To display this YouTube content, it is necessary to authorize audience measurement and advertising cookies.

An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the loading of the video player. To be able to watch this content, you must disable or uninstall it.

Published on: 04/05/2026 - 06:49 Modified on: 04/05/2026 - 07:46

On the front page of the press, this Monday, May 4, the tensions between Donald Trump and Friedrich Merz, who tries to put into perspective the announcement of the withdrawal of 5,000 American soldiers based in Germany. A birthday cake that is controversial in Israel. The Met Gala, the high mass of fashion, which is being held this evening in New York. An edition under the patronage of Jeff Bezos this year. And an idyll that disturbs the Swiss courtrooms.

The +: Receive the France 24 Press Review every morning on your iPhone or any other mobile. And also always on your PC by becoming a fan on Facebook…

On the front page of the press, the tensions between Donald Trump and Friedrich Merz, who tries to put into perspective the announcement of the withdrawal of 5,000 American soldiers based in Germany.

The German chancellor says he wants to continue "working" with Donald Trump and assures that this decision is neither surprising nor comparable to retaliation - a more conciliatory tone which should satisfy Der Tagesspiegel, the Berlin daily, which criticizes the "vehemence" of Friedrich Merz and urges him to "limit the damage" with Washington.

In an interview with Spiegel, the president of the EU Defense Commission, the German Marie-Agnès Strack-Zimmermann, says she "takes seriously" the American threat and also criticizes Friedrich Merz for "not thinking sufficiently about the consequences of his words".

So much for the form. Basically, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung believes that the German Chancellor above all lacks a "clear strategy" in terms of defense, at a time when Germany finds itself at a "turning point", with its rearmament policy. In the United States, Merz's attempt to "minimize the decision to withdraw 5,000 soldiers" did not escape the Wall Street Journal, which cited the warning of analysts, according to which "the growing gap between Europe and the United States risks dangerously exposing the economy and security of the entire European continent", of which "the rearmament (would go) less quickly, according to them than the erosion of the transatlantic relationship".

Cakes decorated with guns and “electoral bulldozer”

In the press, also, a birthday cake which is controversial, in Israel. The Times of Israel reports that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir celebrated his 50th birthday on Saturday with cakes decorated with guns and nooses, in reference to the law passed last March imposing the death penalty on Palestinian terrorists – a text he ardently defended.

Haaretz sees in this new "provocation" an attempt to create a "diversion", to divert attention from several figures present at this anniversary - criminals convicted of "inciting hatred against the Palestinians" - and from the record level of homicides recorded in Israel since the beginning of the year, under the leadership of Ben Gvir: 105 homicides in less than 5 months.

In France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the head of La France Insoumise, announced his candidacy for the 2027 presidential election last night. L'Humanité specifies that the LFI parliamentary intergroup had met a little earlier in the day to propose the name of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose candidacy was "awaited". A fourth presidential candidacy presented by Libération as "a logical decision in view of J.-L. Mélenchon's efforts to stifle all competition".

Mélenchon, "an electoral bulldozer who assumes playing on conflictuality", according to Le Point, which sees Jean-Luc Mélenchon approaching this election "in a position that is both singular and infinitely paradoxical. On the one hand, his hard core seems to have never been so solidified. On the other, the tribune has never been so hated".

Faustian pact

From the stands to the red carpet. The Met Gala, the high mass of fashion, is being held this evening in New York. A very political edition this year. Libération reports a poster campaign criticizing the involvement of Jeff Bezos in the organization. Posters calling for a boycott of the event show him in particular in the uniform of ICE, with which the IT subsidiary of Amazon, the company he founded, is under contract. Bezos and his other half, Lauren Sanchez, are honorary presidents and sponsors of this 2026 edition, in which the new mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, will not participate, a first in decades, according to The Guardian, which reports that the couple's involvement "gives rise to numerous criticisms" and "revives rumors of takeover, by Bezos, of Condé Nast, the parent company of Vogue magazine, organizer of the Met Gala".

Speaking of the Faustian pact, The New York Times laughs at the coincidence between this controversy and the release, a few days ago, of the film "The Devil Wears Prada 2", where the actor Justin Theroux plays "a greedy and unscrupulous tech mogul", "whose character is strangely reminiscent of that of Jeff Bezos", his girlfriend being able to evoke Lauren Sánchez, whose real taste for fashion has perplexed some purists, particularly since Trump’s inauguration ceremony, where the new Mrs. Bezos appeared in all lace. Shocking.

Speaking of marriage and love stories, a romance between two federal judges is causing a lot of talk in Switzerland. The Blick news site reports that these courtroom Romeos and Juliets are "talking about" because Swiss law stipulates that spouses, registered partners or people living in a "durable de facto union" "cannot work simultaneously at the Federal Court, even if they work in different departments", so as to "exclude any form of dependence or partiality". Will the lovebirds choose breakup or resignation? The dilemma is serious, because if "we cannot live on love and fresh water", "without love we are nothing at all".

Find the Press Review every morning on France 24 (Monday to Friday, 7:20 a.m. and 9:20 a.m. Paris time). Also follow the Revue des Hebdos every weekend in multicast.

Related keywords

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.