In the news
May 4, 2022, birth of a new union of the left. Socialists and rebels have reached an “agreement in principle” on their rapprochement for the June legislative elections. Those close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon had warned that they would not negotiate later than Wednesday and the discussions continued all night, in particular on the distribution of the constituencies. On Tuesday, the Communist Party had reached an agreement to join, after the ecologists, the “New popular ecological and social union” desired by LFI.
The Kremlin launches a (final?) assault on Mariupol. On Tuesday, Russian forces launched for the first time an assault with tanks and infantry against the Azovstal steelworks, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol. Moscow could soon have full control of this southeastern city, which has been largely emptied of its inhabitants. Yesterday, the UN announced that it had succeeded in evacuating more than a hundred civilians from this steelworks, where dozens of others, entrenched in the immense underground galleries of this enormous metallurgical complex, have been living in hell for weeks.
In the United States, the pro-abortion in the street. After the revelations on Tuesday about the desire of the American Supreme Court to postpone the right to abortion 50 years back, several thousand people, especially women, took to the streets of New York last night. Joe Biden, for his part, called for mobilization in view of the mid-term elections scheduled for next November.
A new test shot for North Korea. And one more. The South Korean army general staff first announced on Wednesday that a “unidentified projectile” was launched by its northern neighbor. Before finally presenting it as a ballistic missile. This test comes a week after the promise made by its leader Kim Jong Un to accelerate the development of the country’s nuclear arsenal. Since the beginning of the year, Pyongyang has already carried out more than a dozen test firings, and in particular launched an intercontinental ballistic missile in March for the first time since 2017.
In Guadeloupe, elected officials demand recognition of the state of natural disaster. Last weekend, Butterfly Island experienced very heavy flooding which claimed the lives of at least two people and caused extensive damage. The PS parliamentarians of Guadeloupe wrote to the Prime Minister on Tuesday asking him to recognize the state of natural disaster, which allows, among other things, to automatically compensate the victims of this damage.
To be continued
The last Council of Ministers of the first five-year term? A last one for the road. The government is meeting today for what could be the final episode of this traditional Wednesday meeting. In its current configuration at least. The re-elected president has scheduled the inauguration ceremony for his second term on Saturday. He could then decide to announce (finally) his or her future Prime Minister, who would himself be responsible for composing a government. Unless Emmanuel Macron decides to play the watch until May 13, the official date of the end of his first five-year term.
One more feat and a golden ball assured for Karim Benzema? Real Madrid receives Manchester City this evening for the account of the semi-final second leg of the Champions League. In the first leg, the English won 4-3 in an epic encounter. If they win tonight, they will join Liverpool, who qualified for the final yesterday at the expense of Villarreal. A success would also allow Karim Benzema to act, more than ever, as a favorite to win the Golden Ball. He could become the first Frenchman to get it since Zinédine Zidane in 1998.
The report
“Without the military, we would never have survived”: the first refugees from the Azovstal factory in Mariupol say. Evacuated for the most part from the network of bunkers located under the Azovstal industrial site in Mariupol, the refugees were brought in by the Red Cross. Release met them and collected testimonies of their ordeal. Read our report.
Testimonials
Right to abortion threatened in the United States: “A decision which implies a total rejection of the rights of women.” After the revelations about the possible repeal of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy by the Supreme Court, two American women tell Freed their fear of seeing a progressive degradation of their rights. Read their testimonials.
Investigation
Suicide in architecture school: “We were pushed to the limit psychologically and physically.” After the suicide of their daughter, a family filed a complaint against the Paris-Val de Seine School of Architecture, where she was a student. In the viewfinder, the culture of the “cart”, which combines lack of sleep, meals and showers, pushing students to their limits. Read our survey.
The portrait
Djemila Benhabib, love atheists. The essayist, who grew up in Algeria, passed through Quebec and now in Belgium, affirms her secularism and battles against the term “Islamophobia”. Read his portrait.