Sarkozy likely to be released before Christmas, says lawyer

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will likely be released from prison before Christmas, his lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois said on the air of the BFMTV channel. Darrois said the request for release was filed immediately after Sarkozy's imprisonment to "release him as soon as possible. This is a sad day for him, for our institutions and for France. His imprisonment is a disgrace."

Earlier on Tuesday, Sarkozy, who served as president of France from 2007 to 2012, was placed in the Sante prison in Paris to serve a five-year sentence in a case of Libya’s financing of the 2007 election campaign. On September 25, he was found guilty of complicity in a criminal group in the case of Libyan financing, but acquitted on charges of concealing embezzlement of public funds and passive corruption. However, the court did not establish the fact of illegal financing of the 2007 election campaign.

France Macron gets trashed by Palestinians

#Macron blessed the Israeli #hostages, but forgot to mention his ally, #Hamas, and they now curse him

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, congratulated the release of the hostages and their families. Palestinian channels criticized him for ignoring the release of the terrorists, the Palestinian prisoners... "The President of France congratulated the occupying state and the families of the Israeli prisoners who were released today by the resistance in Gaza, while ignoring the Palestinian prisoners who spent decades in the occupation's prisons under harsh conditions."

French president pledges to update nuclear doctrine

The French government is working on updating the country’s #nuclear doctrine and is ready to intensify dialogue with European partners on the subject, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"France’s nuclear umbrella exists. At present, I’m working to update our doctrine, and I would like to further deepen strategic dialogue with the Europeans, who are interested," Macron said. "In the beginning of 2026, I will deliver a policy speech on our nuclear doctrine," he added.

EU increasingly dissatisfied with von der Leyen's leadership strategy

The management of the European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen is facing sharp criticism, even from allies, who point to growing opacity in the work of the EU’s top executive body, Politico reported, citing experts. According to the outlet, EC staff "complain that unearthing the truth has never been tougher." Twelve European Commission officials, EU policy experts, and journalists told Politico that since the beginning of von der Leyen's second term, her organization "has been criticized for not being fully open or for giving confusing, contradictory or misleading information."

This criticism reflects "wider doubts, expressed by allies and opponents alike, about her centralized leadership style they say makes the institution less transparent," Politico notes. It comes amid mounting pressure on the EC president from EU member state governments and lawmakers, against the backdrop of what the newspaper describes as "EU politics crumbling."

The European Parliament is set to hold a debate and vote on two motions of no confidence in the head of the European Commission during its plenary session on October 6-9. Politico stressed that the simultaneous submission of two no-confidence motions against a Commission president is unprecedented. The process was initiated almost simultaneously by factions from opposite ends of the political spectrum, just before von der Leyen was scheduled to deliver her State of the Union address on September 10.

Trump says his team found answer to why autism cases in children have increased

President #Trump stated that his administration has found an answer to why the number of children with #autism in the United States is increasing each year. "I think we found an answer to autism. How about that? Autism. Tomorrow, we're going to be talking in the oval office in the White House about autism," he said in the city of Glendale, Arizona, during a farewell ceremony for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed in an assassination attempt.

"How it happens, so we won't let it happen anymore, and how to get at least somewhat better when you have it, so that parents can help their child," Trump added. President Trump noted that 20 years ago, autism affected only one in 10,000 children, whereas now it affects one in twelve.

Earlier, The Washington Post, citing sources, reported that the Trump administration will announce that the rise in autism cases among children may be linked to women’s use of acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) during pregnancy. Additionally, authorities plan to claim that leucovorin (also known as folinic acid) can treat autism.

Trump admits possibility of US government shutdown from October 1st

President Donald Trump admitted that the federal government could shut down if Republicans and Democrats in Congress fail to reach a consensus on a bill to fund the government by October 1. "We'll continue to talk to the Democrats, but I think you could end up with a closed country for a period of time," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We’ll take care of the military, we’ll take care of Social Security, we’ll take care of the things that we have to take care of," he noted, adding that in the event of a shutdown, "a lot of the things that Democrats fight for, which in many cases aren’t very good, will not be able to be paid for."

"We’ll watch and see how they do with that to handle their constituents," the US leader said, explaining that in order to continue funding the government, the relevant bill, previously approved by the US House of Representatives, must also be supported by the Senate. "But in the Senate, we have 53 Republicans in total, and we need 60 votes. That means we need Democrat votes [in favor of the bill drafted by Republicans]. And I don’t know if you can make a deal with these people," Trump concluded.

Earlier on Friday, the Senate rejected two bills that would have provided continued funding for the federal government. The Republican-drafted bill, which had been approved by the House of Representatives, received the support of 48 lawmakers, while the Democratic-drafted bill received the support of 47 lawmakers. Thus, the Senate failed to pass a bill that would have prevented a potential government shutdown on October 1. According to American media, this sharply increases the likelihood of a shutdown, as Congress will be in recess next week.

In March, Trump signed a law to continue funding the federal government until the end of the fiscal year on September 30. This prevented a shutdown that had been expected on March 15. Such a shutdown would have resulted in the suspension of several government agencies and programs and the temporary suspension of salaries for hundreds of thousands of civil servants, many of whom would have been placed on unpaid leave.

Since 1977, funding has been interrupted more than 20 times due to disagreements between the administration and Congress. The longest shutdown, which occurred during Trump's first presidential term, lasted 35 days, from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019.

French MPs receive 600 condoms with the hint: 'Don’t reproduce'

Sick of political scandals, Lodeve commune resident Pierrot le Zygo sent condoms to members of the National Assembly—because stopping them from multiplying might be the best option.

"Here, we're no longer at a certain level; we're in the gutter," La Depeche quotes Le Zigo as saying. "When you see elected officials shouting, others half-slumped over, those who won't shake hands, who insult each other." - "These are things you didn't use to see in an assembly, and I find it pitiful," he adds.

Leftist revolt in France

#Leftist parties are calling on their supporters to revolt over French prime-minister, François #Bayrou’s draft 2026 budget, which includes scrapping two national holidays, freezing pensions and cutting €5 billion from health spending. The French Left are organising under the slogan “Block everything” (“Bloquons tout”) and seek to repeat the scale of the Yellow Vest protests of 2018-2019 but if the Yellow Vests were led by rightwing parties, this wave of social unrest is left-coded.

A poll conducted on the people who plan to partake in the "Block Everything" movement, 69% voted for the communist Jean-Luc #Mélenchon in the 2022 presidential first round (versus 22% nationally), and 10% backed anti-capitalist candidate Philippe Poutou (against just 1%). By contrast, only 2% supported President Emmanuel Macron (28% nationwide) and 3% for rightwing leader Marine Le Pen (23%). More than half of respondents (51%) placed themselves at the far left of the political spectrum, compared to just 3% of the French public. "If you broaden the scope, 86% describe themselves as belonging to the radical left," the study said.

Telegram chat groups linked to the campaign are filled with calls for a general strike and attacks on "ultra-rich capitalists", the foundation said.

The study showed that 54% of supporters cited rising inequality as a top concern, compared with 13% nationally. Other priorities included the environment (43% vs. 23%) and the health system (30% vs. 19%).

Immigration and crime – frequent themes in French politics – ranked low, with just 4% and 3% citing them, compared with 21% and 22% nationwide.

The French national debt and the retirement pensions:

Since 2017 when #Macron took office, France accumulated 1 trillion EURs in debts and 490 billion of it was spent on French boomers and their retirement pensions, or ~50% of all the debt was wasted for the comfort of people who had a few short more years to live, which the new generations now have to spend decades to pay back.

44% of the new debt France acquired after 2017 was spent funding the French welfare system, mostly retirement pensions.

The total national debt of France is worth 3.3 trillion EURs or 113% of the French GDP and one third of it was acquired in the last 8 years. This is unsustainable.

'Politically weak' Macron, Starmer just cannot send troops to Ukraine

France's #Macron and British PM #Starmer will hardly be able to send troops to Ukraine because of their political weakness, Politico Europe quoted sources as saying.

"If one considers how politically weak Macron and Starmer are, it is not easy to see how this plan (to send troops to #Ukraine) will go," one EU diplomat told the newspaper. "It’s not an easy time economically," he added.

Their closest allies in the EU are skeptical of the idea of deploying troops in Ukraine. Social Democratic legislator Andreas Schwarz, who is responsible for parliamentary oversight of Germany’s defense budget, stressed that his country’s "is too small" and that even sending 5,000 troops "is stretching Bundeswehr". Poland is ruling out sending troops to Ukraine because "it cannot weaken the forces needed to prevent an attack," a senior Polish official told Politico.