Press Review

An overview of the stories making the French and international newspaper headlines. From Monday to Friday live at 7:20am and 9:20am Paris time.

  1. 2d ago

    Brazil's election: Lula or Bolsonaro Jr?

    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.

  2. 3d ago

    Israel's Netanyahu says co-pilot tried to crash Tel Aviv-bound plane

    PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, October 1: A FlyDubai flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia after the pilot was stabbed by his co-pilot in what the Israeli media are calling a terror attack. The co-pilot was detained by off-duty pilots on board and passengers before making a safe landing in Saudi Arabia. Also in the news, Cornell University's college campus culture is back under scrutiny after a shocking sexual assault claim. Plus, a man learns that Singapore does not take AI slop lightly. The terrifying events on a FlyDubai plane that was heading to Tel Aviv are dominating the press. The captain was stabbed by his co-pilot, who was then restrained by passengers and off-duty pilots on board. The plane was diverted to Saudi Arabia, where it safely landed, but not before a terrifying nosedive. According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the co-pilot who stabbed the captain was an Omani national who aimed to crash the plane. One India and the Daily Telegraph evoke this would-be attack as "Israel's 9/11", although the co-pilot's motivations for the stabbing are yet to be revealed. The Jerusalem Post reports on the "heroic actions of Israelis" who stormed the cockpit to thwart the attacker. The paper reports that luckily, four flyDubai pilots were on board on standby due to regional rerouting that could delay flight times and require extra pilots. The centre-left paper Haaretz notes that Israel was "moments away from one of its worst terror attacks". The incident also comes at a crucial time in Israel and could serve Netanyahu well ahead of legislative elections next month. The French-language Lebanese daily L'Orient-Le Jour notes that the "hypothesis of terror" has entered the electoral campaign in Israel.  In the US, the botched execution of a death row prisoner is shedding light on the shortcomings of the justice system. As The New York Times reports, Christa Pike has been on death row for 30 years for the brutal murder of a classmate when she was 18. She was due to be executed this week but got an eleventh-hour reprieve. She was then given two lethal injections but somehow survived and is now being treated in hospital. An opinion writer for MS NOW argues that Pike's guilt was never in question, but her childhood sexual abuse, mental illness and PTSD could have been a factor in her committing murder. The author says: "Her case is a reminder that lives of capital defendants are often shaped by brutality and violence" and makes a case for clemency.  Meanwhile, the fallout from the alleged 2024 sexual assault of a student at Cornell University continues to make headlines. In a six-page statement, the victim known as Jane Doe alleges she was subjected to hours-long sexual attacks by seven members of a fraternity club. The case is back in the spotlight now after the woman sued the university for failing to properly handle her sexual assault complaint. It has also sparked soul-searching and a review of college campus culture. The Washington Post analyses three chilling words reportedly revealed from a group chat during the assault: "Shop still open?" The paper says the "very presence of a group text regarding this alleged assault is both gob smacking and banal", as it conveys that whatever was happening that room, "several people thought to document it in real time and make it a bonding experience".  Finally, a man has learned the hard way that Singapore is not a country that takes AI slop lightly. According to Gizmodo and the Straits Times, a man in Singapore thought it would be a great laugh to share an AI-generated image of a crocodile in a reservoir at a popular public park. Unfortunately, the park's staff took the image very seriously, shutting down the park and spending two days looking for the non-existent crocodile. It was then reported to police and the man in question, Myanmar national Ye Lin, has been charged and faces possible prison time for sharing a false image. He's also been charged with obstruction of justice for deleting the image and the AI programme he used to create it. So learn your lesson: AI slop is no laughing matter in Singapore!  You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

  3. 4d ago

    'Cornell won't, we will': Student journalists 'relentlessly' reporting on university rape

    PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, September 30: The Cornell University gang rape investigation reopens. But first: students and prisoners protest in Iran "in a rare show of dissent". Journalist Evan Gershkovich speaks about his 16 months in a Russian prison. Bonus: what can we do to be less lonely? Finally, Fat Bear Week has chosen its winner. Radio Free Europe reports that "in a rare show of dissent amid crackdown, Iranian university students stage protest". They are rallying against the country's hijab law, calling for the release of some of their classmates who have been imprisoned and speaking out about the poor living conditions on campus. The paper says that protests in Iran have been rare after the mass crackdown in January, when thousands of people were killed according to human rights groups. Iran Wire reports that inmates from 66 prisons across Iran are also protesting. The campaign is called "No to executions Tuesdays" and consists of weekly hunger strikes protesting the death penalty and demanding its abolition.  Next, The New York Times interviews Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was imprisoned in Russia for 16 months. He was released after a US-Russian prisoner swap in 2024. The article is called "The Russian prison Gershkovich carried home". In the interview, he describes the tiny cell he lived in. He could take around six steps in there. He spent his waking hours in anger, panic attacks or crying. He is feeling better now and the nightmares have faded. Gershkovich has published a memoir entitled "This Cursed Beautiful Land" about his experience, but also that of the broader Russian population. Also: the Cornell University rape investigation has been reopened in response to a lawsuit filed by a woman who says she was raped there in 2024. The New York Times says that her lawsuit brought renewed pressure to reopen the investigation – she is suing seven men, the university, her sorority and the fraternity. The NYT reminds readers that she says she was raped repeatedly over nearly seven hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house. The lawsuit details a series of sexual assaults and how she was pressured into taking drugs. There have been many text messages tied to the lawsuit. CBS News says it has obtained a video of the fraternity's Snapchat group. At 1:42 am – during the rape – one fraternity guy texted "shop still open?" – like "is the woman still available?" And the answer was "Yeah". The Cut focuses on the journalists who broke the story – student journalists from The Cornell Daily Sun – they've been covering every beat and new development. For the past two weeks, they have been "relentlessly" chasing follow-ups and responses from the university's administration. Earlier, The Cornell Daily Sun published a blistering editorial entitled "Cornell won't, we will" – printing the names of the accused men and blaming the university for its lack of transparency. The Cut says that "throughout it all, the team has approached this case with care and moral clarity".  Bonus: The Atlantic looks at "one reason people are spending so much time alone". The article's central argument is that "inconvenience is the cost of community": we should sometimes do things that we don't want to do – or find irritating – if we want to maintain our relationships.   Finally, The Washington Post looks at Fat Bear Week's winner: a chunky bear named Backpack.  You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

  4. 5d ago

    French far-right leader Bardella denies anti-Semitism allegations

    PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, September 29: Jordan Bardella, the head of the far-right National Rally party, is accused of anti-Semitic comments dating back to 2013. But first: French high schoolers call for a nationwide strike to protest against teacher absences and dilapidated schools. The Washington Post looks at how AI data centres are transforming the US landscape. Plus, where are all the hunks? The Miss England pageant is struggling to recruit candidates! We start with calls for a nationwide high school blockade in France this Tuesday. It comes as the public sector also goes on strike. According to Le Monde, the movement began last week at a school in the Paris region where several teachers were absent. The underlying grievances of students are varied: a failure to replace absent teachers, the decrepit state of some schools, lack of funding, overcrowded classes and demands to loosen the smartphone ban in schools. On Monday, a police officer reportedly fired a round from a grenade launcher at point-blank range and injured a student. Just over six months before presidential elections, the blockade has become ripe fodder for politicians, the Huffington Post notes. Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon defended the high schools, saying the blockades were "harmless". He also accused Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's government of "repression". French Education Minister Edouard Geffray in turn condemned the violent instrumentalisation of young French people by "outside groups", saying it was irresponsible to incite high schoolers to participate in the blockade. In other news in France, the investigative website Mediapart has published revelations of alleged anti-Semitic comments made by Jordan Bardella, the French far-right leader. He is the man tipped to become prime minister if Marine Le Pen wins the presidential election next year. He has also been at the forefront of the far-right National Rally party's image rebranding. Mediapart accuses him of making anti-Semitic comments a decade ago, at the beginning of his political career when he was a young far-right activist. The website accuses him of "obsessional anti-Semitism". Bardella has angrily denied the comments, saying he was a minor in 2013 when the alleged comments were made. Mediapart notes, however, that in previous interviews, Bardella has said he joined the party in 2012, which lines up with the timeline. The left-wing press has reacted swiftly. L'Humanité, the Communist paper, says these revelations are indeed proof that behind the far-right National Rally party's rebranding, "the ideology has not changed". It opts for a photo-morph image of Bardella and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was himself often accused of rampant anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. The Washington Post turns its attention to artificial intelligence and specifically how data centers are changing landscapes. In an interactive article, the paper looks at how AI data centres are transforming American landscapes – farmlands and desert are now teeming with the structures. What was once a warehouse surrounding by farmland today houses the US's largest operating data centre, Elon Musk's Colossus 2. This transformation is taking place across the US.  Finally, call it the hunk shortage! The nationwide search to find the Mister who will represent England at the Mister World pageant has so far proven fruitless – just seven candidates signed up. Ahead of the October 7 final, organisers are getting desperate. They sent Miss England to a beach in the hopes of drawing some candidates – and are even asking Miss England semi-finalists to nominate their boyfriends or brothers! Where have all the hunks gone, the Guardian wonders! You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

  5. 6d ago

    Married people who practice their religion have more sex, study shows

    PRESS REVIEW – Monday, September 28: Papers discuss the Orange Order parade standoff in Northern Ireland. Also, who are the suspects in the RAF base terror plot? Finally, we look at some of the latest data on relationships. Amid a standoff in Northern Ireland over a Protestant parade, the headline of The Irish News reads "We don't want this. We just want to live in peace". It's a quote by a mother of a Catholic child who died during the Drumcree parading dispute 30 years ago. The height of that dispute came in the 1990s, when several Catholic children died in a petrol bomb attack on their home by the Ulster Volunteer Force. The mother says she feels "traumatised" and as if history is repeating itself. The BBC explains that the "Orange Order march row goes to the heart of the ongoing divisions in Northern Ireland". The article says that chamber disputes between unionists and nationalists happen almost every week. But ground-level arguments like this one are rare. The Orange Order is a Protestant, pro-British organisation and the area where it wants to march is mostly Catholic and has pro-Irish nationalists. The article reminds us that in the 1990s, the dispute spread to other places and "almost derailed the peace process". But while it was never resolved, it slowly faded.  But The Guardian writes that the "Drumcree stand-off shows Northern Ireland's troubled past still threatens its peace". The paper says the conflict reminds us "how easily history can undermine the present – if imperfect – peace and stability". The Guardian says that today's Northern Ireland is very different from that of three decades ago: there is no longer a unionist majority and First Minister Michelle O'Neill is from Sinn Féin, a party focused on achieving a united Ireland.  Next, an analysis piece in The Times says that the "RAF bases have long been targets of terror attacks". Counterterrorism police haven't ruled out the possibility that Islamists are behind Sunday's foiled plot. But British bases have also been on alert since this summer, when Iran said that anyone assisting the United States air strikes in the Middle East was a "legitimate target". This means that Iran is a suspect. The Times concludes that "any involvement of Tehran would prove a major escalation".  Finally, we look at articles discussing some new relationship data. The Guardian explains that marriages that end in divorce today last longer than at any point since records began. One hypothesis says that couples may be delaying the legal end until they can afford what comes next. There are other hypotheses, like delaying divorce because of Covid-19 or also overall external uncertainty, like the environment, politics, etc. The Guardian also reminds us that women are mostly the ones who ask for divorce.  But what about couples who are doing well? It turns out that regular churchgoers – married men and women – have more sex than secular couples, The Atlantic reports. Mostly Christians were interviewed, but there were some Muslim and Jewish people too. Those surveyed live in the United States and attend religious services at least twice a month. So according to this study, it seems like religious couples have avoided the "sex recession". Could this be just wives feeling obliged to sleep with their husbands? According to the data, they actually describe their sex life as "excellent" or "very good".  However, we should take all this data with a pinch of salt as the survey in question was conducted by the Institute for Family Studies, a conservative think tank that aims to strengthen marriage and promote traditional family structures. Also, we don't know if gay couples were even surveyed. You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

  6. Sep 25

    US rapper Macklemore announces 'Free Palestine' tour after Ed Sheeran saga

    PRESS REVIEW – Friday, September 25: There's anticipation and excitement in France as Pope Leo XIV embarks on the first papal visit to France in 18 years. It comes at a time of renewed Catholic faith among young French people. Also, we look at reactions after Italy's new legislation banning full-face Islamic headwear from schools. Plus: US rapper Macklemore announces a new "Free Palestine" tour that will raise funds for humanitarian groups. It's a huge weekend for French Catholics as Pope Leo XIV arrives for the first papal visit in 18 years. Kudos to Libération for an excellent front page – "Habemus Papam", the words traditionally uttered when there is a new pope, transformed to "Habemus Paname" – Paname being the nickname given to Paris by Parisians. Pope Leo arrives this Friday for his four-day visit, including high anticipated evening prayers at Notre-Dame Cathedral this Friday evening. The French Catholic daily La Croix goes with a less inspired, but very warm "Welcome!" to the pope on its front page. One million people are expected to flock to his visit which includes Paris, Lourdes and the eastern city of Metz, where he will speak before French President Emmanuel Macron and other dignitaries. Le Parisien, meanwhile, headlines on the man responsible for the pope's visit: Cardinal Aveline. He tells Le Parisien how the visit was organised and why he wanted Pope Leo XIV, a Francophile, to come. This visit also comes at a time – surprisingly – when more French people are choosing to get baptised, according to The Wall Street Journal. France, a staunchly secular nation, has seen an uptick in baptisms. According to the Journal, more than 13,000 adults were baptised at Easter this year – a threefold increase from 2019. The number of documented teen baptisms has risen to over 8,000 – a tenfold increase from 2019. The paper explains this boom with two reasons: getting baptised is now seen as counter cultural to decades of French secularism. Secondly, seeing French Muslims practicing their faith in public spaces is now challenging young Christians to consider how they live out their own faith. Over in Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has formally banned some Muslim headscarves from schools in new legislation. In what the conservative paper Il Giornale calls "a school bench revolution", the government approved a ban on the burqa and the niqab – but not the hijab – in schools. It will also impose a 30 percent cap on classes with children without Italian citizenship or who do not speak Italian well in the first year of primary, middle and high school. Meloni said the measures intend to facilitate integration, not segregate – but critics accuse her of pandering to the hard right, ahead of general elections next year. The Italian left has criticised the measures as "kicking immigrant children out of classrooms". The hard-right paper Libero responds to the criticism with "disinformation" and takes aim at criticism from the Italian left, saying it responded with a barrage of lies. The centre-left paper La Repubblica chooses to respond to the new school decree with humour and sarcasm – we see Meloni in a front-page cartoon saying, "Too many foreign students in Italy, let's open classes in Albania" – in reference to her controversial offshore migration agreement with Albania. Finally, US rapper Macklemore, who was removed from Ed Sheeran's controversial US stadium tour after voicing support for Palestine, has announced a new tour called "Free Palestine". The charity show will hold concerts in Dublin, Paris and London, with North American dates to be announced too. His live shows will raise money for humanitarian causes in Palestine. On Instagram, Macklemore wrote: "It's 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn't work anymore." You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

  7. Sep 24

    Australia's Medicare AI hack: Its seriousness 'cannot be overstated'

    PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, September 24: The Spanish press express outrage after the forced eviction of an elderly woman from her Madrid residence. Unrest in the Tigray region sparks fears of a new war between rebels and Ethiopia's central government. Australian authorities reveal that the national health insurance system Medicare was hacked by an AI agent. Finally, we look at Britain's rudest-sounding street names! The eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old pensioner, amid Spain's housing crisis has shocked the nation. El Mundo documents the eviction of Maricarmen in photos. She lived in the upmarket Madrid neighbourhood of Retiro for 70 years until Wednesday night. The elderly woman, who uses a wheelchair, was evicted in a stretcher from her home as hundreds of protesters gathered outside and some tried to prevent police from entering. Maricarmen spent years in a legal battle against a real estate firm that has raised her monthly rent 275 percent to €2,750, which she could no longer afford. La Vanguardia sees Maricarmen as a symbol of Spain's crippling housing shortage, for which Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been accused of not doing enough. El Pais evokes the social and political shock sparked by this eviction. Right-wing daily ABC accepts that her case is a tragedy but notes that the law applies equally to everyone and cannot be adapted to individual cases. El Mundo, the conservative paper, laments the political exploitation of Maricarmen's case – and accuses Sanchez of ignoring the gravity of Spain's housing crisis. A severe escalation in Ethiopia's Tigray region has sparked fears of another all-out war in the country. The New York Times reports that Tigrayan forces seized the airport in Mekelle, the capital city of Tigray, early on Wednesday and others in the northern region in what is seen as a direct challenge to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's central government. As the Times reminds us, hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the two-year war in 2020 between the central government and Tigrayan forces. It led to sexual assault accusations and mass starvation. The Economist notes that Eritrea fought alongside the Ethiopian army last time against the rebels. However, Abiy's decision to seek peace with the rebels left his partners angry – which is why this new escalation could reshape the war and loyalties to the central government. The magazine says that rebel groups appear to be trying to encircle Weldiya, a town on a main road linking Tigray to Addis Ababa. If this city falls, it could be a precursor to a rebel offensive on the capital itself. We turn next to Australia, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed that an AI agent hacked Australia's medical healthcare system back in June. There is cause for concern in the Australian press. The Sydney Morning Herald says the "modern cyber threat is no longer a person in a balaclava" and wonders how secure our data is in the new AI age. According to the website The Conversation, this appears to be the first time an AI agent breach of a government system has been made public. Medicare was unaware of the hack for three months – it only found out because OpenAI informed the government earlier this month. OpenAI itself only found out in August during a routine review of the model's activity. The Conversation says that such unauthorised intrusions raise thorny questions around the accountability of AI agents – but also that governments are reliant on the "goodwill of AI companies to disclose potentially illegal or harmful acts." We end on something different – a survey of England's rudest-sounding street names! Metro reports that a survey has put together some of the rudest-sounding English towns, including Sluts Hole Lane in Norfolk, Sandy Balls in New Forest and the unfortunate-sounding Shitterton in Dorset. In one town called Minge Lane, local authorities have had to concrete the street name – because people kept stealing it! You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.

  8. Sep 23

    Fresh drilling for a lost Egyptian queen?

    PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, September 23: The papers look ahead to US President Donald Trump hosting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. In other news, a Haitian-born novelist, tipped to win France's prestigious Goncourt literary prize, has been struck by an AI scandal. Finally, could the remains of Nefertiti lie behind the burial chamber of Tutankhamun? The Washington Post brings us details of what's planned for Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington, complete with a five-jet flyover. Politico digs into the power dynamics between the Chinese and US leaders, as China is one of the winners of the global energy crisis. High on the agenda will be the topic of artificial intelligence, as The New York Times reports, after recent warnings from tech bosses about the dangers the technology could now pose. The journalist concludes, though, that neither will be open to restrictions that endanger their AI sector's competitivity. According to Axios, one of the outcomes of this visit could be the creation of an "AI red telephone": a direct hotline between the two presidents, in Cold War-era style, for the day "AI goes haywire". Meanwhile, after a social media user claimed author Thélyson Orélien's novel had come up "100% AI" on Pangram, this controversy rocking the literary world is on the front page of Libération, with the headline "A novel doping on AI?" Journalists at Libération have run the text through GPTZero, a competitor of Pangram software, and also got a positive result for AI. The Haitian-born author says the media storm around him and his work is racially motivated, while the journalist at Libération calls on him to make public the chapters he says he initially wrote in 2017, prior to the existence of these mass-market AI tools. Le Figaro has interviewed a member of the Goncourt prize jury, who is reserving judgement for now, and insists that no software for detecting AI is infallible. Finally, a group of researchers have requested permits to drill at a new location in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, in the hopes of finding Queen Nefertiti's final resting place. As explained in The Times, Pharaoh Tutankhamun died young and is widely believed to have been buried in a tomb not originally built for him, but perhaps an outer chamber within a larger complex. Speculation has been rife for a decade that the burial complex was in fact that of Nefertiti, and new geophysical surveys suggest where additional corridors and chambers might be.

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An overview of the stories making the French and international newspaper headlines. From Monday to Friday live at 7:20am and 9:20am Paris time.

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