France

This year alone, some 5,000 migrants have attempted to cross from northern Italy into France, according to local municipalities and aid groups. Some have perished along the way. Many are sent back.

The 12-year-old was alive and conscious when he was rescued on Wednesday, defying bleak statistics for avalanche victims trapped over 15 minutes. "We can call it a miracle," a rescue captain said.

NPR's Scott Simon talks to French journalist Anne Nivat about the political situation in her country, where just a quarter of citizens say they approve the president's job performance.

The suspect had been the target of a massive manhunt since Tuesday's deadly assault on a Christmas shopping market.

On Tuesday evening, a man opened fire on the famous market in Strasbourg, France, killing two people and leaving a third brain-dead. Hundreds of law enforcement officers are searching for the suspect.

Initial reports indicate a suspect had been known to authorities as a security risk.

Much of the movement's popular anger has crystallized around President Emmanuel Macron, seen as arrogant and out of touch. He will make a televised address Monday evening to try to quell the crisis.

"No tax deserves to endanger the unity of the nation," French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe says, putting on hold a new tax that was scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1.

Nicknamed for the safety vests worn by protesters, the yellow vest movement has sparked a political crisis for the French government. In Paris, demonstrations turned into riots over the weekend.

A grassroots movement in France, the mostly working-class "yellow vests," objects to new gasoline taxes. French President Emmanuel Macron says he sympathizes, but the tax will stand.

A woman who lived in one of the buildings said she stayed with her parents the night before the collapse because many of the doors in her building wouldn't close. "It could have been me," she said.

Three months' worth of rain fell in just a few hours, France's Interior Ministry says. One resident called it "the apocalypse."