In Spain, left-wing leader asked to form government
Spain’s King Felipe VI asked acting prime minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new government following an inconclusive general election in July, where the right-wing Popular Party failed to form a government despite winning the popular vote.
The PP was not able to win the required 176 votes required to form a majority coalition and ultimately fell four votes short in its second and final attempt. Now, Sánchez, who has governed Spain since 2018 as leader of the left-wing Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party — or PSOE — has a chance to negotiate with the other parties to continue leading the country.
PSOE and Sumar, a left-wing party currently negotiating with PSOE, only received a combined 153 seats in the 2023 election. If Sumar were to join the coalition, it would need 23 more votes to reach a majority.
Two parties that PSOE will have to win over are the Junts (Together) Party and the Republican Left of Catalonia. Both hold seven seats in the Spanish parliament and support independence for the northeastern province of Catalonia, with Junts leader Carles Puigdemont saying he will only support Sánchez in exchange for amnesty for Catalan separatists.
If Sánchez does not form a majority coalition by Nov. 27, Spain will hold another round of elections next January.
“I am willing to work to form as soon as possible a progressive coalition government with enough support to guarantee the stability that the country needs,” Sánchez told Reuters.
In the UK, government recommends phone ban in schools
In a Monday press release, Gillian Keegan, a Conservative Party politician and education secretary in the United Kingdom, announced new Department for Education guidance to prohibit mobile phones during the school day, including breaks.
“Gillian believes that mobile phones pose a serious challenge in terms of distraction, disruptive behavior and bullying,” a government source told the Daily Mail. “It is one of the biggest issues that children and teachers have to grapple with so she will set out a way forward to empower teachers to ban mobiles from classrooms.”
The move aligns with a July report from UNESCO calling for technology to only be used in class when it helps students’ learning. The report found that even if students are not actively using their phones in class, having notifications nearby can cause them to lose focus, which can take up to 20 minutes to regain.
The U.K. would not be the first European nation to implement such a ban. France banned cell phones in elementary and middle schools in 2018, with Greece and the Netherlands having announced similar bans in recent years. Other countries outside Europe have also enacted legislation restricting cell phone use in school, including Turkmenistan in 2020, China in 2021 and Australia in 2023.
According to the BBC, 95% of schools in the country already have mobile phone restrictions, and the government will consider codifying the guidance if schools do not comply.
In France, an uptick in bedbug infestations
Posts warning about an infestation of bedbugs have flooded French social media this week as users shared videos of the insects throughout Paris, including in its public transportation system, movie theaters and international airports.
Paris is set to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, putting additional pressure to address the infestations on national authorities. The city’s deputy mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire, demanded the French government “put an action plan in place” before the games, which are expected to bring millions of visitors to the city.
Although the infestations have closed French schools, placed sniffer dogs in trains and forced emergency meetings, this is not the first time Paris has faced the insects. A poll by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety found that between 2017 and 2022, 11% of French households were infested by bedbugs.
Experts, including entomologist Jean-Michel Berenger, say bedbug infestations peak in the late summer and have increased every year, but social media has overblown the recent panic.
“There is a new element this year — and that is the general psychosis which has taken hold,” Berenger said in a BBC interview. “It is a good thing in a way because it serves to make people aware of the problem, and the sooner you act against bedbugs the better. But a lot of the problem is being exaggerated.”
Contact Krish Dev at [email protected].
