'Feels like being hit by a bus': Rib remodelling beauty surgery on the rise

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, October 29: Spanish papers discuss Wednesday's deadly train collision. The New York Times investigates whether a "safest seat" in the event of a train crash exists. Next, we look at a report about "the shocking rise of rib remodelling". We end with some photos from the Arctic and Antarctica.

Spanish papers are reacting to the devastating train crash that killed dozens of people on Wednesday. Both El Mundo and El País emphasise that it's not the first time this has happened – the last train accident in Spain was only nine months ago. El País also has a first-person story: "I travelled on this train", writes a journalist who works for the paper. He happened to be there during the crash. He already covered the Adamuz disaster in January and now he writes: "I had that feeling again of living through a nightmare". He also describes the strange calm and how he and other passengers managed to free themselves from the last carriage. 

The New York Times asks the question "Is there a safest seat in a train crash?" The answer is not so simple. There's a rough consensus that it's best to sit in the middle of the train, in case of a hit from the front or the back. Some experts are even more precise, saying the best bet is sitting in the middle, in an aisle seat facing backward – that's because if the train suddenly stops, the whiplash would be less brutal and there's a smaller chance of being hit by flying objects. But experts told the paper that there are too many variables in train crashes to say for certain. This time in Spain, for example, the hit was from the back, so the safest place to sit would have been in the front of the train. But of course passengers couldn't have known in advance of the nature of the crash. 

The tragedy is still very recent, but it could already have political repercussions. According to Democrata, it could harm Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's reputation before snap elections that are happening in only a month's time. The weak link among his ministers is Oscar Puente, the transport minister, who was already in post in January during the first train crash. According to the paper, he has three options: "continuity, resignation or dismissal". Puente is under fire, and not only because of the actual crashes. Some time after the previous rail disaster, he appeared in a comedy video in which he imitated a derailing train. 

Next, The Guardian reports that rib remodelling surgery is on the rise. First, the patient's ribs are fractured, and then the person has to stay in a corset for three months, almost 24/7. The idea is to give the person a wasp-like waist. The Guardian spoke to people who went through it, who say it's extremely painful and feels like "being hit by a bus". One lady who did it couldn't sleep comfortably for more than a week because she was in constant pain. Although the procedure remains rare, more and more people are deciding to do it. Between 2018 and 2024, there were more than 2,300 patients, with an overall complication rate of 3.7 percent, which remains quite high for beauty procedures. 

Finally, a new photography book by polar specialists Sue Flood and Ian Dawson captures the Arctic and Antarctica. The Times shows its favourite photographs that "document life at the frozen edges of the world".

You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.