Category: France

In tennis, Jannik Sinner won back-to-back titles at Indian Wells and Miami. Kimi Antonelli won the Japanese Grand Prix in Formula 1. In cycling, Jonas Vingegaard won Volta a Catalunya. Stade Français put on a spectacular performance against Clermont in Top 14.

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Why do I need to know pousser mémé dans les orties ?

Because you will often meet people who need to hear that.

What does it mean ?

Pousser mémé dans les orties can be translated into English as ‘to push granny in the nettles’.

Mémé is a familiar term for granny, although these days mamie is a more common alternative to the formal grand-mère.

The expression is always used in its negative form, which gives faut pas pousser mémé dans les orties (don’t push granny in the nettles).

It was originally used simply as faut pas pousser, meaning ‘do not exaggerate’, and the rest of the expression was added in order to make it more colourful and emphasise the meaning.

It’s now more commonly used to mean ‘don’t push it’ or ‘don’t go too far’ for someone whose behaviour is teetering on the brink of crossing the line. 

For example, if your sister borrowed your stuff without telling you and also stole your pocket money, you could have said faut pas pousser mémé dans les orties.

Use it like this

On ne s’est pas parlé pendant des mois, et il m’a appelée pour qu’on se remette ensemble.Faut pas pousser mémé dans les orties – We haven’t talked in months and he just called to ask me to take him back, that’s pushing it!

Je me suis occupé de son déménagement et maintenant elle veut que j’aille faire ses courses, faut pas pousser mémé dans les orties ! – I took care of her house move and now she wants me to go grocery shopping for her, she’s going a bit far!

Synonyms

C’est fort de café ! – That’s pushing it!

Pousser le bouchon – To push the boundaries

Abuser de la gentillesse de quelqu’un – To take advantage of somebody’s kindness

Amnesty International warned this summer’s football World Cup, spread across three North American countries, risks becoming a “stage for repression” in a report published Monday.

The London-based human rights organisation’s report — “Humanity Must Win” — called on both FIFA and host countries the US, Canada and Mexico to take urgent action to protect fans, players and other communities.

FIFA has promised a tournament where everyone “feels safe, included and free to exercise their rights”. 

But Amnesty said that pledge sits in “stark contrast” to conditions on the ground in all three host nations, especially the US, which hosts three-quarters of the 104 matches.

Amnesty described the US as facing a “human rights emergency” under the Trump administration, marked by mass deportations, arbitrary arrests and what it called “paramilitary-style” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.

The acting director of ICE said last month the agency will be “a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup”. 

This comes despite anger at the killing of two American citizens who were protesting aggressive ICE raids in Minneapolis in January.

Read moreIran ‘negotiating’ with FIFA over moving World Cup games from US to Mexico

‘Pay the price’

Amnesty said none of the published host city plans address how fans or local communities will be protected from ICE operations.

Fans from four nations taking part this summer — Ivory Coast, Haiti, Iran and Senegal — face US travel bans and LGBTQ+ fan groups from England and across Europe have said they will not attend matches in the US, citing risks to transgender supporters in particular.

“This World Cup is very far from the ‘medium risk’ tournament that FIFA once judged it to be, and urgent efforts are needed to bridge the growing gap between the tournament’s original promise and today’s reality,” the report said.

FIFA said earlier this month the 48-team tournament — the biggest World Cup in history — will proceed “as scheduled” with all teams taking part, despite uncertainty over Iran‘s presence due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The global football governing body, which has been heavily criticised over its decision to award a newly created “Peace Prize” to President Trump in December 2025, stands to earn $11 billion from the tournament cycle.

“While FIFA generates record revenues from the 2026 World Cup, fans, communities, players, journalists and workers cannot be made to pay the price,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economic and social justice.

“It is these people — not governments, sponsors or FIFA — to whom football belongs, and their rights must be at the centre of the tournament.” 

The World Cup kicks off on June 11 at the Mexico City Stadium with the final scheduled for July 19 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Why do I need to know tourner au vinaigre?

Because this is the perfect phrase to describe your once-wonderful, now less-than-wonderful former roommate.

What does it mean?

Tourner au vinaigre – usually pronounced tore-nay oh vin-eh-gruh – literally translates to ‘turn to vinegar.’  I

t is quite similar to the English expression ‘to sour,’ which can be either literal or metaphorical, and is usually used to describe interpersonal dynamics that have gone awry. 

The origins of the expression are quite interesting though – as in, it did not arise from bad wine, as you might think.

It goes all the way back to the 17th century, when vinegar-makers would walk the streets shouting in a high-pitched voice ‘Voilà le bon vinaigre!’ (Here is the good vinegar!). They were numerous on the streets of Paris, which gave birth to the slang expression ‘crier au vinaigre’ which meant to ‘call for help,’ as the vinegar-makers’ cries sounded similar to cries for help. 

This origin-story might be comparable to that of the English expression “screaming like a fishwife,” where fishwives once yelled loudly to sell their products on the street.

In the next 200 years, the expression morphed into ‘tourner au vinaigre,’ to describe a dialogue between two people that is becoming increasingly tense and angry. 

Use it like this

Ces vacances tendues n’ont été agréables pour personne, surtout si l’on considère que les relations entre ma mère et mon mari ont tourné au vinaigre. – The tense vacation was not fun for anyone, especially considering how the relationship between my mother and my husband went sour.

On était de bons colocataires et des amis proches mais la relation a tourné au vinaigre après qu’il ait mangé ma nourriture dans le réfrigérateur. – We were good roommates and friends, but the relationship turned sour when he kept eating my food from the fridge.

Britain, France, Germany and Italy expressed “deep concern” on Sunday over Israeli plans to extend the application of the death penalty in a bill due to be voted into law next week.

Their statement came the same day the Council of Europe rights body also issued a statement against the draft law.

“We… express our deep concern about a bill that would significantly expand the possibilities to impose the death penalty in Israel and that could be voted into law next week,” said a joint statement by the countries’ foreign ministers.

“We are particularly worried about the de facto discriminatory character of the bill. 

“The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel‘s commitments with regards to democratic principles.”

The far-right government is due to put its bill to a second and third reading in the Knesset — the Israeli parliament — on Monday. If it passes, it will almost certainly face a legal challenge and go before the Supreme Court.

Also Sunday, Council of Europe chief Alain Berset issued an appeal to Israelover the draft law.

“The Council of Europe opposes the death penalty in all places and in all circumstances,” he said.

“The texts currently under examination in the Knesset would represent a grave step backwards from Israel’s long-standing de facto moratorium,” he added, calling on the authorities to abandon the planned law.’

Read moreIsraeli bill proposing death penalty for ‘terrorists’ clears first parliamentary vote

Mandatory death sentences 

While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country: the last person to be executed was the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann in 1962.

The amendment, called for by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, would introduce mandatory death sentences for certain offences.

In February, a dozen UN rights experts argued that this would introduce two tracks for the death penalty in Israel.

“By removing judicial and prosecutorial discretion, they prevent a court from considering the individual circumstances, including mitigating factors, and from imposing a proportionate sentence that fits the crime,” they said.

In the occupied West Bank, their statement said “the death penalty would be imposed by military courts under military law for terrorist acts causing the death of a person, even if not intended”. 

In Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, meanwhile, capital punishment would continue to be applied only under Israeli criminal law and only for the “intentional killing of Israeli citizens or residents”.

The independent experts are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Saturday he thought the war in the Middle East might have motivated the attempted attack.

Police detained a first suspect, possibly a minor, in the early hours of Saturday just after he placed a device outside the bank building, near the Champs-Elysees.

The suspect was accompanied by a second person, who appeared to be taking photos and videos with a mobile phone but who fled when police arrived.

The device contained five litres of liquid believed to be fuel and an ignition system, a source close to the investigation said.

The two further arrests were made on Saturday night.

According to a police source, the first suspect said he had been recruited through the Snapchat app to carry out a bombing in exchange for 600 euros ($692).

France ‘extra-vigilant’

Nunez said he did not know who was behind the incident but speculated that it might have been “proxies” linked to Iran.

Police said the suspect arrested early Saturday outside the bank had told them he was a minor and from Senegal. They were working to verify his identity.

The incident came after more than a month of US and Israeli bombardment of Iran and as talks between key regional players began late Sunday.

The war has escalated into a regional conflagration, with Iran retaliating by attacks on Gulf states, sending energy markets into a tailspin and threatening the world economy.

The French government and security services have said that while they do not believe France itself is a target, US and Israeli interests on its soil might potentially be singled out.

Nunez urged the security forces to be “extra-vigilant” and increase their presence in railway stations and other crowded places.

France’s counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office told AFP on Saturday it had launched a probe into “attempted damage by fire or other dangerous means”.

Both the Paris judicial police and France’s domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), were involved in the probe, the office told AFP.

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