The best hope for a toddler missing in France is that “he’s been kidnapped and is alive,” the local mayor has said. Emile vanished from his maternal grandparents’ home in the quiet village of Le Vernet in the Alpes-des-Haute-Provence on Saturday and has not been seen since. After he was reported missing, a massive search operation to locate the two-year-old was launched but police admitted they had “no clue” what happened to Emile after five days of combing every part of Le Vernet. The physical search was called off on Thursday, after a final road was raked for clues about the boy’s whereabouts. In a new interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Francois Balique has commented on the rescue efforts, that involved a helicopter broadcasting the voice of Emile’s mother over the region, the “curse” of the hamlet, and possible explanations for Emile’s disappearance. Mr Balique, who has been Le Vernet’s mayor since 1977, was asked about the likelihood of finding Emile alive – considering the boy’s age and the number of days that have passed since he was last seen. He responded: “Our only hope now is that he’s been taken and is alive. It’s the last thing we can hope for and it’s already terrible. “We could consider that someone wanting to cause harm to a child passed by the area, that he saw this beautiful little boy and took him away. He couldn’t survive alone in the wild, that’s for sure.” Elsewhere, Mr Balique said he never believed Emile’s disappearance to be a “sordid kidnapping because we see all the people who frequent the area”, adding that a “foreign car would have been noticed”. “It is difficult to favour one hypothesis over another,” he cautioned. “But the probabilities and the rationality would lead us to believe that we are dealing with an accident. “And since little Emile’s body has not been found, it means that he was not alone at the time. We can consider a car accident in which the driver would have panicked and concealed the body. That’s one hypothesis.” He also said the people of Haut-Vernet know that there are children in the area, and “they are careful on the road”. When asked about calling off the physical search for Emile, Mr Balique, 74, said the French military police (or the gendarmes) combed a combined area of one hundred hectares, “which is enormous”. “We did everything we could to find the child, alive or not. We found nothing,” he said. Locals speaking to the media in the wake of Emile’s disappearance said they wondered whether their hamlet may be “cursed” as a result of the tragedies which have taken place, including the murder of a cafe manager and a deadly plane crash. When asked about the “curse”, Mr Balique said “what is curious” are the facts of Emile’s disappearance – “not that it happened here”. Since the physical search was called off on Thursday, local prosecutor Remy Avon said investigators would now start sorting through all the evidence that has been collected to find new clues about what happened to the toddler. During a press conference on Friday, Mr Balique confirmed the last teams of gendarmes had left the village. Read More Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘dead or in prison’ after Putin meeting, former US commander claims Land temperatures in Spain surpass 60C as deadly heatwave sweeps Europe Huw Edwards – latest: Former BBC journalists blast coverage ‘a disgrace’ as TV star in hospital Heatwave across Europe leaves Brits abroad sweltering: ‘I don’t cope well at all’ Watch: Macron and Modi give joint statement at the Elysee after Bastille Day parade Russia Ukraine war: Wagner forces training soldiers in Belarus after Prigozhin exile

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Eva Mendes has revealed that she doesn’t let her and Ryan Gosling’s daughters use the internet. The actor, 49, took to Instagram on 3 August to share one of the rules that she has for her and Gosling’s daughters - Esmeralda, eight, and Amada, seven. Mendes shared a video of herself shaking her head no and wagging her finger, as she pointed out that’s how she responds to her children when they ask to use the internet. “When my kids ask me if they’re old enough to go on the internet, social media or anything requiring wifi,” she wrote in the caption. When a fan in the comments asked when she will allow her children use the internet, Mendes candidly confessed that she’s still figuring that out. She also specified that she’s been doing research on how social media can impact children as they continue to get older. “I honestly don’t know. I have to see where it goes,” the Hitch star responded. “For now, I’m observing them and keeping up with research about how social media can impact a child’s brain.” She responded to another fan who praised her parenting decision, with Mendes noting that while she’s “just sharing what [she] feels now”, she thinks it’ll be harder to keep her children away from the internet as they get older. Mendes clarified that her children are still given screentime, adding: “I let my kids use the iPad to make movies and watch films I’ve downloaded, but I don’t have internet access on the iPad.” The actress was also hit with some criticism for her parenting rule, with one Instagram user writing: “We are in the internet century so eventually everyone will need or want to access the internet sorry.” While it appears the comment has since been deleted, Mendes responded to the remark by explaining why she doesn’t feel like the internet is a safe space for her children. “In my house, children do not have access to the internet,” she responded to the remark, as reported by E! News. “It’s too dangerous. Just like drinking or voting or getting a driver’s license (etc..) isn’t allowed for children, the internet falls under that category for me. Especially social media.” While Mendes and Gosling - who’ve been together since 2011 - are notoriously private about their family life, the couple have shared a few details about raising children together. During an interview with Byrdie in July 2022, Mendes explained that she and her partner want to make sure that their children feel confident in themselves throughout everything they do in life. “Hopefully Ryan and I are doing the work by just loving them, completely loving them, and doing most of that work for them so that they grow up feeling like they’re enough,” she said. “That’s the one thing that’s really important to me. Because once they feel like they’re enough, no matter what they do, no matter what they end up doing, that will feed into every area of your life. Especially into how attractive you feel, or any of that stuff.” In a cover story interview with GQ in June, Gosling also shared some candid thoughts about fatherhood. He revealed that prior to his relationship with Mendes, he didn’t think much about becoming a father. However, that all changed when Mendes told him she was pregnant. “Eva said she was pregnant,” he recalled. “I would never want to go back, you know? I’m glad I didn’t have control over my destiny in that way, because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself.” Elsewhere in the interview, the Barbie star clarified previous comments he made about the moment Mendes learned she was pregnant. While he maintained that he “wasn’t thinking about kids” before they met, Gosling said: “After I met Eva, I realised that I just didn’t want to have kids without her.” Read More Eva Mendes shows off dress made out of sponges as she jokes it’ll be her Oscars outfit Ryan Gosling’s daughters hilariously prove ‘nobody plays with Ken’ Ryan Gosling’s subtle tribute to Eva Mendes at the Barbie premiere Eva Mendes reveals she doesn’t let her daughters use the internet What is Stiff Person Syndrome? Nearly half of US adults are interested in taking weight loss prescription drugs

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