INDRET: President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced that France&rsquo;s next nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will be called &ldquo;France Libre&rdquo; (Free France), as the country looks to reinforce its status as a major maritime power. Once completed, the warship, which is set to replace the country&rsquo;s sole aircraft carrier &mdash; the Charles de Gaulle &mdash; and due to enter service in 2038, will be the largest warship ever built in Europe. Macron said the vessel was being named after the French Resistance movement that General de Gaulle led against the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. &ldquo;I wanted our future aircraft carrier to follow in the footsteps of General de Gaulle. His life, his destiny,&rdquo; Macron said at a shipyard in the western town of Indret, near Nantes, where the vessel&rsquo;s two nuclear reactors will be built.&ldquo;Our new aircraft carrier will be named France Libre,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;This name honors the memory of the men and women who stood up against barbarity.&rdquo; Macron in December announced the start of construction of the new aircraft carrier, a project estimated to cost 10 billion euros ($11 billion). He told French troops in the United Arab Emirates at the time that &ldquo;in an age of predators,&rdquo; France &ldquo;must be strong in order to be feared.&rdquo;He reiterated that sentiment on Wednesday. &ldquo;To remain free, we must be feared. To be feared, we must be powerful,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;&lsquo;France is wild&rsquo;Ahead of the ceremony, Macron posted a 30?second video highlighting some of France&rsquo;s proudest moments and technological achievements. Set to rousing music, the video featured footage of the Charles de Gaulle, submarines, troops, jets streaking in the air, high-speed trains, and France&rsquo;s astronaut Sophie Adenot, who has been in space since mid-February.&ldquo;France is wild,&rdquo; read the white letters splashed in English across the clip. In recent weeks, the president has repeatedly underscored France&rsquo;s maritime ambitions. He said last week that Paris and its allies were putting together a mission to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for the world&rsquo;s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. Iran has effectively closed the strait since the United States and Israel began the war on the Islamic republic late last month, sending global oil prices up by more than 40 percent. But the French leader has ruled out any action until hostilities there cool. France&rsquo;s most recent aircraft carriers have all been named after French statesmen including Georges Clemenceau and Ferdinand Foch.&nbsp;Much biggerConstruction of the future warship&rsquo;s hull is expected to begin in the western port city of Saint-Nazaire in 2031. France is one of the two countries in the world that operate nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The United States has 11 such vessels. The Charles de Gaulle was commissioned in 2001 and is the largest warship ever built for the French Navy. The new warship will be much larger than the 42,000-ton 261-meter-(856-foot-) long Charles de Gaulle. It will weigh nearly 80,000 tons and be approximately 310 meters long. With a crew of 2,000, it will be able to carry 30 fighter aircraft as well as combat drones. &ldquo;In the future, the aircraft carrier will be more than just an aircraft carrier,&rdquo; said the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Nicolas Vaujour. The project represents a formidable undertaking, officials say. &ldquo;We cannot simply reproduce a tool that was designed halfway through the last century,&rdquo; said armed forces chief of staff Fabien Mandon.

Europe

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced that France’s next nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will be called “France Libre” (Free France), as the country looks to reinforce its status as a major maritime power

‘Free France’: Macron reveals name of Europe’s largest warship

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said Lebanon was ready to engage in &quot;direct talks&quot; with Israel and offered to host negotiations in Paris. &quot;The Lebanese government has signalled its willingness to engage in direct talks with Israel,&quot; he said on X, adding that &quot;all sections of society must be represented in these talks.&quot; &quot;France is ready to facilitate these talks by hosting them in Paris,&quot; Macron said, adding he had spoken to the president and prime minister of Lebanon, a former French protectorate. &quot;Everything must be done to prevent Lebanon from descending into chaos,&quot; Macron added. &quot;Hezbollah must immediately halt its reckless course. Israel must abandon plans for a large-scale offensive and cease its massive air strikes.&quot; Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Friday his group was ready for a long confrontation with Israel.

Middle East

French President Emmanuel Macron says Lebanon is ready for direct talks with Israel and offers Paris as a venue for negotiations, while urging Hezbollah to halt attacks and Israel to abandon plans for a large-scale offensive

Macron urges Israel to hold 'direct talks' with Lebanon

PARIS: France&#39;s far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Wednesday accused President Emmanuel Macron and his allies of helping strengthen the hard-left as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed shock at the fatal beating of a far-right activist blamed on the ultra-left. Quentin Deranque, 23, died after sustaining a severe brain injury when he was attacked by at least six people last week.&nbsp; The attack happened on the sidelines of a far-right protest against a hard-left politician speaking at a university in the southeastern city of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/france-opens-probe-of-exminister-lang-after-epstein-revelations" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lyon</a>. Far right, hard left tensions&nbsp;The incident has fueled tension between France&#39;s far right and hard left ahead of municipal elections in March and the 2027 presidential race, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job. RN head Jordan Bardella, 30, accused Macron and high-profile centrist politicians former prime ministers Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe of having &quot;opened the doors of the National Assembly to the worst thugs of the far left.&quot; &quot;The president bears moral and political responsibility for the institutionalisation of the far left and extreme left, particularly in the National Assembly,&quot; he said. &lsquo;Protective barrier&rsquo;&nbsp;In snap parliamentary polls in 2024, Macron&#39;s supporters and the left, including the hard-left, had allied against the far right, in a strategy called &quot;cordon sanitaire&quot; (which roughly translates as &quot;protective barrier&quot;) aimed at barring the extreme right from power. Seeking to turn the tables on his rivals, Bardella called for the creation of &quot;a cordon sanitaire&quot; to isolate the LFI and &quot;keep it away from institutions, whether in the National Assembly, where its deputies sit on numerous committees, or in view of the upcoming municipal elections.&quot; <h2 style="line-height: 2;">&#39;Wound for all of Europe&#39;&nbsp;</h2>In Italy,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/serious-popular-besties-with-trump-italys-meloni-marks-three-years" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Meloni</a>, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, said the killing of Deranque &quot;shocks and deeply saddens us.&quot; &quot;The death of a boy just over 20 years old, attacked by groups linked to left-wing extremism and overwhelmed by a climate of ideological hatred that is sweeping across several nations, is a wound for all of Europe,&quot; she said on social media.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 873px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2024153741658624409&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=b20dfaf377288055659d21dac844e09f45427c2a&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" data-tweet-id="2024153741658624409"></iframe></div></div>Earlier Wednesday, socialist lawmaker and former president Francois Hollande was the latest left-wing politician to reject another alliance with LFI. &quot;For municipal elections, there can be no alliance between the Socialists or parties of the reformist left and LFI in the second round, that&#39;s clear,&quot; he told broadcaster BFMTV. While the government has singled out the LFI and an anti-fascist youth group called La Jeune Garde (Young Guard), prosecutors have declined to comment on those claims, only specifying the incident was being investigated as a voluntary homicide and aggravated assault. Threatening messages&nbsp;LFI party members say they have received threatening messages since Deranque&#39;s death. &quot;Since the tragedy in Lyon, I&#39;ve been receiving a flood of racist insults and death threats,&quot; said Lahouaria Addouche, who is running for mayor in Lille. The national headquarters of LFI had to be evacuated following a bomb threat, party coordinator Manuel Bompard said on X, before the building was declared safe. South of Paris, a 28-year-old far-right activist was arrested after social media threats, including of decapitation, against one Socialist and two LFI candidates, the prosecutor in the town of Auxerre said. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Parliament assistant fired&nbsp;</h2>On Wednesday, Lyon&#39;s prosecutor, Thierry Dran, announced the latest arrests related to Deranque&#39;s death. A man suspected of having a direct link to the violence, and his partner, suspected of having helped him evade justice, were taken into custody as part of the investigation for &quot;intentional homicide&quot;, Dran said. Six of the other detainees are suspected of having participated in the beating and three of having helped them, a source following the case said. An assistant to Raphael Arnault, a member of parliament from LFI, was among the first four detained, the source said. Arnault said he was firing the assistant. An anti-immigration collective called Nemesis said Deranque had been at the protest in Lyon to protect its members. Nemesis has blamed the killing on La Jeune Garde co-founded by Arnault before he was elected to parliament.

France's far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Wednesday accused President Emmanuel Macron and his allies of helping strengthen the hard-left as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed shock at the fatal beating of a far-right activist blamed on the ultra-left.

Articles tagged with "President Emmanuel Macron"

‘Free France’: Macron reveals name of Europe’s largest warship

Macron urges Israel to hold 'direct talks' with Lebanon

French far-right leader accuses Macron, allies of strengthening hard-left after activist killed