Youpe Last Week
Toute la France, tout le temps
Another week and another look at another week’s goings-on in Europe, or as Grandma Riva, born in Horadenka, Ukraine, circa 1888 — featured here holding a very young Jack Friedman after being called away from her weekly poker game — called it, “Youpe.”
In France, relatives of those killed on UTA flight 772 in September, 1989 testified at the trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The flight, which originated in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo and destined for Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, crashed into the Ténéré desert in Niger after a suitcase bomb exploded on board. An investigation linked the bombing to Abdullah Senussi, deputy head of Libyan intelligence and brother-in-law of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, then-Libyan Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution. Many of those testifying accused Sarkozy, who had already been found guilty of corruption in the case, of soliciting Libyans for money during his election campaign. Sarkozy had been sentenced to five years in prison but was released after 20 days after his appeal was successful. Sarkozy said he never had the “mad idea” of asking Gaddafi for money and would “never admit to something I haven’t done.” After being elected president of France in 2007, he invited Gaddafi for a visit to Paris during which time the Libyan leader set up a Bedouin tent in a garden near the Élysée Palace . . . while also in France, current President Emanuel Macron said he would not comment on Donald Trump telling an American audience — reportedly in a bad French accent — that Macron’s wife, Brigitte, “Treats him [the French president] extremely badly and that “Macron was still recovering from the right to the jaw,” apparently referring to a May 2025 video that appeared to show Brigitte Macron pushing her husband’s face, while also in the country, a French General, Michel Yakovleff, responding to the U.S. administration’s suggestion that a runway should be built exclusively for transporting uranium, said, “American officials should stop snorting cocaine between meetings.” Yakovleff had previously compared joining Trump’s unilateral war in Iran to “buying cheap tickets for the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.” . . .
