PRESS REVIEW – Monday, June 29: Papers discuss the ongoing search efforts in Venezuela and the government's "negligence”. Next: In Japan, maternity leave is a taboo topic. So are LGBTQ+ rights. Also: Le Monde analyses “Vladimir Putin or the solitude of homo sovieticus”. Finally, the hit horror film "Obsession" turns out to be quite relatable.
The ongoing search efforts in Venezuela are making headlines. Spanish newspaper El País reads “Venezuela is saving itself with its own hands”, adding that search operations are “lacking resources”, while authorities there say they are recovering up to 20 bodies per hour. Survivors interviewed by French paper Libération also criticize “the negligence of a country ravaged by economic collapse, autocratic abuses, and US pressure”. Interviewees added that the country was “already in ruins” before the earthquakes. Venezuelan opposition leader Julio Borges Junyent wrote an opinion piece in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. He says that “the earthquake did not cause Venezuela’s destruction, but made it visible”. “Venezuela without leadership,” is the headline of an editorial in Venezuelan opposition newspaper El Nacional. The periodical says the country is faced with a government that's “illegitimate and incompetent”, but praises the courage of the citizens who “are now facing mountains of rubble, alone, armed only with their own resources”.
Turning to Japan: a mayor’s maternity leave has stirred debate. Her name is Shoko Kawata and she is the first mayor to take maternity leave in Japan’s history, The New York Times reports. Mayor of Yawata, a city in western Japan, her announcement that she would take maternity leave has been met with polarised reactions. Some celebrated her decision by sending baby gifts. But in Japan's patriarchal society, many men responded with anger, labelling her irresponsible and accusing her of putting her personal life above her constituency. The story has sparked a national debate about the difficulties working women in Japan still face. In Japanese, there’s even a special word for maternity harassment: matahara. On another form of discrimination, The Japan Times tells the story of LGBTQ families who are building lives invisible to Japanese lawmakers. Japanese law does not recognise same-sex marriages. Gay couples still exist, of course, but they face many challenges including visitation rights in hospitals; if a same-sex couple has a child; only the legally recognised biological parent can sign a consent form for care. Same-sex couples also don’t have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples, despite surveys showing high public support for same-sex marriage. A survey released in May shows that 67 percent of those who responded support legalising it.
Next: An article in Le Monde analyses Russian President Vladimir Putin’s behaviour over the past several years. The headline reads “Vladimir Putin or the solitude of homo sovieticus”. The paper says that Putin is juggling denial of reality, a desire for revenge and carefully calculated messaging. With all that, he is trying to position himself as “the master of the game". Though after more than four years of war in Ukraine, these old tricks inherited from the Soviet past are showing their limitations, says the analysis. And the Kremlin’s strongman is losing credibility. Le Monde explains why and how Putin is now trapped in his own information bubble.
Finally, the surprise blockbuster "Obsession" is resonating suspiciously well with some girlfriends. The horror film about a young man whose wish that his crush would love him more than anyone else in the world comes true has received critical acclaim. “Couples are creeped out by a hit horror movie they find a little too relatable”, reads the headline of The Wall Street Journal. After watching the film, many girlfriends are thinking, “This film was supposed to scare me, not expose me”.
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