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☆ Jean-Baptiste Andrea Wins Goncourt Prize With Sprawling Novel
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Aurelien Breeden | More About Aurelien Breeden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jean-Baptiste Andrea received the Goncourt Prize, France’s most prestigious literary award, on Tuesday for his novel “Watching Over Her,” or “Veiller Sur Elle.”The novel, published by L’Iconoclaste, a small, independent publisher, is a sprawling fresco and star-crossed love story that follows Michelangelo “Mimo” Vitaliani, a dwarf and skilled sculptor who at the end of his life is said to be “watching over” his masterpiece, a mysteriously powerful sculpture. Andrea, 52, a former screenwriter and film director, sets the nearly 600-page novel across several tumultuous decades in 20th-century Italy, including the years of fascism’s rise, when Mimo, young and poor, forges an intense bond with Viola Orsini, the adventurous and ambitious daughter of an aristocratic family. The 10 members of the Goncourt Academy, the French literary society that awards the prize, made their announcement at lunchtime at the Paris restaurant Drouant, where the winners have been declared since 1914.

Persons: Jean, Baptiste Andrea, ”, L’Iconoclaste, Michelangelo “ Mimo, Andrea, Viola Orsini Organizations: Goncourt Academy, Drouant Locations: Italy, Paris

delivery kits include instructions on reducing the risk of infection for pregnant women who may have to deliver their own babies in a crisis. And as their deliveries approach, many of the pregnant women “don’t know where they’re going to be in the next minute or the next day,” Mr. Allen said. The group said in a statement that women in Gaza have been losing their pregnancies from the stress and shock of the war. Itimad Abu Ward, a midwife and nurse who works as a public health officer for the W.H.O., was among those forced to flee northern Gaza. She said trying to care for pregnant women during the chaotic journey south was near impossible.

Persons: Israel, Dominic Allen, “, ” Mr, Allen, Itimad Abu Ward, Khan Younis, Abu Ward, Khan, ” Organizations: United Nations, United Nations Population Fund, Planning, Protection Association, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Nasser Hospital, Times, Training Center, Medicines Locations: Gaza, Egypt, Israel, Jabaliya

PinnedTrucks appeared to be moving through the Rafah border crossing into Gaza from Egypt, according to images shown on Egyptian state television. It was not immediately clear what the trucks were carrying, and there was no immediate comment from the United Nations, which has been pushing for movement. President Biden said on Wednesday that Israel had agreed to allow food, water and medicine into the blockaded Gaza Strip. Aid trucks have been stuck waiting at the crossing for days as the powers involved haggled over the details of getting the desperately needed supplies through. As the situation in Gaza worsens, Israel is readying a ground offensive in the territory.

Persons: Trucks, Biden, Israel, Judith Raanan, Natalie Raanan Organizations: Diplomats, United, United Nations, Military, Hezbollah Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Egypt, United Nations, Israel, United States, Qatar, Chicago, Lebanon, Iran, U.S

Aid convoy trucks waiting at the Rafah border crossing to enter Gaza from Egypt on Thursday. As Gaza grapples with an escalating humanitarian crisis, the prospect of getting aid through the closed Rafah border crossing with Egypt has taken on particular urgency. Hopes are high that the aid trucks would be able to cross into Gaza on Friday, according to European Union officials coordinating aid from the bloc. The American, U.N. and Egyptian officials are discussing who would carry out those cargo inspections, a person directly familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to speak about the delicate negotiations. “All of Gaza is waiting for the aid,” Wael Abu Omar, the spokesman for Hamas’s interior ministry, said Thursday.

Persons: Biden, Israel, ”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “, António Guterres, Martin Griffiths, Samar Abu Elouf, Wael Abu Omar, Israel readies, Abood, Okal, ” Iyad Abuheweila, Yazbek Organizations: Diplomats, European Union, World Health Organization, International Committee, The New York Times, Palestinian Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Egypt, Israel, Arish, Palestine, Cairo, U.S, Samar, E.U, Palestinian American, Jerusalem

An aerial view of a music festival that was the site of a Hamas attack. “At the moment I am in Gaza,” Ms. Schem says in a solemn, clipped voice. Ms. Schem’s mother, Keren Schem, said last week that she had last spoken to her on Oct. 6, the day before the attack. “She called me to say she was going to a party down south,” Keren Schem said. Keren Schem said one person who was at the show described having seen her daughter walking toward a kibbutz nearby.

Persons: Mia Schem, —, Schem, “, Ms, ”, Shem, Schem’s, Keren Schem, ” Keren Schem, Keren Schem’s, Mia, Nadav Gavrielov Organizations: Hamas, The New York Times Locations: Gaza, Israel, Tel Aviv

☆ One Dead in Botulism Outbreak Traced to Sardines at Bar in France
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Aurelien Breeden | More About Aurelien Breeden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A woman has died and at least a dozen other people have become ill with botulism in France after eating homemade sardine preserves at a wine bar in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, French officials said on Wednesday, as they warned that other cases could soon come to light. The sick people had all eaten over the course of last week at the Tchin Tchin Wine Bar, an organic wine bar in central Bordeaux that is popular with foreign tourists, according to French health authorities. One woman who lives in the Paris region died after returning home and checking into a hospital, doctors said on Wednesday. Eight of the other victims are still at a hospital in Bordeaux. Although test results are pending, French health authorities said they were confident that botulism, an extremely rare but potentially life-threatening illness, was the cause, and they blamed the wine bar’s homemade, oil-based sardine preserves.

Organizations: botulism Locations: France, Bordeaux, Paris

Like almost every building in Douar Tnirt, a village high up in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the home was a rubble of broken mud bricks, its broken doorbell insisting in vain that, even after a powerful earthquake, it was still a place where humans could live. Right after the quake struck on Friday, they started search and rescue with their bare, untrained hands, eventually adding shovels and picks. By Sunday, the government had sent neither emergency responders nor aid to Douar Tnirt and several other mountain villages visited by journalists for The New York Times. “They don’t want to see them, and, well, it’s about respect for the dead,” Ms. Id al-Houcine said. “If you don’t, you don’t.”

Persons: Douar Tnirt, ”, Zahra, “, Id, Houcine, Abdessamad Ait Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Douar Tnirt, Morocco, Marrakesh, Abdessamad Ait Ihia

“They have nowhere they can go back to,” Mr. Choula said of his family, who spent Saturday night sleeping in a field with several other families. Some are rallying together to send funds and organize shipments of supplies for survivors while others are heading home to help on the ground. But Mr. Dehy said he had received dozens of calls from Moroccans who want to immediately send help home. For Moroccans watching from afar, “the only thing that helps them is knowing that they helped, that they didn’t just stand idly by,” Mr. Dehy said. Mr. Choula, 41, said he was gathering money to send home.

Persons: Youssef Choula, “, ” Mr, Choula, ”, Latif Dehy, Dehy, —, Ella Williams, Talat N’yakoub, It’s, “ I’ve, Williams Organizations: “, French, of, British Moroccan Society Locations: Gloucestershire, England, Marrakesh, Amizmiz, Moroccan, Avignon, France, Morocco, Europe, Britain, ”

Residents fleeing their homes in Moulay Brahim, a village near the epicenter of the quake, outside Marrakesh, Morocco, on Saturday. “The current tectonic stresses are therefore only part of the story,” Dr. Hubbard said. Historical earthquakes offer few answers to that question, according to Dr. Hubbard. Another challenging detail to study is an earthquake’s depth, Dr. Hubbard said. The shaking from a deeper earthquakes may not be as strong, but it can be felt across a wider swath of the surface, Dr. Hubbard said.

Persons: Judith Hubbard, ” Dr, Hubbard, ”, Jascha Polet Organizations: Saturday, Earthquakes, San, Cornell University, Geological, Seismological, California State Polytechnic University Locations: Moulay Brahim, Marrakesh, Morocco, Africa, Africa’s, Pacific

The earthquake that struck Morocco on Friday night hit near Marrakesh, a popular tourist destination, sending both residents and visitors scrambling for safety. “We didn’t know if we had to stand up, to sit down, to run,” Mr. Ait Chari said. Ms. Lorang and hundreds of others found refuge in a courtyard, where some brought out rugs and blankets to sleep. “It was very chaotic.”Mr. Ait Chari, the tour guide, said he was supposed to pick up more clients on Sunday but was unsure flights would be maintained. Many people were still in shock, he said, but there had also been “great solidarity,” as residents cleared roads.

Persons: “, Jen Lorang, ” Ms, Lorang, “ I’ve, Mr, Ait, ”, Jean, Baptiste Guinet Organizations: Big, ”, UNESCO, Heritage, Tourism, Organization for Economic Cooperation, Development Locations: Morocco, Marrakesh, Ait Chari, Massachusetts, Seattle, San Francisco, ” Morocco, Agadir, ”, Taroudant

As the death toll from the powerful earthquake in Morocco rose on Saturday, questions mounted about the vulnerability of buildings in the seismically active North African country. Moroccan architects said that the hardest-hit areas were rural zones with many earthen houses that were unable to withstand the shaking. “Given the state of the buildings in the country, this death toll was kind of expected,” said Anass Amazirh, an architect in the northern city of Casablanca. Image Rescue workers searching for survivors in a collapsed house in Moulay Brahim, in Morocco’s Al Haouz Province, on Saturday. “These more extreme risks occur regularly in other countries,” the report said, “and Morocco cannot avoid taking them into account.”

Persons: “, ”, Anass Amazirh, Omar Farkhani, Fadel Senna, Mr, Farkhani, Al Hoceima, Al, Haouz, Amazirh Organizations: Morocco’s, of Architects, ., Agence France, Moroccan, Organization for Economic Cooperation, Development Locations: Marrakesh, Morocco, Moroccan, Casablanca, Al Haouz, Moulay Brahim, Morocco’s Al Haouz Province, Al, Al Hoceima, “

Residents of Morocco who experienced the earthquake firsthand said that confusion had quickly turned into chaos when their walls started shaking and objects started crashing to the ground. In Amizmiz, a town about 30 miles southwest of Marrakesh that is near the epicenter, Yasmina Bennani was about to go to sleep on Friday night when she heard a loud noise. “I felt terrorized,” said Ms. Bennani, 38, a journalist who, like many people in the area, lives in a house made of clay bricks. “It didn’t last long but felt like years,” Ms. Bennani said. “The adrenaline took over,” Mr. Kourkouz told BFMTV.

Persons: Bennani, ”, ” Ms, “, “ Mustapha, Hassan, Ilhem, Maftouh, ” Yacine, France’s, Mr, Kourkouz, BFMTV, ” Raja Bouri, Ms, Bouri Locations: Marrakesh, Saturday, Morocco, Moroccan, Agadir

The quake had a magnitude of 6.8 and a depth of about 11 miles, the United States Geological Survey said in a preliminary report. Here’s what to know about the earthquake: The United States Geological Survey said it was the strongest quake to hit the area in more than 100 years. The epicenter of the earthquake was just over 30 miles west of Oukaimeden, a popular Moroccan ski resort, the U.S.G.S. As of early morning local time, the full extent of the casualties and damages was not known. The deadliest and most destructive earthquake in Morocco’s recent history was 5.8 magnitude and killed about 12,000 people in 1960.

Organizations: Morocco, Ministry, United States Geological Survey, UNESCO, Heritage, Reuters Locations: Marrakesh, Oukaimeden, Moroccan

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated its magnitude at 6.8, but the Moroccan geological institute put it at 7.2. That would make it more than twice as large, according to the logarithmic scale on which earthquakes are measured. The U.S. agency said local estimates can often be more accurate, but initial readings of magnitude are measured automatically and need to be reviewed by seismologists. But it was clear that the scope of the catastrophe was extensive, with the rural provinces outside of Marrakesh the hardest hit. Moroccan architects say the area near the epicenter has many earthen houses that are not built to withstand an earthquake of this strength.

Persons: Omar Farkhani Organizations: Geological Survey, seismologists, United Nations ’ Office, Humanitarian Affairs, UNESCO, of Architects Locations: U.S, Moroccan, Marrakesh, Marrakesh’s Medina

☆ Top French Court Upholds Abaya Ban in Schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Aurelien Breeden | More About Aurelien Breeden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A top court in France on Thursday upheld a new government decree barring children in public schools from wearing the abaya, a loosefitting, full-length robe worn by some Muslim women, in a blow to critics who had called the ban discriminatory and had filed an emergency petition to strike it down. The Council of State, France’s top administrative court, which has jurisdiction over disputes concerning civil liberties, ruled that the ban was not a “serious and obviously illegal infringement of a fundamental freedom.”Wearing an abaya is part of a “logic of religious affirmation,” the court said in a statement, adding that the ban was therefore in line with a French law that “prohibits the wearing by pupils of signs or clothing ostensibly expressing religious affiliation, either in and of themselves, or because of the pupil’s behavior.”Since 2004, students have not been able to wear “ostentatious” symbols that have a clear religious meaning, like Catholic crosses, Jewish skullcaps or Muslim head scarves, in middle and high schools.

Persons: ” Organizations: of State Locations: France

For over six years, President Emmanuel Macron has struggled to convince the French that he is a man of dialogue. He went on a countrywide listening tour to calm the storms of the Yellow Vest uprising, convened a citizen convention on climate policy, and created a council of politicians and members of civil society to discuss France’s most pressing issues. But he has generally remained a top-down leader, one who listens before deciding but rarely talks of compromise. Now, more isolated, he is trying political outreach. It looked like a pre-emptive strike aimed at heading off a potentially turbulent “rentrée” — the post-vacation convergence on Paris often marked by resentments reignited after a spell of downtime.

Persons: Emmanuel Macron, aloofness, Macron, resentments Locations: France, Paris

☆ France to Ban Full-Length Muslim Robes in Public Schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Aurelien Breeden | More About Aurelien Breeden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

France will bar children in public schools from wearing the abaya, a loosefitting, full-length robe worn by some Muslim women, the government said this week. But critics called the ban a discriminatory policing of teenagers’ clothing, fueling yet another debate in France over the way Muslim women dress, which has become a recurring flashpoint in the country’s relations with its Muslim minority. Since 2004, middle and high-school students in France have been barred from wearing “ostentatious” symbols that have a clear religious meaning, like a Catholic cross, a Jewish skullcap or a Muslim head scarf. Since 2011, it has also been illegal to wear a face-covering veil in public in France. While it is popular in the Gulf and in some Arab countries, it does not have a clear religious significance.

Persons: — Locations: France

Sitting in a park in Zaragoza, a city in northeastern Spain, Jorge Jiménez, 41, was trying to enjoy a day off from his job as a municipal garbage collector. But the heat was making it difficult. “We get very hot these days,” Mr. Jiménez said. Large areas of southern Europe baked under extreme temperatures on Thursday, the latest in a string of heat waves that have scorched the continent over the summer and sent residents and tourists scrambling for cool shelter. Temperatures in some cities were not as high but still far above the norm for so late in the summer.

Persons: Jorge Jiménez, ” Mr, Jiménez, “ Locations: Zaragoza, Spain, Europe

☆ Jean-Louis Georgelin, Face of the Notre-Dame Reconstruction, Dies at 74
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Aurelien Breeden | More About Aurelien Breeden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Jean-Louis Georgelin, the French general who was placed in charge of rebuilding Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris after a devastating fire in 2019, has died. “The nation has lost one of its greatest soldiers,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Saturday. “France, one of its great servants. And Notre-Dame, the architect of its rebirth.”General Georgelin, a former army chief of staff whom Mr. Macron had chosen to lead the restoration project, was hiking in the Pyrénées in southwestern France on Friday when an accident most likely occurred, according to French news reports. The prosecutor’s office told the French news media that the police had found a body and formally identified it as the general’s, but the exact circumstances were not immediately clear.

Persons: Jean, Louis Georgelin, Emmanuel Macron, Georgelin, Macron Organizations: Notre, Dame Cathedral, “, Dame Locations: Paris, “ France, France

☆ Macron’s Lesson After Riots? France Needs Order ‘at Every Level’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Aurelien Breeden | More About Aurelien Breeden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But his plan for normalcy was overshadowed by violent rioting this month after the fatal police shooting of a teenager. “The lesson I’ve drawn is, first, order, order, order,” Mr. Macron told the TF1 and France 2 television channels from New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific — the first of several stops on a trip to Oceania this week. The officer who fired the fatal shot has been charged with voluntary homicide and detained. Thousands of cars were burned and hundreds of buildings were damaged, including schools, police stations and town halls. The unrest lasted less than a week but was rooted in deeply seated anger and mistrust toward the police in France’s poorer, minority-dominated urban enclaves.

Persons: Emmanuel Macron, Mr, Macron, Macron’s, Nahel Merzouk Organizations: TF1, Pacific Locations: France, New Caledonia, Oceania, French, North, Paris

Guilhem Gallart used to speak with a thick, southern French accent, his voice deep and slightly nasal, topped by a faint lisp. Now, his family jokes with him that he sounds like a GPS device. His wife and two daughters, Mr. Gallart said, sometimes call his old cellphone number just to hear his voice mail greeting. Losing his distinctive voice, he said, has felt like surrendering an essential part of himself, as sound has been his life’s passion. Better known as Pone, he is a music producer and beatmaker who once belonged to one of France’s most popular old-school rap groups, the Fonky Family.

Persons: Guilhem Gallart, Gallart, beatmaker

The United States appears to be on the verge of providing Ukraine with cluster munitions, a senior Biden administration official said. What are cluster munitions? “There’s just not a responsible way to use cluster munitions,” said Brian Castner, the weapons expert on Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Team. The New York Times has documented Russia’s extensive use of cluster munitions in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022. The Convention on Cluster Munitions also limits the ability of nations that have signed on to cooperate militarily with countries that employ them.

Persons: Laura Cooper, “ There’s, ”, Brian Castner, Castner, “, Ukraine —, Jerry Redfern, Mary Wareham, Cooper, Biden, Gabriela Rosa Hernández, David Guttenfelder, Oleksandr Kubrakov, ” Eric Schmitt, John Ismay, Gaya Gupta Organizations: Biden, Washington, U.S, Pentagon, National Public Radio, United Nations, Amnesty, Cluster Munitions, Getty, The New York Times, The Times, Human Rights Watch, NATO, Ukraine, Munitions, Arms Control, Ukraine’s, Brigade, ., Munich Security Locations: States, Ukraine, Kyiv, Russia, Eurasia, Tibnin, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Balkans, Laos, U.S, United, United States, LightRocket, Russian, Kramatorsk, Ukrainian

☆ Unrest in France Eases Nearly a Week After Fatal Police Shooting
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Aurelien Breeden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The violent protests and unrest that spread across France after the fatal police shooting of a teenager last week diminished significantly overnight, the authorities said on Monday. Still, as a reminder that tensions remain high, French mayors called for peaceful gatherings around the country to protest a spate of violent attacks on elected officials. Nearly 160 people were arrested and three law enforcement officers were injured overnight, the Interior Ministry said on Monday morning, far fewer than in previous days, when as many as 1,300 people were taken into custody. “When you arrest 3,200 people, when the courts put people on trial, when you put on a show of republican force — a fair order, but an order nonetheless — I think that has largely contributed to this return to calm,” Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, told reporters in Reims on Monday.

Persons: “, Gérald Darmanin Organizations: Interior Ministry Locations: France, Reims

☆ Over 600 Arrested in France After Another Night of Unrest
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Aurelien Breeden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More than 600 people were arrested in France in a third night of unrest that has rocked cities around the country since a police officer fatally shot a 17-year-old driver this week, the authorities said on Friday, with decades-long complaints about police violence and persistent feelings of neglect and racial discrimination in France’s poorer urban suburbs adding fuel to the protests. President Emmanuel Macron, who was at a European Union summit in Brussels, took the rare step of leaving before the end to attend a crisis meeting in Paris. It was his second this week as the government struggles to contain the anger unleashed by the killing, which took place during a traffic stop in Nanterre, west of Paris, on Tuesday. The officer who fired the shot has been placed under formal investigation on charges of voluntary homicide and detained — a rare step in criminal cases involving police officers. But the swift charges against the officer appeared to have done little to calm tensions, with many of the protesters identifying with the teenager, a French citizen of North African descent who has been publicly identified only as Nahel M.Overnight, protesters burned cars, damaged public buildings, looted stores and clashed with riot police officers in Nanterre and dozens of cities around France.

Persons: Emmanuel Macron, — Locations: France, Brussels, Paris, Nanterre, French, North

☆ What’s behind the unrest in France?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Emma Bubola | Aurelien Breeden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

About 180 people were arrested and 170 officers were injured, France’s interior minister said. The unrest was in response to the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old by a police officer in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris, on Tuesday. On Tuesday morning, a police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old boy, who has been identified only as Nahel M., while the teenager was driving. The prosecutor in Nanterre said Nahel was driving in a bus lane and, when officers tried to stop him, drove through a red light to get away. He was killed by a single shot that went through his left arm and chest, the prosecutor said.

Persons: Nahel Organizations: Mercedes Locations: Nanterre, Paris

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