French press review 3 January 2017

Where are you most likely to be beaten up and robbed in contemporary France? Is there any danger that 2017 could be the year of the great economic turnaround in Europe? What about global warming under President Trump? And has the human race reached its limits of age, intellectual capacity and physical performance?

Right wing Le Figaro gets the year off to a rousing start with an interactive map showing where you are most likely to be attacked and robbed in contemporary France.

With 16 chances in 1,000 of being attacked, Paris is the nation's petty crime capital, with the northern suburb of Seine Saint Denis (18 per 1,000) second only to the overseas department of Guyane, which top the table with 23 attacks per 1,000 inhabitants.

The safest place appears to be the Cantal, in the south-central highlands, with fewer than four chances in 1,000 of being beaten up and robbed.

The news for Paris is not all bad. It is the capital for personal theft but, the further you move from the city, the less likely you are to have your car stolen. Who says you never get any good news in the modern newspaper?

Eurozone facing another challenging year

Le Monde gazes into the future to look at the economic challenges facing the eurozone in 2017.

Ten years ago, we were bemusedly watching the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the beginning of a crisis that has since become everyday life for most of us. We are still living with the consequences, in terms of minimal economic growth and high unemployment.

Le Monde's predictions for the next 12 months?

The problems are going to be predominantly political, rather than economic or financial. But there are going to be plenty of them, with elections due in Holland, France, Germany and (probably) Italy. In each case, populist candidates will go preaching the gospel of a withdrawal from the european single currency and a return to national self-determination. That will work against investment and force the institutional lenders to demand more from cash-strapped governments.

The uncertainties surrounding the departure of the United Kingdom from Europe, and Donald Trump's promises to protect US industry are both likely to make life less easy for the rest of us.

Global warming gets a big boost on both sides of the Atlantic

The main story in left-leaning Libération looks at what the paper calls ecological backsliding in both the US and France.

Despite all the alarm bells sounded over the past 12 months, the fight against global warming is further threatened by the imminent arrival of Donald Trump in the White House.

Here in France, says Libé, those regions which have shifted towards the right have been reducing the grants paid to environmental non-governmental organisations.

To read our coverage of the Cop21 climate accord click here

Bigger, faster, better? Forget it.

A report in Le Monde suggests that the human race may be running out of steam.

After decades of improvements in life expectancy, average height, intellectual and physical performances, an awful lot of evidence is now pointing to the fact that mankind may have reached the limits beyond which further improvement is unlikely.

You will thus have to settle for an average age at death somewhere between 115 and 125 years and for being somewhat more stupid than recent generations, much of the decline in intellectual capacity - a statistical reality evident across all age groups and nationalities - being blamed on chemical pollutants released into the environment by previous generations.