'Children are also killed by hunger': Papers react to risk of famine in Gaza
Emmanuel Macron 's Tuesday night TV address has left most of the French press a little confused. Le Figaro says that the president tried to defend his record. L'Opinion is also describing it as Macron on the defensive. The president had been relatively discreet in the French media recently. The paper says the interview was a very inconclusive end to Macron's media diet. La Provence is also unsure of what the president's message was. The paper says his interview was "without horizon nor solution". Aujourd'hui en France says that Macron seemed "powerless" after three hours spent defending his eight years in office, without providing much insight on the rest of his mandate.
A UN-backed report published by experts on food security in Gaza has been widely covered in the press and features on front pages this Wednesday. Le Temps in Switzerland features a cartoon by Chapatte on its front page and reads: "In Gaza, children are also killed by hunger". The front page of L'Humanité is quite distressing and it accuses Israel of using hunger as a weapon of war. The BBC warns that the entire Gaza population is at critical risk of famine. The article says that aid groups have said the blockade could be a war crime and that it amounts to a policy of starvation. The New York Times, meanwhile, reveals that Israeli officers have privately admitted that Gaza is on the brink of starvation.
Donald Trump is in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of his Middle East Tour. The Saudi paper Arab News is celebrating the "landmark visit" and highlighting Trump's promise to lift sanctions on Syria. The American press is unsurprisingly slightly more critical of his visit. The New York Times says that although Trump said he had secured $600 billion in Saudi deals, the details provided by the White House were vague and totalled less than half that number. Politico is looking at the star-studded cast in attendance during Trump's visit. It says that three dozen American business leaders were invited by the Saudis. Trump had said that the primary goal of his visit was to extend American business in the region. But the Guardian tells us that while the true value of Saudi investments in the US economy remain hazy, the Saudis' deals with the Trump family business are more obvious. A cartoon in The Telegraph illustrates Trump collecting deals for himself. The Times also has a cartoon that makes light of the apparent double purpose of Trump's trip. The Washington Post is similarly insinuating in its cartoon of the day that the US president is available for purchase.
Finally, an unusual suspect is on the loose after breaking the speed limit for the second time in Switzerland. The Guardian is reporting on this piece of fowl play: a duck has been snapped flying at 52 km/h in a 30 km/h zone in Switzerland.
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France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Sails, batteries and AI: What a green revolution in maritime transport might look like
Over the weekend, it was time for the key players of the maritime industry – ship owners, port authorities and others – to meet in Monaco for the Blue Economy and Finance Forum, one of the many special events held on the sidelines of the June 9-13 United Nations Ocean Conference. The key goal of the meeting was to come up with a plan on how to decarbonise maritime transport. Because while the UN summit focuses on protecting the oceans, the many ships that cross them are also a big part of the problem. Today, the shipping sector accounts for around 3 percent of the world's CO2 emissions – almost the same amount as the aviation industry. In Europe, it is even worse, and accounts for 14.2 percent of transport-related greenhouse gases, and about 4 percent of all emissions. The reason for this is that most ships are powered by heavy fuel oil, a dirty by-product of oil refining and one of the worst offenders when it comes to pollution and greenhouse gases. Although international measures have helped reduce emissions for individual ships in the past few years, the growing number of freight vessels – the biggest polluters – means that total emissions still continue to climb. Net-zero by 2050: a huge challenge To come to terms with this, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set an ambitious target for the shipping industry of net-zero emissions by 2050. It is a huge challenge. 'Shipping is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonise,' said Pierre Marty, a maritime transport expert and lecturer at the French engineering school Centrale Nantes. 'For cars, the solution came quickly with the development of electric vehicles and batteries. For planes, the industry immediately went for synthetic kerosene. But it's harder for the shipping sector because there is no one-size-fits-all solution,' he said. From leisure yachts to bulk carriers and container ships, they all have different needs depending on their size, the distance they travel and how many port stops they do. 'What works for one ship might be useless for another,' Marty said, but noted they all have one common challenge: 'to meet high energy demands in the often limited space on board'. To make a real difference, he said, the focus needs to be on larger vessels. Although they only make up 25 percent of the global fleet, container ships, bulk carriers, LNG and chemical tankers account for around 80 percent of maritime CO2 emissions. They also often travel longer distances and use more energy. Electric ships? Among the many solutions that have been studied in recent years, electrification is one of the most promising so far. As with cars, it would involve equipping a ship with a battery that would be recharged when docked in port. 'This solution has already been adopted by some leisure boats and smaller container ships,' Fanny Pointet, head of maritime transport at the NGO Transport and Environment, said. 'But it's not at all adapted to long-distance vessels. You can't recharge batteries in the middle of the ocean,' she said. 'An intermediary and alternative solution would be to use the batteries just for moving in and out of ports,' she suggested. 'This would not only help reduce emissions, but also lower air pollution.' British-owned P&O Ferries is one of the companies that has already announced it is equipping its Dover-Calais ferries with hybrid engines for this purpose. Biofuels, LNG and synthetic fuels Another option is for vessels to switch to alternative fuels like biomethanol. In September, Danish shipping giant Maersk surprised the industry by presenting a 32,000-ton container ship (capable of carrying 2,100 containers) powered by biomethanol from forestry and agricultural waste. 'But again, this isn't scalable in the long term because we don't have enough biomass to meet global demand,' Pointet remarked. Some civilian actors have instead turned to liquefied natural gas (LNG), but that, too, has its consequences. LNG is mostly made up of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas, and the European Environment Agency and the European Maritime Safety Agency have both warned of the rise in methane emissions because of the sector's increased use of LNG. 'That leaves green hydrogen and synthetic fuels, which are widely seen as the most sustainable solutions,' Pointet said. But, Marty added, 'these [technologies] are in between development and commercialisation at the moment. They are not mature enough yet, and therefore very expensive.' Shapes, speed and AI Aside from turning to greener fuels, another key lever is to make ships more energy efficient in and of themselves. This is where ship design would come in, with designers potentially equipping vessels with sails, propulsion-enhanced propellers and optimising their hull shapes. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can also help make the industry greener. 'With AI, it is possible to plot routes that would require the least energy by taking winds and currents into account,' Pointet said. Another point of discussion is reducing engine power and speed limits. One recent study showed that by just lowering average global speeds by 10 percent, CO2 emissions would be reduced by 13 percent. It would also halve the risk of whale collisions and slash underwater noise by 42 percent. 'In the end, the ship of the future will most likely combine a bit of everything; hybrid engines, better hull designs and alternative fuels – all adapted to the specific needs of each vessel,' Pointet said. And if the ships advance, so will the ports that host them. 'The priority here is electrification in ports,' Pointet said. 'Because even when ships are docked, many of them, like passenger ships, often need to keep their engines running to maintain services onboard.' The massive cost of going green But, both experts concluded, massive investments – to the tune of between $8 billion and $28 billion (€7.5 billion and €26 billion) a year – are needed until 2050 to embark on this green maritime revolution . And that is without counting the infrastructure that would be needed to make and distribute green fuels. To anticipate these massive costs, some 100 delegations brought together by the IMO in April agreed to create a global carbon pricing mechanism. According to the plan, all ships will as of 2028 have to meet CO2 emissions quotas by using cleaner fuels. Those who exceed the limits will be fined hundreds of euros per ton of CO2 emitted. According to researchers working at the shipping and ocean transport department at the University College of London, this measure alone could generate between $30-40 billion in revenues by 2030. But, Pointet warned, exemptions of various kinds could undermine the measure's impact. 'And there are still many other questions pending, especially [regarding] what kind of fuels will qualify as clean energy.' Before going into effect, the carbon pricing mechanism must be approved in a second IMO vote scheduled for October. That means that the industry heavyweights and oil-rich nations opposing the plan still have time to try to sink the deal.
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- LeMonde
Le Monde Group's 2024 accounts mark a landmark year
In 2024, the year marking Le Monde 's 80 th anniversary, Le Monde Group experienced a landmark period in many respects. First, with new records for the number of subscribers to our editorial offerings, which propelled our paid circulation to unprecedented levels. To put these results in the broader context of our evolution since our founding in December 1944, we presented the curve of our paid circulation in France and internationally at our most recent supervisory board meeting, certified monthly by independent bodies. This annual average, now including our digital subscribers, has reached over 530,000 copies per day – well above the previous peak of 440,000 in 1978, during the legislative elections preceding the election of former French president François Mitterrand. In the long term, three essential factors form the basis of our readers' trust and loyalty. The independence of our journalism – committed to values but not partisan – toward all forms of power, starting with those held by political leaders; the particular focus devoted to covering major events, both international and French; and the determination to break our own stories through investigation and reporting. The increasing attention paid over the years to our readers – their lives, interests and habits – has not only led us to continually expand our editorial offering but also to embrace digital platforms early on. These platforms now drive our success, enabling us to reach far beyond our borders to engage with more diverse and younger audiences. All three of these factors were fully at play in 2024, enabling us to respond to an intense, often violent and always uncertain news cycle, while continuing to innovate and broaden the scope of our editorial coverage. Our visibility has attracted its share of criticism, but more importantly, it challenges the defeatist narrative that has long surrounded the print press. Far from being doomed to decline, print media can thrive when it strives to strengthen its newsroom and defend free journalism. Individual and collective honors This success was reflected in 2024 by several major awards from our profession. Le Monde was especially honored to see two of its journalists win the Albert Londres Prize: Lorraine de Foucher, for her reporting and investigations on the Mazan rape case, on migrant women who are victims of rape, on victims of the pornography industry, on young girls exploited for sex in the southern French city of Perpignan and on teenage hitmen; and Martin Untersinger, for his book Espionner, mentir, détruire ("To Spy, To Lie, To Destroy"). These two awards recognize not only the talent of our journalists and their ability to explore new facets of reality, but also the transformation of Le Monde 's newsroom, whose staff has nearly doubled in less than 15 years. There were also collective awards. Le Monde 's circulation performance was recognized with two stars awarded by the ACPM (Alliance pour les Chiffres de la Presse et des Médias, the independent body certifying French press circulation). The first reflects the largest increase in paid circulation in 2024 in the daily press sector; the second, especially meaningful to us, rewards sustained success – that is, a growth in sales, with an increase of 141,444 copies per day since 2020. Another Groupe Le Monde publication, the weekly Courrier International, led by Claire Carrard and François-Xavier Devaux, also received two ACPM awards: one star for the highest growth in paid circulation among magazines, and another for sustained success between 2020 and 2024. Thanks to steady growth in paid circulation, the Courrier International now ranks as the top French magazine for its portfolio of digital subscribers. The second spot in this ranking is now held by another of the group's weeklies, Télérama, which in 2024 continued to revamp its editorial approach and significantly invest in coverage of streaming platforms, especially through its website and app. This strong digital transition, under the leadership of Valérie Hurier and Fleur Lavedan, positions Télérama for a future that reflects the loyalty shown by its subscribers for decades. Finally, La Vie, the group's third weekly, made a mark in summer 2024 with the publication of an investigation revealing accusations of sexual assault against Abbé Pierre. A drive for diversification In recent years, our group has gradually diversified its activities by creating or co-organizing events to reach new audiences, such as our student fairs or the "Nos Futurs" ("Our Futures") event in Rennes, which features debates and workshops on major societal issues like climate and artificial intelligence. The year 2024 also saw the launch of the Le Goût de M festival, which in March brought together more than 5,000 people with the team from M Le magazine du Monde. Our magazine will celebrate its 15 th anniversary in 2026 and will mark the occasion with another edition of this festival. This drive to diversify our editorial production will also be illustrated in a few months by the publication of a book, then a graphic novel and finally a documentary in 2026 – all based on the series of articles by Philippe Broussard, deputy editor-in-chief of Le Monde, dedicated to the "unknown photographer of the Occupation," published in summer 2024. This series was a tremendous success with our readers and now justifies, as we intend to do more often, presenting it in other formats to new audiences. Faced with an advertising market paralyzed since the announcement of the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale (lower house of France's parliament) in June 2024, the group's advertising division, M Publicité, managed to limit its decline to 3% by drawing on 7% growth in digital revenue and a 27% increase in special projects linked to the Olympic Games and our events. This advertising business, strictly governed by a charter that clearly distinguishes between advertising formats and editorial content, generates 20% of the group's revenue and is a structural component of our business model, offering our readers and subscribers carefully selected advertising in both print and online. Despite the market share captured by digital players, this revenue remains essential for our sustainability. Another highlight of the year came in March 2024, when Le Monde announced the signing of the first agreement between a French media outlet and OpenAI, the publisher of ChatGPT. A year on, Le Monde remains the only French media group to have signed such a deal and is among about 15 global groups with which OpenAI has entered into a multi-year partnership. The agreement governs OpenAI's use of our content while strictly protecting the rights of publishers and copyright holders. In line with the charter we adopted in 2023 governing our use of AI, it guarantees fair visibility for our content on a platform widely used by younger generations, gives us direct access to a technology that is revolutionizing media habits and establishes fair compensation for training OpenAI's model and using our content in responses provided to users. On this last point, we ensured that this revenue stream would be treated as neighboring rights, thus entitling journalists to a share as provided by law. In 2024, we reached an agreement with trade unions setting the redistribution rate at 25% – a proportion now adopted by several other media groups, far exceeding what others had tried to impose. Most recently, another agreement with the company Perplexity, signed in mid-May, completed our initiatives in the field of artificial intelligence, in the same spirit and under the same conditions. This collective momentum, the steady growth of our digital audience and these new AI partnerships all contributed to the group's revenue growth and to our 2024 results. Le Monde Group's accounts, approved by the supervisory board on May 13, showed revenue of €309.5 million for 2024, EBITDA (operating cash flow) of €26.2 million and net income before tax of €10.6 million. Recapitalized in 2010 thanks to the joint investment of Pierre Bergé, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse, Le Monde Group has recorded a profitable operating result every year since 2015 and, since 2016, has consistently posted a positive net result. This profitability is the foundation of our independence. It has enabled sustained and ongoing investment in our newsrooms and in innovation. Furthermore, in 2024, the group's profit contributions from Le Monde (€7.5 million) and our magazine division (€8.4 million) converged, with comparable profitability thresholds and a more balanced distribution between the group's two pillars. It is up to us, collectively, to continue along this path to strengthen the quality, independence and innovation standards of a rigorous editorial offering worthy of the trust you place in us.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Italian conservationists denounce cruise line development in Fiumicino
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