Fiachra Gibbons

Features and Blogs Editor @AFP. Also Greece, Turkey, Balkans

[Fiachra Gibbons @FiachraGibbons]

@shattenstone God rest her soul. What a wonderful woman she was and a beautiful grave

[Adrenalin Arsızı @elcinarabaci]

Sosyal medya linguistik camiasında bu adamın üstüne tanımıyorum. Müthiş öğretici ve çok eğlenceli :) Ayrıca en sevdiğim insta hesabı olabilir @cedrusk

[Fiachra Gibbons @FiachraGibbons]

I so love this man... listen and learn

[CNN France PR @CNNFrancePR]

"Je demande pardon si j'ai offensé. Les Chrétiens du monde me l'accorderont, j'en suis sûr."

Philippe Katerine s'excuse après la polémique liée à sa prestation à la cérémonie d'ouverture des Jeux Olympiques #Paris2024. Interview par @SaskyaCNN.

[Richard Williams @rwilliams1947]

This was the headline in The Times this morning. So congratulations to Paris 2024 for overcoming difficulties to organise two stunning triathlons in front of huge crowds. And shame on that particular bit of British journalism.

[Sophie Pedder @PedderSophie]

Paris did it !

🇫🇷🏊🏻‍♀️

[John Lichfield @john_lichfield]

Why the Far Right won't form the next French government but long and miserable battles lie ahead
Me for The Local
https://t.co/TNXtuXD49m

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

Rishi Sunak has offered his resignation to The King but Keir Starmer has yet to be appointed as Prime Minister, so who's in charge? Me.

[Jonathan Brown @jonathaneebrown]

Compared with others in war-scarred eastern Ukraine, the mining town of Toretsk was in a relatively sleepy sector of the frontline. Then suddenly, the Russian assaults began.

A great selection of work by @RomanPilipey for @AFP in @guardian.

https://t.co/TfoXYEqAPF

[Emmanuel @EmmanuelSPV]

Une trentaine de personnes en trente secondes sur la piste peinte du Quai Saint-Michel. Avec la largeur ça passe sans stress.

[Lea Ypi @lea_ypi]

Vargjet e para që mësova të recitoj ishin nga ti:

“Kur superkafshët dridhnin botën, njeriu në gjunjë nuk u ul. Ka patur vite të mamuthëve, por kohë të tyre s’pati kurrë”.

Lamtumirë, Ismail Kadare, magjistar i fjalës i të gjitha kohërave.

[Agnes C. Poirier @AgnesCPoirier]

#France in turmoil. A case study.
In #Paris's second constituency, easily winnable for any democrat that hasn't entered an alliance with the Far Right or the Far Left, there are currently... four candidates to choose from (Presidential Centrist, Dissident Centrist, Right and Green). If they don't talk and agree on one candidate, the Republican Front will lose one precious seat.
#ChronicleOfADeathForetold

[Fiachra Gibbons @FiachraGibbons]

Place de Pigalle ... Merci Madame la Maire

[Emmanuel @EmmanuelSPV]

Toute nouvelle boutique vélo dans le 18ème à la place d'une boutique auto. Sous l'égide du même gérant a priori vu l'habillage ;)

[John Lichfield @john_lichfield]

Jordan Bardella, the man who is nobody and everybody. Me for The Local
https://t.co/AgpRu3crzn

[Alexandre Blaineau @AlBlaineau]

Turner, anticipant Rothko

[Collectif Vélo Paris Ouest La Défense @VeloPOLD]

La magnifique piste provisoire (fréquentée quotidiennement par 4000 cyclistes) sur le circulaire à #laDéfense est en cours de démontage sans aucune alternative proposée.
Soyez prudents🚳

[AFP News Agency @AFP]

Demonstrators vow to 'save Israel' from Netanyahu in new protests.

Thousands of angry Israelis took to the streets on Monday for the third consecutive night to demand Prime Minister Netanyahu quit -- and the demonstrators say they are not going away

https://t.co/RvemTIjUfq

[Sfar Joann @joannsfar]

Depuis un mois, le Hamas détient 241 otages. #BringThemBackHomeNow

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Another masterful interview on Gaza of Dominique De Villepin, former Prime Minister of France, who IMHO is the best diplomat the West has produced in decades.

Again I believe that his words are so important and so rare among Western leaders today, that I decided to translate it in full (the bold parts are emphasis Villepin himself made when speaking):

"The Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu, failed on October 7th and failed doubly. Firstly, in its ability to ensure the protection of the Israeli people by allowing massacres that are an abomination to occur. He bears direct responsibility for what happened. And his second failure is having encouraged a policy of occupation and colonization, which continues at this moment in the West Bank and constitutes another threat to Israel if a second front in the West Bank were to open.

Force does not ensure the security of a people! This is what all Israelis must understand today. And what is important is that since October 7th, the Israeli government's choice has been to escalate the use of force. You know, neither force nor vengeance ensures peace and security. What ensures peace and security is justice! And justice is not being served today.

The rationale of the Israeli government for the bombings happening today is flawed, and the whole international community can see it. The principle is: "we target terrorists, and unfortunately, there are also civilian populations," what is euphemistically called in military language "collateral damage." It must be understood that this collateral damage is not accidental. That is to say, it is perfectly predictable and fully accepted.

[Host: "But once again, the responsibility is not solely Israeli."]

But once more, let's stop asking about responsibility; let's look at the reality of what's happening on the ground! Assigning fault, allow me to tell you, we will leave to historians. What we want is to stop this violence, to stop these massacres. Israel is putting itself in danger, even more today, with this type of warfare and these types of strikes.

We are essentially dealing with a policy of vengeance from the Netanyahu government. Israel has the right to self-defense, but self-defense does not give an indiscriminate right to kill civilian populations. When you target an ambulance, you can always imagine that there was a terrorist in one of the ambulances, or not. But the result is that there are children, women who die. Every child, every woman killed, that's more terrorists. Therefore, Israel's objective, what Israel achieves, is exactly the opposite of what they wish. So, it is essential today to change this logic and return to a strategy that is sound.

Hostages, everything must be done to secure their release. But let's not forget: the Palestinian people are also taken hostage, by Hamas and by Israel. And Hamas, we all know, cares little for the Palestinian people. So telling Hamas: "we will not lift the siege, we will not have a humanitarian truce until the hostages are released," is a dialogue of the deaf.

Benjamin Netanyahu is waging a war to do everything so that the political solution does not come to the table. And this is where the international community, Europe, the United States, must tell Benjamin Netanyahu that this war is not acceptable. It is not acceptable because it leads us directly [to escalation] - because we can see it well, from Hamas we will move to Iran, from Iran we will move to other targets, and we then enter into the logic of a clash of civilizations. When Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu says that on one side there is the people of light and on the other the people of darkness, we can see the kind of spiral we are getting into.

All the wars that have been going on for the past twenty years are wars that begin and do not end. These are frozen conflicts. We know how to start a war; we do not know how to end it. And Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu could control Gaza, it would change nothing. There will continue to be terrorist attacks, Israelis will continue to live in fear. We must get out of this. The second reason why this is yesterday's war is that the war against terrorism has never been won anywhere. Force is not the answer, once again. Vengeance is not the answer. The answer is justice, and that is what all the peoples of the world, all those who today watch what is happening, call for justice.

Today the direction we must follow is to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu from continuing his suicidal logic that will make Israel a besieged state. They can besiege Gaza, but they will be besieged. And do not think that tomorrow we will again have a pacified discourse with Saudi Arabia, with the Arab states that will normalize the situation: no! The wounds of history are awakening.

Israel's interest is to have a responsible state at its side. And this responsible state, let's stop splitting hairs, must clearly be the West Bank, all of the West Bank. It must be Gaza, with access between the two territories, and East Jerusalem. The problem, and this is the whole point of Benjamin Netanyahu's escalation, is that Benjamin Netanyahu does not want it. And the policy of separation must be dignified. That is, it must confer to the Palestinians a state where they can live, a viable state, a true state, which can build itself and which will be all the more at peace...

[Host: "Does that mean that the settlements in the West Bank have to be removed?"]

Well, when we left Algeria, there were a million French who left Algeria. Today there are 500,000 Israelis colonizing the West Bank, and there are 200,000 in East Jerusalem.

[Host: "They must leave the West Bank?"]

Yes. Yes, that is history, that is responsibility, that is the price! I tell you solemnly, it is the price of security for Israel! And all those who today consider that it will never be enough are pursuing the worst policy."

Credit to @caissesdegreve who took these extracts from the original interview which can be found here: https://t.co/hRuGw6CbuA

[Fiachra Gibbons @FiachraGibbons]

When the fox designs the #climate henhouse... Must read AFP investigation by @marlowehood @rolanddlp

[AFP News Agency @AFP]

The world's top management consultancy McKinsey & Company is using its position as a key advisor to the UN's COP28 climate talks to push the interests of its big oil and gas clients, according to multiple sources and leaked documents https://t.co/aKeF3ffhYG