Europe is facing a new climatic reality. Extreme, long, and historic heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent and are one of the most evident faces of a climate crisis that demands urgent responses. The episode of high temperatures affecting a large part of the continent this June (also in places where it was previously unthinkable) is breaking records in several countries and is the result of global warming caused by human activity and the accumulation of greenhouse gases. And it is no coincidence: Europe is the continent that is warming fastest on the planet and the impacts are already visible on health, agriculture, ecosystems, and water availability.

The image of long queues in front of large appliance stores every day first thing in the morning, before they open, to buy an air conditioner or a fan, best explains the desperation of the French after nine days of a historic, intense and long heatwave, with daytime and nighttime temperatures that have broken all records. Managing to buy an air conditioning unit has become an impossible mission. Stocks have run out.

If there is one thing the G-7 countries agree on, it is that the pact between the United States and Iran to end the conflict could provide a boost for peace in Ukraine. With the war in Iran, that of Ukraine had taken a back seat. But now, with the Middle East conflict on track – albeit with a fragile agreement – the wind is blowing in the right direction. At the summit gathering the seven major world powers – France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States – in the French city of Évian-les-Bains until this Wednesday, the G-7 leaders have united to redouble pressure on Russia to sit down and negotiate peace. "Russia should reach an agreement," warned US President Donald Trump.

Europe and the main world powers have received the peace agreement between the United States and Iran with caution but also with hope. The announcement came just hours before the start of the G-7 summit, which will be held until Wednesday in the French city of Évian-les-Bains, with Lake Geneva as its backdrop, and with the presence of the US President, Donald Trump. "The agreement is an opportunity to restore regional stability and stabilize the world economy," France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan have stated in a joint statement.

More than 6,000 people participated on Sunday in a silent march in Florence, a municipality of just over 6,000 inhabitants located near Toulouse (Occitania). It is the town where Lyhanna, an 11-year-old girl, lived with her parents and brother. The police found her dead last Thursday, allegedly murdered by the father of one of her best friends, a 41-year-old man. The family had reported her missing three days earlier.

Brussels banned the Russian news agency Sputnik and the television station Russia Today, considered instruments of Kremlin disinformation, throughout European territory shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine more than four years ago. But in France, Russian propaganda did not die with that decision by the European Commission. Added to the entire disinformation apparatus operating through social networks is the strange phenomenon of Xenia Fedorova, the journalist who directed Russia Today in France until it had to close.

France, a European country that was a pioneer 25 years ago in recognizing the slave trade and slavery as a crime against humanity, is now opening the door – timidly – to its reparation. The country was one of the main colonizing powers in Africa, the Caribbean, and America, especially between the 17th and 18th centuries, where it promoted slavery. The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has argued this week that the "immense issue" of reparation should not be evaded.

The spectacular figures give an idea of the scope of the problem: the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into 84 nursery schools, 20 primary schools, and 10 nurseries in the French capital due to complaints against monitors and childcare educators, for both sexual abuse and acts of mistreatment (violence, punishments, etc.). The Prosecutor's Office announced this week, coinciding with a strike this Tuesday by educational staff who look after children in schools during non-teaching hours, both during the lunch break and in activities held in the afternoons, when classes have already finished.

A few days after crossing the Pyrenees on foot to flee Francoism, in the middle of February and in the midst of a glacial cold, Montserrat Casals fell ill. She was only three years old. She was transferred alone to a hospital in France while her mother and brother were locked up in Gaillon Castle, in Normandy, and her father was interned in the Barcarès concentration camp. A week later, a nun from the French hospital where Montserrat had been admitted went to the castle with the child in her arms to hand her over to her mother, Rosa. "I bring you your daughter because she is about to die. We can do nothing more," the nun told her. It was 1939.

Spanish strawberries, mostly produced in Huelva, have flooded French supermarkets for decades. Their price is clearly lower than French varieties. But little by little, strawberries produced in France have been gaining ground. According to the sector, for the first time, 50% of this fruit consumed in France has been grown in the country. The rest is imported, mainly from Spain. "It hasn't happened suddenly. Over 15 years, we have gained 10% of the market share from Spanish strawberries. It hasn't been a sudden change," explains Emeline Vanespen, director of the main French association of strawberry producers (AOPn Fraises et Framboises de France).

In full negotiations between the United States and Iran for the end of the conflict, about sixty countries met this Friday in Paris to prepare an international military mission, "strictly defensive" to guarantee navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. It is a mission promoted by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and it is conditioned on a scenario of peace in the region.

The inhabitants of the French village of Hagenbach, with only 800 residents, cannot come to terms with it. In this Alsatian municipality, a father locked his son inside a van parked in front of the family home for almost a year and a half, forcing him to relieve himself in bags and bringing him food only twice a day. He did not go to school, had not showered, nor had he had contact with anyone during all this time. The French gendarmerie rescued him after a complaint last week from a neighbor who had heard a child's voice inside the vehicle. The officers found the boy, who is now nine years old, naked, in a fetal position, and malnourished. He was unable to walk.

At any traffic light in Paris at 8 a.m., a crowd of bicycles gathers in the front row. On some streets, like Rue Rivoli, in front of the Tuileries Garden, the enormous number of bikes at any time of day is surprising. They far exceed the number of cars. The fight against private vehicles and the promotion of sustainable transport methods have been one of the pillars – and, surely, the most visible one – of the twelve years of socialist Anne Hidalgo as mayor of Paris, the first woman to hold the position. "It is essential to transform the city to adapt it to climate change," she argued in the early years of her mandate.

When he had only been in office for a few weeks, the US ambassador in Paris, Charles Kushner, sent a letter to the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, to reproach him that he was not doing enough to curb antisemitic acts in the country. "Not a day goes by in the country without Jews being attacked in the streets, synagogues and schools being desecrated, and Jewish-owned businesses being vandalized," Kushner stated in the rather undiplomatic letter, sent at the end of August last year. Macron had announced just a few days earlier that France would recognize Palestine.

The leader of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, He made no comment on the election results on Sunday night.Only the party president, Jordan Bardella, spoke—very briefly—to celebrate the increase in the number of mayoralties. "It's the biggest gain" in the party's history. "Never before have the RN and its allies held so many elected positions in France," stated Bardella, the party's future presidential candidate if the courts uphold Le Pen's disqualification. Despite his words, neither Bardella's lackluster tone, nor Le Pen's silence, nor the overall atmosphere suggested a night of electoral victory. While the advance of the far right is undeniable, especially in the southeast of the country, the situation remains somewhat different. (Northern Catalonia and Occitania are the new fiefdoms of the RN) And in some northern areas, the majority of the municipalities it has won are in rural areas, in towns or small cities. National Rally only managed to win in one city with more than 100,000 inhabitants, Perpignan, where it already governed. And it secured Nice, where Éric Ciotti, leader of the UDR (Union of the Right), Le Pen's ally, won.

The day after the municipal elections, French socialism lost one of its leading figures. Lionel Jospin, former Socialist prime minister, died on Monday at the age of 88, his family announced. Jospin was Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002 in a coalition government with the conservative Jacques Chirac as President of the Republic, and he was the driving force behind the 35-hour workweek and the recognition of civil partnerships, including same-sex partnerships. A key figure for French socialists in the Fifth Republic, Jospin was among the first to advocate for the unity of left-wing parties to confront the right electorally, an issue that 24 years later remains one of the most current—and controversial—debates within the progressive spectrum. He himself was a victim of vote splitting when, in 2002, he ran for president but was eliminated in the first round by Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen. "We couldn't win the elections with five candidates" from the left, he stated in an interview years later.

The left—despite party divisions—is holding its ground in major cities, while Marine Le Pen's far right has faltered. The French municipal elections have resulted in a map with more far-right mayoralties than ever before, but the National Rally (RN) has not achieved the electoral success it had hoped for. In many municipalities where the far-right candidate had managed to advance to the second round, it ultimately failed to win. The results—still provisional—show that the far right, with some exceptions, is struggling to surpass the 50% threshold and continues to struggle to gain traction in major cities. This is a setback for Le Pen, who had aimed to win in Marseille. According to the initial results, the RN has not won in either Nîmes or Toulon, two cities that were within its reach and which it had expected to win. In large and medium-sized cities, the far right is securing few victories. He retained the mayoralty in Perpignan (Louis Aliot had already won in the first round) and won in Carcassonne and Nice, although the Nice candidate, Éric Ciotti, is not from Marine Le Pen's party, only an ally.

The first round of the municipal elections in FranceThe elections held on Sunday left a good number of city halls within reach of left-wing parties, mainly thanks to the strong showing of the left-wing coalitions—comprised primarily of Socialists and Greens—and the advance of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon's radical left-wing party, which until now had a very strong local presence. However, these positive results could turn into failure in the second and final round, to be held next Sunday. Tensions between La France Insoumise and the other left-wing parties, especially the Socialist Party, could lead to important cities like Paris and Marseille, where the left could govern, falling into the hands of the right or the far right. In a two-round political system, if voters must choose between two left-wing parties in the second round, the progressive vote is split. That's why, in the last legislative elections, the main left-wing parties, including the insubordinate ones, presented joint candidacies under the name of the New Popular Front (NFP). However, this alliance is long since defunct, and the leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, warned this Monday that there will be no national pact with LFI for the second round of the municipal elections, although he is open to local agreements.

The first round of municipal elections held this Sunday in France confirms the advance of the far right. Final results will not be known until next Sunday, but Marine Le Pen's party, the National Rally (RN), has managed to advance to the second round in the vast majority of municipalities where it ran and will compete to win in city halls where it has not yet governed, such as Marseille, France's second-largest city, Nice, and Toulon. "It is a huge victory for our movement," Le Pen declared in a message to X.

The French return to the polls this Sunday to elect their local representatives. France is holding the first round of municipal elections, votes that don't usually carry national weight. However, this time, the proximity of the presidential elections—scheduled for spring 2027—will mean that the results will be interpreted through the lens of national politics. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), a party that has traditionally had a weak local presence, wants the municipal elections to be its springboard to the Élysée Palace. Le Pen and her right-hand man—and likely presidential candidate if she is definitively barred from running—Jordan Bardella, want to translate their strong showing in the recent legislative and European elections into more mayoralties. This won't be easy because the RN's limited local presence means it can't field candidates in a significant number of municipalities. There's an anecdote that perfectly illustrates the situation: Bardella won't be able to vote for a candidate from the party he leads because Garches, the municipality of 17,000 inhabitants where he lives on the outskirts of Paris, doesn't have a candidate from Réagrupament Nacional.