PRESS REVIEW – Friday, October 9: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announces that the military execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be “livestreamed”. But first: we look at reactions in Italy after the country’s parliament passes a controversial electoral reform that critics say serves to benefit Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Plus, “.fart” and “.trump” are among the new domain name applications, as revealed by the US non-profit organisation ICANN.
The Italian parliament approved an electoral reform on Thursday that’s dividing the press along political lines. The reform will introduce a prize for the majority-winning alliance, awarding it bonus seats in both houses of parliament if it wins at least 42 percent of the national vote. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says this will reduce the post-election bargaining that often results in shaky governments. The centre-right paper Il Giornale hails this reform, which it says restores more power to Italian citizens via a preferential voting system and declares Italy‘s “Third Republic”. The conservative daily Il Tempo‘s editorial attacks the “nervous left”. There are two ways to examine electoral law, it says: the first is suited to career politicians and aspiring candidates, and involves “obsessing over technicalities and dissecting every clause.” The other way tries to take the long view, giving the system a strong push towards a bipolar structure, which is what the Meloni government has done, it says approvingly.
The Italian left has struggled to build a united alliance ahead of next year’s elections, and the left-wing press are furious about the reform. Centre-left daily La Repubblica calls it the “law of power” and in its editorial deplores the “ultimate betrayal.” It says through a “political makeover worthy of a magician, Meloni forced her own majority to approve an electoral law that only she and her inner circle wanted”. La Stampa says Meloni has changed the rules while Il Fatto Quotidiano says Italian President Sergio Mattarella can veto this “latest piece of garbage” – but wonders if he will do so.
French paper La Croix has an interesting article about Saudi Arabia. It looks at how the kingdom has poured money into state-of-the-art weaponry, but its army is badly lacking skills. La Croix’s correspondent in Saudi Arabia reminds us that Yemen‘s Houthi rebels have launched several brazen attacks against the kingdom in recent weeks, including strikes on Saudi airports. How is it possible that Saudi Arabia spends billions on military equipment but cannot thwart attacks from a tenacious but underequipped rebel group, the paper asks. According to La Croix, there are several reasons: internal struggles between Saudi’s national guard and regular army, both of which are affiliated with different powerful families. The central command is also very hierarchical and paralyses any initiative on the ground.
We turn next to the US where Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist found guilty of a mass shooting in Fort Hood, Texas in 2009, will be executed by firing squad. As the Washington Post tells us, if it goes ahead, it would be the first such military execution since April 1961, when an army sergeant was hanged for rape and murder. On Thursday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution will be public and livestreamed. Hegseth said he wants people to watch the execution, so they understand “there are serious consequences for these types of things”. If this goes ahead, the US would be added to a notorious list of countries in the world that hold public executions. Last year, of the 17 public executions, six were in Afghanistan and 11 in Iran.
We end with the biggest shakeup of internet addresses in more than a decade. ICANN is a US non-profit organisation that controls the application approvals for domain names. It has unveiled new trends in IP addresses. Applications for more than 1,600 new addresses have been made. ICANN last expanded web domains in 2012, the Times of London tells us. At the time, new domains like .app, .web, .babysitting and .pizza were approved. This time around, AI is a big drawcard. AI companies are seeking to grab domains like .superintelligence or .chatgpt, while Meta has applied for .wearables. There are many novelty ones too. Among some new domain name applications are “.fart”, “.bro”, “.maga” and “.trump” and “.god”. A Belgian LGBT non-profit wants to own .meow, which it says will be for the community but also cat lovers!
You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.
