China's President Xi Jinping heads to Paris on Sunday for a rare visit, with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron set to press him to reduce trade imbalances and try to convince him to use his influence on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Neither aim will be easily fulfilled during Xi's two-day stay in France, where he arrives at a time of growing trade tensions between Europe and China. France is backing a European Union probe into Chinese electric vehicle exports and in January Beijing opened an investigation into imports of brandy - which is mostly made in France - a move widely seen as tit-for-tat retaliation amid a growing set of EU probes.
A well-known British Palestinian surgeon who volunteered in Gaza hospitals said he was denied entry to France on Saturday to speak at a French Senate meeting about the Israel-Hamas war. Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta was placed in a holding zone in the Charles de Gaulle airport and will be expelled, according to French Sen. Raymonde Poncet Monge, who had invited him to speak at the Senate. Abu Sitta posted on social networks that he was denied entry in France because of a one-year ban by Germany on his entry to Europe.
France and Germany on Friday firmed up plans to jointly develop a next-generation battle tank equipped with artificial intelligence and laser technology, billed as a game changer in modern warfare.In 2017, Germany and France agreed to jointly develop the next-generation battle tank as a successor to the French Leclerc and German Leopard tanks, starting in 2040.