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Published on: 02/11/2026 - 08:04

On the front page of the press this Wednesday, February 11, the announcement, in Ukraine, of elections and a referendum on a possible peace agreement with Russia next spring. Shock and anger in Senegal after clashes between students and police which left one person dead on Monday at the main university in Dakar. The uncovering of an alleged child crime network between France and Senegal, and the legal turmoil of the Epstein affair.

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On the front page of the press, this exclusive information from the Financial Times, which affirms that Ukraine plans to organize elections and a referendum on a possible peace agreement with Russia in the spring.

The British daily indicates that this decision by Volodymyr Zelensky was announced under pressure from the Trump administration, which wants the two polls to be held before May 15 — otherwise Ukraine loses American security guarantees. According to The Financial Times, holding elections in Ukraine, if confirmed, "would mark a dramatic political shift from a president who has repeatedly asserted that such polls are impossible while the country remains under martial law, millions of Ukrainians are displaced and around 20% of the country is under Russian occupation."

Shock and anger in Senegal

Clashes between students and police left one person dead on Monday at the main university in Dakar. Two days after the death of Abdoulaye Ba, a 21-year-old medical student, found dying by his classmates, who accused the police of having beaten him to death. Le Soleil relays the government's "calls for appeasement" and announces the opening of an investigation.

The violence of the clashes at Cheikh-Anta-Diop University shocks the regional press. Wakat Sera recalls that the demonstrators had mobilized to protest against the non-payment of their scholarships and the closure of university restaurants. The Burkinabé news site wonders if the government will be able to “put out the fire by satisfying students without scholarships and without food”. For Le Pays, the government's "survival" will depend on its "capacity to find a solution". The Burkinabe newspaper recalls that the duo Diomaye Faye/Ousmane Sonko, who currently lead Senegal, "owes its accession to power to the youth and in particular to the students, who were the spearhead of the protest against the desire of ex-president Macky Sall to cling to power".

A Frenchman at the head of a pedophile network in Senegal

Still in Senegal: the police announced on Sunday the arrest of 14 people for "organized gang pedophilia", "pimping", and "voluntary transmission of HIV" to minors under 15 years old. At the head of this alleged network, a 73-year-old Frenchman, Pierre Robert, who would have called himself the “boss of evil”. According to the Senegalese daily Libération, this individual, arrested in France in April 2025, and currently in pre-trial detention, owner of a villa in Saly, a seaside town one hour from Dakar, would have led for "at least" 10 years, between 2015 and 2025, a group of "sex trainers", all carriers of HIV, responsible for "training in sex" street children or very poor families, before delivering them to “customers”.

Le Monde mentions a possible case of "international child crime", which however does not really seem to surprise the inhabitants of Petite-Côte, one of the most tourist destinations in Senegal, where "European retirees of both sexes do not hide to maintain relationships with those who are more precarious but above all much younger than them". “While fortunately it remains rare, minors can be affected, that’s obvious,” says a resident. “It’s difficult to fight against: everyone benefits from tourism or the second homes of the toubabs,” the Whites.

New complaints in France in the Epstein affair

The scourge of child crime is one of the many aspects of the Epstein affair, which continues to impact the United States and Europe. In France, new complaints will perhaps revive legal proceedings that have been extinguished since the death of Epstein and his French accomplice Jean-Luc Brunel. According to Le Point, Ebba Karlsson, a Swede, filed a complaint on Tuesday, February 10, in Paris, for "rape and human trafficking" against Daniel Siad, "who admits to having played model hunter for Jeffrey Epstein but categorically denies having been aware of sexual abuse". According to our colleagues from France Info, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot also announced "to contact the public prosecutor", after "the indictment" of Fabrice Aidan, a French diplomat also cited in the Epstein documents.

In Norway, the courts have already been seized and the parliament has also announced the creation of an independent commission of inquiry to shed light on the past links between the child molester and several local personalities. According to Le Parisien, the environmentalist party is calling for this commission to be chaired by the former Franco-Norwegian judge Eva Joly, known in France for her investigation of another famous case, the Elf affair.

A culinary controversy

In a lighter register, although, this controversy about the catering at the Olympic village of the Winter Olympics, in Italy. The Times, the British daily, reports that Gleb Smolkin, a Russian figure skater representing Georgia, expressed his disgust at the food on offer. “In the village, we didn’t find any Russian or Georgian cuisine,” the athlete complained, even assuring that the pasta was already starting to “make him nauseous.” This declaration made the locals boil, very proud of their cuisine, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Internet users responded that Smolkin should "go home and eat crickets and earthworms."

The Times reports another possible crime of culinary lèse-majesté. The newspaper calculated that since 2021, the number of Michelin-starred restaurants, the Bible of gastronomy, has increased by 24% in Britain and Ireland, compared to just 3% in France. Which means, according to its projections, that at the current rate, London will overtake Paris in the number of Michelin-starred restaurants within a decade. The Times is already salivating: "Great Britain will perhaps finally shed its old reputation as a culinary treasure trove: a place you visit for its landscapes rather than its meals." Enough to disprove, perhaps, the famous French expression about English cuisine: "If it's cold, it's soup. If it's hot, it's beer".

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