Paris
After three weeks of rioting by jobless Muslim youths, French President Jacques Chirac this week laid out a plan to fight discrimination against ethnic minorities. Chirac said he would establish a task force to create 50,000 civil service jobs for young people, concentrated in the health and cultural sectors as well as in the military and police. But Chirac rejected Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s recommendation that France adopt U.S.-style affirmative action or quotas. “It is the duty of the republic to give everybody the same opportunities,” Chirac said in a televised address. A heavy police presence has quelled much of the rioting, but barricades still protect many Paris locales.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Sepsis ‘breakthrough’: the world’s first targeted treatment?The Explainer New drug could reverse effects of sepsis, rather than trying to treat infection with antibiotics
-
James Van Der Beek obituary: fresh-faced Dawson’s Creek starIn The Spotlight Van Der Beek fronted one of the most successful teen dramas of the 90s – but his Dawson fame proved a double-edged sword
-
Is Andrew’s arrest the end for the monarchy?Today's Big Question The King has distanced the royal family from his disgraced brother but critics claim a ‘fit of revolutionary disgust’ could still wipe them out
