Sunday Spotlight, Advisory

EDITORS:

The following story will move Saturday as this week’s Sunday Spotlight, a feature showcasing the best off-the-news enterprise in the AP report:

LEBANON-FRANCE-NEOCOLONIALISM

PARIS — It was almost as if Emmanuel Macron forgot that Lebanon is no longer a French protectorate. When France’s visited explosion-ravaged Beirut this week, he comforted distraught crowds, promised to rebuild the city and claimed that the blast pierced France’s own heart. “France will never let Lebanon go,” Macron said. “The heart of the French people still beats to the pulse of Beirut.” His critics denounced the overtures as a neocolonialist foray by a European leader seeking to restore sway over a troubled Middle Eastern land – and distract from his mounting problems at home. A meme circulating online dubbed him Macron Bonaparte, a 21st century Emperor Napoleon. But Macron’s defenders – including desperate Beirut residents who called him “our only hope” -- praised Macron for visiting gutted neighborhoods where Lebanese leaders fear to tread, and for trying to hold Lebanon’s politicians accountable for the corruption and mismanagement blamed for Tuesday’s deadly blast. Macron’s visit exposed France’s central challenge as it prepares to host an international donors conference for Lebanon on Sunday: how to help a country in crisis, where French economic ties run deep, without interfering in its internal affairs. By Angela Charlton and Sarah El-Deeb. UPCOMING: 800 words, photos.

—The AP