ABBEVILLE, France — For President Emmanuel Macron of France, it has been Europe or bust from the beginning. Since his election two years ago, he has fashioned himself as the leader of Europe, laying out a grand vision of deeper integration. He has tried to stoke passion in a skeptical populace with an open letter […]
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PARIS — The White House said on Wednesday that it would not sign an international accord intended to pressure the largest internet platforms to eradicate violent and extremist content, highlighting a broader divide between the United States and other countries about the role of government in determining what content is acceptable on the internet. Citing […]
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PARIS — Two days after he took office as France’s president, Emmanuel Macron flew to Berlin. It was May 16, 2017, and France and Germany needed a reset. Joined at the hip, the two nations cannot make Europe work if they don’t work together. Mr. Macron had been elected to transform France, and he was […]
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One of the central problems in Western politics is the impasse between a governing class that lacks legitimacy, and populist alternatives that are poorly led and unready to govern. This impasse reflects a deep trend of the last few decades — the working-out of meritocracy’s iron logic, in which the most talented young people (or […]
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At the end of a week in which Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris was ravaged by flames, sending waves of anguish rolling across France, “Yellow Vest” protesters on Saturday marched once again in the capital and in cities around the country, demanding that President Emmanuel Macron address the nation’s inequality. Though the number of protesters was […]
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The fire that ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris on Monday left a scarred skyline that one of the French capital’s most iconic structures has graced for centuries. Gone is the cathedral’s soaring, delicate 300-foot spire, which collapsed in the flames. The cathedral’s wooden roof is now blackened and charred. In the aftermath of the fire, […]
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PARIS — For Georges Duby, a historian of the Middle Ages, one of the defining features of a historic event, or “évènement,” is that it triggers waves of commentary that bring out what had been kept unspoken. The fire that broke out at Notre-Dame this week is a historic event of our times. Monday night, […]
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BOURGES, France — In a world seething with anger over the widening gap between the rich and everyone else, France stands out as a country elaborately engineered to protect social peace. It has less economic inequality than the United States, Canada and Britain, according to the World Bank. Its people enjoy comprehensive health care under […]
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Kilometer Zero: Notre-Dame de Paris, the place from which distance in France is measured, the reference of a people, the starting point and endpoint, the “epicenter,” as President Emmanuel Macron put it. That is why so many people, religious or not, were in tears as the great cathedral burned. A part of themselves, their bearings, […]
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PARIS — France, a fundamentally Roman Catholic country whose citizens rarely attend Mass, understands the story and the meaning of Easter. It is a story of resurrection and rebirth, of the transformation of something profane into something sacred. In a subdued Paris on Tuesday, as Parisians and tourists gathered to stare at the smoke-smudged stones […]
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One of the joys of living in Paris has been to hear the tolling of the great bells of Notre-Dame on Easter Sunday, their festive peals echoing through elegant streets festooned with the blooms of spring. The bells survived what is likely to become known as the Great Fire of 2019, thank Heaven. But they […]
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PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron of France has vowed that Notre-Dame cathedral will be rebuilt, as prosecutors begin investigating what caused a fire that badly damaged the 850-year-old symbol of Paris and caused its thin spire to collapse in smoke and flames. Mr. Macron said an international effort to raise funds for reconstruction would begin […]
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PARIS — I learned that Notre Dame was burning on Monday night when a stranger — an older man — stopped me on the street. A shrieking ambulance had just sped past us. He pointed to a plume of smoke in the distance, and said: “It’s going to Notre Dame. Notre Dame is on fire.” […]
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LONDON — With Britain’s fate in the hands of the European Union it wants to leave, Prime Minister Theresa May shuttled between Berlin and Paris on Tuesday to plead for more time to salvage her faltering withdrawal plans. European leaders have indicated that they are willing to push back the date for Britain’s withdrawal from […]
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PARIS — The moment of truth approached on Monday for President Emmanuel Macron’s strategy for sucking the wind out of the Yellow Vest protest movement, as his prime minister presented the conclusions of a three-month national consultation in which some 1.5 million French citizens let the government know what they wanted. The answer? Lower taxes, […]
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BEIJING — China’s ruling Communist Party expelled the former chief of Interpol on Wednesday, accusing him of abusing his power to finance an extravagant lifestyle and committing “serious” violations of the law. The disappearance of the former Interpol chief, Meng Hongwei, during a trip to China last fall drew global attention and highlighted the perils […]
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PARIS — France rolled out red carpets and honor guards for President Xi Jinping of China on Monday, but beneath the pomp, there were wary statements about China’s influence by his host, President Emmanuel Macron. With Italy last week breaking from Europe in signing on to China’s global infrastructure project for moving Chinese goods, Mr. […]
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ImagePresident Xi Jinping of China at a welcoming ceremony in Rome.CreditRiccardo Antimiani/EPA, via Shutterstock PARIS — Imagine Europe as a target on a radar screen, and you can see the warning alerts flashing red and ubiquitous. Europe is undergoing a multipronged, hybrid attack. The assailants do not coordinate and their goals may vary. But what […]
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PARIS — French security forces were deployed across Paris and other cities on Saturday as the country braced for a 19th weekend of “Yellow Vest” demonstrations, following a surge of violence last weekend that caught the authorities by surprise after months of dwindling numbers and calmer protests. Nearly 6,000 police officers were out on the […]
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BRUSSELS — European Union leaders on Thursday agreed to extend the deadline for Britain’s looming exit from the bloc, but on terms different from those requested by Prime Minister Theresa May. Thursday’s agreement is designed to avert the possibility of a disorderly, possibly chaotic, departure by Britain on March 29. After hours of talks, the […]
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