- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
France, Germany bid to firm ties strained by Ukraine invasion
Chancellor Olaf Scholz visits Paris on Sunday to celebrate 60 years of postwar Franco-German cooperation, with the historic partnership under strain from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and broader tectonic shifts.
Scholz's personal relationship is less than warm with President Emmanuel Macron, as the two leaders meet in the morning at the Sorbonne University before a joint cabinet meeting from 1:30 pm (1230 GMT).
But "there are structural problems that go further than the personal relationship", said Jacob Ross, a researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin.
The frictions are even felt by the public, with 36 percent of French respondents and 39 percent of Germans telling pollster Ipsos this week that relations were suffering.
The 1963 Elysee Treaty signed between post-World War II leaders Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle provided for everything from military cooperation to youth exchanges.
Since then, France and Germany have often built the foundation for joint crisis response in Europe, and other nations are looking to them again now.
Top issues to address include the Ukraine conflict, climate and energy, and European competitiveness faced with a new wave of buy-American subsidies in the US.
"In both countries we are aware that we are the motor of Europe," Baerbel Bas, president of the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, told AFP in an interview.
"I'm very hopeful that French-German relations will find new momentum thanks to the celebrations on Sunday," she said.
- Ukraine war -
Germany is still undecided on whether to deliver -- or allow allies to deliver -- its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Kyiv almost a year into the invasion.
The impression that "there is a united coalition, and that Germany is standing in the way is wrong", newly installed Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Friday.
France has been pressing Germany to move faster, dashing ahead on mobile artillery in April and light tanks this month.
Elsewhere, moves to jointly develop next-generation fighter jets and tanks are dragging, while France is absent from a 14-nation Sky Shield anti-missile initiative led by Germany.
Ross suggested that part of the problem lies in France's clinging to a historic self-image as a sovereign, nuclear-armed power with a seat on the UN Security Council -- in contrast to a Germany happy to leave defence questions primarily to the US in recent decades.
There are early signs of change on both sides, with France re-energising its NATO role since the Ukraine invasion and Germany's 100-billion-euro ($108 billion) revamp of its armed forces.
- 'Put to the test' -
Away from defence, interlinked trade and energy conundrums are hitting both France and Germany.
For Berlin, "things have got very complicated because Germany's economic and political model is being put to the test," said Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, a former French ambassador to Berlin.
Without cheap Russian gas or nuclear power, Berlin has been forced to turn back in part to coal as renewables still can't make up the difference.
France, by contrast, is scrambling to repair and replace its ageing nuclear reactor fleet.
Some in Berlin now fear China will follow Russia's invasion of Ukraine by making a grab for Taiwan -- which it sees as a breakaway province -- potentially severing Germany from a vital market.
And leaders across Europe fear distortions in transatlantic trade from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which will pour billions of dollars into American-made climate-friendly technologies.
Macron is expected to push Scholz Sunday to join a joint response, after securing backing from Spanish leader Pedro Sanchez this week.
For France and Germany in particular, there are also fundamentals that must be tended to preserve the relationship into the future.
"The relationship has become less real" for ordinary French and Germans, said Gourdault-Montagne, and "lost some of its emotion".
A.F.Rosado--PC