PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, July 8: The British papers offer hope – and a warning – as French President Emmanuel Macron begins the first French state visit to the UK in over 15 years, where he will discuss the thorny issue of migrants crossing the Channel. A storied hotel in Haiti which inspired literature and celebrities burns to the ground. Plus: some fans of Squid Game hated the ending of the series, so they use AI to create their own alternative endings!

Emmanuel Macron heads on a diplomatic visit to the UK, the first French state visit since 2008. There are high expectations weighing on the French president, particularly on the issue of immigration. On its front page, The Times of London says British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will urge Macron to agree to a "one in, one out" migrant returns deal. The arrangement would allow Britain to return small boat migrants to France in exchange for taking in asylum seekers with a UK family connection. The exasperation is evident from another conservative daily, the Daily Mail. The paper issues a stern message to Macron, echoing criticism that France hasn't done enough to combat illegal immigration to the UK. Hand back our £700 million, the Mail says, in reference to the sum paid by the UK to help fight illegal immigration across the Channel, S'il vous plait (please) – the British are nothing if not polite! The Daily Telegraph cartoonist Patrick Blower sees Macron arriving on one of those dinghy boats, baptised the Pride of Calais, as a royal welcome awaits him.

Nonetheless, some British dailies do see a glimmer of hope in Macron's visit. On its front page, the Daily Telegraph reports that King Charles plans to tell Macron that there are no borders between Britain and France in their collective efforts to overcome complex threats. The Guardian's editors even speak of the renewal of an "entente cordiale" between France and Britain, one that benefits Europe as well. After years of being sabotaged during Brexit, the French-British relationship is one of the UK's "most important" and the Guardian rejoices that it is back on "firm footing".

The BRICS summit wrapped up yesterday in Rio de Janeiro, with India taking the reins of the presidency next year. According to The Hindu, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India will give new form to BRICS. His speech at the summit covered a wide array of topics: post-pandemic recovery of the global economy, US tariffs and artificial intelligence. The French business paper La Tribune picked up on one glaring absence from the summit: Chinese President Xi Jinping. He did not attend the BRICS summit, for the first time. The paper wonders: was he preoccupied with the US tariff war? In any case, for La Tribune, it also underlines a crisis within the group. In 2023, BRICS expanded to include – among others – Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Today, it is somewhat hampered in its decision-making ability, as a result.

Countries that largely make up the BRICS group, like India and Brazil, are increasingly choosing to "play the field" when it comes to international diplomacy. That's the focus of a new book, which the Australian academic website The Conversation is talking about. "The Non-Aligned World" is written by Jorge Heine, a former Chilean ambassador. It focuses on active non-alignment – a foreign policy approach whereby countries refuse to take sides in the great power rivalry between US and China. Rather, they choose whose side to take depending on how it helps them nationally.

Turning to Haiti, The New York Times reports that a renowned hotel has burned to the ground in a suspected arson attack. As the capital Port-au- Prince is engulfed by gang violence, the paper reports that the Oloffsen Hotel, which stood for over a century, was burned down last weekend in a suspected arson attack. The hotel was an architectural gem – its wooden latticework, turrets and spires reflected the typical gingerbread Caribbean style of buildings which emerged in the 19th century. The hotel even survived the 2010 earthquake and was made famous by visitors like Mick Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor. Most famously, it inspired the setting of Graham Greene's novel "The Comedians".

Finally, fans of the TV series "Squid Game" hated the ending so much that they’re using AI to create their own one! Gizmodo reports that fans of "Squid Game" – Netflix's most watched series – hated the ending of the third and final season which has just wrapped up. So they’ve used AI to create alternate endings that are much more satisfactory, for them at least, and posted them on social media! The ending is indeed extremely bleak and cynical. The creator of the series said he initially wanted a happier ending, but the state of world affairs pushed him to imagine a bleaker one. It turns out that for some, the ending was too bleak, even in a show about desperate people murdering each other for money!

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