Advertise on podcast: Press Review

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.

PRESS REVIEW – Monday, October 19: French and international papers discuss the anti-government protests that turned violent at the weekend and their aftermath across France.  Many French papers are using the word "chaos" to describe the protests over the weekend. Le Parisien writes: "After the chaos, the anger". It says that on Sunday France woke up to destruction following the protests. The headline of left-wing paper Libération reads "Questioning chaos". Libération says that due to an inadequate law enforcement strategy that failed to anticipate the widespread vandalism and looting, the protests spiralled out of control, although hundreds of thousands of people were attempting to march peacefully. The headline of right-wing paper Le Figaro reads "Shame and anger". The paper says that all across France "unprecedented scenes of violence" took place, which are causing consternation. The headline of the Communist paper L'Humanité reads "Social explosion". The paper says that the day of protests was ruined by violence and vandalism, as well as by widespread police crackdowns on demonstrators. Catholic paper La Croix asks "How did we get here?" It says that the riots and looting are fuelling fears of widespread unrest, against a backdrop of social anger. L'Opinion asks: "Who benefits from the chaos?" The paper tries to summarise what happened: Public order has broken down. The prime minister is responding solely on a political level. The president is calling for calm. Far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon continues to stir up conflict, while far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is seeking to capitalise on both fronts: public order and social issues. International papers are also reacting. German newspaper Der Spiegel asks "Is France descending into chaos and crisis?" Politically, this unrest is going to further polarise France, according to the paper. One woman is likely to benefit, it says: the far-right presidential frontrunner, Marine Le Pen. Le Pen and her National Rally party are skilfully presenting themselves as the guarantors of public order. This time, the right wing has refrained from actively supporting the movement, as it did in 2018 with the Yellow Vests, even though it expresses sympathy for the peaceful demonstrators; after all, many of their voters are among them. The headline of Spanish paper El País says "France sets Macronism ablaze". The paper calls President Emmanuel Macron's second term "out of touch with society" – but there are still six long months to go until the next presidential elections, during which the country must pass a budget and find answers to the unstoppable rise of the far right.  The New York Times says there's "shock and recrimination", a day after the "huge riots". The paper says that during his speech, Macron "offered no concrete concessions". It reminds us that government officials and far-right leaders accuse the far left of stirring up the unrest. The left wing, meanwhile, blames the government for budget decisions and policies they said have spurred public anger. British paper The Times says that Paris was "divided by protests". Many are pointing the fingers at those who rioted and looted, saying the level of violence was worse than during the Yellow Vest protests in 2018. Others say that police repression pushed people to become increasingly violent. A 20-year-old art student told The Times: "Instead of listening to us, the government sends in the police to attack us". "We no longer live in a democracy" is the headline in the independent Russian paper Novaya Gazeta. It's a quote from one of the protesters who spoke to the paper. She says that "the Republic has been shaken to its core – we no longer live in a democracy where we can assemble," adding that "the police are seizing power through violence".  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, October 16: French papers look ahead to Saturday's call for mass protests, which will bring together a number of social movements. Next, climate change has devastating consequences on communities in Afghanistan. Also, Libération publishes a special edition written in the style of Georges Perec. Finally, this year's animal of the year has been named. Protests are planned across France for Saturday, October 17. L'Humanité headlines with "Crossroads of anger" and features a photo of the Yellow Vests on its front page. Le Parisien's front page shows Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez meeting with seven young people. They discussed police behaviour during the student protests, and the meeting was organised in the hope of creating dialogue after three weeks of protests. Le Figaro has a double-page spread on the student movement. It says that a police union has filed a complaint against the French state for "endangering the lives of others", meaning those of the police officers. Meanwhile, left-leaning news site Mediapart says that while most of the French media is focusing on violence, the student protests are also a place where joy and partying are political acts. The European Correspondent says four broken promises are fuelling youth-led movements across Europe.  Climate change features on a number of front pages this morning. La Croix talks about a planet on high alert in the face of a hyper-charged El Niño. The Guardian reports that six areas of England have been declared in severe drought as reservoirs run low. Beyond the UK, droughts like these can have drastic consequences. The Guardian also features a special report on Afghanistan, where families are being forced to sell girls as brides in order to survive. Elsewhere, French daily Libération is famous for its plays on words, but so is the late author and artist Georges Perec, who wrote an entire novel without the letter E called "La Disparition", which Libé references on its front page. This is not just an edition about Perec but in his style, and he has turned the paper on its head, quite literally. Some pages are half upside down, and an article on the Houthis is written in tumbling columns. Quite topically, the paper features an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of the letter U in Pau, in southwestern France. Finally, the animal of the year for 2026 has been named by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The award goes to Sgiath, a working dog in the Scottish Highlands who has helped hunt down an invasive marine species called the carpet sea squirt, nicknamed "sea vomit". 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 15: First, reported Starlink disruptions in Ukraine make the European front pages. Next, US papers go into more detail about the situation. Also, an unusual alliance forms in Germany between far-right and far-left parties. Meanwhile, the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards have been announced. Finally, Finland flaunts its smelly islands. The reported Starlink restrictions in Ukraine are getting a lot of coverage. The Kyiv Post quotes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who says he feels betrayed by the US. He made those statements during an interview with broadcaster Piers Morgan in the UK, where Zelensky met with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday. The Times features their meeting on its front page and says that the Starlink restrictions could have devastating consequences for Ukraine's security. In France, Libération headlines with "American abandonment". It says US intelligence services are no longer warning Kyiv about Russian strikes, putting Ukrainian civilians at risk. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, meanwhile, is said to be "with Ukraine" on the front page of La Repubblica.   Beyond the front pages, there are plenty of analysis pieces to be read. According to American news site Axios, a US government official has said the Trump administration did not have anything to do with the reported Starlink restrictions, and that any disruption was caused by a technical incident instead. The Wall Street Journal takes us "Inside Trump's turn on Zelensky". The paper suggests that the relationship between Trump and Zelensky started to sour after a meeting in New York in September. The Financial Times, meanwhile, reports that US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner proposed that European countries unfreeze some frozen Russian assets and transfer them to a financial vehicle overseen by Washington in an attempt to revive peace talks. Cartoonist Morten Morland in The Times imagines that Vladimir Putin will have a tough time choosing his employee of the month this October.   Elsewhere, the German state of Saxony-Anhalt has seen an unusual alliance between the far-right AfD party and the far-left populist BSW party. Their alliance passed a motion calling for an immediate end to all German financial and military aid to Ukraine. The Berliner Morgenpost says the proposal has no chance of being approved by the Germany's upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat. The Süddeutsche Zeitung headlines with "this is madness". The paper says the AfD's anti-immigration policies are now targeting everyone from Ukrainians to Arab and Muslim refugees in eastern Germany. In other news, the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards have been announced. The Guardian goes through some of the pictures. The overall winner is quite a moving photo by Federico Veronesi called "The Aftermath"; it shows an elephant carrying and grieving her dead calf. The young photographer of the year award was given to 14-year-old Oscar Whitfield for his snapshot of a dung beetle.  Finally, Geo reports that the Turku Archipelago in Finland claims to be the best-smelling place in the world. To prove it, they are hoping to recruit a professional nose to travel around the islands and take in the air.  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 14: Portuguese papers are discussing the country's housing problems. Next: in Germany, a humanoid robot has sexually assaulted a teenage girl. In science news, there might be planets more habitable than Earth out there. Finally, Cosmopolitan helps us find out if we are dating a loser. Housing protests are spreading across Portugal, La Repubblica reports. According to Eurostat, Portugal has recorded the highest rise in house prices in Europe: between 2015 and 2025, prices rose by 180 percent, and they keep increasing now in the second half of 2026. Rents have also soared. Publico reports that "The cap on affordable rents has risen by more than 50% in some municipalities". The capital Lisbon is the most expensive city in the country in terms of rent. And with rent increases and growing inflation, anger among the population is growing. Dario de Noticias reports that "63 percent of Portuguese people have put projects on hold due to the rising cost of living". They are pausing health-related spending and even reducing meals.  Next, in Germany, police have had to intervene because of a humanoid robot that allegedly sexually assaulted a teenage girl in Cologne, The Times reports. The 16-year-old girl was standing outside a burger restaurant when the machine approached her from behind and groped her. Its owner, also 16, livestreamed the offence on social media. The robot is a Chinese model that can be bought for around €5,000 in Germany. It can either be programmed to move in a certain way or manually controlled with a remote. The girl immediately told the police and the robot was confiscated. What happens next is uncertain, because this might be one of the first cases of its kind.  We turn next to some science news. New research sheds light on how we can learn languages faster. The Guardian says that we need to "stop making sense". Research suggests that if we want to learn any language faster, we shouldn’t start with dry vocabulary and grammar, but focus on how the language sounds instead. And when we do listen to the language, we need to approach it as a whole new sound, instead of trying to make sense of it by comparing it to our native language.  In other science news, The New York Times reports that worlds more habitable than Earth are out there. Life there might be even more abundant and sustainable than the one we have here. The only problem: they are outside our solar system. These planets are called "super-Earths" by scientists, and they orbit K-dwarf stars – orangey stars that are cooler and burn slower than our sun. Scientists simulated the light coming from these K-dwarf stars and found that some leaves grow faster under that type of light compared to our sun’s light. So what would life look like on these far-away planets? Scientists describe it as paradise: better weather, a smoother surface, water flowing everywhere and an abundance of plants and animals (or aliens, perhaps).  Finally, after all that hard science, Cosmopolitan helps us with something harder to quantify: dating and relationships. It helps readers find out if they are dating a "loser". Cosmopolitan says that "even the brightest and the hottest of us have fallen victim" to dating a loser. The magazine explains how to spot loser behaviour and what to do to remedy it. 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 13: "Act 5" of the French high school protest movement begins as teachers and farmers could join in too. In India, thousands of opposition supporters have marched to the Supreme Court demanding the resignation of the electoral board chief over fraud allegations. The Times of London publishes an investigation that shows FIFA boss Gianni Infantino received a second, undeclared salary. Finally, a cat in China goes viral with people flocking from around the world to meet her. "Act 5" of the French high schoolers' protest movement takes place this Tuesday, with other students and teachers also set to join the demonstrations. Le Figaro announces that politicians from the left and far left will partake, as well as groups against police brutality, the Yellow Vests and a group of farmers. This "convergence of fights" comes against "a backdrop of violence," according to the right-wing daily. It doubles down on its criticism that the student movement's demands are "absurd and confusing." The right-wing paper L'Opinion looks at how this generation of student protests has put itself at the heart of the French presidential campaign. In May 2027, one in every nine voters will be between the ages of 18 and 24. The challenge for parties now is to seduce a "protest-oriented, pluralistic generation with a propensity for abstention." In the left-wing papers, Libération headlines with a quote from Sophie Binet, the head of the CGT union, one of France's major unions. She said: "For the last decade, young people have been treated like dogs", hailing the "lucidity" of the high school protesters. It comes as the French budget will be debated in parliament this Tuesday. L'Humanité, the Communist paper, warns of a "state of emergency" concerning French schools. It accuses the government and local authorities of passing the buck on how to finance much-needed renovations of certain French school establishments. Staying in France, MPs will hold a solemn vote in parliament this Tuesday on a bill to fight sexual violence against women and children. The divisive bill was brought forward by 140 associations representing women and child victims and ­debated vigorously late last month. L'Humanité looks at two key articles that didn't make the cut. The first article aimed to protect female victims without French papers from being deported from France. NGOs have asked the government to review this article again and are promising to debate it in the Senate, when the bill heads there after the MPs' vote. The second article proposed the creation of special paid leave for victims of violence. The rejection of this measure was all the more “strange” because it had the support of NGOs and the government too. Amnesty International has criticised the bill for excluding the "most vulnerable and susceptible women" – trans women, foreigners and sex workers. If adopted, this law would be a failure because it would not protect those who need protecting, the NGO says on its website. We head next to India, where the front pages headline on a "March for Democracy" led by opposition supporters in New Delhi on Monday. Thousands marched through the capital to the Indian Supreme Court. They called on the election chief to resign, accusing him of electoral roll fraud. According to them, tens of millions of voters' names have been struck off the electoral lists. The government says they were duplicates or deceased voters, but the opposition says Modi's government is deliberately excluding Muslim voters. Pictures of that march are splashed across the front pages of the Hindu and the Free Press Journal. The Indian Express notes the government's reaction. It accused opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and his party of "pure theatrics."  Elsewhere, The Times of London publishes an investigation accusing FIFA of not declaring a second salary paid to its president, Gianni Infantino. In addition to his salary and bonus, the investigation reveals that FIFA did not publicly disclose an extra $1.76 million paid to Infantino in 2024, plus similar sums in 2025 and 2026. Critics say this is a clear violation of FIFA rules. Sources say that some of the undisclosed money paid to Infantino was used to fund a luxury lifestyle in Miami in the lead-up to the World Cup, including a waterfront mansion rental. The Times investigation reveals that Infantino received two separate salaries – one from FIFA, declared; the other from a World Cup organising company, undeclared. The allegations will add pressure on the FIFA boss to resign. He became highly unpopular after his short-lived plan in July to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors. Finally, a little cat in China has become a viral star! The China Daily reports on a furry feline in Guangzhou called MeiMei, who was named after a cat on a popular TV series. Her story began in 2022 when her owner Chen found her near a railway station. He left his job to rescue stray animals and decided to keep MeiMei instead of rehousing her. He started sharing videos of her and people expressed concern for her well-being – not just from China but from around the world. Then he spent six months explaining that she was a stray cat and concern turned to love for her. Some devoted MeiMei fans travel from as far as Chile, Romania and Morocco. But like a real diva, she is aloof and indifferent – only cooperating with fan interactions when food is involved!

PRESS REVIEW – Monday, October 12: Widespread protests in India are met with detentions judged "illegal" by the country's Supreme Court. But first: Lebanese papers report as Hezbollah prepares for a new regional flare-up. Finally, Citroën hopes to win hearts and minds with an electric reboot of the vintage Deux Chevaux model. The Arabic-language daily An-Nahar in Lebanon reports on revived calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah after nearly half a tonne of explosives were found in a vehicle heading towards Beirut, whose drivers are suspected of belonging to the armed group. Al Joumhouria has images of the explosives on its front page, and suggests on the inside pages that the presence of shrapnel corresponds with the kind of material the group have previously used in assassinations. L'Orient-Le Jour, meanwhile, reports more widely on Hezbollah's preparations for a future war, as the group has allegedly recruited new members, held new military training and augmented the range and carrying capacity of its FPV drones. This as Israel has reportedly made its intention known to expand the ongoing occupation and target further Hezbollah infrastructure, especially in the east of the country.  Meanwhile in India, the Supreme Court has declared some of the hundreds of detentions of protesters over the weekend "illegal", as we see on the front page of The Hindu. This comes after 40,000 security personnel were deployed, according to the Hindustan Times. The Financial Times describes the reaction of the Cockroach Janta Party's top brass, who were detained over the weekend and released only following a court order. Party founder Abhijeet Dipke emerged, calling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "biggest coward this country has ever seen", and promising to double down on protests after the Electoral Commission allegedly removed millions of names from the electoral registers, denying those people voting rights, apparently in areas unsympathetic to Modi's ruling BJP party. According to The New York Times, the crackdown has exposed some of the limits of Modi's playbook – since despite multiple roadblocks and an internet shutdown in central New Delhi, Gen Z protesters still managed to flood social media with images of the crackdown.  Finally, as Citroën reboots the iconic Deux Chevaux model, Le Monde calls neo-retro "the symbol of declining European carmakers who no longer have the means to innovate". Automobile Magazine is rather more charitable, saying it has "succumbed" to the car, the star of the Paris Auto Show.

PRESS REVIEW – Friday, October 9: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announces that the military execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be "livestreamed". But first: we look at reactions in Italy after the country's parliament passes a controversial electoral reform that critics say serves to benefit Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Plus, ".fart" and ".trump" are among the new domain name applications, as revealed by the US non-profit organisation ICANN. The Italian parliament approved an electoral reform on Thursday that's dividing the press along political lines. The reform will introduce a prize for the majority-winning alliance, awarding it bonus seats in both houses of parliament if it wins at least 42 percent of the national vote. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says this will reduce the post-election bargaining that often results in shaky governments. The centre-right paper Il Giornale hails this reform, which it says restores more power to Italian citizens via a preferential voting system and declares Italy's "Third Republic". The conservative daily Il Tempo's editorial attacks the "nervous left". There are two ways to examine electoral law, it says: the first is suited to career politicians and aspiring candidates, and involves "obsessing over technicalities and dissecting every clause." The other way tries to take the long view, giving the system a strong push towards a bipolar structure, which is what the Meloni government has done, it says approvingly. The Italian left has struggled to build a united alliance ahead of next year's elections, and the left-wing press are furious about the reform. Centre-left daily La Repubblica calls it the "law of power" and in its editorial deplores the "ultimate betrayal." It says through a "political makeover worthy of a magician, Meloni forced her own majority to approve an electoral law that only she and her inner circle wanted". La Stampa says Meloni has changed the rules while Il Fatto Quotidiano says Italian President Sergio Mattarella can veto this "latest piece of garbage" – but wonders if he will do so. French paper La Croix has an interesting article about Saudi Arabia. It looks at how the kingdom has poured money into state-of-the-art weaponry, but its army is badly lacking skills. La Croix's correspondent in Saudi Arabia reminds us that Yemen's Houthi rebels have launched several brazen attacks against the kingdom in recent weeks, including strikes on Saudi airports. How is it possible that Saudi Arabia spends billions on military equipment but cannot thwart attacks from a tenacious but underequipped rebel group, the paper asks. According to La Croix, there are several reasons: internal struggles between Saudi's national guard and regular army, both of which are affiliated with different powerful families. The central command is also very hierarchical and paralyses any initiative on the ground. We turn next to the US where Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist found guilty of a mass shooting in Fort Hood, Texas in 2009, will be executed by firing squad. As the Washington Post tells us, if it goes ahead, it would be the first such military execution since April 1961, when an army sergeant was hanged for rape and murder. On Thursday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution will be public and livestreamed. Hegseth said he wants people to watch the execution, so they understand "there are serious consequences for these types of things". If this goes ahead, the US would be added to a notorious list of countries in the world that hold public executions. Last year, of the 17 public executions, six were in Afghanistan and 11 in Iran.  We end with the biggest shakeup of internet addresses in more than a decade. ICANN is a US non-profit organisation that controls the application approvals for domain names. It has unveiled new trends in IP addresses. Applications for more than 1,600 new addresses have been made. ICANN last expanded web domains in 2012, the Times of London tells us. At the time, new domains like .app, .web, .babysitting and .pizza were approved. This time around, AI is a big drawcard. AI companies are seeking to grab domains like .superintelligence or .chatgpt, while Meta has applied for .wearables. There are many novelty ones too. Among some new domain name applications are ".fart", ".bro", ".maga" and ".trump" and ".god". A Belgian LGBT non-profit wants to own .meow, which it says will be for the community but also cat lovers! 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 8: Maricarmen, the evicted Spanish pensioner who became the face of Spain's housing crisis, dies in hospital. Also, France braces for "Act Four" of high school student protests against dilapidated schools and poor staff presence. Finally, actress Zendaya sparks a row over etiquette at Paris Fashion Week. Maricarmen, the Spanish pensioner who became the face of the country's housing crisis, has died in hospital. El Pais, the Spanish daily, pays tribute to the 87-year-old woman whose eviction last month sparked nationwide protests. She had lived in an upmarket Madrid neighbourhood for more than 70 years before a company bought her rent-controlled apartment for a ridiculously low price, El Pais says. It then forced the wheelchair-bound woman out of her home. The eviction and her years-long legal battle had taken a toll on Maricarmen. In recent months, her physical condition had deteriorated. The elderly woman is now a symbol in Spain and other parts of the world, El Pais says. El Mundo and 20 Minutes also dedicate their editions to the protesters and vigils held for Maricarmen. Protesters marched to Spain's parliament where they mourned her death and vowed that "her fight will go on". We turn from housing crisis protests in Spain to high school protests in France. Act Four of the movement is taking place this Thursday, as French high schoolers continue their demands for better facilities and more staff. Le Monde says the high school student movement is united and digging its heels in. Hundreds of thousands of students marched in cities across France on Tuesday. They're going to renew those efforts this Thursday, while parents and union members have also joined the demonstrations.  The left-wing paper Libération's edition is written by historians, in what is the annual "Libé of Historians", with a striking front page photo of the protests. L'Humanité, the Communist paper, offers us an excellent play on words: "Les Flics en flag", which translates to "cops caught red-handed". The paper condemns illegal badges, a lack of officer identification and accuses French police of "illegal practices". Elsewhere, the Times of London compares the movement to May 1968, saying "the May 68 rebellion was fuelled by dreams of a better world while this movement is being driven by the discontent of a nation stuck in a cycle of economic decline and political deadlock." Le Soir, the Belgian daily, urges an end to the violence in Liège, where public property has been damaged in the past week as student protests flare up there as well.  Next, scientists may have uncovered the secrets to the longevity of life – thanks to Jonathan the tortoise! Gizmodo reports that Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise, is estimated to be around 194 years old. He has lived in Saint Helena since the late 1800s and he's the oldest known living land animal. Scientists took a swab to look at his genetics and found that one key to his long life might be in his mitochondria – known as the body's powerhouses of the cell. It appears that he keeps his mitochondria young. If we can do the same, we might have a fighting chance of living longer. Finally, actress Zendaya sparks an intense row over etiquette at Paris Fashion Week, after she did not stand up to greet French First Lady Brigitte Macron. 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 7: Papers mark the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks. But first: the high school protests that have swept across France make the front pages at home and abroad. Also, the Argentinian press waves off Lionel Messi after his last international match. Finally, a British adventurer completes a 28-year walk around the world. The French front pages all look quite alike this Wednesday. Aujourd'hui en France describes 266,000 young people in the streets, according to the interior ministry, while L'Humanité reports that 450,000 protesters descended into the streets across France. Libération celebrates the high school "aura", saying thousands of young people marched for their rights without any major incidents. Beyond France, Italy's Il Manifesto celebrates the movement and quotes the French national anthem on its front page. Il Fatto Quotidiano highlights clashes between some protesters and the police. In the UK, the Guardian says authorities face accusations of deliberate brutality. It also looks at the facts behind the discontent: social inequality, huge class sizes and dilapidated school buildings. Papers are also commemorating the three-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks. Israel Hayom is full of questions, whilst Haaretz argues that the scale of the attacks shows the extent of the security failure. In France, L'Équipe looks at how affected communities are using sport to work through their trauma, from a commemorative cycling race in the Israeli village of Be'eri to more than 220 Palestinian football clubs returning to competition after three years. Staying in the world of football, the Argentinian press is waving off its superstar, Lionel Messi. Clarín headlines with "Messi's emotional farewell: a goal, two assists and an unforgettable ovation" after his last international match, a 3-0 win over Benin. In the UK, the Guardian says he has "completed football", finishing his international career after 21 years with 126 goals and 70 assists for Argentina. The Telegraph says he is only bettered by one man, and it is not Cristiano Ronaldo: Pelé, who takes the top spot in its list of the best footballers of all time. Finally, there is one other homecoming to celebrate this morning. After 28 years walking around the world, British adventurer Karl Bushby has finally set foot on British soil, according to The Times. A Washington Post map traces his journey from the southern tip of Chile to Alaska, across the Bering Strait and Russia, and through Europe. He has walked 50,000 kilometres and has only around 400 to go until he reaches his mother's house in Hull. 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 6: The death of a researcher in Siberia, reportedly from the plague, sparks concern despite Russian authorities' denial. But first: French high school protesters are promising "Act 3" of their protest movement against learning conditions. Also, Le Monde speaks to the editor of Russian independent outlet Novaya Gazeta ahead of the 20th anniversary of the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Finally, it appears that butter is back in fashion. French high schoolers are promising "Act 3" of their protest movement and there is great concern in the press about how it is going to unfold. French left-wing daily Libération worries about the police crackdown on the high schoolers. It calls on police to "act with discretion". The Communist paper L'Humanité evokes the "rage of student protesters". In its editorial, the paper pays tribute to a generation who have grown up with social anxiety: they learned to read with soldiers patrolling their schools in 2015 (due to terror attacks), they hit puberty during the social distancing years of Covid-19 and they are finishing school amid two wars and rising inflation. The right-wing paper L'Opinion, however, is less sympathetic. It expresses concern about how violent the protests will become and says the student movement has "no instruction manual", calling it "a movement that has been, up to now, volatile, violent and unable to be controlled by the government." The movement is garnering a lot of interest in Europe too. The British daily The Times says the French government is "bewildered" by the anger and fury of the high school students. The conservative daily quotes a Paris school principal as saying that in 20 years she has seen strikes, blockades and protests, but never as violent as what is happening now. Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine explains the movement by France's economic woes, which were exacerbated by the 2024 dissolution of parliament and by the emergence of artificial intelligence while Le Soir, the Belgian daily, reports that the movement is starting to spread to Belgium as well. Students in Liège told the paper that they too want to fight against a "sick" educational system. Meanwhile, authorities in Russia are playing down fears after a researcher in Siberia died of the plague. Time magazine reports that dozens of people have been quarantined and outbreak control measures are underway at the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia. A 28-year-old lab worker known as Darya Shipilova died in unknown circumstances. A local report says she died after being exposed to the plague via a broken test tube, but those reports are no longer available online. Local authorities say there is no evidence to support this. But experts have been quick to play down fears of an outbreak. The Times of London explains that the pneumonic plague can be spread through close contact and is dangerous if untreated. However, it can be managed with antibiotics and outbreaks can be controlled if cases are caught early and isolated and treatments are respected. We stay in Russia for our next story. Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated in Moscow on October 7, 2006. As Le Monde notes, Politkovskaya was killed for "understanding Putin before anyone else did". Her reporting from Chechnya foreshadowed the war in Ukraine. The paper interviews Dmitry Muratov, the founder of the independent Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta, where Politkovskaya worked. He notes that her belongings are still in the office, including a yellowed copy of the Russian penal code opened to the last page she had consulted before her death. For Muratov, her death was clearly orchestrated by the Russian government. Finally, it appears that butter is back in fashion, at least according to the Guardian. Here in France, butter was never out of fashion but elsewhere, butter is enjoying a renaissance right now: from butter sculptures, to a quest for a butter sommelier, to after-dinner "butter and crackers". This summer, a young entrepreneur opened Le Butter in Paris, a shop dedicated to 50 different varieties of butter. An Egyptian American artist has carved fragments of Michelangelo's David out of butter. Butter is back – butter late than never! 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, October 5: More than 400 schools are closed across France, as the government fails to assuage the anger of protesting high school students. In other news: Boulder, Colorado takes on ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy, demanding billions for damage caused by wildfires. Finally, we take a look at some of nature's most whimsical offerings. "How to get out of the crisis?" reads the front page of Le Parisien this Monday, as high school students are set to continue to blockading schools across France. The editorial suggests that the government may find itself waiting out the crisis, and hoping that rain forecast for Thursday will send protesters indoors. Le Monde has printed an op-ed by a protester saying these are not the actions of "out-of-control teenagers", but the result of an anger that has been too long contained. He references chronic shortages of teachers and decrepit school infrastructure as some of the reasons. Le Figaro headlines on a completely different anger: that of children who are not sympathetic with the protesters, but whose classmates are blockading or forcing their schools to close. Meanwhile, La Croix focuses on the dilemma of parents, torn between supporting their children's demands for improvements, and fears of their children being either hurt or involved if protests degenerate.  Over in the US, the Supreme Court is set to examine the case of Boulder, Colorado, as it seeks billions in damages from oil majors ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy for damage caused by wildfires. The Washington Post explains how this is one of about 60 disputes in which city, county and state authorities are demanding damages of major historic polluters. The Atlantic explains how cases like these could pose an existential threat to the oil industry, but will be a test for so-called "attribution science", whereby scientists have sought to confirm which events are specifically attributable to greenhouse gas emissions, and which companies bear what proportion of that overall responsibility.  Finally, a giraffe's outlandish hairdo, a friendly azure damselfly, and a mafia of walruses are among the finalists in Nikkon's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards this year, as featured in the Guardian.

PRESS REVIEW – Friday, October 2: We look at reactions in the French papers after high school blockades turned violent across France. We also look ahead to Brazil's two-round presidential election, which begins this weekend. The electoral campaign culminated with the cancellation of a presidential debate after both President Lula and his rival Flavio Bolsonaro pulled out. Finally, this year's Comedy Wildlife Awards finalists do not disappoint. There's lots of focus on this week's high school protests in France that turned violent on Thursday. Le Parisien evokes the anger of pupils and talks of a "situation that escalated", with more than 2,000 arrests.  Many of the papers point their finger at the far-left France Unbowed party, whose members have publicly supported the high schoolers. Le Figaro, the right-wing daily, calls them "the proxies" of the protesters and says that behind the demonstrators lurks the "shadow of the France Unbowed party". La Croix is more tempered in its coverage, reminding us that the violence of the protests is still marginal. Libération, the left-wing paper, is one of the few dailies that actually looks at what high schoolers are demanding: more funding for schools, better school facilities and adequate numbers of teachers and personnel. It offers some examples of how bad the situation is for some schools: one maths teacher was absent for three months and in one school, only one toilet was available for 1,200 pupils. Communist paper L'Humanité denounces the police action against protesters on Thursday. Its headline reads "Take your police away first" – a play on words of the word "bac", which also means high-school leaving diploma. L'Humanité is also focusing on Brazil on its front page. Brazilians head to the voting booths this Sunday for the first round of presidential elections and the election is garnering a lot of attention in the papers there. The election pits incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva against Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Jornal do Brasil is focusing on polls that predict Lula will win the first round, but it could be neck and neck for the run-off on October 25. The paper also reports that international observers have arrived in Brazil to observe the correct undertaking of the electoral process. It has been a bitter electoral campaign, culminating on Thursday with the cancellation of the final presidential debate, set to be hosted by O Globo, after both Lula and Bolsonaro refused to attend. In its editorial, Brazilian daily O Globo explains why it cancelled the debate. The Superior Electoral court authorities refused to leave an empty chair for absent candidates to allow the other candidates to direct questions at them in absentia. As O Globo explains, this is a deep-seated tradition in campaign debates and part of the democratic process. The other grievance was the inclusion of certain candidate from Lula's party who did not meet the requirements necessary to participate in the debates. O Globo says that faced with political interference and violations of the constitution and press freedom, it had no option but to cancel the presidential debate. A columnist for another daily, Folha da Sao Paolo, says the Supreme Electoral Court's meddling with the debate "with such brazenness would have been unthinkable not long ago, something associated with banana republics. Not anymore." Finally, this year's Comedy Wildlife Awards finalists have been announced and they do not disappoint! We look at some of those in the running for Nikon's Comedy Wildlife Awards, which will be announced in December. They include an orangutan flipping the bird, a pair of elephant seals necking each other and a macaque learning the hard way that you shouldn't ram into a tree at full speed! You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.