Frances

TV STAR Jimmy Fallon, 50, has given fans an insight into his family life and shared a rare photo with wife Nancy Juvonen, 58, and their daughters.

The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon host posted the adorable picture on social media alongside his wife and their girls Winnie, 12, and Frances, 10.

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The family-of-four can be seen enjoying a lakeside getaway in the fun snap on their holiday wearing casual summer gear.

Comedian Fallon and his loved ones threw their arms in the air and struck some comedy poses in the playful shot.

His partner Juvonen flashed a peace sign and wrapped an arm around her daughter, wearing a pastel cross-over stripped dress.

“This is before my sister-in-law said, ‘a little less,’” Fallon joked in his caption.

Famous friends commented on the cute photo with a string of heart emojis, including Camila Cabello, Paris Hilton, while Ellen DeGeneres liked the snap.

Fans praised: “Beautiful family.”

A second added: “Awesome family post!”

A third agreed: “Such a joy to see a happy and loved Jimmy’s family.”

When Fallon is not in the studio, he can often be found at home, spending time with his wife, Nancy and Frances and Winnie.

The stand-up comedian, television host, actor, writer, and singer was born on September 19, 1974, in Bay Ridge, New York.

He first gained recognition as a cast member on Saturday Night Live but later became a household name in 2014 after taking over The Tonight Show following Jay Leno’s departure.

Fallon’s extensive career in the entertainment industry has helped him amass a $70 million fortune, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

He has also written several books and two comedy albums.

In 1998, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live and remained there until 2004.

Jimmy’s big break came in 2009 when he landed his own talk show, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

In May last year The Tonight Show aired a special two-hour program to celebrate Fallon’s 10th anniversary on the show.

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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, under pressure to recognise a Palestinian state, said he would do so only as part of a wider peace deal. His Labour-led government is facing growing calls to recognise a Palestinian state after France said it will and a cross-party group of parliamentarians urged Starmer to act before it is too late.

PARIS — A lawyer for France ‘s first couple said they’ll be seeking “substantial” damages from U.S. conservative influencer Candace Owens if she persists with claims that President Emmanuel Macron ‘s wife, Brigitte, is a man.

The lawyer, Tom Clare, said in an interview with CNN that a defamation suit filed Wednesday for the Macrons in a Delaware court was “really a last resort” after a fruitless yearlong effort to engage with Owens and requests that she “do the right thing: tell the truth, stop spreading these lies.”

“Each time we’ve done that, she mocked the Macrons, she mocked our efforts to set the record straight,” Clare said. “Enough is enough, it was time to hold her accountable.”

The Macrons have been married since 2007, and Emmanuel Macron has been France’s president since 2017.

In a YouTube video, Owens called the suit an “obvious and desperate public relations strategy,” and said the first lady is “a very goofy man.”

Owens is a right-leaning political commentator whose YouTube channel has about 4.5 million subscribers. In 2024, she was denied a visa from New Zealand and Australia, citing remarks in which she denied Nazi medical experimentation on Jews in concentration camps during World War II.

The 219-page complaint against Owens lays out “extensive evidence” that Brigitte Macron “was born a woman, she’s always been a woman,” the couple’s attorney said.

“We’ll put forward our damage claim at trial, but if she continues to double down between now and the time of trial, it will be a substantial award,” he said.

In Paris, the presidential office had no immediate comment.

In France, too, the presidential couple has for years been dogged by conspiracy theories that Brigitte was born as a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux, who supposedly then took the name Brigitte as a transgender woman. Jean-Michel Trogneux is, in fact, Brigitte’s brother.

Last September, Brigitte and Jean-Michel Trogneux won a defamation suit against two women who were sentenced by a Paris court to fines and damages for spreading the claims about the first lady online. A Paris appeals court overturned the ruling earlier this month. Brigitte and her brother have since turned to France’s highest court to appeal that decision, according to French media.

The Macrons first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron was then Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three children.

Macron, 47, is serving his second and last term as president. The first lady celebrated her 72nd birthday in April.

Macron moved to Paris for his last year of high school, but promised to marry Brigitte. She later moved to the French capital to join him and divorced before they finally married.

Their relationship came under the spotlight in May when video images showed Brigitte pushing her husband away with both hands on his face before they disembarked from a plane on a tour of Southeast Asia.

Macron later dismissed the incident as play-fighting, telling reporters that “we are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” and that it had been overblown into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe.”

Pelicot has been praised globally for her courage during trial, which forced changes to France’s rape law.

Gisele Pelicot, who has been internationally hailed after testifying against her husband and dozens of other men who raped her, has been awarded France’s top civic honour.

Pelicot, 72, was named knight of the Legion of Honour on a list announced before France’s July 14 national day, the AFP news agency reported on Sunday.

She was among 589 people named for the honour, which recognises merit-based national service.

Pelicot refused to remain anonymous and publicly testified at a trial in 2024 against her former husband, Dominique Pelicot, who drugged her and arranged for her to be raped by dozens of men over a decade.

His co-conspirators tried to claim they were unaware that the acts were not consensual and blamed the husband.

Gisele Pelicot at the time called it a “trial of cowardice” and asserted there was no excuse for abusing her when she was unconscious. Her testimony gripped the world and led to Dominique Pelicot and 50 co-defendants being found guilty in the mass-rape case.

Lauded for her courage in exposing the case, which forced a change in France’s rape law, she has since been named among the world’s most influential people in international lists.

Gisele Pelicot has not spoken further since the trial. She is focusing on writing a book, scheduled for release in 2026, that delves into her perspective of the ordeal, according to her lawyer.

Writers, artists and international figures are also on the Legion of Honour list.

Singer, music producer and clothing designer Pharrell Williams, writer Marc Levy, actor Lea Drucker, singer Sylvie Vartan, and Holocaust survivor and educator Yvette Levy are some of the other recipients.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s three-day state visit to the United Kingdom has moved from the genteel royal pomp and ceremony to the harder edges of the political realm as his hosts are expected to press for new measures to curb undocumented immigration in crunch talks.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was set to push Macron to do more to stop refugee and migrant crossings across the English Channel as the two leaders met Wednesday at 10 Downing Street.

The number of refugees and migrants arriving on England’s southern coast via small boats from northern France is a major political issue for the Labour government, which has seen the far-right Reform UK party make significant political gains with a hardline anti-immigration platform.

The talks come on Macron’s second day of his visit to the UK, which began with a warm welcome from King Charles III and members of the royal family and a lavish banquet at Windsor Castle.

It’s the first state visit by a French president to the UK since Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 and the first by a European Union head of state since Brexit was made official in 2020. Macron’s trip came at the invitation of King Charles III.

‘One in-one out’ deal not favoured by EU

Macron addressed the British parliament on Tuesday, promising to deliver on measures to cut the number of people crossing the English Channel, describing the issue as a “burden” to both countries. He also said that France and the UK had a “shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness”.

Britain hopes to strike a “one in, one out” deal to send small boat refugees and migrants back to the continent, in exchange for the UK accepting asylum seekers in Europe who have a British link, the domestic Press Association news agency reported.

France has previously refused to sign such an agreement, saying the UK should negotiate an arrangement with all European Union countries.

“This deal is far from being finished because there is a lot of opposition from certain European nations, which are usually the port of entry for people seeking to come to Europe, places like Spain, Malta, Italy, Greece and Cyprus,” said Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic, reporting from London.

“That is because under EU law, in theory, France could just move on the people they receive from Britain and onto those countries, the first port of entry countries, to claim asylum there. So Keir Starmer doesn’t only need to convince President Macron of this deal, but he also has quite significant stumbling blocks when it comes to convincing other European nations.”

In parliament Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, challenged Starmer to “say to the French president we will not accept undocumented males across the English Channel”.

There has been increasing frustration in the UK over funding for France to prevent refugees and migrants setting off and a law that prevents police intercepting boats while in the water close to shore.

“We will only provide funding that delivers for our priorities,” Starmer told parliament, adding that Britain had persuaded the French “to review their laws and tactics on the north coast to take more effective action”.

“I’ll be discussing this at meetings with President Macron,” he added.

After he took power a year ago, Starmer promised to “smash the gangs”, getting thousands of people onto the small boats – only to see numbers rise to record levels.

More than 21,000 people have crossed from northern France to southeast England in basic vessels this year, on a perilous journey.

The Macrons began the second day of their visit by paying their respects at the tomb of the late Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor’s St George’s Chapel.

Macron then discussed biodiversity issues with the king during a stroll in the castle grounds before he bade farewell to his host and headed to central London.

At Tuesday evening’s banquet, Charles used a speech to about 160 guests – including royals, Starmer and music icons Elton John and Mick Jagger – to warn that the two nations’ alliance was as crucial as ever amid a “multitude of complex threats”.

Macron had also said in his address to parliament that “Britain and France were too dependent on the US and China, and that they really need to take joint decisions on defence and security even though Britain has left the European Union, as geographically it is part of Europe,” said Veselinovic.

Charles concluded by toasting a new UK-France “entente… no longer just cordiale, but now amicale”, prompting Macron to laud “this entente amicale that unites our two fraternal peoples in an unwavering alliance”.

Macron is due to visit the British Museum to formally announce the loan of the famous Bayeux Tapestry depicting the 1066 Norman conquest of England, allowing the 11th-century masterpiece to return for the first time in more than 900 years. London, in exchange, will loan Paris Anglo-Saxon and Viking treasures.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for British support to recognise the state of Palestine and help defend Ukraine as he arrived in the United Kingdom for the first state visit by a European leader since Brexit.

Macron, in a rare address to both houses of the British parliament on Tuesday, celebrated the return of closer ties between France and the UK, and said the two countries must work together to end “excessive dependencies” on the United States and China.

The French president’s three-day trip came at the invitation of King Charles III. Macron was earlier greeted by the royal family, including heir-to-the-throne Prince William and his wife, Princess Catherine, before they travelled in horse-drawn carriages to Windsor Castle.

Macron then set out to parliament where he said the two countries needed to come together to strengthen Europe, including on defence, immigration, climate and trade.

“The United Kingdom and France must once again show the world that our alliance can make all the difference,” the French president said in English. “The only way to overcome the challenges we have, the challenges of our times, will be to go together hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder.”

Macron also promised that European countries would “never abandon Ukraine” in its war against invading Russian forces, while demanding an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.

He then urged the UK to work together with France on recognising a Palestinian state, calling it “the only path to peace”.

“With Gaza in ruin and West Bank being on a daily basis attacked, the perspective of a Palestinian state has never been put at risk as it is,” Macron said. “And this is why this solution of the two states and the recognition of the State of Palestine is… the only way to build peace and stability for all in the whole region.”

He listed the geopolitical threats France and the UK face, and argued they should also be wary of the “excessive dependencies of both the US and China”, saying they needed to “de-risk our economies and our societies from this dual dependency”.

Macron went on to set out the opportunities of a closer union, saying they should make it easier for students, researchers and artists to live in each other’s countries, and seek to work together on artificial intelligence and to protect children online.

The speech symbolised the improvement in relations sought by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s centre-left Labour Party, as part of a broader reset of ties with European allies following the rancour over London’s departure from the European Union.

‘Entente Amicale’

Later on Tuesday evening, King Charles hosted a banquet for the Macrons at Windsor Castle, with 160 guests, including politicians, diplomats and celebrities such as Mick Jagger and Elton John.

Charles used his speech at the opulent state banquet to christen a new era of friendly relations, upgrading the “entente cordiale” – an alliance dating from 1904 that ended centuries of military rivalries – to an “entente amicale”.

“As we dine here in this ancient place, redolent with our shared history, allow me to propose a toast to France and to our new entente. An entente not only past and present, but for the future – and no longer just cordiale, but now amicale,” the king said.

The UK and France marked the three-day visit with an announcement that French nuclear energy utility EDF would invest 1.1 billion pounds ($1.5bn) in a nuclear power project in eastern England.

The two also said France would lend the UK the Bayeux Tapestry, allowing the 11th-century masterpiece to return for the first time in more than 900 years, in exchange for London loaning Paris Anglo-Saxon and Viking treasures.

Politics will take centre stage on Wednesday, when Macron sits down for talks with Starmer on migration, defence and investment.

Despite tensions over post-Brexit ties and how to stop asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel in small boats, the UK and France have been working closely to create a planned military force to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia.

The two leaders will dial in to a meeting of the coalition on Thursday “to discuss stepping up support for Ukraine and further increasing pressure on Russia”, Starmer’s office confirmed on Monday.

They will speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, according to the French presidency.

Starmer is hoping the UK’s support for Ukraine will help persuade Macron to take a different approach to stopping people smuggling, with London wanting to try out an asylum seekers’ returns deal.

This would involve the UK deporting one asylum seeker to France in exchange for another with a legitimate case to be in the country. A record number of asylum seekers have arrived in the UK on small boats in the first six months of this year. Starmer, whose party is trailing Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party in the polls, is under pressure to find a solution.

France has previously refused to sign such an agreement, saying the UK should negotiate an arrangement with all EU countries.

Earlier, Kartal continued her impressive form at Wimbledon by becoming the first British player to reach round three this year with a dominant victory over Tomova.

After two days of blistering heat the start to Wednesday’s play was delayed by more than two hours because of rain in the morning.

But once the action did begin, Kartal followed up her impressive first-round win against 20th seed Jelena Ostapenko by quickly despatching Tomova 6-2 6-2.

It is the second year in a row the British number three has reached the third round at Wimbledon.

“I felt good in the warm-up and on court I felt good. I was seeing it and hitting it very clean. It was one of those good days in the office,” said Kartal.

“I wanted to back up the run I had last year. I wanted to show I am at this level now and I can consistently play.

“The last couple of months I have thrown myself on the scene. This year I made a conscious effort to only play the bigger matches. I am feeling much more confidence in my game.”

After getting the first break of serve in the sixth game of the opening set Kartal really got into her stride, hitting some impressive winners that her opponent struggled to cope with before breaking again at 5-2 up to take the first set.

It did not get any better for Tomova in the second set as the 23-year-old home favourite won the first four games to asset her dominance.

Tomova managed to break serve in the fifth game but it only delayed the Briton’s march to an excellent win.

Next up for Kartal is a match against world number 15 Diana Shnaider or French qualifier Diane Parry.

The revocation follows the former president’s conviction for corruption and influence peddling.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been stripped of his Legion of Honour, the country’s highest distinction, after being convicted of corruption and influence peddling last year.

The announcement in a decree published in Sunday’s Official Bulletin deals another blow to the 70-year-old politician who has been mired in legal turmoil since leaving office in 2012.

Sarkozy is now the second former French head of state to be stripped of the award, joining Nazi collaborator Philippe Petain, who was convicted in August 1945 for high treason and conspiring with the enemy.

Last year, France’s highest court upheld Sarkozy’s conviction for corruption and influence peddling, ordering him to wear an electronic tag for a year, a first for a former French president.

Also last year, an appeals court confirmed a separate conviction for illegal campaign financing in his failed re-election bid in 2012.

Sarkozy is currently on trial in a third case, accused of raking in tens of millions of euros in campaign funds as part of a “corruption pact” with the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi – charges the French politician denies.

Sarkozy has blamed members of Gaddafi’s inner circle who disclosed details of the alleged financing, claiming they are motivated by revenge for his support of the antigovernment uprising in Libya.

If convicted, Sarkozy faces up to seven years behind bars and a five-year ban from running for office. A verdict is expected in September.

While the Legion of Honour’s rules generally disqualify anyone convicted of a criminal offence, France’s President Emmanuel Macron – who, as head of state, has the final authority over the order – had previously refrained from revoking Sarkozy’s honour.

The Legion of Honour code states: “Any person sentenced for a crime or to a definitive prison term of at least one year is excluded.”

Sarkozy, a member of the centre-right Republicans party (LR), retired from active politics in 2017 but retains a following and “is known to regularly meet with Macron”, according to France’s Le Monde newspaper.

Not that you asked, but yes, I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the bad news out of Washington:

Pardons for tax cheats who line President Trump’s pockets. Talk of pardons for the violent criminals who conspired to kidnap and kill Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Dinners for crypto moguls who shower him with money. His monomaniacal quest to extinguish the light of the country’s most prestigious university. His budget that will deprive millions of their healthcare coverage, while slashing taxes for the rich and swelling the $36 trillion national debt by an estimated $3.8 trillion.

And don’t get me started on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s inane move that could make it harder for pregnant women to get COVID-19 shots, thus depriving their infants of protection against the virus when they are vulnerable and not yet eligible for vaccination.

Good heavens, I needed a distraction. Happily, it arrived in the form of an unexpected video.

You may have seen it: Last Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, got tongues wagging when she did something that seemed entirely out of character for the painfully elegant first lady. She was caught on camera squishing her hands right into his handsome face. It looked like an act of hostility. I was intrigued.

I know, I know. It’s hardly world-shattering news. But who doesn’t perk up a bit when the scrim of perfection that shields the private lives of high-profile, perfectly turned-out couples is torn, even for one brief moment?

Who can forget the sight of First Lady Melania Trump swatting away her husband’s hand during a 2017 visit to Tel Aviv? Or the way her smile faded during his first inauguration the moment he looked away from her, inspiring the #FreeMelania hashtag?

For all the drama and rumor that swirled around the Clintons’ marriage, I can’t think of any public moment when they did not appear civil with one another, even after his disastrous relationship with a White House intern.

And the Obamas? Is there any other intensely scrutinized political couple who seem so downright normal? Not that anyone ever really knows what’s going on in anyone else’s marriage.

Which brings us back to the Macrons.

His plane was on the tarmac in Hanoi, where he was kicking off a tour to strengthen ties with countries in Southeast Asia. As the plane door opened, the couple were caught unawares. A startled-looking Macron backed up as disembodied hands smushed his face. He instantly collected himself, and his wife appeared at his side. As they began to descend the staircase, he offered her his arm, which she did not take.

The bizarre clip went viral, and sent the French government, known as the Élysée Palace, into what one headline described as “chaos.”

Part of the chaos stemmed from the government first claiming that the clip was not real but was possibly a deep fake created by AI and exploited by Russia to make Macron seem weak. After the Associated Press authenticated the video, the French government changed its tune, describing the moment as merely a playful interaction between the couple.

Unsurprisingly, given their back story, the Macrons have been the subject of intense fascination for years.

They met in 1993 at a Catholic high school in northern France when he was 15. She, nearly 40 at the time, and a married mother of three, was his drama teacher. His parents were so concerned about the impropriety of their relationship that they sent him away to Paris for his senior year.

In 2006, she divorced her husband, and married Macron the following year. He was 29. She was 54.

“Of course, we have breakfast together, me and my wrinkles, him with his youth, but it’s like that,” Macron told Elle France in 2017. “If I did not make that choice, I would have missed out on my life.”

Unfortunately, Le Slapgate threatened to overshadow the Macrons’ trip.

“We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” he told reporters, complaining that the incident was being overblown into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe.”

A few days later, though, he was making light of the incident. Or at least trying to.

On Tuesday in Jakarta, Indonesia, as his plane door opened, another disembodied hand appeared, this time waving before Macron stepped into the camera frame smiling before he walked down the stairs arm in arm with his wife. Ha ha.

For a brief moment, the squabbling of one of the world’s most interesting couples gave us a much needed break from the actual geo-planetary catastrophe unfolding around us. For that, the Macrons have my gratitude. Merci, you crazy lovebirds.

‪@rabcarian.bsky.social‬ @rabcarian

A new law will make it illegal to do something that’s common in the UK – and holidaymakers could face a hefty fine if they are caught breaking this rule.

People jetting off to France for their summer getaway must be aware of this crackdown on a common behaviour that some won’t think twice about. From July, French police could hand out fines every time they spot someone breaking the rule.

A BBC report shared that, from July 1, France will get tougher on smokers and implement a major ban on smoking in public places, including beaches, parks and outside schools. The clampdown aims to protect children from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke, reports Wales Online.

According to the NHS, second-hand smoke or passive smoke can damage their health of those around you. The health trust claimed: “People who breathe in secondhand smoke regularly are more likely to get the same diseases as smokers, including lung cancer and heart disease.”

Ignorance won’t be an excuse for rule-breakers who could face a €135 penalty (that’s about £113 or $153). France’s minister for children, health and family, Catherine Vautrin, said enforcement duties have been passed onto the police, but with a nudge that the public should also aim to “self-regulate.”

She told Ouest-France daily: “Tobacco must disappear where there are children”. With around 16.4 million residents in France over the age of 15 smoking, it is a habit deeply ingrained in French culture, revealed by a Global Action to End Smoking stat.

The French government isn’t taking this ban lightly, and plans are in the works to ensure people take note through signs and campaigns promoting good practice. This move extends the smoke-free zones already in place across parts of France, which has seen smoking banned in restaurants and clubs since 2008.

Brits visiting France may find it tricky to break their habits with the new rule, as the UK’s smoking laws only apply indoors. Since July 2007, smoking in enclosed public spaces and workplaces has been banned in the UK.

However, in 2024, the BBC reported that the UK Government is contemplating similar measures by extending legislation in England to outdoor areas like playgrounds and hospital grounds to “protect children and the most vulnerable from the harms of second-hand smoke”.

In France, once the new law is in place, smoking will still be permitted in outdoor areas of cafes and bar terraces. While electronic cigarettes are not included in the ban, the country is set to tighten vaping regulations soon.

Hotels typically allocate a few rooms for smokers. If you don’t specify you want one upon booking, you’ll be placed in a non-smoking room, according to the French Rivera Traveller.

The BBC said that, according to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, nearly a quarter (23.1%) of the French population smokes daily. France’s National Committee Against Smoking adds that over 75,000 smokers die annually from tobacco-related illnesses – 13% of all deaths.

A recent report by the French cancer association La Ligue Contre le Cancer reveals that almost 80% of French people support a ban on smoking in public places like woodlands, beaches, parks, and terraces.