France

A man with an arm injury and in need of urgent medical care, right, waves to fellow migrants before he is flown by helicopter by the French Army from the Ocean Viking rescue ship on Thursday. French authorities evacuated several migrants from the ship ahead of the ship docking in Toulon on Friday.

World News

France accepts a migrant rescue ship as relations sour with Italy

4:23pm November 11, 2022

by Eleanor Beardsley

France allowed the Ocean Viking humanitarian ship to dock in the port of Toulon on Friday, after Italy's new far-right government refused to accept it. More than 200 migrants were aboard the ship.

Augustin Laborde, owner of Le Paon Qui Boit, at his shop in Paris on Aug. 26.

A Paris shop gets in on the non-alcoholic wine trend. Will the French drink it?

7:00am September 03, 2022

by Rebecca Rosman

French producers are making zero-proof wines now, and a new store in the capital wants to get in on the action. But market analysts say the drink has been slower to catch on in France than in the U.S.

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People walk near Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on the day a new law to save energy nationwide goes into effect on Thursday. The new law includes a wide variety of temporary measures, like banning the illumination of landmarks and regulating temperatures in pu

Russia's effort to break European energy unity seems to be failing — at least for now

5:00am September 02, 2022

by Eleanor Beardsley

One of the intended outcomes of Russia's war in Ukraine is to dissolve European unity on energy policy, analysts say, but the unity is so far holding firm.

The Beluga whale swims in the lock of Notre Dame de la Garenne in Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, west of Paris, France, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. During Wednesday's rescue operation, the dangerously thin animal began to have breathing difficulties, and experts dec

Stranded whale dies after a rescue operation to remove it from a French river

6:30am August 10, 2022

by The Associated Press

A veterinarian said that during the rescue operation, the dangerously thin white mammal began to have breathing difficulties, and so experts decided to humanely euthanize the creature.

A firefighter cries Sunday near a wildfire in the Losacio area in northwestern Spain. Firefighters battled wildfires raging out of control in Spain and France as Europe wilted under an unusually extreme heat wave that authorities in Madrid blamed for hund

Heat torches Southern Europe, killing hundreds

9:58pm July 18, 2022

by The Associated Press

Ferocious wildfires are burning in Spain and France, which evacuated thousands of people and scrambled water-bombing planes and firefighters. Officials and scientists cited climate change as a factor.

This photo provided by the fire brigade of the Gironde region shows firefighters battling a wildfire on Thursday near Landiras, in southwestern France.

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Fires ravage French forests and other parts of Europe in the middle of a heat wave

3:11pm July 15, 2022

by The Associated Press

Challenged by high temperatures and strong winds, 1,000 firefighters and 10 water-dumping planes struggled Friday to contain wildfires in the Bordeaux region of southwestern France.

Yaël Braun-Pivet, a member of the centrist alliance Ensemble (Together) smiles at the National Assembly, Tuesday, June 28, 2022 in Paris.

The first woman speaker of France's parliament defends the right to abortion

11:40pm June 28, 2022

by The Associated Press

The National Assembly elects Yael Braun-Pivet as speaker as it prepares to tackle proposals on fighting inflation and enshrining abortion rights in the French Constitution.

A burkini (right) and a culotte swimmer (center) are on display in the Cherchez la Femme (Look for the Woman) exhibition in the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, on March 30, 2017.

A French city approved burkinis in its pools. Then the backlash came

6:15pm June 19, 2022

by Eleanor Beardsley

The city of Grenoble's move to allow the full body-covering swimsuit for Islamic women has sparked a legal battle. Activists say it's a matter of civil — and women's — rights.

A child plays in a fountain in the warm weather in London, Friday, June 17, 2022. A blanket of hot air stretching from the Mediterranean to the North Sea is giving much of western Europe its first heat wave of the summer, with temperatures forecast to top

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Europe wilts under early heat wave from Med to North Sea

7:19am June 18, 2022

by The Associated Press

A blanket of hot air stretching from the Mediterranean to the North Sea is bringing much of Western Europe its first heat wave of the summer.

From left, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, France's President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday. The French, Ge

World News

Russia-Ukraine war: What happened today (June 16)

4:59pm June 16, 2022

by NPR Staff

A roundup of key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.