Also known as: French President Emmanuel Macron · President Emmanuel Macron · President Macron · Mr Macron
French President overseeing crises including wildfires, hybrid attacks, and social media regulation, while declining papal Mass attendance to respect state-religion separation.
French President Emmanuel Macron has stated that higher education and research institutions in France will continue to support dedicated studies on colonial history and the legacy of slavery as part of broader efforts to preserve historical memory. …
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans for France to inaugurate a dedicated site in 2027 to honour the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and preserve the memory of the transatlantic slave trade. …
… He further highlighted remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has called for France to confront its colonial past and is expected to address the Accra conference. …
French President Emmanuel Macron, being the leader of the third-largest slave-trading nation in Europe, is accused of faking his newfound support for reparatory justice for historical injustices, particularly those connected to the transatlantic enslavement of Africans. …
The Government of Ghana has confirmed that the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, will address the Next Steps Conference on Reparatory Justice scheduled to be held in Accra. …
France has suspended the use of stun grenades for policing student protests after a 15-year-old's hand was blown off during demonstrations in Lens on Monday. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the pause would continue until the facts of the incident have been clarified, amid complaints of police using disproportionate force against teenagers.
France has suspended the use of stun grenades for policing student protests after a 15-year-old's hand was blown off during demonstrations in Lens on Monday. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the pause would continue until the facts of the incident have been clarified, amid complaints of police using disproportionate force against teenagers.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across France as high-school pupil protests expanded to include parents, university students, and unions, with police using tear gas in Paris and Marseille and water cannon in Rennes. The government reported disruptions in 891 high schools on Tuesday and more than 250,000 demonstrators on the streets, while students' unions put the number at 450,000 demonstrators and 1,800 blockaded schools.
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot visited Bunia in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and announced increased support for Ebola eradication efforts, warning the virus could resurge without sustained vigilance. France allocated €13.4 million to the fight between January and July and said it would propose additional humanitarian funding during upcoming budget discussions.
Pope Leo called on French bishops to eliminate sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church during a visit to Lourdes, telling them to maintain vigilance. A 2021 inquiry found clergy or lay church members had abused about 330,000 people as children in France over 70 years; the Pope later met with seven abuse survivors.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated an open-air Mass in Paris attended by an estimated 700,000 people, praising young worshippers for their "enthusiasm, energy and commitment" to the Catholic Church. The event took place on the second day of the Pope's four-day visit to France.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated a giant open-air Mass on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, with more than half a million people expected to attend the ceremony at Place de la Concorde. French President Emmanuel Macron did not attend to preserve France's separation of state and religion, but his wife Brigitte, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, and several presidential candidates were present.
Pope Leo XIV opened a state visit to France by warning that a "paradise of machines" risks undermining humanity amid concerns about artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons, and threats to human life. He reaffirmed Vatican opposition to nuclear deterrence, stating peace must be built through dialogue and justice rather than balance of power.
Pope Leo XIV is making a four-day visit to France, with a centrepiece Mass on Saturday in central Paris expected to draw more than half a million Catholic faithful to the Place de la Concorde and Champs-Élysées area. President Macron will greet the Pope at the airport and hold talks on geopolitical issues and artificial intelligence, but will not attend the Masses to respect France's separation of state and religion.
French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that Russia's hybrid attacks against Europe and France have intensified, and said he ordered a plan to protect critical infrastructure and defence industry sites. He said France had been targeted by such attacks in recent weeks and that Russia's intent is to intimidate Europe and break support for Ukraine.
Around 140 migrants in a single dinghy launched from the Normandy coast were rescued by two RNLI boats in UK waters and will be taken to shore in the UK, days after the Prime Minister and French President met to discuss efforts to reduce small boat crossings.
A BBC investigation found that people smuggling gangs are shifting tactics and using larger "mega-dinghies" to carry more migrants across the Channel, as a crackdown has reduced the supply of small boats. The UK and France are announcing measures to increase police presence on the French coast to counter the threat.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has ruled out standing for FIFA president in March 2027, though he expects another candidate to challenge Gianni Infantino following widespread opposition to the latter's now-scrapped plan to sell stakes in FIFA competitions to private investors.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine wants peace but will not surrender to Russia at any price, during Independence Day celebrations marked by visits from foreign leaders including British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and European Council President Antonio Costa. The gathering also discussed Ukraine's requests for air defence systems and British support for long-range missile production.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has called Gianni Infantino's abandoned proposal to sell a 21% stake in FIFA competitions' commercial and ticketing rights to a private company "worse than the Super League", saying football would be "literally sold". UEFA led opposition to the plan, with its members voting to boycott World Cups unless it was scrapped.
France's Constitutional Council has overturned legislation banning social media for under-15s, finding it violated freedom of expression and lacked necessary legal safeguards. President Emmanuel Macron has asked his Prime Minister to prepare a revised draft with the court's concerns in mind.
France has criticised a Reform UK proposal to use the Navy to intercept migrant boats in the English Channel and return them to French ports without French consent, saying it would violate sovereignty and breach international law. Reform UK said the plan would protect British interests and that humanitarian missions do not violate maritime or international law.
A major wildfire in southwestern France has advanced to within 15km of Bordeaux, prompting the mayor to prepare for possible mass evacuations. President Macron described it as France's "toughest since World War Two," with over 220,000 people evacuated in France and more than 100,000 in Spain as fires spread uncontrolled across the region.
French President Emmanuel Macron called a crisis cabinet meeting as wildfires closed in on Bordeaux, with the blaze about 15km from the city and another heatwave threatening to complicate firefighting efforts. More than 330,000 people have been evacuated across France and Spain over the past week.
Hong Wang and Yu Deng became the first Chinese to win the Fields Medal, regarded as mathematics' equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for solving problems that have baffled mathematicians for more than a century. Wang, 35, is only the third woman to receive the honour.
French authorities have ordered evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula with hundreds fleeing by boat as a wildfire consumes 8,700 hectares in the Gironde region. Spain has also declared a national emergency as wildfires burn near Madrid, while a separate major fire in France's Landes region has prompted evacuation of more than 23,000 people.
French lawmakers voted to ban social media use for children under 15, with the bill set to take effect this school year after President Emmanuel Macron signs it into law. The ban makes France the first EU country to impose such a restriction, following Australia's implementation of a ban for under-16s last year.
A reconciliation committee of France's Parliament approved a bill to ban social media access for those under 15, with French President Macron seeking implementation by early September. The measure follows Australia's ban for under-16s and comes as European Commission President Von der Leyen has supported similar limits across the EU.
France and Ghana have reaffirmed their commitment to deepening cooperation in health, innovation, investment and cultural exchange, marking another year of strong bilateral ties. Key engagements cited include the co-chairing of the One Health Summit in Lyon on April 7, President Mahama's official visit to Paris on April 8 for talks with President Macron, and France's participation in Ghana's conference on reparations on June 18 and 19.
A volunteer firefighter in France has been placed under formal investigation on suspicion of starting a forest fire south of Paris that burned more than 2,000 hectares and forced about 1,000 evacuations. He is among at least six people questioned over the Fontainebleau blaze; the 18-year-old initially confessed to setting fire to twigs with lighter and petrol before retracting the confession.
President John Dramani Mahama and French President Emmanuel Macron held high-level discussions in April at the Élysée Palace in Paris covering security cooperation, infrastructure development, regional stability and economic collaboration, with emphasis on maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea and Ghana's role as host of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat.
President Mahama and French President Macron met in April at the Élysée Palace to discuss cooperation spanning security, infrastructure, regional stability, and economic collaboration. Ghana emphasized its commitment to partnerships anchored in stability and reform, with the GIPC leading targeted investor outreach and discussions covering maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea and Ghana's role as host of the AfCFTA Secretariat.
At least 18 people were injured in Damascus on Tuesday when explosive devices detonated near the Four Seasons Hotel, where French President Emmanuel Macron was meeting Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The blasts occurred approximately 125 metres from the hotel; Syrian security forces identified two devices—one in a parked vehicle and one in a rubbish bin—before they detonated, with four police officers among the wounded and no immediate deaths reported.
At the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi on 11–12 May 2026, Kenyan President William Ruto argued that Africa's development finance challenge is not a lack of liquidity but rather risk architecture. The summit highlighted that Africa holds nearly UA$4 trillion in domestic savings, suggesting the financing problem is about channeling existing capital rather than generating new supply.
An opinion piece argues that modern African geopolitical strategy consists of parading problems before the international community rather than pursuing genuine structural reform. The author critiques the Accra Next Steps Conference commitments as rhetorically magnificent but structurally hollow, claiming Africa has substituted the hard work of statecraft for the theatre of grievance while remaining subservient to the mathematics of extraction.
African and Caribbean countries have called for formal apologies and reparations from nations that benefited from the transatlantic slave trade, following a three-day conference in Accra. A 19-point reparations plan was endorsed, calling for debt relief, restitution of cultural property, and establishment of a global reparations fund.