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Louvre moves most precious jewels out of museum for safekeeping, French media says
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French media reports that the Louvre has moved some of its most precious jewels out of the museum for safekeeping. The jewels were moved from the Apollo Gallery, the scene of Sunday’s heist, according to French radio.
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Louvre Transfers Jewels to Bank of France After Heist, RTL Reports
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PARIS (Reuters) -The Louvre has transferred some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France, according to French radio RTL, after an audacious daylight heist last week exposed the famed museum’s security vulnerability.
The transfer of some precious items from the museum’s Apollo gallery, home to the French crown jewels, was carried out on Friday under secret police escort, RTL said, citing unnamed sources.
The Bank of France, which stores the country’s gold reserves in a massive vault 27 meters (88 feet) below ground, is just 500 meters away from the Louvre, on the Right Bank of the River Seine.
The Louvre and the Bank of France did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The thieves stole eight precious pieces worth an estimated $102 million from the Louvre’s collection on October 19, exposing security lapses as they broke into the world’s most-visited museum using a crane to smash an upstairs window during opening hours. They escaped on motorbikes.
News of the robbery reverberated around the world, prompting soul-searching in France over what some viewed as a national humiliation.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi; editing by Michel Rose and Mark Heinrich)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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Inspector Clouseau? The mystery man in an AP photo after the Louvre jewel heist creates a buzz
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PARIS (AP) — It was shortly after the stunning heist of the crown jewels at the Louvre when Paris-based Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus caught in his frame a dapperly dressed young man walking by uniformed French police officers, their car blocking one of the museum gates.
Instinctively, he took the shot.
It wasn’t a particularly great photo, with someone’s shoulder obscuring part of the foreground, Camus told himself.
But it did the job — showing French police sealing off the world’s most-visited museum after the brazen daylight robbery last Sunday.
Plus, Camus figured, the guy walking past the officers was unusually well dressed, in a coat, a jacket and tie and wearing a fedora, adding a touch of Paris couture to the scene.
And so off went the photo to AP’s worldwide audiences.
From there, fertile imaginations sprung into high gear — whipping up an online buzz.
Posts on social media declared the well-dressed man to be a French detective — if you will, a more dashing version of the famed Inspector Clouseau from “Pink Panther” movies — even though AP’s photo caption had not identified him.
It simply read: “Police officers block an access to the Louvre museum after a robbery Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris.”
A post on X that now has 5.6 million views says: “Actual shot (not AI!) of a French detective working the case of the French Crown Jewels that were stolen from the Louvre.”
Another poster — with 1.2 million followers — claimed the man “who looks like he came out of a detective film noir from the 1940s is an actual French police detective who’s investigating the theft.”
Camus says nothing he saw led him to that conclusion — the man was just someone who streamed away from the Louvre as authorities evacuated the area, Camus says.
“He appeared in front of me, I saw him, I took the photo,” Camus says. “He passed by and left.”
If the unidentified man really is one of the more than 100 investigators hunting for the jewel thieves, the authorities are keeping it very hush-hush.
“We’d rather keep the mystery alive ;)” the Paris prosecutor’s office said with a wink in an email response to AP questions.
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Putin Says Russia Will Never Bow to U.S. Pressure
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MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would never bow to pressure from the United States or any other country, and cautioned that the response to any strikes deep into Russia would be very serious and overwhelming.
U.S. sanctions are an “unfriendly” act and “will have certain consequences, but they will not significantly affect our economic well-being,” Putin said. Russia’s energy sector feels confident, he said.
“This is, of course, an attempt to put pressure on Russia,” Putin said. “But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure.”
Putin said breaking the balance in the global energy markets could lead to a hike in prices that would be uncomfortable for countries such as the United States, especially given the internal political calendar in the United States.
Asked about a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump administration has lifted a key restriction on Ukraine’s use of some long-range missiles provided by Western allies, and remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy about domestic missiles with a range of 3,000 km (1,900 miles), Putin said: “This is an attempt at escalation.”
“But if such weapons are used to attack Russian territory, the response will be very serious, if not overwhelming. Let them think about it,” Putin said.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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World Food Prize Winners Call for Doubling of Aid to Combat Hunger
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DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) -International food aid must double to meet the needs of about 2 billion people worldwide who struggle to get enough to eat, winners of an annual prize recognizing contributions to reducing global hunger said on Wednesday.
The World Food Prize was started in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, a U.S. agronomist whose work with high-yield crops in the 1960s has been credited with saving 1 billion lives.
A group of 28 prize winners, including Brazilian microbiologist Mariangela Hungria who received the award this year, issued the call on Wednesday during the Norman Borlaug Dialogue, an annual conference in Des Moines, Iowa.
The U.N. World Food Program recently reported global food aid was cut by 40% in 2025. The United States, previously a top donor, slashed aid under President Donald Trump, and other governments such as the United Kingdom and France also reduced assistance.
WFP cut aid in Democratic Republic of Congo by 75% and halved a hot meal program in Haiti due to lack of funds, WFP Assistant Executive Director Valerie Guarnieri said during the conference.
“Donors are slashing their donations, for a variety of reasons,” she said. “There will be lives that will be lost, and global instability will increase.”
David Beckmann, the 2010 prize winner and former president of nongovernmental organization Bread for the World, said famine was a problem in Sudan, Yemen, Gaza and Haiti, among other places.
“When the need for help increased, the money was not there,” he said.
Chef Jose Andres, founder of the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, has not won the World Food Prize, but he joined the appeal.
“Immigration is increasing and will keep increasing. The main reason people leave their countries is hunger,” he told reporters.
The World Food Prize honors work in fields like nutrition, environmental conservation, policy advocacy, rural development and plant and soil science.
(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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Woman arrested over theft of gold worth $1.7 million from Paris Natural History Museum
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A Chinese woman has been arrested and charged over the theft of gold from the Natural History Museum in Paris, in one of several recent high-profile break-ins targeting French cultural institutions, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
The theft — by what the museum’s director at the time said was an “extremely professional team” — took place on September 16, a little over a month before an audacious jewelry heist at the world-famous Louvre museum on Sunday.
A 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Barcelona on September 30 over the Natural History Museum break-in and theft of gold worth more than $1 million, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.
The suspect was handed over to French authorities on October 13 and was charged with theft and criminal conspiracy and put in provisional detention the same day.
Investigations showed she had left France the day of the break-in and was preparing to return to China.
At the time of her arrest, she was trying to dispose of nearly one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of melted gold pieces, the prosecutor said, without providing more details.
The Natural History Museum curator discovered the theft of exhibited gold nuggets after a cleaner reported debris on site.
The stolen items included nuggets from Bolivia donated in the 18th century, from Russia’s Ural region gifted by Tsar Nicholas I in 1833, and from California dating to the gold rush era.
A five-kilogram nugget from Australia discovered in 1990 was also taken, Beccuau said.
Nearly six kilograms of native gold was stolen, with damages estimated at 1.5 million euros ($1.7 million), she added, noting that the historical and scientific value of the pieces was “priceless.”
Native gold is a metal alloy containing gold and silver in their natural, unrefined form.
Investigators found two museum doors had been cut with a grinder and the display case breached using a blowtorch.
Tools including a blowtorch, grinder, screwdriver, gas cylinders and saws were recovered nearby.
Surveillance footage showed a lone intruder entering the museum shortly after 1:00 am and leaving around 4:00 am, according to Beccuau.
The investigation is ongoing, she added.
Police are also still on the hunt for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum in a spectacular daylight robbery on Sunday. Officials said Tuesday the jewels are worth an estimated $102 million not including their historical value to France.
The heist has reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, which have suffered a spate of break-ins in recent months.
In early September, thieves snatched three porcelain works worth millions of dollars and classed as national treasures in a heist at the Adrien Dubouche National Museum in Limoges in central France.
Last November, four men with axes and baseball bats smashed the display cases in broad daylight at the Cognacq-Jay museum in Paris, making off with several 18th-century works. That heist resulted in an insurance payment of over $4 million to the Royal Collection Trust, BBC News reported.
The next day, jewelry valued at several million dollars was stolen during an armed robbery at a museum in Saone-et-Loire in central France.
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Damage From Louvre Jewellery Heist Estimated at 88 Million Euros, Paris Prosecutor Says
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PARIS (Reuters) -Thieves who staged a daring daylight heist at the Louvre museum in Paris made off with jewels worth an estimated 88 million euros ($102.63 million), Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Tuesday.
“It is important to remember that this damage is an economic damage, but it is nothing compared to the historical damage caused by this theft,” the prosecutor told RTL radio.
In what some politicians branded a national humiliation, four people broke into the Louvre on Sunday using a crane to smash an upstairs window. They took objects from a gallery for royal jewellery before escaping on motorbikes.
The eight items of stolen jewellery included a tiara and earrings from the set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, of the early 19th century. The crown of Empress Eugenie was found outside the museum, apparently dropped during the getaway.
(Reporting by Zhifan Liu and Dominique Vidalon in Paris; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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Analysis-L’Oreal’s $4.7 Billion Kering Beauty Buy Offers Decades of Potential
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PARIS (Reuters) -L’Oreal’s $4.7 billion deal to buy cosmetic and fragrance brands from Kering gives the French conglomerate rare 50-year licences, including for Gucci, that are likely to confirm its dominance in a growing part of the beauty sector.
That purchase, announced late on Sunday, took advantage of Kering’s urgent need to cut debt.
As well as the long-term licences to develop beauty products, it gives the conglomerate led by CEO Nicolas Hieronimus control over prestige perfumer Creed.
“In the short term, it’s a lot of capital to put into largely fragrances, though in the long term, the ability to leverage growth in an iconic fragrance brand as well as create value from the licences is clear,” analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a note.
LEVERAGING SCALE AND A DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
Creed, which Kering bought in 2023 for 3.5 billion euros ($4.08 billion), is known for its $500-a-bottle Aventus fragrances.
But it has underperformed the market, growing more slowly last year compared with the double-digit figures other premium fragrances have achieved, Jefferies analyst David Hayes noted.
L’Oreal has the scale, distribution network and financial strength to dive into regions, such as the Middle East, where the market for luxury fragrances is growing from a relatively small base.
L’Oreal has secured a 50-year licence for Gucci, one of the world’s most famous luxury brands, when the deal with licence holder Coty expires in 2028.
“The big jewel is Gucci and getting it away from Coty. It’s a big coup,” said Tanguy Pellen, managing partner at UK-based consultancy Skarbek Partners, adding that the 50-year timeframe of the licence was very rare.
The Kering deal package also includes smaller brands Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta, which also have 50-year licences, which will supplement L’Oreal’s blockbuster YSL, Armani, Prada and Valentino perfumes.
Apart from its licence to produce Armani perfume, L’Oreal has been approached by representatives from the Armani group, Reuters reported early this month, after the company was named in the will of late designer Giorgio Armani as one of the preferred bidders to take a stake.
Last year, the fragrance sector represented one of the fastest growing parts of the beauty sector.
It accounted for 13.7% of L’Oréal’s 2024 sales, or about 6 billion euros, giving it a roughly 16% share of the fragrance market, according to Reuters calculations based on L’Oreal data.
Gucci brings in around 600 million euros in revenues, according to market estimates, relatively small in size for a brand of such status.
With Yves Saint Laurent beauty rights, acquired from Kering almost 20 years ago, L’Oreal has grown revenues from 649 million euros to an estimated 2 billion euros today, according to Berenberg analysts, helping to lift sales in its luxury segment to around 16 billion euros in 2024.
In luxury fragrance, it is already the market leader, according to industry estimates. Adding more luxury brands is likely to help L’Oreal widen the gap with its peers, Pellen said.
“This is less about adding one more fragrance label and more about building their platform for sustained leadership in luxury beauty,” said Rich Gersten, co-founder and managing partner at U.S.-based True Beauty Ventures.
“The move is another step in the consolidation of luxury beauty. The biggest players are securing the few remaining luxury fashion licences to lock in long-term growth,” he added.
(Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Lisa Jucca and Barbara Lewis)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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Sarkozy’s Five-Year Prison Term Starts With Fingerprints and a Mug Shot
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PARIS—Former President Nicolas Sarkozy began a five-year prison sentence on Tuesday, marking an unprecedented downfall for a French ex-head of state who rose to power as a political outsider with blunt law-and-order rhetoric.
A motorcade of police escorted the 70-year-old from his home in the tony 16th arrondissement to the gates of Paris-La Santé prison in the heart of the French capital. There, guards took him into custody, leading him down to a basement office where he underwent a search and had his fingerprints taken. He then received an inmate number and had his mug shot taken before guards brought him to his cell in the isolation ward.
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Nicolas Sarkozy, former French president, imprisoned in Paris after conviction on campaign finance conspiracy
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Paris — France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy became the first previous head of a European Union state to be jailed on Tuesday, proclaiming his innocence as he entered a Paris prison. France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy was found guilty last month of seeking to acquire funding from Muammmar Qaddafi’s Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.
AFP journalists saw the 70-year-old — who has appealed the verdict — leave his home, and after a short drive flanked by police on motorbikes, enter the La Sante prison in the French capital.
“Welcome Sarkozy!”, “Sarkozy’s here,” AFP reporters heard convicts shouting from their cells.
In a defiant message posted on social media as he was being transferred, Sarkozy again denied any wrongdoing.
“It is not a former president of the republic being jailed this morning, but an innocent man,” he said in the post. “I have no doubt. The truth will prevail.”
Pierre Suu/Getty
Sarkozy was handed a five-year jail term in September for criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Qaddafi to fund his electoral campaign. Qaddafi was killed in 2011 — the first leader killed amid the “Arab Spring” uprisings that rocked the Middle East as a number of countries with long-time dictatorial regimes faced popular revolts.
After his September 25 verdict, Sarkozy had said he would “sleep in prison — but with my head held high.”
Dozens of supporters and family members had stood outside the former president’s home from early Tuesday, some holding up framed portraits of him.
“Nicolas, Nicolas! Free Nicolas,” they shouted as he left his home, holding hands with his wife, singer Carla Bruni.
Earlier they had sung the French national anthem as neighbors looked on from their balconies.
“This is truly a sad day for France and for democracy,” said Flora Amanou, 41.
Sarkozy’s lawyer says release request already filed
Sarkozy’s lawyer Christophe Ingrain said a request had been immediately filed for Sarkozy’s release.
The Paris appeals court in theory has two months to decide whether to free him pending an appeals trial, but the delay is usually shorter.
“He will be inside for at least three weeks to a month,” Ingrain said.
Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto/Getty
Sarkozy is the first French leader to be incarcerated since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state who was jailed after World War II.
Sarkozy told Le Figaro newspaper he will be taking with him a biography of Jesus and a copy of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a novel in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail but escapes to take revenge.
Sarkozy facing likely solitary confinement
Sarkozy is likely to be held in a 95 square foot cell in the prison’s solitary confinement wing to avoid contact with other prisoners, prison staff told AFP.
In solitary confinement, prisoners are allowed out of their cells for one walk a day, alone, in a small yard. Sarkozy will also be allowed visits three times a week.
The former French presidents multiple legal woes
Sarkozy has faced a flurry of legal woes since losing his re-election bid in 2012.
He has also been convicted in two other cases.
In one, he served a sentence for graft — over seeking to secure favors from a judge — under house arrest while wearing an electronic ankle tag, which was removed after several months in May.
In another, France’s top court is to rule next month in a case in which he is accused of illegal campaign financing in 2012.
In the so-called “Libyan case”, prosecutors said his aides, acting in Sarkozy’s name, struck a deal with Qaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.
Investigators believe that in return, Qaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.
Thomas SAMSON/Gamma-Rapho/Getty
The court convicted him of criminal conspiracy over the plan, but it did not conclude that Sarkozy received or used the funds for his campaign.
It acquitted him on charges of embezzling Libyan public funds, passive corruption and illicit financing of an electoral campaign.
Sarkozy had already been stripped of France’s highest distinction, his Legion of Honor, following the earlier graft conviction.
Six out of 10 people in France believe the prison sentence to be “fair,” according to a survey of more than 1,000 adults conducted by pollster Elabe. But Sarkozy still enjoys support on the French right and has on occasion had private meetings with President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron welcomed Sarkozy to the Elysee Palace on Friday, telling the press this week: “It was normal, on a human level, for me to receive one of my predecessors in this context.”
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Tornado Hits Area North of Paris, Leaving One Person Dead
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PARIS (Reuters) -One person has died after a tornado struck the Val d’Oise area just to the north of Paris, said French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez on Monday.
Nunez said he was monitoring the situation closely, and added several others had been seriously injured as a result of the tornado.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Chris Reese)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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What to Know About the Shocking Louvre Jewelry Heist
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Could the French TV series Lupin have been prophetic? The show envisioned a heist at the Louvre, an event that became reality on the morning of October 19, when a group of professional thieves managed to break into the world-famous Paris museum. In just seven minutes, they stole a host of priceless French crown jewels.
The heist took place at around 9:30 am local time, shortly after the museum opened to the public. Using a truck-mounted ladder, the thieves entered the Galerie d’Apollon—located in the Louvre’s Petite Galerie wing—through a second-floor window that they forced open with an angle grinder.
Upon entry, the robbers smashed open at least two display cases, took the precious artifacts, and then fled a few minutes later on two Yahama scooters, disappearing into traffic and soon turning onto the highway.
Included in the loot, according to French authorities, were eight crown jewels, almost all from the late Napoleonic era. A ninth item, Empress Eugénie’s diamond- and emerald-laden crown, was found damaged nearby, evidently dropped by the fleeing criminals. The thieves did get away with a tiara also belonging to Napoleon III’s wife, in full Empire style, decorated with 212 pearls, 1,998 diamonds, and another 992 rose-cut diamonds. They also took a bow brooch belonging to Empress Eugénie with 2,438 diamonds and 196 rose-cut stones. Also in the haul is a parure—a tiara with 24 Ceylon sapphires and 1,083 diamonds, accompanied by a necklace with eight impressive sapphires, more diamonds and gold work, and a pendant earring that belonged to Queen Maria Amalia.
It’s difficult to put a number on what this collection of jewels is worth; they are not mere luxury items with their own specific value, but rather priceless possessions. The literal value of the gems, stones, and gold is compounded by their historical value, not to mention the fact that they are part of the heritage of the French state, which in itself makes them likely impossible to sell on the traditional market. However, it is possible that, as often happens in this type of theft, the robbers will disassemble the artifacts, melt down the precious metals, recut the jewels to make them less traceable, and sell them on the gray or black market, potentially generating tens of millions of euros.
Regardless of its outcome, the Louvre heist was a skillful operation. Some analysts say the thieves exploited vulnerabilities in the museum’s security system, which has for years struggled with staffing problems, constant work in progress, and also increasing pressure from the exorbitant and growing number of visitors. A nationwide and international manhunt has now begun. At the moment there are no specific suspects, but all available images from the area (including a video that shows one of the thieves at work) are obviously being examined.
With all the surveillance footage and cameras now spread everywhere in the city, there should be plenty of material to identify possible leads. President Emmanuel Macron has strongly condemned the incident, and assured that those responsible will soon be brought to justice. Long gone, moreover, are the days when Italian decorator Vincenzo Peruggia committed what was until now considered the greatest theft in the history of the Louvre: the daring misappropriation of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, which took place on August 21, 1911.
That painting was returned two years later; Peruggia attempted to resell it to a Florentine art dealer who then raised the alarm. Maybe a similar stroke of luck could happen in this case as well.
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.
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Factbox-The Prison Where France’s Ex-President Sarkozy Will Serve His Sentence
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By Juliette Jabkhiro and Layli Foroudi
PARIS (Reuters) -Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy heads to jail on Tuesday to serve a five-year prison sentence after being convicted ofcriminal conspiracy in a case related to efforts to obtain campaign financing from Libya during Muammar Gaddafi’s rule.
Below are some key facts and details about La Sante prison where Sarkozy, who has always said he is innocent, will be held:
La Sante is a storied prison in the middle of Paris that once housed leftist militant Carlos the Jackal and Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega.
It was not immediately clear whether Sarkozy will be held in isolation or in a special wing for “vulnerable people” – the so-called “VIP quarters” where prominent political figures have been incarcerated in the past, including Sarkozy’s former aide, Claude Gueant, who was among those found guilty on Thursday.
The French Justice Ministry and the Paris-La-Sante administration did not respond to questions on where Sarkozy will be held.
La Sante’s location in the capital will make it easier for friends and family to come to see Sarkozy. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, a Sarkozy protege who now controls the prisons system, said on Monday he would visit the former president behind bars.
WHAT ARE CONDITIONS LIKE?
Inmates in the “VIP” wing are held in single cells, not the usual three-person units, and kept alone during outdoor activities for security reasons, prison guard union representative Wilfried Fonck told Reuters.
Apart from that, Fonck said, the conditions are no better than elsewhere in the prison, where cells are typically 9-12 square metres (100-130 square feet).
Isolation cells, in a separate wing, are 9 square metres with window coverings designed to limit communication between detainees, according to a 2020 report by the Supervisor-General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty.
La Sante was recently renovated, and so has better conditions than many other prisons, according to Julien Fischmeister from the French section of the International Prison Observatory.
All cells now have their own showers and landline phones. Sarkozy would also have access to a television, but would have to pay 14 euros per month for the privilege.
Fischmeister said Sarkozy would have meals delivered to him, and the prison also allows inmates to buy products to prepare their own meals in their cells.
WHAT HAS SARKOZY SAID ABOUT PRISON?
The former president said on Sunday he was not scared of going to jail, and planned to use the time to write a book.
Still, prison could be an unsettling experience for a tough-on-crime leader who once referred to rioting youth in the suburbs as “scum”, and threatened to “clear them out” with high-powered water hoses.
Like many prisons in France, La Sante is overcrowded – though Sarkozy will be kept separately from other inmates. There were, as of August, 1,243 inmates in the jail which is designed to hold 657, according to Justice Ministry data.
France has the third most overcrowded prisons in Europe after Slovenia and Cyprus, according to Council of Europe figures from 2024.
WHAT IS GOING ON IN FRENCH PRISONS?
Darmanin has been leading a government push to toughen conditions for dangerous inmates in prisons across France.
Police say some prisoners run drug businesses via smuggled mobile phones and have even used them to order hits on rivals. Some have been caught on video ordering kebabs and sushi, delivered to their cells via drones.
Earlier this year, there was a series of attacks against prisons across France. Authorities say they were orchestrated by members of a Telegram group that called itself French Prisoner Rights, and sought to underline the terrible conditions faced by inmates.
(Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Andrew Heavens)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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French Army chief Schill sees Europe facing empires, vassals, war
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PARIS — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and America’s use of economic force to achieve goals signal the end of a world order based on respect of sovereignty and crisis resolution through negotiation, and indicate the resurgence of empires, French Army Chief of Staff Gen. Pierre Schill said.
The world is experiencing a turning point that may be at least equivalent to the end of the Cold War, and possibly comparable to the First World War, Schill said at a presentation of his first book, “Le sens du Commandement,” which roughly translates as the meaning of command, at La Procure bookstore in central Paris last week
“Faced with empires, one is either an enemy or a vassal,” Schill said. The question for Europe and France is now, “how can we influence our destiny so as not to be vassalized in this world that is coming?” the commander of the French land forces said.
French Army head Schill talks force modernization, Ukraine war lessons
Schill said Europe’s strength lies in the collective, through the European Union and NATO – both the EU and NATO treaties include mutual defense commitments. For France, that means “we can unfortunately – and this is both the tragedy and the strength – be drawn into the mechanism of a major commitment, even if we don’t have a threat on our borders.”
Within the changed geopolitical environment, the war in Ukraine may represents a shift similar to World War I, which Schill likened to “an industrial revolution superimposed on a war, or a war superimposed on an industrial revolution.”
French Army Chief of Staff Gen. Pierre Schill inspects a drone at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris in 2024. (Rudy Ruitenberg/staff)
Whereas at the beginning of WWI, electricity was in its infancy and oil hardly used, with no air planes and few cars, “by the end, all of this had developed in an absolutely extraordinary way” as two huge blocs poured all their might into the war, generating intense momentum within this industrial revolution, according to Schill.
“Perhaps today we are experiencing something similar, with the industrial revolution of digital technology, drones, outer space with its use of satellites, and automation,” Schill said. “Perhaps it is crystallizing around this absolutely enormous battle happening before our eyes in Eastern Europe.”
The future will bring “tougher, larger-scale wars” that put logistics back at the forefront, according to Schill, who called it “absolutely essential that our army adapts to the world that is coming,” including by tweaking its structures and adding artillery for deep fires. Other questions to consider are the return of conscription and increasing France’s number of reservists, the general said.
In the new world, one source of power will likely be the ability to adapt to evolving technologies, including at lower echelons, according to the French Army chief.
“The modern world and the world of future combat will in any case be a world in which adaptation and adaptability will be essential,” Schill said. “We need to adopt a mindset of continuous innovation, not only in terms of technology, but also tactics.”
Schill advocated for command by intent, which fixes objective and purpose but allows for initiative at lower echelons, as the command method best adapted to modern combat, as well as the current generation of young recruits looking for purpose.
“Command through meaning, through clear objectives, and through subsidiarity, and which makes clear the framework in which we’ll operate, seems to me well suited to the challenges and of our time and its complexity,” Schill said.
Whereas the French military has a long tradition of summary orders with room for initiative, there has been a shift towards a more detailed and complex style of command, according to Schill. He cited reasons including France’s adoption of the precautionary principle, increasingly powerful command systems integrating AI and the development of international interoperability procedures.
The general cited the retreat from Cao Bang in Indochine in 1950, where around 3,700 French troops were lost, as a prime example of an operation where “the plan was perfect, the plan was precise,” and when the reality on the ground changed, the order to follow the plan to the letter contributed to the eventual defeat.
During the operation, two columns of evacuating French troops were to meet up south of Cao Bang, with no contingency plan if the maneuver failed.
Schill cited the liberation of Paris by the 2nd Armored Division led by Gen. Philippe Leclerc in 1944 as a counterexample of a victorious operation that focused on objectives and left room for initiative, with no more than half a page of orders.
“So faced with this complexity in the world, it’s important to continue to have initiative at the lower levels, because that’s where the maximum effectiveness will be.”
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Louvre robbery leaves Paris’ iconic museum shuttered for a second day
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Paris — The Louvre will remain closed for a second day running on Monday, management told AFP, after thieves stole crown jewels from the museum in Paris a day earlier.
“The museum is not opening today,” a museum official told AFP.
A sign at the museum told visitors the museum remained closed due to “exceptional circumstances” and said all visitors with tickets for the day would be reimbursed.
“The museum is closed for the whole day,” a member of staff told visitors.
Shortly before the announcement, queues of impatient visitors snaked their way across the museum’s pyramid courtyard and under the arches of the main entrance gallery.
Benoit Tessier/REUTERS
Carol Fuchs, an elderly tourist from the United States, had been standing in line for more than three-quarters of an hour.
“The audacity, coming through a window. I feel so sorry for whoever was on guard in that room,” she told AFP after the thieves escaped with prize jewels from the museum’s Apollo Gallery on Sunday.
“Will they ever be found? I doubt it. I think it’s long gone,” she said.
Thieves carried out the brazen daytime heist on Sunday morning. They broke into the iconic landmark using crane-type lift to force open a window before smashing through display cases and making off with jewelry of “inestimable value,” according to France’s interior minister and the museum said. They escaped on motorcycles or scooters, officials said.
The robbery hit The Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon, a vaulted hall that displays some of the French Crown Jewels underneath a ceiling painted by King Louis XIV’s court artist, the ministry said.
It all happened in broad daylight, with tourists inside the world’s most visited museum. There were no injuries reported.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati called the robbery the work of “professionals,” describing it on the TF1 TV network as “a four-minute operation carried out without violence.”
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer says many French have reacted with shock at the ease with which such treasured items could be so quickly and seemingly easily plucked from such a vaunted, highly secured institution.
She asked art historian David Chanteranne, who has worked in the Louvre, if the glass in the display cases holding the jewels would have been reinforced somehow?
“Incredibly it wasn’t,” he said, explaining that for the purposes of “historical accuracy,” the Louvre had used the original cases to display the crown jewels, including glass from Napoleon’s time, two centuries ago.
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Factbox-What Is in France’s Draft 2026 Budget?
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PARIS (Reuters) -French lawmakers on Monday begin reviewing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s 2026 budget, which aims to tighten public finances by over 30 billion euros ($35 billion) – roughly 1% of GDP.
The budget squeeze would come through 17 billion euros in spending cuts and 14 billion euros in new taxes, although the draft bill is likely to be heavily amended in the divided parliament.
To secure cross-party support, the bill will include a suspension of President Macron’s 2023 pension reform, costing 400 million euros in 2026 and 1.8 billion euros in 2027.
Wealth Tax: A 2% levy on assets in holding companies not used for business purposes, expected to raise 1 billion euros.
Politicians on the left are demanding a broader 2% tax on all wealth over 100 million euros, which they say could generate 15-20 billion euros in revenue.
High Earners: A temporary tax on top incomes will be extended, affecting 20,000 taxpayers and raising 1.5 billion euros.
Big Companies: A surtax on firms with over 1 billion euros in revenue will be extended but halved, generating 4 billion euros (down from 8 billion euros expected this year).
REVENUE-GENERATING REFORMS
Social Benefits and Pensions: Frozen at 2025 levels; pensions to rise slower than inflation until 2030.
Income Tax Brackets: Not adjusted for inflation, bringing in 1.9 billion euros and pushing 200,000 new taxpayers into the system.
Tax Breaks: 23 exemptions targeted, including school fee deductions and a key deduction for pensioners, yielding a combined 5 billion euros.
Health Savings: Increase in state health insurance deductibles, generating 2.3 billion euros.
* 1 billion euro exceptional tax on health insurers.
* 2-euro levy on small parcels, targeting Chinese imports, expected to raise 500 million euros.
* Implementation of the 15% global minimum corporate tax to generate 500 million euros.
(Reporting by Leigh ThomasEditing by Frances Kerry)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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Robbery at Louvre Museum Hit France’s Image, Justice Minister Says
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PARIS (Reuters) -French Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin said on Monday the jewelry heist at the Louvre museum on Sunday gave a very negative image of France as it implied a failure of security services.
“There are many museums in Paris, many museums in France, with priceless values in these museums,” Darmanin said in an interview with French radio station France Inter.
“What is certain is that we failed,” he said, adding the police will eventually arrest the authors.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Inti Landauro)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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Why the jewels stolen from the Louvre may be gone forever – WTOP News
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It sounds like the plot of a heist movie: brazen thieves break into the Louvre in broad daylight and speed off with irreplaceable jewels once belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte and Empress Josephine.
Erin Thompson, professor of art crime at the City University of New York, said while it makes for an attention-grabbing headline, these sorts of heists are “pretty common.”
“If you go in the middle of the day, there’s lots of confused tourists to act as cover while you’re running away,” Thompson said.
Thompson said jewelry is a prime target, not for its historical value, but for its melt value.
“Smarter thieves take things like jewelry … because you can melt down the metal and recut the stones, and then those pieces just disappear,” Thompson said.
Former FBI art crime investigator Robert Wittman agrees. He said the real fear is the stolen jewels will be melted down, destroying their cultural significance.
“You lose the cultural artifact,” Wittman said. “Gold just went over €4,100 ($4,780 U.S. dollars) an ounce last week. So gold is a very, very hot commodity right now.”
The thieves used a truck with a ladder, similar to those seen on fire engines, to reach a balcony and break in through a window. They then used heavy equipment to cut into display cases and made their getaway on mopeds, a common tactic in Europe’s narrow streets.
Thompson said the Louvre’s historic architecture may have also made it vulnerable.
“You can’t exactly change it all up to make things more secure,” Thompson said.
Wittman adds that French authorities are likely moving fast. He’s worked with France’s OCBC Art Crime Team and the BRB, a Parisian unit that targets organized crimes like this one.
“I think you’re going to have both of these groups involved in this, because this is important stuff to the nation of France,” Wittman said.
While paintings are often recovered, about 90% of the time, because they’re hard to sell, jewelry is another story.
Thompson said while the hired hands who physically stole jewels are often captured eventually, many times, those who planned the operation are not.
“The criminal masterminds who plotted the events often go scot-free,” Thompson said.
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© 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
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Factbox-What Jewels Did the Louvre Thieves Target?
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PARIS (Reuters) -Authorities have yet to say what pieces were stolen from Paris’ Louvre on Sunday, but here are details of some of the treasures housed in the museum gallery the thieves targeted.
Among the items displayed there are gems making up France’s crown jewels, including one of the world’s most valuable diamonds.
HOW DID THE THIEVES BREAK INTO THE LOUVRE?
The thieves pulled up outside the Louvre on Sunday morning, on a road along the Seine river, and used an extendable ladder to break into an upper window that looks into the Galerie d’Apollon, or Apollo Gallery, authorities said.
WHAT IS THE GALERIE D’APOLLON?
In 1661, after a fire broke out at the Louvre, Louis XIV began works on what is now the gallery, entrusting them to architect Louis Le Vau. The young king wanted the gallery to reflect his new emblem, the sun, and so Le Vau modelled the space on Apollo, the Greek god of the sun.
The resulting hall, an ornate space of gold leaf and paintings, would be the model for the Palace of Versailles’ world-famous Hall of Mirrors, finished 20 years later after Louis XIV left Paris for Versailles.
WHAT EXHIBITS ARE IN THE GALERIE D’APOLLON?
The gallery hosts the “Côte de Bretagne” spinel, a red-hued gemstone in the shape of a dragon which once belonged to Anne de Bretagne.
There are also three important diamonds in the collection once owned by France’s ousted royalty.
The first, the Regent, is one of the most famous in the world and weighs 140.64 carats. Sotheby’s has estimated the diamond to be worth more than $60 million.
“Even today, it is considered the finest diamond in the world for its clarity and the quality of its cut,” the Louvre says on its website.
The Hortensia, a pink diamond, has already been stolen at least once, in 1792. It was found a month after its disappearance when the man suspected of stealing it – condemned to death and about to be hanged – revealed its hiding place.
WHAT OTHER TREASURES MAY HAVE BEEN STOLEN?
The gallery also includes the crown of Louis XV, as well as the crown of Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, which local media reported the thieves dropped outside the museum as they made their getaway.
Other pieces of headwear include the tiara of the Duchess of Angoulême, an emerald and diamond tiara that was given to the duchess by her uncle, Louis XVIII, and another tiara that was worn by Queen Hortense, Queen Marie-Amélie, and Isabelle of Orléans.
The collection also includes an emerald necklace given by Napoleon to Marie-Louise on the occasion of their marriage, and Louis XIV’s hardstone vessel collection, which comprises some 800 pieces.
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Alison Williams)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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