Re: what's going on in france Reply #100 – 2021-05-20, 14:53:03 Quote from: Frenzie on 2021-05-20, 14:02:58I'm not sure if this is news. I don't know the exact specifics, but for reasons I don't quite understand (spite?) the EU decided to mimic the US. That means non-citizens are required to pay $14 for a "visa waiver" that looks and smells an awful lot like a visa.EU and USA fought a few diplomatic battles over this. Post-9/11 USA unilaterally nonsensified the concept of visa freedom and imposed de facto visas on Europeans while still claiming it's visa free travel as usual. EU wanted to keep the standard concept of visa freedom. USA won. Obama kept what W had started, including tapping Merkel's (well, everybody's) phone and going even further, e.g. if the borderguards want to peek into your smartphone but it doesn't turn on, they will deny entry to you. Naturally there was no improvement under Trump. Now EU has begun symmetrifying these measures, making travel suck more for everybody.The Year of the Covid has also helped quite a bit on this. Now there will be no escape from proof of vaccination even when visiting next-door countries.Quote from: Frenzie on 2021-05-20, 14:02:58Edit: alright, I see I commented a bit too quickly. France is certainly going above and beyond there, aren't they. A registered invitation at the town hall? This is why I believe there has to be a misunderstanding. If the tourist is supposed to do it, it is way too similar to regulations on tourists in Russia, and that's too insane to be true. More likely the accommodation provider has to do it, and then it's a tax or administrative fee on French businesses, not on tourists. 1 Likes
Re: what's going on in france Reply #101 – 2021-05-20, 15:38:27 I initially thought so too, but this seems to be more like a fee for being from unfavoured non-EU countries and having the audacity not to be living in a hotel. This list that does not include the UK (post Brexit) or US.Brexit France: Do Britons need attestation d’accueil to visit family?QuoteHowever, The Connexion looked into this issue in its Brexit and beyond guide and found that in a survey of readers, those who were asked for this form only came from a country that requires a Schengen short-stay visa to visit France. This is not the case of the UK.Countries that require such a Schengen short-stay visa include India, Russia, Turkey and South Africa. Countries that do not include the US, Australia, Israel and New Zealand. On the other side of the channel some British border guards seem to be all-in (or -out as the case might be), EU citizens arriving in UK being locked up and expelled 1 Likes
Re: what's going on in france Reply #102 – 2021-05-20, 16:17:49 Reminds me of my first-ever foreign trip when I was still a USSR-ian going to Finland to meet my penpal. They say USSR was a bureaucratic country but the real bureaucracy broke loose when USSR ended. In other news, Estonia's currently brightest diplomat, ambassador to France, OECD and UNESCO, was recalled and will be prosecuted for something that resembles espionage https://epl.delfi.ee/artikkel/93493587/eesti-suursaadik-prantsusmaal-clyde-kull-kutsuti-erakorraliselt-tagasi-alustati-kriminaalmenetlus 1 Likes
Re: what's going on in france Reply #103 – 2021-06-25, 12:32:26 Quote from: Luxor on 2020-09-01, 17:34:33Quote from: ersi on 2020-09-01, 17:50:15Hey, Tour de France is on. Why didn't anybody tell me?I'll try and remember next year.It starts tomorrow @ersi 1 Likes
Re: what's going on in france Reply #104 – 2021-06-25, 14:18:15 Thanks. I don't quite remember but last time I was probably able to view it here https://www.france.tv/sport/cyclisme/tour-de-france/tous-les-directs/Edit: Ah yes, I posted the same link last time. Last Edit: 2021-06-25, 16:11:43 by ersi 1 Likes
Re: what's going on in france Reply #105 – 2021-06-26, 16:41:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYLQmE6Uho 1 Likes
Re: what's going on in france Reply #106 – 2022-04-10, 08:21:14 My bet is that Macron will win because all the other candidates are either weak or total junk. Besides Anne Hidalgo, everybody is junk.Macron himself continues to be very harmful with regard to relations with Russia/Ukraine. He has spoken with Putin 16 times within this year (according to this article - Orban maybe wishes he could talk to Putin so often, or maybe not so he doesn't...) which is quite a lot of negotiating with a criminal with no visible result - or perhaps there is a result we are not being told about.The current situation in Ukraine is precisely analogous to Sudetenland: Crimea and Donbass were awarded to Putin eight years ago, yet he is still not satisfied and continues to grab more land. Macron (along with certain other West European leaders) is instrumental in trying to solve the matter by compromising with Putin, again.Macron is so eager about this that he even neglected his re-election campaign and the gap between him and Le Pen is narrow now. That's priorities, dude. Or more properly - that's a sure puppet, or at least a useful idiot. Anyway, everybody is junk so he is still going to win, I suppose.
Re: what's going on in france Reply #107 – 2023-01-22, 10:05:50 A Hit French Novel Tries to Explain Putin. Too Well, Some Critics Say.Quote from: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/21/world/europe/france-putin-wizard-kremlin-da-empoli.htmlPublished shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last February, the novel ["Le Mage du Kremlin"] has become a popular guide for understanding Mr. Putin’s motives. It has also turned its Swiss-Italian author, Giuliano da Empoli, into a coveted “Kremlinologist,” invited to lunch with the French prime minister and to France’s top morning news show to analyze the war’s developments.[...]At worst, critics say, it signals lenient views of Mr. Putin that are enduring in France and may shape the country’s stance on the war, as reflected in President Emmanuel Macron’s calls not to humiliate Russia.“The book conveys the clichés of Russian propaganda with a few small nuances,” said Cécile Vaissié, a political scientist specializing in Russia at Rennes 2 University. “When I see its success, that worries me.”[...]Françoise Thom, a professor of Russian history at the Sorbonne, said these descriptions “completely conceal the sordid dimension of the Putin reality” and are “very close to the Russian propaganda image.”Ms. Vaissié, the political scientist, put it more bluntly. “It’s a bit like Russia Today for Saint-Germain-des-Prés,” she said, referring to the Kremlin-funded television channel and the Paris redoubt of the French literary elite.[...]The arguments over the book are occurring just when divisions persist in Europe over how to deal with Mr. Putin. While Eastern European countries like Poland say he must be defeated outright, Western European nations like France have wavered between unequivocal financial and military support of Ukraine and reaching out to Mr. Putin.“This book has become almost a textbook of history and politics for French leaders,” said Alexandre Melnik, a former Russian diplomat who opposes Mr. Putin. He pointed to Mr. Macron’s remarks that appeared sympathetic to Russia’s grievances.Three presidential advisers declined to say, or said they did not know, whether Mr. Macron had read the novel.Mr. Védrine, the former foreign minister, who has sometimes advised Mr. Macron on Russia, acknowledged that if the French president read the book, it would not lead him to adopt an aggressive stance toward Russia. He added that he saw a medium-term benefit to the book’s popularity: making the case for reaching out to Mr. Putin, “when it will be acceptable.” Scholz and Macron are hard at work ensuring Putin's victory, following the scenario prescribed to them. Orban figured the game out early on.
Re: what's going on in france Reply #108 – 2023-06-13, 18:50:45 Russian fake media campaign swipes across Europe. France's ministry of foreign affairs website got faked.Quote from: https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2023/06/13/revelations-sur-doppelganger-la-campagne-de-desinformation-russe-denoncee-par-la-france_6177446_4408996.htmlLe faux site du ministère des affaires étrangères français créé par « Doppelganger » et aujourd’hui hors ligne. Cette page, très bien imitée, est en réalité la partie émergée d’une vaste opération d’influence russe, qui dure depuis plus d’un an. Les agents qui ont créé et diffusé cette fausse page de la diplomatie française sont aussi à l’origine de très nombreuses imitations d’articles de médias, reprenant parfaitement les mises en page du Monde, du Parisien et de 20 Minutes, ainsi que de la plupart des grands médias allemands. Des faux similaires ont aussi été diffusés en Italie, au Royaume-Uni et en Ukraine.Also, Swiss websites attacked by Russian hackers.Quote from: https://www.20min.ch/fr/story/les-hackers-ne-sarretent-plus-on-a-fait-planter-le-site-de-larmee-suisse-525880378512Le groupe de pirates informatiques NoName n’a pas mis fin à ses attaques contre des sites Internet suisses. Mardi matin, ils ont annoncé avoir pris pour cible l’armée suisse. «Le portail des forces armées a été planté», ont-ils écrit sur Telegram. Peu avant 11h, le site Internet de l’armée était en effet indisponible mais l’était de nouveau sur le coup de 13h. «Alors que les autorités suisses continuent de fournir des armes aux nazis ukrainiens, nous continuons de punir les portails russophobes», ajoutent-ils.Ce ne sont pas que les sites officiels qui sont ciblés. Slowly, and perhaps not conclusively, Western countries get a taste of what it is like to be a neighbour of Russia. 1 Likes
Re: what's going on in france Reply #109 – 2023-08-25, 18:06:58 Nicolas «Nous avons besoin des Russes et ils ont besoin de nous» Sarkozy is in yet another corruption scandal. This time it is for having funded his election campaign with Qaddafi's money.By the way, Estonia's PM Kaja Kallas is also in yet another scandal, this time something that could actually topple her, i.e. the fall of the government would lead to a different PM, not like last time. She has funded her husband's business, and his business includes transporting metal boxes to Russia. As everybody knows, among others it is military people who like to package everything in metal boxes. So there may be potential sanctions breach we are talking about.In a decent democracy, we would not have to wait for a guilty verdict,[1] but clean the air. When journalists confronted her, she gave very inappropriate answers, saying that she knows nothing, does not have to know anything, and that journalists are nasty for asking questions, all in one breath.In her career as PM, she keeps stumbling into scandals wrt internal policies, while her international image as a strong pro-Ukraine driver in the EU is very different.[2] As a minimum, she would have to clean up her act with domestic journalists. Her latest action is to declare she will not step down.Estonia’s pro-Ukrainian PM faces pressure to quit over husband’s indirect Russian business links1 Because at this stage nobody has to go to jail. Ordinary working people often have to give up their jobs for much less, so it is appropriate when politicians have to give up their posts to serve as a worthy example.↵2 Additionally, she is haunted by her father's ghost, who is suspected (but not convicted) of major embezzlement in connection with Estonia's monetary reform in early 1990's. Her father ensured Estonia's successful de-roubleing, but did not forget to reward himself in the process. Yes, it should be history, but it is troubled history.↵ 1 Likes
Topic: what's going on in france (Read 21474 times)
