France
President Sarkozy held a government meeting on Wednesday, July 28, to discuss problems posed by communities of so-called nomadic "traveling people" and Roma immigrants. Sarkozy had promised to crack down on travelers after riots erupted in a Loire Valley town last week over the death of a young man. After the meeting, Sarkozy announced that 300 illegal traveler camps would be dismantled and their residents deported within the next three months, according to Le Parisien. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux insisted that the decision was not about "stigmatizing a community," but that "there are unacceptable behaviors in this community." Various organizations and political parties of the left have come out against the decision-deeming it a form of ethnic scapegoating-and a Romanian NGO argued it constituted "a violation of human rights."An estimated 400,000 travelers live in France, according to Time.
Two Saudi clerics declared that Muslim women living in France are exempt from the recent ban on the full face veil, according to Reuters. The clerics said French women are permitted to show their faces "when need and necessity demand it," but recommended against tourism to "western countries like France... in favor of Muslim countries where veils are allowed." The clerics are not members of the Saudi kingdom's Senior Scholars Authority, which has not commented on the law. RTL mused that perhaps Saudi Arabia's silence over the law, which it could have condemned, was an indication the country wanted to avoid "throwing oil on the fire."
On Monday, July 26, President Sarkozy confirmed the death of Michel Germaneau, a retired French man held by insurgents in Mali, Le Parisien reported. Germaneau, who was captured in Niger in April, was killed by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in retaliation for a French raid that killed six al-Qaida militants. Sarkozy called Germaneau's murder a "barbarous act" committed in cold blood, and vowed that it "would not go unpunished." Le Figaro described Germaneau as a former engineer who spent his retirement as an aid worker, and who "dedicated his life to others."
Labor Minister Eric Woerth was questioned for nearly eight hours by police on Thursday, July 29, over allegations of his involvement in the ongoing Liliane Bettencourt scandal. Woerth denied all the accusations against him, which included claims that he received 150,000 Euros in illegal contributions to Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign, and that as Budget Minister, he got his wife employment with the company managing Bettencourt's fortune. On Friday, Woerth quit his post as treasurer of Sarkozy's UMP party, saying that Sarkozy had counseled him to step down so he could focus on the president's pension reform project.
Hadopi, France's recently established agency set up to deal with Internet piracy, is now ready to "begin its action," according to L'Express. According to Boursier, the final decree necessary for Hadopi's application was passed on Tuesday, July 27. Hadopi has already received its first complaints of piracy, and will now set in motion a system of gradual response, in which it will begin by warning violators and ultimately suspend Internet privileges for repeat offenders. The agency has up to two months to respond to these first cases, and will begin sending out warning emails by the end of September.
See also:
- The Economist reported that while Nicolas Sarkozy recently declared laissez-faire capitalism "finished," and nearly half of French people find free-market capitalism "fatally flawed," French businesses continue to reap the benefits of the capitalist model.
|
|
United States On Monday, July 26, the New York Times, the Guardian and Germany's Der Spiegel published simultaneous reports on the leak of over 90,000 confidential US military documents to the controversial website WikiLeaks. The documents reveal-among other things-the apparent involvement of the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI in organizing Taliban militants to fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan and ushering militants cross the border into Pakistan. According to TF1, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that the leak represented a danger to American troops and promised an "active" investigation into its source. In an audio interview with the Washington Post, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange responded to reader questions about a variety of topics, including whether the leaks might lead to the deaths of informers and soldiers in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, July 28, a federal judge blocked the full application of SB 1070, Arizona's controversial immigration law, less than 24 hours before it was due to go into effect. The judge's temporary injunction of the law's most controversial measures rested on her conclusion that the law preempted the federal government's authority to enforce immigration law. Arizona governor Jan Brewer said she would appeal the ruling, calling it a "bump in the road."
More than three months after the start of BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the company announced that it would replace CEO Tony Hayward with Robert Dudley, an American BP employee who was recently named to supervise the efforts to control the spill. According to the Guardian, BP's plans to send Hayward to Siberia to direct the Russian joint venture TNK-BP might offset the attempt to pacify American anger with the company. Les Echos reported that as part of his contract, Hayward will receive 11 million pounds for leaving his post. Meanwhile, the BBC reported that oil from the spill was clearing from the ocean at a far greater rate than anticipated, having been "biodegraded" by ocean bacteria.
The U.S. and South Korea conducted four days of joint military exercises in the Sea of Japan, mobilizing 20 ships, 200 planes and 8,000 men, according to L'Express. The BBC posted video of the exercises, reporting that North Korea reacted to the display by promising a "retaliatory sacred war." According to the Christian Science Monitor, the exercise was intended to show North Korea that "its aggressive behavior won't be forgiven." Although it denies involvement, North Korea has been accused of attacking a South Korean vessel in March, killing 46 South Korean sailors.
See also:
- The House of Representatives voted to approve $37 billion in additional funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill passed 308 to 114, with the most opposition coming from Democrats arguing that the war in Afghanistan has become unwinnable.
- A New York City community board voted not to give a building near the World Trade Center site landmark status, paving the way for the controversial construction of a proposed Islamic center in its place.
|
Business and Economy
The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was meeting with online game companies about plans to develop a social networking platform rivaling Facebook. Google CEO Eric Schmidt wouldn't confirm Google's social-networking plans, but said plans were underway for a partnership with online gaming company Zynga (responsible for the popular Facebook game Farmville). According to Le Point, Google already has a popular social networking platform in Orkut, which has been successful in Brazil, but its attempts to branch out with Buzz in 2010 was a "fiasco."
On Thursday, July 29, the Euro hit $1.31, its highest level against the dollar since May. According to the Economist, the Euro's rebound (it was down to $1.19 in June) is due in part to decreased confidence in US recovery and diminished fears about "imminent euro break-up." While chalking the rise up to decreased German unemployment and a 27 month high in European consumer confidence levels, La Tribune nevertheless warned that the euro zone was still "fragilized" by the economic crisis, noting that real household income down for the third consecutive quarter.
Bloomberg reported that France's four largest banks all passed last week's European Union stress tests aimed at determining if banks were prepared to withstand a future economic crisis. The tests measured banks' Tier 1 capital ratio in the event of an economic decline, and regulators would require any bank falling below 6 percent to raise capital. The four French banks tested-BNP Paribas SA, Société Générale SA, Groupe Crédit Agricole, and BPCE SA-account for 80 percent of France's banking assets. Le Monde criticized the tests for not being sufficiently "demanding." Of the 91 European banks tested, only seven failed, of which five were Spanish.
Le Figaro reported that Renault's new electric car, the Zoé, due out in 2012, would sell for less than 15,000 Euros after a 5,000 Euro government bonus for purchasing an electric car. Renault will rent the car's electric battery for around 100 Euros a month, which the paper called "a clever way of lowering the price" of the car. According to Le Point, Renault expects to sell 40,000 electric models in France within the first two years.
See also:
- The Los Angeles Times worries the United States might be on track to enter a period of deflation.
|
International The European Union, along with Canada, adopted new sanctions against Iran on Monday, July 26, after the country refused to halt its uranium enrichment program. The sanctions "prohibit new investments, technical aid, and transfer of technologies" that could be used for Iran's nuclear program, as well as its oil and gas industries. The BBC showed the impact of past sanctions on Iran's economic development since the Islamic revolution in 1979, suggesting that Iran has turned to friendly developing Asian markets to pick up the exports it once sent to the developed world. Le Figaro reported that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner had lauded the new international sanctions.
Le Figaro reported that British Prime Minister David Cameron criticized opposition to Turkey's aspirations to European Union membership while visiting the country. France and Germany have been the most outspoken critics of Turkish membership in the EU, proposing instead that it be given a "privileged partnership" status. According to Time magazine, Turkey has little chance of joining within the next 15 years. Cameron attributed the opposition to unease with Turkey's Muslim population, with critics "willfully misunderstanding Islam." But some say Turkey's difficulty achieving necessary reforms and its recent outreach to eastern partners like Iran and Hamas are currently the country's largest obstacle in obtaining membership.
The Spanish region of Catalonia voted on Wednesday, July 29, to ban the practice of bullfighting, or corrida, citing animal cruelty, according to Le Figaro. The vote passed 68 to 55, and the ban will go into effect at the beginning of 2012. The Canary Islands were the first Spanish region to ban bullfighting in 1991. Libération attributed the ban-which did not outlaw the specifically Catalonian practice of bull running (or correbous)-to a combination of animal rights sentiment and anti-Spanish Catalonian regionalism. Opponents worry that the ban could lead to similar campaigns across Spain. Bull fighting is responsible for the creation of 40,000 jobs each year.
An international tribunal condemned former Cambodian prison guard Duch to 30 years in prison for torturing and executing thousands of prisoners under the Khmer Rouge regime. According to the BBC, Duch admitted to his role, but said he was just following orders and asked for acquittal. According to the Nouvel Observateur, more than 1.7 million people-about a quarter of the country's population-died under the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979. France24 reported that many critics decried what they considered a light sentence for a man who oversaw the murder of 15,000 men, women and children.
French-American Foundation Announcement
Report on Security & Stability in Africa in the 21st Century: On April 8-10, 2010, the French-American Foundation organized its 10th French-American Defense Symposium, a unique forum for senior military officers, defense experts, civilian policymakers and analysts from France and the United States to interact and share lessons learned. With a focus on the nature of the security challenge in Africa in the twenty-first century, the conference provided participants with an opportunity to discuss current strategies of engagement and to explore areas for more effective cooperation between the United States and France. Please click here to download the symposium report (pdf).
|
|
The French-American Foundation is the principal non-governmental organization linking France and the United States at leadership levels and across the full range of the French-American relationship. 
