'Who are the vandals?' ask the French press after weekend riots

PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, October 21: The identities of some 300 suspects from Saturday's riots are emerging in the Paris courts. Meanwhile, the far-left France Unbowed party has promised legal action against the French government for claiming the radical left was responsible for the degeneration of protests. Also, as the UN warns that global warming is on track to reach 2.6°C this century, the UK greenlights new drilling in the North Sea. Finally, we look at the literary trend of hate-reading. French dailies Le Parisien and Libération describe chaotic scenes inside an overwhelmed Paris courthouse, where 300 alleged perpetrators in the weekend's riots had been referred for processing on Tuesday. Emotional parents looked on in shock, seeing their children accused of looting, while court sessions started late and were frequently adjourned due to procedural hiccups. Meanwhile, the political blame game is afoot after the government accused the radical left France Unbowed party of being behind the protests, and investigative outlet Mediapart published allegations that territorial intelligence services had been instructed "word for word, to write that France Unbowed are behind the movement when it's false". Le Figaro brings us the news that the French interior minister has categorically denied giving any such instruction, and that the national co-ordinator of the party has promised legal action. Just six months before presidential elections, the unrest seems to have benefitted far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, according to a new poll in Le Figaro. From a political crisis to the climate crisis: the UK government has given the green light to a new gas field off the coast of Scotland, The Herald explains, this despite a 2024 campaign commitment by the ruling Labour Party to issue no more new oil and gas licences for the North Sea. This comes on the same day as a UN report that projects 2.6°C of warming on pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, almost double the intended cap of 1.5°C. Finally, The Washington Post has clocked onto the new trend of hate-reading: why read a good book when you could read one you know you won't enjoy? "It's a win-win", says a writer and librarian in Petersburg, Virginia: "Either you're vindicated, or you were wrong and you learned something."