France’s Macron warns US under Trump is ‘turning away’ from allies
French president Emmanuel Macron warned the US under Donald Trump was “breaking free from international rules” and “gradually turning away” from some of its allies.
Echoing the criticism from his German counterpart (11:30), he warned about the increasingly assertive US policy.
“Multilateral institutions are functioning less and less effectively,” Macron said in his annual speech to French ambassadors, as reported by AFP.
We are living in a world of great powers with a real temptation to divide up the world.
Key events
Closing summary
French president Emmanuel Macron warned the US under Donald Trump was “breaking free from international rules” and “gradually turning away” from some of its allies. Echoing the criticism from his German counterpart (11:30), he warned about the increasingly assertive US policy.
Farmers protesting against European Union plans to pursue a free trade deal with five South American nations have halted traffic and blocked key roads with tractors in France (see 14.51) and Greece, AP reports. In Greece, farmers escalated nationwide protests, launching a 48-hour blockade of major motorways, junctions and toll stations. Tractors lined key routes across the country, halting all traffic except emergency vehicles in protest against the EU-Mercosur agreement and rising costs.
Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher serving a three-year prison sentence in Russia for violating Moscow’s foreign agent laws, has been freed as part of a prisoner exchange, French and Russian officials said on Thursday. President Emmanuel Macron posted on X: “Our compatriot Laurent Vinatier is free and back in France. I share the relief felt by his family and loved ones.” He added he was grateful for work done by French diplomatic officials. Russia’s FSB security service said Vinatier, 49, had been swapped for Daniil Kasatkin, a Russian basketball player who was arrested at a Paris airport last June and who was wanted in the United States for alleged involvement in ransomware attacks.
There is growing focus on another Russian “shadow fleet” tanker that is now sailing through the English Channel. The ship, operating now as Tavian, was reportedly previously sanctioned in 2024 under its previous name Tia.
Greenland should hold direct talks with the US government without Denmark, a Greenlandic opposition leader told Reuters, as the Arctic island weighs how to respond to president Donald Trump’s renewed push to bring it under US control. Trump has recently stepped up threats to take over Greenland, reviving an idea he floated in 2019 during his first term in office.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz has urged European allies to “raise the price of war” for Moscow to bring it to the negotiating table on Ukraine. Speaking shortly after Zelenskyy’s latest comments on Ukraine questioning Russia’s willingness to end its invasion (13:09), Merz said that “a ceasefire is still not on the agenda, quite obviously because Russia does not want it.”
Russia said that any western troops sent to Ukraine as part of the Coalition of the Willing would be deemed “legitimate combat targets,” after plans announced at the grouping’s summit earlier this week. Reuters reported that a Russian foreign ministry statement said “militaristic declarations” by a coalition of pro-Ukraine European governments were becoming increasingly dangerous.
Spain’s Catholic bishops have agreed to let the Spanish government’s ombudsman have the final say in the church’s compensation of victims of sexual abuse by clergy members who have died or whose possible crimes are too old to be prosecuted. The agreement, which envisages a one-year window for claims, marks a rare concession by the Catholic hierarchy, AP reported.
The European Commission has ordered Elon Musk’s social media platform X to retain all internal documents and data relating to its built-in artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, until the end of 2026, a commission spokesperson said on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.
Italy’s aviation authority on Thursday strongly condemned an incident at Milan’s Malpensa airport in which it said Israeli-bound passengers were temporarily blocked from boarding a flight to Tel Aviv by pro-Palestinian activists. The president of the ENAC authority, Pierluigi Di Palma, offered the condemnation in person during a meeting he requested with Israel’s ambassador to Italy, Jonathan Peled, at the agency’s headquarters, ENAC said.
Following on from the last post, here is a video of tractors blocking roads around the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe:
Farmers protesting against European Union plans to pursue a free trade deal with five South American nations have halted traffic and blocked key roads with tractors in France (see 14.51) and Greece, AP reports.
In Greece, farmers escalated nationwide protests, launching a 48-hour blockade of major motorways, junctions and toll stations.
Tractors lined key routes across the country, halting all traffic except emergency vehicles in protest against the EU-Mercosur agreement and rising costs.
European farmers have long denounced the trade deal with the Mercosur nations of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, arguing that it would hurt their livelihoods and flood the market with cheaper imports.
A bit more now on the prisoner swap between France and Russia this afternoon (see 15.12).
Laurent Vinatier, a French political scholar serving a three-year sentence in Russia and facing new charges of espionage, was freed in exchange for Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin.
Kasatkin, who had been jailed in France, was released and returned to Russia on Thursday, Russia’s Federal Security Service said in a statement.
His lawyer, Frederic Belot, told the Associated Press that Kasatkin had been detained last June at the request of the United States for alleged involvement in computer fraud.
Belot said that Kasatkin was accused of having acted as a negotiator for a team of hackers. According to the lawyer, Kasatkin had purchased a second-hand computer that had not been reset.
“We believe that this computer was used remotely by these hackers without his knowledge,” Belot said. “He is a basketball player and knows nothing about computer science. We consider him completely innocent.”
Belot, who represents both Vinatier and Kasatkin, added that the French researcher is “totally innocent of the espionage acts that were alleged against him”.
Spain’s Catholic bishops have agreed to let the Spanish government’s ombudsman have the final say in the church’s compensation of victims of sexual abuse by clergy members who have died or whose possible crimes are too old to be prosecuted.
The agreement, which envisages a one-year window for claims, marks a rare concession by the Catholic hierarchy, AP reported. It is aimed at resolving disagreements between the left-wing government and church authorities over reparations after victims criticised the church’s original in-house compensation proposal.
The Spanish bishops conference said in a statement that the new agreement will allow victims who don’t want to seek help directly from the church to turn to the government and the state’s ombudsman, who has taken a lead role in shedding light on abuse. The ombudsman will evaluate the claims and ultimately will have the final say on any possible awards.
Spain’s justice minister Félix Bolaños said in a press conference in Madrid that “hundreds” of victims whose aggressors had passed away or were now very old could finally receive recognition of the abuse and receive economic reparations paid by the church.
“Today, we have paid a debt to the victims,” Bolaños said. “It is true that the state has acted late, but we are acting now. Yesterday, the victims couldn’t do anything because these crimes had proscribed.”
The Guardian’s John Harris and Kiran Stacey talk to security and defence editor Dan Sabbagh about what the UK’s involvement could be in any future US interventions in Europe.
And, what the last week means for the future of Nato, and peace in Ukraine.
Italy’s aviation authority on Thursday strongly condemned an incident at Milan’s Malpensa airport in which it said Israeli-bound passengers were temporarily blocked from boarding a flight to Tel Aviv by pro-Palestinian activists.
The president of the ENAC authority, Pierluigi Di Palma, offered the condemnation in person during a meeting he requested with Israel’s ambassador to Italy, Jonathan Peled, at the agency’s headquarters, ENAC said.
ENAC had posted a video on its website of the 4 January incident, in which protesters described by ENAC as pro-Palestinian activists locked hands and seemingly blocked passengers from getting past the gate desk to board their flight to Tel Aviv.
According to the video, the protesters scuffled with a few passengers who pushed their way through. The incident led to a two-hour delay in takeoff, ENAC said.
ENAC firmly condemned the protest, announced an investigation to identify the people responsible and vowed to take measures to prevent anything similar from happening in the future, AP reported.
According to Italian news reports, those responsible had been waiting to board a flight to Morocco from a nearby gate.
Greenland should hold direct talks with the US government without Denmark, a Greenlandic opposition leader told Reuters, as the Arctic island weighs how to respond to president Donald Trump’s renewed push to bring it under US control.
Trump has recently stepped up threats to take over Greenland, reviving an idea he floated in 2019 during his first term in office.
Greenland is strategically located between Europe and North America, making it a critical site for the US ballistic missile defence system. Its rich mineral resources also fit Washington’s goal of reducing dependence on China.
The island is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. It has its own parliament and government, but Copenhagen retains authority over foreign affairs and defence.
“We encourage our current [Greenlandic] government actually to have a dialogue with the US government without Denmark,” said Pele Broberg, the leader of Naleraq, the largest opposition party and the most prominent political voice for Greenland’s independence.
“Because Denmark is antagonising both Greenland and the US with their mediation.”
Naleraq, which strongly advocates a rapid move to full independence, doubled its seats to eight in last year’s election, winning 25% of the vote in the nation of just 57,000.
Russia frees French researcher Vinatier in prisoner exchange
Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher serving a three-year prison sentence in Russia for violating Moscow’s foreign agent laws, has been freed as part of a prisoner exchange, French and Russian officials said on Thursday.
President Emmanuel Macron posted on X: “Our compatriot Laurent Vinatier is free and back in France. I share the relief felt by his family and loved ones.” He added he was grateful for work done by French diplomatic officials.
Russia’s FSB security service said Vinatier, 49, had been swapped for Daniil Kasatkin, a Russian basketball player who was arrested at a Paris airport last June and who was wanted in the United States for alleged involvement in ransomware attacks.
The FSB said Vinatier had been pardoned by president Vladimir Putin, who promised last month to look into the case after a French journalist raised during the Kremlin leader’s annual news conference.
Vinatier was arrested by the FSB at a Moscow restaurant in June 2024, and convicted in October that year of breaking laws requiring individuals deemed to be “foreign agents” to register with the Russian authorities.
French farmers stage protest in Paris to oppose EU-Mercosur trade deal
Jon Henley
in Paris
Here is a bit more on the French protests from our Paris man, Jon Henley.
French farmers in tractors have blocked roads around the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe in protest at an imminent EU trade deal with South American countries that they say will create unfair competition.
The farmers blockaded motorways outside Paris on Thursday and dozens of tractors overran police checkpoints to reach the city centre in a pre-dawn protest organised by the Coordination Rurale union.
EU states are due to vote on Friday on the deal with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, the four members of the South American trade bloc known as Mercosur. If ratified, it would create a common market of nearly 800 million people, boosting EU exports of vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits.
Many European farmers fear being undercut by an influx of cheaper agricultural products from the Mercosur common market. Belgian farmers have also protested, rolling more than 1,000 tractors into Brussels last month.
“We are between resentment and despair. We have a feeling of abandonment – with Mercosur being an example,” Stéphane Pelletier, a senior member of Coordination Rurale, told Reuters beneath the Eiffel Tower.
Ireland to vote against EU’s Mercosur trade deal
Lisa O’Carroll
In other news, Ireland is to vote against the Mercosur trade deal between the EU and a group of Latin American countries, the taoiseach has said during a visit to China, aligning itself with France and Portugal.
Micheál Martin said:
“In terms of that basic issue around the obligations and standards for Irish farmers, our sense is that we don’t have confidence that they won’t be undercut. So the Government will be voting no.”
The EU is due to vote on Friday on the deal with Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay after postponing a decision before Christmas due to opposition by Italy and France.
The deal has been in negotiation for more than 25 years and is now seen as a key to diversifying markets for exports after Trump introduced wide-ranging tariffs.
But Italy now appears to be leaning towards support, enough to stop other countries blocking the majority vote, even without Hungary and Poland who have indicated they would vote against.
France has not yet said how it will vote tomorrow, but if Italy is on board the deal will go through.
Farmers have been up in arms across Europe amid fears they will face cheaper priced meat and other produce from south America.
Watch out Greenland: Trump is pro-imperialism now – podcast
If it’s not threats of military action against Colombia and Cuba, or talk of taking Greenland from Denmark, it’s seizing oil tankers in European and Caribbean waters.
All of it has world leaders scrambling to figure out how to handle Donald Trump’s revived form of US imperialism.
In the latest episode of our Politics Weekly America podcast, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Pulitzer-winning author Anne Applebaum about what to expect now that Trump has ushered in a new world order.
Politics Weekly America
Watch out Greenland: Trump is pro-imperialism now
EU foreign policy chief notes ‘deeply concerning’ US comments on Greenland, confirms talks on EU response
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has just commented on the latest US comments on Greenland, calling them “deeply concerning” and confirming that the EU has had an internal discussion on how it could respond to any move from the US to control the territory.
Speaking in Egypt after meeting the country’s foreign minister, Kallas said:
“The messages that we hear regarding Greenland are extremely concerning, and we have had discussions also among the Europeans … [on] if this is real threat, and if it is, then what would be our response?
As Denmark has been a good ally for United States … these … statements are not really helping the stability of the world.
I would say the international law is very clear. We have to stick to it. It is clear that it is the only thing that protects smaller countries, and that’s why it is in the interest of all of us, and we discussed this today as well, that we uphold the international law on all levels.”
Suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker reportedly be sailing through English Channel
In the latest tanker news, there is growing focus on another Russian “shadow fleet” tanker that is now sailing through the English Channel.
The ship, operating now as Tavian, was reportedly previously sanctioned in 2024 under its previous name Tia.
The spotting, first reported in the Telegraph, comes a day after Britain’s Ministry of Defence said it had provided military help to the US forces that seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker north-west of Britain and Ireland.
One to watch.
Germany’s Merz urges Europe to ‘raise price of war’ for Russia to bring Moscow to table on Ukraine
German chancellor Friedrich Merz has urged European allies to “raise the price of war” for Moscow to bring it to the negotiating table on Ukraine.
Speaking shortly after Zelenskyy’s latest comments on Ukraine questioning Russia’s willingness to end its invasion (13:09), Merz said that “a ceasefire is still not on the agenda, quite obviously because Russia does not want it.”
“We will therefore have to continue to raise the price of this war – Russia must realise that there is no point in continuing it,” he stressed.
EU tells X to retain all Grok records until end 2026 amid growing frustration with AI chatbot’s activities
Meanwhile, the European Commission has ordered Elon Musk’s social media platform X to retain all internal documents and data relating to its built-in artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, until the end of 2026, a commission spokesperson said on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.
The commission said earlier this week that the images of undressed women and children being shared across X were unlawful and appalling, joining a growing chorus of officials across the world who have condemned the surge in nonconsensual imagery on the platform.
The Commission had now decided to extend a retention order sent to X last year, which related to algorithms and dissemination of illegal content, spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters.
“This is saying to a platform, keep your internal documents, don’t get rid of them, because we have doubts about your compliance... and we need to be able to have access to them if we request it explicitly,” Regnier said.
France’s Macron warns US under Trump is ‘turning away’ from allies
French president Emmanuel Macron warned the US under Donald Trump was “breaking free from international rules” and “gradually turning away” from some of its allies.
Echoing the criticism from his German counterpart (11:30), he warned about the increasingly assertive US policy.
“Multilateral institutions are functioning less and less effectively,” Macron said in his annual speech to French ambassadors, as reported by AFP.
We are living in a world of great powers with a real temptation to divide up the world.
US-Ukraine security guarantees ready to be finalised by leaders, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has just said that the document outlining US security guarantees for Ukraine “is now essentially ready for finalisation at the highest leve wiht the president of the United States.”
Could there be another big meeting with Trump on cards?
The president contijnued:
“It is important that Ukraine is successfully uniting the efforts of the European and American teams, and together, we discussed, in particular, documents on recovery and economic development.
Complex issues from the basic framework for ending the war were also addressed, and the Ukrainian side presented possible options for finalising this document.”
Zelenskyy added:
“We understand that the American side will engage with Russia, and we expect feedback on whether the aggressor is genuinely willing to end the war. Upon returning to Kyiv, our negotiating team will report on all the details of the meetings.”
He also added that Ukraine will be “informing our partners about the consequences of Russia’s [overnight] strikes, which clearly don’t indicate that Moscow is reconsidering its priorities.”
“In this context, it is necessary that pressure on Russia continues to increase at the same intensity as the work of our negotiating teams. The feasibility of future security guarantees must be proven by our partners’ ability to exert effective pressure on the aggressor at this very stage. We are preparing new relevant contacts with partners.”
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