Gavin Mortimer

Two video clips did the rounds in the French media at the weekend. One went global, that of the heart-warming heroism of Mamoudou Gassama, a migrant who rescued a small boy dangling from a balcony in Paris; the other, being more feel-fear than feel-good, didn't capture the world's attention in quite the same way. This film was shot in the south of France, in a suburb of Avignon, and showed a group of men surrounding a newspaper kiosk. They were there to protest at a large poster advertising the latest edition of the current affairs magazine, Le Point, the front cover of which was adorned with a photograph of the Turkish president Recep Erdogan under the headline 'The Dictator'.

Gaza has a galvanising effect on Europeans. Jeremy Corbyn, for example, appeared to have no consolatory words for France after last week's Islamist knife attack in Paris, yet on Monday he posted messages on Twitter and Facebook expressing his disgust with Israel. Likewise in France, the far-left, curiously quiet whenever there's a terrorist attack on their patch, have this week staged protests in Lyon, Marseille, Rouen, Paris and Bordeaux to voice their opposition to Israel's killing of 62 Palestinians, the victims including several children and fifty members of Hamas, an EU-designated terror organisation. But what do the protestors in France hope to achieve?

The French have an expression to describe far-left citizens who identity more with Islam than the Republic: 'Islamo-Gauchiste', a term coined by the French philosopher Pierre-André Taguieff, who explained in 2017 that many on the far-left regard jihadism as: "...a legitimate social revolt...they look at jihadists through a distorting lens of victimhood. This compassionate approach sees Islamic terrorists only as lost children, abandoned or rejected by unwelcoming and hostile countries, victims of 'institutional' or 'systematic' racism". The symbiosis between the Western far-left and Islamism has been ongoing for decades, and stems from the left's realisation of their failure to win the hearts and minds of the white working-class.

Imagine if the 1,200 hoodlums who rampaged through Paris on May Day had been members of a far-right organisation. Imagine the reaction in the media, the endless cliched references to the 1930s and dire warnings of the rise of a new generation of fascism in Europe. The fascists are here, all right, and on Tuesday they firebombed a McDonald's (the footage below is frightening), torched a car showroom and damaged or destroyed thirty other business premises. But because they vandalised in the name of the far-left, reaction has been muted across Europe. In a few reports, one can even detect a grudging admiration for the perpetrators of the violence. 🔴Le McDonald’s Gare Austerlitz complètement détruit par plusieurs personnes cagoulés.

While Emmanuel Macron has been wowing Washington there's been something of a mini crisis in France. To put it bluntly, the country was invaded on Sunday, its border in the French Alps breached by a force of around 200 foreigners, who then fought with the police as they advanced on the small town of Briançon. The incursion was organised by Italians and Swiss, their number swelled by forty migrants, a fraction of the number who in recent years have used the Alps to cross from Italy into France. In 2016, 315 were intercepted on this arduous route, a figure that last year rose to 1,900. The majority come from West Africa – Senegal, Guinea and the Ivory Coast – although there is also a Paris-based network of Pakistanis who smuggle their compatriots across the border.

Why has the refusal of France to grant a passport to an Algerian woman who declined to shake the hand of a state official at her citizenship ceremony because of her "religious beliefs" made the BBC website? Picked up by other news' outlets, including the New York Times, it's not unreasonable to infer that the subtext is: there go the French again, discriminating against Muslims. If it's not the burka or the burkini, it's a handshake. But why would any western country welcome a woman who shuns one of its oldest and most courteous customs? If she finds shaking hands with a man beyond the pale, one is entitled to suspect she may not look too favourably on gays and Jews.

Since Emmanuel Macron became president last year, he has unashamedly courted the world’s presidents, prime ministers, sheiks and chancellors. Much like Trump, his message has been clear: France is not only back, but it is great again. Trump and Macron will have the chance to discuss their strategies later this month when the American president hosts his 40-year-old French counterpart on the first official state visit by a foreign leader since his election. They first bonded in July when Trump was invited to Paris to revel in the pomp and ceremony of Bastille Day, against the grand historical backdrop of the Palace of Versailles, with all of its symbolism of French victory.

The trial began this week in Paris of three young men accused of plotting to attack Fort Béar, a military base in the Pyrenees mountains that is used as a commando training centre. Three Islamists, led by 25-year-old Djebril Amara, a former navy rating who passed through the centre, were arrested in the summer of 2015, shortly before they were set to launch their assault that they hoped would end with the decapitation of the fort's commander. They met in a video games forum, and online was where they passed much of their time. "I'm hypnotised," Djebril admitted to his interrogators. "I eat, live and breathe Isis. I spent my life in my room – YouTube–Isis–YouTube–Isis. That was it.

There is something fundamentally rotten at the heart of the European far-left. In Britain it manifests itself in institutional anti-Semitism, whereas in France the loathing is aimed at the police. On Saturday, hours after Arnaud Beltrame lost his fight for life following his heroic gesture during the Islamist attack in Trebes, a gentleman called Stéphane Poussier tweeted his pleasure at the news of the police officer's passing. Poussier isn't just any old troll eaten up with hate; last year he stood as a candidate for the far-left's La France Insoumise party in the parliamentary elections.

Islamist terror returned to France this morning with at least three people reportedly killed when a Moroccan man, reportedly claiming allegiance to Isis, opened fire on police and then ran into a supermarket in Trebes, shouting 'Allah Akbar' and vowing to avenge his "brothers in Syria". The gunman is now believed to have been killed by police, but there were media claims that the terrorist, apparently known to intelligence services for radicalisation, had asked for the release of Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor from the Islamist cell that killed 130 Parisians in November 2015.

Nicolas Sarkozy was put in custody this morning as part of a police investigation into allegations that he received millions of euros in illegal financing during his 2007 presidential campaign from the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. According to Le Monde, Sarkozy – who has denied wrongdoing since the investigation was launched in 2013 – is being held at the Nanterre police station, west of Paris. He could be detained for up to 48 hours as he answers questions about the funding for his 2007 presidential campaign, in which he defeated the Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal.

President Emmanuel Macron has offered his full support to Theresa May and said that France may take its own action against Russia after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. On a visit to Touraine on Thursday morning, the president was asked about the incident and he replied: "Everything leads us to believe that responsibility is in fact attributable to Russia. I will announce in the coming days the measures that we intend to take." Macron is hosting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris on Friday and it's expected that the pair will make a joint announcement in which they reiterate their support for Britain.

It's ending in jeers for Arsène Wenger as his relationship with the club he began managing in 1996 hits rock bottom. In those twenty two years he has given Arsenal fans like me some glorious highs but many more gruesome lows. Nothing has been quite as bad as Sunday's capitulation in the final of the Carabao Cup. It wasn't just that Arsenal lost 3-0 to Manchester City, more the fact the players were indifferent to the outcome. In the aftermath Wenger did what he does best, blamed the officials and tried to have us believe his boys were robbed.