

The bloc once even had a commissioner dedicated to multilingualism, though the portfolio was gradually merged with others and eventually disappeared.

“I have the impression that in some cases the Commission seizes the opportunity to push the idea that English has a superior status, and that the other official languages are translation languages that can come later,” Michele Gazzola, expert in language policy, said.

He added that relying only on English during ratification could pose problems for members of the European Parliament, and even more so if national parliaments are involved.

“It’s a matter of transparency, precision and understanding.”

Paris: The French government submitted a reworked proposal to ban social media for children, after its previous ban was struck down by the country’s top constitutional authority, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.

“After rigorous technical work the government today is notifying” the European Commission of the new draft, Macron wrote on X. The notification is a key step, as it ensures that the legislation is in line with European Union laws.

The European Union entry-exit system (EES) has caused repeated delays for Brits at major EU airports this year

British holidaymakers heading abroad may finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief over the widely-criticised EES system. The scheme forces non-EU residents to queue at special machines in airports before gaining entry to 29 nations within the so-called Schengen area – essentially the majority of the European Union.

However, there have been persistent reports of lengthy delays – some stretching to as long as four hours. A new report in the Sunday Times now reveals that the European Union has shelved the controversial entry-exit system (EES) across at least nine countries.

Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Malta, Greece and Switzerland are all understood to have been granted permission to postpone full implementation of EES. The newspaper reports that there appears to be no deadline by which these countries must adopt the scheme, which has already sparked widespread reports of enormous queues at European airports this summer in destinations such as Mallorca, Faro, the Canary Islands and Milan.

The scheme has faced fierce criticism from Ryanair and others. The European Union describes the Entry/Exit System (EES) as an automated IT system designed to register non-EU nationals travelling on short stays each time they cross the external borders of participating European countries.

Following years of postponements, the system was rolled out from October 2025, with full implementation originally anticipated by the following April. However, faced with the prospect of significant border queues due to software failures, officials granted countries a 150-day grace period during which they could drop the checks to avoid travel chaos.

That rule ended on September 6. The EU previously insisted there would be no extension.

Yet the Sunday Times reports that at least nine Schengen countries are understood to have told the European Commission, which is responsible for overseeing the EES, that they would not enforce the new controls in full until the technology and systems were working correctly.

They have informally been allowed to do so with no time limits apparently in place to adopt the system, it is being reported. One of the main purposes of the system is to track whether non-EU citizens have spent more than their permitted 90 days in the bloc in a rolling 180-day period.

Social media has been awash with debate about the scheme. One post on Reddit saw a traveller say: “They made a mess of it. Seems many basic things like it is hit and miss on the document scanning but also things like people walk up with hats and headphones and the machine doesn’t tell them to remove them, and organisational things like if the machine errors the traveller has to back out and has no where to go.

“The right way to do this would have been progressive: start by getting some people eg 5% going through the machine lane, everyone else through normal.

“The vendor observes problems, fixes them, once machine working well, increase to 10%, then 20% and so on.” Another person said: “The general lack of functionality of so many IT systems across the EU is kind of astonishing.”

A third added: “It’s worse than that. There isn’t even consistent protocol/IT support within a single EU airport.”

Another put it more simply, saying: “I just miss having stamps.”

‘People are missing their flights’

Nadia, from Greater Manchester, told the Guardian in August she had made two trips to Schengen areas this summer. A trip to Tenerife in June was “quite straightforward”, but her experience in July at Frankfurt airport where she was picking up a connecting flight home, was much less so.

“The queue there was ridiculously long, and there was very limited information,” she says. “People were wandering around trying to work out where they needed to go.

“I’m very well travelled and pretty confident, but even I was slightly unsure and was thinking, is there some other queue I should be joining? There was no one nearby to check with without losing your place.”

Eventually, her passport was checked. “He didn’t actually take fingerprints then,” says Nadia, who is a solicitor. “I think the queue was so long they decided to dispense with that.

“It’s the efficiency of the system I question and the fact that individual member states’ systems do not talk to one another. They shouldn’t need to get information again if you have already gone through. It’s pretty shambolic, and I think people missing their flights because of it is just not acceptable, especially when there’s no recourse; it’s not your fault.”

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has repeatedly complained about EES. Speaking earlier this year, he said: “There’s a bit of Brexit in this too. Here, you voted for Brexit – f***ing join the queue.”

France is accelerating work on the Rafale F5 standard, bringing forward development of a major new configuration of its combat aircraft at a time when the country’s planned next-generation fighter with Germany has effectively collapsed in its original form. The contracts cover the equipment judged to have the highest technical risk, ahead of the overall development contract for the F5 standard, expected for the end of this year.

The French defense procurement agency, the Direction générale de l’armement (DGA), ordered the first upstream development work for F5 from Dassault Aviation, Thales, MBDA, and Safran. The contracts cover key areas including navigation, datalinks, radar, electronic warfare, and propulsion, laying the groundwork for the next configuration of the Rafale, which is planned to enter service with the French Air and Space Force and the French Navy starting around 2033.

The most extensive modernization of the Rafale yet, the F5 standard was originally part of a longer transition toward France’s next-generation combat-air capability. But with the Franco-German New Generation Fighter (NGF) effort now effectively dead in its original configuration, the accelerated F5 program is taking on a much larger strategic role.

Rather than simply keeping the Rafale relevant until NGF arrives, France is now developing a version of the aircraft that is set to carry much of the country’s high-end combat-air capability well into the 2030s and potentially beyond.

The increasingly capable F5 could, in turn, reduce the urgency of finding a replacement for the Rafale — while potentially adding to the fighter’s export appeal. After a slow start, Dassault has recorded export sales of 299 new-build Rafales to eight nations.

The DGA’s contracts engage four of France’s principal combat-aircraft industrial players. Dassault Aviation remains responsible for the aircraft and its overall integration; Thales is involved in major sensor, electronic warfare, and communications capabilities; MBDA is responsible for much of the weapons system; and Safran is responsible for propulsion.

Previous Rafale standards have largely consisted of incremental upgrades, focusing on software and other improvements to the existing aircraft configuration. F5 is notably more extensive, addressing many of the critical systems that determine how the aircraft senses the battlespace, communicates with other platforms, conducts electronic warfare, and generates the power needed to operate increasingly demanding equipment.

The DGA has specifically identified the Thales RBE2-XG radar as one of the major technological advances associated with F5.

The RBE2-XG is expected to feature gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors. Compared with previous technology, GaN generates less heat and has the capacity to operate at higher voltages, meaning that output power can be increased, while component size can be reduced. Overall, using GaN should help to get more power out of the radar without increasing its size.

According to the DGA, “This new radar will benefit from a substantial increase in power, and consequently in detection range, as well as improvements in the identification of targets with an extremely low radar cross-section (RCS). Its computing capabilities will also be enhanced to facilitate the integration of artificial intelligence.”

The RBE2-XG will also be “designed with collaborative combat in mind, featuring sensors capable of working together without the need for pilot intervention.” It is also planned to have enhanced resilience, including against cyber threats.

France is already working on the concept of a combat drone to accompany the Rafale, with the future F5 standard providing the crewed aircraft around which those systems can operate.

The new radar will be combined with more capable electronic warfare equipment, improved communications and datalinks, expanded processing capacity, and a more capable propulsion system.

To be developed by MBDA and Thales, the forthcoming F5 version of the SPECTRA self-protection suite is intended to significantly improve detection and jamming capabilities, the DGA says, “through a fully digital approach, enabling a complete overhaul of the core electronic warfare system to counter the increasing density and broadening of the threat spectrum, as well as the growing complexity of threat waveforms, expected by 2035.”

Thales à bord du Rafale de Dassault Aviation

Thales will also be responsible for the new Inter-Vehicle Data Link (IVDL) system, described as a “stealthy and resilient datalink.” The DGA says the new datalink will expand connectivity “thanks to a new high-speed, discreet, and jamming-resistant waveform. IVDL will allow the Rafale to penetrate hostile areas where jammers are widespread, while maintaining optimal quality of communication and dialogue between aircraft.”

Safran will begin preliminary design work on the M88 T-Rex engine, which is planned to increase the turbofan’s thrust from around 16,500 pounds to nearly 19,850 pounds, an increase of roughly 20 percent.

M88 T-REX: A 9-ton thrust predator serving the Rafale

In terms of armament, the contract announcement mentions the ASN4G missile, set to be introduced to service by 2035, which will allow the Rafale F5 to continue to serve as the airborne nuclear component. The munition remains in the early stages of development, but it will be capable of hypersonic speeds — defined as speeds greater than Mach 5 — with a range in excess of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).

Other likely new missiles include a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile to succeed the current Meteor. As you can read about here, France’s Comet program, apparently led by the French side of MBDA, is already looking into this requirement, with an apparent plan to introduce the weapon around 2030.

An older video from MBDA showing some of the company’s weapons integrated on earlier versions of the Rafale:

PARIS AIR SHOW 2021: MISSILES ON THE RAFALE

For France, the original logic behind the pan-European FCAS program was that Rafale would eventually give way to the NGF as its principal crewed combat aircraft, operating from land bases and aircraft carriers.

With the collapse of the Franco-German effort, France cannot simply wait for a next-generation fighter program whose industrial and political future is uncertain. Instead, the Rafale has to remain capable against rapidly evolving threats throughout the 2030s and beyond.

With the F5 standard, however, France is looking to incorporate some of the concepts envisaged for NGF. These include distributed architectures in which crewed fighters, uncrewed aircraft, remote carriers, missiles, and offboard sensors cooperate across a battlespace.

A highly upgraded Rafale operating as the crewed controller of uncrewed combat aircraft and remote weapons could perform some of the missions that France originally expected from NGF.

For now, F5 also sidesteps the central problem in the now-defunct Franco-German effort: whether the two countries could agree on the requirements, industrial structure, and workshare behind a new-generation combat aircraft.

Despite its advances, the F5 airframe remains derived from a design dating back to the 1980s, which first entered French service in the early 2000s. In particular, it falls well short of fifth-generation designs — let alone sixth-generation ones — in terms of low observability. This is one area where collaborative drones could potentially help compensate for the Rafale’s inherent limitations.

France has therefore bought itself some time with the F5 program. But it may eventually decide that it needs a future high-end crewed fighter to provide capabilities that an upgraded fourth-generation airframe cannot fully replicate, particularly in terms of survivability against advanced integrated air-defense systems, signature reduction, internal weapons carriage, and operations deep inside heavily contested airspace.

On an industrial level, F5 is also significant because it brings together the same French industrial heavyweights that would have formed the backbone of its FCAS effort. Dassault Aviation, Thales, Safran, and MBDA are now well-positioned to work together on whatever comes after F5, whether that is a crewed combat aircraft, uncrewed CCA-type platforms, or a combination of both. Based on its experience with the nEUROn program, France would be well placed to develop a UCAV that can work cooperatively as well as independently, taking over the deeper-penetrating fighter mission set, and potentially skipping a sixth-generation fighter altogether.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frNsu7g7r94

Meanwhile, success with F5 — and, in particular, with the wider combat ecosystem planned around it — could put France in an even stronger position when it comes to any future European fighter project.

For the time being, Britain, Italy, and Japan are pursuing the GCAP/Tempest pathway toward a new combat aircraft. Germany and Spain remain tied to the wider FCAS architecture, even as the original Franco-German NGF arrangement has fractured. Sweden’s position is less clear, with indications that it could collaborate with either France or Germany.

France, for its part, is now investing heavily in an increasingly sophisticated Rafale architecture while maintaining its own sovereign industrial base.

In terms of acqusition, France is expected to pursue a mixed approach, buying new-build Rafales while upgrading suitable aircraft already in service to the F5 standard. The oldest jets are unlikely to receive the full F5 treatment, however.

The irony is that the failure of the NGF effort may ultimately make Rafale F5 more important — and potentially more capable — than it was ever expected to be.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Published on 07/03/2026 – 8:00 GMT+1•Updated
11/09/2026 – 22:42 GMT+2

France will push back against a European Commission plan to fast-track ratification of trade agreements by circulating only English-language versions during talks with EU governments and lawmakers, skipping translation into the bloc’s 24 official languages, according to several sources.

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The slow ratification of the contentious EU–Mercosur trade deal has frustrated the Commission, which wants to accelerate negotiations and bring deals into force more quickly as it seeks new markets amid rising geopolitical tensions.

Translating the agreements into every official EU language can take months due to the legal scrubbing required before the ratification process begins.

The EU executive has confirmed to Euronews that trade chief Maroš Šefčovič told EU trade ministers in February that the trade deal with India concluded on 27 January could serve as a test case for using English as the main language during ratification.

“We lost almost €300 billion by not having the Mercosur agreement in place since 2021, if it comes to the GDP, and more than €200 billion in export opportunities,” Šefčovič told journalists after meeting ministers on 20 February, adding that once negotiations end it can take up to 2.5 years before businesses can operate in partner countries.

“In today’s world, we cannot simply lose the time,” he said.

Šefčovič said the Commission would ensure the agreements are translated into all 24 official EU languages once published in the Official Journal, i.e. after ratification. He added the proposal was backed by at least seven member states at the meeting, though not all countries had time to speak.

French sources who spoke to Euronews were insistent that Paris would vigorously oppose the move to English-only agreements if necessary.

“As a matter of principle, we defend the use of all the languages of the Union, and in particular French, which is one of the EU’s working languages,” one official told Euronews.

‘Transparency, precision and understanding’

Language policy in the bloc’s institutions remains politically sensitive for countries such as France, whose language has declined sharply over the past decades as English massively dominates daily work in the European Union institutions – despite French, German and English being the three official working languages.

“Switching entirely to English raises a legal and democratic issue, and the Commission is well aware of it,” another French official told Euronews.

On its website, the European Commission says linguistic diversity is essential and that the EU promotes multilingualism in its institutional work.

The bloc once even had a commissioner dedicated to multilingualism, though the portfolio was gradually merged with others and eventually disappeared.

“I have the impression that in some cases the Commission seizes the opportunity to push the idea that English has a superior status, and that the other official languages are translation languages that can come later,” Michele Gazzola, expert in language policy, said.

He added that relying only on English during ratification could pose problems for members of the European Parliament, and even more so if national parliaments are involved.

“It’s a matter of transparency, precision and understanding.”

BERLIN: Buoyed by partisan home fans, host Germany upset Belgium 93-74 to reach the semifinals of the women’s FIBA World Cup on Thursday.

Leonie Fiebich scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds to lead Germany to a showdown with France on Saturday. Nyara Sabally also had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

“I can’t quite believe it yet,” forward Frieda Bühner said. “We’re among the best four teams in the world. I can’t believe it. It’s crazy.”

The players screamed and whooped in celebration. Germany had never reached the semifinals before.

“Everyone stepped up today and we did it from the first second to the very last,” said Alexandra Wilke, who scored 10 points.

Germany lost their opening game by 30 points to Spain, but bounced back with impressive wins over Japan and Mali before routing South Korea in a playoff to reach the quarterfinals.

Egged on by fervent commentary from the announcer, fans cheered, jumped and waved Germany flags at the Berlin Arena to help the home team keep their momentum going.

“It’s always really cool to play in front of such a crowd,” Sabally said. “I couldn’t have wished for more, especially in Germany. It’s really cool to see that there’s so much hype and the whole venue is caught up in it. It’s really, really cool.”

It’s the sixth straight World Cup at which the host have made the final four since China failed to make the semifinals in 2002.

Belgium, the European champion, were one of three teams that advanced through group play without a loss.

Emma Meesseman led Belgium with 29 points and added eight rebounds, but her team were unable to regain the lead after Bühner made it 20-19 toward the end of the first quarter.

Germany did not qualify for the World Cup since the unified country’s only previous appearance as host in 1998. East Germany’s women’s basketball team finished fourth at the 1967 tournament.

France rout China

Marine Johannès and Janelle Salaün led France to the semifinals for the first time by beating China 90-61 earlier.

Both Johannès and Salaün scored 15 points while Gabby Williams contributed 14 as the Olympic finalists put themselves in contention for a first World Cup medal since the inaugural tournament in 1953, when France finished third in the final round.

“It means a lot,” Williams said of reaching the semifinals for the first time. “We want to be one of the greatest teams ever to put on the French jersey. Obviously, we have a big goal this tournament, but it’s great to check this off the list.”

Chants of “Allez les Bleues” rang around the Berlin Arena before Williams opened the scoring, and the French supporters made sure they were heard for the rest of the game as their team dominated on the court below. France have been fluid and free-scoring, beating their four opponents so far by a combined 156 points.

The team set a tournament record for 3-pointers in a single game by netting 22 in their final group game on Monday. The French players connected on 14 of 37 attempts Thursday, with Johannès and Salaün scoring three triples each.

“We are lucky because we are a group that have known each other for a couple of years now,” Salaün said of France’s team spirit. “We went through a lot of things, the Olympics, training camp(s), so we just know each other and we know what we want. We have a goal and we want to do everything to get to this goal.”

Salaün had an ice pack bound to her right knee. France coach Jean Aime Toupane told The Associated Press it was just a precaution.

Zhang’s impact limited

The French defense limited the impact of China’s 7-foot-3 Zhang Ziyu, who had the attention of two French players any time she received the ball. The 19-year-old sensation was held scoreless over her 7 minutes, 18 seconds of play in the first half, though she contributed in defense with three blocks before halftime.

There was nothing Zhang could do to stop Johannès from scoring successive 3-pointers in the third quarter, when she also got on the scoreboard. Zhang finished the game with seven points, eight rebounds and seven turnovers.

Han Xu, who had a double-double in each of her four games at the tournament, again led China with 21 points and nine rebounds.

US never in danger

The United States, the four-time defending champion, routed Hungary 108-56 in the first quarterfinal with Napheesa Collier scoring 19 points to stretch their winning run in the tournament to 34 games since a semifinal loss to Russia in the 2006 semifinals.

The US await the winner of Spain-Australia in the last quarterfinal later.

FFF aligns position with of other European federations, such as Belgium, England, Italy, Scotland, and Sweden.

The French Football Federation is withdrawing its support for Gianni Infantino’s re-election bid as FIFA chief ⁠next year, FFF President Philippe Diallo has said, saying trust in the head of world football’s governing body had been broken.

The decision was taken unanimously by the FFF’s executive committee, Diallo ⁠said on Thursday.

“The trust placed in the FIFA president has been broken,” Diallo told reporters. “The way in which we envisage the running of world football no longer corresponds with the way it is being conducted.”

Infantino, who is seeking another term as FIFA president, has faced mounting criticism since his failed proposal to sell a ‌20 percent stake in FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, to private investors was abandoned in July following widespread opposition from football’s regional confederations.

Diallo said France had initially backed Infantino’s candidacy at the end of June, when he was the only declared candidate, but that subsequent events had fundamentally changed the circumstances.

“The conditions for our support for his candidacy were no longer there,” he said.

Diallo added that the proposed stake sale, which emerged without what he described as proper ⁠consultation or information being provided to federations, had raised serious questions over ⁠FIFA’s governance and decision-making.

Several European federations, including England’s and Italy’s, have withdrawn their backing for Infantino since the collapse of his proposal.

UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and North America’s CONCACAF have called for change at the top of FIFA and ⁠are seeking a credible alternative before the March election.

Diallo said France’s decision formed part of a broader movement within UEFA and beyond and that ⁠discussions would now focus on governance reform and finding a ⁠candidate capable of defeating Infantino.

“It is not enough simply to criticise if you want things to move forward. You also have to make proposals,” Diallo said.

He added that UEFA would need to define a platform for the next FIFA leadership cycle ‌and, when the time came, choose a candidate for the election.

“We will need to be ready by then to put forward a candidacy capable of winning the FIFA presidency,” Diallo said.

Infantino still has ‌the ‌support of South America’s CONMEBOL and Africa’s CAF.

The FIFA presidential election will take place in Rabat on March 18, 2027, with the deadline for candidacies on November 18.

A VITAL ferry route linking the UK to France will soon be axed after more than 40 years.

The last crossing is set to take place this autumn, with the company citing rising costs as cause for the closure.

Brittany Ferries is set to permanently axe its Poole to Cherbourg crossing route at the beginning of November.

Passengers have been travelling between Dorset and France for over forty years, but now the popular journey will shut down.

The company cited growing financial pressures as the cause for the decision, including outstanding Covid-19 loan repayments, competition on the Eastern Channel and weaker demand for travel.

Rising costs of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System have further burdened the company’s remaining debt.

PASS IT ON

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SMOOTH SAILING

New ferry linking quirky UK seaside town to France is setting sail in weeks

Around 20 jobs are expected to disappear as a result of the closure.

The decision comes as part of a wider restructuring by Brittany Ferries, with the firm taking a “pragmatic approach” to the economic challenges.

Steps also include the sale of the Cotentin, which sails between Cherbourg and Rosslare, alongside the closure of the Portsmouth to Le Havre route from October 2026.

A spokesperson for Brittany Ferries told The Sun: “This wasn’t a decision we took lightly, and we know it will be disappointing news for our customers in Poole and the surrounding area.

“We’ve worked hard over many years to keep this route running, but a long-term decline in passenger and freight numbers, compounded by rising costs and red tape, including Brexit-related border processes, EU environmental taxes, and unfavourable exchange rates, has made the route commercially unsustainable.

“We’re not withdrawing from Poole. Customers will still be able to travel to France with us via a seasonal service from Poole to St Malo, as well as our conventional routes from Portsmouth and Plymouth to Caen, Cherbourg, St Malo and Roscoff, including a new daily Portsmouth–Cherbourg service.”

A high-speed crossing between Poole, Guernsey and St Malo is also set to be debuted in 2027.

The crossing was first introduced in 1985, with the iconic MS Barfleur starting her voyages between Dorset and France in 1992.

It takes just four hours and 15 minutes – the shortest journey over the Channel – and garnered a huge amount of success, leading to a £6million overhaul of the ferry terminal in the 1990s.

The route has faced a number of challenges in recent years, temporarily shutting down in 2010 owing to a decrease in ticket sales – however it was reopened in 2013.

The Barfleur will soon undertake its final journey, but all may not be lost quite yet for the route.

Captain Brian Murphy, chief executive of Poole Harbour Commissioners told the Bournemouth Echo that Brittany Ferries’ departure could pave the way for another operator to take over the route.

The Eiffel Tower was temporarily closed on Monday after workers went on strike to protest the sidelining of female staff during a private visit by a Hindu religious group.

The tower, which has since reopened, shut after members of Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a global socio‑spiritual Hindu denomination, visited the site. Female staff were reportedly asked to give way to male staff for the group’s tour, prompting protests from the workers’ union, outrage from French politicians and an apology from the Hindu group.

Here is more about BAPS and how the controversy unfolded.

What’s the controversy about?

The Eiffel Tower closed after staff walked out over the removal of women staff during a weekend visit by BAPS.

The Societe d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, or SETE, which runs the Paris landmark, acknowledged that the group had requested the Saturday visit be organised in a way that limited “interactions with women”, and said “these conditions should not have been accepted”.

The BAPS monks, or sadhus, practise strict celibacy, which requires them to avoid physical contact with women and being alone in their company, and to minimise personal interaction or attention towards the opposite sex.

Wider community members of BAPS are not bound by these celibacy rules. According to news reports, the BAPS delegation visiting the Eiffel Tower comprised both monks and community members.

Eiffel Tower staff said in a statement that they condemned “professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex” during the visit by the delegation.

“Some were asked to leave their posts and withdraw to other areas. In some posts they were replaced by men. And all female employees were instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present,” the staff union said, adding they were shocked to have been put in such a situation.

Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said an investigation would be launched “as soon as possible”. In a post on social media, he said he was aware of the employees’ anger and agreed their dissatisfaction was legitimate.

What is BAPS and how have they responded?

BAPS was founded in India in 1907 and began expanding internationally from the 1960s. It is a spiritual organisation which works on community building, constructing temples, helping with disaster relief and running medical camps, environmental drives and educational programmes.

It now also runs an extensive network of temples and cultural centres across the world, including more than 100 in the United States and more than 1,000 worldwide, including across Europe, Africa and Asia. BAPS also runs a temple in Paris.

On Tuesday, the BAPS Paris account posted a statement on X responding to the controversy.

“To our knowledge, at no time was access to the Eiffel Tower denied to anyone,” the account wrote, originally in French.

“Nevertheless, we wish to offer our sincere apologies to anyone who may have been hurt or inconvenienced by this situation,” it added.

How has the response in France been?

Leaders within France expressed outrage over reports of women being removed from the premises.

Aurore Berge, the minister delegate for gender equality and fight against discrimination in France, wrote in an X post on Monday: “In France, we do not ask women to step aside. No dogma, no religion is superior to the laws of the Republic.”

Yael Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly, wrote in a post on social media: “Welcoming others never means giving up our values. In France, women are fully present in public life. No one tells them to become invisible.”

Former French President Francois Hollande, now an MP, wrote on X on Tuesday: “We do not ask women to step aside to satisfy religious demands.”

He expressed support for the Eiffel Tower staff who walked out.

“Equality between women and men is a fundamental achievement of our Republic. It applies everywhere, to all women and all men, without exception,” Hollande wrote.

Parliamentarian and former PM Michel Barnier wrote on X: “It is therefore utterly unacceptable that an order aimed at making women disappear from this space could have been issued.”

Barnier added that “women are not hidden. They are not erased. They are respected, and their freedom is defended”, demanding an explanation from the SETE.

Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right National Rally, wrote on X on Tuesday: “This degrading demand should never have been met. In a free country like France, gender equality is respected, and no religious reason can override women’s dignity.”

Prominent far-right MP and leader of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen wrote in an X post: “In France, we will never accept that the presence of women be ‘limited.’”

Is BAPS linked to the Modi government?

BAPS is not officially part of a political party in India, and has long insisted that it is apolitical.

But researchers have long pointed to a close, cooperative relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

In fact, the Eiffel Tower closure came just a day after Modi virtually inaugurated the BAPS temple in Paris.

Modi also attended the physical inauguration of the BAPS temple in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2024.

Has BAPS faced other controversies in the past?

BAPS has faced a series of high-profile controversies in the past.

During a landmark legal battle in 1966, BAPS leaders argued in court that their sect was not part of Hinduism but a distinct religion. They did so in an attempt to avoid the Bombay Harijan Temple Entry Act, which required Hindu temples to open their doors to Dalits, a historically marginalised caste group. The Indian Supreme Court rejected the appeal made by BAPS.

In 2013, two former BAPS monks filed a complaint accusing senior BAPS leaders of sexual assault dating back to the 1970s. BAPS leaders denied the allegations. The complaint did not result in any publicly reported criminal charges.

In 2021, a US federal class‑action lawsuit accused BAPS of exploiting low‑caste labourers from India to work on its temples. The case, brought on behalf of about 200 Indian workers, alleged they were lured from India, coerced into employment agreements, and forced to work more than 12 hours a day with only five days off a year at a temple in Robbinsville Township, New Jersey.

The suit says they were paid as little as $1.20 an hour, far below the US federal minimum wage of $7.25 and New Jersey’s $12 statewide minimum.

A US federal investigation into labour trafficking at the Robbinsville temple has since been closed without criminal charges, but the civil class‑action lawsuit brought by the workers continues.

Published on
08/09/2026 – 10:39 GMT+2

Europe’s answer to OpenAI has just become considerably better funded.

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The Paris-based company Mistral AI announced its Series D on Tuesday, three years after being seeded, with the memory chip giant Samsung leading alongside the EU-backed Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, and existing investor PSG Equity.

The step up is steep.

Mistral was valued at €11.7 billion in 2025 after a €1.7 billion Series C led by Dutch chipmaker ASML, meaning the company has almost doubled its valuation in a year.

Much of the money is going into concrete rather than code. CEO Arthur Mensch announced the funding would build out data centres and computing capacity that Mistral can rent to others but that will also ensure autonomy.

“Long term, the plan is to fully rely on capacity that we are building ourselves, and so that means that the amount of compute that we own is going to grow around 100% in the next five years,” Mensch said, adding that the company would train “bigger and faster models.”

Mistral is already spending €4 billion on data centres across France and Europe, with one facility running outside Paris and another under construction in Sweden.

It raised further debt financing in March for the same purpose, and Microsoft has agreed to fund capacity from its European network, built around thousands of Nvidia chips.

Both Microsoft and Nvidia are also investors in Mistral, with the latter also adding exposure in this funding round.

The company says more than 125 enterprises across 20 countries use its technology, and Mistral projects it will pass a billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2026.

Europe lags behind in the AI race

Despite the news, Europe continues to critically lag behind in the global AI race.

Mistral’s valuation sits far below OpenAI and Anthropic, and Europe’s wider AI sector remains a fraction of the American one, with enterprise adoption across the bloc running at around 13.5%.

Other European contenders exist but are smaller.

Germany’s Aleph Alpha focuses on government and regulated industries rather than competing at the frontier, while Helsing has grown quickly in defence applications, and Switzerland’s Apertus offers fully open models and training data.

Brussels is trying to close the gap.

The InvestAI initiative carries a €200 billion headline commitment, and in July the Commission opened tenders for up to seven AI gigafactories, aiming to unlock more than €30 billion in investment, though those sites are not expected to operate until next year or 2028.

Thirteen smaller AI factories are already being built across seven EU countries.

The AI Act became applicable in August, but its toughest obligations were pushed back by the digital omnibus agreed in May, with high-risk rules now landing in December 2027 and August 2028, a delay Brussels framed as making the policy more innovation-friendly.

Niger’s military government has accused France of orchestrating a failed mutiny that rocked the capital, Niamey, last week.

France denied any involvement in the events in its former colony, but the accusation indicates that tensions between them remain high.

Here’s what you should know:

What happened last week?

Shortly after midnight on August 29, renegade soldiers targeted Base 101, a major military facility inside Niamey’s international airport complex.

Authorities said the mutineers detained some of their comrades and opened fire at “certain sensitive sites” in the capital.

Fighting spread to the presidential palace and temporarily knocked the state broadcaster off air, with explosions and gunfire echoing around Niamey for hours until Niger’s army, helped by Russian paramilitary fighters known as the Africa Corps, contained the mutiny.

State media said hundreds of soldiers took part, with dozens killed or arrested.

The mutiny happened three years after Abdourahamane Tchiani seized power in a coup that overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, saying the elected government had failed to contain armed groups. However, violent unrest has persisted, while governance grievances and economic challenges remain.

What has Niger’s military government said?

As with previous rounds of unrest, Niger’s military authorities blamed France and other West African countries.

“This operation, with its international ramifications, was instigated and sustained by a vast network of collusion headed by the French regime of Mr [Emmanuel] Macron,” said Soumana Boubacar, Niger’s government spokesperson, in a statement read out on TV on Friday.

“Traitorous and renegade elements, to whom promises of great things were made, were tasked with carrying out unfulfilled ambitions of Macron and his cronies in our country,” he said, adding that such “undermining manoeuvres will always fail”.

The Niger Council of Ministers, which functions as the cabinet since the 2023 coup, said a “substantial body of evidence has been compiled regarding this attack and Niger reserves the right to ⁠⁠bring the matter before international courts”. Details were not provided.

Niger also accused a number of regional countries of being involved, including the regional economic bloc ECOWAS. Benin’s government, one of the countries accused, rejected the accusations.

In contrast, Niger thanked Russia, Algeria and allies in the Sahel region – Burkina Faso and Mali – for their support.

What has been the French response?

France dismissed the allegations as “pure fantasy”.

“There never was any intention, nor means that France would have mobilised,” French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, told the French radio station, RFI.

“All of this is, as usual, a way of wrongly blaming France for something it is simply not responsible for.”

Tensions between the two countries have increased following the 2023 coup.

Niger has since ordered the withdrawal of about 1,500 French troops, expelled the French ambassador, revoked a number of bilateral military agreements and suspended French state-funded stations, such as France 24 and RFI, from broadcasting there.

Is Niger’s security situation worsening?

Henri Nsaibia, West Africa senior analyst at Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), said the Nigerien armed forces’ fight against armed groups linked to ISIL and al-Qaeda could be weakened following the mutiny.

“The regime will likely divert resources from fighting jihadist groups to monitor internal threats,” he said.

Niger’s security situation is facing several challenges.

Since the 2023 coup, nearly 6,000 people have been killed in more than 1,400 violent incidents, according to ACLED. The casualties represent a sharp increase compared to the three years before Tchiani was in power, when nearly 3,200 people were killed in more than 1,300 violent incidents.

“Niger still experiences less intense violence than neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, but faces a wider range of armed threats,” said Nsaibia.

What’s the history of French colonialism in Niger?

France’s influence has dropped dramatically throughout its former colonies in West Africa in recent years in the wake of failed military interventions and allegations of interference.

The rise in anti-French sentiment has helped coup leaders in a number of countries claim legitimacy, including in Niger, where France has a long history of brutality.

France’s 1899 military campaign in Niger is still remembered for its intense violence, mass executions and destruction of towns and villages.

Niger became part of France’s colonial empire the following year and gained independence in 1960, but Paris still meddled in its internal politics and economic policies.

In recent years, discussions about potential reparations as compensation for the looting and extraction of the country’s resources during and after French rule have intensified.

Two points from three matches is ⁠their worst start since the ​2007-08 season, when PSG came close to relegation.

Paris Saint-Germain ‌have not had as poor a start to a league season ⁠for 19 years, ⁠with Friday’s home loss to Monaco leaving them winless after three matches in the Ligue 1 season.

Days before they begin the defence ⁠of their Champions League title, however, the Parisians have handed coach Luis Enrique a contract extension until 2030.

“There is no reason to be concerned. I ⁠say that honestly. How many shots on target did Monaco have? Two. How many goals? Two. We’ll see at the end of the season whether things balance out,” he said after Friday’s 2-1 setback in which they were ahead at halftime ‌but conceded twice after the break.

“What I want to get across is that you shouldn’t look only at the result,” Luis Enrique added.

“We pressed sensationally, much better than in many matches when we did not concede a goal. But luck was not on our side.

“Monaco know that if they play against us like this 10 times, we win eight, there’d be one ⁠draw and we’d lose once. This was that one ⁠defeat,” Luis Enrique insisted as PSG look ahead to hosting Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday in their first Champions League group game, chasing a third successive European title.

Two points from three matches is ⁠their worst start since the 2007-08 season, when PSG came close to relegation, finishing 16th. In that campaign, Paul ⁠Le Guen’s side had to wait until their ⁠sixth league game to record a victory and ended up only three points above the relegation places.

This time round, the Parisians are already seven points off the pace.

“It is incredible motivation for my ‌players, for the team and for the club. If you want to bet on who will be champions at the end of the season, we can ‌place ‌a bet. Seven points? OK, we will try to make up that deficit as quickly as possible,” the coach added.

Fights between players and coaching staff broke out after the Turkish side won the Champions League playoff second leg.

Fenerbahce duo Mason Greenwood and Matteo Guendouzi have been suspended and fined for their part in the chaotic scenes after their club’s Champions League playoff second leg against Lyon.

Last month’s 2-1 victory for Fenerbahce in France meant the Turkish side progressed 3-2 on aggregate, and, after the final whistle, Greenwood and Guendouzi, who both previously played for Lyon’s bitter rivals Marseille, were involved in a brawl with players and coaching staff from both sides.

Former Arsenal midfielder Guendouzi has been suspended “for a total of four UEFA club competition matches for which he would otherwise be eligible, for insulting others present at the match, provoking spectators and for violating the basic rules of decent conduct”, UEFA announced in a decision made public on Friday evening.

Two of the matches are subject to a “one-year probationary period”, European football’s governing body added in the statement.

Guendouzi, who was also fined 50,000 euros ($58,000), was found guilty, among other things, of giving the middle finger to Lyon supporters and of provocations that led to a scuffle after the match.

His English teammate Mason Greenwood, formerly of Manchester United, received a one-match suspended ban and was fined 30,000 euros ($35,000) for “violating the basic rules of decent conduct”.

In a scathing interview, French great Michel Platini accuses Infantino of always loving ‘money and power’.

French football great Michel Platini says FIFA president Gianni Infantino “must go” following the scandals that have surrounded football’s governing body and rocked the sport globally.

“Economic affairs are one thing, but Infantino has failed because he is the guarantor of the rules of the game and he didn’t respect them,” former UEFA president Platini told a French media outlet on Sunday.

The 56-year-old Infantino has been under fire since his aborted plan to bring private investment into FIFA events, such as the World Cup. He was also lambasted over a number of controversies during the recently concluded World Cup in North America.

Platini hit out at the so-called hydration breaks at the World Cup, which often lasted as much as four minutes and were used by the host broadcaster for advertisements.

He also pointed to the half-time show during the final, which largely overran the required maximum of 15 minutes, and the furore around FIFA suspending the red card ban given to American forward Folarin Balogun following a phone call made by United States President Donald Trump to Infantino.

“The ad breaks are not in the rules, the 30-minute half-time break in the final is not in the rules, and the red card, that’s the worst,” said Platini.

“He’s the guarantor [of the rules], he doesn’t respect them, he must go,” added Platini, who was UEFA’s secretary-general under the Frenchman’s leadership.

Since the World Cup, UEFA threatened to boycott FIFA tournaments until Infantino scrapped the FIFA Forward Enterprises plan to bring in private investment.

European football’s governing body UEFA has also accused Infantino of “criminal mismanagement” over the private financing.

FIFA did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for a comment.

‘He always loved money’

Other regional bodies – the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) – have joined UEFA in putting pressure on Infantino, who is hoping to run for re-election in March.

“It won’t be sporting institutions that sort this out and bring him down,” Platini said.

“If UEFA want to bring down Infantino, it will be through the courts.”

“I always knew that he loved money and power,” Platini added about the Swiss-Italian.

Platini was himself accused of fraud in 2015 when he was UEFA president and eyeing the top job at FIFA to replace Sepp Blatter, who was likewise accused of giving an illegal payment of $2m to the Frenchman.

Platini was eventually acquitted of any wrongdoing in 2025 but was forced to step down at the time, with Infantino leaping on the opportunity to be elected FIFA president in his stead in 2016.

“He didn’t bring me down, he benefitted from it,” said Platini.

“But now that there are lots of investigations into him all over the world, there is some noise about how he knew about certain things — let’s see what happens next.”

Platini is suing Infantino, and former FIFA officials Marco Villiger and Domenico Scala, in France “to seek compensation for all the damages he has suffered as a result of the tactics used to prevent him from being elected FIFA president in 2015”.

He accuses the trio of a “criminal conspiracy to commit false accusation … influence peddling … and aiding and abetting influence peddling”.

The 23-year-old French forward would bolster new boss Andoni Iraola’s squad after the departure of Mohamed Salah.

Liverpool have ‌finalised an agreement to sign France forward Bradley ⁠Barcola from ⁠European champions Paris Saint-Germain in a deal worth up to 123 million pounds ($166m), media reports said, with the 23-year-old set to become the latest high-profile addition to Andoni Iraola’s squad.

The 20-time English champions ⁠will pay a package worth 106 million pounds ($143m), with add-ons potentially rising to 17 million pounds ($23m), for Barcola, the BBC reported on Saturday. The Athletic reported that he is set to sign a five-year contract.

Barcola joined PSG from his boyhood club Olympique Lyonnais in 2023 and went on to enjoy a trophy-laden spell in the French capital, winning back-to-back Champions League titles in 2024-25 and 2025-26, three Ligue 1 crowns and two French ⁠Cups, among other honours.

He made 152 ⁠appearances in all competitions for PSG, scoring 39 goals and supplying 37 assists.

He had two years remaining on his PSG contract.

Barcola would be the ⁠latest addition to new manager Iraola’s squad following the close-season arrivals of ⁠Uruguayan defender Ronald Araujo on loan, ⁠French centre back Jeremy Jacquet and Spanish forward Victor Munoz.

Liverpool’s attacking options currently include British record signing Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo, Rio Ngumoha and ‌Munoz as the Merseyside club adjusts to life after talisman Mohamed Salah’s departure. Forward Hugo Ekitike is ‌sidelined ‌with a long-term injury.

Liverpool host Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

My dream holiday is a trip back in time. Not to see the results of seismic Pompeii or 15th-century Machu Picchu – although I love both – but somewhere created specifically between the mid 1950s and 1970s, when cities were getting weird. I love postwar architourism, exploring urban planning at its most frenzied and optimistic. I have relished trips to Niemeyer’s Brasília and Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh in India, where the monumental and visionary modernist architecture and interiors are at odds with the minimal population. So La Grande-Motte, the retro futurist folly of a resort town on the southern coast of France, a 30-minute drive from Montpellier, had long been on my “must visit” list.

The tourist board of this Occitanie seaside town likes to flag up some superficial parallels between it and the aforementioned cities, but this isn’t a high-concept capital city or administrative hub. It was built in the late 1960s and early 1970s purely to persuade the French to stop going south to the Costa Brava in Spain. As part of an initiative by the French government, a stretch of windswept mosquito-infested coast between Montpellier and Perpignan, including Gruissan and Port Leucate, was reimagined as an alternative to the Côte d’Azur with several new-build beach towns. La Grande-Motte would be the weirdest project. It was made for fun. It’s also well positioned to visit the nearby salt marshes and 13th-century walled-in town of Aigues-Mortes, for when you want to feel as if you’ve ticked a few more holiday boxes.

The mastermind behind the town’s architecture, Jean Balladur, took inspiration from temples and Mesoamerican pyramids from the first century, imagining what the 21st century would look like in the 1970s. Why shouldn’t modernist apartments be arranged in the shape of a Maya pyramid, or an intergalactic curve? I rented a tiny studio with my husband in the Incas building for part of my trip, and while there was nothing in the way of high design about the interior, being on that terrace immersed us in a timewarp.

Walking around Point Zéro (named for being the site of the earliest construction), home to La Grande-Motte’s main beach, all looks fairly standard: families playing on the sand, couples drinking cocktails outside cafes. The beach gained a Blue Flag award for environmental management and water quality in 2025. But the place is unique: the ferris wheel is solar powered and the buildings suggest you’re on another planet entirely – there are no rectangular blocks and few right angles to be seen. The urban planning has been driven by pedestrian pathways and cycle routes, punctuated by thousands of trees.

On the beach there are concrete sculptures by artist Joséphine Chevry, which look like the tips of the wartime sound mirrors in Dungeness, Kent. Chevry created them to help shape the dunes (AKA “the big mound”) but also to serve as functional wind breakers and shade when Point Zéro was created. They’re now mostly buried in the sand. Time has moved on but they will for ever be core to the town’s concept.

The place has had cyclical fortunes. As with many seaside towns, it fell from grace in the 1980s. It was gauche. In 2014 the fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus created a nostalgic collection and book in homage to the town and talked to AnOther Magazine of its “trashy reputation”, but he also said he found it “inspiring and exciting” and remembered his holidays there as a child. And it seems a renaissance is under way as the grandchildren of people who first bought apartments here are discovering it.

I’d recommend the fabulously vintage three-star Hotel Le Quetzal (doubles from €114 room-only) as an interesting base. It feels brilliantly 1970s, being part of the original wave of development in the town, but was refurbished a few years ago so the essentials are fresh and modern. Its design is as interesting as anywhere in town: the balconies jut out like theatre boxes and create an optical illusion of the building being slanted. There’s no restaurant but people microwave meals in the lobby or bring back a margherita from nearby L’Atelier de la Pizza to have on their balcony.

A couple of days by the pool here are great, fending off seagulls from your pain au chocolate at breakfast and watching stray cats wander around the loungers; the same families have been coming for years. Nearby, L’innatendu is a better restaurant than anything on the seafront (I particularly recommend the squid with black rice), although the most enjoyable meal I had was a bunch of simple marinated skewers at La Guinguette des Alizés, opposite the seafront carousel on Avenue du Couchant that looks like a piece of pop art.

Strolling around La Grande-Motte’s apartment blocks was as fascinating to me as a visit to the Colosseum. I walked through the open-air theatre that looks like a derelict World’s Fair site but is used for shows regularly, around the elegant white bow shape of Saint-Augustin’s church, down to the water and the Big Pyramid apartment complex facing the yachts on the dock, and to the low and curved buildings of Le Couchant. I spent hours photographing stairwells and walkways, and the hundreds of balconies that make the town the sum of its geometric parts – graphic beauty reminiscent of the Bauhaus, Saul Bass posters and Verner Panton furniture. La Grande-Motte is a sunny, gleaming white vision of a future that we could never live up to. Or perhaps deserve.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, (MBS), is on the second day of his two-day state visit to France, where he’s meeting President Emmanuel Macron.

In this explainer, we outline what they are expected to discuss and examine how their latest meetings build on an already evolving relationship.

What is on the agenda?

MBS’s visit to Paris began on Sunday evening alongside President Macron at the closing ceremony of the Esports World Cup. It was the first time the Esports tournament, which includes competitions ranging from video games to chess, had been held outside Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, Macron and Bin Salman are expected to sign several agreements on health, transport and energy.

French media reported that a deal to build a Dragon Ball-themed amusement park, backed by a Saudi investment fund and inspired by the iconic Japanese manga series, could be signed.

Valerie Pecresse, President of the Regional Council of Île-de-France in Greater Paris, told French broadcaster TF1 that the regional government had been working on the project for 18 months.

“There is a very important meeting at the Elysee today that may result in the signing of this agreement. We are waiting for the signature,” she said, describing the project as “on the scale of Disneyland”.

Bin Salman and Macron are also holding bilateral discussions on regional security and their economic ties.

That is expected to include discussions about energy routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz, such as new pipelines, capacity upgrades and alternative port networks.

France is a major buyer of Saudi oil and mineral products.

Since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 28, shipping has been severely disrupted in the Strait of Hormuz – the vital waterway on which oil exporters in the Gulf are heavily reliant and where 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies are shipped from during peacetime. The disruption sent oil prices soaring.

Before the war, a barrel of Brent crude – the global benchmark – cost about $66. Over the course of the conflict, prices have climbed above $100 – hitting a high of $119 early on in the war.

On Monday, Brent was trading around $93 a barrel.

Bin Salman and Macron are also expected to discuss the war in Iran, the bloodshed in Palestine, as well as developments in Syria and Lebanon, where Israel occupies around one-fifth of its territory.

Other expected topics on Monday’s agenda include global events that Saudi Arabia is set to host in the coming years, including Expo 2030, focusing on sustainability and urban innovation, and the 2034 football World Cup.

How much trade does Saudi Arabia do with France?

The two countries have a fairly equal trading balance.

In 2024, France exported $4.5bn worth of goods to Saudi Arabia and imported $4.6bn worth, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), an online platform that compiles and visualises international trade statistics.

Refined petroleum accounted for 72 percent of Saudi Arabia’s exports to France in 2024. Besides refined petroleum, Saudi Arabia exported crude petroleum and other mineral products to France. It also exported small amounts of machinery, chemicals and cars.

France’s exports to Saudi Arabia in 2024 were more diverse, including airliners, helicopters, gas turbines, pharmaceutical products and perfume, among other products.

What have relations between Saudi Arabia and France been like?

Sunday’s visit marked the third time MBS has visited France after trips in 2022 and 2023.

In December 2024, Macron visited Riyadh, where the two countries founded the Saudi-French Strategic Partnership Council, which formalised and upgraded political and economic ties between Saudi Arabia and France.

The current visit is also MBS’s first international trip since the August 7 signing of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, known as the Mecca pact – the mutual defence agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan.

Signed by the prince, Turkiye’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, the agreement commits all three states to treat an armed attack on any one of them as an attack on all three.

Analysts say the pact shows that Saudi Arabia is taking steps to diversify its security partnerships beyond Washington.

Ahmed Krim spent 30 years teaching English in Algeria’s middle schools. Now retired, the 60-year-old watched the language he loved remain firmly behind French as the country’s second language.

English was less valued than French, which might have been the language of Algeria’s coloniser, but continues to be present in every dialogue, six decades after independence.

On July 25 , Algeria’s Education Minister, Mohamed Seghir Saadaoui, announced that English will become the sole foreign language taught in the third year of primary school in the new academic year for 2026-2027.

French would be pushed back to the fourth year, ending its domination of foreign language classes in Algerian schools.

From next month, eight-year-olds across Algeria will become the first to learn English before French.

“It is a very good decision. But it requires thinking, planning and resources,” Krim told Al Jazeera.

It is among the first steps in President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s linguistic overhaul for Algeria, which he first outlined in 2022 with English being introduced to primary schools.

Since then, medicine and science faculties have begun switching from French to English.

The French language has been erased from some utility bills and Air Algerie tickets. Road signs are beginning to feature English alongside Arabic, while government ministers’ websites will also have English as an option.

The shift from French to English as Algeria’s secondary language is both sweeping and structural.

It comes amid the most serious diplomatic crisis between the two countries since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962.

In July 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron publicly backed Morocco’s sovereignty claim over Western Sahara.

Algeria, which supports the Sahrawi Polisario Front and hosts over 170,000 Sahrawi refugees, viewed that as highly provocative.

That, and other issues, saw Algeria expel French diplomats, and vice versa.

Algeria’s replacement of French as the country’s second language accelerated after the diplomatic crisis grew.

A classroom without enough teachers

A rethink of the whole education system in Algeria may be needed.

“First and foremost, specialised training centres must be restored and candidates must not be forced into the teaching profession without wanting it – we need people who genuinely want to do this work,” Krim said.

He refers to dedicated institutes established after independence, where primary and middle school teachers, like himself, trained via a model that combined classroom instruction with direct school placements to meet the gap in Arabic instructors.

The centres operated until the late 1990s, when an economic crunch replaced them with the fewer and more selective Ecoles Normales Superieures.

Most teachers today are university graduates, but lack the practical, classroom-first grounding that the older model provided.

Krim said that school curricula must be designed and entrusted to “a qualified body that includes both linguistic and pedagogical expertise, free from all ideology”.

But journalist and analyst Noureddine Bessadi said the ideological dimension matters in Algeria, which overthrew colonialism following a bloody and bitter struggle against the French.

“Since independence in 1962, every shift in language policy has been fought as much on political as pedagogical grounds,” Bessadi told Al Jazeera.

After independence, Algeria’s Arabisation drive, when French was displaced from government and education, was “part of state building and enforcing Algeria’s identity, centring Arabic and Islam”, Bessadi added.

Tamazight, a non-Semitic language spoken by around a quarter of Algeria’s population, was marginalised until 1995, Bessadi said, shaped by an “ideological perception of unity that prioritised linguistic and cultural harmony”.

Critics argue that the transition from French to English is happening faster than the system can keep up with. For one, it is believed that there are not enough qualified English teachers to make the language reforms work.

But one source familiar with the matter told Al Jazeera that there are enough teachers to roll out this programme in primary schools and that any shortage could be filled through contractors.

In February, Algeria’s education ministry reportedly recruited about 15,000 English language teachers for primary schools.

Rafik Laceb, a lecturer in English at Mouloud Mammeri University in Tizi Ouzou, is cautiously optimistic about the primary school reform. But he considers the parallel push to teach university subjects in English to be rushed and poorly executed.

“Frankly, and beyond any chauvinism, I believe this decision is positive… I believe there is, today, sufficient supervision and evaluation work from the first experience,” Laceb said, in reference to the previous introduction of English in later primary school years.

The university experiment that began in 2023-2024 produced insufficient contact hours, a lack of genuine assessment of students’ English levels and no tracking of their progress.

Around 50 percent of teaching at Tizi Ouzou University’s English department is by younger contract staff, which brings other challenges.

“A young contract teacher must first master the basic principles of medicine before attempting to teach medical terminology in English,” he said.

Levelling the playing field

Currently, children only begin learning a foreign language in the third year of state primary schools, whereas multiple languages are taught at private schools from kindergarten.

Djamel Merah, whose daughter attended private schools before transferring to public secondary school, studied Arabic, French and English simultaneously from kindergarten level.

Merah welcomes the government’s language reforms at state primary schools, which will provide more children with the opportunity to learn English.

“It addresses a question about the gap in opportunities between children who get multilingual education from the start and those in public schools who don’t get the same chance,” he said.

Shakespeare’s rising shelf space

There also appears to be a more organic response among the public that precedes the government’s promotion of the English language.

Krimo Taleb, a bookseller at the Libre Pensee bookshop in Tizi Ouzou, has seen a growth in English-language book sales, particularly among female readers.

“In my opinion, it has nothing to do with government decisions. The majority of young readers today speak three languages fluently,” he said.

His own daughter, a middle school student, reads fluently in Arabic, English and French.

Colleen Hoover, Ana Huang and J. K. Rowling are some of the best-selling authors at his shop.

“Previously, our bookshops provided for English literature students the works of Shakespeare,” Taleb says. “Today, there is a diverse range of English-language titles aimed at the general public.”

However, French remains Algeria’s most influential foreign language. According to the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), Algeria has approximately 15 million French speakers, nearly a third of its population.

There is not a single newspaper published in English and written English by Algerians remains in its infancy.

But there are signs that former colonies are turning their backs on France’s linguistic legacy, particularly in Africa, where Paris’s military and political presence made a resurgence in recent decades.

In March 2025, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso withdrew from the OIF, accusing it of being a political instrument of Paris.

“Mali made its national languages official in 2023, demoting French to a working language. Burkina Faso followed the same year and Niger in 2025,” Bessadi added. “Even Senegal, which has not removed French as an official language, has begun encouraging local languages at its expense.”

For Krim, Algeria’s linguistic ambitions are not far-fetched, but for it to work, the country needs the “necessary resources… and transparency”.