Air strike in Beirut, Mazan rape case, "Free Gear Keir"


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Sep 27 2024 44 mins   11

This week has seen Israel and Hezbollah step closer to all-out war. Air strikes across Lebanon on Monday killed more than 500 people – the deadliest day in the country since the civil war more than three decades ago. Hezbollah struck deeper into Israeli territory. Then the chief of the IDF told Israeli soldiers to prepare for the possible entry of ground troops into southern Lebanon. Unified calls came for a 21-day ceasefire from the UN and Western allies, but the rhetoric of the Israeli PM suggests anything but peace.

In France, several defendants have testified in the mass rape case of Gisèle Pelicot. Her ex-husband Dominique has already admitted to organising the sedation and rape of his wife by strangers over a period of 10 years. The horrifying case has had a ripple effect across France and beyond, in a case that would have stayed behind closed doors if it wasn't for the strength, courage and dignity of Gisèle Pelicot in deciding to lift her right to anonymity. We look at how she has become a national and global symbol in the fight against sexual violence.

And it has been a week where both sides of the Channel have seen their new governments setting out their stalls. Here in France, after a left-wing victory and two months of uncertainty, with a right-wing minority government now in power, the new conservative interior minister set out three priorities.

Meanwhile in Britain, it was conference speech time for the centre left prime minister nicknamed "Free Gear Keir" in the press this week for accepting donor gifts of clothing and VIP football treatment. Then came a terrible faux pas: a sausage gaffe, while talking about Israel.