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Electrabel calls for clarity on Belgian phase-out
Electrabel - the Belgian subsidiary of French utility Engie - says it will not make any further investments at Doel unit 4 and Tihange unit 3 unless it is clearer whether the reactors will or will not be allowed to operate beyond 2025. A report due out at the end of next year may lead to the reactors being allowed to continue operating to ensure Belgium's energy security.Read Full Story Energy SecurityBelgiumFranceNuclear PowerEnergy PolicyEnergy PricesElectricity SupplyBelgianTihange 2Tihange 3The Council Of MinistersFlemishWorld Nuclear NewsElectrabel StaffFrench Utility EngieAlexander De Croo
Every Star Voting For the First Time in the 2020 Presidential Election
You never forget your first time. And for many celebrities, the 2020 presidential election is an extra memorable one. Selena Gomez, Snoop Dogg, Billie Eilish, Tan France and Ryan Reynolds all have something in common this Nov. 3: They'll be voting for the first time!. While this year's race for...Read Full Story Presidential ElectionWhite HouseNevadaCountry MusicHollywoodPresidential PollsPresidential RaceOnline VotingVoice VoteFirst TimeTwitterNBAUSA Today SportsGetty Images Addison RaeNBC NewsSelena GomezTan FranceKelsea BalleriniBillie EilishSnoop DoggRyan ReynoldsMike Caussin
Former EU prime mover Valery Giscard d'Estaing dies
Valery Giscard d'Estaing. (PA Archive)Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the president of France from 1974 to 1981 who became a champion of European integration, has died at the age of 94 after contracting Covid-19.Mr Giscard d'Estaing's office said he passed away in his family home in the Loir-et-Cher region, in central France. He had recently been admitted to hospital in the town of Tours with heart problems."In accordance with his wishes, his funeral will take place in strict privacy," his office said.Tony Blair & Valerie Giscard d'Estaing (PA Archive)Born in 1926, Mr Giscard d'Estaing served in the Free French army that helped liberate France during World War II. Charles de Gaulle named him finance minister at age 36.As president, he helped forge a single Europe with his close friend, German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Together they laid the foundations for the euro single currency.Mr Giscard d'Estaing wrote the article in the EU charter that allowed Brexit to happen – the brief measure that permits a member state to leave the bloc.On the eve of Britain's departure this year, Mr Giscard d'Estaing told The Associated Press it was a "step backward" geopolitically, but took the long view."We functioned without Britain during the first years of the European Union … So we will rediscover a situation that we have already known," he said.Royalty – Queen Elizabeth II – French Embassy, London (PA Archive)Born in Germany in the wake of World War I, Mr Giscard d'Estaing helped liberate Paris from the Nazis in the next world war, and later laid the groundwork for the shared euro currency and helped integrate Britain into what became the EU in the 1970s.Seeing the Britons leave, "I feel great regret," he said.He remained unfailingly optimistic in the European project, forecasting that the EU and the euro would bounce back and gradually grow stronger and bigger despite the challenges of losing a major member.When he took office in 1974, Mr Giscard d'Estaing began as the model of a modern French president, a conservative with liberal views on social issues.Abortion and divorce by mutual consent were legalised under his term, and he reduced the age of majority from 21 to 18.He played his accordion in working class neighbourhoods. One Christmas morning, he invited four passing garbage men to breakfast at the presidential palace.He lost his re-election bid in 1981 to Socialist Francois Mitterrand.Valery Giscard d'Estaing. (PA Archive)Born in 1926 in Coblenz, where his father was a financial director of the post-World War I French occupation administration in Germany, Mr Giscard d'Estaing grew up with a pan-European view.After joining the French Resistance during World War II, he next saw Germany as a tank commander in the French military in 1944.In 1952, he married Anne-Aymone de Brantes, the daughter of a count and heiress to a steel fortune. They had four children: Valerie-Anne, Louis, Henri and Jacinte.Young Giscard d'Estaing studied at the prestigious Polytechnical Institute and then the elite National School of Administration, before mastering economics at Oxford.President Charles de Gaulle named him finance minister at the age of 36.Theatre – Charity Concert for Dr Barnardo's and the Children's Foundation – Palace of Versailles (PA Archive)After his defeat to Mr Mitterrand, he temporarily retired from politics.He then found a second calling in the European Union. He worked on writing a European Constitution which was formally presented in 2004, but rejected by French and Dutch voters. However, it paved the way for the adoption of the Treaty on European Union in 2007.At age 83, he published a romance novel called "The Princess and the President," which he said was based on Princess Diana, with whom he said he discussed writing a love story.Asked about the nature of their relationship, he said only: "Let us not exaggerate. I knew her a bit in a climate of a confidential relationship. She needed to communicate."Earlier this year, a German journalist accused Mr Giscard d'Estaing of repeatedly grabbing her during an interview, and filed a sexual assault complaint with Paris prosecutors. His French lawyer said the 94-year-old "retains no memory" of the incident.Former French President Francois Hollande paid tribute to "a stateman who had chosen to open up to the world and was thinking that Europe was a condition for France to be greater."Mr Hollande's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, expressed his "deep sadness", saying Mr Giscard d'Estaing "made France be proud".Francois HollandeGiscard D'estaingPrime MoverUnion MinisterEUBrexitThe Associated PressThe European UnionNazisBritonsPan-EuropeanPolytechnical InstituteOxfordValery Giscard D'EstaingCentral FranceCharles De GaulleHelmut SchmidtNicolas Sarkozy
Candidates Appeal to Seniors, Covid-19 Vaccine Latest, France Imposes Curfews
President Trump and Vice President Joe Biden appeal to seniors for their votes. Pfizer says it won't have data showing its COVID-19 vaccine is safe until late November, weeks after Election Day. France imposes new restrictions in hopes of curbing the pandemic and avoiding another national shutdown.COVID-19 VaccineElection DayPfizerCurfewAppealPandemicFranceCoronavirus Disease 2019President TrumpNovemberHopesJoe BidenDonald TrumpRead Full Story
Breonna Taylor's death reminds me this country doesn't love me as much as I love it
(CNN) — Some days I feel like a woman without a country. The death of Breonna Taylor has been yet another painful reminder that women like me, Black women, are not safe in America. We can be killed in our own homes by
African Union Election Draws Fire for Unopposed Candidate at Top
JOHANNESBURG - As the world's attention focuses on the coming American election, another important vote for a key position is generating controversy in Africa. Chadian politician Moussa Faki Mahamat is running unoppose
France Test requires best of the Scots, says coach Townsend
(MENAFN - Gulf Times) Gregor Townsend says Scotland will need to be 'close to their best if they are to beat France tomorrow and become only the third Scottish side since 1900 to win six successive Tests. The Scots already number Fabien Galthie's much-improved French side among the five teams...Read Full Story ScotlandScotsNations CupSaracens F.C.France TestMENAFN - Gulf TimesScottishFrench1989/90ItaliansDefeated ItalyMurrayfieldEdinburghHookerHamish WatsonGregor TownsendMohamed HaouasBlair KinghornDarcy GrahamOli KebbleSimon BerghanMatt FagersonSean MaitlandStuart HoggChris HarrisSam JohnsonDuncan WeirAli PriceJamie RitchieJonny GrayScott CummingsJamie BhattiZander FagersonBlade ThomsonDuhan Van Der Merwe
European powers 'deeply concerned' over Israeli settlement plans
PARIS — France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain are deeply concerned about Israeli plans to build new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, the countries said in a joint statement on Friday. Israel this week approved more than 1,300 new settler homes in the West Bank, bringing to a...Israeli SettlementWest BankFranceIDFSpainPalestiniansGermanyItalyInternational LawBritainGreat PowerUnited StatesParisIsraeli AuthoritiesSettlements IsraelRead Full Story
Coronavirus live updates: 'We're not in a good place,' Fauci warns
Dr. Anthony Fauci discussed the situation on ABC's 'Good Morning America.' A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 998,000 people worldwide. Over 33.1 million people across the globe have been diagno
France confirms first case on its soil of British virus variant
France had been among many nations who had shut their borders to the UK in the hope of containing the more transmissible strain /AFP France has confirmed the first case of a new coronavirus variant that recently emerged in Britain, its health ministry said. The new strain of the virus, which experts fear is more contagious, has prompted more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions on the UK. The first French case -- found in a citizen living in Britain who arrived from London on December 19 -- is asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in Tours in central France, the ministry said late Friday. They were tested in a hospital on December 21, and later found positive for the strain. Health authorities have carried out contact-tracing for the health professionals taking care of the patient, the ministry said in a statement. Any of their contacts that were seen as vulnerable would similarly be isolated, it said. In addition to this first case, several other positive samples that "may suggest the VOC 202012/01 variant are being sequenced" by the specialist laboratories of the national Pasteur Institute, the statement added. - Borders closed - On Monday, France's health minister Olivier Veran had admitted that it was possible the newly discovered strain was already in the country. Italian authorities have detected the new strain in a patient in Rome, while the World Health Organization reported that nine cases have been detected in Denmark and one each in the Netherlands and Australia. Following the snap 48-hour ban this week, France had reopened its borders to the UK -- partly to allow French citizens to return home, as well as to relieve the massive build-up of freight goods -- but had instituted a testing policy. France's interior ministry said Thursday that limits on travel from the UK will continue "until at least January 6". For now, only citizens of France or the EU, those with residency rights there or business travellers are allowed to make the crossing from the UK -- if they can show a negative Covid-19 test less than three days old. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the new viral strain "may be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original version of the disease". Ahead of Christmas British health minister Matt Hancock announced the expansion of strict lockdown measures across further parts of the south of England to contain the spread of the disease. With more than 68,000 deaths from the virus, the United Kingdom is one of the hardest hit countries in Europe. Central FranceVirusNetherlandsDenmarkLaboratoriesPublic HealthSoil HealthUK AuthoritiesBritainHome SoilBritishAFP FranceVOCInterior MinistryEUBoris JohnsonMatt Hancock
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