Avui – Spain
“Vendaval mortal”
“Deadly wind”

The hurricane-force winds that have hit northern Spain and south-western France are on many of the front pages of the region’s newspapers. The Catalan daily Avui describes a “deadly wind”. In the Catalan town of Sant Boi de Llobregat, a collapsed roof of a sports centre killed four children.


Aujourd’hui en France - France
“Une tempête dévastatrice"
"A devastating storm"

For Aujourd’hui en France, “a storm of exceptional violence” has hit the south-western corner of France. They lead with a picture from the Landes area, near Bordeaux.


The Jerusalem Post - Israel
“BBC slammed for refusing to screen Gaza aid appeal”

The conflict in Gaza has reared its head again. There is increased criticism of the BBC for its refusal to overturn its decision not to broadcast an appeal to raise funds for Gaza.

The Jerusalem Post has this story on its front page. It reports that by not running the charity appeal by the Disaster Emergency Committee, the BBC “did not want to compromise its commitment to neutrality”.

The BBC’s rival stations in the UK, Channel 4, ITV, and Five, have decided to run the appeal.


The Observer – United Kingdom
“Why the BBC is wrong over the Gaza appeal”

A barrage of criticism is aimed at the BBC today. The Observer is one of many newspapers running an opinion piece that criticizes the BBC’s stance.

The Observer does, though, defend the corporation in a sense. According to the left-wing Sunday paper, “maintaining impartiality in the Middle East has never been easy for the BBC”.

According to the Observer’s editorial, the BBC might have decided that “running the appeal could mean expressing a political position. In other words, collecting charity for Palestinians [would be] a kind of hostility to Israel.”

Ultimately, the Observer says the corporation has maneuvered itself into controversy due to a decision by a weak management.


The Independent on Sunday – United Kingdom
“George W. to Barack: With love, from me to you”

Barack Obama’s first working week is over. Time for some of the Sunday papers to take a humorous look back on it.

The Independent on Sunday explains that an outgoing president leaves a letter behind in the Oval Office for his successor. The contents of this letter tend to remain entirely secret, but David Randall has come up with his very own version of what George W. Bush might have told his successor.

For the Independent on Sunday’s writer, the letter would be full of spelling mistakes, coffee and ink stains.

Part of the outgoing president’s advice to Barack Obama would be to never “rapidly open and close the blinds in the second-floor bathroom. Apparently it’s some kind of secret service signal.”

And one final piece of advice from the former president: “Don’t get the two buttons under the desk confused. I once rang for a beer and nearly took out Tehran.”

The spoof letter is signed “from one chief to another, George”.