Negotiations over a future Prime Minister, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, business life… All the news from Sunday 1er September 2024.
> The main news of the day
10:32 – Benjamin Netanyahu promises to “settle his score” with Hamas after the death of hostages
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened on Sunday to “settle the score” with the Palestinian Hamas, following the deaths of six hostages, whose bodies were found in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli army.
“He who kills hostages does not want an agreement” for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, he said, threatening the Palestinian Islamist movement: “We will pursue you, we will catch you and we will settle your score.”
10am – Russian bombing kills one and injures four in Sumy region, kyiv says
One civilian was killed and four others injured in a Russian shelling in the Ukrainian region of Sumy, on the border between the two warring countries, the local Ukrainian administration said on Sunday. “During the night and morning, the Russians launched 18 shelling attacks on the border territories and settlements of the Sumy region; 47 explosions were recorded,” the administration said on Telegram.
Nine districts in the region were attacked. The Ukrainian Air Force said in a separate statement that it had destroyed eight of the eleven Russian attack drones used overnight.
9:36 a.m. – New car registrations drop in August in France
New car registrations fell sharply in August (-24% year-on-year), marking a slowdown in the market, according to data published this Sunday by manufacturers.
Last month, 85,977 new passenger cars were registered, a decrease of 24.3% compared to August 2023, which had one more working day, reported the Automotive Platform (PFA), which brings together French manufacturers and equipment suppliers, and the AAAData firm.
9:24 a.m. – Israeli emergency services announce two dead “in an armed attack” in the West Bank
A man and a woman were killed this Sunday in an “armed attack” in the south of the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian territory where the Israeli army is carrying out a vast “anti-terrorist” operation, Israeli emergency services reported.
In addition to the two victims, both in their thirties, killed in shots fired at their car, a man in his fifties is “in critical condition,” added Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross. Already on the night of Friday to Saturday, two attacks carried out by Palestinians targeted Jewish settlements in the same region.
9:10 a.m. – Paralympics: Para-triathlon events scheduled for Sunday in the Seine postponed by one day
All the events of the Paralympic Games para-triathlon, which were to take place this Sunday in Paris, have been postponed by one day, “as a precautionary measure concerning the swimmability of the Seine”, the organizers announced on the night of Saturday to Sunday. The 11 events scheduled on the program, which include a swimming section in the Parisian river, will finally take place on Monday, while the rain returned to the capital two days ago.
8:57 – Israeli army says it has identified the bodies of six hostages found in Gaza
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it had identified the bodies of six hostages brought back to Israel from Gaza, including two women and four men, including an Israeli-American. “The army and the Shin Bet yesterday located and recovered the bodies of hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino from a tunnel in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip,” the army announced in a statement. Five of them had been abducted from the Nova techno music festival by Hamas commandos during the deadly attack on October 7.
8:45 – Russian Defense Ministry claims to have shot down 158 Ukrainian drones
Russian air defense systems shot down 158 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions overnight, including two over Moscow, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday. The largest number of drones, 122, were shot down over the Kursk, Bryansk, Voronezh and Belgorod regions, which border Ukraine, the ministry said on Telegram.
“Our defenders are repelling an attempt at a massive drone attack on the territory of the Bryansk region,” the region’s governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said. A coal-fired power plant near the city was reportedly hit, as was an oil refinery located within the city limits.
8:37 a.m. – New Caledonia: Christian Tein, detained in mainland France, appointed president of the FLNKS
Kanak leader Christian Tein, detained in mainland France after the violence triggered by the reform of the electoral body in New Caledonia, was appointed president of the FLNKS independence alliance on Saturday, a leader said overnight, after a congress in which two components of the Front refused to participate.
The spokesperson for the Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT), suspected of orchestrating the disturbances that left 11 dead, has been in solitary confinement at Mulhouse-Lutterbach prison (Haut-Rhin) since June 23.
8:31 – Volodymyr Zelensky calls on the United States to allow Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday increased pressure on the United States to allow Ukraine to carry out strikes against military targets deep inside Russian territory. Washington has provided more than $50 billion (45 billion euros) in military aid to Kyiv since 2022, but the use of American weapons is only permitted on Ukrainian territory or for cross-border defense operations.
Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian attacks using guided bombs, such as the one that hit a residential building in the city of Kharkiv on Friday, could be prevented only “by striking Russian military airfields, their bases and the logistics of Russian terror.”
8:22 a.m. – The appointment of a Prime Minister is “too long”, deplores the head of the CFDT
The appointment of a new Prime Minister is “too long”, while the “needs of workers have not disappeared this summer”, deplores the head of the CFDT Marylise Léon in an interview with “La Tribune Dimanche”.
“I am worried (…): since the announcement of the dissolution, the challenges we are facing, particularly climatic and social, have been ignored,” stresses the head of the leading French union. “We are in suspense while the needs of workers have not disappeared this summer,” adds the general secretary of the CFDT, who “is not campaigning for anyone” for Matignon but believes that “the nomination is taking too long.”
8:14 a.m. – The budget schedule will be met, assures Thomas Cazenave
The resigning Minister of Public Accounts, Thomas Cazenave, affirmed on Saturday that the deadlines for the preparation of the State budget would be met and confirmed that this year’s revenues are less good than expected, in an interview on Saturday with “Le Parisien”.
As deadlines for preparing the state budget become tight, parliamentarians have threatened to conduct investigations themselves at Bercy if certain documents are not communicated to them by Monday.
8:10 a.m. – Polio vaccinations begin in Gaza
A Hamas health ministry official said polio vaccinations began in Gaza on Saturday, with a humanitarian adding that the campaign would be rolled out on a larger scale starting this Sunday, the date the UN has announced for a “humanitarian pause.”
The Health Ministry in Gaza and UN agencies have listed 67 vaccination centres in hospitals, clinics and schools for the centre of the small Palestinian territory. In the south, 59 centres are planned and 33 in the largely depopulated north. In these two areas, vaccinations will take place in a second and then a third phase.
8:06 a.m. – The Olympic rings “will remain on the Eiffel Tower” after the Games, announces Anne Hidalgo
The Olympic rings will “remain on the Eiffel Tower” after the end of the Paralympic Games, announced Paris Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo in an interview with the daily newspaper “Ouest France” on Saturday.
“As mayor of Paris, the decision is mine and I have the IOC’s agreement. So yes, they will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she explains about the five rings, hung at the beginning of June on the capital’s emblematic monument. New rings, “as big but lighter,” will be fixed “as quickly as possible” on the iron tower, the rings currently installed being “too heavy” to “resist sustainably,” she specifies.
Jeanne Accorsini/SIPA
8am – Trump calls for legalizing recreational marijuana in Florida
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Saturday that he supports the adoption of an amendment legalizing the recreational use of cannabis for adults in Florida (southeast), the state where he lives. A constitutional referendum on the issue is planned for November at the same time as the presidential election. The issue is particularly sensitive for young voters, with a clear majority of those under 50 wanting the legalization of recreational cannabis use.