Day: February 18, 2017

As French language fanatics kick up a storm about the new English slogan for the Paris 2024 Olympic bid, we take a look at other times the French have lost their cool when it comes to the English language. When Chirac stormed out of an EU summit President Jacques Chirac left a 2006 EU summit meeting in a huff after a French business leader addressed the room in English. Despite English being the official language of the session, no one seemed to have informed Chirac, who interrupted the speaker to…

 Women and women’s issues are the focus of a new film festival in Aswan starting on February 20, which this year has gender violence as its theme. The International Women’s Film Festival will present 32 films from Egypt, Italy, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Morocco, Tunisia, France, Algeria, Iraq, Germany, Russia, China, Romania and Azerbaijan. The event, organised by independent artists with support from the Egyptian culture ministry and Aswan governorate, takes an all-round approach to women’s issues through an associated programme of meetings, conferences and workshops. There will be two competition…