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AFP / Joel Saget

Podcast: Crossroads France

Michaëla Cancela-Kieffer Tuesday 5 April 2022

Paris - As France heads into the 2022 presidential election, the fabric of a country that has at times been the envy of Europe is looking tattered. The sands of society are shifting on an almost daily basis, the ‘traditional’ French way of life appears to be on the way out. Things that used to define France appear to have gone: the welfare state is losing steam, industry and agriculture are both suffering.

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  • AFP / Jim Watson
  • AFP / Vladimir Simicek
  • AFP / Andrew Caballero-reynolds

Translating swear words: F***ing challenge !

Sébastien Blanc Saturday 12 February 2022

“Son of a bitch”, “emmerder”, “grab 'em by the pussy”...  How exactly do you translate a swear word uttered by the French president or any other political figure, so that an American, Spanish or Argentinian reader really gets the gist? Similarly, how to translate a profanity said by an American president for the benefit of francophone readers? Every time a head of state uses an expletive, the result is instant head-scratching and intense debate in the newsroom, explains Sebastien Blanc, head of AFP's French editing desk in Washington, with the input from his English-, Spanish-, and Arabic-speaking colleagues.

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First Olympic Challenge: the Beijing bubble

Beatrice Le Bohec Sunday 30 January 2022

AFP's first advance team arrived in Beijing on January 11, to set up the agency's technical infrastructure to cover the Winter Olympics, from Feb 4-20. Without them not a single story, photo or video would ever reach clients. But before getting down to work in Beijing, Karim Menasria, François-Xavier Marit and Antonin Thuillier had to pass the first test for everyone coming for the Games: fulfil the ultra-strict requirements to enter the Covid-free 'bubble' put in place by Chinese authorities. And the test started weeks before they even arrived.

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  • AFP / Wakil Kohsar
  • AFP / Adek Berry
  • AFP / Adek Berry
  • AFP / Wakil Kohsar
  • AFP / Hoshang Hashimi
  • AFP / Shah Marai
  • AFP / Wakil Kohsar

The women who stand to lose everything in Afghanistan

Anne Chaon Wednesday 11 August 2021

"To see her so shaken brought tears to my eyes. I started crying for the first time during an interview. It never happened before in my career, even in the worst situations. Behind the video camera, my colleague Justine stopped filming. Photographer Adek put down her camera. The despair of Rada had taken hold of the room and gave shape to those of Afghan women," writes Anne Chaon, recently returned from Afghanistan, where she met women fearing for the freedoms won over 20 years, or even their lives, as the Taliban gains ground every day. 

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