PRESS REVIEW – Monday, 5 January 2025: Venezuelan papers react to Nicolas Maduro's abduction, while the South American press is outraged. Meanwhile, in Germany, an arson attack by an extreme-left group has left thousands without power. Next, Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has been producing thousands of non-consensual pornographic images. Finally, the Swiss press celebrate a milestone.

The abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has sent shockwaves through the press. Venezuela News focuses on Delcy Rodriguez, now Venezuela's president by interim, and cites her as saying that "the priority is to establish a balanced and respectful relationship between Venezuela and the US". El Nacional calls on the Venezuelan people to resist American interference, comparing Maduro's Venezuela to the France of Charles de Gaulle. Opposition paper TalCual discusses Edmundo Gonzales Urrutia, the opposition candidate in the 2024 presidential election, who urged the government to release political opponents, whom he calls "regime hostages".

In neighbouring Colombia, El Espectador says that Trump is not Venezuela's saviour. In Brazil, Folha de Sao Paulo says that this intervention looks a lot like the Iraq disaster. Cuban daily Granma condemns the "cowardly attack" of the US against their "sister nation". 

Over in Berlin, an arson attack over the weekend has caused widespread power cuts and chaos. The attack is on the front page of the Frankfurter Allgemeine and the Tagesspiegel, which dedicates two pages to the story. Der Spiegel looks at what makes the repairs so complicated. The Berliner Morgenpost says that 45,000 households were initially affected by the power outage. As of Sunday evening, more than 10,000 households had been reconnected.  

Meanwhile, AI has been wreaking havoc on the internet over the weekend. The Atlantic takes a look at what it calls "Elon Musk's pornography machine". A Grok update meant that people were able to generate non-consensual pornographic images, even of young children.

The Washington Post talks about another consequence of AI chatbots: dangerous delusions. The Human Line community is a new online messaging platform designed for people to talk about their AI-linked mental health issues with other humans.  

Finally, it has been a tough few days for the Swiss press, but this Monday, they have something to celebrate. The Geneva-based newspaper Le Temps is celebrating its 200th anniversary.

You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.