Plan ‘betrayal’ of values, says French president in speech covering defence, Europe’s waning influence and negative effects of Brexit

• Europe live – latest updates

Emmanuel Macron has criticised migration policies that involve sending migrants to African countries as “a betrayal of our [European] values”, just days after the UK government passed its Rwanda deportation bill.

The French president made the remarks in a wide-ranging speech on Thursday aimed at warning Europe against over-dependence on other countries for security and trade.

Continue reading...

Paris claims ban breaches UK-EU trade deal but environmentalists say dispute is ‘hypocrisy’, given Macron’s rhetoric on saving oceans

France has been accused of hypocrisy by conservationists over a fresh post-Brexit dispute with the UK over fishing rights.

France launched an official protest after the UK banned bottom trawling from parts of its territorial waters last month, with the aim of protecting vulnerable habitats.

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...

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...

A ceasefire on Russia’s terms would embolden Putin to pick new targets for his expansionist aims

Pope Francis’s suggestion that Ukraine’s leaders should admit defeat, find “the courage to raise the white flag” and negotiate a halt to the war with Russia provoked justified fury in Kyiv and eastern Europe. He was wrong to say Ukraine is beaten, and gravely remiss in failing to condemn Moscow’s illegal aggression and war crimes. Yet Francis is not alone in wondering how this conflict ends.

Two years on, there’s no sign of a winner. Maybe that’s just as well, in the sense that outright victory for either side could be disastrous for all. Does this unheroic consideration tacitly influence the cautious approach of Kyiv’s two biggest western backers, the US and Germany? If so, it makes the absence of a credible peace process all the more regrettable – and potentially very dangerous.

Continue reading...

Three days of voting begin in Russia and occupied regions of Ukraine amid claims Russia repelled attempt to land Ukrainian troops in Belgorod

Reuters notes that more than 114 million Russians are eligible to vote, including in what Moscow prefers to call its “new territories” – the four regions of Ukraine that it has claimed to annexed but which its forces only partly control. Ukraine says the staging of elections there is illegal.

As a reminder, Vladimir Putin is not the only candidate. He is running against Communist Nikolai Kharitonov , Leonid Slutsky , leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, and Vladislav Davankov of the New People party.

Continue reading...