France abandons plans to build new airport in the west

France will abandon plans to build a new airport in the west, the prime minister announced Wednesday, ordering the activists who have been protesting the project for nearly a decade to leave their makeshift settlement and unblock nearby roads. Despite their long-sought political victory, the activists refused. Nantes mayor Johanna Rolland, meanwhile, said the national govt "ceded to blackmail and threats." "The Notre-Dame-des-Landes project will be abandoned," prime minister Edouard Philippe said. "This is a logical decision, considering the dead-end where this project has found itself." He noted that plans for the airport were first made 50 years ago and "the debate should have ended long ago." <br/>