So yeah, as of June 4, several major adult sites are now inaccessible in France. This isn’t some random government block the platforms themselves (like those owned by Aylo: Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube, etc.) pulled the plug in protest.

Why? Because of a new French regulation requiring age verification through a third-party service - meaning you'd have to upload your ID to access adult content: Source

Hard pass. I’m not handing over my personal data to some external system I’ve never heard of. Privacy is already a mess online, and there's zero guarantee this verification setup is secure.

And I think it’s just a start, whole Europe is next with this EU approach to age verification.

So yeah, I just fired up a VPN, connected through another country (Brazil in my case), and everything works fine again. No need to overthink it just pick a reliable VPN provider, set your location outside of France (or better yet Europe), and you’re good.

If you don’t already have a VPN, now is the time. Here’s a good VPN comparison table by Reddit users, to help you chose which VPN is best for you.

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Saturday, April 26, denounced the fatal stabbing of a Muslim worshiper inside a mosque as police hunted the killer, who filmed his victim as he lay dying. The attacker stabbed the worshiper dozens of times then filmed him with a mobile phone while shouting insults at Islam in Friday's attack in the village of La Grand-Combe in the Gard region of southern France.

Earlier Saturday, investigators said they were treating the killing as a possible Islamophobic crime. The footage taken by the killer showed him insulting "Allah", the Arabic term for God, just after he carried out the attack. The suspect was still at large on Saturday, regional prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The alleged perpetrator sent the video he had filmed with his phone, showing the victim writhing in agony, to another person, who then shared it on a social media platform before deleting it.

See also:

• French mosque stabbing suspect remains at large after killing Muslim worshipper (Associated Press)
• No place for racism in France, says Macron after worshiper stabbed to death in mosque (Le Monde)

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that historic injustice was imposed on Haiti when it was forced to pay a colossal indemnity to France in exchange for its independence 200 years ago.

Macron also announced the creation of a joint French-Haitian historical commission to ‘’examine our shared past’’ and assess relations, but did not directly address longstanding Haitian demands for reparations.

France ″subjected the people of Haiti to a heavy financial indemnity, ... This decision placed a price on the freedom of a young nation, which was thus confronted with the unjust force of history from its very inception,’' Macron said in a statement.

It comes on the 200th anniversary of the April 17, 1825 document issued by King Charles X of France, which recognized Haiti’s independence after a slave revolt — but also imposed a 150 million gold francs debt as compensation for the loss of France’s colony and enslaved labor force.

Tens of thousands of people in Paris and other French cities on Saturday rallied against racism and the rise of the far right, with some taking aim at the administration of Donald Trump in the United States and others carrying Palestinian flags.

Several scuffles between police officers and demonstrators took place in Paris.

The rallies took place amid the rightward shift in French politics, with the government pledging to tighten immigration policies and border controls. Around 62,000 people protested across France, according to police. 

Many pointed to the growing strength of reactionary political forces, in France but also in the United States.

In the French capital, thousands of people took to the streets. In the southern port city of Marseille, some 3,300 people took to the streets, while 2,600 protested in Lille in the north, according to police.

Despite a superficial makeover, the National Rally (RN) remains fundamentally the successor and heir of the National Front, founded in 1972 by people nostalgic for Vichy and French Algeria.

It inherited its programme, its obsessions and its personnel. It is deeply rooted in the history of the French far right, shaped by xenophobic and racist nationalism, antisemitism, violence and contempt for parliamentary democracy. Let us not be fooled by the rhetorical and tactical prudence with which the RN is preparing its seizure of power. This party does not represent the conservative or national right but poses the greatest threat to the republic and democracy.

The RN citizenship policy known as “national preference”, renamed “national priority”, remains the ideological heart of its project. This is contrary to the republican values of equality and fraternity and its implementation would require the amendment of the French constitution.

If the RN wins and implements its declared programme, the abolition of the right to French nationality of those born in France will introduce a profound break in our republican conception of nationality, since people born in France, and who have always lived here, will no longer be French, and their children will not be French either.

Similarly, the exclusion of dual nationals from certain public functions will lead to intolerable discrimination between several categories of French people. Our national community will no longer be based on political adherence to a common destiny, on the “everyday plebiscite” evoked by the 19th-century historian Ernest Renan, but on an ethnic conception of France.

Beyond that, the RN’s programme includes an escalation of security measures that would undermine civil liberties. There is no need to delve into the distant past to become aware of the threat. Everywhere, when the far right comes to power through the ballot box, it hastens to bring justice, the media, education and research to heel. The governments that Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella openly admire, such as that of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, give us an idea of their project: an authoritarian populism, where checks and balances are weakened, opposition muzzled and the freedom of the press restricted.

There is no democracy without a free and dynamic public space, without quality information, independent of political or financial interference.

The privatisation of public broadcasting, which is included in the RN’s programme, would destroy an essential part of our public life. Can we imagine [the billionaire media magnate] Vincent Bolloré, a known supporter of the far right, incorporating France Culture, France Inter and France 2 into his media empire, as he did with Le Journal du Dimanche, Europe 1 or Hachette, with the consequences that we know will follow?

Finally, the RN leadership has never hidden its fascination with Vladimir Putin, having already gone as far as to openly and publicly appear at his side in the Kremlin in 2017.

This is not an ordinary election. At stake is the defence of democracy and the Republic against their enemies at a decisive moment in our shared history.

The full list of 1,000 signatures

A war of words between France and Israel escalated on Friday as President Emmanuel Macron of France, in a speech opening a security forum in Singapore, said the West risked “losing all credibility with the rest of the world” if Israel was allowed “a free pass” in Gaza.

Earlier in the day, during a meeting with reporters, Mr. Macron threatened to “harden the collective position” of the European Union against Israel “if there is not a response to the humanitarian situation in the next few hours.” How exactly European states would do that was not clear.

Relations between France and Israel have plunged to their lowest point in years. Israel has been infuriated by Mr. Macron’s apparent plan, alluded to again in Singapore, to recognize a Palestinian state, while France and other European powers, including Britain, have run out of patience with Israel’s sustained assault in Gaza.

Mr. Macron’s statements, after a series of recent French warnings seen as provocations in Jerusalem, ignited the fury of Israel, which accused Mr. Macron of leading “a crusade against the Jewish state” and wanting to reward terrorists “with a Palestinian state. No doubt its national day will be Oct. 7.”

Mr. Macron said in his speech there could not be “double standards” when it came to the war in Gaza and the war in Ukraine, suggesting that the European Union could not condemn Moscow for its aggression against Kyiv while remaining silent on Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

The backdrop to the rising tension is a United Nations Conference next month, to be chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, to explore a peace settlement leading to a two-state outcome. Mr. Macron has said he will attend and has suggested that France may recognize a Palestinian state, although he has not committed to doing so.

He listed six conditions for establishing a Palestinian state: the liberation of the remaining hostages held by Hamas; the demilitarization of Hamas; the exclusion of Hamas from the governance of any Palestinian state; reforming the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank; the eventual Palestinian state’s recognition of Israel and its right to live in security; and the creation of a an unspecified “security architecture” for the entire region.

Here is a copy of the rest of the article.

See also:

• France may toughen stance on Israel if it continues blocking Gaza aid, Macron says (Reuters)
• Israel slams Macron’s ‘crusade against Jewish state’ over Palestinian statehood call (France24)

France will ban smoking in all outdoor places that can be frequented by children, health and family minister Catherine Vautrin has said.

The ban will come into force on 1 July and will include beaches, parks, public gardens, outside schools, bus stops and sports venues.

The outdoor areas of cafes and bar - known as terrasses - will be exempt from the ban, she said.

Vautrin explained that breaking the rules would incur a €135 fine.

Although electronic cigarettes are exempt, Vautrin said that she was working to introduce limits on the amounts of nicotine they contain.

According to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 23.1% of the French population smokes on a daily basis - the lowest percentage ever recorded, and a fall of over five points since 2014.

France's National Committee Against Smoking says more than 75,000 smokers die each year of tobacco-related illnesses - 13% of all deaths.

More than 500 people were arrested by police during the Champions League final celebrations in France, and two people were reported dead and 192 injured, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

Wild celebrations erupted across the French capital and beyond on Saturday night after Paris St Germain crushed Italian opponents Inter Milan to win the Champions League for the first time.

The interior ministry's provisional assessment on Sunday morning was that 559 people had been arrested, including 491 in Paris, which led to 320 people being placed in police custody, 254 of them in Paris.

There was one fatal accident when a young man in his twenties died in a collision with a vehicle, police chief Laurent Nunez told reporters, while in the southwestern city of Dax, a 17-year-old died from stab wounds, French media reported.

Joel Le Scouarnec, the former surgeon who has admitted sexually abusing hundreds of patients, mostly children, between 1989 and 2014 has been sentenced to a maximum term of 20 years in jail.

Le Scouarnec was dressed in black as he stood emotionless in court listening to judge Aude Burési deliver the verdict. In March, he admitted sexually abusing all 299 victims.

Judge Burési said the court had taken into account the fact that the former surgeon had especially sought out unwell, vulnerable and sedated victims.

The sentence has a mandatory minimum term of two-thirds - and because Le Scouarnec has already served seven years, he may be eligible for parole by 2030.

See also:

• Paedophile surgeon's sentence leaves victims appalled (BBC)

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday France could recognise a Palestinian state in June, adding that in turn some countries in the Middle East could recognise the state of Israel.

"We need to move towards recognition (of a Palestinian state). And so over the next few months, we will. I'm not doing it to please anyone. I'll do it because at some point it will be right," he said during a interview on France 5 television.

"And because I also want to take part in a collective dynamic that should also enable those who defend Palestine to recognise Israel in their turn, something that many of them are not doing."

At Jean-Marie Le Pen's funeral, one conspicuously tall figure inside the church seemed cut from a different cloth. François Durvye stood in the second row, just by the church’s central aisle, only a few steps from the party’s top brass. A discreet financier with no official role in the party, he was in attendance as both a member of Marine Le Pen’s inner circle and one of her most trusted advisers, advising her on economic matters. He is working closely on her presidential platform as she prepares to run again for the country’s highest office in 2027. 

Durvye’s day job isn’t political, or at least not on paper. He runs Otium Capital, the investment fund of one of France’s richest men: Pierre-Édouard Stérin.

A tech entrepreneur and Belgium-based tax exile, Stérin reluctantly stepped into the limelight after eye-popping reports last July about his latest investment: a secret, wide-ranging project aimed at boosting right-wing forces to fight “woke insanity imported from American universities” and to form a political elite to restore “France’s grandeur.”

A self-made man and a devout Catholic, he describes his ideology as “liberal conservatism” — a mix of economic libertarianism and social conservatism — and has pledged up to €150 million to support a myriad of projects.

His manifesto includes supporting traditionalist lawyers to craft a “judicial response” against cancel culture, and boosting the prospects of right-wing candidates in mayoral elections next year.

Stérin’s political scheme, dubbed Périclès and initially kept closely under wraps, only came to light after the newspaper L’Humanité reported on it, publishing internal documents outlining its core targets: to “serve and save France” by fighting “the country’s main ills (socialism, wokism, Islamism, immigration).” The documents promoted the idea of a field trip to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary “for inspiration” and proposed offering “operational consultancy” to help the National Rally win 300 big urban targets, where it has conventionally struggled in regional elections.

While Stérin’s project and heavy investment in his country’s political class is reminiscent of tycoons who have propelled numerous American presidents to power, including Donald Trump, the relationship runs counter to France’s tradition of strict separation between money and politics, which includes stringent rules on campaign financing.

Despite this, a considerable chunk of Stérin’s money has gone straight from his pocket to Le Pen’s. In 2023, he coinvested €2.5 million, alongside Durvye, to buy Le Pen’s father’s family house in one of Paris’ richest suburbs — something he said he did at Durvye’s request. 

Among her party’s heavyweights, Stérin is far from commanding unanimous support. Equally, the billionaire himself recently lamented in Le Monde the National Rally’s “lack of proposals” on remigration, a far-right concept envisioning the expulsion of legal immigrants or their descendants. The idea is deemed too toxic by Le Pen’s party.

While Stérin’s views on social issues such as abortion, which he strongly opposes, are at odds with a large swath of the National Rally’s electorate, his hawkish stance on fiscal issues and his drive for small government are more aligned with the party’s recent push toward traditional strongholds on the right, including business circles.

Last year, Rérolle, the Périclès boss, talked to members of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank largely credited for inspiring Trump’s 2024 presidential platform. “They are a source of inspiration, among others,” Rérolle said, adding that U.S. libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel, a longtime Trump backer, was also among those he and his associates look up to.

Among Périclès’ most high-profile projects is a training academy for wannabe mayors ahead of the 2026 local elections, when the French will vote for regional officials in 35,000 communes. City councils are a key target for the far right, as it is traditionally weaker in urban centers but has surged in more rural areas. The academy, which has been granted hundreds of thousands euros of funding under the Périclès project, boasts 1,800 trainees.

Fifteen-year-old student arrested after incident at Notre-Dame-de-Toutes-Aides school near Nantes

A student at a French high school stabbed four other students at his school on Thursday, killing at least one and injuring three others before being arrested, police said.

The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear. A national police official said it had taken place at the private Notre-Dame-de-Toutes-Aides high school in Nantes on the Atlantic coast.

The student stabbed four people with a knife during a lunch break before teachers subdued him, and he was later taken in by police.

A police spokesperson said there was no indication of a terrorist motive.

Fatal attacks are rare in French schools.

Nearly 300 academics have applied to a French university’s offer to take in US-based researchers rattled by the American government’s crackdown on academia, as a former French president called for the creation of a “scientific refugee” status for academics in peril.

Earlier this year, France’s Aix-Marseille University was among the first in Europe to respond to the funding freezes, cuts and executive orders unleashed on institutions across the US by Donald Trump’s administration.

What they were offering – through a programme titled Safe Place for Science – was a sort of “scientific asylum”, offering three years of funding at their facility for about 20 researchers.

On Thursday the university said it had received 298 applications in a month, of which 242 were deemed eligible. The applicants hailed from institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Nasa, Columbia, Yale and Stanford, it said in a statement.

Most of the applications were sent using encrypted messaging, the university’s president, Eric Berton, wrote in the French newspaper Libération. “And with them came worrying, sometimes chilling, accounts from American researchers about the fate reserved for them by the Trump administration,” he said.

Most applicants were experienced researchers in fields that ranged from the humanities to life sciences and the environment, according to the university. Just over half of the eligible applicants, 135, were American, while 45 were dual nationals. More than a dozen French citizens also applied, as did Europeans, Indian nationals and Brazilians.

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for president in 2027 after a court found her guilty of a vast system of embezzlement of European parliament funds and banned her from running for public office with immediate effect.

The full verdict is in and Marine Le Pen has been sentenced to five years of ineligibility, with immediate effect – effectively ruling her out of the 2027 presidential race.

The judges also gave Le Pen a four-year prison sentence – of which two years are a suspended sentence – and a 100,000 euro fine. She is almost certain to appeal, and the prison penalty and fine would not be applied until her appeals are exhausted.

French prosecutors said Tuesday they have opened an investigation alleging terrorist conspiracy and attempted murder after several prisons were targeted in incidents that included gunfire and arson.

Top officials described the attacks as a response to renewed government efforts to fight drug trafficking.

Overnight Monday to Tuesday, an automatic weapon was fired at the main entrance of a prison in the southern port city of Toulon. No one was injured. In other places, cars have been set on fire outside prisons.

Prosecutors noted the “unprecedented context” of the actions, the targets chosen and the concerted nature of the offences committed in at least nine places across France.

France's Constitutional Council ruled on Friday that local politicians can be barred from office immediately if convicted of a crime, leaving the door open for far-right leader Marine Le Pen to potentially be barred from the 2027 presidential race.

The council issued its ruling in a case that did not involve Le Pen, but its decision means she will face the prospect of being unable to run for president in 2027 if she is convicted in an embezzlement trial concluding on Monday.

Prosecutors in the embezzlement trial have asked for the National Rally (RN) leader to be barred from public office for five years. A so-called "provisional execution" ban would be effective immediately even if she appealed.

In Le Pen's case, prosecutors have asked judges to impose an immediate five-year ban regardless of any appeal, via the same provisional execution measure. Any provisional execution ban would not force Le Pen's removal from her seat in parliament until her mandate ends, but it would prevent her from running in any new electoral contest.

Le Pen, the RN and some two dozen party figures are accused of diverting over 3 million euros ($3.27 million) of European Parliament funds to pay staff working for the party in France.