Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | AFP | President Emmanuel Macron kicked off his maiden African tour Tuesday by vowing to declassify secret French files on Burkina Faso’s assassinated leader, Thomas Sankara, hailed as a hero in much of the continent. The terror threat has cast a shadow over Macron’s swing through …
Read More »Burkina grenade attack greets Macron’s Africa tour
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | AFP | Three civilians were wounded in Burkina Faso on Monday after a grenade was thrown at French troops shortly before President Emmanuel Macron touched down for the start of his first Africa tour. The French president is embarking on a three-day trip of western Africa …
Read More »France’s Macron nods to the left with cabinet mini-shuffle
Paris, France | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron named a Socialist lawmaker to a top budget post as part of a cabinet shuffle unveiled Friday, following grumblings from leftists who accuse his centrist government of favouring the rich. The moves were prompted by the nomination of Macron’s ultra-loyal government spokesman, …
Read More »Macron calls Libya slave sales ‘crimes against humanity’
Paris, France | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that auctions of Africans as slaves in Libya, shown in footage broadcast by CNN, qualified as “crimes against humanity”. “France denounces this completely,” he said after meeting in Paris with African Union chief Alpha Conde, adding “we need …
Read More »Six months on, Macron unpopular but in control
Paris, France | AFP | In his first six months in power, French President Emmanuel Macron has chalked up one reform after another in a whirlwind that has nevertheless seen his poll numbers plummet. The former investment banker’s stunning rise cast aside France’s traditional left and right, creating a solid centrist …
Read More »Macron warns looming military defeat of IS ‘not the end’
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that the Islamic State group faced complete military defeat in Iraq and Syria within months but warned the battle against jihadism would go on. He was speaking after Syrian troops and allied militiamen broke into the IS-held …
Read More »EU leaders look to digital future
Tallinn, Estonia | AFP | EU leaders will look to the bloc’s digital future at a summit in Tallinn on Friday, a day after debating wider plans unveiled by French President Emmanuel Macron to strengthen the union. Macron is expected to seek to persuade sceptical counterparts to overhaul tax rules so …
Read More »French, Rwandan presidents hold rare meeting amid tense diplomatic ties
Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | Rwandan President Paul Kagame has met with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in New York for rare talks, Kigali said Tuesday, as diplomatic ties remain icy over the 1994 genocide. Kigali has long accused France of complicity in the genocide of some 800,000 mostly ethnic …
Read More »France gets First Dog: Macron adopts labrador mix Nemo
Paris, France | AFP | In keeping with time-honoured French presidential tradition, Emmanuel Macron has given the country a First Dog. The 39-year-old president and his wife Brigitte adopted a black labrador-griffon mix at the weekend, whom they have named Nemo after the captain in Jules Verne’s science fiction classic, Twenty …
Read More »Macron courts the stars; meets Rihanna on education
Paris, France | AFP | France’s Emmanuel Macron continued to reach for the stars Wednesday, hosting R&B icon Rihanna for what she called “incredible” talks at the presidential palace in Paris two days after Irish rocker Bono. Barbados-born Rihanna is an ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education, which is …
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