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
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.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/08/russia-ukraine-putin-zelenskyy-greenland-denmark-france-macron-germany-merz-europe-latest-news-updates
About the Author
