Christophe Ayad

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'Block Everything': French intelligence anticipates unrest on September 10 but no 'tidal wave'

The 'Block Everything' movement could count up to 100,000 participants, with strong turnout expected in left-wing and radical left strongholds such as the Nantes, Rennes and Lyon regions.

Published yesterday at 11:50 am (Paris), updated yesterday at 12:41 pm Christophe Ayad

Investigation Subscribers only

Mohammed VI, Islam and the Islamists

'The Enigma of Mohammed VI' (6/6). His status as 'commander of the faithful' has given the Moroccan king a unique aura and has enabled him to push back against the ambitions of Islamists, whose political project and way of life he rejects.

Published on August 29, 2025, at 6:01 pm (Paris) Christophe Ayad Frédéric Bobin

Investigation Subscribers only

Mohammed VI, the makhzen and the art of palace secrecy

'The Enigma of Mohammed VI' (5/6). In order to maintain his power, the Moroccan monarch relies on a handful of loyal supporters, most of whom he has known for decades. However, internal rivalries betray a certain nervousness, revealing the uncertainty surrounding the future of his reign.

Published on August 28, 2025, at 6:42 pm (Paris) Christophe Ayad Frédéric Bobin

Investigation Subscribers only

Mohammed VI, a king with big foreign policy plans

'The Enigma of Mohammed VI' (4/6). In recent years, the Moroccan monarch has become highly active on the international stage. From the highly sensitive issue of Western Sahara to Morocco's rapprochement with Israel, he has often established himself as the central player.

Published on August 27, 2025, at 6:01 pm (Paris), updated on August 27, 2025, at 9:28 pm Christophe Ayad Frédéric Bobin

Investigation Subscribers only

Mohammed VI, the king of unfinished reforms

'The Enigma of Mohammed VI' (3/6). The Moroccan king's coronation in 1999 sparked great hope at home and abroad. After the reign of his father, which was marked by human rights abuses, the young monarch personified change and modernity, at least at the beginning.

Published on August 26, 2025, at 6:30 pm (Paris), updated on August 27, 2025, at 2:50 pm Frédéric Bobin Christophe Ayad

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Mohammed VI's youth in the shadow of Hassan II

'The Enigma of Mohammed VI' (2/6). Before ascending to the throne in 1999, the Moroccan monarch had to endure the contempt of his father, an autocrat who reproached him for his love of partying and doubted his ability to rule.

Published on August 25, 2025, at 6:01 pm (Paris), updated on August 27, 2025, at 9:04 am Christophe Ayad Frédéric Bobin

Investigation Subscribers only

The twilight of Morocco's King Mohammed VI

'The Enigma of Mohammed VI' (1/6). Twenty-six years after his 1999 coronation, the Moroccan monarch's relationship to power remains complex. As questions about his health arise, the prospect of his succession is fueling power struggles and backroom deals among the country's elite.

Published on August 24, 2025, at 6:08 pm (Paris), updated on August 27, 2025, at 9:04 am Christophe Ayad Frédéric Bobin

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Trial ordered for deadly 1982 attack on Paris Jewish restaurant

Two alleged members of a Palestinian militant group will stand trial in Paris over the attack that killed six in a restaurant in the city’s historic Marais district. Four other suspects remain under arrest warrants.

Published on August 1, 2025, at 9:19 pm (Paris), updated on August 1, 2025, at 9:26 pm Christophe Ayad

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Is there a genocide in Gaza? Why legal experts are split

Genocide, as defined by the 1948 convention, requires both certain criminal acts to be committed and genocidal intent. While the requisite acts have been proven in Gaza, legal scholars are divided over the intent. South Africa has filed a genocide complaint against Israel with the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Published on July 27, 2025, at 6:00 pm (Paris), updated on July 27, 2025, at 6:05 pm Christophe Ayad

Interview Subscribers only

Samy Cohen: Israel's military actions in Gaza contain 'a dimension of revenge'

In an interview with Le Monde, Samy Cohen, a political scientist and expert on defense matters and Israeli society, analyzes the choices behind the Israeli army's operations in the Gaza Strip.

Published on July 27, 2025, at 5:30 am (Paris) Christophe Ayad

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Bashar al-Assad: France's highest court upholds personal immunity for sitting heads of state

France's highest court has overturned an arrest warrant issued in 2023 for the former Syrian president. However, it found that he can now be prosecuted, as he is no longer in office.

Published on July 26, 2025, at 11:42 am (Paris) Christophe Ayad

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Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is free after 40 years in French prison: 'I return to Lebanon as an activist'

Sentenced to life in prison for 'complicity in assassinations' in 1987, the Lebanese former militant, who has been eligible for release since 1999, was released after his 12th request. He was immediately put on a plane to his home country.

Published on July 25, 2025, at 12:47 pm (Paris), updated on July 25, 2025, at 10:10 pm Christophe Ayad Philippe Gagnebet

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Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah to be released after 40 years in French prison

Following a decision on appeal on July 17, Abdallah, who was convicted of complicity in the assassinations of American and Israeli diplomats in 1987, will be released from prison in southern France and deported to Beirut on July 25.

Published on July 17, 2025, at 10:37 am (Paris), updated on July 17, 2025, at 10:46 am Christophe Ayad

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Complaint filed against two French-Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes in Gaza

The French complaint was lodged by a number of associations defending human rights and supporting Palestinians. It is based primarily on a report by an independent Palestinian journalist.

Published on July 1, 2025, at 2:48 pm (Paris), updated on July 1, 2025, at 4:43 pm Christophe Ayad

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NGOs file legal action against Paris Air Show for showcasing Israeli companies

A coalition of advocacy groups has filed two legal complaints seeking to prevent the Paris Air Show from taking place this year after it announced it will host Israeli companies as well as firms supplying weapons to wars in Ukraine and Sudan.

Published on May 23, 2025, at 11:45 am (Paris) Christophe Ayad

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Muslim Brotherhood's influence in France: What the controversial report reveals

The document presented on Wednesday, but leaked to the press the previous day, proved more measured than the speeches that accompanied its release. It mainly identifies a political risk linked to the birth of 'municipal Islamism.'

Published on May 22, 2025, at 11:38 am (Paris), updated on June 4, 2025, at 5:13 pm Christophe Ayad Louise Couvelaire

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Did Kamel Daoud use the story of his wife's patient for his novel? A court will determine

When Kamel Daoud won the Prix Goncourt, France's top literary prize, Saâda Arbane noticed similarities between her life and his book set during Algeria's civil war. An initial court hearing is to be held on Wednesday, May 7, in Paris.

Published on May 6, 2025, at 6:57 pm (Paris), updated on May 6, 2025, at 8:59 pm Christophe Ayad Jérôme Lefilliâtre

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21 charged over French prison attacks as investigation narrows in on drug traffickers

The investigation into the attacks including arson and automatic fire has ruled out the involvement of the radical left or foreign interference.

Published on May 3, 2025, at 2:57 pm (Paris), updated on May 4, 2025, at 12:42 pm Thomas Saintourens Christophe Ayad Arthur Carpentier

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French mosque stabber was driven by 'morbid fascination,' prosecutor says, ruling out terror

Olivier H., the 20-year-old who killed a Malian man, Aboubakar Cissé, at a mosque in southern France, had posted online about wanting to kill. He is being investigated for 'aggravated murder' with premeditation and targeting 'race or religion.'

Published on May 3, 2025, at 11:40 am (Paris), updated on May 3, 2025, at 1:34 pm Christophe Ayad

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Residents pay respects in silent march for man killed at mosque in southern France

Aboubakar Cissé, a young Malian, was fatally stabbed multiple times on Friday, inside the mosque of the town of La Grand-Combe. Residents gathered in large numbers to pay tribute and express their fears of an anti-Muslim hate crime.

Published on April 28, 2025, at 9:43 am (Paris) Agathe Beaudouin Christophe Ayad

Investigation Subscribers only

When the 'Beatles' of the Islamic State group ruled Syria's prisons

The shadow of the four executioners with British accents often loomed over the trial of the jailers and torturers of the Islamic State group, held this winter in Paris. One was killed in a US airstrike in Syria in 2015, and three others are imprisoned in the US and the UK.

Published on April 13, 2025, at 1:00 pm (Paris) Christophe Ayad

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The secret work of the Buchenwald watercolorist

Eighty years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp, Le Monde retraces the story of one of the French prisoners who survived. Resistance fighter Paul Simon left his family a binder containing numerous drawings made in Buchenwald that bear witness to the appalling daily life of detention.

Published on April 10, 2025, at 5:31 am (Paris), updated on April 12, 2025, at 4:55 pm Christophe Ayad

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Attempted explosives attack thwarted in northern France as terrorist threat remains 'very pervasive'

Three young men have been charged. The main suspect, arrested on Sunday, planned to carry out an explosives attack in a public area.

Published on April 8, 2025, at 10:39 am (Paris), updated on April 9, 2025, at 12:08 pm Christophe Ayad

Interview Subscribers only

Rony Brauman: 'It's not America First but America Only!'

The former president of Doctors Without Borders France says the Trump administration's halt to foreign aid funding is 'a decision at least as serious and perverse as the invasion of Iraq in 2003.'

Published on April 6, 2025, at 11:30 am (Paris) Christophe Ayad Louise Couvelaire

News analysis Subscribers only

The two opposing views of October 7 and its aftermath

Depending on whether you see the terrorist massacre as an episode in a conflict that has been going on since 1948 or as the start of a new era that abolishes previous parameters, the perception of the war between Israel and Hamas changes radically.

Published on March 21, 2025, at 8:00 pm (Paris) Christophe Ayad

Investigation Subscribers only

How a new generation of pro-Palestinian activists is taking root on French campuses

While mobilization remains limited to a few universities and a minority of a few hundred students, the war in Gaza has affected a diverse cohort in the midst of their intellectual development.

Published on March 18, 2025, at 5:00 am (Paris), updated on March 18, 2025, at 9:26 am Christophe Ayad Soazig Le Nevé

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Attacker gets life sentence for murder of three people at Nice basilica in 2020

Paris's criminal court justified the sentence on the grounds of Brahim Aouissaoui's 'absolute violence,' his lack of 'desire for rehabilitation' and the 'danger' he poses to the public.

Published on February 27, 2025, at 2:36 pm (Paris), updated on February 27, 2025, at 2:39 pm Christophe Ayad

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Nice church attack suspect admits at trial to killing three people, expressing no remorse

For the first time, Brahim Aouissaoui confessed to committing three murders on October 29, 2020, without going into details. He expressed no regret, claiming the 'right' to avenge Muslims killed around the world.

Published on February 25, 2025, at 12:47 pm (Paris) Christophe Ayad

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After Islamist knife attack in Mulhouse, French interior minister blames Algiers

The French interior minister has accused the Algerian authorities of having refused 10 times a pass allowing the deportation of Brahim A., 37, suspected of stabbing a person to death and wounding five police officers in Mulhouse on Saturday. The man has 'a schizophrenic profile,' said the minister.

Published on February 23, 2025, at 11:45 am (Paris) Christophe Ayad

Explainer Subscribers only

The multifaceted neo-Nazi threat in France

On the wane in France, despite its renewed popularity in the West, neo-Nazi ideology has above all become a marker of adherence to the theses of the ultra right and an expression of radical violence.

Published on February 17, 2025, at 4:49 pm (Paris), updated on February 17, 2025, at 5:26 pm Christophe Ayad

In Depth Subscribers only

Trial of 2020 deadly church attack in Nice opens

A young undocumented Tunisian stabbed and killed three people in the southern French city on October 29, 2020. He says he has no recollection of the events.

Published on February 10, 2025, at 2:15 pm (Paris) Christophe Ayad

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The birth of Syria's 'state of barbarism'

'The al-Assad saga' (Part 2/4). The regime set up by Hafez al-Assad after the coup d'état of November 13, 1970, had only one objective: Its own continuity, at any price.

Published on February 6, 2025, at 4:00 am (Paris), updated on February 7, 2025, at 9:40 am Christophe Ayad Gilles Paris

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The slow rise of Hafez al-Assad, from pan-Arabism to Syrian nationalism

'The al-Assad saga' (Part 1/4). Before joining the military and building an Alawite caste around himself, Hafez al-Assad was a fervent supporter of the pan-Arab ideological movement.

Published on February 5, 2025, at 4:30 am (Paris), updated on February 7, 2025, at 9:38 am Christophe Ayad

Interview Subscribers only

French foreign intelligence chief: 'Islamist terrorism is a threat that our societies will have to face over the long term'

In an interview with Le Monde, Nicolas Lerner, the head of the General Directorate of External Security takes stock of the terrorist threat to France.

Published on January 15, 2025, at 4:00 am (Paris) Christophe Ayad

News analysis Subscribers only

How French counter-terrorism services have changed practices since the January 2015 attacks

Although clues existed ahead of the attacks on 'Charlie Hebdo,' in Montrouge and on a kosher supermarket near Paris, they had not been put together. Since then, certain practices have been strengthened, such as collaboration between domestic and foreign intelligence, and the framework within which intelligence services are authorized to use tapping techniques.

Published on January 9, 2025, at 8:00 pm (Paris) Christophe Ayad

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The 'Charlie Hebdo' and Hyper Cacher attacks: Three days of blood, terror and tears

From the offices of the satirical newspaper to a kosher supermarket, this is the story of the attacks of January 7-9, 2015, and the hunt for their perpetrators, the brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly.

Published on January 7, 2025, at 5:00 am (Paris), updated on January 8, 2025, at 7:46 am Christophe Ayad

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Pope Francis in Corsica: A day of celebration free of controversy

On the French island, in the city of Ajaccio, Francis celebrated the local 'popular piety' and urged society to 'look after its elderly.'

Published on December 16, 2024, at 11:01 am (Paris), updated on December 16, 2024, at 8:54 pm Christophe Ayad, Ariane Chemin, Paul Ortoli and Robin Richardot

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French government abandons plan for a terrorism memorial museum

The decision, taken officially for budgetary reasons, was not taken in consultation with those in charge of the project or with victims' associations. The museum was meant to open in a Paris suburb in 2027.

Published on December 12, 2024, at 12:00 pm (Paris) Christophe Ayad

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Where French court's arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad and other Syrian proceedings stand

To date, 13 arrest warrants have been issued, including one for the former dictator, who is now a refugee in Russia.

Published on December 11, 2024, at 8:00 pm (Paris), updated on December 11, 2024, at 8:56 pm Christophe Ayad

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In Paris, two separate protests against far-right pro-Israeli gala Israel is Forever

While the first march on Wednesday evening brought together the usual supporters of the Palestinian cause, the second brought together left-wing Jewish organizations opposed to the war. Some were demonstrating for the first time since October 7, 2023.

Published on November 14, 2024, at 12:32 pm (Paris), updated on November 14, 2024, at 2:33 pm Christophe Ayad Véronique Chocron

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