on to group the U.S. with the countries from which France needed protecting.

“We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” he said on French radio.

Despite a friendly meeting in Washington in April, filled with back-slapping and warm greetings, Macron has taken a number of swipes at Trump's nationalism in recent months. In September, he spoke in front of the United Nations General Assembly and criticized a unilateralist approach that entails "a certain lawlessness where everyone pursues their own interests."

“I will never stop upholding the principle of sovereignty even in the face of a certain nationalism, which we’re seeing today, brandishing sovereignty as a way of attacking others," he said just hours after Trump addressed the General Assembly.

Trump is joiningImage caption Mr Sonoda said he had been doing things "as he saw fit"

Japan's top female judo wrestlers were subjected to violence by their coach, officials have admitted.

The acknowledgement followed a complaint by 15 athletes to the Japanese Olympic Committee in December.

In the complaint, the group said that they had been slapped and hit with wooden swords by their head coach, local media said.

The All Japan Judo Federation (AJJF) said head coach Ryuji Sonoda had acknowledged the claims.

"We received information that Mr Sonoda, the head coach of the female national team, might have been physically bullying athletes," said AJJF head Koshi Onozawa.

"Our executive office took this seriously and questioned both him and athletes, discovering the charges were largely true," he told a news conference.

The AJJF said it would