Let's have a look at the press review now on
the programme.
Mention this in the news,
France's lower House of parliament discussing today the controversial Immigration
Bill,
and Erin is been looking through the papers to find
out what they've got to say.
Erin. That's right, Stewart. It's passage is definitely not a
foregone conclusion.
And that's because, as the French paper Le Figaro points
out in its edition this morning,
it's hanging by a thread before the debates even start.
The first thing that's on the agenda for those lawmakers
in the National Assembly is the Green Party's motion to
reject the bill,
and in bad news for the government,
actually, the far right National Rally Party and the more
mainstream right wing Republican Party have not said whether or
not they'll vote for that motion to reject that bill.
For them it's obviously for different reasons than the
than the than the Green Party.
They think that the law doesn't go far enough.
The editorialist in La Figaro today seems to agree with
that the paper describing the text as so modest that
it can only end up fizzling out essentially
left wing humanity. Paper Luminite has a totally different take
the paper arguing that this
so-called Dharmanan law puts 40 years of demonizing immigrants into
practice.
The text, as a reminder,
reinforces mechanisms for deporting irregular,
irregular migrants. It hardens rules for obtaining residency permits.
In some it makes life for the exiled impossible.
I quote. But even worse,
it argues, both the right and the far right have
instrumentalized some recent shocking events in France,
including the stabbing death of a 16 year old,
in order to equate refusal to pass this Immigration Bill
with refusing to fight against criminality,
even terrorism. Here in France,
other papers rather more focus on the action kind of
immigrant experience,
if you like. Here in France,
Erin. Yeah, that's right, Stuart.
I'll start with the Christian paper Lacroix.
Under the headline of words from immigrants,
it chooses to focus on those who are,
of course the most affected by this law,
the immigrants themselves. Now they've chosen 4 different profiles of
immigrants in the spread this morning and then documented immigrant
a single mother,
a health worker and a French citizen Who is the
the the child of
immigrant parents. It's a multifaceted look then at what the
immigrant experience looks like in France.
Some of the main takeaways center on the very complex
administrative hurdles that people have to go through in order
to obtain documentation,
even when they've been working here
for decades, contributing to the Social Security system,
the importance of the immigrant workforce,
again including the undocumented immigrant workforce,
to numerous sectors across France,
including public transport. And then,
of course, this feeling that they constantly have to prove
themselves to prove that they're worthy of of of staying
here in France now.
Liberation, for its part, actually chose to focus
on people who have dedicated their lives to helping immigrants,
public sector workers, teachers, and of course people who work
in associations that help asylum seekers and refugees.
Today's editorial saying that in this general context of French
society kind of closing in on itself growing xenophobia,
the paper thought it's important to remind people that tolerance
is also a widespread in many sectors of French society
as well.
Let's change. Here's Now there's more fallout from last week's
congressional grilling of university presidents about
anti-Semitism, and if I can say anti-Semitism on campuses in
the US
That's right. The head of the University of Pennsylvania,
Elizabeth McGill, resigned over the weekend after she struggled to
answer a question over whether or not calling for genocide
of Jews would violate her school's rules.
The New York Times details how Republicans have essentially seized
upon the
this moment to capitalize on a major conservative talking point
over the past couple of years.
And that's what they perceive as political correctness.
Wokeness if you will, on American College campuses.
So Republicans, the paper writes.
The the anti-Semitic speech and sometimes lackluster responses from the
heads of these universities that offers an opportunity to quote
flip the political script and cast the left and its
institutions as hateful and intolerant.
Today's analysis from the Wall Street Journal really kind of
illustrates that point.
The paper saying that that questioning session last week
shows that anti-Semitism is just a symptom of a much
deeper problem on American campuses.
According to the Wall Street Journal.
The paper saying that because Jewish students are seen in
the progressive Canon as white oppressors and colonizers,
it is not a clear campus violation to call for
murdering Jews because it depends on the context.
That piece arguing I quote,
of course, and that quote about the context,
is also taken from the questioning session,
one of those university heads before Congress,
congressional leaders last week, and then finally for the Washington
Post.
Mcgill's departure really adds fuel to the flames of the
debate about free speech on college campuses and when,
or even how, these universities should restrict it.
Some see Mcgill's expulsion, then,
as a loss for free speech,
arguing that it will endanger both students and professors.
Rights to speak their minds,
especially as donors and even politicians now are clearly starting
to,
yields their influence more to shape the code of conduct
on campuses and in many cases on private campuses.
Aaron's found a piece for us today about an increase
in political repression.
This is in Russia. Yeah,
that's right. This is in today's edition of Le Monde,
the French paper speaking to dozens of simple citizens who
are now political prisoners because of their comments largely on
Russia's war on Ukraine.
This is some 300 people that have been sentenced to
prison terms for as many as 25 years for things
like being an apologist for Nazism,
extremism or discrediting the army.
They're as young as 17 years old and as old
as retirees in their 60s and 70s.
No one is spared, according to a rights activist quoted
in this piece.
Le Monde says that like during the Soviet Union judges,
prison workers are increasingly using punitive psychiatry,
psychiatry. While many of these political prisoners have also reported
torture,
they've been refused access to healthcare,
The rights worker quoted. In this,
he's also saying that the Kremlin is engaged then in
two wars,
one against an outside force,
Ukraine, and one against its its very own citizens and
all of those who are resisting that war in Ukraine.
And Aaron is going to finish up now with an
exciting new scientific discovery for us.
Yeah, that's right, Stuart. This is from the Guardian.
Astronomers working with the James Webb Telescope have discovered the
oldest black hole ever observed.
It's 13 billion years old.
So that means it dates to the dawn
of the universe. As you can probably tell,
I am not a physicist,
so I'm going to avoid getting into the details of
what this all means.
Very sensible. But it's just yet another example of some
of the surprising discoveries that we've seen from this James
Webb telescope scope and how it's kind of changing the
way the things that astronomers thought they were absolutely sure
of,
as long as you don't get sucked into that image
behind you and disappear very quickly.
Offset. Thanks very much, everyone.
Good care there with the papers for us here on
France 24.