The visit, planned for December, will 'underscore the deep and enduring relationship between the United States and France, our oldest ally', said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron reportedly spoke by phone for half an hour on Wednesday about the tensions prompted by Australia's decision join a military pact with the US and UK leading to the cancellation of its intended purchase of 12 French submarines, after which Paris announced the return to Washington of its recalled ambassador.
Though Joe Biden won a knife-edge victory in the United States presidential election the Democrats suffered heavy defeats in other electoral contests. Mediapart's co-founder François Bonnet argues that despite his defeat the huge voter turnout for Donald Trump serves as a reminder that the extreme populist right can only be beaten by alternative political projects that focus on citizens and concrete actions on the ground. Here he outlines four lessons from the US elections for European countries - and in particular France.
French fighter jets began bombing missions over northern Mali on Sunday, where they are targeting Jihadist bases and supply depots, in the second - and what President François Hollande hopes will be the final – stage of France’s military campaign to oust the rebels from the West African country, and which began on January 11th. But while the war has so far been a political triumph for Hollande, the future is clouded by both the continuing delays in forming an adequate pan-African force to allow for a French withdrawal, and the new military challenges of fighting the rebels in mountainous terrain with which they are especially familiar. Lénaïg Bredoux reports.
