French Riots Get Out Of Hand & Alberta's Secession Attempt

Hi readers, happy Tuesday! Today we’re covering the riots in France, Alberta’s secession referendum, the runoff in Brazil, the former White House Press Secretary, Trump’s spiraling approval rates, and Japan’s mission to Mars’ moon.

“Truth is not spoken in anger. Truth is spoken, if it ever comes to be spoken, in love. The gaze of love is not deluded. It sees what is best in the beloved even when what is best in the beloved finds it hard to emerge into the light.” ― J.M. Coetzee, Slow Man

France Goes Up In Flames

On Monday, France’s government imposed curfews on parts of the country in the wake of widespread protests and riots that took place over the weekend. The riots, which grew out of student protests held earlier this month, saw over half a million people take to the streets nationwide. As the smoke cleared, the government said that the weekend’s riots had damaged more than 3,000 businesses across the country and led to over 2,400 arrests.

The student demonstrations kicked off in September, and were largely peaceful protests aimed at criticizing the crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, and staff shortages plaguing French schools. Demonstrators and police began engaging in increasingly violent clashes, with a policeman maiming a 14-year-old by firing a tear gas grenade at him at close range and another 15-year-old losing his hand thanks to a police stun grenade.

The protests grew as labor unions and political groups joined to show their support and also widen the scope of the demonstrations, expressing their discontent with France’s high cost of living and rising fuel prices. The demonstrations swelled and riots sprung up across the country, with the worst of the chaos coming on Saturday. 

Sunday saw various political groups pointing fingers at each other as the nation took stock of the destruction, with the ruling centrists and the far right blaming France’s left wing for allegedly orchestrating the violence. With most of the unrest over (for now), the country is looking to build a path forward. Unfortunately, France’s fiscal crisis means that the only changes on the cards are likely to be cuts to public spending – plus, the riots have scared investors, leading to a steep bond sell-off on Monday that will only make the budgeting crisis worse.

Sticking With The Land Of The Maple

• The voting news just doesn’t stop. Yesterday, voters in Alberta cast ballots on a referendum that (if passed) would start a process to grant the province independence from Canada. The referendum posed a massive problem for Canada as Alberta is home to the majority of the country’s oil reserves, which are becoming increasingly important as the U.S.-Canada relationship continues to deteriorate.

• Late in the night, early results showed that the referendum was soundly rejected by Albertans. At time of writing, 1 million votes have been counted; 77% of people voted to remain in Canada while 23% supported starting the secession process. Pro-Canada politicians have framed the referendum’s defeat as a win for their country’s unity, while Albertan separatists say that the referendum even being held shows the growing support for their movement.

Debating Down To The Wire

• Brazil is headed for a runoff election this coming Sunday, and things are coming right down to the wire. Last Sunday, the two candidates – sitting left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da ​Silva and right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro) sparred in a head-to-head debate just a week before ballots are set to be cast. The debate saw both candidates trade barbs with little mention of concrete policies, according to one analyst. “The independent voter, who is sometimes against Bolsonaro and sometimes against the Workers’ Party [of Lula], came out of it with a very negative impression,” he said.

• Despite the fact that Lula is the incumbent, Bolsonaro is heading into Sunday’s runoff as the favorite. He won the first round of the election by securing 47% of the vote, well above Lula’s 45.2% despite previous polls showing Lula was in the lead. Heading into this week’s runoffs, polls seem to indicate that Bolsonaro should win the election, though his lead seems to be shrinking. Another debate is scheduled for Friday – just two days before runoff day – meaning there’s still a slim possibility of a shakeup at the finish line.

Additional World News

• Brazil sees record fall in Amazon deforestation as key election looms (BBC)

• Rioters loot stores, set fires in central Milan during cost-of-living protest (AP)

• Australian lawmaker loses leg after vehicle attack being probed by anti-terror police (Reuters)

• US ties with Ukraine hit new low as Trump slights Zelenskyy and eases up on Russia (AP)

• OpenAI bugging suspect Alfozan held without bail after Saudi government offers to pay (CNBC)

• Putin Floats a Summit With Trump and Xi to Discuss Ukraine Deal (WSJ, $): “Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed that he, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet next month to talk about Ukraine in an attempt to negotiate an end to the four-year conflict that would favor Moscow, said people familiar with the discussions.”

Pressed Out Of Power

• Last Friday, White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia was fired from her role after just five days on the job. Her termination came after a bumbling first press conference and questions regarding her claims about being an attorney, which were made even worse by a series of shaky media interviews.

• Surprisingly, Zacharia wasn’t well-received even in an interview with “Fox and Friends” on Friday, despite the fact that she’d worked at the right-wing news network before accepting the White House job. “Do you wish you would have disclosed to the president about the bar and not passing the bar?” Lawrence Jones asked her. “Well, Lawrence,” she replied, “those questions weren’t asked.”

• Her short-lived time behind the podium marks the shortest White House Press Secretary stint in history. The previous recordholder was Jerald terHorst, who served under Gerald Ford in 1974 – his time in office lasted 31 days, but he chose to step down after Ford decided to pardon Nixon for crimes related to the Watergate scandal. 

A Downward Spiral In The Oval Office

• According to a poll that closed on Monday, Trump’s approval rating has fallen to an all-time low. The Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that just 31% of respondents approve of Trump’s job as president, marking a 1% slide since the last poll and the lowest approval rating of his career. Much of Trump’s approval issues stem from the state of the economy in the wake of his choice to start a war with Iran; 68% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy, including 37% of Republicans. 

• Zooming out, this appears to be bad news for Republicans heading into the midterms. In response to a “generic ballot” question asking which party respondents would rather see controlling Congress, ​47% of registered voters said they’d prefer to see Democrats in power, while just 35% chose Republicans. The survey queried 1,679 U.S. adults, including 1,279 registered voters.

Additional USA News

• Medicaid cuts haunt Republicans in battleground states (Politico)

• Truck drives through soccer field during game in Kansas, killing 2 and hospitalizing 11 (AP)

• Judge chastises Trump administration plan to push ahead overhaul of DC golf course (NPR)

• Over three dozen Congress members’ offices targeted with white powder envelopes (Guardian)

• Police used 'justified' force in fatal shooting of one-year-old, says Mississippi attorney general (BBC)

• DoJ charges 28 green card holders in California over alleged voter fraud (Guardian): “The US Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against 28 green card holders in California accused of fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots … The defendants are lawful permanent residents, who have legal status in the US but are not citizens authorized to vote.”

Stealing A Sprinkle Of Moon Dust

• Japan is making some interesting moves in the space race. Yesterday, the Japanese Space Agency (JSA) launched its Mars Moons Exploration (MMX) mission, which aims to bring a piece of Mars’ moon back to Earth for analysis. If the mission is successful, that piece of Martian moon will be the first sample from Mars or its moons to be brought back to our planet.

• The JSA’s target is Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons. Phobos is roughly 12 miles in diameter (Earth’s Moon is 2,160 miles in diameter), and is shaped more like a potato than a sphere. After scoping out a landing spot with the help of a rover, the MMX spacecraft will actually touch down on Phobos, scooping up about 10 grams of moon dust before heading home to Earth.

• “It's a very small [amount] actually,” said Leicester University’s Dr. Chrysa Avdellidou, who is working with the JSA on the mission. “However, we can do several studies even on individual grains… You don’t need to have kilos back from a surface in order to do science. So it's worth every gram.” The goal is to discover how, exactly, Mars’ moons were made – researchers can’t figure out if they were formed from debris from a meteorite impact with the moon, or if they were roaming asteroids sucked into Mars’ orbit.

Additional Reads

• The New Science of Stuttering (NYT, $)

• The surprisingly hopeful quest to fix concrete (Vox) 

• Websites are closing their doors to AI agents (Verge)

• What life in Denmark shows about the power of emotional safety (Psyche)

• WhatsApp Help Pages Leaked Hidden Instructions for a Meta Chatbot (Wired, $)

• The radical idea that temperature sets when we sleep (BBC): “From how deeply we sleep to how refreshed we feel afterwards, temperature can have a profound impact on our nightly rest. Some scientists are even going one step further, arguing that temperature may be as important as light for shaping when we sleep.”

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Peanut For Your Thoughts

Here’s an interesting wiki page about Trump’s closest aide, and another article about her. What an weird relationship.

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