The baguette faces an uncertain future. How France is rethinking its iconic loaves. French president Emmanuel Macron hailed the baguette as “250 grams of magic and perfection in our daily lives” on social media, accompanied by an iconic vintage black-and-white Willy Ronis photo of a jubilant little French boy captured mid-run with a long baguette tucked under his tiny arm.

But the #UNESCO victory, which saw the artisanal know-how of French breadmaking and the culture of the baguette inscribed in its intangible cultural heritage list, appears to have done little to reverse the ongoing decline of bread consumption in France, generating headlines like, “Will bread disappear from French tables?” in French food media.

Historically, the French ate an average of 25 ounces of bread per person, per day in the years following World War II. According to the Federation of Bakery Entrepreneurs, by 2015 that number plummeted to 4 ounces. Today, that figure has dropped again to 3.5 ounces, equal to a little less than half a baguette a day.

In a 2023 consumer survey released by the National Confederation of French Bakeries and Pastry Shops (CNBPF), more than a third (36 per cent) of the 1,000 respondents also said they had reduced their bread consumption over the last five years.

Industry experts say it’s a trend driven by changing eating habits, along with a new generation of “neobakers,” some of whom are opting to take baguettes off their shelves entirely, and the growing popularity of the baguette’s American rival, processed sliced white bread.

“One of the threats is the fact that young people are losing the habit of buying a baguette every day,” says Dominique Anract, president of the CNBPF.

Daily baguette runs to the local bakery — an errand that Anract says used to be as automatic and ritualistic as brushing teeth — have become less frequent.

But this is especially true of younger generations, who are cooking less and eating out more.

“In the past, even students cooked for themselves. There was no snacking, no ‘world food,’ no burgers, kebabs or sushi. But more and more young people are turning towards fast food,” he says.
A boulangerie with no baguettes?

Traditionally, baguettes are eaten as open-faced tartines at breakfast, slathered with butter and jam, or chocolate hazelnut spread. At lunch, they’re stuffed with ham, tuna, chicken or cheese for a take-out baguette sandwich. And at dinner, they’re the indispensable accompaniment to a traditional saucy French meal like a blanquette de veau (veal stew) or beef bourguignon, in which hunks of bread are used to mop up any remaining sauce on the plate — a gesture that has its own verb, called “saucer.”

“We see that these young people are very happy to have the traditional baguette on weekends when they visit their parents, so it is appreciated. But life has become more modern and there are different options for eating out without bread,” Anract says.

In recent years, there’s been another noteworthy shift that is changing France’s relationship to bread: the rise of “neoboulangeries” or neo-bakeries. This new generation is baking with ancient grains and organic flour, selling aromatic, long-fermented sourdough loaves and making fewer baguettes — if any at all.

Seize Heures Trente Pâtisserie-Boulangerie in Rennes is one of several bakeries across France that have made headlines for having the audacity not to sell baguettes.

When pastry chef and owner Marion Juhel expanded her pastry shop into a bakery two years ago, she made the deliberate decision not to offer baguettes. For Juhel, it’s an energy-intensive product with little nutritional value, and has a short shelf life which leads to one of her biggest pet peeves: excessive food waste.

Instead, large sourdough breads and whole grain loaves made with local, organic flour are sold by weight. Along with staying fresher for longer, the breads, which weigh up to 7 pounds, feed more households, are better for digestion thanks to longer fermentation times that break down gluten, and just taste better, she added.

But for some, the idea of a baguette-free French bakery was hard to swallow. Juhel recalls one man who flew into a rage when he was told they didn’t make any. She had to ask him to leave.

“There was a real need to educate customers so that they understood our approach,” Juhel told CNN. “It’s true that French people expect a bakery to have baguettes. And the fact that we proclaimed to be a bakery and didn’t have them was inconceivable to them.”

The #Iranian armed forces delivered strikes using unmanned aerial vehicles against US warships in response to the seizure of a vessel belonging to the Islamic Republic, Tasnim news agency reported citing a spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces.

According to the spokesman, the vessel seized by the US military was en route from China to the Gulf of Oman. US forces launched fire against the vessel in violation of the ceasefire and disabled its navigation system. In response, Iran attacked US ships with drones.

The spokesman stressed that the country’s military intended to continue responding to "piracy" policy and attacks on behalf of the US side.

An US delegation will arrive in Pakistan on Monday to participate in negotiations with Iran, US President Donald Trump announced.

"My representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan - they will be there tomorrow evening, for negotiations," he wrote on the Truth Social network.

According to the New York Post, #US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will represent the US in the new round of negotiations with Iran in #Islamabad, while US Vice President JD Vance will not attend.

#Russian air defense systems downed 46 Ukrainian #drones over Russian regions in eight hours, the Russian #Defense Ministry reported.

"On April 18, between 8:00 a.m. #Moscow time (5:00 a.m. GMT) and 4:00 p.m. Moscow time (1:00 p.m. GMT), on-duty air defense capabilities intercepted and destroyed 46 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles over the territories of Samara, Bryansk, Belgorod, Vologda, Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan Regions, and the waters of the Black Sea," the report said.

I don’t regret gifting Nobel prize to Trump: Venezuela’s Machado

Progressive leaders rally in Barcelona to defend the traditional liberal order, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, is hosting two overlapping events about democracy and progressive politics at a convention centre in Spain’s second city.

The IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy brought together Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, as well as the leaders or high-ranking officials of 10 other countries, including the United Kingdom.

While no leader mentioned Trump in the part of the meeting open to the press, the staunchly unilateral position of the American president that breaks with decades of U.S. foreign policy, including his derision of NATO and the United Nations, hung over the meetings intent on defending the multilateral rules-based order.

“We all see the attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalization of the use of force,” Sánchez said.

Trump chose Saturday to lash out on social media again at Sánchez, who has faced Trump’s scorn for not allowing the U.S. to use jointly operated military bases in Spain for operations related to the Iran war and for refusing to raise military spending from 2 per cent to 5 per cent of GDP.

“Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Spain, like the U.S. and other developed countries, is in debt, but it has one of the world’s leading economies under Sánchez.
Less inequality, more trees

Ramaphosa promoted his plan to push for the United Nations to launch a comprehensive, international study and policy-action plan to battle the growing wealth gap both between and within nations on the model of its efforts to mitigate climate change.

He said South Africa will present a draft resolution to establish the International Panel on Inequality to the UN General Assembly in September.

Among concrete proposals, Sheinbaum plugged her idea that governments commit to spending the equivalent of 10 per cent of their military budgets on reforestation projects.

“Each year, instead of planting the seeds of war, we will plant the seeds of life,” she said.

Sheinbaum also said she wants to propose a declaration, without specifying if she referred to the UN, against a military intervention in Cuba, a move that Trump has said he believe he will “have the honor” of carrying out.

Sánchez argued for the importance of regulating social media to stop the spread of hate speech and disinformation.
Defending core values

Later on Saturday, several leaders will stay on to attend the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization, where some 3,000 left-leaning elected officials and policy analysts will exchange ideas.

The gatherings come a day after Sánchez and Lula held a summit at a former royal palace in Barcelona. They shared their concern for a world that has been shaken by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack, and now, the conflict in Iran that has disrupted oil and natural gas markets.

Lula and Sánchez are among the few progressive leaders who have withstood a shift to the right and remain popular in their countries while defending multilateral agreements, human rights, environmental protections and gender equality — values often challenged by Trump; Lula’s neighbor in Argentina, libertarian President Javier Milei; and Europe’s far right.

Trump signs order to accelerate access to psychedelic drug treatments

Child survives 60-foot fall from Worcester apartment building window: ’That kid had guardian angels’.

Emergency crews rushed to the Lincoln Village Apartments Wednesday night after a frantic 911 call reported a child had fallen out a window.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene. One man, identified as Antonio, said he heard the screaming and ran to help. He said he saw the boy fall several stories before landing on the ground.

“The way he hit the ground, you don’t survive that. That kid had guardian angels. Whether people are spiritual or not, that kid had something on his shoulder that said ‘you’re not today,’” he said.

Boy landed on patch of mulch Worcester police said officers arrived within a minute and found the boy conscious, alert and breathing. He was taken to a hospital, where he remains in stable condition.

Investigators said the child fell more than 60 feet and narrowly missed large utility boxes below. Officials believe the impact was partially cushioned by a patch of mulch on the ground.

“It was an amazing unique circumstance that definitely could have gone a different way,” said Sgt. Elise Miranda with the Worcester Police Department.

Detectives are still working to determine exactly how the fall happened, but they believe the child may have fallen through the screen of a common-area window that had been opened to cool the apartment.

As temperatures rise, police are urging families to take precautions.

“As we start getting into the warmer weather, everyone is going to start opening up those windows, we’re talking about air conditioning and things like that,” Miranda said. “Couple things you’re going to want to start looking at are the locks on the screens, making sure the screens are intact.”

Miranda suggested parents with young kids in the home should also buy additional security tools around windows.

The investigation remains ongoing. Police said the family has been fully cooperating, but understandably distraught.

The child was still in the hospital Thursday in stable condition, but he is expected to make a full recovery.

U.S. urges nations to back ‘trade over aid’ plan as UN warns against privatizing assistance.

The UN is warning against privatizing a global aid system that delivers crucial assistance to some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Ahead of the initiative being formally introduced at the UN at the end of April, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered all U.S. diplomats to deliver a call to action to high-level foreign officials to sign on with their support by Monday, according to a diplomatic cable sent this week and obtained by The Associated Press.

According to the directive, the “Trade Over Aid Initiative” is meant to encourage UN member states to “make pro-business reforms” to their aid processes by facilitating conversations between governments, the private sector and international organizations.

The proposal also calls for “free market” policies to attract foreign trade that include “limited regulation, low taxation, multiple energy sources, private property rights, sanctity of contracts, and a trusted judiciary.”

“The idea that trade and free market capitalism is the surest path to prosperity has been proven by the facts and by history,” said Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman. “The U.S. remains the most generous country in the history of the world, but those arguing for ‘aid not trade’ are really arguing for lining the pockets of a corrupt NGO industrial complex.”

While signing on to the proposal is nonbinding and does not create obligations or require changes to national laws, it would reflect global opinion on the increasingly dire global aid situation as powerful countries like the U.S., the United Kingdom and others have decreased funding for humanitarian aid and increased their nations’ defense spending.

The latest move is also seen by the UN and other international organizations as further abandoning the aid system at a moment of growing conflicts around the world, while increasing the risk of exploitation by for-profit companies.

Despite the U.S. effort, the United Nations is committed to putting in place its sustainable development agenda by 2030, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, which includes ending poverty, achieving gender equality and urgently tackling climate change.

“For us, trade, investment, and private sector engagement can be powerful drivers of inclusive growth and job creation,” he told AP. “They should, however, not be used to substitute international development cooperation or for principled humanitarian assistance.”

Eric Pelofsky, who served at the U.S. State Department under the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations, blasted the effort in a statement, saying that “there’s no American who looks at a picture of a starving child and sees an opportunity for companies to enrich themselves.”

“That’s because Americans have historically run to the fire to help rather than looking for ways to sell fire hoses to those suffering,” according to a statement from Pelofsky, now an executive at the Rockefeller Foundation. “This approach betrays America’s traditions, values, and national security interests — and it makes us less safe.”

Devex, a news organization covering global development, earlier reported details of the initiative and The Washington Post earlier reported on the cable.

House rejects effort to withdraw U.S. forces from the Iran war as Republicans stick with Trump