EL PAÍS

Man charged in France with filming the abuse and rape of over 30 children aged 3 to 9

Raquel Villaécija — Fri, 01 May 2026 06:57:37 +0000

A 40-year-old man with no prior criminal record and a father of two has been formally charged with raping and sexually abusing 34 children between the ages of three and nine between 2020 and 2024 in Lucenay, a town of just over 2,000 inhabitants near Lyon, France. He filmed and photographed the victims, who were his children’s schoolmates, and committed the acts when the children came to his house to play with his children during so-called “sleepovers.”

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ICE detains 86-year-old French woman three months after her American husband died

Raquel Villaécija — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:41:48 +0000

The story of 86-year-old Frenchwoman Marie-Thérèse Ross is extraordinary. It began with an American pilot; a childhood sweetheart whom she married a year ago, 60 years after meeting him. Now, however, things have taken a turn for the worse, as the elderly woman finds herself in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, three months after becoming a widow.

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France brings its ‘monsters’ to justice

Raquel Villaécija — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:06:54 +0000

The French prosecutor’s office recently revealed a significant investigation it has been working on for years: the case of Jacques Leveugle, a 79-year-old man who, over half a century, sexually assaulted at least 89 minors whom he taught. The case is abhorrent but not unprecedented, as just a year ago, Joël Le Scouarnec, a respected surgeon, was tried for abusing 299 patients, most of them minors, also over the course of decades. This came shortly after the most high-profile sexual violence trial in French history, that of Dominique Pelicot, who drugged his wife, Gisèle Pelicot, so that she could be raped by at least 50 men while she was unconscious.

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Grief and unanswered questions surround Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana after fire that left 40 dead

Raquel Villaécija — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:13:46 +0000

It was New Year’s Eve and the music was still playing when the ceiling of the ground floor of the venue caught fire. People started recording with their cell phones until someone shouted, “This place is on fire, we have to get out fast!” Then came the screams, different from those of minutes earlier and not captured by the cameras. And chaos. The fire department received the alarm at 1:30 a.m. They arrived quickly, but it was too late.

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Ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy begins prison term

Raquel Villaécija — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 10:07:05 +0000

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy became the first post-war former head of state to cross the threshold of a penitentiary on Tuesday to serve a sentence behind bars. He entered the Santé prison in Paris and hopes to be released as soon as possible, as he will most likely request parole quickly. He has already appealed the September 25 sentence, which handed down five years for criminal conspiracy in a case investigating the illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

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The keys to the Louvre heist: Seven minutes, four thieves and an electric ladder to access the Crown Jewels

Raquel Villaécija — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 10:05:46 +0000

The robbery suffered this Sunday at the Louvre Museum is already being described as the theft of the century, a heist straight out of a movie. The value of the stolen pieces is difficult to calculate, because they are part of France’s history. The attackers breached the security of the world’s most visited museum, carried out the robbery in seven minutes, and fled on high-powered motorcycles.

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The battle to stop the US from destroying contraceptives for Africa is being fought in Belgium and France

Silvia Ayuso , Raquel Villaécija — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 10:57:36 +0000

The first alarm was raised at the end of July: several humanitarian and family planning NGOs denounced the Trump administration’s intention to imminently destroy a major shipment of contraceptives. USAID, the U.S. aid agency, was storing them in Belgium, awaiting distribution to humanitarian missions, mostly in Africa. The operation, along with the contraceptives, was left in limbo when the U.S. government decided to dismantle its well-regarded development agency — a move that, according to the scientific journal The Lancet, could lead to as many as 14 million preventable deaths by 2030.

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Is it right wing to have air conditioning? In France, it is

Raquel Villaécija — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 09:48:34 +0000

In a politically polarized France, where every issue quickly sparks heated debate, a new point of division has emerged these days: air conditioning. The country, experiencing its second heat wave of the summer this week with temperatures exceeding 42°C (108°F), has traditionally been reluctant to embrace air conditioning due to energy costs and environmental impact. However, increasingly frequent heat waves are breaking down this resistance.

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From Mont Blanc to Rome: Heat waves are suffocating Europe

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 15:02:56 +0000

With a stubborn heat wave gripping much of the continent, Europe is sweltering. From the peaks of Mont Blanc in France to the scorched slopes of Vesuvius in southern Italy, extreme temperatures are causing deaths from heatstroke — such as that of an agricultural worker this Tuesday in Lleida — and are fueling wildfires in Spain, Portugal, the Balkans, and Turkey. Northern countries like Germany, unaccustomed to forecasts of 38°C (100°F) and 39°C (102°F) in the coming days, are not spared, nor is the United Kingdom, now experiencing its fourth heat wave of the summer.

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Luxury isn’t what it used to be: What’s happening to the world’s most exclusive brands?

Raquel Villaécija — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 04:00:00 +0000

For the first time in a long time, the luxury sector is experiencing a period of uncertainty. After the boom of recent decades and the significant growth peak it experienced during the pandemic, it is now going through what some experts describe as a period of stabilization, others as a period of regression, or even, the most pessimistic, as a burst bubble. The decline in consumption in China, the main engine of growth, has weighed down the world’s leading brands, led by France and Italy. Economic uncertainty, now exacerbated by Donald Trump’s tariff war, is another factor, while inflation and rising prices have further shaken demand.

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Will opening new bistrots revitalize France’s dying countryside?

Raquel Villaécija — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 13:09:18 +0000

In France, there are 20,000 villages without a single store, not even a bar, which “are often the last survivors” in the gradual emptying out of the countryside, explains Guillaume Kasbarian, the member of the National Assembly who sponsored a bill seeking to streamline the procedures for obtaining a license to open a bistrot or café in communities with fewer than 3,500 residents and almost no services.

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