Tag Archives: France

Leftist Politicians In France Call For Macron’s Head

During the Reign of Terror in 1793, radical revolutionaries in Paris deployed Madame Guillotine to cut off the head of King Louis XVI. Now 230 years later there is a rise in alarming talk about historical precedent swirling around the country’s ever more controversial and unpopular President Emmanuel Macron, with even a left-wing politician making what may be interpreted as a threat.

Read More:  Breitbart

French PM tells Unions to Take “Responsibility” As Transport Strike Continues

As the crippling transport strike entered its 39th day the Prime Minister of France Macron called on the unions to take responsibility. The strike is centred on pension reforms. This came after the government removed the most contentious part of the legislation: raising the State Pension age from 62 to 64.

France has one of the lowest pension ages in the West, and some the most generous pensions in Europe. The government wants to introduce a uniform points based pension scheme. However unions say this will see pension payments reduced.

Unions are still calling for the reforms to be scraped completely. Saturday saw protesters  smashing windows, setting things on fire and throwing projectiles. The police responded by using tear gas.

Read More: France 24

French Politicians Looking to Embrace Facial Recognition Technology

French politicians are looking at how to best utilise facial recognition technologies.  Over the summer French the interior ministry unveiled a new app, Alicem, allowing individuals with a biometric passport or electronic residence permit to identify themselves over the internet using the app.

Macron’s government are also planning to “supervise and assess” how else to use the technology.

However critics warn that Alicem is a step closer to a Chinese-style surveillance program, with questions asked as to how the data will be collected and used.

French authorities also want to harness the technology in the fight against terrorism and crime.

However the technology is still not perfect, and in a recent incident in London facial recognition technology resulted in the arrest of an innocent man.

Experts also warn about the threat hackers pose to huge data bases which contain the biomimetic data of individuals. They argue terrorists could hack such a database and remove information for a wanted criminal replacing it with that of an innocent individual. Pointing out that we are unable to maintain the security of peoples personal financial data; how can we expect to protect a persons facial identity?

Read More: France 24