00:00Time for the press review now. Dipti's with us. She's starting with the purging of China's top military leaders, leaving the military there in crisis, Dipti.
00:08Yeah, that's right, Stuart. The purging has been called a seismic event in China. That's according to one analyst from The New York Times.
00:17The New York Times today reporting that in President Xi's China, even the mightiest general can fall.
00:23Now, on the weekend, Zhang Yuxia, China's top military leader, who's also a celebrated war veteran, and another senior military leader.
00:33Well, both of them were purged, well, officially relieved of their duties, but they were not just fired.
00:40They were publicly castigated in an editorial in the Chinese government newspaper.
00:46That editorial hinting that the two men had been accused of corruption and saying that they had severely undermined the party's absolute leadership.
00:57Now, that's from The New York Times.
00:59The Guardian also reporting on this, saying that the fate of China's top general is more likely to do with a power struggle than it is corruption.
01:08In any case, it analyzes this photo you see here.
01:11This one was taken last December, and this is Zhang, the fired military leader.
01:20His position, front and centre, right next to President Xi, itself is quite telling of just how important he was in the Chinese ranks
01:28and why him leaving now is going to create a big hole in the power structure.
01:34In the wake of those fireings, lots of questions then, not only what it means for China, but also the region more widely, Dipti?
01:39Yeah, because he had a very important role in military partnerships, and this is from Radio Free Europe,
01:46which actually asks that very question, what this means, what does this mean for China and its neighbours?
01:53Now, they explain that for a long time, President Xi has sought to sort of project this image of China that is a superpower.
02:00So, this purge will really bring doubt on what exactly is happening in China, and indeed, if President Xi really has an ironclad grip on his inner circle.
02:12Zhang was particularly present in Central Asia, which looks to China as a beacon of stability.
02:18He was also part of a commission with Russia on military and technical cooperation.
02:24And on the issue of Taiwan, well, analysts say that Zhang's removal could affect China's military readiness or even its future ambitions on the island.
02:36Something different for you now.
02:38Diplomatic tensions, this is between Italy and Switzerland now, over the latest developments in the investigation into that Swiss ski resort bar fire.
02:46I'm sure you remember, killed dozens, of course, on New Year's Day.
02:49Well, Jacques Moretti is on the front of Aujourd'hui en France, the French paper.
02:54Here he is with his partner, Jessica Moretti, the two owners of the Constellation Bar in that Swiss ski resort town of Caen, Montana.
03:05The owner of the bar was actually, he actually put up bail on Friday and was released from custody while awaiting trial.
03:14Now, some, since then, he and his partner, who was free while awaiting trial, have continued to blame their employees for the fire, which was triggered by sparklers in champagne bottles.
03:27You'll remember some 40 people died in that fire.
03:31Of them, six were Italian.
03:33And on the weekend, Italy recalled its ambassador to Switzerland.
03:37Le Monde newspaper explains that Italy, Italian authorities are now demanding to co-run this investigation into what happened alongside Switzerland.
03:48The idea being or the suggestion being that they don't trust that Switzerland will do a thorough job.
03:55It's prompted some angry comments in the Swiss papers today.
03:59This is from Le Ton, the Swiss daily, which in its editorial here evokes what it calls the indecency of Italian attacks.
04:07It says, accuses the Italian government of political profiting to detract attention away from its own shortcomings, like the delays in the Winter Olympics, for instance,
04:17or the fact that they never convicted someone in the Genoa bridge collapse back in 2018.
04:23And Dipti's found, in fact, that the reactions in the Italian press are also quite divided.
04:28Yeah, they are. Absolutely.
04:29This is from Il Messaggero, which in its commentary here accuses Swiss authorities of, quote,
04:38obstinate inertia in its investigation, saying you cannot wash your hands of this one, not this time.
04:45The Swiss president, meanwhile, reacted by reminding Italy to respect the separation of powers.
04:51And this is something that another Italian paper, La Stampa, hails as a true lesson to Georgia Maloney and her government.
04:58Finally, from Dipti, dry January is almost at an end, but this means it's the start of off February.
05:05What on earth is off February?
05:07Well, it's not an occasion to start drinking like you've never drunk before.
05:10It's quite, quite not quite that.
05:13It is a detox of somehow, of some way anyway.
05:16Off February is being launched in four countries, including here in France, the idea being to go on a digital detox.
05:23So after detoxing your body in January of alcohol, you're detoxing, I guess, your sanity in February.
05:30People are being encouraged to delete all their social media apps for 28 days.
05:36And there's good reason, too.
05:3764% of French people, according to the Huffington Post, say they are ready for a digital detox.
05:43Great timing, too, because Le Monde reports that French MPs overnight actually approved a social media ban for children under 15.
05:53That's in the lower house of French parliament.
05:55It'll go to the Senate next, and if it's approved in the Senate, well, then France would follow in Australia's footsteps and become the second country to do so.
06:04Delete everything apart from, of course, the France 24 app.
06:07Of course.
06:07That goes without saying.
06:09She forgot to say that bit.
06:10It's written in all the papers.
06:12It's written in all the papers.
06:14More coming up.
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