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Macron: France Needs to Address Causes of Unrest

French President Emmanuel Macron (R) poses with Pau's mayor Francois Bayrou (L) on the balcony of the city hall during a visit in Pau, southwestern France, on July 6, 2023. (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) poses with Pau's mayor Francois Bayrou (L) on the balcony of the city hall during a visit in Pau, southwestern France, on July 6, 2023. (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ / AFP)
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Macron: France Needs to Address Causes of Unrest

French President Emmanuel Macron (R) poses with Pau's mayor Francois Bayrou (L) on the balcony of the city hall during a visit in Pau, southwestern France, on July 6, 2023. (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) poses with Pau's mayor Francois Bayrou (L) on the balcony of the city hall during a visit in Pau, southwestern France, on July 6, 2023. (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ / AFP)

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for order and calm, and efforts to address the roots of several days of unrest around France that was sparked by the police killing of a 17-year-old boy.
The police officer accused of the shooting death of teen Nahel Merzouk is in custody on a charge of voluntary homicide, and a judge in Versailles on Thursday rejected his request for release pending further investigation.
“We all lived through an important moment in the life of our nation,” Macron said in the southern city of Pau on the edge of the Pyrenees. He said that France now needs “order, calm, unity. And then to work on the deep causes of what happened.”
He didn’t address what those causes are. The French leader has blamed parents of young rioters and social networks including TikTok and Snapchat for fueling violence that spread to around 500 cities and towns.
Some activists, along with residents of the low-income neighborhoods where the violence began, say the killing was the latest evidence of systematic police brutality and unaddressed racial discrimination in France.

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World

Russian Attack Targets Ukraine Energy Infrastructure after Miami Peace Talks

A person walks on a non-illuminated street during during a power outage in the southern city of Odesa, on December 22, 2025, following Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructures. (Photo by Oleksandr GIMANOV / AFP)
A person walks on a non-illuminated street during during a power outage in the southern city of Odesa, on December 22, 2025, following Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructures. (Photo by Oleksandr GIMANOV / AFP)
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Russian Attack Targets Ukraine Energy Infrastructure after Miami Peace Talks

A person walks on a non-illuminated street during during a power outage in the southern city of Odesa, on December 22, 2025, following Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructures. (Photo by Oleksandr GIMANOV / AFP)
A person walks on a non-illuminated street during during a power outage in the southern city of Odesa, on December 22, 2025, following Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructures. (Photo by Oleksandr GIMANOV / AFP)

Russia attacked Kyiv and Ukraine’s energy infrastructure early on Tuesday, triggering emergency outages and prompting NATO member Poland to scramble jets to protect its airspace, two days after US-led Miami peace talks ended.

The weekend peace talks in Miami brought together US officials with Ukrainian and European delegations, alongside separate contacts with ‌Russian representatives, ‌as Washington tested whether there ‌was ⁠scope for a ‌settlement to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

As of 0620 GMT, air raid alerts covered nearly all of Ukraine, according to the country’s air force. Debris fell near a residential building in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district, damaging windows, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said ⁠on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said emergency power ‌outages were introduced in a number ‍of regions, including Kyiv ‍and the surrounding region, after Russia again ‍attacked energy facilities.

Russia has repeatedly hit Ukraine’s power grid and energy facilities during the nearly four-year war, intensifying strikes in winter to disrupt electricity and heating, strain logistics and the economy, and increase pressure on Kyiv.

Poland, a NATO member bordering western ⁠Ukraine, said Polish and allied aircraft were deployed to protect Polish airspace after Russian strikes targeted areas of western Ukraine near the border.

"These measures are preventive in nature and are aimed at securing and protecting the airspace,” Poland’s operational command said on X.

Poland scrambles jets during major Russian missile-and-drone barrages on western Ukraine, typically when strikes are assessed to pose a heightened risk near ‌the Polish border.

World

Trump Says US Needs Greenland 'for National Security'

(FILES) (L-R) US President Donald Trump and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry attend an event with Hyundai executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 24, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
(FILES) (L-R) US President Donald Trump and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry attend an event with Hyundai executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 24, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
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Trump Says US Needs Greenland 'for National Security'

(FILES) (L-R) US President Donald Trump and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry attend an event with Hyundai executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 24, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
(FILES) (L-R) US President Donald Trump and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry attend an event with Hyundai executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 24, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated that the United States needed Greenland for "national security" after his appointment of a special envoy to the Danish Arctic island triggered a new spat with Copenhagen.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly said the United States "needs" the resource-rich autonomous territory for security reasons and has refused to rule out using force to secure it, AFP said.

Trump on Sunday appointed Louisiana governor Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland, prompting anger from Denmark, which summoned the US ambassador.

"We need Greenland for national security. Not for minerals," Trump told a news conference in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday.

"If you take a look at Greenland, you look up and down the coast, you have Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," he said.

"We need it for national security. We have to have it," the president said, adding that Landry "wanted to lead the charge".

On his appointment, Landry immediately vowed to make the Danish territory "a part of the US".

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen earlier Monday said in a joint statement that Greenland belongs to Greenlanders.

"You cannot annex another country," they said. "We expect respect for our joint territorial integrity."

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he was "deeply angered" by the move and warned Washington to respect Denmark's sovereignty.

The European Union later offered its "full solidarity" to Denmark.

The Danish foreign minister earlier told TV2 television the appointment and statements were "totally unacceptable" and, several hours later, said the US ambassador had been called up to the ministry for an explanation.

"We summoned the American ambassador to the foreign ministry today for a meeting, together with the Greenlandic representative, where we very clearly drew a red line and also asked for an explanation," Lokke Rasmussen told public broadcaster DR in an interview.

- Strategic location -

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa stressed on social media that territorial integrity and sovereignty were "fundamental principles of international law".

Leaders of both Denmark and Greenland have repeatedly insisted that the vast island is not for sale and that it will decide its own future.

Most of Greenland's 57,000 people want to become independent from Denmark but do not wish to become part of the United States, according to an opinion poll in January.

Lokke Rasmussen said Trump's appointment of a special envoy confirmed continued US interest in Greenland.

"However, we insist that everyone -- including the US -- must show respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark," he said in a statement emailed to AFP.

Washington argues Greenland, located between North America and Europe, can give it an economic edge over its rivals in the Arctic region.

The island has untapped rare earth minerals and could be a vital player as the polar ice melts and new shipping routes emerge.

Greenland's location also puts it on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the United States.

The United States has its Pituffik military base in Greenland and opened a consulate on the island in June 2020.

In August, Denmark summoned the US charge d'affaires after at least three US officials close to Trump were seen in Greenland's capital Nuuk trying to find out how people felt about deepening US ties.

Trump's determination to take over Greenland has stunned Denmark, a fellow member of NATO that has fought alongside the US in its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In January, Copenhagen announced a $2.0-billion plan to boost its military presence in the Arctic region.

World

Cambodia Asks Thailand to Move Border Talks to Malaysia

Members of a Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal team inspect the site of a rocket attack during clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in Kantharalak district of Sisaket province, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Members of a Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal team inspect the site of a rocket attack during clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in Kantharalak district of Sisaket province, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
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Cambodia Asks Thailand to Move Border Talks to Malaysia

Members of a Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal team inspect the site of a rocket attack during clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in Kantharalak district of Sisaket province, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Members of a Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal team inspect the site of a rocket attack during clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in Kantharalak district of Sisaket province, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Cambodia has asked Thailand to hold bilateral talks in the neutral venue of Kuala Lumpur, according to a letter seen by AFP on Tuesday, with the nations set to negotiate truce terms after two weeks of deadly border clashes.

Bangkok's defense chief on Tuesday sought to assuage any fears on the Cambodian side about the meeting taking place in Thailand, and the Thai foreign ministry said the venue was still being discussed.

The nations' long-standing border conflict reignited this month, shattering an earlier truce, killing more than 40 people and displacing over 900,000 on both sides, officials said.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow on Monday announced a parley with Cambodia after a meeting in the Malaysian capital with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Cambodia is also a member.

Sihasak told reporters the discussion would be held Wednesday in Thailand's Chanthaburi within the framework of an existing bilateral border committee.

But in a letter dated Monday to his Thai counterpart Nattaphon Narkphanit, Cambodian defense minister Tea Seiha requested the meeting be held in Kuala Lumpur.

"For a security reason due to the ongoing fighting along the border, this meeting should be held in a safe and neutral venue," Tea Seiha wrote in the letter, which AFP obtained on Tuesday and confirmed with the ministry.

Malaysia, the chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, had agreed to host the talks in its capital, he added.

- 'It is safe' -

Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura told reporters in Bangkok that the meeting venue was "being discussed right now".

"The talks will last over two days, with technical groups first," he said Tuesday.

Thai defense minister Nattaphon Narkphanit suggested the meeting was set to go ahead on Wednesday in Thailand, but also sought to allay any concerns from his Cambodian counterpart.

"The meeting will be held in Chanthaburi... where there's barely any fighting. It is safe," Nattaphon told reporters before a cabinet meeting.

He said the last meeting of the joint General Border Committee was held in Cambodia's Koh Kong province, so it was Thailand's turn to host, adding that there was nothing to fear as Thais could separate military and diplomatic matters.

"I would like to tell Cambodia to trust us on safety," Nattaphon said, adding it would be held near the border with Cambodia.

But the defense minister also said Thai forces would keep fighting as long as Cambodia did, and combat that stretches along nearly the entirety of the border has so far only calmed in parts of two provinces.

Cambodia said Thailand launched air strikes on its territory on Monday, shortly after Bangkok announced the two nations had agreed to hold the bilateral talks.

Cambodian defense ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata told reporters that combat was ongoing Tuesday morning.

The ministry said in a statement that Thai forces shelled the Cambodian border city of Poipet.

- 'Pretty good shape' -

Each side has blamed the other for instigating the fresh fighting and traded accusations of attacks on civilians, after five days of clashes in July killed dozens.

The United States, China and Malaysia brokered a truce to end that round of fighting, but the ceasefire was short-lived.

In October, US President Donald Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration between Thailand and Cambodia, touting new trade deals after they agreed in Kuala Lumpur to prolong their truce.

But Thailand suspended the agreement the following month.

Trump on Monday referred again to the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand as one of the eight wars he had "solved" around the world.

"Thailand is starting to shape up. You know, they started with Cambodia, they started up again," he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

"But I think... we have that in pretty good shape, to have that stopped."