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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Ashifa Kassam European Community affairs correspondent

Le scoop! France’s last newspaper hawker celebrated with prestigious award

Ali Akbar Emmanuel Macron France Paris Pakistan
Ali Akbar holds up Le Figaro in Saint-German-des-Prés outside a cafe in Paris.
‘I try and get into people’s hearts,’ says Ali Akbar, who sells newspapers in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. Photograph: Guillaume Baptiste/AFP/Getty

For more than five decades he’s pounded the pavements of Paris, becoming part of the city’s cultural fabric as he strikes up conversations, greets longtime friends and offers parodies of daily news headlines.

On Wednesday, the efforts of the man believed to be France’s last newspaper hawker were recognised, as Ali Akbar, a 73-year-old originally from Pakistan, received one of France’s most prestigious honours.

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