Pierre Célérier

AFP. Formerly science reporter, and before that based East and West, and in between. Views and comments my own, RT not endorsement.

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

Why would one of France’s most powerful media magnates leverage his entire network to defend a country that is actively waging a hybrid war against his country?

Whether driven by hidden financial incentives, blackmail, or an alignment of radical ideologies, Vincent Bolloré’s behavior points to a deliberate betrayal of France.

When RT France was banned, Bolloré essentially revived its mission by hiring its former boss, Xenia Fedorova. Under her considerable influence, his media empire has been transformed into a primary vector for hostile Russian state propaganda.

The network routinely manufactures lies to defend Moscow's invasion and shield the Kremlin from accountability. This sustained disinformation campaign systematically minimizes the horrific atrocities being committed in Ukraine.

This Kremlin narrative reached a new peak today with a front-page layout demanding an immediate restoration of French-Russian ties. By interviewing traitorous far-right politicians aligned with Moscow on the topic, the JDNews directly undermines French security during an active hybrid war.

This strategy is a financial failure. Shifting toward overt foreign propaganda has caused a decrease in viewership across key platforms like CNews.

This leaves the public to wonder what the Kremlin truly has on him. Is he on a secret payroll, suffering under blackmail, or simply acting as a traitor to France out of personal conviction?

France needs to finally stand up to him and do something about it

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

There was a time, and not all that long ago, when arriving in America meant being greeted by a man with a comically large smile, a flag the size of a small principality, and the words “welcome home, friend,” even if you’d never set foot in the place before.

Trillions went into building that brand.

And now look. The Senegal national football team, invited guests, arriving for the World Cup, being patted down on the tarmac by a chap in a bucket hat whose vest says Aviation Logistics and whose body language says “spread ’em.” This is not a welcome. It is a stop-and-search before the players have so much as breathed American air.

“We love all people,” the Americans used to say. For decades. With feeling. They printed it on t-shirts and stitched it into the lining of their foreign policy. Turns out the small print, only legible under a Trump administration, reads: “terms and conditions apply, please consult the attached list of acceptable nationalities, allow six to eight weeks for processing, void where it makes the President uncomfortable.”

The truly bleak thing about the photo isn’t the search. It is that nobody in it looks remotely surprised.

[Pierre Célérier @pcelerier]

Guerre au Moyen-Orient : « Face à l’offensive israélienne dans le sud du Liban, les Européens sont d’une incommensurable lâcheté » https://t.co/HebEQvtV6g

[Pierre Célérier @pcelerier]

Trump’s endgame in Iran has become clear—as has his desire to slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat, Robert Kagan argues. https://t.co/8iWDrf6Atx

[Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya]

And here’s Roman’s column on what he thinks these facts mean for modern Russia.

“It appears that we are witnessing the transition of the Russian regime into a fundamentally different state,” he writes.

There’s almost nobody else I would trust if they wrote that. But I trust Roman, and so should you!

https://t.co/7QOdEVvRZf

[Alexander Clarkson  @APHClarkson]

The idea that European societies that have been endemically waging warfare of some kind or other for over 3000 years cannot cope without America's protection has always been one of the dumber geopolitical memes among American elites

[Charles Enderlin @Charles1045]

J'entends tout et n'importe quoi dans les médias français qui me parviennent à Jérusalem.Rappel 1: Le Hamas est une organisation fondamentaliste djihadiste dont le but déclaré est la destruction d'Israël 2: Le gouvernement Netanyahu est le plus à droite, le plus raciste, le plus annexionniste, le plus messianique de l'histoire d'Israël. Son but déclaré est de développer la colonisation en Cisjordanie et aussi mettre en place un régime autoritaire en Israël

[Michael Shurkin @MichaelShurkin]

What I've learned on X:
1. Malians really really want to believe everything is the fault of France and/or Algeria
2. Moroccans really really want to believe everything is the fault of Algeria and the Polisario.
3. Algerians really really want to believe everything is the fault of Morocco and/or France.
4. Many Africans really really want to believe everything is the fault of colonialism in general and France in particuar.
5. Right wing Europeans (and Americans) really really want to believe everything is the fault of immigrants.
6. Trump really really wants you to believe everything is the fault of Biden/Obama.
7. Russians really really want to believe Ukrainians are Nazis.
8. Many, many people really really want Jews to be guilty of genocide.
9. Everything is Israel's fault.
11. What isn't Israel's fault is the fault of vaccines. Which probably are Israel's fault.
12. The Left really really wants to believe everything is the fault of the West. Or Israel. Israel being a symbol of the West.
12. Israelis really really want to believe nothing is their fault.

What am I missing?

[Gérard Araud @GerardAraud]

La haine que suscite @EmmanuelMacron m’évoque celle dont souffrait Obama. Deux centristes si hyper-rationnels qu’ils sont désarmés pour comprendre et combattre la montée de l’irrationalité populiste dans leur société.

[Brian Willott Farms @BrianWillott]

They should change the name to "Strait of Schrödinger". It's both open and closed at the same time.

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

The Vatican is two weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon.

[Richard Stengel @stengel]

You know what would be amazing if Vance and his team can negotiate an agreement where Iran doesn't enrich above 3.67% (far below weapons grade); gets rid of 98% of its stockpile of enriched uranium; has weekly inspections by the IAEA; keeps the straits open without charging anyone; and commits to all of this for at least ten years. Oh, yeah, that was the Obama Iran deal.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Absurd and inhuman violence is spreading ferociously through the sacred places of the Christian East, profaned by the blasphemy of war and the brutality of business, with no regard for people’s lives, which are considered at most collateral damage of self-interest. But no gain can be worth the life of the weakest, children, or families. No cause can justify the shedding of innocent blood.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.

[Gérard Araud @GerardAraud]

Trump a obtenu non seulement que soit réouvert le détroit d’Ormuz qui était ouvert au début de la guerre mais que les bateaux paient désormais un droit de passage à l’Iran. Une victoire totale.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

The White House wonders why Europe won’t rally behind America in Iran. Maybe start by asking why your Vice President is flying to Budapest to have a warm chat with Viktor Orban, the man running a Russian influence operation from inside NATO’s borders.

While Europe has been bleeding money and weapons to stop Russian aggression, Hungary has been blocking NATO decisions, sheltering Russian intelligence, and doing Moscow’s diplomatic dirty work at every turn. Orban isn’t America’s friend. He’s Putin’s man in Brussels.

And JD Vance calls him a “good friend.”
Europe is supposed to line up behind a war that had no plan for day two, no strategy for the Strait of Hormuz, and no consultation with allies beyond Israel. A war that has already sent oil past $100 a barrel and left one of America’s most powerful warships reportedly retreating toward the Indian Ocean.

You don’t get to lecture Europe about loyalty while embracing the man working to destroy the alliance from within, and then demand backup for a war you started without asking anyone.

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[Gerard Baker @gerardtbaker]

100 %. I detect a sense of resignation in Europe that there’s no point in appeasing these cynical provocateurs anymore.Rubio and the top military know that pulling US bases out of Europe would be an epic act of self-harm.They won’t say it but the message is: Pull out or shut up

[Joan Larroumec @larroumecj]

The level of cognitive dissonance among some Americans is staggering. They have no trouble understanding that when China extends loans to African countries in exchange for opening their markets, it is a strategy of domination and subjugation. Yet they are sincerely convinced that the Marshall Plan was some kind of entirely selfless philanthropic endeavor, and that the subsequent dominance of American corporations across European markets is purely coincidental, owed to nothing but the inherent superiority of their products. Incredible.

[Olivier Schmitt @Olivier1Schmitt]

The MAGA frustration with France on this platform is now reaching 2003 levels of vitriol. Which is of course the sign that France’s position is correct.