French president Emmanuel Macron welcomed in Monaco for historic visit
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, arrived in Monaco on Saturday, where they were welcomed for a historic state visit to the principality on the French Riviera.
Macron and his wife received traditional military honours from Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco in a ceremony at the Prince's Palace.
Monaco, in a post on Facebook, hailed its relationship with France, saying the principality and Paris have a strong bond of friendship with an open border.
The palace said Monaco and France cooperate in many fields, from health to safety to culture and education, stressing that both states were focused on a more sustainable future.
According to the Prince's Palace, more than 40,000 French citizens cross the border each day to work in Monaco, and the trip by Macron presented an opportunity to discuss bilateral issues and those of mutual interest.
Macron's two-day visit is the first state visit to Monaco by a French president since that of François Mitterrand in 1984.
It also comes ahead of the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice on Tuesday, which Macron is billed to attend alongside other global leaders, with the EU expected to formally launch the "European Ocean Pact."
The pact seeks to address climate and pollution threats to biodiversity, as well as challenges for coastal livelihoods.
Meanwhile, the European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costas Kadis, on Saturday described the pact as a shared roadmap for ocean health and marine sustainability.
Kadis said this during a key speech at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco ahead of the UN Ocean Conference.
"In the context of this year's UN Ocean Conference, we have pledged approximately €1 billion in voluntary commitments for ocean and coastal biodiversity and climate," Kadis told the forum.
This support extends beyond the EU, also targeting dedicated initiatives across Africa, the Pacific, and Latin America," the EU commissioner said during his address.
However promising, some NGO groups have taken a jab at the pact, saying it falls short of needs and is a missed opportunity.
In a joint statement, a group of six leading environmental NGOs said the pact falls short of delivering the urgent action and binding targets that are needed to protect oceans.
Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, the 3rd UN Ocean Conference runs from 9 to 13 June.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday made clear he was not interested in repairing the relationship with his former ally and campaign benefactor Elon Musk, warning Musk could face 'serious consequences' if he tries to back the opposition.
In a phone interview with NBC's Kristen Welker, Trump said that he has no intention of reconciling with Musk. And, when asked specifically if he thought his relationship with the mega-billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX was over, Trump responded, 'I would assume so, yeah.'
'I'm too busy doing other things,' Trump continued. 'You know, I won an election in a landslide. I gave him a lot of breaks long before this happened. I gave him breaks in my first administration and saved his life in my first administration. I have no intention of speaking to him.'
The US president also issued a warning amid chatter that Musk could back Democratic lawmakers and candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.
'If he does, he'll have to pay the consequences for that,' Trump told NBC, though he declined to share what those consequences would be. Musk's businesses have many lucrative federal contracts.
The latest comes after a spectacular fallout in the relationship between the US president and the world's richest man over Trump's budget bill that Musk began to criticise on his social media platform X earlier in the week.
Musk warned that the bill would increase the federal deficit and called it a 'disgusting abomination.'
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill would slash spending and taxes but also leave some 10.9 million more people without health insurance and spike deficits by $2.4 trillion over the decade.
On Thursday, Trump criticised Musk's strong reaction to his 'big beautiful bill' pending before Congress, and before long, he and Musk began trading bitter personal attacks on social media, sending the White House and GOP congressional leaders scrambling to assess the fallout.
As the back-and-forth intensified, Musk suggested Trump should be impeached and claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president's association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, a claim the Tesla boss appeared to have walked back from by deleting his tweet about Epstein on Saturday.
Speaking in an interview with ' manosphere' comedian Theo Von, US Vice President JD Vance tried to downplay the feud. He said Musk was making a 'huge mistake' going after Trump, calling him an 'emotional guy' getting frustrated.
'I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that's not possible now because he's gone so nuclear,' Vance said.
Vance called Musk an 'incredible entrepreneur said that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, which sought to cut government spending and laid off or pushed out thousands of workers, was 'really good.'
The US Vice President said the bill's central goal was not to cut spending but to extend the 2017 tax cuts approved in Trump's first term.
'It's a good bill,' Vance said. 'It's not a perfect bill.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Italy holds referendum on citizenship, workers' rights
A non-EU adult resident without marriage or blood ties to Italy must currently live in the country for 10 years before they can apply for citizenship -- a process which can then take years. The referendum proposal, triggered by a grassroots campaign led by NGOs, would cut this to five years, putting Italy in line with Germany and France. Campaigners say around 2.5 million people could benefit from the reform, which is being backed by the centre-left Democratic Party. Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party has prioritised cutting illegal immigration even while increasing the number of legal work visas for migrants, is strongly against it. She said Thursday that the current system "is an excellent law, among the most open, in the sense that we have for years been among the European nations that grant the highest number of citizenships each year". More than 213,500 people acquired Italian citizenship in 2023, double the number in 2020 and one fifth of the European Union total, according to EU statistics. More than 90 percent were from outside the bloc, mostly from Albania and Morocco, as well as Argentina and Brazil -- two countries with large Italian immigrant communities. Ministers agreed in March to restrict the rights to citizenship of those with blood ties to Italy from four to two generations. Meloni and her coalition partners have encouraged voters to boycott the referendum, which will only be valid if 50 percent of eligible voters plus one participate. Even if it passes, the reform will not affect the migration law many consider the most unfair, that children born in Italy to foreign parents cannot request nationality until they reach 18. Prominent rapper Ghali, who was born in Milan to Tunisian parents, has been an outspoken advocate changing the law for children, but nevertheless urged fans to back Sunday's vote as a step in the right direction. "With a 'Yes' we ask that five years of life here are enough, not 10, to be part of this country," he wrote on Instagram. Interests of workers Under Italy's constitution, a referendum can be triggered by a petition signed by at least 500,000 voters. This week's ballot includes one question on citizenship and four others on increasing protections for workers who are dismissed, in precarious situations or involved in workplace accidents. The changes are being pushed by the left-wing CGIL trade union. "We want to reverse a culture that has prioritised the interests of business over those of workers," CGIL general secretary Maurizio Landini told AFP. The Democratic Party is also backing the proposals -- even if it introduced some of the laws the CGIL wants to repeal while in office in the past. The proposals are notably aimed at measures of the so-called Jobs Act, passed a decade ago by the government of the Democratic Party prime minister, Matteo Renzi, in order to liberalise the labour market. Supporters say the act boosted employment but detractors say it made work more precarious. Under new leadership, the Democratic Party -- which is polling at around 23 percent, behind Meloni's Brothers of Italy at about 30 percent, according to an SWG survey this week -- is seeking to woo working-class voters by backing the referendum reform.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
World leaders head to France for UN summit on ocean threats
The United Nations says oceans face an "emergency" and leaders gathering in Nice will be under pressure to commit much-needed money and stronger protections for the ailing seas and the people that depend on them. The UN Ocean Conference must try to turn a corner as nations feud over deep-sea mining, plastic litter and exploitative fishing, against a backdrop of wider geopolitical tensions. Some 50 heads of state and government are expected to attend, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei. On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to sail to Nice from Monaco, where he is attending a related event aimed at raising private capital for ocean conservation. He will be joined on the shimmering Mediterranean Sea by other vessels in a colourful maritime parade, before touring an exhibition centre on land transformed into the cavernous belly of a whale. That evening, Macron will host leaders for a dinner of Mediterranean fish ahead of the summit's formal opening on Monday. Peaceful demonstrations are expected over the five-day event and France has deployed 5,000 police to the heritage-listed city where scientists, business leaders and environmental activists are also attending in big numbers. A strong turnout is also expected from Pacific Island nations, whose delegations will demand greater financial assistance to fight the rising seas, marine trash and plunder of fisheries that threatens their very survival. The United States under President Donald Trump -- whose recent push to fast-track seabed mining in international waters sparked global outrage -- is not expected to send a delegation. - Political will - Conservationists have warned the summit -- which will not produce a legally binding agreement -- risks being a talk fest unless leaders come armed with concrete proposals for restoring marine health. Chief among these is securing the missing finance to get anywhere near protecting 30 percent of the world's oceans by 2030, a globally agreed target. "We've created this sort of myth that governments don't have money for ocean conservation," Brian O'Donnell, director of Campaign for Nature, told reporters. "There is money. There is not political will," he said. So far, only around eight percent of oceans are designated marine conservation zones and even less are considered truly protected. Greenpeace says at this rate, it could take another 82 years to reach the 30 percent goal. In a boost this week, Samoa declared 30 percent of its national waters under protection with the creation of nine new marine parks. Conservationists hope others at Nice follow suit. "All eyes should be on the many Pacific leaders attending... Their ambition and dedication to ocean protection can serve as inspiration to all countries," said Kevin Chand from the nonprofit group Pristine Seas. There has also been a concerted push for nations, including France, to ban bottom trawling -- a destructive fishing method that indiscriminately scrapes the ocean floor. On Saturday, Macron told the Ouest-France newspaper that bottom trawling would be restricted in some national marine protected areas. Inching closer toward the numbers required to ratify a global treaty on harmful fishing subsidies, and another on high seas protection, will also be a summit priority. France is spearheading a separate push in Nice to build support for a moratorium on deep-sea mining ahead of a closely-watched meeting of the International Seabed Authority in July. On Sunday, an expert scientific panel will hand Macron a list of recommendations for leaders at the summit, including pausing seabed exploration when so little is known about the deep oceans.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Trump deploys National Guard over LA immigration protests
The US president took federal control of California's state military to push soldiers into the country's second-biggest city, where they could face off against demonstrators. It is a rare move that Governor Gavin Newsom said was "purposefully inflammatory." The development came after two days of confrontations that had seen federal agents shoot flash-bang grenades and tear gas towards crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants in a city with a large Latino population. Footage showed a car that had been set alight at a busy intersection, while in video circulating on social media a man in a motorbike helmet can be seen throwing rocks at speeding federal vehicles. Protestors could be seen jeering at agents and filming them on their phones. In other scenes, demonstrators threw fireworks at lines of local law enforcement who had been called in to try to keep the peace. "President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said late Saturday, blaming what she called California's "feckless" Democratic leaders. "The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs." The National Guard -- a reserve military -- is frequently used in natural disasters, like in the aftermath of the LA fires, and rarely in instances of civil unrest. It was deployed in Los Angeles after the 2020 killing of George Floyd. Newsom, a frequent foil for Trump and a long-time foe of the Republican, took to social media to decry Saturday's White House order. "That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment's notice. We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need. "This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust." Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to ramp up tensions further, warning that nearby regular military forces could get involved. "If violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized -- they are on high alert," he wrote on social media. Since taking office in January, Republican Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants -- who he has likened to "monsters" and "animals." Saturday's standoff took place in the suburb of Paramount, where demonstrators converged on a reported federal facility, which the local mayor said was being used as a staging post by agents. On Friday, masked and armed immigration agents carried out high-profile workplace raids in separate parts of Los Angeles, attracting angry crowds and setting off hours-long standoffs. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged that some city residents were "feeling fear" following the federal immigration enforcement actions. "Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable," she said on X. Roadblocks and chants FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said multiple arrests had been made following Friday's clashes. "You bring chaos, and we'll bring handcuffs. Law and order will prevail," he said on X. On Saturday, amid chants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to get out, some protestors waved Mexican flags while others set a US flag on fire, the Los Angeles Times reported. Cement blocks and overturned shopping carts served as crude roadblocks. A crowd swarmed a US Marshals Service bus exiting a nearby freeway, with authorities later closing on and off ramps to keep protesters from taking over the highway and to stop new people from flowing in. The White House has taken a hard line against the protests, with deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller calling them "an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States." Los Angeles, the second-most populous city in the United States, is one of the most diverse places in the country. The suburb of Paramount, home to about 50,000 people, is 82 percent Hispanic or Latino, according to US Census data.
