PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, March 5: The mass exodus from southern Lebanon makes front pages. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is lambasted for a lack of clarity on its war with Iran, including from the US president's own supporters. Plus, we get some bad news on sea levels globally, but there’s good news for Punch, the baby macaque in a zoo near Tokyo.
The front page of French Catholic newspaper La Croix reads "Lebanon trapped". Libération tells the stories of the tens of thousands forced to flee the south of the country, some of them leaving with a heavy heart. Meanwhile, L'Orient-Le Jour hypothesises about Israel's next steps: the type of ground offensive, and Israeli hopes of dictating a new security order in southern Lebanon after the disarming of Hezbollah. The French-language Lebanese paper does not preclude the possibility of an Israeli incursion into Iran too, which could have a knock-on effect on Lebanon, by weakening Hezbollah's number one backer.
Meanwhile in the US, Democratic lawmakers emerged dumbfounded on Wednesday from a classified briefing by the Trump administration on the war. The New Republic cites lawmakers less convinced than ever that there is a plan, and increasingly fearful of the US deploying troops on the ground. Politico, meanwhile, evokes a chaotic last-minute scramble to evacuate civilians, bolster intelligence gathering and send drone defence systems to the region after the outbreak of war, implying that the conflict has taken on proportions the administration did not anticipate. The New Republic describes a "MAGA Meltdown" still in its infancy, meanwhile, as prominent voices in the MAGAsphere speak out against the war, which they deem a betrayal of Trump's "America First" policy.
In climate news, a new study shows sea levels have been inaccurately recorded all over the world, and in most cases underestimated. The New York Times explains that this means hundreds of millions more people than we realised face the threat of rising sea levels.
Finally, the Guardian brings us some good news for Punch the monkey in Japan's Ichikawa Zoo, who, rejected by his mother and bullied by the group, turned to an Ikea soft toy in the form of an orangutang. After a few sad weeks with only the teddy for comfort, his keepers are pleased to say that he's now interacting more with the other monkeys, even if he still curls up with his toy when it's time for bed.
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