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PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, November 11: Spanish and French papers discuss protests in the two countries. An investigation by The Guardian and ITV accuses comedian David Walliams of "preying on young women for sex". Finally, a Doberman sensed something was wrong with a baby. It may have saved his life.   Spain's first general strike in 14 years is making headlines. El País reports that trade unions intend to "test their strength in the face of attacks from the right". The unions are counting on the "support" of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government to secure progress on housing, the issue at the heart of their demands. Meanwhile, the country is still in mourning following last month's deadly rail disaster, and in just two days, the official campaign for the snap general election will begin. El Mundo views the call for a general strike as "a deeply worrying democratic anomaly". The paper accuses the Socialist government of "encouraging a mobilisation against the consequences of its political failure, in the hope of gaining an electoral advantage". El Mundo says that this comes at a time when polls show the right and far right gaining momentum. Protests in France are continuing as well, and trade unions are calling for the mobilisation to continue. Aujourd'hui en France says we are seeing an escalation of violence, adding that school staff, the authorities and parents are concerned about the deteriorating atmosphere in schools. Right-wing paper Le Figaro headlines: "The French stand united behind the police". Le Figaro says a large majority believe that the police are not adequately equipped to deal with rioters and that the government has failed to ensure public safety, notably during the October 17 unrest. In England, another sexual predator has been exposed: comedian and former "Britain's Got Talent" judge David Walliams. Walliams has been accused of preying on young women for sex. This was revealed by a joint investigation between the Guardian and ITV that showed how the comedian groomed fans as young as 15. The Telegraph writes that Walliams first faced questions about his behaviour after an investigation by the paper revealed that he had been accused of "harassing" junior employees at his publisher, HarperCollins. Last year, reporters uncovered that the author's own publisher had already investigated him and that staff had also been interviewed. The Hollywood Reporter explains that the best-selling children's author had previously sought an injunction to prevent revealing his identity – over fears that he would be "highly likely" to kill himself. Walliams denies all the allegations and says abusing his power is something that he "never did". Finally, we bring you a heartwarming story from The Washington Post. Kim Reynolds noticed that her Doberman, Saraya, was behaving oddly around her baby Alexander. Saraya was whining and pacing near the 5-month-old infant, licking his face and becoming increasingly distressed. Later that day, the baby started crying uncontrollably. Then, thinking back to her dog's behaviour, Reynolds decided to take Alexander in for emergency care. It turned out that the baby's heart rate was dangerously high and he was diagnosed with a syndrome that can cause dangerous heart palpitations. Such a fast heart rate is very dangerous if undetected. If the dog hadn't alerted Reynolds, she might never have suspected that something was wrong. An expert told the paper that dogs can detect this sort of problem because of two things: their heightened senses and their deep affection for humans. You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, November 10: French Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner announces he will run for president in next year's French elections. But how serious is his bid? Also, a new government directive in France says schoolchildren must participate in Remembrance Day commemorations – but the unions are not happy. British comedian Russell Brand is sentenced to 10 years in prison for rape and sexual assault. Finally, we bring you the best of the memes on Nvidia's Jensen Huang. French Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner has announced he is running in next year's presidential elections in France. The five-time Olympic judo champion made the announcement on social media. He gave an exclusive interview to Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien in which he explained that his decision to run has been in the works since the Paris Olympics. He is positioning himself as an alternative to the two likely extremist frontrunners, Marine Le Pen on the far right and Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the hard left. Le Parisien's editor hails Riner's style, while cautioning that he has a lot to lose with this candidacy – his popularity in France, his sponsors but also his possible bid for the 2028 Olympics in LA. He could also face criticism for his recent tax issues and his reluctance to incite the people of Guadeloupe, the French overseas territory from where he comes, to vaccinate themselves against Covid-19. From the Olympic flame to "political flame", French sports paper l'Équipe notes that more and more sportsmen and women seem ready to enter politics and give their opinions on issues beyond sports venues. Le Temps notes that President Emmanuel Macron is also to blame – for 10 years, he siphoned away support from the two main political parties, with only the extremists left. In this analysis, Le Temps is sceptical, reminding us that these would-be candidates will need 500 signatures to run and usually what happens is that the candidates have a way of parlaying support for a frontrunner into obtaining a ministerial post. La Charente Libre, a local French paper, says that "with all respect to Riner, his candidacy is above all a symptom of France's political malaise." For the first time this year, French primary, middle, and high schools will organise a commemoration ceremony for November 11, Armistice Day. But it is proving controversial among teachers' unions, according to the Huffington Post. Schoolchildren will partake in a commemoration ceremony that will become an annual homage to those who died for France – with the aim of transmitting the memory of history and peace to younger generations. Unions have criticised the move, saying it could favour military culture in school and be used politically. Historians and teachers debate the issue in La Croix, the Catholic paper. Those in favour says it will transmit the memory of history, while those against say that students already study the First and Second World Wars and thus participation in the commemoration service is redundant. Turning to the UK, comedian Russell Brand will spend a decade behind bars after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault. Brand was a career chameleon: a stand-up comic, MTV host, political analyst and, lately, conspiracy theorist. In a high-profile trial, six women testified against him over the past month. He has now been sentenced to over 10 years in prison – vindication for some British dailies like Metro. His face is splashed across the dailies, including Daily Mirror, Daily Express and the Guardian. In its analysis, Le Monde says that Russell Brand's conviction is unlikely to have the stratospheric consequences of that of Harvey Weinstein, but that the cases share one thing in common: a culture of silence broken by the press and a wave of accusations that shattered the denials long maintained by two prominent figures who were eventually brought to justice. Finally, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia who confessed to having an affair with a rumoured Chinese spy, is the butt of all jokes on the Internet. His extramarital affair confession took everyone by surprise and briefly send Nvidia stocks tumbling, especially as rumours of a possible Chinese honeytrap abounded. The illustrated press has been merciless. We look at Morten Morland and Patrick Blower from the Times and Telegraph respectively. Morten Morland sees the Nvidia CEO as a "Nvidiot". He is also mocked in online memes gathered by Buzzfeed. You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Monday, November 9: Papers condemn the Kremlin's closure of Russian independent paper Novaya Gazeta on its last day. Also in Russia: leaked numbers suggest that almost half a million Russians have died in the war in Ukraine. Next: NASA is recruiting astronauts who will live and work on the Moon. Finally: who will be the next James Bond?     Novaya Gazeta's front-page headline reads: "What will we leave behind?" Moscow has classed the independent paper as a "foreign agent", a label used to stifle dissent and media that don't obey the Kremlin. They received the label back in September, so what followed didn't come as a surprise. In late October, the team received an eviction notice – they have to be gone by November 10 and evict the office that many journalists have called home for decades. Banks also blocked readers' donations, leaving the editorial team without a single source of income. The Times says that Novaya Gazeta was "the last free newspaper in Russia. Now Putin has come for it". The paper writes that for more than 30 years, the Russian paper "has fearlessly defended human rights in Russia". It says that its closure is "widely seen as revenge for its criticism of the invasion of Ukraine". Dmitry Muratov, Novaya Gazeta's co-founder, spoke to the paper. He said that this is the culmination of a long and violent journey that started in 1993, when Mikhail Gorbachev donated money from his Nobel Peace Prize to help establish the paper. El País condemns the closure of Novaya Gazeta, which it describes as a symbol of "great Russian journalism". Its final issue comes after three decades of exposing war crimes, political assassinations and high-level corruption. Also in Russia, a new data leak from the state statistics agency reveals some numbers about the war in Ukraine, The Moscow Times reports. The leaked figures say that more than 450,000 Russians have been killed in the war in Ukraine. Russia hasn't officially disclosed its battlefield losses since September 2022. But if this number is correct, it would make the war the fourth most common cause of death in the country since 2022 and the deadliest conflict since World War II. Next: NASA is expanding its Artemis programme. The Guardian reports that it now wants to send a new generation of astronauts to live and work on the Moon. NASA says the successful candidates would help "shape humanity's future in space". If you're interested, the application deadline is December 3. Applicants must be US citizens and have a master's degree in a related field, such as science or mathematics, or training as a pilot. They must also have three years of "related professional experience". This is all happening as the space agency is currently building a base on the Moon and is planning the first crewed missions to Mars. Finally, who will be the next James Bond? MovieWeb says Robert Pattinson will play the iconic British spy. But according to OK! Magazine, there are three frontrunners: Jack Lowden, Jacob Elordi and Callum Turner. Nothing has been officially confirmed yet, but the winner could be revealed "within weeks". You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Friday, November 6: Italian, British, French and Bulgarian papers discuss the bomb threats that diverted multiple flights across Europe on Thursday. British papers discuss Russell Brand's rape and sexual assault conviction. Finally, kids in Hanoi chase tourists – not for money, but for vocabulary. Bonus: we learn a fun fact about chihuahuas. Italian papers La Stampa and La Corrierre della Serra headline with "Bomb threats and chaos in the sky". Eight of the flights diverted on Thursday were flying to or from Italy. La Stampa spoke to a bomb expert who says that it's all connected and part of a "covert war". The news is also on the front page of the British newspaper Financial Times. The paper quotes intelligence leaders who say it's a campaign of "intimidation," "bearing the hallmarks of Russia's hybrid warfare". French paper Le Figaro writes about the movement that's believed to be behind some of the bomb threats. It's called the "Male State" and it's a Russian far-right, racist and misogynistic movement. The airports in Rome and Sofia received a mysterious email on Thursday, attributed to members of this masculinist group. Bulgaria's bTV quotes the threat that was sent to many people working at these airports: "We, the Male State, will go down in history through our actions today. Your feminist regime will remember this forever. The explosion will take place in 60 minutes. Today, your skies will turn red". Le Figaro writes that the messages haven't been verified and the group hasn't taken responsibility for them. But if the origin of the threat is confirmed, the paper writes, it would mark an unprecedented escalation. Next, British comedian Russell Brand faces jail time after he was found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others. The Times reports that Brand now faces years in prison. The crimes took place at the height of his fame. The paper says Brand was described as a "ruthless, calculated and manipulative sexual predator". The convictions follow a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4's investigative programme "Dispatches". It began in 2019 and took four years to complete. Its reporters spoke to many women from the comedy, TV and film industry, amid hundreds of sources. The Times says that the project was only made possible thanks to the bravery and courage of the women involved. In another article, The Times looks at Brand's fixation with sex and why and how it began so early. The paper writes that "he became a predator hiding in plain sight". The Independent's columnist Victoria Richards writes that she was personally warned about Brand 20 years ago "and the verdict surprises no one". She writes that "no woman was safe from his sleazy attentions" and that she is "shocked" that "he managed to get away with it for so long". Elsewhere, The Wall Street Journal writes about kids in Hanoi. They go after tourists: not for their money, but for their English vocabulary. For Vietnamese kids, tourists are often living, breathing Duolingo lessons. The paper writes that practicing English like this is a staple of Asian tourism. Alibaba's Chinese founder Jack Ma gave tours of his hometown lake in exchange for conversations in English when he was a kid. But in Hanoi, particularly by the lake, the phenomenon is everywhere. Finally, we bring you a fun fact from The New York Times: "Tiny chihuahuas hold a big surprise: a sliver of coyote DNA". They have four percent of coyote in their little bodies. It's confirmed by researchers! You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, November 5: "Loser" and "Reborn in the USA" are just some of the headlines dominating the international press after the Democrats stomped to victory in the US midterm elections. What impact will their success have on the rest of Donald Trump's presidency? How will he govern with a Democratic-controlled Congress? These are just some of the burning questions after that vote. Also, do the midterm results signal the end of the MAGA woman and the "Mar-a-Lago face"? There are plenty of reactions in the international press to the Democrats' crushing victory over Republicans in the midterms on Wednesday. French Communist paper L'Humanité compares the "loud voices" of French protesters preparing for a day of demonstrations with US President Donald Trump, whose head is "hanging low". Libération describes the results with one word – "Loser" – on its front page. After resounding victories in Texas and Ohio, both in the Senate and governor races, the Guardian says the Republicans were "Trumped." The Daily Mirror describes politics as "Reborn in the USA." French paper La Croix evokes the "Democratic jolt" that these midterms have instilled. It adds that Trump is "paying the price" for the rising petrol prices that occurred because of his war against Iran. The conservative US daily National Review says sheer exhaustion now defines the public's response to Trump, describing the results as "repudiation to Trump". Not everyone is thrilled about the results – not least of all in Israel. The pro-Netanyahu, conservative paper Israel Hayom expresses its concern on its front page, opting for a photo of new Michigan senator Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim senator in the US. It wonders what relations with the US will look like in the future, saying this new Congress will be the "most hostile to Israel in history". Haaretz, the centre-left Israeli daily, is far more nuanced in its reaction, announcing a transformation in US-Israeli relations. It says that Israelis, who have enjoyed US protection for the past three decades, are not ready for what's to come. Libero, a pro-Meloni daily in Italy, headlines with: "Trump cries, Islam laughs." It reminds us that Trump is still president, saying he still runs US foreign policy and can do what he wants. Metro calls Trump "Lame Donald Duck" in a clever front page. The magazine Foreign Affairs explores what Trump could do next. It notes that previous a "lame duck" president, Bill Clinton, used his time to negotiate a final settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trump might not be so altruistic. The Democrats will have control of both chambers of parliament, and the threat of impeachment could loom over Trump. A boxed-in Trump may lash out internationally – he could issue new threats against Canada, launch attacks on US alliances or collude with Russia and China. There is a general feeling that the end of Trumpism may be nigh – or at least, the end of the MAGA woman. The Times of London says the midterm results signal the end to the "Botox, heels and hair of the MAGA woman". "They came, they saw, they conker tanned, Spanxed and gold leafed not just the White House but the world stage." For the better part of a decade, many women pant suitshave aspired to the "Mar-a-Lago face" and tradwife "raw milkmaid" dresses. But now, as we saw with Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, sensible pantsuits are in. After wins by James Talarico, Jon Ossoff and Abdul El-Sayed, are the Democrats trying to make America sexy again? You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, November 4: US papers react to the results of the midterm elections, with Democrats retaking control of Congress and the headlines running from a "repudiation" of US President Donald Trump to a "blue tsunami". We also look at the historic firsts celebrated by the local press, the blame game already under way, and what the results mean for Trump's final two years in office. The New York Times' headline reads "Democrats take Senate". It notes stunning upsets across the US in a national rebuke to Donald Trump. The Washington Post has the same headline and calls the result a "repudiation" of the US president. Politico goes for a more illustrative headline: "Voters pummel GOP out of power." The Atlantic's take is more colourful still, with the headline "Orange crushed". It says the president told voters to act as if his name was on the ballot, and they did. The right-wing tabloid New York Post offers its own take on a Hokusai classic: a "blue tsunami". Beyond the headlines, the US is seeing not only a blue wave but also a swell of historic firsts. As AP reports, Florida Republican Byron Donalds became the first Black man to be elected governor of the state. Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms made history in Georgia, becoming the first Black woman elected governor in US history. Nowhere is she celebrated more than in the local Atlanta Journal, which published a profile of the new governor. More than 160 years after her ancestors were enslaved in Georgia, it says, the former Atlanta mayor makes history as the first Black woman to move into the governor's mansion. In North Carolina, local papers have a different first to celebrate. The News & Observer reports that Roy Cooper won the state's Senate race, the first for a Democrat in 18 years. In South Carolina, the Post and Courier covers the "stunning upset" inflicted by Democrat Annie Andrews, who against most odds beat Republican candidate Darline Graham for a Senate seat. The Texas Tribune, meanwhile, covers James Talarico's massive Senate win for the Democrats. The paper says the 37-year-old overcame "a deluge of outside money to break the GOP's three-decade grip on the state." As results come in, many papers are already looking for an explanation, and somewhere to put the blame. The left-wing political magazine Jacobin has its answer: Trumpism is running out of gas. "MAGA is exhausted and about to suffer a significant body blow," it says. The magazine argues that Trump has never been that popular and that to consolidate his hold on the country, he should have mobilised a larger popular coalition. That sentiment is reflected in Politico, which explains that "Republicans are about to pay for Trump's mistakes." According to the website, Trump's tariffs, a costly war in Iran and political vendettas have left Republicans scrambling to defend their congressional majorities. It notes that US presidents have suffered at midterms in the past, but argues that never before has a president been to such an extent solely responsible for a midterm defeat. Some coverage also looks to the future. The Atlantic explains that the likelihood of Trump contesting his defeat once again is low. The magazine observes that "election deniers" are fewer in number than in 2020, and that he "no longer enjoys the political support he once had amongst Republicans". AP says that Trump will be staring at the spectre of Democratic probes and the race to succeed him. With his party losing control of Congress, the rest of Trump's time in office is likely to be consumed by Democratic-led investigations into his administration, and possibly even another impeachment.  Finally, The Wall Street Journal looks at the financial angle, and wonders what the business world can expect from a blue wave. Its list of bullet points includes financial investigations, more opposition to AI data centres, a change in control at the Federal Reserve and an increase in the popularity of biofuel, among many others. You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, November 3: We look at reactions and analyses in Poland, where pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk is involved in a standoff with the nationalist president over the composition of the constitutional court. In other news, there's fresh outrage at big tech, after Google went rogue in Finland and cut down 250,000 trees for data centre projects. Finally, cheese is France's most stolen food product, and it's the stuff of cold, calculated crime. The front page of Fakt in Poland asks whether the Polish president's inviolability was violated, when a line of judges tried to physically block him from entering the constitutional court last week. With the prime minister and president's respective parties at odds, including over the make-up of this high court, the Financial Times asks how pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government can "restore the rule of law after eight years of state capture [by the president's Law and Justice party] without resorting to extralegal methods itself".  Politico explains that Tusk is acting in the name of EU law, but his detractors in the Law and Justice party accuse him of backing a coup. The Wall Street Journal says this is reflective of a wider crisis in Europe, reminiscent of past disputes between altar and throne: is a constitution the ultimate authority within a nation? Or is it subject to higher EU-level laws? Gazeta Wyborcza suspects that the nationalists hope to topple Tusk through this row, while a political scientist interviewed in Rzeczpospolita fears the far right may rally crowds to storm the court itself, with the offices of the prime minister nearby.  Le Monde is covering the outrage in Finland, after Google jumped the gun on environmental impact studies and razed 250,000 trees across 530 hectares for data centre projects. They insist they thought their subsidiary had all the necessary permissions, but the subsidiary is now under investigation for environmental degradation. In other AI news, new research by the BBC says four "hyperscale" data centres planned in the UK could torpedo the country's plans to reach net zero by 2050, as they may be powered by gas-fired power plants. If so, they would generate more greenhouse gas emissions than Manchester, Liverpool and Southampton combined. An investigation by Investigate Europe, meanwhile, gives cause for caution about the quality of data centre jobs, saying the push for "tech sovereignty" is increasingly dependent on exploiting migrant workers. One worker was electrocuted into a five-day-long coma in Belgium, while workers in Sweden were crowded into accommodation with no heating through sub-zero winters, with one Romanian worker even contracting tuberculosis. Violations in Sweden have even seen Microsoft data centre workers win €1.3 million in court.  Finally, cheese has become a hot commodity in the criminal underworld. One particular heist in the French Pyrenees saw the theft of 250 wheels of sheep's cheese for a value of €25,000. According to The Times, cheese is now the most stolen foodstuff in France, since it carries lesser penalties than, for instance, narcotics trafficking. You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Monday, November 2: Bulgarian papers discuss the country's new president. In Belarus, some political prisoners are held in psychiatric wards instead of prisons. Also: Hitler's Eagle's Nest burned down. Will it be rebuilt and should it? Finally, the queen of Halloween, Heidi Klum, flaunts her most disgusting costume yet.  Bulgarian paper Capital headlines with "Iliana Iotova has been elected president – her victory seals the new status quo". Iotova, who was already acting president, was an independent candidate, but supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party and by Prime Minister Rumen Radev's party, Progressive Bulgaria. She ran against Andrey Gyurov, who was backed by Bulgaria's pro-Western parties. As a reminder, she was the president's vice president for nine years, before he resigned and was elected PM. The liberal and pro-Western paper writes that now, Radev and his ruling party have consolidated their control over the three branches of government – the National Assembly, the government and the presidency, which had previously acted as a political counterbalance. Now, the only remaining counterbalance to the government is the justice system. The paper says that the elections have also deepened divisions within Bulgarians and called into question the country's direction after Communism and the choice between Russia and Western allies. Dnevnik looks at who exactly Iotova is: Bulgaria's first woman president. She has already spent many years at the political top, always supported by the Communists and later Socialists. After the fall of one of the country's most prominent Communist leaders in 1996 and during the post-Communist transition, she was the head of the Bulgarian Socialist Party's press centre. She then took part in national politics, with stints as an MEP, vice president and now president.  In Belarus, human rights groups warn of a dangerous practice. Radio Free Europe writes that at least 22 political prisoners are being held in psychiatric hospitals and not traditional prisons. Locking up critics of the government in psychiatric facilities has long been a method used in Soviet countries. Human rights defenders and doctors say that the method "has found a modern resurgence" in Belarus. The prisoners have to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment that has no predetermined end date. That means the prisoners are out of the conventional prison system and they cannot benefit from amnesties, for instance, and other basic rights.  In Germany, the Eagle's Nest, one of the last structural relics of Adolf Hitler's dictatorship, burned down in a suspected arson attack last month. Now, the burning question is: should it be rebuilt? The Guardian writes that with a far-right resurgence in Germany, experts there are divided as to whether the Eagle's Nest retreat is best restored or left as a ruin. Its architecture is intended to overwhelm and intimidate and combined with its history, it's a big tourist attraction: more than 300,000 tourists used to go there per year. But after the efforts of more than 200 firefighters, the tourist attraction is closed indefinitely. If it is reconstructed for a new generation of visitors, The Guardian says those in charge should try to mitigate the risk of creating a shrine for neo-Nazis.  Finally, Halloween is over, but one costume is still making the headlines: Heidi Klum's severed hand. Vogue France called it "her most disgusting ever" – the best Halloween compliment! You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, October 29: Spanish papers discuss Wednesday's deadly train collision. The New York Times investigates whether a "safest seat" in the event of a train crash exists. Next, we look at a report about "the shocking rise of rib remodelling". We end with some photos from the Arctic and Antarctica. Spanish papers are reacting to the devastating train crash that killed dozens of people on Wednesday. Both El Mundo and El País emphasise that it's not the first time this has happened – the last train accident in Spain was only nine months ago. El País also has a first-person story: "I travelled on this train", writes a journalist who works for the paper. He happened to be there during the crash. He already covered the Adamuz disaster in January and now he writes: "I had that feeling again of living through a nightmare". He also describes the strange calm and how he and other passengers managed to free themselves from the last carriage.  The New York Times asks the question "Is there a safest seat in a train crash?" The answer is not so simple. There's a rough consensus that it's best to sit in the middle of the train, in case of a hit from the front or the back. Some experts are even more precise, saying the best bet is sitting in the middle, in an aisle seat facing backward – that's because if the train suddenly stops, the whiplash would be less brutal and there's a smaller chance of being hit by flying objects. But experts told the paper that there are too many variables in train crashes to say for certain. This time in Spain, for example, the hit was from the back, so the safest place to sit would have been in the front of the train. But of course passengers couldn't have known in advance of the nature of the crash.  The tragedy is still very recent, but it could already have political repercussions. According to Democrata, it could harm Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's reputation before snap elections that are happening in only a month's time. The weak link among his ministers is Oscar Puente, the transport minister, who was already in post in January during the first train crash. According to the paper, he has three options: "continuity, resignation or dismissal". Puente is under fire, and not only because of the actual crashes. Some time after the previous rail disaster, he appeared in a comedy video in which he imitated a derailing train.  Next, The Guardian reports that rib remodelling surgery is on the rise. First, the patient's ribs are fractured, and then the person has to stay in a corset for three months, almost 24/7. The idea is to give the person a wasp-like waist. The Guardian spoke to people who went through it, who say it's extremely painful and feels like "being hit by a bus". One lady who did it couldn't sleep comfortably for more than a week because she was in constant pain. Although the procedure remains rare, more and more people are deciding to do it. Between 2018 and 2024, there were more than 2,300 patients, with an overall complication rate of 3.7 percent, which remains quite high for beauty procedures.  Finally, a new photography book by polar specialists Sue Flood and Ian Dawson captures the Arctic and Antarctica. The Times shows its favourite photographs that "document life at the frozen edges of the world". You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, October 28: Papers react to the ongoing election results in Israel. Next: Macklemore's Free Palestine tour is coming to Paris. Also: antidepressants don't work the way we thought. Finally: a sneak peek into boomer divorcées' dating lives. Both right-wing paper The Jerusalem Post and left-wing daily Haaretz talk about the record-breaking voter turnout in Israel and the fact that Arab parties are likely to win a record number of seats. Reuters shows us the exit polls from the main Israeli TV channels – Kan11, Channel 13 and N12 – all showing a very tight race with no majority and a record of 18 to 19 seats for the Arab parties. Israel Hayom writes that "Israel faces a political deadlock after the elections". Voters have delivered a verdict, but "not a decisive one", according to the right-wing paper. It says there's a gap between opinion polls in recent months and the exit polls we just saw. These, it says, are driven by developments in two key strongholds – the Arab sector and traditional Likud cities.  The Times of Israel writes that "a government can only form if the same politicians who have been in power for years decide to mend fences and break decades-long patterns". The paper says that both camps – pro- and anti-Netanyahu – are relying on "wishful thinking". A headline in The Times reads "In Gaza, the Israeli election is the last thing on people's minds". Many Gaza residents say they are preoccupied with daily survival and the elections are just "too remote". Speaking of Gaza, US rapper Macklemore has kicked off his "Free Palestine" tour and is holding a concert in Paris on Thursday. Le Parisien reports that all the profits generated from the concert will be donated to 12 charities working to support Palestinians. British paper The Guardian called his opening concert in Dublin a "triumph of a show" and gave it five stars. The review says that it felt like all the artists were truly there for the cause and not for some political glory. Fox News, however, says the show got mixed reactions, with some saying it was "out of touch" or even "performative" and that Macklemore should focus on problems closer to home.  Meanwhile, The New York Times sheds light on how antidepressants work in an article by psychiatrist and writer Awais Aftab. The headline reads "Millions use antidepressants. We still don't understand how they work". Aftab writes that for decades, the public understanding of the medicine was stuck in a narrative shaped by 1990s pharmaceutical advertising – that antidepressants work by correcting a chemical deficiency in the brain. But evidence from research shows this is actually not true. In fact, doctors and scientists don't have a clear understanding of how the pills relieve mental health problems. Today, scientists have a couple of working hypotheses. One of them is that antidepressants shift how the brain processes negative emotional information.  Finally, The Washington Post writes that in the 1990s, baby boomer women set records for divorce. Thirty years later, they are dating – but men don't always meet their standards. You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, October 27: The Israeli, Palestinian and Lebanese papers break down what's at stake on election day for Israel and its neighbours. Also, the French government announces its first major concessions to protesting high school students, hoping to calm the movement. Finally, Harry Kane's Ballon d'Or means Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé will have to wait their turn. The Times of Israel reports from Kibbutz Be'eri, where one in 10 residents was slaughtered on October 7, 2023, and where "hearts and minds will be broken if Netanyahu retains power". Meanwhile, a Jerusalem Post commentator says "form a government, you can hate each other on your own time", arguing that what Israel needs now above all is stability from a broad coalition of Zionists. Haaretz, though, says the Palestinians are the real crux: with 2 million displaced Gazans living in camps, and a policy of "settler terror" forcing Palestinians into ever smaller corners of their territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ready to continue the latter policy at the risk of sweeping international sanctions. Centrist leader Gadi Eisenkot, however, according to the left-leaning paper, understands that the West expects a policy shift on the West Bank.  Palestinian paper Al Quds, meanwhile, reports that an attempt to ban weapons inside polling stations in majority-Arab towns has been refused by the Israeli supreme court, raising fears of armed right-wing groups intimidating voters. Lebanese paper Al Akhbar is covering the hundreds of fixed and mobile polling stations which have been set up in southern Lebanon, Gaza and Syria for occupying Israeli soldiers to cast their votes. A message, according to Al-Diyar, that there is no current intention to withdraw. "The occupier is voting for its own occupation," says the newspaper. L'Orient-Le Jour has published a letter to an Israeli voter by a Lebanese journalist who says these elections will probably affect his life more than any in his own country. He recognises that Israel's options are politically similar in many ways, but says the election is essentially about one thing: finishing with "Bibi" in power, once and for all.  Meanwhile in France, the government "backs down", in the words of Libération, by promising to reform and replace Parcoursup, the platform by which high schoolers are offered options for higher education; to limit class sizes to 28 in the third-last year; to create 15,000 new spots in higher education courses; and to make €4 billion available for renovations of school buildings. But the calls to protest remain in place for both this coming Saturday and November 5. For journalists at L'Humanité, the government has "timidly taken out the chequ ebook": they point out that the €4 billion for renovations are in fact loans, and that the new places on university courses were announced after 10,000 spots were done away with last year. L'Opinion, meanwhile, has the headline "long live selectivity at universities," saying the prime minister has lied to the French youth twice: once by pretending the country could afford these measures, and again by pretending that higher education could exist without selectivity.  Finally, The Times vaunts Harry Kane's 73 goals across 65 games for club and country in the 2025-26 season, which have won the 33-year-old striker his first ever Ballon d'Or. French sporting newspaper L'Equipe hails "King Harry" on its website's front page, which is rather gracious given that another favourite for the title was Les Bleus' Kylian Mbappé. Spanish Marca discusses why the winner wasn't Lamine Yamal, as the jury focused this year on individual performance, rather than team successes. For Goal.com, Kane "isn't the world's best footballer...but deserved the 2026 Ballon d'Or", adding that "Yamal and Mbappe's time will surely come. But in 2026, they must bow to Harry Kane".

PRESS REVIEW – Monday, October 26: Brazilian and international papers react to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's presidential election victory. Next: The New York Times warns that the war in Iran is entering a dangerous new phase. Also: cocaine consumption and cocaine-related crimes are surging across Britain. Finally, it turns out that wrapping children in cotton wool isn't the best parenting strategy. Brazilian papers are reacting to Lula's tight re-election. "Following his victory, Lula says he will govern for all 215 million Brazilians," reports O Globo, explaining that it's a promise of reconciliation after a campaign that revealed a deeply divided country. In another article, the Rio-based paper reports a massive mobilisation in favour of Lula for the second round. The incumbent president secured more than 10 million additional votes compared with the first round. There was a fall in abstentions, and the number of blank and spoilt ballots reached their lowest levels ever recorded. Folha de São Paulo reports that after criticism, Lula is promising to "change" his way of governing. According to the newspaper, his re-election "confirms the status of the Workers' Party leader as Brazil's greatest popular leader of this century". But the paper says it is important "that arrogance does not prevent him from acknowledging the mistakes that nearly cost him the victory" – for example, the fact that "he resorted to a flagrant misuse of the state apparatus", according to the paper.  International papers are also reacting to the Brazilian election. The Washington Post writes that Lula's win is "halting Latin America's rightward shift" and keeping "Latin America's largest democracy from joining" that regional shift. Lula secured his re-election by campaigning against democratic backsliding and the erosion of civil rights. But after his inauguration, he'll be confronted by a right-wing Congress and more conservative governors. Spanish paper El País writes that "Lula wins, but the Brazil that made him invincible no longer exists". For the paper, this fourth term "paves the way for a leadership transition within the Brazilian left" and "forces it to respond to a sense of discontent".  Next, an article in The New York Times says that the war in Iran is entering a dangerous phase. The headline reads: "A new level of threat and fear risks pushing the US and Iran back to full war". The paper says that many factors are creating heightened levels of tension and risk – for example, the upcoming elections in the US and Israel, combined with US intelligence that Iran is planning to attack Americans. This situation is pushing all sides to seek a pretext for action. Experts who spoke to the paper are warning that this is exactly how countries can escalate into full-scale war.  Elsewhere, cocaine use in England is on the rise and so are cocaine-linked crimes. The Guardian looks into an analysis of wastewater in England that suggests that people there took around 2.5 billion lines of cocaine in one year. As consumption goes up, so are the crimes linked to it, such as assaults, domestic abuse and dangerous driving. The Guardian says that this rise can be explained by the historically low cost of cocaine – pushed by overproduction and high demand – combined with high purity levels. The drug is not considered middle class anymore, another article says. It has conquered pubs, festivals and even the workplace, as many turn it into an everyday habit. It's a "crime largely hidden in plain sight", the paper says, and many people don't even consider it a crime. Finally, research suggests that giving kids more freedom and letting them do "risky play" is good for their physical and mental health, as The Times reports. You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, October 22: The New York Times's sources report plans for fresh strikes on Iran after the US midterm elections. In other news, the French Senate publishes a 30-step proposal for how to "take back control", just days after protests gave way to riots. Also, how software engineers found and patched up bugs in the language that makes up 70 percent of the internet. Finally, the story of a man for whom what happened in Vegas did not stay there. The New York Times immediately caveats its exclusive findings with a reminder that Donald Trump has "repeatedly cancelled plans to return to major combat", but it cites administration officials who believe one more major attack could be what pushes the Iranian economy to collapse and force diplomatic concessions. Officials also told New York Times journalists that joint training exercises between the US and Israel had been stepped up, and that a meeting had been held this week between Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  Drawing on this reporting, Haaretz quotes Trump's cryptic comments on Wednesday evening that the US is "not negotiating" with Iran, that "something one way or the other will happen fairly soon", and that "most people seem to think it's after the election".  Here in France, the right-leaning upper house of parliament has released a report, which was in the works since January, on "the future of maintaining order: 30 proposals to take back control". Le Figaro cites some of the senators' proposals: the confiscation of perpetrators' state benefits to pay for damage caused, more CCTV cameras and algorithmic surveillance. L'Opinion notes the report's recommendations of more police on horseback and the creation of a criminal offence of "illegal protesting".  Meanwhile, the left-wing daily Libération reports on a collective of lawyers, teachers and elected officials assembled outside the courthouse of Bobigny, a town in the Paris suburbs, to denounce the conditions in which teenagers are being detained following the weekend's unrest. They point to 10 mattresses for 86 people on Tuesday night, bottles of urine left lying around when the young people arrived, and teenagers squeezed into extremely confined spaces. "They want to traumatise them so they don't protest again," said the collective.  Elsewhere, when government websites around the world went offline on Wednesday, it was the first clue for most laypeople that something was afoot. This after a security firm used AI to discover bugs in the source code of PHP language, which is used in 70 percent of websites. The Wall Street Journal takes us behind the scenes into how the problem was discovered in August, and how a group of software engineers and security researchers have worked secretly in the months since to develop 10,000 lines of code to "patch" the bug. Supposed to be implemented on Thursday, a leak on Tuesday moved up the timeline so that the vulnerability would not be left exposed.

PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, October 21: The identities of some 300 suspects from Saturday's riots are emerging in the Paris courts. Meanwhile, the far-left France Unbowed party has promised legal action against the French government for claiming the radical left was responsible for the degeneration of protests. Also, as the UN warns that global warming is on track to reach 2.6°C this century, the UK greenlights new drilling in the North Sea. Finally, we look at the literary trend of hate-reading. French dailies Le Parisien and Libération describe chaotic scenes inside an overwhelmed Paris courthouse, where 300 alleged perpetrators in the weekend's riots had been referred for processing on Tuesday. Emotional parents looked on in shock, seeing their children accused of looting, while court sessions started late and were frequently adjourned due to procedural hiccups. Meanwhile, the political blame game is afoot after the government accused the radical left France Unbowed party of being behind the protests, and investigative outlet Mediapart published allegations that territorial intelligence services had been instructed "word for word, to write that France Unbowed are behind the movement when it's false". Le Figaro brings us the news that the French interior minister has categorically denied giving any such instruction, and that the national co-ordinator of the party has promised legal action. Just six months before presidential elections, the unrest seems to have benefitted far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, according to a new poll in Le Figaro. From a political crisis to the climate crisis: the UK government has given the green light to a new gas field off the coast of Scotland, The Herald explains, this despite a 2024 campaign commitment by the ruling Labour Party to issue no more new oil and gas licences for the North Sea. This comes on the same day as a UN report that projects 2.6°C of warming on pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, almost double the intended cap of 1.5°C. Finally, The Washington Post has clocked onto the new trend of hate-reading: why read a good book when you could read one you know you won't enjoy? "It's a win-win", says a writer and librarian in Petersburg, Virginia: "Either you're vindicated, or you were wrong and you learned something."

PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, October 20: We look at reactions from the French press after President Emmanuel Macron's government announces a curfew in parts of the country. Is it too much or not enough? We also look at what the foreign press from Britain, Germany and the US are saying about the weekend's violence. Meanwhile, the Italian press react to violent looting and destruction of property in Italy as the government there mulls sending in 500 armed troops.  French authorities have put curfews in place in certain areas of the country after a weekend of rioting overshadowed protests against the rising cost of living. For the left-wing press, the curfews are excessive. Embattled Interior Minister Laurent Nunez features on the front of Libération, the left-wing daily, which headlines disapprovingly "Nunez dans la nasse." La nasse is a reference to the restrictive perimeter imposed on protesters, who cannot come and go as they please. In its editorial, the paper says the weekend's events have announced the end of 10 years of Macron's governance. The daily laments that even the basic maintaining of law and order is now a "complicated thing for the president". The Communist daily L'Humanité accuses the government of creating an "impasse of repression." It says that for the past 10 years, the government has chosen a policy of using the baton, which has served to aggravate the gap between the French people and ruling powers. La Croix, which tends to sit around the middle of the political spectrum, says that maintaining order is being put to the test. It explains that the way France has been policed since May 1968 is simple: a doctrine of "zero deaths". This means that police must always stay at a distance. With protesters promising new action this coming weekend, how can France maintain a balance between dissuasion and professional retaliation, it wonders? Le Figaro asks: "Why hasn't France declared a state of emergency and outlawed protests in the near future? What happened to the bill proposing that rioters be financially responsible for the damage caused to public property?" The conservative daily accuses the government of not doing enough.  In the international press, the British daily Metro sees the imposition of a curfew as a "French correction" – the paper quotes Macron as saying that France will not tolerate thieves or "extreme-left" thugs. An opinion piece in The New York Times sympathises with French students, who are "showing the rest of the world that the only way to march into a dark future is together." But it warns that their challenge is now to keep the violence at bay. In an excellent analysis, a Frankfurter Allgemeine writer argues that the hallmark of the high school protests was the "unusual solidarity" between students from impoverished suburban schools and schools in affluent neighbourhoods. It blames Macron's government for choosing a strategy of waiting it out until the autumn school holidays and ignoring their legitimate demands. It offers this sobering conclusion: "France cannot afford the necessary investments in the education of future generations as long as a majority of voters cling to early retirement and short working hours." We turn next to Italy, where similar scenes of violence amid cost-of-living protests played out over the weekend. Demonstrators clashed with police, looted shops and vandalised property in Turin, Bologna and Milan. The Italian government will dispatch 500 army troops to defend Milan as part of security measures to be approved at a cabinet meeting this Tuesday. "Try to catch them", the Communist daily Il Manifesto says on its front page. Dozens of arrests, serious charges, ethnically targeted roundups – the paper disapproves of the government's new measures, which it says will also authorise indiscriminate detention. Il Riformista, another daily, evokes Italy's Russian October – presumably a reference to the Bolshevik uprising of 1917 that ended the Russian czar's reign. The right-wing, conservative Il Tempo evokes an "intifada" on the streets of Italy. In other news, a black bear recently broke into a library, where it helped itself to the pantry cupboard! The Guardian reports that a black bear broke into a California library last week and reportedly raided snacks like peanut butter, cookies and a jar of honey. It spent more than four hours in the library, sniffing through new releases. In a moment of perfect literary timing, all of this happened as the library celebrated the 100th anniversary of the publication of a copy of "Winnie the Pooh"! You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.