The deputies will debate the future of Parcoursup this Wednesday, October 28 at 5 p.m., in the National Assembly. Requested by Sébastien Lecornu after five weeks of high school mobilization, this debate will focus on “the future of the process of orientation and assignment of high school students to higher education”. Organized within the framework of article 50-1 of the Constitution, it will not be followed by any vote: the government will present its roadmap and collect proposals from each group. He plans to replace Parcoursup in two stages, by next year. Manuel Bompard calls for a vote, otherwise the debate would only be one “smoking exercise”.
Created in 2018 to succeed APB, the platform is considered opaque and discriminatory by many high school students and parents. According to an Inserm study, 70% of students associate it with a sharp drop in their mental well-being. However, university presidents warn: removing it is not “not the magic solution”the real problem being the lack of places in certain sectors. Student and high school organizations are demanding in particular the end of university selection and the creation of 250,000 places.
2 – Examination of the text on child protection
The Senate will begin examining the bill on child protection this Wednesday, October 28, before a formal vote on November 3. Designed to overhaul child welfare, the text was strengthened after the revelations of sexual violence in extracurriculars and the death of young Lyhanna. In committee, senators removed the imprescriptibility of sexual crimes against minors, deemed likely to “destabilize criminal law”. Despite Gérald Darmanin’s reservations about its constitutionality, Aurore Bergé will defend a government amendment to restore it.
Several measures target extracurricular activities: a file listing sanctions for violence against minors, which can be consulted upon hiring, state control of all daycare centers and information for parents on the identity and role of the facilitators. The senators will also debate a regular integrity check and an extension from four to eight months of the suspension of an agent suspected of violence against minors, in order to better equip mayors.
3 – Russia-Africa Summit
The third Russia-Africa summit will open this Wednesday, October 28 in Moscow, for two days, with delegations from more than 30 countries. After Sochi in 2019 and Saint Petersburg in 2023, it will focus on trade, investment, civil nuclear energy, payment systems and food security. The leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, united in the Alliance of Sahel States, will be present, as they have moved closer to Moscow after distancing themselves from the West.
For the Kremlin, which seeks to circumvent the sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine, the issue is also economic: trade, very unbalanced in its favor, reached 27.8 billion dollars in 2025, and Moscow is aiming for 50 to 60 billion by 2030. Its wheat already covers around 30% of African needs.
4 – Apple should launch a touchscreen laptop
Apple is expected to unveil its first touchscreen Mac this Wednesday, October 28, a MacBook Pro whose screen can be controlled with your finger. A major turnaround for the apple brand. In 2010, Steve Jobs, who saw it as a simple gadget, judged touchscreen computers “ergonomically catastrophic”sources of fatigue for the arm, and concluded after numerous tests that “it doesn’t work”.
His successor Tim Cook then compared the Windows 8 approach to the merger of a toaster and a refrigerator. According to Bloomberg, Apple would however have chosen caution: the Mac would remain designed for the keyboard and mouse, with some adjustments to macOS for touchscreen use, offered in addition. This strategy would make it possible to add functions without removing them, and to facilitate the transition from the iPad to the Mac without the two products competing. After fifteen years of resistance, Apple would thus join the rest of the PC market.
5 – The good news of the day
Off the coast of Stockholm, underwater archaeologists explore Vrak 5, the oldest warship discovered in Sweden or Denmark. Spotted at the end of the 19th century near Häringe Castle, the wreck was dated in 2025 to the 1480s, or even 1460s. 40 to 45 meters long, the ship could be Swedish or Danish. It constitutes the first known example in Scandinavia of a hull built using the freeboard planking technique, where the planks are assembled edge to edge. This process made it possible to build larger and more robust boats, capable of carrying heavy cannons.
The excavations undertaken this week aim to better understand the crew’s diet: bricks suggest that the kitchen has been located. The causes of the sinking remain unknown. A fire is mentioned, perhaps during the Danish attack on the castle in 1501.
