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Published on: 02/18/2026 - 06:14

On the front page of the press this Wednesday, February 18, was the summons on Tuesday of the American ambassador to Belgium, after he accused the authorities of pursuing Jewish Belgians for “anti-Semitic” reasons. The diplomatic crisis between Washington and Brussels, which is not a first since Trump's return to the White House. Nine arrests in France after the murder of young far-right activist Quentin Deranque.

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On the front page of the press, yesterday's summons of the American ambassador to Belgium, after he accused the authorities of pursuing Jewish Belgians for "anti-Semitic" reasons.

La Libre Belgique, which accuses this ambassador, Bill White, of "sowing discord", reports that the controversy was triggered by the opening of an investigation: three men from Antwerp are suspected of performing circumcisions without certified medical training. This investigation led Bill White to denounce “unacceptable harassment” of the Jewish community and to call for an end to the prosecution. For the newspaper, the American ambassador "did not only commit a diplomatic mistake: he crossed several red lines, first insult, then interference." “Demanding the end of an investigation amounts to summoning a sovereign state to suspend the course of its justice. This is unacceptable,” criticizes the Belgian daily. Anger also from the newspaper Le Soir, which indicates that Bill White also threatened with "diplomatic sanctions" the president of the Flemish socialists, Conner Rousseau, who had the audacity to post a video on social networks denouncing the interventions of ICE, the American immigration services, and drawing a parallel with the rise of Nazism. Bill White behaves "as an undercover agent of Trump and the Maga sphere": Le Soir criticizes "a confusion of genres" which, according to it, does not stem from "beginner's clumsiness" - Bill White took office in November - but from a deliberate desire, "his counterpart in Paris, Charles Kushner, having also castigated France's supposed inadequacies in the fight against anti-Semitism".

The diplomatic crisis between Washington and Brussels is indeed not a first. The Wall Street Journal notes that "the American ambassadors in France but also in Poland have also had disagreements with the countries in which they are stationed, which has earned them reprimands from Paris and Warsaw." “Over the past year, the Trump Administration has resorted to unconventional diplomacy, gunboat diplomacy and, in the most sensitive crises, diplomacy without diplomats,” notes The New York Times, which underlines the crucial role of Steve Witkoff, Trump's friend from the real estate business and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and son of Charles Kushner, convicted in particular for tax fraud in the United States, and therefore current American ambassador in Paris. The two men are at the heart of discussions on Iran and Ukraine, but also Gaza.

It is in this context of great diplomatic upheaval that Brent Bozell, the new American ambassador, has just arrived in South Africa "against a backdrop of tensions between Pretoria and Washington". Le Monde recalls that relations between the two countries "are at their lowest" since the return of Trump, who criticizes the South African government for an alleged "persecution" of Afrikaners, the descendants of European settlers, and his complaint for "genocide" before the International Court of Justice against Israel for its war in Gaza.

Nine arrests after the death of Quentin Deranque

In France, nine people were arrested on Tuesday as part of the investigation into the death of young far-right activist Quentin Deranque. Le Figaro announces that "the noose is tightening on LFI and the Young Guard", a small anti-fascist group to which one of the arrested, parliamentary collaborator of LFI MP Raphaël Arnault, belongs. The newspaper calls on the boss of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, to “explain himself”. The newspaper L'Opinion criticizes "the guilty silence of the left on LFI" - hence the drawing by Kak, where Jean-Luc Mélenchon explains to Olivier Faure that he cannot "condemn the antifas too much" because he "needs them", and the boss of the socialists replies: "Like us with you". “The investigation is progressing, the political debate is regressing”: Mediapart regrets that LFI is “found guilty without further trial”.

Le Monde investigated the journey of the victim, Quentin Deranque. The newspaper describes "a traditionalist student", "at the crossroads of several chapels of the radical far-right". A young man “in full search for identity”, “assisted” parishioner of a traditionalist church in Lyon, after having converted “a few years ago”. The renewed interest of the French, particularly the youngest, in Catholicism, which is covered by the newspaper La Croix. According to the Catholic daily, "several weak signals, linked to social networks or cultural outings", suggest a "Catholic awakening". A specialist in social trends deciphers: "We sense a desire among young people to have a religion that can be seen, that can be shown, like the cross on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday. There is a 'football team' side to them. As we would support Olympique de Marseille, AS Monaco or Paris Saint-Germain, there is the 'Carême team', the 'Ramadan team', the 'Kippur team'".

Marcel Proust is popular

Personally, I confess, I am from the “Marcel Proust team” – and I am obviously not the only one. La Croix, again, reports that a public subscription launched by the National Library of France to acquire archives of the writer Marcel Proust has met with “great success”: 525,000 euros already raised. A mobilization which testifies to "attachment" to this immense figure of French heritage, according to La Croix, which also evokes, for Proust lovers, an "acknowledgement of debt": "Here is my modest participation, writes a donor, in gratitude for the happiness that the readings of Research (of lost time, Editor's note) have given me for more than half a century".

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