Image 01 Image 03

France Tag

Self avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) inspired many people during his presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton. Somehow, though, I don't think he expected himself to inspire styles during Paris's fashion week.

The end is nigh for the European Union, predicts the chief architect of Brexit, Nigel Farage. Talking to an Italian TV station, the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) said, "In a few years time the European Union won’t exist.” Farage was asked about President-elect Donald Trump’s views on the E.U., Farage replied, "It doesn’t really matter," as the E.U. won't be around for long. Farage is the only European politician to have meet Trump since his election victory. The 52 year old British politician has been a lone voice calling for his country to opt-out of the Brussels Bureaucracy for most parts of the last 20 years. Once scorned and ridiculed by conservative and liberal elites alike, Farage has become a hero for various nationalist movements gaining strengthen within the E.U. member states.

The push back against the progressive left's agenda that culminated in the election of President-elect Trump had been gaining steam for a while now and not just on this side of the Atlantic. Faced with poor economic growth, an influx of refugees, a sense of losing their national identity, and a variety of country-specific reasons, the entire Western world seems on the verge of the same sort of election-revolution we just witnessed in America. Heralded as the "the liberal West's last defender," Angela Merkel has been under intense pressure based on her open door policy to refugees, and she now finds herself feeling the growing dissatisfaction of the German people even more powerfully than before Trump's victory.

Just days after dismantling the infamous migrant encampment known as the "Jungle," outside the northern French city of Calais, police are now swooping the 'Mini-Jungle' in the middle of Paris. This Mini-Jungle is now swarming with new inhabitants following last week's clearing of Calais Jungle, with population here crossing 3,000. But don’t expect Paris’s newest attraction, Mini-Jungle, to go away anytime soon.

The stand-off between Britain and France intensifies as French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve calls Britain to take in more 'migrant children' from the Calais-based migrant encampment saying that they “want to live in the UK”. In an unconventional move, the French minister wrote a column in British newspaper The Guardian on Monday directly addressing British people and making a passionate plea on behalf of 'minors' currently camping in Calais. However, the average age of these 'minors' is 25.

As much as I enjoyed former French president Nicholas Sarkozy's colorful assessment of Obama and heartily disliked his open mike remarks about Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, it wasn't a huge surprise when Sarkozy lost his reelection bid. Last month, however, Sarkozy announced he's running for president again, and it seems that he has landed on Brexit as among the key issues of his campaign.  Indeed, Sarkozy has pledged to help the UK reverse its decision to leave the EU. The International Business Times reports:
Sarkozy claims he would reform the EU with German counterpart Angela Merkel, thus making it possible for the UK to organise another vote on whether to remain.

France, home to one of the Europe’s largest Muslim population, is facing an uphill battle against Islamic terrorism. According to France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls, security forces have been foiling terror plots “every day” and warned of more terrorist attacks in the near future. French officials estimates that around 15,000 radical Islamists reside in the country -- and going by the current EU-wide trends -- these numbers were only expected to go up. “We have nearly 700 French jihadists and residents, who are currently fighting in Iraq and Syria,” Valls told French media, adding that this number included “275 women and dozens of children.”

French police and prosecutors have opened an investigation into new threats French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo over images of naked Muslims they published. The threats come over a year two gunmen slaughtered eleven people at Charlie Hebdo over "offensive" images of Mohammad. They also killed a security guard outside of the building.

Italian and French Muslims attended Catholic Mass to show solidarity after two ISIS terrorists executed Father Jacques Hamel in his church in northern France. https://twitter.com/Arab_News/status/759740423904591872