Gérard Depardieu: The rise and fall of a French film icon
French film icon, Gérard Depardieu, who once described the #MeToo movement as a "reign of terror," now finds himself added to the national list of sex offenders. This after he was found guilty of sexual assault and given an 18-month suspended sentence. Also as the Trump administration is targeting DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion; what happens when your organisation's sole purpose is to fund Black feminists? Annette Young talks to Tynesha McHarris, a co-founder of the Black Feminist Fund, which supports Black women's rights worldwide. Plus the hotel in Sri Lanka which employs only women and the impact it's also having on the local tourism industry as the South Asian country recovers from an economic crisis.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
Meet the 2025 winners of the Best Paris Baguette Award
If there is one thing French people are really serious about, it is most likely bread. Baking is almost an art in France. The baguette has even been granted World Heritage Status by UNESCO. For Parisian bakers, the top honour is to win the Best Paris Baguette Award. The 2025 competition featured 187 bakers from the French capital. Their creations were judged by a jury made up of Deputy Paris Mayor Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, representatives of major professional federations, journalists and four randomly selected Parisians. Judges of this 32nd edition assessed the competing baguettes based on five criteria: appearance, taste, baking quality, crumb and honeycombing. This year's lucky winners are Mickaël Reydellet and Florian Bléas, of the aptly-named La Parisienne boulangerie. Reydellet created his first shop in 2006 and now manages nine bakeries, seven of them in Paris and two in his native Normandy. 'I'm very proud of the teams, because behind this competition is the day-to-day work of the whole staff, and this is not to be overlooked', he told Euronews Culture. Reydellet had already won the contest in 2016. In the past nine years, he worked endlessly to improve his product, despite external challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. 'Wheat harvests change each year. We have to adapt our recipes each time to take this into account ', he explained. 'That's the art of baking.' Like every recipient of the Best Paris Baguette prize, Reydellet and Bléas will have the privilege of delivering their bread to the Élysée Palace during a year. But for him, the French President is a client like any other. 'It's always very interesting to be able to go into the Élysée Palace and serve the most prestigious tables. But we take great care over every single one of our products', Reydellet said. 'Whether it's the President or just another client, we really try to do our job well, and that's what pays off.' Artisans at La Parisienne are no strangers to awards. Reydellet's colleague Mathieu Leveque also won the Best Paris Pastry prize this year, and Aziz Boussaidi earned second place at the contest for the best croissant in the region. After completing its own independent tasting, Euronews Culture can say that Bléas and Reydellet's baguette is a worthy winner. It also largely passes the "Ratatouille" test. As explained by the character of Colette in the 2007 animated Pixar film, a good bread can be recognised by the way its crust sounds. La Parisienne's baguette offers a "symphony of crackle. Only great bread sounds this way.'
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
What is Fête de La Musique, France's annual solstice celebration?
The Summer Solstice of June 21— the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere — also heralds France's beloved music festival, the Fête de la Musique, which is marking its 44th year. Amid the heat, streets, bars, restaurants, gardens, museums and even libraries across France will host thousands of concerts for one night only. From classical to techno to jazz and rap, the line-up features a mix of renowned artists and bands, including La Femme, Romain Pissenem, Major Lazer Sound System, and Abd al Malik — some of the many artists that will perform at the Olympic Cauldron, which will be re-lit for the first time since the Olympic Games. In every corner of the city, artists from around the globe — from Brazil to Cambodia — will be present, bringing music for every taste. Alongside these headliners, amateurs and street performers from across the country will also take the stage. Many of the events are organised by town halls as well as by local associations, shops, schools and neighbourhood cafés. The full lineup for concerts in Paris can be found here while the full lineup for all of France is available on the government website. Millions have attended in previous years, with some traveling from outside of France to join the festivities. This year, Beyoncé will also be performing for three days over the weekend at the Stade de France, attracting even more music lovers to Paris. Social media, especially TikTok, is buzzing with foreigners, mostly British, eager to join the celebration. Many are sharing tips on how to celebrate the event and even practicing their French. The Paris transport system will offer a special 'Fête de la Musique' pass for €4.20 which provides unlimited access to all public transportation (except to airports) from 5pm on June 21 until 7am on June 22. The fête this year fortuitously falls on a weekend – the next Summer Solstice to take place on a Saturday will be in 2031— but is also expected to coincide with a heatwave that could see Paris temperatures soar to around 35°C (95°F). Musical origins Former minister of culture Jack Lang launched the first Fête de la Musique in 1982. A ministry survey conducted that year found that around 5 million French citizens played an instrument — including half of all young people. Lang decided to create this free festival as a way to break down the barriers between amateur and professional musicians. The idea of the free festival was to be open to all music, 'without hierarchy of genres or practices'. Some credit Joel Cohen, an American musician working at France Musique public radio, as the originator of the idea of a musical solstice. In 1976 Cohen launched the 'Saturnales de La Musique', a special broadcast to celebrate the solstices on June 21 and December 21 with music. The European Year of Music in 1985 set its sights on exporting the celebration abroad, and by 1997 a charter on 'La Fête Européenne de la Musique' was signed in Budapest. Thousands of cities around the world now celebrate Fête de la Musique, which means 'Music Party' in French but is also a play on words since 'Faites de la musique' — meaning 'to make music' — is pronounced the same way. Organisers underscore that the event is "for all music and all audiences without any lucrative purposes".
LeMonde
5 hours ago
- LeMonde
Vice President JD Vance blames California Democrats for immigration protests and calls Senator Alex Padilla 'Jose'
Vice President JD Vance on Friday, June 20, accused California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending in federal officers. Vance also referred to US Senator Alex Padilla, the state's first Latino senator, as "Jose Padilla," a week after the Democrat was forcibly taken to the ground by officers and handcuffed after speaking out during a Los Angeles news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on immigration raids . "I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question," Vance said, in an apparent reference to the altercation at Noem's event. "I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't a theater. And that's all it is. They want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, 'Look, me, I stood up against border enforcement. I stood up against Donald Trump,'" Vance added. A spokesperson for Padilla, Tess Oswald, noted in a social media post that Padilla and Vance were formerly colleagues in the Senate and said that Vance should know better. "He should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots," Oswald said. Vance's visit to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command center came as demonstrations calmed down in the city and a curfew was lifted this week. That followed over a week of sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of vandalism and looting that followed immigration raids across Southern California. Trump's dispatching of his top emissary to Los Angeles at a time of turmoil surrounding the Israel-Iran war and the US's future role in it signals the political importance Trump places on his hard-line immigration policies. Vance echoed the president's harsh rhetoric toward California Democrats as he sought to blame them for the protests in the city. "Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, by treating the city as a sanctuary city, have basically said that this is open season on federal law enforcement," Vance said after he toured federal immigration enforcement offices. "What happened here was a tragedy," Vance added. "You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law and they had rioters egged on by the governor and the mayor, making it harder for them to do their job. That is disgraceful. And it is why the president has responded so forcefully." Newsom's spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement, "The Vice President's claim is categorically false. The governor has consistently condemned violence and has made his stance clear." Speaking at City Hall, Bass said Vance was "spewing lies and utter nonsense." She said hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted by the federal government on a "stunt." "How dare you say that city officials encourage violence? We kept the peace," Bass said. In a statement on X, Newsom responded to Vance's reference to "Jose Padilla," saying the comment was no accident. Jose Padilla also is the name of a convicted Al-Qaeda terrorism plotter during President George W. Bush's administration, who was sentenced to two decades in prison. Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during the tense months after the 9/11 attacks and accused of the "dirty bomb" mission. It later emerged through US interrogation of other Al-Qaeda suspects that the "mission" was only a sketchy idea, and those claims never surfaced in the South Florida terrorism case.
