License to Kill, the Iranians' Ordeal, Zero Points... Denis Carreaux's Wandering Week

License to Kill The scale of the scandal is being revealed week after week. Due to a design flaw, negligence, or a desire to save money, Takata airbags installed on vehicles sold by some thirty brands continue to endanger the lives of thousands of motorists. While 17 fatal accidents have been recorded overseas in recent months, a second victim died last week in mainland France, killed by the explosion of the airbag that was supposed to protect her. Having received no recall letter for her 2014 Citroën C3, this Reims resident was completely unaware of the danger she was facing, like 441,000 other owners of cars equipped with this deadly airbag still on the road. It took another death for the decision to stop these cars, delivered with a license to kill, to be taken. Finally.

Tuesday : The Iranians' Ordeal There aren't many people who feel sorry for the fate of Iranian civilians, the first victims of the madness of a regime that mistreats and subjugates them. Trapped by the deluge of fire raining down on Tehran, the population is in imminent danger of death. At a time when the authorities can think of nothing better than to bombard women with text messages urging them to respect the veil, everyone is trying to save their skin. Some seek improbable shelters, others try to protect themselves by sticking paltry pieces of tape to their windows. The luckiest ones line up in front of gas stations in the hope of slipping a few liters into their tanks that will allow them to reach safety. A never-ending ordeal.

Wednesday Zero Points Invariably, successive studies point to the vertiginous drop in the level of French students. The note that the High Commissioner for Planning, Clément Beaune, is submitting today to the Minister of National Education is no exception to the rule. It confirms the "French drop in comparison with other OECD countries," emphasizing that this concerns "all students, girls and boys, privileged and disadvantaged categories." The result: a child of an executive today has lower results in arithmetic than a child of a worker in 1987. What a magnificent victory for egalitarianism! From haphazard reforms to renunciations, the Ministers of National Education watch the level fall but have never managed to reverse the trend, incapable of ensuring that our children simply know how to read and count. A zero point across the board.

Who said everything was going wrong in France? According to the highly respected Global Wealth Report, a ranking of global wealth, France is the third country in the world with the most millionaires. According to this gold-plated ranking compiled by the largest financial institutions, we have nearly three million dollar millionaires, placing us behind the United States and China. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer: the trend continues year after year. While the wealthiest see their incomes explode, more than nine million people (sur-)vive below the poverty line. A huge gap that is becoming increasingly unbearable.

Friday No Entry Will succeeding in the United States, like Elon Musk, who arrived from South Africa in 1992 with a simple student visa, still be possible tomorrow? In his protectionist madness, Donald Trump is increasingly drastically limiting the entry of young people wishing to study there. After freezing all applications in May, the American President is reopening the floodgates, on one condition: that students make their social media profiles public, just to make sure they don't include the slightest criticism of him. Worthy of the USSR! Students aren't the only ones targeted by these restrictions: a French Green MP has just been refused entry to the United States. A bit naive, he had indicated that he wanted to meet with Democrats there. A potential enemy...

Saturday Are you coming for the holidays? Some of us cultivate a secret dream: to spend a few days on vacation with a famous person. Why not a politician, after all? The Verian Institute asked a thousand French people. Their top three: Jordan Bardella (28%), with whom they could share a plate of pasta, his guilty pleasure; Marine Le Pen (22%), who would tell them cat stories; and Gabriel Attal (20%), who would happily relive with them each of his 189 days spent at Matignon. At the bottom of the list, very few respondents chose Jean-Luc Mélenchon (10%), who scares children too much, and Gérard Larcher, who doesn't know how to behave at the table. The worst vacation companion in the eyes of the French? Prime Minister François Bayrou (3%), whom no one wants to see at their side on the beach, his body covered in suntan oil. Who knows why.