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G7 to work in 'coordinated manner' to 'bring down prices of petroleum products,' Macron says
France’s Emmanuel Macron said G7 leaders agreed “to work in a coordinated manner to help bring down the prices of petroleum products, particularly diesel.”
He says:
“We have decided to:
→ make production more flexible to produce at the maximum capacity of our refineries,
→ release our strategic reserves up to 100 million barrels, within 4 months, with our partners, under the coordination of the Energy Agency,
→ take no measures to restrict the exchange of energy and petroleum products between partner countries.”
Key events
G7 to release 100m barrels of diesel, coordinate maintenance schedule to stabilise energy supplies
Here is the G7’s statement in full, as released by the Élysée Palace.
I used bold to highlight the key bits for you.
“Today, We, the Leaders of the G7, convened a virtual meeting to address the deepening challenges to our energy security. Facing unprecedented volatility in oil markets - with surging prices threatening economic stability and the well-being of our citizens - we have agreed on decisive, coordinated measures to stabilize immediate energy supplies, shield households and businesses from price shocks, and strengthen the long-term resilience of global energy systems.
We will coordinate maintenance schedules across G7 refineries to prevent simultaneous capacity shutdowns and temporarily increase utilization rates where feasible. We also encourage engagement with countries holding significant refining capacities to boost global production of refined products, particularly diesel, in light of ongoing market pressures in this segment.
The G7 requests the IEA to monitor the immediate and full implementation of the March 2026 commitments. In this regard, taking into account commitments that have already been fulfilled, we will implement our commitments with a coordinated release through the IEA of 100 million barrels (MB) to begin immediately over 4 months, including a frontloaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days by G7 members and partners. We will convene in the context of the IEA in the coming days to discuss the possibility of additional diesel releases as necessary.
We reaffirm our commitment to refrain from export restrictions on energy and energy products between G7 countries and call on all producers to refrain from imposing bans that could exacerbate market tensions.
We invite the IEA to monitor the impact of these measures on energy security and market stability and to monitor implementation of commitments. A follow-up report should be delivered before 20 days, include actionable recommendations to enhance future responses, including stocks replenishment.
We condemn Iran’s continued attacks against its regional neighbours and its disruption of international trade, energy security and the global economy. We call for the immediate and full restoration of navigational rights and principles in the Strait of Hormuz and express our determination to redouble our collective efforts to that end. We commend the United States for its efforts to ensure the free flow of commerce through the strait of Hormuz.
We will maintain sanctions against Russia while working with the IEA and global partners to prevent further spillovers into fuel, gas, and other commodity markets.
Our citizens’ concerns about energy prices remain a top priority. We will monitor developments closely and stand ready to adjust measures as needed. Today’s agreements mark a step toward a more secure, transparent, and resilient energy future.”
G7 to work in 'coordinated manner' to 'bring down prices of petroleum products,' Macron says
France’s Emmanuel Macron said G7 leaders agreed “to work in a coordinated manner to help bring down the prices of petroleum products, particularly diesel.”
He says:
“We have decided to:
→ make production more flexible to produce at the maximum capacity of our refineries,
→ release our strategic reserves up to 100 million barrels, within 4 months, with our partners, under the coordination of the Energy Agency,
→ take no measures to restrict the exchange of energy and petroleum products between partner countries.”
Europe set to release some of its diesel reserves 'immediately,' Trump says
Meanwhile, we are getting big news coming from the G7 meeting, with US president Donald Trump saying that Europe has agreed to release some of its diesel reserves “immediately” (14:19).
Trump announced the action Friday on social media without offering details on which countries were releasing reserves or at what volumes.
“Europe has just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil,” Trump wrote. “The process will begin immediately.”
Spanish parliament rejects the government's proposed emergency housing measures
Let me bring you an update from Spain where the government lost two key votes to ratify a package of emergency measures aimed at tackling the nation’s housing affordability crisis – just as protesters marched on the parliament demanding help for renters (12:31).
AP reported that the Catalan separatist party Junts carried out its announcement made hours before that it would vote against both decrees. That doomed the measures when combined with the “No” from the center-right Popular Party and far-right Vox.
Student protests in France - in pictures
Taz Ali
Something a little different – a new social media trend has seen tourists in Prague queue near the famed Charles Bridge to recreate a 1988 photo of the iconic British band Depeche Mode.
The black and white image shows Dave Gahan (facing the camera) and Martin Gore (looking towards the bridge) standing next to the Pietà sculpture.
AP has more on how the photo has captured the imaginations of international visitors to Czechia:
Fans have been making the pilgrimage for years, but photographs of a mass gathering on the bridge between the band’s Prague concerts in 2024 appear to have helped fuel a modern-day boom.
Currently, the photo recreated by the visiting fans is trending with millions of views on social media.
Jorge Sanchez, from California, and his wife were among the recent visitors.
“Well, I remember seeing the picture from way back, and then I kind of remember, and I looked it up, and I learned that it was here, so I wanted to make sure I took a picture,” Sanchez said.
“I think it fit at the time, you know, with their music, you know, and their message and their music with your personal Jesus and all of that, so it’s kind of fitting.”
‘We just want to be listened to’: student protests shut schools across France
My colleague Angelique Chrisafis in Paris has the full report here on the student protests in France.
She writes:
As dozens of school pupils sat on top of a pile of wheelie bins blocking a high school entrance in north-eastern Paris, Sophia, 17, was on the frontline of the barricade, when she would normally have been attending Spanish class.
“We hope this grows into a massive youth protest movement,” said the final year baccalaureate student at Paris’s Lycée Voltaire, who did not want her real name published. She was on her second day of blocking the school entrance along with hundreds of others, ensuring all lessons were cancelled. “We just want to be listened to by the government. We’d rather stand here doing this than have to learn in poor conditions. It’s the only way to make ourselves heard.”
“School is a right, not a privilege,” read a cardboard sign as Sophia listed the grievances of teenagers across France: a lack of state investment in education, overcrowded classes of up to 40 children in crumbling buildings, poor teacher pay, staff absences and an unequal system in which social background determined success. Other reasons for the protest included the opaque and difficult online system for university applications as well as the unbearable temperatures in classrooms during the heatwaves in May and June.
“The education budget is being cut to shreds while so much extra funding is being put into the army,” said Sophia, who wanted to go on to study art and work in animation. She said she hoped the demonstrations and blockades would continue into next week. Several teachers stood by the barricades in support.
Read more:
17-year-old arrested after police officer violently attacked in student protest, prosecutor says
A police officer deployed to the school protests in Belfort, north-east France was brutally attacked after another off-duty cop arrested a young man, Belfort prosecutor Paul-Edouard Lallois told the AFP news agency.
The officer was “attacked by a mob of young people” near the Courbet secondary school in Belfort at 9.15am local time. The group “knocked him to the ground and beat him with their fists and feet, particularly around the head”, said Lallois, who announced he will open an investigation for attempted murder of a public official. He is scheduled to hold a press conference this afternoon.
Police backup “quickly intervened to disperse the group of attackers” and provide assistance to the officer, Lallois added. He suffered “a brief loss of consciousness” and sustained “several wounds” to his face.
A 17-year-old student at the school was arrested shortly afterward. He has not been formally identified as having struck the officer, Lallois said, adding that investigations are ongoing to establish his involvement.
Commenting on the attack, the French interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said: “These images, which are exceptionally violent, are unbearable.
“The police officer, who was deliberately targeted, was taken to hospital after losing consciousness. Fortunately, his condition is no longer a cause for serious concern at this time. My thoughts are with him.”
More violent clashes with police across France as school protests continue
We are getting more pictures of violent clashes in France as the high school protests continue across the country.
After a plainclothes officer was violently attacked in Belfort, the interior minister Laurent Nuñez condemned “unbearable” video footage of the incident and said the investigation will focus on “attempted murder.”
“Everything will be done to identify the perpetrators of this despicable act. Total support for the police officers and gendarmes who are intervening in difficult conditions,” he said.
Macron to host G7 talks as EU mulls response to US pressure on diesel stocks
French president Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to chair a videoconference with G7 leaders in the next half hour focused on the global energy situation, the Élysée Palace said.
Macron has already spoken with US president Donald Trump and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney overnight to discuss the latest surge in fuel prices.
Separately, EU ambassadors will also convene on Friday afternoon to discuss the global energy situation, the Irish Presidency of the EU said.
“The diesel market is currently very tight, leading to high prices for consumers across the world. The Presidency is committed to maintaining close collaboration and coordination with all member states and the Commission,” a spokesperson for the Presidency said.
Earlier, EU representatives discussed a French proposal to release diesel stocks in response to US pressure to help cool surging fuel prices linked to the Iran war, three sources familiar with details of the discussion told Reuters.
The proposal, discussed on a call involving EU governments, calls for European countries to release 50 million barrels of diesel and Energy Agency members to release 50 million barrels of crude oil, the sources said.
France's justice minister brands far-right Bardella's anti-semitism explanations as 'shameless lies'
Jon Henley
Europe correspondent
in Paris
In other news in France, the country’s justice minister has accused Jordan Bardella of “shameless lies” after Marine Le Pen’s de facto deputy dismissed new evidence from an investigative website that he posted antisemitic messages on social media as “crude fabrications, obscure and easily manipulated screenshots … vile statements I obviously never made”.
The Mediapart website on Monday published the messages, dating back to 2013, in which Bardella – then a 17-year-old activist in Le Pen’s far-right Rally (RN) – allegedly wrote comments including “the Jew has to dominate other peoples, crush them, and rob them; a Zionist is necessarily a Jew, and fundamentally so” and “all the banks are owned by Jews”.
Mediapart said on Thursday it had authenticated the messages, mainly on Messenger, Facebook’s instant messaging service, and published screenshots. It said they were provided by two sources close to Bardella, had been authenticated with Meta, Facebook’s parent company, and the data extraction had been certified by a bailiff.
“Extracting the conversation allows us to date it, to confirm that this conversation has not been subsequently modified, and to confirm that the person involved in the conversation is listed by Meta/Facebook under the name Jordan Bardella.”
It added that an analysis of the content also “possible to verify that it is indeed the real Jordan Bardella”: biographical details in the conversation included mention of a mother born in Italy, a 2013 interview Bardella gave to Le Parisien newspaper, and his failure to pass the entrance examination for the prestigious Sciences Po university.
Bardella, who created a new Facebook profile dedicated to his burgeoning political career late in 2013, said on Tuesday he had filed a formal legal complaint for defamation.
On Thursday he repeated his denial and added he would now also file complaints for “forgery and use of forgeries”.
The evidence was “therefore not evidence at all, and will not hold up for a second in court”, he said on social media.
“The so-called ‘investigation’ is already collapsing. The French people will be the judge of this blatant fabrication.”
The allegations against Bardella come just seven months before next year’s presidential elections, with Le Pen leading in the opinion polls.
Bardella is widely expected to become prime minister if she wins and the affair threatens to damage her decades-long “detoxification” of the RN, long associated with the antisemitic views of some of its members including its founder, Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie.
The French justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, told French radio on Friday there was “little doubt” Bardella had made the comments.
“Do we want a prime minister who is not only antisemitic, but also lies to the French people in the face of overwhelming evidence? … His strategy raises serious doubts about his ability to hold political office,” he said.
The French Socialist party’s leader, Olivier Faure, said Bardella was “lying. So we have a two-pronged issue here: his antisemitism and lying in politics. Neither is forgivable.”
Faure added: “He could have had another defence – he could have said: ‘I was young, I’ve changed since then.’ That’s not what he’s saying.”
