PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, April 28: Photos of starving soldiers in Ukraine make headlines. Over in the US, Donald Trump wants Jimmy Kimmel fired – again. French papers talk about the controversial Alloncle report on the neutrality and funding of public broadcasting. Also: is genome editing ethical? Finally, we look at the European seagull screeching championship.
Radio Free Europe reports on starving soldiers in Ukraine. The headline reads “Ukrainian army’s new manpower struggle”. Last week, relatives of soldiers went public with complaints and photos showing their starving loved ones. They blame poor supplies, a lack of adequate nutrition and bad leadership. Speaking of the ongoing war, the Kyiv Post writes about a recruitment call that happened in a Russian university. The meeting was part of a broader Russian campaign to recruit soldiers for their drone forces. The meeting, however, was interrupted by a Ukrainian soldier who hacked the call. He said: “God forbid you end up here, I will have to kill you – everyone who signs this contract”.
In the United States, The Hollywood Reporter is discussing US President Donald Trump‘s latest 60 Minutes interview. The paper says the interview was heavily edited. This comes a year after Trump sued CBS over the same format with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, when he accused the network of deceptive editing to influence the election. “It seems Trump is OK with his interview getting edited, just not anyone else’s,” writes the paper.
Trump is also targeting Jimmy Kimmel again, The Wall Street Journal reports. Kimmel had joked: “Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow”. Although he made the joke a couple of days before the shooting, Trump now wants him fired. Melania also tweeted that his “hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country”.
Speaking of the media, French lawmakers have agreed to publish a report on public broadcasting’s neutrality and funding. It’s called the Alloncle report and it was spearheaded by the far-right MP Charles Alloncle. Le Monde reports that after months of heated debates and hearings involving public media representatives, lawmakers and oversight bodies, the publication of the report has now been approved by a narrow majority: 12 in favour and 10 against. Its topic of neutrality and funding of public media has led to disagreement and tension among French lawmakers. The left wing sees it as an attack on public media. It actually directly concerns us here at FRANCE 24 – one of the recommendations proposes a merger with domestic French news channel Franceinfo. Le Monde says that many “compromises” had to be made before the publication date was set for next week. Left-wing paper L’Humanité regrets that the “scandalous” report was adopted “by a narrow margin”, in particular because it recommends not only mergers but also the closure of some public channels. Right-wing paper Le Figaro describes the vote as “very close” but welcomes seeing the document escape “censorship” from the left.
Next, we bring you a story about “genetically modified babies”. Le Monde talks about the “fantasy of an enhanced human, without diseases, super-performing and super-intelligent”. It’s what some American startups propose: they aim to create genetically modified babies. They believe that genome editing could be “one of the most important health technologies of the century”, explaining that it is easy to “correct” a small number of cells. Le Monde writes that it’s a highly contested technique and one that’s largely prohibited, as it raises fears of the return of a form of eugenics.
Finally, Euronews takes a look at this year’s European seagull screeching championship.
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