Emmanuel Macron and Viktor Orbán among leaders Xi is meeting, with several key issues on the table
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has begun a three-country tour of Europe – his first state visit to the continent in five years – at a time when China-EU ties are under strain from trade disputes and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Continue reading...Chinese premier meets Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen for talks, with trade and Ukraine on agenda
The trilateral meeting has kicked off.
Xi Jinping has arrived at the Élysée palace.
Continue reading...On his first visit to Europe since 2019, Xi is set to meet with Emmanuel Macron before heading to Serbia and Hungary
Xi Jinping has lauded China’s ties with France as a model for the international community as he arrived in Paris amid threats of a trade war over Chinese electric cars and French cognac.
On his first visit to the EU in five years, China’s president will meet his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who will urge him to reduce trade imbalances and use his influence with Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...China’s president arrives as EU anti-subsidy investigations and tensions over espionage, Ukraine and Taiwan continue
China’s president, Xi Jinping, is to visit Europe next week for the first time in five years, in a tour that will take in the unlikely trifecta of France, Hungary and Serbia.
The visit comes as China pushes to avoid a trade war with the EU, while attitudes towards Beijing in the bloc are hardening after multiple spying scandals and China’s ongoing support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Children should be banned from most social media until 18 amid attempts to ‘monetise’ them, says Macron-commissioned study
Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they are 18, according to a report by experts commissioned by Emmanuel Macron.
The French president had asked scientists and experts to suggest screen use guidelines for children with a view to France taking unprecedented steps on limiting their exposure. It was unclear how the government might now proceed after the report’s publication. Macron said in January: “There might be bans, there might be restrictions.”
Continue reading...French president says location of spectacle, due to take place on Seine, could change if there is serious risk of terror attack
France has backup plans to move the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games from the Seine if there is a serious risk of a terrorist attack, Emmanuel Macron has said.
Speaking in a television interview on Monday, the French president said organisers “could and would” continue to plan for a “world first” opening ceremony for 26 July, when more than 300,000 people are expected to watch a flotilla of boats carrying national teams down the river.
Continue reading...French president marks 30th anniversary with video, airing Sunday, saying international community lacked will to stop the slaughter
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said France and its western and African allies “could have stopped” Rwanda’s 1994 genocide but did not have the will to halt the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis.
In a video message to be published on Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide, Macron will emphasise that “when the phase of total extermination against the Tutsis began, the international community had the means to know and act”, the presidency said on Thursday.
Continue reading...French president in favour of singer opening the Games amid racist backlash from far-right politicians
Emmanuel Macron has said the French pop superstar Aya Nakamura would be in her rightful place performing at an opening ceremony for the Olympic Games this summer, after suggestions that she could sing an Édith Piaf song sparked a racist backlash against the singer.
Asked about Nakamura, who is the most listened to French-speaking artist in the world, Macron said it would be a “good thing” if she performed at an opening or closing ceremony.
Continue reading...Photos of French president’s three-day trip to Brazil to reaffirm countries’ partnership delight internet observers
If the official photos are anything to go by, Emmanuel Macron’s three-day trip to Brazil has been more romantic getaway than international diplomacy.
The French president, who ended his tour of the South American country on Thursday with a state visit to the capital, Brasília, prompted online hilarity after the publication of photos showing him being particularly chummy with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Continue reading...French president tells Brazil forum both parties need to be ‘much stronger’ on biodiversity and climate
Emmanuel Macron has called a proposed trade agreement between the EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc a “very bad deal” that lacks proper climate considerations.
“As it is negotiated today, it is a very bad deal, for you and for us,” the French president told Brazilian businessmen in São Paulo on Wednesday while on a three-day trip to Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy.
Continue reading...President sparks social media buzz as users ask whether he is getting ready to take on Vladimir Putin after images posted to Instagram
The release of official photos showing Emmanuel Macron hitting a punching bag have been met with a mixture of praise and consternation in France.
The photos of the French president, posted on Instagram on Tuesday by his official photographer, Soazig de la Moissonnière, are coloured in moody black and white, and show the president with teeth gritted and biceps bulging as he works out.
Continue reading...Day of mourning declared following devastating attack on Ukrainian port city; Bridget A Brink says ‘cruel attack’ shows Russia ‘will not stop’
Sergei Naryshkin, chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, said on Friday that French president Emmanuel Macron’s remarks about the possibility of sending soldiers from Nato countries to Ukraine were “crazy and paranoid dreams”, Reuters reports
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, is reporting an explosion in Odesa. Regional governor Oleg Kiper has warned residents via Telegram to take shelter.
Continue reading...European military powers try to dampen tensions between them over Russian war and US aid for Kyiv
The three leading military powers in mainland Europe – France, Germany and Poland – are holding an emergency session in Berlin to try to dampen tensions over their different responses to the twin spectres of Russian military advances in Ukraine and US Congress’s refusal to approve substantial further military aid for Kyiv.
The clash in approach – predominantly between the newly hawkish French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the perennially cautious German chancellor, Olaf Scholz – was laid bare in a dramatic French TV interview on Thursday night in which Macron said Europe’s security, even its existence, was at risk.
Continue reading...Prime minister says France ‘stands up’ to defend women as rights are attacked around the world
France is preparing to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right at a joint session of parliament next week, after the senate voted in favour on Wednesday night.
France would write into its constitution the “guaranteed freedom” of women to choose an abortion.
Continue reading...Ulf Kristersson distances himself from Macron, saying ‘France’s tradition is not the Swedish tradition’
Sweden’s prime minister has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine for now – saying the subject is “not relevant at all” – putting down a clear marker between himself and Emmanuel Macron as he prepares for his historically neutral country to imminently join Nato.
Ulf Kristersson, who on Monday hailed a “historic day” as Sweden’s Nato membership was finally approved by Hungary, clearing the Nordic country’s path to join the western military alliance, said that while he respected “France’s will to help Ukraine”, Sweden would be following its own path.
Continue reading...French president tells Paris conference Moscow ‘must not and cannot’ win the war and that Europe’s security is at stake
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called for western countries to step up their support for Ukraine, warning that Moscow’s actions in recent weeks signal that Russia could attack Nato states in the next few years.
Speaking at the opening of a hastily convened conference of 20 mainly European leaders in Paris designed to speed up the supply of weapons and financial aid to Ukraine, Macron said Russia “must not and cannot win this war” and that Europe’s own security was at stake.
Continue reading...French president greeted by whistles from hundreds of demonstrators as some clash with police
Hundreds of protesting farmers clashed with police in Paris as Emmanuel Macron toured the annual agricultural fair on Saturday. The French president had opened the fair as angry farmers blew whistles and shouted insults.
Riot police initially kept the protesters at a safe distance as he toured the fair, tasting honey from Normandy and cheeses from the Alps, and shaking hands with exhibitors. But as he entered the fair’s livestock area, hundreds of demonstrators crashed the gates and clashed with police.
Continue reading...President faces uncertain reception at Salon d’Agriculture after weeks of protests by furious farmers
Most politicians kiss babies; French leaders pat cows and make a fuss of lambs.
The Salon d’Agriculture, the country’s annual farm show which opens on Saturday, is a date presidents cannot afford to miss.
Continue reading...President said he was against members of far-right RN attending ceremony for Missak Manouchian
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is set to defy requests to stay away from a national ceremony to honour a second world war resistance hero.
A spokesperson for Le Pen described President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion she should not attend the event on Wednesday as “outrageous”.
Continue reading...Polish PM Donald Tusk says ‘all for one, and one for all’ in thinly veiled riposte to Republican frontrunner
European leaders have called for greater unity and military cooperation across the continent in response to comments from Donald Trump that threatened to undermine the basis of Nato.
Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said on a visit to Paris on Monday that there was “no alternative” to the EU and the transatlantic alliance before a summit in which he discussed deepening defence relationships with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Continue reading...