French President Emmanuel Macron sparked a firestorm of criticism after he interrupted a youth-focused session at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi on Monday, publicly scolding attendees for talking over speakers and calling the disruption “a total lack of respect.”

Video from the event showed Macron rising from his seat and walking onto the stage during the “Africa Forward: Creation in Motion” session, which featured artists and young entrepreneurs speaking about culture and innovation.

“Excuse me, everybody. Hey, hey, hey,” Macron told the audience. “I’m sorry, guys. But it’s impossible to speak about culture, to have people like that super inspired, coming here, making a speech with such a noise.”

“So this is a total lack of respect,” he continued. “I suggest if you want to have bilateral or speak about somebody else, I mean something else, you have bilateral rooms, or you go outside. If you want to stay here, we listen to the people, and we’re playing the same game.”

MACRON TO APPOINT FOURTH PRIME MINISTER IN A YEAR AS DEBT BATTLE TOPPLES CENTRIST LEADER

Macron was immediately criticized for his uninvited remarks on social media. A former member of Parliament from Zimbabwe, Fadzayi Mahere, called the French leader out on X. “Respectfully @EmmanuelMacron I don’t believe that it’s courteous or appropriate for you to come onto our Continent and talk down at people like this. They are not your kids. Don’t be condescending. Imagine if a guest of the state did the same in your country? Would it fly? I don’t think so.”

Another post from a Kenyan-Canadian lawyer with 3.1 million followers announced, “Africans don’t need @EmmanuelMacron’s permission to speak in Africa,” said Dr. Miguna Miguna, who in January announced he was running for the Kenyan presidency in 2027, according to local reports. 

A report published Monday by Modern Ghana, the interruption carried a symbolic irony, as Macron had traveled to Kenya to promote what Paris describes as a more equal and respectful partnership with African nations, moving away from what critics have long viewed as a paternalistic post-colonial model.

The incident took place during the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, where more than 30 African leaders, business executives and young entrepreneurs gathered for discussions focused on economic development, innovation and cooperation between Africa and Europe.

Kenya’s Standard Media reported that the exchange “cast an unusual shadow” over the summit, noting that some civil society groups characterized the two-day summit as a “reengineering of imperialism.”

The moment underscored the balancing act facing Macron as France attempts to redefine its relationship with Africa following years of political tensions and military withdrawals from several West African countries.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Earlier Monday, Macron told students at the University of Nairobi that “Africa is succeeding” and argued the continent needs investment to strengthen its sovereignty rather than dependence on development aid, according to Modern Ghana’s report by Mustapha Bature Sallama. The report also noted Macron acknowledged France’s own financial constraints during the remarks.

Macron has increasingly emphasized partnerships with African youth, entrepreneurs and cultural leaders as Paris recalibrates its Africa strategy amid growing competition from Russia, China and Turkey for influence across the continent.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Published on 12/05/2026 – 18:19 GMT+2•Updated
18:26

A vast majority of EU member states criticised the reopening of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale during a “heated discussion” among the bloc’s culture ministers on Tuesday in Brussels.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Many ministers also expressed support for the European Commission’s move to freeze a €2 million grant to the Biennale Foundation for allowing Russia’s participation, several diplomats told Euronews.

The issue was raised by Latvian Minister of Culture Agnese Lāce, who called for preventing what she described as “the instrumentalization of cultural institutions by Russia.”

According to people in the room, a total of 14 ministers denounced Russia’s presence but stopped short of directly criticising Italy, which was represented at the meeting by Ambassador Marco Canaparo in place of Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli.

Several countries, such as Belgium, Spain and Poland, argued that culture cannot be used to whitewash the war of aggression launched by Russia against Ukraine and stressed the importance of avoiding any sanction circumvention by Russian individuals involved in the exhibition.

The Commission and Cyprus’s EU rotating presidency called for a suspension of funding, reallocating the Biennale’s money to Ukraine’s reconstruction.

Brussels has so far strongly condemned the Biennale’s decision to allow Russia to reopen its national pavilion, claiming that culture “should never be used as a platform for propaganda” and warning that the Russian stand could become a “platform to individuals who have actively supported or justified the aggression against Ukraine.”

In April, the Commission initiated proceedings to cut funding, notifying the Biennale of a breach of the grant’s conditions, which, if not addressed, could lead to the suspension or termination of the grant.

The foundation maintains that the event should remain “a place of dialogue, openness and artistic freedom” and that it cannot prevent a country from participating, as any state recognised by the Italian Republic can apply to join the exhibition.

Russia maintains a pavilion within the exhibition area and, under the rules, can independently decide whether to take part in each edition of the Venice Biennale. Its last participation was in 2019, as Russian artists withdrew in 2022 and the country did not present a pavilion in 2024, instead lending its space to Bolivia.

Russia’s participation in 2026 sparked controversy within the Italian government, as Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli boycotted the opening ceremony, while vice prime minister Matteo Salvini defended the “freedom of art” and even paid a visit to the Russian pavilion.

This year’s edition opened on Saturday, amid protests for the participation of Russia and Israel. The Russian dissident collectives Pussy Riot and Femen displayed slogans against Vladimir Putin while wearing balaclavas and topless.

The Biennale’s international jury, which will assign the main awards to the pavilions, collectively resigned after criticism for its decision to exclude from prizes those countries whose leaders are currently accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — His head, chest and hands strapped with body cameras, David Park deftly folded a banquet napkin the way he has thousands of times during his nine years at the five-star Lotte Hotel Seoul. Each of his motions is fed into a database that will one day teach a robot to do the same.

The hotel chain is one of many companies South Korean artificial-intelligence startup RLWRLD (pronounced “real world”) is working with to create an extensive library of human expertise, harvested from skilled workers across industries, to develop AI brains for robots that could be coming to industrial sites and homes.

It collects similar data from logistics workers at CJ, capturing how they grip, lift and handle goods in warehouses, and from staff at a Japanese convenience store chain Lawson, tracking how they organize food displays.

The goal is to build an AI software layer that can work in robots across a range of factories and other work sites in coming years, before potentially expanding into homes. RLWRLD’s engineers say replicating the dexterity of human hands is a key priority, reflecting their views that humanlike machines, or humanoids, will drive the field.

“I’ve been doing this about once a month,” said Park, one of about 10 members of Lotte Hotel’s food and beverages team being wired up to capture their techniques.

After folding the napkin into a tight, layered square, Park wiped wine glasses, knives and forks in a corner of a banquet hall as colleagues prepared for real services nearby. He complained lightly to an engineer that the cameras on his hands felt too tight.

South Korea focuses on physical AI

RLWRLD is among a wave of South Korean high-tech firms and manufacturers competing in the unproven yet fiercely contested global market for “physical AI.” The term refers to machines equipped with AI and sensors that can perceive, decide and act in real-world environments with some degree of autonomy, moving beyond conventional factory robots designed for repetitive tasks.

While it remains unclear whether these machines will fully meet expectations of transforming industries, they are central to South Korea’s ambitions to leverage its semiconductor and manufacturing strengths to become an AI powerhouse. The competition is tough, with U.S. tech giants like Tesla and a flood of Chinese firms pouring billions into humanoids and other AI robots.

Just as chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini train on vast troves of internet text, AI robots likewise require extensive data on human action to handle advanced physical tasks. South Koreans may struggle to compete in chatbots, where English language proficiency gives U.S. firms major advantages, but they see a better chance in physical AI, given their deep base of skilled workers in manufacturing and other sectors that could help train robot systems.

Robots are central to South Korea’s AI ambitions

The government last month announced a $33 million project to capture the “instinctive know-how and skills” of “master technicians” into a database for AI-powered manufacturing, hoping robots will boost productivity and offset an aging, shrinking workforce.

RLWRLD, which last week unveiled its robotics foundation model, an AI system for robots, expects industrial AI robots to be deployed at scale sometime around 2028, a timeline shared by major businesses.

Hyundai Motor plans to introduce humanoids built by its robotics unit, Boston Dynamics, at its global factories in coming years, starting with its Georgia plant in 2028. Chip giant Samsung Electronics plans to convert all manufacturing sites into “AI-driven factories” by 2030, with humanoids and task-specific robots across production lines.

“South Korea has a highly developed manufacturing sector and the focus is squarely on humanoids tailored specifically for those industries,” said Billy Choi, a professor at Korea University’s center for Human-Inspired AI Research.

South Korea’s AI push has unsettled labor groups, who fear robots could possibly take jobs and hollow out the skilled workforce long seen as the nation’s competitive edge, the very asset it’s now counting on for its AI transition.

After Hyundai’s union warned in January that robots could trigger an “employment shock,” President Lee Jae Myung issued a rare rebuke, describing AI as an unstoppable “massive cart” and calling for unionists to adapt to changes “coming faster than expected.”

“Mastery of skills is ultimately a human achievement — even if AI can replicate existing abilities, the continuous development of craft will remain fundamentally human,” said Kim Seok, policy director at the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. He said widespread robot deployments would risk “severing the pipeline” for skilled labor and urged the government and employers to engage with workers over AI to win their buy-in and ease job concerns.

Robots are trained on human behavior

Humanoids developed by U.S. and Chinese companies have displayed impressive physical feats, even long-distance running. But Hyemin Cho, who handles business strategies at RLWRLD, said the ability to perform delicate tasks with hands will determine whether humanoids can be used in diverse industrial settings and homes.

“Capturing motion data in real-world settings is extremely important and the quality of that data matters greatly,” she said.

After converting worker footage into machine-readable data, RLWRLD’s engineers add another layer by repeating those tasks wearing cameras, VR headsets and motion-tracking gloves. That data is used to train test robots, often guided by RLWRLD “pilots” using wearable devices. The process captures fine details such as joint angles and the amount of force applied, said Song Hyun-ji of the company’s robotics team.

One of RLWRLD’s labs occupies a cluttered, 34th-floor suite at Lotte Hotel. Scratched carpets are buried under tangles of wires and computing gear. Poles fitted with infrared laser readers stand in the corners. Beneath a chandelier, a rare trace of the room’s former luxury, a wheeled robot with black, humanlike metal hands moves back and forth with a low mechanical whir.

During a recent demonstration, the robot, guided by engineers, gingerly lifted and placed cups at a minibar, at one point knocking over a dish. The company’s latest test footage shows a more advanced system: a humanoid carefully opening a box, placing a computer mouse inside, closing it and setting it on a conveyor belt.

Most robots, including Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, use task-specific hands, like two or three-fingered “grippers.” RLWRLD is among a smaller group of companies developing AI for five-fingered hands that mimic human touch.

While five-fingered designs may not always suit factory needs, they could prove crucial as robots move into homes, where closer interaction with humans will be required, said Choi, the professor.

Hospitality workers provide valuable training data for machines learning precise or nuanced tasks — skills that could also expand their use in industrial settings, Cho said.

Although current humanoids would need several hours to clean a guest room that human workers finish in about 40 minutes, Lotte Hotel hopes robots will be ready for cleaning and other behind-the-scenes tasks by 2029. It also plans robot rental services for the hospitality and other service industries, with a potential expansion to homes.

“If you look at the entire process of preparing for an event in back-of-house areas, we think humanoids might be able to take over about 30% to 40% of that workload,” Park said. “It will be difficult for them to replace the remaining 50%, 60% and 70%, which involves actual human-to-human interaction.”