French press review 1 November 2017

New York suffers first deadly terror attack since 9/11.

We begin with reactions to the first deadly terrorist attack in New York since September 11, 2001. This was after a pickup driver mowed down cyclists and pedestrians, before striking a school bus in the south of the city on Tuesday.

Le Parisien quotes American newspapers as saying that at least six people were killed and 11 other injured in the broad daylight attack just blocks from the 9/11 Memorial, on the West Side of Lower Manhattan, close to schools as children and their parents got ready to celebrate Halloween.

According to the paper, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed the “cowardly act of terror" aimed at innocent civilians, adding that television networks identified the attacker as a 29-year-old Uzbek citizen living in Florida who had recently been staying in New Jersey, where the truck was rented.

Libération says Trump once again made a fool of himself by denouncing the terrorist as a "very sick" and a "deranged person", two hours after the attack while the FBI agents were still struggling to figure out the “potential terrorist nature of the accident”.

According to Libé, President Donald Trump changed his mind later, rectifying on his Twitter wall that "Americans must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, their country after defeating them in the Middle East and overseas”.

Le Figaro relays messages of support for the people of New York from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and President Emmanuel Macron who expressed the deep French emotions and solidarity with the American people, reassuring them that they stand more united with them than ever in the battle for liberty.

Meanwhile,  some French paper comments about the “sword of Damocles dangling over Donald Trump's head”, following the indictment of one of his campaign chiefs, Paul Manafort, who admitted meeting Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, and then lied about it to the FBI.

Le Monde has a time line of findings at the center of the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. The paper reports that between March and September 2016, members of Trump's campaign team held a series of meetings with Russian officials and representatives.

According to the paper, early findings in the probe shed light on Trump's rather unusual frequentations and his alleged poor sense of judgment in selecting his aides noting that the way things stand, it now looks like Trump's "Russiagate".

From Le Monde's point of view, Prosecutor Muller has enough evidence to press ahead with his investigations. Yet the paper observes that while the inquiry is still at an early phase, the suspicions are already having a deep impact on Trump's foreign policy.

After campaigning on a manifesto to boost ties with the Kremlin, it explains Trump suddenly appeared paralyzed on that front, out of fear of fuelling further suspicions of collusion with the Russians.  .

Le Figaro argues that in the highly charged political atmosphere in Washington, where Republican lawmakers have wasted no time to denounce a witch hunt, there is no denying that some amount of nervousness has taken hold of the Oval Office.

That, it argues, is fanned by the professional and determined manner in which the independent prosecutor is handling the affair.

And for Sud-Ouest, the American President whose electoral base had been gradually eroded by policy differences with Republican lawmakers, is now reduced to feeding his twittosphere with undignified comments about the pace of the investigation.

The paper holds that, he is now secretly praying that the prosecutor will not find a smoking gun establishing his direct complicities with Vladmir Putin's regime.