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CTV News
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Macron's marital shove disappears from French airwaves
In this grab taken from video, France's President Emmanuel Macron prepares to disembark a plane on arrival, in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh) A quick shove. A split-second clip that would have dominated news for days aired in France for just 24 hours and then it was gone. When a viral video appeared over the weekend showing French President Emmanuel Macron's wife, Brigitte, pushing his face just as he was about to deplane during a visit to Vietnam, not a single French newspaper front page featured it the next morning. Was it because Prime Minister François Bayrou was speaking about the financial efforts the French would have to make under his soon-to-be-unveiled budget? Or that people were detained recently in a string of crypto kidnappings? More likely, it highlighted a cultural divide between France and the Anglosphere – a long-standing French belief that politicians' private lives should be protected. This secret-keeping tradition kept President François Mitterrand's illegitimate daughter hidden for years. It has also meant a delicate silence around other controversial personal lives, like Dominique Strauss-Kahn's notorious womanizing. The former International Monetary Fund chief's arrest on sexual assault charges in New York in 2011 abruptly ended his political career just as he was emerging as a leading presidential contender. The same unwritten rules surfaced in 2014, when Closer magazine published photos of former President François Hollande – disguised by a motorcycle helmet – arriving at the apartment of a friend, where he was reportedly meeting actress Julie Gayet. At the time, Gayet was his girlfriend, even though he still had a live-in partner, Valérie Trierweiler. The story caused a stir, but Hollande's office condemned the 'invasion of privacy,' and the media soon backed off. At a press conference, Hollande faced only one question about his personal life and deflected it with the remark, 'private affairs are dealt with in private,' silencing the throng of French journalists and leaving foreign reporters stunned. So when the video of the Macrons began circulating, the initial media response was swift but short-lived. French outlets played the clip on loop, dissected it briefly, and moved on. But that core rule is now being tested. 'Over time, these kinds of personal stories have become far more difficult to contain than they were 30 or even 20 years ago,' said Thierry Arnaud, an international correspondent and veteran journalist at BFMTV. 'It's true we didn't make a big deal of it, but it's deeply embarrassing for Macron. You're intruding on a couple's intimate moment and it's uncomfortable, both for him and for those watching.' Macron's relationship with Brigitte was always unconventional. They met when he was just 15, and she was his drama teacher at a private school in Amiens. She was 24 years older, married, and a mother of three. What began as mentorship grew into something deeper, and by the time Macron graduated, he had vowed to one day marry her. 'Whatever you do, I will marry you,' he reportedly told her as a teenager. Their story was used as campaign material in 2017, they made a point of making their relationship public, posing in glossy French magazines and describing their marriage as a celebration of an atypical but loving modern family. Any critics were labeled misogynists. 'It was completely a badge of honor at first, a special kind of glamour that added to his (Macron's) image of being daring both politically and personally. He fell in love with his teacher as a teenager and pursued it, come what may. Over time, that picture has eroded,' Arnaud said. After the Vietnam shoving incident, the couple publicly displayed unity that very evening, walking hand in hand through the streets of Hanoi in a clear effort to quell any rumors of domestic discord. But the line between public and private is blurring. Traditionally, the Élysée Palace has maintained a strict policy of never commenting on rumors or politicians' personal lives. However, with the rise of social media and disinformation campaigns they are being dragged into these personal controversies, challenging that long-held stance. In March, conservative commentator Candace Owens revived an absurd conspiracy theory with a YouTube video titled 'Is France's First Lady a Man?' Promoted widely on X, Owens called it 'likely the biggest scandal in political history.' Since then, Owens has produced numerous videos about Brigitte Macron for her 4 million YouTube subscribers, including a multi-part series called Becoming Brigitte. Although the claims are completely baseless and Brigitte Macron has successfully sued two French women for spreading them it has elicited a response from the president. At a Paris event in March 2024, Macron addressed the rumor head-on saying that the worst part of being a president is having to deal with 'the false information and fabricated stories.' 'People end up believing them, and it disrupts your life, even in your most private moments,' Macron said. His words now feel prophetic, with the world speculating on a deeply intimate exchange we may never be let into.
CNN
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Macron's marital shove disappears from French airwaves
A quick shove. A split-second clip that would have dominated US news for days aired in France for just 24 hours and then it was gone. When a viral video appeared over the weekend showing French President Emmanuel Macron's wife, Brigitte, pushing his face just as he was about to deplane during a visit to Vietnam, not a single French newspaper front page featured it the next morning. Was it because Prime Minister François Bayrou was speaking about the financial efforts the French would have to make under his soon-to-be-unveiled budget? Or that people were detained recently in a string of crypto kidnappings? More likely, it highlighted a cultural divide between France and the Anglosphere – a long-standing French belief that politicians' private lives should be protected. This secret-keeping tradition kept President François Mitterrand's illegitimate daughter hidden for years. It has also meant a delicate silence around other controversial personal lives, like Dominique Strauss-Kahn's notorious womanizing. The former International Monetary Fund chief's arrest on sexual assault charges in New York in 2011 abruptly ended his political career just as he was emerging as a leading presidential contender. The same unwritten rules surfaced in 2014, when Closer magazine published photos of former President François Hollande – disguised by a motorcycle helmet – arriving at the apartment of a friend, where he was reportedly meeting actress Julie Gayet. At the time, Gayet was his girlfriend, even though he still had a live-in partner, Valérie Trierweiler. The story caused a stir, but Hollande's office condemned the 'invasion of privacy,' and the media soon backed off. At a press conference, Hollande faced only one question about his personal life and deflected it with the remark, 'private affairs are dealt with in private,' silencing the throng of French journalists and leaving foreign reporters stunned. So when the video of the Macrons began circulating, the initial media response was swift but short-lived. French outlets played the clip on loop, dissected it briefly, and moved on. But that core rule is now being tested. 'Over time, these kinds of personal stories have become far more difficult to contain than they were 30 or even 20 years ago,' said Thierry Arnaud, an international correspondent and veteran journalist at BFMTV. 'It's true we didn't make a big deal of it, but it's deeply embarrassing for Macron. You're intruding on a couple's intimate moment and it's uncomfortable, both for him and for those watching.' Macron's relationship with Brigitte was always unconventional. They met when he was just 15, and she was his drama teacher at a private school in Amiens. She was 24 years older, married, and a mother of three. What began as mentorship grew into something deeper, and by the time Macron graduated, he had vowed to one day marry her. 'Whatever you do, I will marry you,' he reportedly told her as a teenager. Their story was used as campaign material in 2017, they made a point of making their relationship public, posing in glossy French magazines and describing their marriage as a celebration of an atypical but loving modern family. Any critics were labeled misogynists. 'It was completely a badge of honor at first, a special kind of glamour that added to his (Macron's) image of being daring both politically and personally. He fell in love with his teacher as a teenager and pursued it, come what may. Over time, that picture has eroded,' Arnaud said. After the Vietnam shoving incident, the couple publicly displayed unity that very evening, walking hand in hand through the streets of Hanoi in a clear effort to quell any rumors of domestic discord. But the line between public and private is blurring. Traditionally, the Élysée Palace has maintained a strict policy of never commenting on rumors or politicians' personal lives. However, with the rise of social media and disinformation campaigns they are being dragged into these personal controversies, challenging that long-held stance. In March, conservative commentator Candace Owens revived an absurd conspiracy theory with a YouTube video titled 'Is France's First Lady a Man?' Promoted widely on X, Owens called it 'likely the biggest scandal in political history.' Since then, Owens has produced numerous videos about Brigitte Macron for her 4 million YouTube subscribers, including a multi-part series called Becoming Brigitte. Although the claims are completely baseless and Brigitte Macron has successfully sued two French women for spreading them it has elicited a response from the president. At a Paris event in March 2024, Macron addressed the rumor head-on saying that the worst part of being a president is having to deal with 'the false information and fabricated stories.' 'People end up believing them, and it disrupts your life, even in your most private moments,' Macron said. His words now feel prophetic, with the world speculating on a deeply intimate exchange we may never be let into.
CNN
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Macron's marital shove disappears from French airwaves
A quick shove. A split-second clip that would have dominated US news for days aired in France for just 24 hours and then it was gone. When a viral video appeared over the weekend showing French President Emmanuel Macron's wife, Brigitte, pushing his face just as he was about to deplane during a visit to Vietnam, not a single French newspaper front page featured it the next morning. Was it because Prime Minister François Bayrou was speaking about the financial efforts the French would have to make under his soon-to-be-unveiled budget? Or that people were detained recently in a string of crypto kidnappings? More likely, it highlighted a cultural divide between France and the Anglosphere – a long-standing French belief that politicians' private lives should be protected. This secret-keeping tradition kept President François Mitterrand's illegitimate daughter hidden for years. It has also meant a delicate silence around other controversial personal lives, like Dominique Strauss-Kahn's notorious womanizing. The former International Monetary Fund chief's arrest on sexual assault charges in New York in 2011 abruptly ended his political career just as he was emerging as a leading presidential contender. The same unwritten rules surfaced in 2014, when Closer magazine published photos of former President François Hollande – disguised by a motorcycle helmet – arriving at the apartment of a friend, where he was reportedly meeting actress Julie Gayet. At the time, Gayet was his girlfriend, even though he still had a live-in partner, Valérie Trierweiler. The story caused a stir, but Hollande's office condemned the 'invasion of privacy,' and the media soon backed off. At a press conference, Hollande faced only one question about his personal life and deflected it with the remark, 'private affairs are dealt with in private,' silencing the throng of French journalists and leaving foreign reporters stunned. So when the video of the Macrons began circulating, the initial media response was swift but short-lived. French outlets played the clip on loop, dissected it briefly, and moved on. But that core rule is now being tested. 'Over time, these kinds of personal stories have become far more difficult to contain than they were 30 or even 20 years ago,' said Thierry Arnaud, an international correspondent and veteran journalist at BFMTV. 'It's true we didn't make a big deal of it, but it's deeply embarrassing for Macron. You're intruding on a couple's intimate moment and it's uncomfortable, both for him and for those watching.' Macron's relationship with Brigitte was always unconventional. They met when he was just 15, and she was his drama teacher at a private school in Amiens. She was 24 years older, married, and a mother of three. What began as mentorship grew into something deeper, and by the time Macron graduated, he had vowed to one day marry her. 'Whatever you do, I will marry you,' he reportedly told her as a teenager. Their story was used as campaign material in 2017, they made a point of making their relationship public, posing in glossy French magazines and describing their marriage as a celebration of an atypical but loving modern family. Any critics were labeled misogynists. 'It was completely a badge of honor at first, a special kind of glamour that added to his (Macron's) image of being daring both politically and personally. He fell in love with his teacher as a teenager and pursued it, come what may. Over time, that picture has eroded,' Arnaud said. After the Vietnam shoving incident, the couple publicly displayed unity that very evening, walking hand in hand through the streets of Hanoi in a clear effort to quell any rumors of domestic discord. But the line between public and private is blurring. Traditionally, the Élysée Palace has maintained a strict policy of never commenting on rumors or politicians' personal lives. However, with the rise of social media and disinformation campaigns they are being dragged into these personal controversies, challenging that long-held stance. In March, conservative commentator Candace Owens revived an absurd conspiracy theory with a YouTube video titled 'Is France's First Lady a Man?' Promoted widely on X, Owens called it 'likely the biggest scandal in political history.' Since then, Owens has produced numerous videos about Brigitte Macron for her 4 million YouTube subscribers, including a multi-part series called Becoming Brigitte. Although the claims are completely baseless and Brigitte Macron has successfully sued two French women for spreading them it has elicited a response from the president. At a Paris event in March 2024, Macron addressed the rumor head-on saying that the worst part of being a president is having to deal with 'the false information and fabricated stories.' 'People end up believing them, and it disrupts your life, even in your most private moments,' Macron said. His words now feel prophetic, with the world speculating on a deeply intimate exchange we may never be let into.
Irish Times
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Haiti paid France a costly ransom for independence. Some say it must be paid back
April 17th was not so much a celebration – definitely the wrong word – as an 'occasion' to mark the bicentennial of France 's belated recognition of Haiti 's independence. French president Emmanuel Macron admitted as much, speaking with grotesque understatement of how France had subjected the first state liberated by its slave population to the 'unjust force of history' by shackling it, the poorest state in the western hemisphere, to a monstrous debt from which it has yet to escape. His predecessor, François Hollande, acknowledged the debt France owes Haiti, swiftly clarified as 'moral debt'. Macron would go no farther – talk of reparations are still taboo – but last month he set up a joint commission of inquiry into the historical effect of that debt. It was the crown jewel of French colonies, the most profitable of them all, thanks to its sugar, coffee and cotton production. But Haiti, then known as Saint-Domingue, had a population in the 1780s of half a million, 90 per cent of it transported slaves from Africa, the highest concentration of slaves in the Atlantic area. Between 1785 and 1790, Saint-Domingue absorbed 37 per cent of the entire transatlantic slave trade . And in 1791 they rose up in the largest and most successful slave insurrection in history. READ MORE Its inspiration, and its message inspired by the French Revolution of 'liberty or death', struck fear in slave owners from Brazil to South Carolina. They mobilised and quickly secured the reinstatement of slavery in other French slaveholding islands (such as Martinique, Guadeloupe and Reunion Island, where slavery continued until 1848). Although Haiti's new rulers declared its independence in 1804, France only recognised it in 1825 – and then only after a French fleet arrived in Port-au-Prince with 500 cannons and forced the country's leaders at gunpoint to 'indemnify' the dispossessed slave owners for their 'property' losses. They demanded and got a commitment to 125 million gold francs (€2.4 billion in today's currency), some six times the island's annual production. It was later reduced to 90 million francs. The demand was outrageous even for the time. In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase (some or all of 15 US states) had been sold by France to the US for 80 million francs. Haiti occupies a territory only a 77th of that size. Among those compensated at more than $3,000 per slave, the New York Times reported, were the empress of Brazil, the son-in-law of the Russian tsar Nicholas I, the last imperial chancellor of Germany, and Gen Gaston de Galliffet, nicknamed the 'massacrer of the Commune', after his bloody repression of the Paris insurrection of 1871. It was impossible to pay it all at once. In some years, France monopolised more than 40 per cent of the Haitian government's revenues, and the country was forced to rely on a consortium of French bankers who advanced the sum required, with interest – the 'double debt' that Haiti dragged around like a ball and chain until the 1950s, and which was upheld by every French government in the interim, of whatever political complexion. Immense profits were generated by Crédit Industriel et Commercial, CIC, a bank that co-financed the Eiffel Tower and is now one of the largest financial conglomerates in Europe. The long-running sore between the two states was opened up properly in 2022 by the New York Times with a groundbreaking investigation into the debt. According to its calculations, Haiti had by then repaid France the equivalent of $560 million (€498 million) in present-day prices, with historic losses for its economy estimated to be between $21 billion and $115 billion, eight times the country's GDP. The former figure corresponds to what had been a much derided first demand for reparations made in 2004 by the later-deposed reformist president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The coup in which France had a hand was almost certainly in response to that impertinent demand. Violence-ridden Haiti's 'double debt', in effect a ransom for independence, and the borrowing to pay it, has pushed the country down a spiral of indebtedness over the last century, unable to break from the path of poverty and underdevelopment, its people still on the brink of famine. As cafe owner Cedieu Joseph told the New York Times , 'The slaves fought for our independence. To make them pay for that independence is simply to create a new type of slavery.' Leading French economist Thomas Piketty puts it bluntly: 'Let's state it outright: France owes approximately €30 billion to Haiti, and should immediately start restitution talks. The notion that France cannot afford such a payment does not hold up. While the sum is significant, it represents less than 1 per cent of France's public debt ( €3.3 trillion ) and barely 0.2 per cent of private wealth (€15 trillion): It's like a drop in the ocean.' [ Top French economist Thomas Piketty accuses Ireland of 'siphoning off' others' tax revenues Opens in new window ] Getting it, however, will be like getting blood from a stone.
Indian Express
17-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
A fund crunch in the US, an opportunity for India
Over the past few months, I have watched, with profound anguish, the foundations of the knowledge economy in the United States, the jewel in its crown and the envy of the world, being systematically dismantled. My own university, a symbol of excellence in transformational science, is engaged in a veritable battle for survival. While I am immensely proud of our position in standing up for our values and principles, the consequences of this resistance are painful, not least for young scientists whose careers are vaporising before their eyes. At the same time, I have been watching how other wealthy countries, especially in Europe, are announcing plans to feast on the rich pickings of scientists in the US who are looking to other countries to continue their work. France, for example, through the Aix-Marseille University's Safe Place for Science programme, is offering positions and support to US researchers. Former French President François Hollande has introduced a bill to recognise refugee status specifically for scientists. It dawned on me that this may be a once-in-a-lifetime moment for India to reap a rich harvest in pursuit of the country's ambition to become a world leader in science. To do so, India would need to recognise that high-quality science is the result of the confluence of a number of key factors, the most important being the scientists themselves, equipped with the right skills and driven by the hunger to generate knowledge. This scientist needs the right environment, typically in research institutions, where they can flourish, often collaborating with others and being mentored by more experienced scholars. And finally, we need the money to pay for the scientists, for creating the environment and for the actual research that will be conducted. In my reckoning, India has both the environment and the money, and the current moment offers the country a historic chance to replenish and enrich its knowledge economy. Some may be perturbed by the suggestion of using Indian funds to attract scientists from abroad rather than invest in scientists already in India. While that is certainly not my intent, the fact is that scientists in the US, many of whom have completed their foundational training in India, dominate the list of laureates of the most prestigious science prizes, such as the Nobel, Lasker, Brain and Breakthrough Prizes. Even if there is some truth to the gripe that these top prizes are rigged in favour of Western scientists, there is no denying that the dramatic scientific discoveries of the past five decades, which have transformed almost every aspect of our daily lives, have emerged from the laboratories of scientists in the US. Something special about the scientific environment in the US appears to facilitate the leapfrog opportunity for these young scientists to become stars, and recruiting them may bring some of that gold dust to Indian institutions. I identify at least two strategies for India to respond to this opportunity. The first is to fund the ongoing research being conducted in India that is funded by the US government institutions. The abrupt freeze on international research by the National Institutes of Health, for example, has grave implications for some of these projects, not only in relation to the scientific outputs but also healthcare. Let us not forget that while these studies are funded by the US, they involve patients in India and their implementation is being carried out by Indian scientists and field research teams in the country. Here is an opportunity for India to take full ownership of these studies by providing bridge funding to the institutions to complete this ongoing research, for the benefit not only of people in the country but also as a contribution to science. The second strategy is a dramatic expansion of the current Indian government's VAIBHAV and VAJRA fellowship programmes to attract diaspora and foreign scientists for collaborative research with Indian institutions and build strong international research networks. The first batch of VAIBHAV fellows was selected in early 2024, with a total of about 75 diaspora scientists expected to participate over three years, supported by an outlay of approximately Rs 80 crore. Now is the time to expand the scope of these programmes, going beyond short-term visits to India to relocating permanently to the country, increasing the amounts of start-up funding and resources to enhance the competitiveness of the offers, implementing actions to enable a transparent mechanism for awarding these fellowships and enabling complete freedom to pursue their research. All these actions would also greatly benefit the country's science ecosystem. None of this will happen without additional money, of course, and while the primary funder for these strategies will necessarily be the government (as is already the case in India and most other countries), there is obviously an opportunity for the several philanthropic foundations that operate in India, some of which have already been playing marquee roles in supporting science through substantive donations to leading Indian institutions. The Indian Philanthropy Report 2025 documents how private spending on the social sector reached Rs 131,000 crore in 2024, and is expected to accelerate to 10–12 per cent over the next five years, largely driven by family philanthropy. Time is short, especially for the research that is already in progress and is threatened with abrupt cessation as a result of Trump's policies. Those of us who believe that India's development is contingent on it realising its aspirations to become one of the leaders of the global knowledge economy must act now. The writer is the Paul Farmer Professor of Global Health at Harvard Medical School
