France has defended its record on combating antisemitism after Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu accused Emmanuel Macron of emboldening hate attacks against Jews by pledging to recognise a Palestinian state.

A diplomatic row between Israel and Paris has broken out after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused French President Emmanuel Macron of fuelling “the anti-Semitic fire” in France by planning to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Emmanuel Macron filed a lawsuit against Candace Owens for defamation over her false claims about his wife, Brigitte

The French presidency dismissed the claim as “erroneous, abject and unacceptable,” in a statement on Tuesday, stressing that violence against Jewish communities “will not go unanswered” but insisting it cannot be linked to France’s diplomatic position.

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron said he and his wife Brigitte decided to sue Candace Owens to defend the truth in the face of the hard-right provocateur’s repeated assertions that the French first lady was assigned male at birth.

Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron have been married for years, with the couple first meeting when he was a 15-year-old high school student and she was a teacher. The pair married in 2007, when he was 29 and she was 54, and have made headlines for their devoted relationship and 24-year age gap.

Emmanuel Macron cuts through waves in the south of France on a hydrofoil board - FRAT/Backgrid Emmanuel Macron has been pictured making a splash during his surfing holiday in the south of France. The images,

French President Emmanuel Macron called Monday for stepping up sanctions against Russia if its leader Vladimir Putin does not move forward on peace with Ukraine.