Event: Cologne

Animal rights campaigners are gearing up for protests and petitions aimed at persuading the French government to ban the hunting of Alpine marmots.Open season on the rodents, members of the squirrel and groundhog family, begins in September, a few weeks before they go into a long winter hibernation.Although the marmot is not a threatened species in France, its numbers are reportedly declining as a result of the climate emergency. Campaigners say they are opposed to them being hunted for fun.Pauline di Nicolantonio, the president of the Association for Justice for Savoie Animals (AJAS), which has launched protests against marmot hunting for the last two years, said: “The question is a moral one.“When you tell people that hunting marmots is allowed in France, they are shocked. The marmot is extremely popular and symbolic in the Savoie where we are based and elsewhere in the Alps. You only have to go into any tourist office to see it’s the main logo or emblem.”Plant-eating marmots are spread across mountainous areas of Europe and North America. Most live in family groups organised by one dominant couple; when threatened they emit a high-pitched signal. In late summer and into autumn their bodies swell to up to 8kg as they stock up on food for a five- to six-month hibernation.There are 15 marmot species in the world and as wild game they were traditionally hunted for their meat, fat and fur. Today, hunting is allowed in certain states in the US and Canada, and in France, Switzerland and Austria but banned in Italy and Germany. An average of 1,000 marmots are shot in France each year.For generations of French children the marmot has been celebrated as the subject of folk tales and poems – one by Goethe set to music by Beethoven – the mascot of…

A taboo-breaking book about Vladimir Putin’s rise to power and private life, written by two exiled Russian journalists, won a newly established French literary prize on Tuesday.The book, titled The Tsar in Propria Persona: How Vladimir Putin Deceived Us All, draws on more than two decades of investigative reporting by journalists Roman Badanin and Mikhail Rubin.The work won a newly established literary award called the Prix Strasbourg awarded by EBRA, France’s largest regional newspaper group, and its parent company, Credit Mutuel Alliance Federale.The book is due to be published in France next month.It reads “like a spy novel”, the jury said, describing the book as a “fascinating and shocking work about a figure who is himself fascinating and shocking”.“It is the result of several hundred interviews with witnesses, some of whom later disappeared under tragic circumstances.”Badanin is the founder and editor-in-chief of Proekt, an investigative media outlet created in 2018.

A "Dragon Ball" figure at Gamescom 2024, a computer and video game industry event, in Cologne, Germany, in August 2024. | REUTERS Paris – France and Saudi Arabia on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding for a €6 billion ($7-billion) Saudi investment to create three theme parks near Paris, including one expected to be themed on the “Dragon Ball” series, the office of the French president has said.The agreement for the “colossal” project was signed during a two-day visit to France by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said the office of French President Emmanuel Macron.The investment will see the construction of three theme parks near Cergy-Pontoise, around 30 kilometers northwest of Paris, it said. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. SUBSCRIBE NOW