Megan Clement

Jaguar with gunshot wounds rescued from river in Brazil.

A wounded jaguar, reportedly injured by gunfire, is rescued by Brazilian military police and members of SEPET — the Animal Protection Secretariat for the Amazonas, in the waters of Rio Negro, Brazil

Une femme, alors ?

All right then, let's see if Sébastien Lecornu can hold on longer than his predecessor... Sébastien Lecornu.

Farewell then, Sebastien Lecornu. We quite literally barely knew you.

There is almost always a violence against women connection for terror attacks.

Glowworms In the punt on the river in the cave, beneath the dim light of glowing worms, it was thoughts of my own death that consumed me.

In which we discover that Ann Patchett, like all right-thinking people, is a fan of Vegemite toast.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Bravo to my friend and fellow Parisian @squigglyrick.bsky.social!

Inside the Tony Blair Institute A former PM, Trump's 'CEO of everything' and NHS data - what could go wrong?

🔴 NEW: Larry Ellison’s £257m bet on Tony Blair

Our investigation with @lighthousereports.com reveals how the Tony Blair Institute has been accused of pushing the interests of tech tycoon Ellison — Trump’s “CEO of everything” — and his company Oracle

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...

From the insertion of IUDs to pregnancy to birth, there has always been an implicit expectation that women should suffer and experience pain, and a minimisation of that pain. The far-right's ideal of a mother is one who dies in labour.

It’s OK to use paracetamol in pregnancy. Here’s what the science says about the link with autism It’s safe for pregnant women to take paracetamol at any stage of pregnancy. Here’s what the research says about the risk of autism.

What underlies the Trump administration's recommendation is obviously all of RFK's false beliefs about autism, but also the conservative conviction that women absolutely should be in pain during pregnancy and childbirth.

theconversation.com/its-ok-to-us...

StreetPress — La bataille des municipales — La méthodologie La méthodologie utilisée par StreetPress pour la bataille des municipales, une carte qui estime le risque de victoire de l’extrême droite aux municipales 2026

The good folks at @streetpress.bsky.social have produced this fascinating map showing the risk of each council in France voting far-right in the next municipal election. It's based on the work of researcher @alessiomotta.bsky.social

municipales.streetpress.com/page/la-meth...

It just straightforwardly *insane* how much political chatter in the United Kingdom is about the next general election, an event that is a long way in the future, and how basically none of it is about 'uh, this policy agenda doesn't look adequate to the scale of the inherited problem'.

Cool photo of Paris city centre.

Taken from space by a satellite able to image scenes off-nadir.

Credit: BlackSky/Ken Joyce

A la finale de la Petite Ligue Queer : «Il faudrait accepter que le paysage du foot évolue et penser à repartager» Alors que plus en plus de clubs féminins et queer de football se créent à Paris et ailleurs en France, souvent dans des conditions précaires, «Libé» s’est rendu à la finale de la Petite Ligue Queer.

⚽ A la finale de la Petite Ligue Queer : «Il faudrait accepter que le paysage du foot évolue et penser à repartager»

De plus en plus de clubs féminins et queer de football se créent à Paris et ailleurs en France, souvent dans des conditions précaires. Reportage :

Not going back The Trump administration's aid cuts have Malawi rethinking its relationship with donors

Malawi responded quickly after Trump froze HIV programs, ensuring essential services were still up and running. Then officials turned to rethinking their relationship with donors to make sure they would never be put in that position again: theforsaken.substack.com/p/not-going-...

Ex-en-Provence was right there . . .

Been waiting four years to write this story!

A group of people in coloured shirts playing football a blue playing field in front of a replica of a window.

It's a story that encapsulates everything I love about France, everything I love about football, and everything I love about the banlieue (where I live!). And in these horrible times, to work on a piece that is nothing but pure joy is a real privilege.

A page of the observer featuring three photos of children trying to kick a ball through the lucarne d'Évry. The headline reads Back of the fenêtre: football's toughest spot kick is through a French window.

I'm so happy I finally got to write this piece. I could have written 10,000 words about the lucarne and all it represents, but a full page in the paper, with stunning pictures from Nathan Lainé, will have to do.

If you would like to see how hard this is for a normal person, witness my extremely poor attempt.

These boys eliminated all the adults in the competition, including a police officer in full uniform. It was an absolutely glorious demonstration of the talent, passion and entrepreneurship of the Parisian banlieues – places that are often stereotyped and neglected, not least in the Anglophone press.

A boy in a backwards cap and a purple shirt with Zinedine 93 written on the back. He is lining up to kick a ball through a window.

His opponent in the final was – I kid you not – a boy named Zinédine.

Here is 13-year-old Ismaël, who practised in front of the fake window for weeks ahead of the final, with the winning shot. Yes, that is me screaming in the background.

Back of the fenêtre: football’s toughest spot kick is thr... The shootout in a Paris suburb began as a viral trick that Messi fluffed. It’s now a reminder of the pure joy of the sport

In 2025, I was lucky enough to attend the grand final in Évry, an absolutely glorious day out. Here's my report from the day for The Observer. The headline they chose is magnifique.

observer.co.uk/news/interna...

📸 Le moment de vérité Bintou ferme les yeux, prend une grande inspiration… et prie. 🙏🏾 Dernière tentative, ultime chance en finale de la saison. Toute une année de travail se joue maintenant. La suite... TikTok video by Lucarne officiel

Mala Sissoko, who filmed the original video, built yet another replica with his friend Souli Konaté, and every year they tour France with it, giving locals a chance to compete in the grand final. Here is Bintou qualifying in 2024. I defy you not to cry watching this.

www.tiktok.com/@lucarneoffi...

A concrete structure with a door painted on and a small window.

A door and small window in an apartment building.

The challenge became so popular that the local town hall constructed a full replica of the window in a nearby park for people to use to spare the neighbours from the hullabaloo. Pictured below: the original (which has has a fresh coat of paint) and the fake.

YouTube video by PubTélé Adidas - Lionel Messi "impossible is nothing - Évry" Pub 30s

The window even featured in an advert for Adidas starring none other than Lionel Messi.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX-B...

YouTube video by Le Parisien Nenê, l'ex-attaquant du PSG, a relevé le challenge de la «lucarne d’Evry»

Kicking a ball through the tiny window became a challenge and people came from all over to try. Including PSG legende Nenê:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p_Y...

Gaye l’ancien qui réussit du premier coup à la lucarne d’Evry ⚽️ #lalucarne #evrycourcouronnes #meme #memefr #snapchat #snapchatfr #video #videodrole #videosdroles #fyp #pourtoi #foryou TikTok video by Papi

I have been obsessed with the football challenge the Lucarne d'Évry – a small window to a bin room in the southern suburbs of Paris – for years.

In 2021, a video of Gay Sissoko nailing a spot kick right through it went megaviral.

Here's the video, you can see why:

www.tiktok.com/@papi__nueve...

Back of the fenêtre: football’s toughest spot kick is thr... The shootout in a Paris suburb began as a viral trick that Messi fluffed. It’s now a reminder of the pure joy of the sport

Wonderful piece to start your week by @meganclement.bsky.social for @theobserveruk.bsky.social…

#football #paris #france #joy

observer.co.uk/news/interna...