Free Republic

New Caledonia must not become the “Wild West” declared Emmanuel Macron last week during his flying visit to the Pacific island. For two weeks the indigenous people, the Kanaks, have been in revolt against a voting reform they believe will marginalize them. The French president’s visit achieved little. Not long after Macron’s departure an insurgent was shot dead by police. Seven people have been killed in the unrest and the material damage is estimated at more than one billion euros. It is not only France’s overseas territory that is in danger of resembling the Wild West. Mayhem has become a...

Imagine a world with affordable, clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, and decent work and economic growth for all. That is the world the United Nations imagined when it defined the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development with “the desire to create a future where there is no poverty, the planet is protected, and all the people enjoy peace and prosperity.” But the reality is, that world can’t exist without the equal participation, and leadership, of women—as business and political leaders, investors, and contributors to the global economy.

This time it’s Paris that will show solidarity with the victims of a terror attack elsewhere in the world. The Eiffel Tower will be lit up in the rainbow colors of the gay flag in solidarity with the victims of the shootings in Orlando, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted. The City Hall also raised the Stars and Stripes and the rainbow flag on Monday, with Hidalgo expressing her “compassion, solidarity and affection” for the American people after the massacre. …

A leading French politician described London as a ‘suburb of Paris’ today as the two cities continued a war of words over which is the most popular in the world. Anne Hidalgo, who until recently was President Francois Hollande’s Socialist culture minister before running for mayor of the French capital, said there was more crime in the English capital, less entrepreneurial businesses starting up, and fewer foreign visitors. But she did concede that there was more dog waste on Paris pavements, and that notoriously rude Parisians 'should be kinder'. UK-based tourist agency Visit Britain claimed London broke the 16-million visitor...