Macron says video of wife pushing him in face does not show them quarrelling
Emmanuel Macron has denied he and his wife, Brigitte, had an altercation after a viral video promoted by Russian state media and French far-right accounts appeared to show her pushing him in the face as they prepared to get off a plane in Vietnam.
The video, shot by an Associated Press camera operator, shows the French president appearing in the doorway of the plane at the start of a visit to Hanoi. His wife's hand appears to shove him, causing him to step back before recovering and waving.
Brigitte's body is not visible and there is no way of knowing whether the gesture was playful, as Macron told reporters afterwards, or part of an argument between the couple – as the spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry suggested.
Maria Zakharova said on Telegram the president had received 'a right hook' from his wife. 'Did the first lady decide to cheer up her husband with a gentle pat on the cheek and miscalculated her strength?' she asked in a mocking post.
'Did she want to fix his collar but ended up reaching the beloved face?' Zakharova added, after the Russia Today TV channel and associated social media accounts had repeatedly aired the clip. 'Here's a hint: maybe it was the 'hand of the Kremlin'.'
Macron told reporters in Hanoi that he and his wife were 'joking around, as we do quite often'. An Élysée Palace official told French media the scene showed 'a moment of closeness. But that was enough to feed the conspiracy theorists.'
Another Elysée source said the couple were 'decompressing one last time before the start of the visit, larking around'. Macron 'loves playing jokes like on his wife before official occasions, and she always responds like this … It wasn't even a slap.'
Macron noted that other videos of him had been misinterpreted. People have though 'I shared a bag of cocaine, tussled with the Turkish president, now that I'm having a domestic dispute with my wife … None of this is true. Everyone needs to calm down.'
Zakharova and the US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones this month wrongly accused Macron, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, of using drugs on a train to Kyiv, claiming a crumpled tissue was a bag of cocaine.
Macron told reporters in Hanoi the internet accounts making the claims were 'familiar', allying Russians with French extremists, adding that commentators had explained this morning that 'my diplomacy was that of a battered husband'.
France and Vietnam on Monday signed deals on Airbus planes, defence and other pacts worth €9bn (£7.55bn) as Macron and his wife embarked on the first formal visit by a French presidential couple to the country's former colony in nearly a decade.
The deals with Vietnam come amid trade turmoil sparked by US president Donald Trump's tariffs and cover the purchase of 20 Airbus planes, cooperation on nuclear energy, defence, rail and maritime transport, satellites and vaccines.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
an hour ago
- Times
China surpasses German engineering with world's tallest wind turbine
Other countries compete to build the tallest skyscraper, or the biggest Ferris wheel. China and Germany are more serious about their engineering: they compete for the prize of having the biggest wind turbine. One of China's two leading wind turbine companies, Dongfang Electric, announced on Friday it had completed a key test on the latest machine that, when it goes into service shortly, will break that record. Standing 340 metres from its base in the Pacific, off the coast of the country's Fujian province, to the tip of its blades when they rotate to their highest points, it will be the first wind turbine to be taller than the Eiffel Tower. Dongfang — meaning the East — said it had finished load testing a prototype blade for the turbine, itself 150 metres long. 'We're harnessing the power of tech to plant the seeds of a greener future,' it said in celebration. 'Every blade carries a low-carbon dream, ready to catch the wind and grow strong.' China under President Xi has put huge economic weight on not only an ever-expanding industrial base but also being at the forefront of green technologies. With no room for political opposition, and a heavy continuing reliance nationally on coal and other fossil fuels at the same time, there is little of the public debate around wind power that western European companies have faced. China already makes more than 80 per cent of the world's solar panels. Its low cost base — unfairly subsidised, according to western rivals — is also undercutting and starting to dominate American and European production in wind power too. A worker at the Dongfang factory operates a robotic arm At present the wind turbine claimed to be the world's highest was constructed by another Chinese company, Mingyang, and operates off the southern Chinese island of Hainan. Its hub is at the same height as Dongfang's — 185 metres off the ground — but its blades are a few metres shorter. A similarly sized turbine is already operating at the site to which the Dongfang blades are believed to be heading, the Fujian Fuzhou Offshore Wind Power Industrial Park. Its maximum capacity is 18MW of electricity, and the Hainan turbine is 20MW, which the new turbine will surpass by 6MW. According to estimates, that will be enough at average 10 metres per second windspeeds to power 55,000 homes on its own. Britain's tallest wind turbines — at the Longhill Burn Wind Farm in West Lothian, Scotland — stand up to 150m tall. The blades reach as high as 200m. How long any of these three monsters maintain their dominance is unclear. As Germany tries to reclaim its traditional global leadership in engineering — and tries to stave off Chinese competition — its companies are also building higher. A turbine being designed and built by Gicon, a German conglomerate, will stand at 363 metres from toe to the tip of the vertical blade. It, however, is based on a novel design, in which smaller blades rotate from a 300-metre high lattice structure itself influenced by the design of the Eiffel Tower. It will, however, be the second highest man-made object in Germany, after the Berlin TV Tower.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: US suspends licenses to ship nuclear plant parts to China, sources say
June 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. in recent days suspended licenses for nuclear equipment suppliers to sell to China's power plants, according to four people familiar with the matter, as the two countries engage in a damaging trade war. The suspensions were issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the people said, and affect export licenses for parts and equipment used with nuclear power plants. Nuclear equipment suppliers are among a wide range of companies whose sales have been restricted over the past two weeks as the U.S.-China trade war shifted from negotiating tariffs to throttling each other's supply chains. It is unclear whether a Thursday call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would affect the suspensions. The U.S. and China agreed on May 12 to roll back triple digit, tit-for-tat tariffs for 90 days, but the truce between the two biggest economies quickly went south, with the U.S. claiming China reneged on terms related to rare earth elements, and China accusing the U.S. of "abusing export control measures" by warning that using Huawei Ascend AI chips anywhere in the world violated U.S. export controls. After Thursday's call, further talks on key issues were expected. The U.S. Department of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment on the nuclear equipment restrictions. On May 28, a spokesperson said the department was reviewing exports of strategic significance to China. "In some cases, Commerce has suspended existing export licenses or imposed additional license requirements while the review is pending," the spokesperson said in a statement. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. nuclear equipment suppliers include Westinghouse and Emerson (EMR.N), opens new tab. Westinghouse, whose technology is used in over 400 nuclear reactors around the world, and Emerson, which provides measurement and other tools for the nuclear industry, did not respond to requests for comment. The suspensions affect business worth hundreds of millions of dollars, two of the sources said. They also coincide with Chinese restrictions on critical metals threatening supply chains for manufacturers worldwide, especially America's Big Three automakers. Reuters could not determine whether the new restrictions were tied to the trade war, or if and how quickly they might be reinstated. Department of Commerce export licenses typically run for four years and include authorized quantities and values. But many new restrictions on exports to China have been imposed in the last two weeks, according to sources, and include license requirements for a hydraulic fluids supplier for sales to China. Other license suspensions went to GE Aerospace for jet engines for China's COMAC aircraft, sources said. The U.S. also now requires licenses to ship ethane to China, as Reuters reported first last week. Houston-based Enterprise Product Partners (EPD.N), opens new tab said Wednesday that its emergency requests to complete three proposed cargoes of ethane to China, totaling some 2.2 million barrels, had not been granted. Enterprise said a May 23 requirement for a license to sell butane to China, in addition to the ethane, was subsequently withdrawn. Dallas-based Energy Transfer said it was notified on Tuesday about the new ethane licensing requirement, and planned to apply and file for an emergency authorization. Other sectors that have been hit with new restrictions include companies that sell electronic design automation software such as Cadence Design Systems (CDNS.O), opens new tab.
Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Trump and South Korea's new President Lee speak by phone, Lee's office says
SEOUL, June 6 (Reuters) - South Korea's new president Lee Jae-myung has spoken by phone to U.S. President Donald Trump, Lee's office said on Friday. In the call, Trump and Lee resolved to make an effort to reach a satisfactory agreement on tariffs as soon as possible, and decided to encourage working-level negotiations to yield tangible results, Lee's office said in a statement. Trump also invited Lee to the United States and agreed to meet at the earliest opportunity - in a multilateral format or on bilateral visit for more in-depth consultations on the development of the alliance between the two countries, Lee's office said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the call. Lee was elected in a June 3 snap election after the U.S. ally's former leader, Yoon Suk Yeol, was impeached and ousted. Lee's term began on Wednesday.
