Au revoir, le tabac

This week's restrictions are the latest step towards the country's target of creating a tobacco-free generation by 2032 View in browser Xavier Greenwood • Tuesday 1 July 2025 Dear friend, Welcome to today's Sensemaker. Long stories short Russia said it had captured its first village in the Dnipropetrovsk region. UK police launched an investigation into Bob Vylan and Kneecap's Glastonbury sets. The temperature exceeded 33C at Heathrow Airport (more below). Au revoir, le tabac A loosely dangled cigarette would once have been de rigueur for anyone spending a summer's day at a beach or park in France. So what? Now it is evidence. A ban on smoking in outdoor spaces is not just a health intervention. It's a milestone in a 50-year cultural shift that has seen tobacco consumption fall across France; smoking restrictions extend deeply into public life; and the French people fall out of love with Gauloises and Gitanes. Mini smokers. The internet gives a dated picture of France's relationship with tobacco. A perennial meme is a 1988 TV show clip featuring Serge Gainsbourg, who infamously got through five (unfiltered) packs a day. A choir of children, dressed up as the singer, serenades him with cigarettes in hand. Gainsbourg watches on, chain smoking and shedding a quiet tear. Cine smokers. His former lover, the actress Brigitte Bardot, contributed to this mythology by customarily puffing on cigarettes in St Tropez. France leans into its own stereotypes, even now. Some 90 per cent of French films between 2015 and 2019 contained a "smoking event". The truth is that cigarette consumption in France peaked four decades ago, and tobacco sales fell more than 11 per cent last year. Recent declines can be attributed to heavy taxation and existing smoke-free rules that make it illegal to light up in restaurants, bars and public buildings. The bad news is that more than a quarter of French adults still smoke every day, almost three times as many as in the UK and the US. Casual smoking is on the rise and more women in France light up than 50 years ago, in defiance of global downward trends. Money and lives. Smoking costs the French economy roughly €150 billion each year, with 75,000 people dying from tobacco-related illnesses and up to 5,000 from passive exposure. The 'French paradox' that you can indulge and maintain good health appears to be an illusion. The intervention. Since Sunday, smoking has been prohibited in parks, beaches, public gardens and areas near schools. Those caught flouting the rules could be fined €135, but it is hoped the public will self-regulate. The health minister, Catherine Vautrin, says the ban is designed to "denormalise" smoking as the country targets a tobacco-free generation by 2032. Side note: Rishi Sunak tried to achieve this in the UK by effectively banning smoking for anyone born after 2008. He backed down after intense lobbying by the tobacco industry. Think of the children. France will meet its goal if less than 5 per cent of under 18s smoke. This age group, already turning away from cigarettes, has been at the front of politicians' minds. Vautrin said "tobacco must disappear where there are children", which wraps the expansion of smoke-free zones into a wider push to protect minors. The government recently imposed strict age checks on porn sites and is threatening a social media ban for children younger than 15. What next? Café and bar terraces remain fair game for French smokers, but the health minister hasn't ruled out further restrictions which would be in line with public opinion. New legislation on vaping, which is on the rise in France, is also coming down the track. What's more… it would be hard to accuse President Macron of acting out of self-interest. He has been spotted with a vape in the past, and used to unwind with a cigar. The Observer News Matrix Postcard from SW19 "We are about to open the gates. Please do not run." These were the words of the steward tasked with kickstarting Wimbledon as he pleaded somewhat forlornly over the speaker system ahead of letting the public into the All England Club. The tone of his voice made it clear he had been burned before. A peak week of British sport was on the cusp of beginning. As well as the tennis, sports fans have the second Test against India from Wednesday, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone over the weekend, the continuation of the Lions tour as well as England and Wales kicking off their Euro 2025 campaigns. It's a good week to be working from home. Read Jessy Parker Humphreys on a bumper day for Brits at Wimbledon The Nibs Capital Economy, business and finance Mind the gap Since ChatGPT was launched in 2022, economists have debated whether AI tools will enhance the productivity of workers or simply replace them. Data released by Adzuna suggests the latter – at least in some cases. The jobs website found the number of new entry-level positions has fallen by a third in the UK since the launch of the chatbot. The biggest losses were in retail, which saw a 78 per cent drop, followed by logistics, warehousing and administration. Many of these jobs involve repetitive tasks ripe for automation. Others may be on safer territory. IBM has replaced roughly 200 HR staff with AI, but says it has simultaneously expanded its workforce in departments such as software engineering, sales and marketing that require "critical thinking". The US graduate job market is also in a parlous state, but Paul Krugman puts this down to uncertainty about government policy rather than AI. It could be both. Technology AI, science and new things Rewriting the past One glaring absence from the Glastonbury line-up was The Velvet Sundown. The psychedelic rock band has nearly 500,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, despite releasing their first two albums just a few weeks ago. With a third on the way this month, they are one of the summer's hottest artists. But there seems to be more to them than meets the eye. The band's picture is AI-generated and none of the members have a social media presence. "The Velvet Sundown aren't trying to revive the past," their Spotify bio reads. "They're rewriting it." Reddit users have reported seeing songs by the band on their Discover Weekly, while tracks also appear in dozens of popular curated playlists. Spotify has previously had issues with AI slop, including fake albums attached to real artist pages and a viral track that cloned the voice of Drake. It's not known who is behind The Velvet Sundown, but Spotify has been approached for comment. The 100-year life Health, education and government Not with a bang Five years after Hong Kong passed its national security law, the city's last active pro-democracy group is disbanding due to "immense political pressure". Government opponents enjoyed a moment of hope in 2019, when up to two million Hong Kongers took to the streets in a call for change. But the protests were violently subdued before new legislation curbed freedoms, made most dissent illegal, and reduced the island's independence from mainland China. Dozens of activists were imprisoned and media outlets were shut down. A further set of laws known as Article 23 followed in 2024, punishing a range of offences including treason, subversion and secession. The League of Social Democrats was the only party still staging street protests in favour of democracy, but said "near-total imprisonment" of its leadership had made these activities impossible. With this, the pro-democracy activist and British national Jimmy Lai cuts an even more isolated figure. The 77-year-old is still on trial. Our planet Climate and geopolitics What's hot It's sweltering in the UK, but spare a thought for the US and the rest of Europe. Temperatures surpassed 40C in June as two heat domes positioned themselves over each continent. These atmospheric events occur when an area of high pressure settles over a region for a length of time, trapping the hot air beneath and warming it further. The Royal Meteorological Society likens it to putting a lid on a cooking pot. Heat domes are not new in the northern hemisphere during the summer months, but along with other extreme weather events they have tripled in frequency since the 1950s. Their intensity and duration is also growing. Scientists attribute these changes to the climate crisis, while being split on the precise cause. One theory is that rising Arctic temperatures are altering the jet stream, a narrow band of fast-moving air that flows around the globe. It is formed when cold polar air meets warm tropical air. Culture Society, identity and belonging Tale of two billionaires Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, aged 94, has pledged another $6 billion to charity. It's his biggest annual giveaway since he decided to donate basically his entire fortune to good causes in 2006. The lion's share of this latest gift went to the Gates Foundation, run by Bill Gates, but it could be one of Buffett's last donations to the organisation. The two billionaires were once firm friends, with Buffett supplying half of the Gates Foundation's resources. But last year, Buffett said these donations would stop after his death and his remaining fortune will be placed in a trust overseen by his three children. He resigned from the board in 2021 and is thought to be unhappy about inefficiencies and high operating costs – just not enough to donate elsewhere. Thanks for reading. Please tell your friends to sign up and tell us what you think. Xavier Greenwood xavier@observer.co.uk Additional reporting by Fred Harter and Serena Cesareo. Edited by Giles Whittell.     More from The Observer Read The Alps are melting – and never faster than now Last month, a Swiss village was buried when the mountain above 'exploded'. 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