New Caledonia’s high commissioner said Tuesday that shots had been fired at security forces during a night of riots in the French Pacific territory that saw vehicles torched and shops looted.
“There have been no deaths,” High Commissioner of the Republic Louis Le Franc told reporters, adding that “shots were fired at the gendarmes using high calibre weapons and hunting rifles”.
Authorities in the French-run archipelago announced a night-time curfew Tuesday and a ban on public gatherings after protests against proposed voting reforms that have angered separatists.
One of France’s most popular tourist attractions is slowly being brought back to life following a devastating fire.
A blaze broke out at the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in April 2019, leading to its roof and spire collapsing.
Since then it has been through a 5-year restoration, which has has many ups and downs from pandemic delays to the departure of the project’s leader.
But now it’s slated to be completed by the end of 2024, with fast progress being shown.
December 2023 – A golden rooster, reimagined as a phoenix, is returned to the top of the cathedral’s spire, symbolizing Notre Dame’s rebirth. Religious relics, including pieces of what is said to be Jesus Christ’s Crown of Thorns, are placed in a time capsule inside the golden bird.
February 2024 – Scaffolding is removed to unveil the cathedral’s new spire, adorned with the golden rooster and a cross. It offers a glimpse into the future as Notre Dame nears its grand reopening.
December 2024 – Restorers say they hope the Cathedral will be able to reopen by the end of the year.
The Womanizer, with its air technology, has been a best-selling sex toy in French sex shops since 2014. Where did it come about? Can we talk about a sex toy “revolution”? Are there long term use consequences ? Flore Cherry, sex journalist for sex-en-france.fr, talks us through the arrival of air technology in the bedroom.
The Womanizer, the art of timing and marketing
“At first, I thought it was ugly, it looked like a table brush“, admits Patrick Pruvot, head of Passage du Désir, the largest chain of sex stores in France. Yet, he recognizes its incredible success. “It is now number one in our sales.” Shifting the focus away from aesthetics (the early models adorned in leopard print and rhinestones were of questionable taste …) allowed for the rapid growth in popularity of the object. In 2012, Michael Lenke, a German genius with a passion for DIY hacks, discovered–with great shock– that the majority of women have difficulty achieving an orgasm. He then embarked on a crazy invention dedicated to lowering this statistic. He hijacked an aquarium pump, assembled his first prototypes, and conducted some tests with his wife, Brigitte. Despite her initial doubt, she predicted that this ultra-performing object would be “a worldwide success” (*1). Time proved them right.
ForVirginie Girod(*2), doctor in history and sexuality specialist, the creation of the Womanizer marks the social recognition of clitoral pleasure: “It is the first time that an object technically dedicated to female pleasure has been created. The duck was based on a toy. The Magic Wand, or vibrating toys were were originally used for massages. Nothing had really been designed exclusively for clitoral pleasure.”
the womanizer is also in line with the times, with the rediscovery of clitoral representation, the promotion of sexual performance, new technologies, the advent of marketing around sexual health, and also, the empowerment of women regarding their sexuality. A partner is no longer need a partner to achieve an orgasm. Now it is just a click away and can sometimes be achieved in less than a minute. But is it really all that in terms of pleasure?
The Womanizer, fleeting pleasure or a revolutionary product?
Has the Womanizer introduced a new way to achieve sexual pleasure? For Patrick Pruvot, it represents a brand new way of stimulating an orgasm, thanks to its “no contact” technology (i.e. only using air pressure). Today, it represents 40% of turnover, after vibrators and other vaginal sex toys. “More than a fad, its popularity is due to a design and trendy positioning – as well as the strong demand of having easy access to sexual pleasure.“
That said, for Virginie Girod, doctor in history, these accessories are to be used only after a classic masturbation: “These objects are not made for the beginners! One does not begin their journey for sexual pleasure with the Queen of all sex products. Otherwise, the body can lose its sensitivity that drives pleasure.“
An object be so powerful that it could become addictive?
For Aurore Malet-Karas, doctor in neurosciences and sexologist, the disadvantages are to be noted. “There can be a phenomenon of becoming accustomed t it. However, this is always this case when one gets used to masturbating the same way. And it is not irreversible, we can re-educate the nervous system.” On the other hand, as for the question of whether or not the clitoris can lose sensitivity, Aurore Malet-Karas considers the risk to be “rather low.“
Should we use it if we have difficulties climaxing? The sexologist explains that these “problems” can also be due to a low libido or to other psychological blockages. These blockages should be worked out before adopting the use of a sextoy. “Beware of false perceptions that push women to have a very active sexuality! If a woman says she doesn’t orgasm, we tell her ‘here, try a Womanizer, it will help you!’ But in reality, achieving an orgasm is more of a mental thing…“
Because even if this latest technology works miracles on our clitoris, it cannot reach our most developed sexual organ: the brain! Thankfully…
Flore Cherry
(*1) The story behind the invention of the Womanizer was shared with us by Johanna Rief, a spokesperson for the brand.
(*2) Virginie Girod is the author of “Ambitieuses – 40 femmes qui ont marqué l’histoire par leur volonté d’exister” (M6 Editions) –
From food to travel, it’s hard to find an aspect of life in Japan that hasn’t been affected by its sinking currency.
The yen has been on the skids for years and hit its weakest level since 1990 against the US dollar earlier this week, pressured by expectations of that the US Federal Reserve will have to keep interest rates higher for longer to tame American inflation.
For Hiroko Ishikawa, a second-generation fruit importer in Tokyo, the declining yen has delivered a big hit to her business, which was set up by her father in 1966.
er company, Japan Fraise, specializes in supplying strawberries, including imports of large berries from the United States. Local farmers also produce strawberries, but not enough to keep up with voracious demand for Japanese-style shortcakes: airy, creamy tiered treats that are considered must-haves at birthdays, holidays and other celebrations.
Ishikawa sells berries to 400 customers, mostly bakeries and confectionaries, across the country. The falling yen has made imported strawberries much more expensive.
Ishikawa estimates she has raised her wholesale prices for imported fruit by 20% over the past two years. To stay competitive, she hasn’t fully passed the cost of the currency swings to her customers, opting to absorb some of the pain herself.
“It’s been a really challenging couple of years,” Ishikawa told CNN. “It’s tough times, and we’re not anticipating any miracles for the next few months. We’re just trying to manage.”
She says her clients are trying to reduce their costs by using smaller or lower-grades of the fruit. Inevitably, some have raised prices, especially since the cost of other ingredients — flour, butter, milk and eggs — have also gone up. The rising cost of imports helped push inflation to 3.1% last year, a 41-year high, according to Nikkei.
After hovering around the 100 level against the greenback for years, the yen started its relentless decline in early 2021. That’s largely because the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the central bank, has maintained extremely low interest rates while the Fed and other central banks have raised borrowing costs to fight inflation.
Higher interest rates in the United States and other countries mean investors can make bigger returns on investments there than they can in Japan. This encourages carry trades, in which investors borrow money in yen to invest it in higher-yielding assets priced in other currencies. That weakens the Japanese currency.
On Monday, the yen briefly briefly weakened to 160 to the US dollar for the first time since 1990, before recovering some ground as the BOJ reportedly spent as much as $59 billion buying the Japanese currency.
“The effectiveness of such interventions is always subject to debate, as they often yield only temporary relief and may fail to address the underlying factors driving currency movements,” Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, a financial advisory and asset management firm said shortly after the market gyrations.
There are some benefits …
The yen has lost 10% of its value against the greenback so far this year, after sliding 8% in 2023, according to Refinitiv data. It’s the worst performing currency among the Group of 10 leading industrialized nations in 2024.
Even after the BOJ ended years of negative interest rates with its first hike in 17 years in March, a large gap remains between Japanese and US rates and is set to continue, which is expected to keep the yen weak.
This has yielded a number of benefits for Asia’s second largest economy. A weaker yen has enhanced Japan’s export competitiveness, boosting corporate profits and economic growth.
It also helps make Japan a cheaper destination for travelers. This week, Chinese tourists celebrating the Labor Day holiday are expected to visit Japan in large numbers.
“Tourism is the part of the economy where the yen’s cheapness is most visible, with Chinese tourists paying less for many things than they would at home,” Kit Juckes, a strategist at Societe Generale, wrote in a research note this week.
A Big Mac costs 50% more in the next cheapest G10 currency, the New Zealand dollar, than it does in yen, he added.
Japan was a bright spot for luxury companies such as LVMH. Sales in Japan were up 32% in the first quarter, largely thanks to Chinese tourists shopping there, it said last month.
Besides tourism, a weak yen has helped boostJapan’s stock market to levels not seen since the 1980s and improve its attractiveness as an investment destination for the likes of Warren Buffett.
and lots of drawbacks
But the falling yen has caused much pain at homeand not just for small businesses like Japan Fraise. Many Japanese say foreign travel is no longer a priority, in part because their money doesn’t stretch as far as it once did overseas.
The number of Japanese people traveling abroad last year stood at just 9.62 million, according to a CNN calculation based on data from Japan’s National Tourism Organization. That was less than half of the 20.1 million travellers recorded in pre-pandemic 2019.
“The downsides of a soft currency have been growing over the past couple of years,” Sean Callow, an independent currency strategist based in Sydney, told CNN.
“Japanese consumers accustomed to price stability will also be hurting from rising prices of their favorite imported goods and the surging cost of almost any travel outside Japan,” he said.
At Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, Sato Hitomi, 66, is “bracing” herself for the high cost of travelingto Hawaii with her husband and two adult children. It’s the first, and possibly the last, such vacation for the quartet.
“I quit my nursing job, which I worked for 46 years, this March. I’ve been patient and held off on doing all of the things I wanted to do while also taking care of my parents,” she told CNN on Friday, shortly before flying.
“My son is married and has a new baby and my daughter will get married this fall. We are at a point where things are about to change a lot, and that’s why I wanted to travel. But this is the first and probably the last overseas vacation for us,” she added
Cat Power is American singer, songwriter, musician, occasional actress, and model. Charlyn Marie Marshall (also known as Chan, pronounced “Shawn”) was born in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. on 21 January 1972. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall’s first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist.
After dropping out of high school, Marshall started performing under the name Cat Power, while in Atlanta, backed by musicians Glen Thrasher, Mark Moore, and others. She soon moved to New York City, New York, United States in 1992, then later opening for Liz Phair in 1994, she met Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, who encouraged her to record, and played on her first two albums, 1995’s Dear Sir and 1996’s Myra Lee. In 1996 she was signed to Matador Records, and released her third album, What Would the Community Think, which spawned a single and music video, “Nude as the News”.
Shortly following the release of What Would the Community Think Marshall disappeared from the musical scene, initially working as a baby sitter in Portland, Oregon and then moving to a farmhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina with boyfriend Bill Callahan(who performs under the name Smog). The plan was to permanently retire from music but during a sleepless night resulting from a nightmare, Marshall wrote several new songs. These songs would make up the bulk of Moon Pix. The album was recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne in eleven days with backing musicians Mick Turner and Jim White of the Dirty Three. The album was well-received by critics, and gained her recognition in the indie rock scene. However, during the subsequent tours she grew tired of her own material. This resulted in a series of shows during 1999 involving Marshall providing musical accompaniment to a series of screenings of the silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc. The shows combined original material and many covers, many of which would later see release on The Covers Record, a collection of cover songs recorded at various sessions in 1998 and 1999. A selection of covers that didn’t make it on to the album were recorded at Peel Acres, home of the highly influential and legendary British DJ John Peel. The session was broadcast on his BBC Radio 1 show and featured Marshall’s own interpretations of Bob Dylan’s “Hard Times in New York Town” amongst others.
In 2003 she resumed releasing original material with You Are Free, a diverse and critically acclaimed album that featured guest musicians such as Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, and the Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis.
2004 saw the release of Speaking for Trees, a critically polarizing DVD which featured a single two-hour static shot of Marshall performing in a woodland. It was accompanied by an audio CD containing the 18-minute song “Willie Deadwilder”, which featured M. Ward on guitar. 2005 found Cat Power out on the road again, touring the world and playing sold-out solo shows, including an Australian tour supporting Nick Cave. The shows largely consisted of material for her next album.
Cat Power’s seventh record, The Greatest, was released in January, 2006. This was not a “Greatest Hits” record but rather a collaboration with Al Green’s guitarist Teenie Hodges and many other well-known R&B musicians. A tour followed in the fall of 2006.
Early in 2006, Marshall announced the cancellation of her upcoming United States tour, citing “health-related issues”. A few days later, Matador announced the cancellation of her two shows in London and Paris. She resumed touring in April 2006, playing some of the most well received shows of her career both with the Memphis Rhythm Band and as a solo performer.
In 2007, she played live music for the spring/ summer Chanel Haute Couture collection in Paris and appeared in Wong Kar Wai’s film My Blueberry Nights as Katya. Also in 2007, she became the first female ever to win the Shortlist Music Prize when The Greatest was voted album of the year in June. Earlier in the year she was nominated in the Best International Female category at the annual Brit Awards, alongside more mainstream artists like Christina Aguilera and Nelly Furtado.
On January 22, 2008, Cat Power released a second collection of covers called Jukebox–her eighth LP overall. It included versions of songs by artists such as Hank Williams, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Patsy Cline and Janis Joplin.
Since then, she has released an EP called “The Dark End of the Street” on vinyl, only.
Cat Power released her first original song since 2008 just before Christmas 2011 when an MP3 of “King Rides By” was made available on her official site, in exchange for a donation of at least $0.99 to the Festival of Children Foundation and the Ali Forney Center charities. (King Rides By Songfacts).
In 2012, Cat Power released her 9th studio album, Sun which received generally positive reviews from critics. The album was included in several year-end lists by music critics and publications. Rolling Stone magazine, in their list of the “50 Best Albums of 2012”, ranked it at sixteenth place, writing “the idea of the brilliantly morose Chan Marshall making a dance-rock record is almost absurd. Yet the groove-powered Sun is a perfect fit.” The A.V. Club placed the album at number twenty-two on their list of the “Best Albums of 2012.” Billboard also placed the album at number nine in their list of the “10 Best Albums of 2012.”The L.A. Times and Filter magazine both placed the album at number six in their lists of the best albums of 2012. Sun was also included on two separate “Best Music of 2012” lists compiled by NPR, appearing at number five on the list compiled by Bob Boilen,while topping the list compiled by Robin Hilton. The album was also listed twenty-eighth on Stereogum’s list of top 50 albums of 2012. Thus, becoming Cat Power’s most successful original album.
In April 2015, Marshall announced that she recently had a baby.
In February 2016, Marshall had to cancel her New Zealand shows due to health reasons. According to an official press release, this is the first time in Marshall’s 18-year touring history she has been forced to postpone, but is “determined to make it back ASAP, and in good health”.
The Zahia Affair is a series of legal proceedings that took place in France starting from 2010, involving several players of the French football team and Zahia Dehar, a former prostitute, who was a minor at the time she was solicited for sex. The affair played out prominently in the French media
The scandal first erupted in 2010, just before the World Cup opened in South Africa.
Ribéry, who plays midfield for German club Bayern Munich, and Benzema, a forward for Spanish club Real Madrid, made front-page news following allegations they paid to have sex with an underage prostitute named Zahia Dehar.
While Ribéry, 30, and Benzema, 26, have insisted that they did not know Dehar was under 18, they now each face a maximum sentence of three years in jail and a 45,000-euro fine if found guilty.
However, lawyers for both men have said their clients did not plan to be present for any of the trial, which ends on Thursday.
Under French law they are legally entitled to be represented by their lawyers instead, although their absence may make an unfavorable impression on the jury.
Ribéry is alleged to have had sex with Dehar three times, including at the home of Kamel Ramdani, 39. Ramdani is one of several people who are on trial after a probe into a suspected network of prostitutes operating out of a nightclub called Zaman Café on Paris’ Champs-Elysees, which first opened in 2010.
‘Cleared outright’
Although Ribéry has admitted to having sex with Dehar, he claims he did not pay her and that he did not know that she was either a prostitute or a minor. Prostitution is legal in France, but prostitutes must be over 18.
“As far as I’m concerned, I will do everything possible so that France and a leading football player will be cleared of everything,” Ribéry’s lawyer, Carlo Alberto Brusa, said on Monday.
Benzema has denied all the charges. He is alleged to have paid 500 euros to have sex with Dehar in May 2008, on the night he won the French player of the year award while at his former club Lyon. At the time Dehar was 16.
“From the outset, Karim Benzema has said that nothing happened on May 11, 2008. We are going to try to demonstrate that this is the truth and even prove it, and I hope that we are cleared — cleared outright, not just on the benefit of the doubt or on a technicality,” Benzema’s lawyer, Sylvain Cormier, said.
Dehar, who is known simply as Zahia, has said in the past that she lied to both men about her age. Since the scandal broke, she has capitalised on her celebrity to launch her own line of lingerie, becoming German designer Karl Lagerfeld’s muse and protégée.
A searchable listing of known Philip Guston paintings, the Catalogue Raisonné is a project of Guston CR LLC, a wholly owned, nonprofit subsidiary of The Guston Foundation. High-quality images accompany physical details, provenance, exhibition history and bibliography. Each exhibition and museum collection has its own linked page.
Guston was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1913. His Jewish parents had fled persecution in Ukraine nearly 10 years earlier. A few months before his ninth birthday, the family moved to Los Angeles, California.
By 1935, he went by Guston instead of Goldstein, possibly because he thought his girlfriend’s parents wouldn’t accept a Jewish boyfriend.
From a young age Guston was interested in art. He started with drawing and was inspired by cartoons like George Herriman’s Krazy Kat and Bud Fisher’s Mutt and Jeff. On his 13th birthday, he had a cartoon published in the kids’ section of the Los Angeles Times. His junior high school yearbook listed him as a “true artist.”
While attending Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, Guston became friends with Jackson Pollock. The two budding artists remained friends for decades, and Guston moved to New York in 1936 at Pollock’s encouragement.
Soon after Pollock began to make his first “poured” paintings in 1947, Guston embraced abstraction. They became two of the most famous abstract painters working in the 1950s.
As a young artist, Guston made several murals. Living in Los Angeles, he knew the work of some of the most famous muralists at the time—Mexican artists José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. He may have even helped Siquieros paint one mural.
In 1932 Guston painted a mural of a Black man being whipped by a Ku Klux Klansman as part of a larger series on racism in America, which he was making with friends in the John Reed Club, a local outpost of a network of Communist clubs. Several months later, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Red Squad, a unit that went after Communists, destroyed the murals. Some Los Angeles police officers were known to be members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Several of Guston’s murals still exist today. One of the largest was made as part of the Federal Art Project for the Wilbur C. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, DC, just blocks from the National Gallery.
Guston didn’t make art in one style that he refined over time. He experimented with surrealism, an avant-garde movement, practiced by artists like Salvador Dalí, that began in Europe and took inspiration from dreams and the unconscious. Later, he found success with abstraction before returning again to figuration (in which the artist depicts things we recognize).
He often dropped subjects and styles and then revisited them. He constantly pushed himself in new directions and rarely did what was expected of him.
Speaking of the unexpected, in 1970 Guston presented a new group of paintings in an exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in New York City. Today, those works are considered some of his most significant contributions to modern art. But when he first showed them, most critics hated them. He even lost some friends over them. Some artists considered him a traitor for leaving behind the New York School style of abstract painting, which Guston had made popular along with artists including Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Joan Mitchell.
Why were the works so shocking? Guston’s new paintings were large horizontal canvases reminiscent of movie screens or billboards and filled with objects like books, bricks, and shoes painted in a flat and simplified way. They were completely different from the abstract canvases he had been exhibiting until then.
In some paintings, he revisited a subject from his earlier murals and drawings—the Ku Klux Klan. Painted as bulbous white, hooded figures with two vertical strokes to suggest eye slits, they appear riding in cars, smoking cigars, and even painting at the easel.
Guston considered them self-portraits of a sort, and sometimes depicted the Klansman in the act of painting or looking at paintings. With the upheavals of the 1960s all around him, Guston felt the need to interrogate bigotry and violence in his paintings. He asked, “What would it be like to be evil?”
From the beginning of his career, Guston made art that spoke to what was happening in the world around him. He created one of his earlier paintings, Bombardment, in response to the April 1937 Fascist bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica.
Art allowed Guston to process the seemingly endless series of cruelties and tragedies he witnessed. After seeing photographs of Nazi concentration camps, he painted haunted faces, body parts, and piles of legs.
In the late 1960s, the Vietnam War compelled Guston to return to a more representational style of painting. He reflected on this shift: “The war, what was happening to America, the brutality of the world. What kind of man am I, sitting at home, reading magazines, going into a frustrated fury about everything—and then going into my studio to adjust a red to a blue? I thought there must be some way I could do something about it.”
Just as Piero della Francesca and Pablo Picasso influenced him, Guston has influenced many of today’s artists. In addition to being done with skill and style, his innovative and provocative paintings remain relevant because of their imaginative freedom and fearless address of social issues. Hear from artists Cecily Brown and Glenn Ligon, along with Guston’s daughter Musa Mayer, about why his paintings stand the test of time.
The small portrait of Mary Magdalene is being displayed for a month in the Sainte-Marie-Madeleine basilica, which houses relics of Mary Magdalene — making it Christianity’s third most important tomb.
AFP saw around 50 visitors queuing Sunday afternoon to admire this forgotten painting by Raphael, known for painting “Three Graces” and “The School of Athens”.
The painting is thought to date back to a meeting between the painter and Leonardo da Vinci in 1505.
Visitors were required to pay three euros to see the work, which will be used to support the restoration of the basilica.
A French collector bought the portrait from a London gallery’s website for £30,000 ($37,000).
He then called a UNESCO expert in Italy, who authenticated the work in September.
After countless analyses — including infrared light to reveal the layers of carbon hidden by the paint pigments — they were able to attribute the painting to Raphael (1483-1520).
Mary Magdalene, the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus, is an important figure in the Gospels.
Often presented as a repentant sinner, she is said to have spent the last 30 years of her life in a cave in the Sainte-Baume massif, some twenty kilometres (12 miles) from the basilica, which has become a major Christian pilgrimage site.
The regulatory vehicle ‘contrôle technique’ in France is one that must be carried out every two years at an accredited control centre – a centre de contrôle technique agréé.
The EU have plans for a greater degree of harmonisation in the rules, to make them obligatory on an annual basis. These plans are still at a relatively early stage.
The test applies to all passenger and transport vehicles up to 3.5 tons gross weight. Vehicles above this weight are subject to a separate set of regulations.
For new vehicles, the first test must be undertaken within the 6 months that precede the fourth year of registration.
Between 500,000 and 700,000 vehicles will not have passed a technical inspection in 2023 when they should have.
Motorists do not shun technical inspections because of the price of the technical inspection, set at 70 euros every two years. It is above all “the price of repairs induced by a counter-visit that hinder motorists from passing a technical inspection,” she stresses.
Not carrying out your technical inspection can result in a fine of 135 euros, which can be increased up to 750 euros. For the moment, there will be no regulatory change planned for 2020.
In an interview given to the newspaper Libération, the winner of the Oscar in 1997 for her supporting role in The English Patient, which won a Bafta, a Goya and a César, reviewed her career, and in particular the bad moments she experienced, including attacks sexual acts, humiliation and excessive nudity.
She did not hesitate to mention names, such as the director Pascal Kané (1946-2020), whom she accused of attacking her when she was a young debutant.
He invited me to dinner at the Nikko Hotel on the grounds of talking about a project, and while he was showing me the view of the Seine he threw himself towards me to kiss me, so I had to forcefully reject him, said the 60-year-old actress, known for being along with her American colleague Julianne Moore, the only ones to win an acting award at the Berlin, Cannes and Venice festivals.
Binoche said she felt relieved for all the women and men who have dared to expose the abuses suffered, complaints in the spotlight since the emergence in 2017 on social networks of the #MeToo movement, following the accusations against the film producer and executive. American Harvey Weinstein.
It is not easy to present your private life, for which we should all thank them, he stressed.
At another point in her dialogue with Libération, the multifaceted artist, who also dances, writes poems and paints, recalled the difficult experience she suffered during the filming of Rendez-vous (1985), when a hand “suddenly appeared to touch my sex.”
Nobody warned me, much less asked for my consent, I was stunned, but I was not able to say it, or understand what happened, she said.
The French #MeToo already has numerous chapters, the most well-known, the complaints against the legend of French and world cinema Gérard Depardieu, who has accumulated several accusations before the courts for rape, abuse and sexual harassment, among them of the actresses Charlotte Arnould and Hélène Darras
Bernard Pivot, an essential figure in the French cultural landscape, has left us, leaving behind an invaluable legacy. As a journalist, presenter, and lover of words, he made an indelible mark on the worlds of literature and television. His passing is a tremendous loss for everyone who, like me, had the chance to cross paths with him.
Bernard Pivot was a giant. A giant of television who revolutionized our relationship with literature through his legendary show Apostrophes. Every Friday night, France gathered around him to dive into the flavorful Bouillon de culture, so nourishing for the mind and soul. He was our guide, our bridge into the infinite universe of letters. Thanks to him, literature entered our homes and hearts.
But Bernard Pivot was more than just a presenter. He was a lover of the French language, a staunch defender of its richness and beauty. His legendary dictations resonated with entire generations, constantly reminding us of the magic of words and the importance of choosing them carefully. He was a craftsman of language, a master who sculpted each sentence with love and respect.
His commitment to literature extended beyond the small screen. As the president of the Goncourt Academy, he rigorously and passionately oversaw this prestigious literary prize. His innovative spirit, coupled with unwavering standards, contributed to maintaining the excellence of this institution, which is over a century old.
Bernard Pivot was also a man of the land, deeply attached to his Beaujolais roots. His love for this wine region led him to create the Beaujolais Defense Committee, demonstrating his dedication to preserving a heritage so dear to his heart.
Beyond his multiple facets, Bernard Pivot was above all a humanist. His insatiable curiosity, empathetic listening, and respect for others made him a valuable interlocutor for all who had the privilege of meeting him. He had the rare gift of making culture accessible to everyone, without ever watering it down or oversimplifying it.
I had the immense privilege of meeting Bernard Pivot at the Beirut Francophone Book Fair in 2012. This moment will forever be etched in my memory. Having lunch with him at L’Oca Matta was an indescribable honor and joy. His conversation was a fireworks display of erudition, wit and humanity. Every word he spoke was a pearl that I eagerly collected, a treasure that I will always cherish.
Today, as Bernard Pivot leaves us, a part of our history goes with him. His passing leaves a huge void in the world of literature and culture. Farewell, Mr. Pivot. You were a giant among men, a beacon in the night. Your work is a treasure that we will continue to cherish, your spirit a light that we will strive to keep alive. Thank you for everything you have given us, with such generosity, passion and love. You will forever remain one of the greatest craftsmen of French culture.
Rest in peace, Bernard Pivot. Your memory is a blessing, your example an inspiration. You made the world more beautiful, richer, and brighter. And for that, we say thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Lech Kaczyński, the fourth President of the Republic of Poland, died on 10 April 2010, after a Polish Air Force Tu-154 crashed outside of Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 aboard. His wife, economist and First Lady Maria Kaczyńska, was also among those killed.
After the death of Kaczyński was announced, a week of mourning was declared by the acting President of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, spanning 11 to 18 April with a state funeral for the couple held on 18 April. Several countries observed a day of national mourning on the date of the funeral. The couple were buried together in a crypt in the Wawel Cathedral, Kraków, afterwards.
In December 2005, Lech Kaczyński was sworn in as President of Poland, having won 54% of the vote in a close-fought race against rival candidate Donald Tusk. This was the first major election for Kaczyński’s newly-created populist conservative party “Law and Justice,” which he founded in 2003 alongside his identical twin brother Jarosław, but the pair were hardly political newcomers. Kaczyński’s political career went back to the Solidarity movement in the late 1980s, when he participated in the strikes that led to the collapse of Poland’s Soviet-aligned government. During the 1990s and early 2000s, he bounced around between various positions, including parliament, where he served in both the Senate and the Sejm (the lower house), as well as in the government of president Lech Wałęsa, where he held the post of Security Minister before being fired in 1992, and later as Minister of Justice and Attorney General under Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, a post from which he was again fired after less than two years. Nevertheless, his outspoken anti-corruption rhetoric made him popular with the public, and when he and his brother split from the Solidarity movement to found Law and Justice in 2003, he was well-poised to become a major political force. It came as no great surprise, then, that he won election to the Presidency in 2005. And six months after that, he appointed his brother to the post of Prime Minister, at last cementing the control of the Kaczyński twins over Polish politics.
In office, Kaczyński focused on educating Poles and the world about crimes committed against Poland by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. One of the most significant of these was the Katyn Massacre, a horrific atrocity carried out on the orders of Lavrentiy Beria, the chief of Stalin’s secret police (or NKVD), following the 1939 invasion of Poland. Seeking to eliminate an entire generation of Polish military expertise, the NKVD systematically executed around 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia throughout April of 1940, many of whom were subsequently buried in a mass grave in the Katyn Forest outside the city of Smolensk in western Russia. Soviet authorities would not admit their involvement in the massacre until 1989, when General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that Beria and Stalin had ordered the killings and expressed “profound regret” for their actions.
By 2010, plenty of friction remained between Poland and Russia over the extent to which the wounds inflicted by the massacre had been, or should be, reconciled. That year, with the 70th anniversary of the massacre approaching, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made several overtures indicating that reconciliation was on the table, as a documentary about the massacre was aired in Russia for the first time, and Putin invited both Polish officials and opposition members to attend a memorial service at the site of the massacre. The planned ceremony promised to be a major event in the history of Polish-Russian relations, and the guest list was soon filled with entire strata of the Polish elite, including President Kaczyński, who was by now gearing up to run for a second term. However, due to political in-fighting over the upcoming election, Kaczyński and most of the government delegation ended up organizing their own event, making plans to attend a separate ceremony on April 10th, while Donald Tusk and members of his centrist Civic Platform party proceeded with the original event on April 7th, which was hosted by Vladimir Putin.
2022 / WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish government special commission has reinforced its earlier allegations that the 2010 plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others in Russia was the result of Moscow’s assassination plan.
The latest of the commission’s reports, released Monday, alleges that an intentional detonation of planted explosives caused the April 10, 2010 crash of Soviet-made Tu-154M plane that killed Kaczynski, the First Lady and 94 other government and armed forces figures as well as many prominent Poles.
Their deaths were the result of an “act of unlawful interference by the Russian side,” the commission’s head Antoni Macierewicz told a news conference.
“The main and indisputable proof of the interference was an explosion in the left wing … followed by an explosion in the plane’s center,” said Macierewicz, who in 2015-2018 served as defense minister in Poland’s right-wing government.
He denied that any mistakes were made by the Polish pilots or crew members, despite bad weather at the time of the crash.
The report repeats many previous allegations made by the commission, appointed by the government whose key figure is the main ruling Law and Justice party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin of the late president.
Theories that the plane was destroyed by a bomb are widespread on the internet and in certain segments of Polish society, and as time goes by they are increasing in popularity. As such, it is impossible to tell the story of the Smolensk Air Disaster without examining these theories, and the political and cultural forces which drive them.
Many Poles still believe the Smolensk air crash, in which President Lech Kaczyński died in 2010, was the result of Kremlin foul play.
Considering that Russia and Poland have had a fraught relationship for centuries, which has included such crimes against humanity as the Katyn Massacre, the death of the Polish president on Russian soil was always certain to spawn speculation that the crash was no accident, and indeed it would have been foolish not to investigate the possibility of foul play. Jerzy Miller’s investigation pulled out all the usual stops to detect signs of sabotage, such as testing for explosive residue, searching for pitting damage associated with explosions, and looking for shrapnel in the bodies of victims. None of these areas of inquiry yielded any evidence that a bomb exploded on board the plane.
Nevertheless, skepticism of these findings was widespread. Although some opposition politicians were also on the plane, most of the victims were allied with President Kaczyński and many of them were openly anti-Russian. Polish commentators called Jerzy Miller “naïve” for cooperating with the MAK at all. The biggest purveyor of these criticisms was none other than Jarosław Kaczyński, twin brother of the late Lech Kaczyński and leader of the Law and Justice Party.
In office, Kaczyński focused on educating Poles and the world about crimes committed against Poland by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. One of the most significant of these was the Katyn Massacre, a horrific atrocity carried out on the orders of Lavrentiy Beria, the chief of Stalin’s secret police (or NKVD), following the 1939 invasion of Poland. Seeking to eliminate an entire generation of Polish military expertise, the NKVD systematically executed around 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia throughout April of 1940, many of whom were subsequently buried in a mass grave in the Katyn Forest outside the city of Smolensk in western Russia. Soviet authorities would not admit their involvement in the massacre until 1989, when General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that Beria and Stalin had ordered the killings and expressed “profound regret” for their actions.
“My party cannot be registered. Three party members have been killed. Four are missing. And nine are in prison. There is literally no space for opposition in Rwanda.”
In response to the UK government’s controversial Rwanda bill passing through Parliament, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:
“Today will leave a stain on this country’s moral reputation.
“The UK parliament has passed a bill that takes a hatchet to international legal protections for some of the most vulnerable people in the world and it is a matter of national disgrace that our political establishment has let this bill pass.
“The bill is built on a deeply authoritarian notion attacking one of the most basic roles played by the courts – the ability to look at evidence, decide on the facts of a case and apply the law accordingly. It’s absurd that the courts are forced to treat Rwanda as a ‘safe country’ and forbidden from considering all evidence to the contrary.
“Switching off human rights protections for people who the Government thinks it can gain political capital from attacking sets an extremely dangerous precedent.
“A continued obsession with feeding the public misinformation about asylum issues – stoking resentment and division – has now led to one of the most shameful acts of any Parliament in this country’s history.
“It’s a new low to expel people seeking asylum to Rwanda – a country with its own large refugee population and a host of human rights issues.
“As with any other country, the UK has an obligation to provide safety to refugees – it’s now absolutely vital that flights to Rwanda do not leave the tarmac.”
Tesla accounted for 55% of all U.S. EV sales last year. Tesla’s closest competitor last year was Ford, which accounted for just 6% of the U.S. EV market, and as I noted in February, FoMoCo lost nearly $65,000 for each of the 72,000 EVs it sold last year. Meanwhile, EV maker Rivian lost a whopping $107,000 for every vehicle it sold. (Rivian’s stock has fallen by more than half this year.)
Put simply, Tesla is the bellwether for the EV business, and it’s in trouble. Last week, the company announced it was laying off more than 10%, or about 14,000, of its employees. The move comes after a quarter during which the company missed delivery expectations and just before it reveals its quarterly profits on Tuesday. Here’s what Wired wrote last Thursday about Tesla’s situation: “Demand is dropping for electric cars in the U.S. and Europe, just as competition in Chinaintensifies and workers revolt in Europe. Investors are worried.” Wired continued, saying Tesla is contending with:
Ongoing worker strikes in Sweden, and even sabotage by German climate activists. Earlier this month, the company warned investors to expect a lower rate of growth this year, blaming interest rate hikes for dampening demand… Shareholders will get a chance to give their blessing at a vote in June, when they will be asked to ratify Musk’s $50 billion pay package and approve the company’s move to Texas.
The bad news continued on Friday when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ordered the company to recall nearly all of the Edsels, oops, I mean all of the Cybertrucks, it has produced at its factory here in Austin. About 3,900 Cybertrucks must be repaired because an accelerator pedal could get stuck in the down position.
Tesla’s stock is down 41% so far this year. The company faces so many challenges that Brad Munchen, an auto analyst who writes the Motorhead column here on Substack, posted an excellent piece on Friday asking, “Could Tesla Go Bankrupt? The Odds Are Rising.” The money line: “Things crash hard and loud in the auto industry and I’ve never seen a carmaker in as dangerous of a position as Tesla currently is in.”
Lucas Cranach the Elder, allegory of justice, oil on wood panel, 72×50 cm
To mark the European opening of the Musée du Luxembourg’s programme dedicated to the Renaissance, the museum is reopening with an exhibition on Lucas Cranach (circa1472-1553), one of the major artists of the German Renaissance. This prolific, versatile painter whose career spanned the first half of the 16th century, is still somewhat unknown to the French public, who have not had an opportunity for some time to discover the breadth of his work. The Musée du Luxembourg’s exhibition, Cranach and his time, provides a better understanding of this artist’s place in the history of art and his involvement in the society of his time, a period marked by major political and religious upheavals.
The exhibition starts by showing the European dimension of Lucas Cranach’s art, which was not only influenced by the works of Dürer, whose engravings were widely disseminated, but also by Flemish and Italian artists. To highlight these influences, the exhibition compares paintings, drawings and engravings by Cranach with the works of other artists. It devotes a significant section to his travels, which were facilitated by his appointment in 1505 as official court painter to Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, in Wittenberg. In addition to the artistic commissions of his patron, Cranach was entrusted with diplomatic missions that played a crucial role in his rise to prominence.
At the behest of Frederick the Wise, Cranach went to Malines in Flanders in 1508, to the court of Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands, where he met many artists and humanists from different countries. It was here in this dazzling society that he perfected his artistic style. He introduced a more refined elegance into his works, and turned his attention to new themes, like his half-length images of strong, virtuous women, which were immediately successful in this aristocratic milieu.
A further section of the exhibition is devoted to his representation of the nude – a subject that occupied a central place in Cranach’s work. His highly sensual, female figures, sometimes borrowed from classical antiquity (Venus, Diana, etc), sometimes from Christian culture (Eve), are endowed with a beauty that is at times quite disturbing. And he developed a canon of beauty that is clearly at odds with the classical ideal of the Renaissance.
These equivocal images, mixing eroticism with a moral message, often with a complex meaning, were highly acclaimed in their time, prompting the artist to reproduce them in a number of variants. His consummate business sense even pushed him to organise his studio more efficiently, in order to respond as quickly as possible to demand.
Above all, the exhibition emphasises the richness and originality of Cranach’s artistic career – a career punctuated by significant encounters with leading political and religious figures of the time – a period that was shaken by the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation. In Wittenberg he was in close contact most notably with Martin Luther who was protected by Frederick the Wise. Thanks to Cranach’s talents as a portrait painter, we have accurate representations of the leading figures of his time. A committed supporter of the Reformation within a very short time, he became very involved in helping to spread the new doctrine, using his artistic skills for visual propaganda, which was then widely circulated through engravings. Through this, he contributed to the development of a new Protestant iconography without, however, giving up his commissions from the Catholic church.
His fame as a painter, his position close to those in power, his proximity to intellectual circles, make Lucas Cranach one of the most unusual and astonishing figures in 16th century Europe.
This exhibition is organized by the RMN-Grand-Palais, in collaboration with Bozar who designed and made his first stage at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in autumn 2010.
Atos : Finance minister says government has interests in IT giant’s ‘sovereign activities’
The French information technology Atos said that it has received a non-binding letter of intent from the French state to acquire 100% of the advanced computing, mission-critical systems and cybersecurity products activities part of its BDS division for an indicative enterprise valuation between 700 million and 1 billion euros.
The businesses represent a turnover of circa 1 billion euros in 2023, out of a total of 1.5 billion for the BDS division as a whole.
Atos said that it “welcomes this letter of intent, which would protect the sovereign strategic imperatives of the French State.” Due diligence will start shortly in view of the issuance of a confirmatory non-binding offer by early June, it added.
Atos updated the parameters of its financial restructuring framework presented on April 9.
The company said that it now needs 1.1 billion euros to fund the business over the 2024-25 period compared with 600 million previously. The funds will be provided in the form of debt and/or equity by existing stakeholders or third-party investors, while 300 million euros will come from new revolving credit facility and 300 million from additional bank guarantee lines.
It added that the target of a BB credit profile by 2026 assumes a financial leverage below 2x by year-end 2026 and implies a gross debt reduction of 3.2 billion euros compared with 2.4 billion previously estimated.
The remaining debt maturities will be extended by five years.
It added that the submission of financing proposals including new money by existing stakeholders of Atos and third-party investors was extended to May 3.
“Given the group’s needs, a global financial restructuring agreement will trigger significant dilution of existing shareholders,” it added.
The company still expects to reach a financial restructuring agreement with financial creditors in July.
Qatar is re-evaluating its role as mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, citing concerns that its efforts are being undermined by politicians seeking to score points, its prime minister said.
“There is a very strong proposal on the table right now,” said Blinken, in Israel on his seventh Middle East crisis tour since the war broke out in October. “Hamas needs to say yes and needs to get this done.”
Hamas said it would respond “within a very short period” to a plan proposed by mediators to halt the fighting for 40 days and to exchange a few dozen hostages for many more Palestinian prisoners.
But the group’s aim remains “an end to this war”, senior Hamas official Suhail al-Hindi told AFP by telephone — a goal at odds with the stated position of Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there with or without a deal,” Netanyahu told a group representing families of remaining hostages in Gaza.
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that an Israeli assault on Rafah would “be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee”.
Netanyahu made his threat shortly before the arrival of Blinken and at a time of tensions between the traditional allies as the Gaza war has sparked global anger and weeks of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on US university campuses.
Far-right allies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are raising pressure on the embattled leader to reject a new Gaza ceasefire, jeopardising his government’s stability if he backs away from an assault on Hamas in Rafah.
Hamas representatives were due in Cairo as mediators step up efforts toward a ceasefire deal ahead of a threatened Israeli storming of Rafah, an area by the Egyptian border, where around a million Palestinians displaced by Israel’s military campaign elsewhere in Gaza are sheltering.
But Israel says four remaining battalions of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas are entrenched there – after over six months of war triggered by Hamas’ cross-border strike on Oct. 7 – and that it will attack them after evacuating civilians.
However, if a ceasefire is agreed, the attack plans will be shelved in favour of a “period of sustained calm”, according to a source briefed on the talks, during which a few dozen hostages of Hamas will be released in return for Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged Netanyahu not to back away from a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, even as the premier is grappling with pressure from international allies to scrap assault plans due to the risk of high civilian casualties and a humanitarian disaster.
But a ceasefire would be a humiliating defeat, Smotrich said in a video he released to the press and addressed to Netanyahu. If it fails to stamp out Hamas, “a government headed by you will have no right to exist,” he said.
Smotrich was swiftly followed by police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who reposted on X a Jan. 30 remark made during a previous round of ceasefire talks: “Reminder: An irresponsible deal = the government’s dissolution.”
But Benny Gantz, a centrist former defence minister who joined Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet in October, offered his own rebuke, saying that freeing hostages took precedence over an assault on Rafah.
The rejection of a responsible deal that would secure a hostage release, Gantz said in a statement, would strip the government of any legitimacy – given its Oct. 7 security failure and the clamour in Israel for the return of hostages.
Analysts voiced doubts whether Hamas would sign up to another temporary ceasefire like a week-long truce in November that saw more than 100 hostages released, knowing that Israeli troops could resume their onslaught as soon as it is over.
“I’m pessimistic about the option of Hamas agreeing to a deal that doesn’t have a permanent ceasefire baked into it,” said Mairav Zonszein, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“The US and Egypt and Qatar all have very strong interests of their own, for various reasons, why they’re trying very hard now to pressure both sides into agreeing to a deal.”
From the US to Australia, students are calling for their universities to divest and sever ties with Israel.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations and sit-ins are spreading at universities across the United States and to campuses around the world.
Columbia University in New York, one of the most prestigious universities in the US, emerged as the centre for student activism since Israel’s war on Gaza began more than six months ago with protests both in support of the war and against it.
On Tuesday shortly after 9pm (01:00 GMT on Wednesday) after nearly two weeks of protests, hundreds of police officers entered the campus in upper Manhattan, removed protesters and arrested dozens.
More than 1,200 students have been arrested across universities in the United States as protesters continue to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from companies enabling Israel’s nearly seven-month war on Gaza.
In France, the Paris regional authority has temporarily suspending funding for Sciences Po, one of France’s most prestigious universities, after it was rocked by pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
“I have decided to suspend all regional funding for Sciences Po until calm and security have been restored at the school,” Valérie Pécresse, the rightwing head of the greater Paris Île-de-France region, said on social media on Monday.
She took aim at “a minority of radicalised people calling for antisemitic hatred” and accused hard-left politicians of seeking to exploit the tensions
In an echo of demonstrations at many top US universities, students at Sciences Po have staged a number of protests over the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the US, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.
University officials called in police to clear a protest last week. On Monday police broke up a student protest at Sorbonne, another top French university, demanding an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
The war started after Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Palestinian militants also took about 250 hostages on 7 October. Israel estimates that 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 believed to be dead.
Paul Auster, the author of 34 books including the acclaimed New York Trilogy, has died aged 77.
The author died on Tuesday due to complications from lung cancer, his friend and fellow author Jacki Lyden confirmed to the Guardian.
Auster became known for his “highly stylised, quirkily riddlesome postmodernist fiction in which narrators are rarely other than unreliable and the bedrock of plot is continually shifting,” the novelist Joyce Carol Oates wrote in 2010.
His stories often play with themes of coincidence, chance and fate. Many of his protagonists are writers themselves, and his body of work is self-referential, with characters from early novels appearing again in later ones.
“Auster has established one of the most distinctive niches in contemporary literature,” wrote critic Michael Dirda in 2008. “His narrative voice is as hypnotic as that of the Ancient Mariner. Start one of his books and by page two you cannot choose but hear.”
The author was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1947. According to Auster, his writing life began at the age of eight when he missed out on getting an autograph from his baseball hero, Willie Mays, because neither he nor his parents had carried a pencil to the game. From then on, he took a pencil everywhere. “If there’s a pencil in your pocket, there’s a good chance that one day you’ll feel tempted to start using it,” he wrote in a 1995 essay.
While hiking during a summer camp aged 14, Auster witnessed a boy inches away from him getting struck by lightning and dying instantly – an event that he said “absolutely changed” his life and that he thought about “every day”. Chance, “understandably, became a recurring theme in his fiction,” wrote the critic Laura Miller in 2017. A similar incident occurs in Auster’s 2017 Booker-shortlisted novel 4 3 2 1: one of the book’s four versions of protagonist Archie Ferguson runs under a tree at a summer camp and is killed by a falling branch when lightning strikes.
Auster studied at Columbia University before moving to Paris in the early 1970s, where he worked a variety of jobs, including translation, and lived with his “on-again off-again” girlfriend, the writer Lydia Davis, whom he had met while at college. In 1974, they returned to the US and married. In 1977, the couple had a son, Daniel, but separated shortly afterwards.
In January 1979, Auster’s father, Samuel, died, and the event became the seed for the writer’s first memoir, The Invention of Solitude, published in 1982. In it, Auster revealed that his paternal grandfather was shot and killed by his grandmother, who was acquitted on grounds of insanity. “A boy cannot live through this kind of thing without being affected by it as a man,” Auster wrote in reference to his father, with whom he described himself having an “un-movable relationship, cut off from each other on opposite sides of a wall”.
Auster’s breakthrough came with the 1985 publication of City of Glass, the first novel in his New York trilogy. While the books are ostensibly mystery stories, Auster wielded the form to ask existential questions about identity. “The more [Auster’s detectives] stalk their eccentric quarry, the more they seem actually to be stalking the Big Questions – the implications of authorship, the enigmas of epistemology, the veils and masks of language,” wrote the critic and screenwriter Stephen Schiff in 1987.
Auster published regularly throughout the 80s, 90s and 00s, writing more than a dozen novels including Moon Palace (1989), The Music of Chance (1990), The Book of Illusions (2002) and Oracle Night (2003). He also became involved in film, writing the screenplay for Smoke, directed by Wayne Wang, for which he won the Independent Spirit award for best first screenplay in 1995.
In 1981, Auster met the writer Siri Hustvedt and they married the following year. In 1987 they had a daughter, Sophie, who became a singer and actor. Auster’s 1992 novel Leviathan, about a man who accidentally blows himself up, features a character called Iris Vegan, who is the heroine of Hustvedt’s first novel, The Blindfold.
Auster was better known in Europe than in his native United States: “Merely a bestselling author in these parts,” read a 2007 New York magazine article, “Auster is a rock star in Paris.” In 2006, he was awarded Spain’s Prince of Asturias prize for literature, and in 1993 he was given the Prix Médicis Étranger for Leviathan. He was also a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
In April 2022, Auster and Davis’s son, Daniel, died from a drug overdose. In March 2023, Hustvedt revealed that Auster was being treated for cancer after having been diagnosed the previous December. His final novel, Baumgartner, about a widowed septuagenarian writer, was published in October.
Auster is survived by Hustvedt, their daughter Sophie Auster, his sister Janet Auster, and a grandson.
Every year, France hosts several teknivals, but the teknival of May 1st remains emblematic. This historic event pushes us to revisit the most significant teknivals since 1994, the year these underground gatherings began.
1994-2000: The first sparks
From 1994 to 2000, teknivals grew rapidly in France. The very first teknival on May 1st was launched in 1994, near Fontainebleau, thanks to the initiative of the Spiral Tribe and other British soundsystems. This event brought together several hundred participants, marking the emergence of alternative festive gatherings. In the following years, especially in 1995, these collectives continued to ignite Fontainebleau with their energy.
1997: Commitment and Music
In 1997, the teknival took on a committed dimension with an edition focused on the fight against nuclear, organized on the Carnet site near Nantes. This action followed plans for the construction of nuclear power plants by the State on a natural territory. The group Noir Désir marked the event by going on stage to make their music resonate.
2001-2006: Evolutions and Recognitions
The period from 2001 to 2006 was marked by significant advances for teknivals. In 2003, the initiative of Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, opened a new era. The teknival became legal for the first time, thus establishing a formal dialogue between organizers and authorities. Under the name “Free Open Festival”, this event brought together nearly 70,000 participants at the Marigny-sur-Marne air base. This event marked the implementation of the 2001 Mariani amendment, a law that regulates the free parties movement.
In 2004, the edition on the disused Chambley air base exceeded 100,000 participants, marking a historic moment by its exceptional influx. The next edition in Marigny in 2005 was overshadowed by tragedies and troubles.
2007-2009: The Era of Contestation
From 2007 to 2009, a period of protest marked the history of teknivals. In response to the official “Sarkoval”, the Insoumis teknival was held on the sidelines of the event authorized in 2007, giving birth to the Insoumis collective. Although fewer participants joined, this event left a memorable mark by going back to the roots of the movement, with a warm and community atmosphere.
2009: The Test of the Contestation
In 2009, despite the supposed legality of teknivals, the State refused to authorize the event, breaking any dialogue with the collectives a few months before the scheduled date. Despite this, the gathering was organized illegally in the Eure, still bringing together 30,000 participants. However, after the festivities, a total of 27 soundsystems were seized for a period of 5 months. Only one collective was designated as responsible by the authorities, fined nearly €55,000, three years after the events.
2010-2017: Developments and Highlights In 2013, the teknival celebrated its 20th anniversary with the Twentytek, organized at the Cambrai-Epinoy air base. The Kraken Krew soundsystems coalition was born during this edition, while the Spiral Tribe met exceptionally for the occasion, around a quadriphony scene.
2016: An Act of Protest In 2016
The movement made a bold decision by declaring itself the 23rd teknival illegal, in protest. Despite the participation of only 30,000 people in soundsystems for this edition, the following year was marked by an enthusiastic and passionate response, with double the number of participants responding to the call. This signaled a revival of enthusiasm for the free party movement.
2018-2020: New Directions
After an illegal edition in 2018, the teknival returned to Marigny for the fourth time, becoming the place that hosted the most teknivals. In 2019, the event took a different turn. Faced with the repression of the State with prefectural decrees limiting the circulation of vehicles carrying sound equipment, the Frenchtek 26 was established in Creuse on the Millevaches plateau. Between 5,000 and 10,000 participants braved the snow to dance for three days, marking an unprecedented event in the history of the movement.
The head of La France Insoumise Mathilde Panot, one of the leaders of La France Insoumise Party (LFI), was summoned by the police as part of an investigation into allegations of “apology of terrorism”
Mathilde Panot, one of the leaders of La France Insoumise Party (LFI), was summoned by the police for allegedly engaging in “apology of terrorism”.
The move on April 23 forms part of an ongoing investigation opened following a press release by the LFI published on October 7, the day of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
Following that, LFI was accused of justifying the Hamas atrocities by denouncing the Islamist movement and Israeli colonisation at the same time.
Panot responded to the police action, saying: “We will not be silent. No summons, no intimidation of any kind will prevent us from protesting against the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
She also cautioned against what she described as the “serious misuse of the justice system to suppress political expression”.
This, Panot added, followed “a long series of other attempts to silence voices in favour of peace”.
She also referenced the recent cancellation of a conference featuring the LFI’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon and its European Parliament candidate Rima Hassan at the University of Lille by French authorities.
At the time, the event was stopped by authorities citing concerns over public safety concerns, sparking a broader discussion on freedom of speech in France.
Manon Aubry, a prominent LFI figure and MEP, echoed Panot’s sentiments, expressing her worries regarding the state of French democracy.
“Our democracy is hurtling towards authoritarianism at an alarming pace,” she said.
“We must all react.”
Panot is not the first hard-left politician to be summoned for “apology of terrorism”; Hassan was also called in a few days ago by the police for the same reason.
The French hard-left La France Insoumise Party has been accused of anti-Semitism after a poster for an upcoming conference, during which its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is due to speak, depicted a logo portraying the extinction of Israel.
— Brussels Signal
Mélenchon has responded publicly to the developments, criticising what he saw as politically motivated complaints against LFI.
“Just as the bans on conferences and convictions of trade unionists have been carried out without too much solidarity, the far-right is advancing,” he said.
Mélenchon accused “pro-Netanyahu associations” of being behind the complaints, reigniting allegations of anti-Semitism within the French Left.
One hundred days after his appointment, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said he wants to put ‘authority, respect and civic-mindedness’ back at the heart of society.
Gabriel Attal marked his 100th day as prime minister on Thursday, April 18, by speaking of “authority,” “respect” and “civism.” Two weeks after the murder of a 15-year-old, Shemseddine, who was beaten up as he left his middle school in Viry-Châtillon, in the Paris suburbs, the prime minister traveled to the town traumatized by the tragedy.
From the lectern set up in front of the town hall, Attal called for a “real surge of authority,” which should help stem the violence perpetrated by a portion of young people. “Today, it’s the Republic that’s counter-attacking,” he declared, addressing the town’s elected representatives and association leaders. “This is what we’ve come from Viry-Châtillon to launch: the nation’s general mobilization to reconnect with its teenagers, to curb violence.”
Shemseddine’s death on April 4 came just a few days after a 13-year-old, Samara, was attacked by three minors aged 14 and 15 outside her middle school in Montpellier. On Monday night, in Grande-Synthe, northern France, 22-year-old Philippe was fatally wounded by two minors aged 14 and 15, following an “ambush.” “An act of barbarism,” denounced the prime minister on Thursday evening on BFM-TV. “Very often, the first victim of youth violence is youth itself.”
“What is needed is a jolt of authority. We are ready to give it,” Attal said, accompanied by Education Minister Nicole Belloubet and Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.
Common rules were too often defied by a minority of adolescents, Attal added as he repeated a phrase he’s used before: “You break it, you fix it; you make a mess, you clean it up; you defy authority, we teach you to respect it.”
The 35-year-old said there were twice as many teens involved in assault cases, four times more in drug trafficking, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population.
He also noted increased Islamist influences.
Attal called on France to mobilise on the issue, confirming there would be an eight-week public consultation to come up with concrete measures – an answer to President Emmanuel Macron’s call for a consultation on the “surge of ultraviolence” among young people.
Flexing on security
In his own brief stint as education minister, Attal focused on restoring authority in schools – making waves with a move to ban schoolgirls from wearing abayas, long robes that he said were religious symbols.
As prime minister, Attal heads a government that is looking ahead to European elections in two months. Polls indicate a strong showing for the far right, which has accused the government of not doing enough on security.
Among the measures proposed by Attal is increasing referrals to boarding schools for disruptive students to remove them from the “bad influences” around them, as well as imposing community service on “negligent” parents.
Another proposal is to flag “troublemaker” behaviour in the final marks of particularly disruptive students, a move that could impact their future education prospects.
Attal also spoke about the need to regulate social media and young people’s access to screens – an issue already raised by Macron, who is waiting for an expert commission to report on possible measures at the end of the month.
As Sudan marks the grim anniversary of a year-long conflict, aid agencies have warned that the country teeters on the edge of collapse, facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that has been largely ignored by the rest of the world.
Islamic Relief, a humanitarian and development agency, painted a stark picture of Sudan’s situation, warning that it is on the brink of mass famine, with young children facing the prospect of starving to death.
The situation in Sudan is dire, with over 8.4 million people, including 2 million children under the age of 5, forced to flee their homes in the wake of the conflict, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Despite these alarming figures, the international response has been woefully inadequate, with only 5% of the 2024 humanitarian response plan for Sudan funded thus far, Islamic Relief said in a statement.
The agency’s country director for Sudan, Elsadig Elnour, said: “Over the past year I’ve seen my country descend into violence, madness, and destruction, neglected by the rest of the world.”
The conflict, which has pitted the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) against the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has left millions displaced and countless civilians dead or severely injured.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned in a statement Monday of a further escalation in violence in Sudan “as parties to the conflict arm civilians, and more armed groups join the fighting.”
Since the start of the civil war, thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, and other vital civilian structures have been destroyed, “plunging the country into a severe humanitarian crisis, and creating the world’s largest displacement crisis,” his office said.
“Nearly 18 million people face acute food insecurity, 14 million of them children, and over 70 percent of hospitals are no longer functional amid a rise in infectious diseases,” Türk added.
On Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned “crimes against humanity” were potentially being committed in the country, adding that recent reports of escalating hostilities in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, were a “fresh cause for deep alarm.”
Over the weekend, RSF-affiliated militias attacked and burned villages west of El Fasher, leading to “widespread new displacement,” Guterres said. Fighting continued Monday on the outskirts of El Fasher, he added.
“Let me be clear: Any attack on El Fasher would be devastating for civilians and could lead to full-blown intercommunal conflict across Darfur,” Guterres warned.
Breaking the ‘wall of silence’
The warnings come as a donor conference is being held in France on Monday, which French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said was aimed at supporting mediation attempts, improving coordination across the international community and providing support to Sudanese civilians.
aking at a press conference in Paris alongside his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, he said: “We’re here today to break this wall of silence around this conflict and mobilize all the international community.”
“Today we demonstrate that we will not forget the suffering of the people in Sudan,” said Baerbock, adding that the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country is “really disastrous.”
A CNN investigation found that almost 700 men and 65 children had been forcibly recruited by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over a three-month period in Jazira state alone.
A lawyer with the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies, Mohamed Badawi, told CNN then that the RSF’s coercive and violent tactics were akin to an “enforced labor system,” saying that people could be arrested if they didn’t “kill for” the RSF.
A lack of response
Doctors Without Borders on Friday called on leaders attending the Paris conference “to immediately scale up the humanitarian response” in Sudan. The charity claimed that a “chronic lack of response from humanitarian organizations and the UN have made an already dire situation in Sudan desperate,” as “Sudanese authorities systematically block the delivery of aid to some areas, while the RSF has looted health facilities and supplies.”
Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch, also said that “the global response to Sudan’s brutal conflict needs to change.”
Osman urged leaders to hold those responsible for atrocities and violations of international humanitarian law to account.
“The warring parties in Sudan have inflicted tremendous suffering on Sudanese from all walks of life,” he said. “Leaders meeting in Paris should act to tackle the shamefully low levels of humanitarian funding, including for local responders, and commit to concrete measures against those deliberately hampering aid delivery to populations in need.”
A specific date for peace talks has not been decided yet, according to US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello.
Dati has been caught up in an investigation into consulting fees she received from the alliance between France’s Renault and Japan’s Nissan automobile companies during her time as an MEP.
In 2021 she was charged with “passive corruption by a person who at the time was holding an elective mandate” and “benefiting from abuse of power” related to the allegations that the money was in exchange for lobbying services at the European Parliament. Dati has categorically denied the allegations.
Following the completion of an investigation last September, the French Financial Prosecution Service is due to rule on whether the case will proceed or not in the coming weeks.
The PNF is preparing to request the sent of trial of Rachida Dati before the magistrate’scourt … for “passive corruption”. Rachida Dati is suspected of having received 900,000 euros from Renault for imaginary services. Except that the defense of the new minister has filed new appeals because of prescription. No possible trial in sight by the end of 2025 or 2026.
Blinky Palermo was born Peter Schwarze in Leipzig, Germany, in 1943. He entered the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1962, where he studied with Joseph Beuys. As of 1964 he appropriated the name of American boxing promoter and organized crime figure Frank “Blinky” Palermo. After visiting New York with Gerhard Richter in 1970, he established a studio there in 1973. Palermo died at the age of thirty-three in 1977 while traveling in the Maldives.
Palermo left us with four distinct bodies of work, and as different as they may look on the surface, they have in common an abstraction that is always saturated with the marks of its time. Take the “Stoffbilder,” the so-called cloth pictures. From 1966 through the early ’70s, Palermo would shop local department stores for lengths of commercially dyed monochrome cloth. He would have two or three of these sewn together (initially by his first wife, Ingrid, and later by Richter’s first wife, Ema) and then mount the joined bands on stretchers usually measuring two by two meters (roughly six feet six inches square). The cloth pictures convey Palermo’s passion for color and its combinations: bright blue and red; orange and dark blue; pink, orange, and black; light blue, green, and red. The palette became more vivid over the years, especially as combinations of three colors pushed aside the simpler pairs, but Palermo carefully orchestrated the works’ installation to let more subdued combinations radiate as well. In a one-man show at the Konrad Fischer gallery in Düsseldorf in 1968, for example, he alternated pictures made of intense and bright hues with more restrained ones—a feast of color. The fabrics were common stock at a time when bold colors dominated interior decoration, clothing, and advertising, reflecting the progressive and optimistic spirit that had captured the German imagination despite the waning of the postwar economic miracle. In fact Palermo may have abandoned the silks he initially used for these works in part because they looked too precious—not common enough, not straight out of his neighbor’s living room.
Even more than the cloth pictures, the wall paintings venture into decoration, embraced in the late nineteenth century by artists like Paul Gauguin as a way to overcome the burden of mimesis, but later feared and shunned by pioneers of abstraction like Wassily Kandinsky. Today, thirty years after Palermo’s example, decoration is once again fertile ground for artists as diverse as Liam Gillick, Chris Ofili, Laura Owens, and Fred Tomaselli. For his nearly thirty wall paintings, Palermo drew lines on architectural surfaces or covered them with monochrome fields of color, often highlighting spatial characteristics of a room or adding ornamental features. Made over a five-year period beginning in late 1968, the wall paintings largely overlap with the sewn paintings. While the two bodies of work couldn’t look more different, they share an interest in long-forbidden territories and muddied categories.
Palermo’s move to New York, shortly before Christmas 1973, could hardly have surprised anyone. His previous visits—once with Richter, once with his second wife, Kristin—had whetted his appetite, and a number of German critics had already praised or disdained the American feel of his work. Many of Palermo’s German contemporaries felt threatened by the invading American art, but he was passionate about it and introduced a number of Düsseldorf friends, including Richter, to the New York School classics. His move abroad may have also been a flight from an impasse. His productivity had slowed, and he was stuck. Trying to move beyond the cloth pictures, Palermo had ventured into the touchy realm of the monochrome, which so many artists hate to love. He painted three metal squares with three different odd-colored rust-preventive undercoatings, one of which he had recently used for a wall painting at Documenta 5. But the monochrome was no way out.Palermo explained that if he “were to work with canvas and stretcher, the whole image of the pictures would be a completely different one.” The phrase “image of the pictures” expresses a puzzling concern with the public perception of the material rather than the actual look of acrylic on metal—or not so puzzling, perhaps, if we imagine how strongly metal suggested Minimalism, especially when deployed serially in space, like so many Donald Judd boxes or Carl Andre tiles. As in the cloth pictures, Palermo also served up a hefty portion of American Color Field work—the painting presented as an object, in this case through its distance from the wall; the even, intense, and radiant color. American art for Palermo was a candy store from which to pick and choose. He eagerly browsed US art journals, but, not native to the American art scene and language, he remained partly free from the constraining discussion around opticality and the complexities of objecthood. In this way Palermo was able to make painting new.
While Palermo’s early two-part objects are still bound up with the romantic notion of a fragment yearning for wholeness, the elements of later examples from this body of work are increasingly independent and unrelated. And if he painted some of his objects with prominent gestural strokes in an expressionist manner, his brushwork betrayed itself more and more. The self-expression appears learned and false, stiff and mechanical. Likewise, Palermo’s signature triangle opposes tired notions of the spiritual in abstract art. In the well-known writings of Kandinsky on this subject, the tapering shape of the triangle is associated with dematerialization, while blue, Palermo’s color of choice for this shape, embodies the spiritual. But the imperfections of Palermo’s triangles—their slightly distorted angles and irregular edges—make them hopelessly material and real. And placed on large expanses of white wall or over doors, these tiny little things also have a comic dimension. Indulging in playful insignificance, they lightheartedly dismiss the gravity of abstraction’s spiritual legacy. The surface of the mirrored triangle can become dematerialized, for sure, but the surprise of finding a body reflected there throws one back to the here and now. Even in New York, Palermo kept making objects to confront his native traditions of romanticism and spiritualism, as if to measure the distance he had come from painting the German way.
Burnout is a psychological syndrome characterised as state of emotional exhaustion, negative attitude towards the recipient of care (depersonalisation) and a feeling of low accomplishments in human service professionals.
Medical training and Internship is considered particularly stressful as it is characterized by: long working hours, lack of peer support-competitive environment, imbalance between professional and personal lives, lack of recreational activities, staying away from home, financial problems, uncertain future and emergency situations.
Fighter jets, artillery target weapon depots, assets in Ayta ash-Shab amid incessant attacks, including missile fire on Avivim
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday claimed that the military had killed half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon, as the Israel Defense Forces carried out a large wave of strikes against dozens of sites belonging to the terror group.
“Half of the Hezbollah commanders in south Lebanon have been eliminated… and the other half hide and abandon south Lebanon to IDF operations,” Gallant said, after holding an assessment at the Northern Command headquarters in Safed with the chief of the command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, and other top officers.
He said Israel’s main goal in the north was to return tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah’s daily attacks to their homes.
“We are dealing with a number of alternatives in order to establish this matter, and the coming period will be decisive in this regard,” Gallant said.
As the defense minister toured the Northern Command, the IDF said some 40 Hezbollah targets in the town of Ayta ash-Shab were hit within just several minutes by fighter jets and artillery shelling.
The wave of strikes came hours after the terror group fired anti-tank missiles at a community in northern Israel
Hours before the wave of strikes, Hezbollah fired several anti-tank guided missiles at the northern community of Avivim, striking two homes and causing a fire.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in eight civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 11 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 287 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 54 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier and at least 60 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
Israel has threatened to go to war to force Hezbollah away from the border if it does not retreat and continues to threaten northern communities, from where some 70,000 people were evacuated to avoid the fighting.
On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse crossed North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk.
Future Eclipses
An annular solar eclipse will be visible in South America, and a partial eclipse will be visible in South America, Antarctica, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, North America
March 29, 2025
Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean
An annular solar eclipse will be visible in Antarctica, and a partial eclipse will be visible in Antarctica, Africa, South America, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean
Aug. 12, 2026
A total solar eclipse will be visible in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and a small area of Portugal, while a partial eclipse will be visible in Europe, Africa, North America, the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Pacific Ocean
An annular eclipse occurs when the moon does not completely block out the sun during a solar eclipse, thus allowing a ring of sunlight to shine around the moon. This ring of light is called an annulus.
A partial solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth but the Sun, Moon, and Earth are not perfectly lined up. Only a part of the Sun will appear to be covered, giving it a crescent shape. During a total or annular solar eclipse, people outside the area covered by the Moon’s inner shadow see a partial solar eclipse.
Eclipses made it possible to determine with precision the shape of the Moon. Their study improved the prediction of ephemerides. Even today, a total solar eclipse still allows astrophysicists to make valuable scientific measurements, particularly when co-ordinated with measurements from observatories in space.
Solar eclipses enable scientists to measure accurately the diameter of the Sun and to search for variations in that diameter over long time scales. Geophysicists measure eclipse phenomena induced in the high terrestrial atmosphere.
Total solar eclipses allow the observation of structures of the solar corona that cannot usually be studied due to the higher normal luminosity of skylight during the day.
The structures in the corona are similar to patterns seen around a magnet. In fact sunspots were shown to be solar surface magnetic structures, which have their counterpart in the corona. The study of the solar corona gives us much information about the Sun’s surface and its global variations. The morphology of the corona is changing due to the reorganisation of the surface magnetic field during the solar cycle, which can be seen in eclipse pictures taken at different epochs. The re-analysis of historical eclipse reports and documents could help to understand long term solar magnetic variations.
One can follow these magnetically confined structures deep into the interplanetary medium. Eclipses make it possible to diagnose the physical conditions of temperature (at more than 1 million degrees), densities and dynamics, both in the corona and at the base of the sources of the solar wind. The dynamic instabilities, the solar wind and environment pervade the whole solar system and interact with Earth’s magnetosphere.
The Olympic Torch Relay is an outstanding tradition that takes us back to the roots of the Games. The first torch for the Paris 2024 Olympic Torch Relay has been lit by the sun’s rays on 16 April 2024 during a ceremony in the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, where the ancient Olympics were once held. The Olympic flame will then head to Athens to board the Belem and cross the Mediterranean Sea to Marseille. On 8 May 2024, the Olympic flame will embark on its epic journey across France.
The flame will travel to the Lascaux caves, the Alésia archaeological site, the medieval city of Carcassonne, the Palace of Versailles, and many other sites. It will light up many of France’s architectural masterpieces, beginning with the world-renowned site of Mont Saint-Michel. Other highlights will include the châteaux of the Loire Valley, along with a plethora of iconic palaces, lighthouses, bridges, viaducts, and arenas. To honour the history of France, the flame will also visit places of remembrance, such as the Verdun Memorial and the D-Day Landing Beaches.
The Olympic Torch Relay will be an opportunity to pay tribute to the memory of the people who have a left a mark on France’s history. Along its route, the Olympic Torch Relay will highlight iconic French figures who continue to inspire and contribute to our country’s influence and reputation: Joan of Arc in Orléans, Robert Schuman in Scy-Chazelles and Charles de Gaulle in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises.
It will also cross the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans as part of the “Oceans Relay” to reach six overseas territories: Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Reunion Island.
The discovery of French toddler Émile Soleil’s body close to his grandparents’ home in a French Alpine village last week has done little to answer the many questions remaining over the two-year-old’s disappearance.
Bones were found, and subsequent genetic analysis confirmed that they belonged to the 2-year-old child, as announced by the Aix-en-Provence prosecutor’s office.
The toddler had last been seen on 8 July 2023 at 5:15 pm in a small alley in Haut-Vernet, a village with a population of 25, situated two kilometers away from the village of Le Vernet which has a population of 125. At the time of his disappearance, Emile was vacationing with his grandparents. Two neighbors claimed to have spotted him on a street; however, it later turned out that these statements were contradictory.
Since the disappearance, numerous search operations have been conducted, all of which have unfortunately been unsuccessful. Just last Thursday, another attempt was made to push forward in the search. No expense or resource was spared in this small French village. Dozens of individuals, including policemen, investigators, magistrates, and 17 individuals summoned by the justice system, were present on site. Among them were witnesses, Emile’s parents, and grandparents. The events of the day of Emile’s disappearance were meticulously reconstructed once more in the hopes of unraveling the mystery.
Drones flew overhead in the drizzle to capture footage of the re-enactment, but there was no news of any major discovery after the exercise, until the discovery of the bones.
Mystery has surrounded the case for months, prompting a number of theories as to what may have happened to the little boy – with the reason behind his disappearance still unclear.
Experts fear the mystery around the tragic death of two-year-old Émile may never be solved after his remains were discovered eight months after his disappearance from the family’s Alpine home.
‘I fear that whatever we do in this case, it will remain an enigma,’ former top public prosecutor Jacques Dallest admitted, with investigators no closer to working out how the child’s bones and skull turned up near the house after thorough searches.
Burnout, Squat, Macron, Notre Dame, Sudan, Elections in India, Anthony Delon, Flood, Fire, In Amman , Dagar brothers, Iron Dome, Olympic torch, Bishop Emmanuel
Almost 125000 people have been evacuated from areas hit by massive floods in parts of Russia and Kazakhstan where water levels continue to rise.
Russia’s southern Ural region and northern Kazakhstan have been grappling with the worst flooding in living memory after very large snow falls melted swiftly amid heavy rain over land already waterlogged before winter.
That has swelled the tributaries of the Ob, which rises in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia and empties into the Arctic Ocean, beyond bursting point, leaving some cities in Russia and Kazakhstan under water.
“Why has it come to this? No one has done anything for 60 years,” said Alexander Kuprakov, a Petropavl resident, criticizing the government for having made “no investment” in the area to avoid such a situation.
Elena Kurzayeva, a 67-year-old pensioner in Petropavl, told AFP: “I was taken out yesterday and within 15 minutes the water had come in.”
Spring flooding is a regular occurrence but this year, it is much more severe than usual. Scientists agree that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is worsening the risk of extreme weather events such as floods.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said earlier this month that this was the country’s worst natural disaster for the last 80 years.
The Russian emergency services ministry, meanwhile, has predicted that more than 18,000 people could be flooded out of their homes in the Kurgan region, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Water levels in the rivers of Russia’s Siberian Tyumen region could also reach all-time highs, RIA cited governor Alexander Moor as saying on Monday, according to the Reuters news agency.
“Waves of large water are coming towards the Kurgan region, the Tyumen region,” government spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Monday, Reuters said. “A lot of work has been done there, but we know that the water is treacherous, and therefore there is still a danger of flooding vast areas there.”
The fire broke out in the 17th century Dutch Renaissance-style building on Tuesday morning. It was quickly engulfed in flames while thick grey smoke rose above the city in scenes reminiscent of the 2019 blaze at Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral. There were no reports of casualties.
The blaze broke out on the building’s roof during renovations, but police said it was too early to pinpoint the cause. The red-brick building, with its green copper roof and distinctive 56-meter (184-foot) spire in the shape of four intertwined dragon tails, is a major tourist attraction next to Denmark’s parliament, Christiansborg Palace, in the heart of the capital.
Bells tolled and sirens sounded as fire engulfed the spire and sent it crashing onto the building, which was shrouded by scaffolding. Huge billows of smoke rose over downtown Copenhagen and could be seen from southern Sweden, which is separated from the Danish capital by a narrow waterway.
”A piece of Danish history is on fire,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wrote on Instagram, saying that it hurt to see the loss of such “irreplaceable cultural heritage.”
Ambulances were at the scene but there were no reports of casualties.
Firefighters, who reportedly pumped water from a nearby canal, sprayed water through the doorway of the Old Stock Exchange’s gilded hall that is used for gala dinners, conferences and other events and where many paintings were on display.
Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said it was “touching” to see how many people lent their hand “to save art treasures and iconic images from the burning building.” One man jumped off his bicycle to help soon after the fire broke out, and members of the public helped first responders to carry huge works of art to safety.
Among the pieces that had been on display in the building was a huge painting completed in 1895 by Danish artist P.S. Krøyer called, “From Copenhagen Stock Exchange.” No information has been released about which works of art were saved from the blaze, although video footage appeared to show the Krøyer painting being removed.
Brian Mikkelsen, chief of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which is headquartered in the Old Stock Exchange and owns the building, was seen with his staff scrolling through a binder of photos of paintings to be saved. Works were carried to the nearby parliament and national archive building. Rescuers used crowbars and other tools to remove valuables and save them from the fire, Mikkelsen said.
“We have been able to rescue a lot,” a visibly moved Mikkelsen told reporters. “It is a national disaster.”
Jakob Vedsted Andersen, a Greater Copenhagen Fire Department spokesman, said the fire began on the roof Tuesday morning and quickly spread, collapsing parts of the roof and destroying about half of the building. He said no other buildings were at risk but that it could take firefighters 24 hours to secure the scene.
Tim Ole Simonsen, another fire department spokesman, said “the fire started in the part of the building where work has been going on, but that’s all I can say about it.”
René Hansen of the coppersmith company that was renovating the roof told broadcaster TV2 it had 10 people on the roof when the fire alarm went off.
“After five minutes, smoke began to rise from the floor to the ceiling,” Hansen said.
Tommy Laursen of the Copenhagen police said it was too early to say what caused the fire and that officers would be able to enter the building in “a few days.”
Up to 90 members of an army unit were deployed to cordon off the area and “secure valuables,” Denmark’s armed forces said.
King Frederik wrote on Instagram that “an important part of our architectural heritage” was being destroyed. “This morning we woke up to a sad sight,” he wrote.
The exchange was built in 1615 and is considered a leading example of Dutch Renaissance style in Denmark. The Chamber of Commerce moved into the building after Copenhagen’s stock exchange left in 1974.
The roof, masonry, sandstone and spire were being renovated, and Mikkelsen said there had been plans for the royal family, government officials and other dignitaries review the work later this year.
“That won’t happen now,” he said.
The future of the structure was unclear, but Engel-Schmidt, the culture minister, wrote on the social platform X that he would do everything he could “so that the dragon spire will once again tower over Copenhagen,” describing it as “a symbol of Denmark’s strong history as a trading nation.”
The adjacent Christiansborg Palace has burned down several times, and in 1990 a fire broke out in an annex of the Danish parliament, known as Proviantgaarden but the Old Stock Exchange was unscathed.
Police closed a main road in Copenhagen and warned on X that the public should expect the area to be cordoned off for some time. Several bus lines were rerouted and Danish media reported huge traffic jams.
Queen Margrethe, who turned 84 Tuesday, toned down the celebrations because of the fire, broadcaster TV2 said. A band with the Royal Life Guard had been scheduled to play for the former monarch outside the Fredensborg Castle, where she is staying for the spring and summer, but that was canceled.
India is kicking off the world’s largest democratic exercise this Friday, with 969 million registered voters casting the ballot to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament over seven phases starting April 19.
The world’s most populous country has more than 2,500 political parties, but a mere 10 of them currently hold 86 percent of the seats in the Lok Sabha.
Here is a look at the main parties vying for the Lok Sabha seats this year:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP claims to be the world’s largest political organisation, with almost 180 million members.
The BJP was born in 1980 out of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh party, an offshoot of the far-right Hindu nationalist organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The RSS, formed in 1925 along the lines of European ethnonationalism movements and fascist parties, wants India to be defined as a Hindu nation. Today, the secretive men-only organisation is the ideological fountainhead of dozens of Hindu right-wing groups, including the BJP, and counts Modi and many top BJP leaders as its lifetime members.
The BJP was founded shortly after the controversial imposition of a state of emergency by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Congress in 1975. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a prominent Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader, opposed the emergency – a plank that brought a coalition of anti-Congress parties to power in 1977.
But the alliance collapsed in two years due to political infighting and Vajpayee formed the BJP in 1980 with his close aide, Lal Krishna Advani. In 1996, Vajpayee became the first BJP prime minister but his government only lasted 13 days. He returned to power for 13 months in 1998-1999 and then from 1999 to 2004 – the first non-Congress prime minister to serve a complete term.
Modi, 73, born and raised in the western state of Gujarat, has been an RSS member since his 20s. He was also in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh before it became the BJP. Modi rose through the ranks over the years and was the chief minister of Gujarat for more than a decade.
In 2014, Modi led the BJP to form its first-ever majority government on its own and he has been in power since. He is seeking a third term through re-election from Varanasi, a city in the northern Uttar Pradesh state, which holds religious significance for the Hindu majority.
Indian National Congress
Congress is India’s oldest political party, dating back to 1885 when the British ruled over the Indian subcontinent. The “grand old party” has governed India for more than two-thirds of the years since its independence in 1947, with its Western-educated Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru credited with laying its liberal and secular foundations.
Indian National Congress
Congress is India’s oldest political party, dating back to 1885 when the British ruled over the Indian subcontinent. The “grand old party” has governed India for more than two-thirds of the years since its independence in 1947, with its Western-educated Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru credited with laying its liberal and secular foundations.
Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi was India’s first and only female prime minister. The Congress also introduced landmark economic reforms in 1991, making the way for the evolution of an open market economy.
Rahul Gandhi, Modi’s fiercest opponent and Congress’s star campaigner, quit as the party chief after a miserable performance in the last parliamentary polls in 2019. Yet, the 53-year-old four-time parliament member remains at the centre of India’s opposition politics and Modi’s main target
A scion of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty, his father Rajiv Gandhi, grandmother Indira and great-grandfather Nehru were all prime ministers and led the country for more than 37 years.
Gandhi is the main face of the Congress-led 26-member opposition alliance, named the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). He organised two cross-country marches to invigorate his election campaign and tap into discontent over rural distress, unemployment and income inequality.
Gandhi is contesting this year’s election from Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
The Aam Aadmi Party ,or Common Person’s Party, rose from a potent anticorruption movement in 2011 amid protests led by Anna Hazare – a self-styled crusader backed by close aide Arvind Kejriwal. For this election, the AAP is part of the INDIA alliance.
Kejriwal, a staunch Modi critic, founded the AAP in 2012 and formed a state government in the national capital region of Delhi in 2015, staging an unexpected political upset for established parties like the BJP and Congress. Kejriwal has been the chief minister of Delhi since. The party also runs Punjab state.
However, AAP’s prospects this year are clouded by pre-election arrests of several of its high-profile leaders, including Kejriwal, in an alleged corruption case. The party dismisses the allegations as “a desperate attempt to malign the image” of Kejriwal for political gains.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
A strong regional force in India’s south, the DMK is India’s third-largest party in terms of the number of seats it holds in the lower house of parliament.
A Congress ally, DMK also runs the southern state of Tamil Nadu, which boasts of a high literacy rate and other development indices.
All India Trinamool Congress (TMC)
India’s fourth-largest party by seats in parliament, the Trinamool Congress holds power in West Bengal, another state where the BJP has struggled to consolidate its power.
The TMC splintered from the Congress and came into being nearly 25 years ago. The party’s founder, Mamata Banerjee, has been the head of West Bengal state for about 13 years and is now a reluctant Congress ally in fighting the BJP in the 2024 polls. Her party has joined INDIA, but has failed to agree on who will fight from which seat in the eastern state.
One of the TMC candidates for the election is Mahua Moitra, a persistent critic of Modi, who was expelled from parliament last year over bribery allegations
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was attacked at a Sydney church on Monday night, has spoken about the attack and his recovery in a new video.
Bishop Emmanuel called for peace among his community and publicly forgave his attacker.
Police have arrested a 16-year-old boy over the attack.
The bishop who was stabbed at a Sydney church on Monday night says he forgives his attacker and is “doing fine” after undergoing surgery.
The Assyrian Orthodox Christ The Good Shepherd Church posted an update on social media this morning that included an audio recording from the bishop.
A 16-year-old boy has been arrested over the attack and authorities are investigating it as a “terrorist incident”. No charges have been laid.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel said he forgives “whoever has done this act”.
“I will always pray for you. And whoever sent you to do this, I forgive them as well is Jesus’s mighty name,” he said.
In his almost four-minute speech, Bishop Emmanuel reassured his followers he was improving.
“I’m doing fine, recovering very quickly. We thank the Lord Jesus, so there is no need to be worried or concerned,” he said.
Father Daniel Kochou, who also spoke in the video, said Father Isaac Royel, who was also attacked on Monday night was “recovering well”.
He added “nearby church members” who were attacked had also “received special care”.
Father Kochou also said the church “does not condone the activities” that took place outside the church following Bishop Emmanuel’s attack.
“The unfortunate events which took place outside the church caused unnecessary delays and threats to both victims, paramedics and police,” he said.
“There was a large contingent of people who were not members of the church who attended and caused a major disturbance.”
Bishop Emmanuel also told his community to remember the teachings of Jesus Christ and not retaliate and cooperate with police investigating the assault and subsequent unrest outside.
“I need you to act Christ-like. The Lord Jesus never taught us to fight. The Lord Jesus never taught us to retaliate. The Lord Jesus never said to us, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’.”
“I need you to be always law-abiding citizen[s] as well. We need to cooperate with the police directives, whether it be at a state level or a federal level.
“We pray for our country, our beloved country, Australia, and our beautiful city of Sydney.”
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said, after the attack, Bishop Emmanual was “lucky to be alive”.
The 53-year-old, a prominent conservative leader of the Assyrian Orthodox Christ the Good Shepherd Church, underwent surgery after sustaining lacerations to his head from the attack.
If ever there was a red line, Iran crossed it Saturday, launching more than 300 drones, ballistic, and cruise missiles into Israel from its own territory. The Israeli, British, U.S., and Jordanian militaries united to shoot down 99 percent of Iran’s projectiles. But the precedent has been set.
Tehran said it had to take revenge. Israel had just assassinated a top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general along with other commanders. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei apparently decided that doing nothing would show weakness, signaling that Israel could attack its leaders with impunity. Yet, he must have been aware that the course he had chosen risked provoking a larger conflict, especially one involving the United States.
Less than 12 hours after Iran launched its first drone, President Joe Biden publicly suggested that Israel’s “remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks” was a sufficient reaction, while privately expressing concern that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would drag the U.S. into a wider war. Biden told Netanyahu that the U.S. would not support an attack on Iran and that Israel should “take the win” of having blocked 99 percent of the drones and missiles.
Prior to the attack, Israeli officials warned Iran that a direct strike would elicit a direct response. After the attack, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said this equation had not changed. Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz added that Israel would “exact a price from Iran in a way and time that suits us.”
“If this government does not understand its responsibility to restore the element of deterrence and respond with an attack against Iran, it is endangering the future of the state of Israel,” said Israeli Knesset member Tally Gotliv.
An Israeli response could take several forms.
An unnamed security expert told the Israeli newspaper Maariv last week that Israel may use an electromagnetic bomb for the first time ever in central Iran, including targets near nuclear facilities. The bomb, which uses electromagnetic pulses, is not lethal, but could temporarily shut down Tehran’s electrical and communication infrastructure.
Similarly, Israel could launch a cyberattack on Iran’s energy, civil, and military infrastructures. Such an attack could disrupt Iran’s military and economic functions, or even disable them for several days.
But such responses would be unlikely to shake Iran’s confidence or deter similar future attacks. Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton encouraged Israel to take advantage of the tensions to take out Iran’s nuclear program. Iran is just a week away from enriching uranium to the 90 percent level needed for a bomb, according to the Institute for Science and International Security. If it proceeds and builds a nuclear stockpile, it will act as a force multiplier, intimidating the rest of the region. Yet if Israel can destroy Iran’s nuclear program, which is not clear, it would face staunch pushback from the Biden administration.
A more proportional response could take out Iran’s launch sites and weapons warehouses. However, this would force the Israeli air force to refuel in midair, which it cannot do without U.S. assistance. It is extremely unlikely that the United States would support such an operation.
Alternatively, Israel could attack IRGC sites outside of Iran in Syria or Lebanon. However, such strikes outside Iran would only project weakness.
If Israel’s response is weak, it will show that its dependence on Washington has once again hindered its response to a vital security threat. It is likely that Washington will require certain stipulations that would hinder an Israeli counterstrike while also demanding a quid pro quo for helping shoot down missiles and drones in the form of concessions in Gaza. In short, Jerusalem will pay a price for U.S. protection.
This episode reflects the general erosion of U.S. security pledges to allies. In the Middle East, in particular, American deterrence is at its weakest since former President Barack Obama warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that using chemical weapons would be a “red line” triggering a U.S. response, and then balked after Assad crossed that line. Preceding the recent Iran attack, Biden warned Tehran not to strike Israel and rallied other regional leaders to warn the ayatollahs as well.
At the same time, Washington privately told Tehran through Turkish diplomats to keep the attack “within certain limits,” essentially giving the ayatollahs the go-ahead. This is part of a pattern of incoherent U.S. foreign policy that encourages belligerence from enemies such as Iran, Russia, and China.
Should Israel choose to conduct a significant response, it will likely do so alone. This wouldn’t be the first time. After Israel destroyed Iraq’s unfinished nuclear reactor in 1981, Jeane Kirkpatrick, then President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations, condemned the strike in the harshest terms, equating it to the “brutal Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.”
However, such an operation is unlikely. Israel under Netanyahu has become much more dependent on Washington and much less daring in its operations.
There is a lot of blame to go around for Saturday’s attack. Iran has been emboldened by a Biden administration that has continuously sought appeasement as well as by an Israeli security establishment that has refused to hold Tehran directly accountable for the actions of its proxies.
At the same time, the fact that the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia all came together to thwart the Iranian attack is a sign that the region and the West will stand together against Iranian belligerence. This represents one of the largest successes of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East over the past 20 years.
Iran has warned that any response from Israel will elicit an even larger counterstrike. Tehran only used a small percentage of its arsenal in Saturday’s strike, and Hezbollah only fired off an almost symbolic number of Katyusha rockets. Should Iran and Hezbollah join in a wide-scale strike on Israel, the results could be devastating. But in the long run, not responding forcefully would be far worse.
Iran would prefer to go back to the old paradigm of trying to destroy Israel slowly and by proxy.
When a mystery brain disease jumped from cows to humans in 1996, a concerted effort by EU researchers helped to unravel its causes, and change food production for good.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of the disease, the cow becomes unable to function normally. There is conflicting information about the time between infection and onset of symptoms.
Communicated to the general public by the media, the crisis erupted in 1996. It involved both ethical aspects, with consumers becoming aware of certain practices that were common in livestock farming but of which they had been unaware, such as the use of meat and bone meal, and economic aspects, with the ensuing fall in beef consumption and the cost of the various measures adopted.
Lego Ninjago is a Lego theme that was created in 2011 and a flagship brand of The Lego Group. It is the first theme to be based on ninja since the discontinuation of the Lego Ninja theme in 2000. It was produced to coincide with the animated television series Ninjago, which was superseded in 2023 by a new series titled Ninjago: Dragons Rising.
The theme originally focused on a group of six teenage ninja, led by the legendary Green Ninja, Lloyd Garmadon. The ninja characters are “Elemental Masters”, which means that they each possess elemental powers. They are also trained in the fictional martial art of “Spinjitzu” by their ancient and wise teacher, Master Wu, giving them the ability to fight against the forces of evil. In 2023, new characters were introduced for the replacement series.
Ninjago enjoyed phenomenal popularity and success in its first year, and a further two years were commissioned before a planned discontinuation in 2013. However, after a brief hiatus, the line was continued after feedback from fans and has been in production ever since. The Lego Group developed the theme into a media franchise aimed primarily at young boys and pre-teenage boys, which has produced books, video games and theme park attractions. The popularity of the TV series and the toy line resulted in the production of The Lego Ninjago Movie, released in 2017, which was the third film in The Lego Moviefranchise. On January 14, 2021, the Ninjago theme celebrated its tenth anniversary, making it one of The Lego Group’s longest-running and most successful original brands.
The Ninjago line is one of The Lego Group’s most popular brands with young boys. In 2011, the Toy Retailers Association listed the Fire Temple set on its official list of ‘dream toys’ for the festive season, which predicted the 12 products that would be the bestsellers in that year. In September 2011, Marketing Week listed the first wave of Ninjago spinners as one of the top ten bestselling toys of the year. In 2012, toy retailer Toys “R” Us included the Ninjago Epic Dragon Battle set (9450) on its annual Hot Toy List, which it considered to be a cross-section of the best new toys of the season. In the same year, Ninjago ranked as one of the top five Lego properties of 2012, which together accounted for 50 per cent of all construction sets sold in the U.S. in that year. In 2014, the ninth volume in a series of Ninjago graphic novels by Greg Farshteytitled Night of the Nindroids entered The New York Times Graphic Novel Bestseller List at the top position, the eighth volume in a total of 12 to do so, and passed the mark of 2 million sales for the series. In 2015, the Ninjago line was listed as one of the top five bestselling themes in The Lego Group’s Annual Report. In 2016, Toys “R” Us included the Ninjago Samurai X Cave Chaos set (70596) on its list of top toys for Christmas 2016. In the same year, Ninjago was listed as one of the top themes driving revenue in The Lego Group’s 2016 Annual Report. Ninjago was also listed as one of the top selling themes in the 2017 Annual Report. The popularity of the Ninjago theme continued through to 2018, when it was named as one of the year’s best selling themes, despite an overall fall in profits for the company in 2017. In September 2019, Ninjago was listed as one of the top selling themes driving revenue growth in the first half of 2019. Due to the long-term popularity and indefinite continuation of the Ninjago line, the brand is described as an annual evergreen Lego product range. Ernie Estrella for Syfy Wire commented that Lego Ninjago, “is one of Lego’s long running, home-grown franchises, and is arguably its most successful one.”
‘They’re trying to get me gone, but they just can’t. I’m too damn ferocious!’
After more than 9,940 miles (16,000km) over 352 days across 16 countries, Russ Cook, aka the “Hardest Geezer”, has completed the mammoth challenge of running the length of Africa.
The 27-year-old endurance athlete from Worthing, West Sussex, crossed the finish line in Tunisia, and planned to celebrate with a party – as well as a strawberry daiquiri – having raised more than £600,000 for charity.
His achievement, believed to be the first person to run tip to tip from southern to northern Africa, was the more extraordinary given several setbacks including a robbery at gunpoint in Angola, being held by men with machetes in Republic of the Congo, health scares and visa complications.
On 22 April 2023 he set off from South Africa’s most southerly point, Cape Agulhas. By the time he crossed the line at Tunisia’s most northerly point, Ras Angela, he had run the distance of about 376 marathons.
Cook was accompanied on the final leg by supporters who had flown out after following his journey on social media, as he documented his odyssey on X, Instagram and YouTube, with posts amassing millions of views.
He finished to cheers of “Geezer, Geezer” and took a well-deserved dip in the sea, telling Sky News: “I’m a little bit tired.”
Little Émile, Russ Cook, eclipse, youth violence, gold nugget, war on drugs, youth and reading, Benjamin Biolay, Thomas Levy Lasne, Ngondo Samba Sylla, Vahina Giocante, Philippe Lioret,
The family of an Ethiopian man who was among 27 migrants who drowned in 2021 when their boat capsized in the Channel filed a complaint Friday suing the French state in the first such case over the disaster, two groups said.
Utopia 56, a group defending the rights of migrants, and the French Human Rights League (LDH) were among the plaintiffs.
They said it was the first such complaint against the authorities over the November 24, 2021, disaster, the worst accident in the sea strait since it became a key route for migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia attempting to reach England from France.
The wife and two children of Fikeru Shiferaw, an Ethiopian who hoped to seek asylum in the United Kingdom, filed the request for damages with a court in the northern city of Lille, they said in a statement.
LDH president Patrick Baudouin said they were taking part to remind people “that these tragedies have a universal reach that we could remedy by ending deadly policies of non-assistance at sea”.
Nikolai Posner, of Utopia 56, said they hoped the families of other victims would join the lawsuit.
A pregnant woman and three children were among the 27 people killed when the inflatable boat they were travelling on started to take in water and capsized. Two people survived and four remain missing.
French authorities have been accused of failing to respond to around 15 calls for help, and prosecutors last year charged seven military personnel for failing to assist persons in danger.
Le Monde newspaper on Friday said the French inquiry showed that a French military boat patrolling the waters was not monitoring Channel 16, the international distress frequency, on which the British rescue centre had issued “Mayday” calls to help the boat.
Its crew also ignored three distress signals that did make it through via their radio, with one officer saying after the coordinates of the sinking boat were shared that it was on “the English” side, it said.
Passengers, a large part of whom were Iraqi Kurds, contacted France’s Channel rescue centre at 1:48 am on November 24 to say their vessel was deflating and its engine had stopped, Le Monde reported last year.
They sent their locations via WhatsApp around 15 minutes later.
According to one transcript of a telephone conversation seen by AFP, a migrant told the French coastguard on the phone: “Please help… I’m in the water!”
“Yes — but you are in English waters,” the coastguard replied.
A French schoolboy died from wounds sustained in a violent assault, as President Emmanuel Macron warned schools should be protected from “uninhibited violence” among some youths.
The 15-year-old teenager was badly beaten near his school in a town south of Paris and rushed to hospital following a cardiac arrest.
He died of his wounds this afternoon, a prosecutor said.
It was the second such assault after a 13-year-old girl was left temporarily comatose after being attacked outside her school in the southern city of Montpellier on Tuesday.
Both incidents come at a time of heightened tensions around French schools after threats of attacks were sent to dozens of educational establishments via an internal messaging system.
“We have a form of uninhibited violence among our teenagers and sometimes among increasingly younger ones,” Macron said earlier in the day as he visited a primary school in Paris.
“Schools need to be shielded from this,” he said, adding they should “remain a sanctuary for our children, for their families, for our teachers.”
“We will be intransigent against all forms of violence,” he said. He however added it was now up to the investigators to shed light on both incidents.
“This extreme violence is becoming commonplace,” he added.
Last week a teenage girl was attacked outside her school in the southern city of Montpellier.
Prosecutors said the girl, identified as Samara, had emerged from a coma but was “seriously injured”.
Three alleged attackers, including a girl from the same school in the city’s low-income area of La Mosson-La Paillade, have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a minor.
“Each of them admits to having hit the victim,” prosecutor Fabrice Belargent said today, adding that the oldest of the three – a 15-year-old – would remain in temporary detention.
“It seems the assault came in the context of a group of teenagers who were used to insulting each other on social media,” Belargent said.
He made no reference to religion as a factor.
Samara’s mother had told media that her 13-year-old daughter had been bullied by a fellow pupil, raising the possibility this could have been over her behaviour and clothing being deemed un-Islamic.
But fellow pupils at the school said yesterday that the girl who took part in the assault had accused Samara of posting a picture of her with an insult on social media.
“In Marseille and other cities in France, we have launched an unprecedented operation to put a stop to drug trafficking and ensure republican order,”
More than 190 people were arrested in one day as part of a vast anti-drug sting operation coordinated by the French police. Roughly 25 kilograms of cannabis and over one kilogram of cocaine were seized, police said.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said officers searched residences, roads and highways in the northern cities of Lille, Villeneuve-d’Ascq and Roubaix. Authorities would continue the raids “to hit very hard,” he said.
Darmanin said 15,000 police, gendarmes and customs officials were mobilised weekly for the work. Over 20 kilograms of unspecified drugs, 385,0000 euros and four weapons were seized during the first three days of the operation.
The first searches took place last week in the southern city of Marseille.
President Emmanuel Macron described the efforts as “unprecedented” while adding there would be 10 more in the coming weeks
It comes as the federal government commits to a tough on crime position ahead of the mid-year European elections. Some critics have linked the centrist government’s recent efforts to boost its chances at the polling booths andstave off the threat of the far-right.
Author of novels drawing on African and Caribbean history enjoyed international acclaim, including the New Academy prize, which stood in for the Nobel in 2018
Maryse Condé, the Guadeloupean author of more than 20 novels, activist, academic and sole winner of the New Academy prize in literature, has died aged 90.
Condé, whose books include Segu and Hérémakhonon was regarded as a giant of the West Indies, writing frankly – as both a novelist and essayist – of colonialism, sexuality and the black diaspora, and introduced readers around the world to a wealth of African and Caribbean history.
Writing of the “unputdownable and unforgettable” epic Segu, Booker winner Bernardine Evaristo praised her as “an extraordinary storyteller”, while author Justin Torres wrote: “One is never on steady ground with Condé; she is not an ideologue, and hers is not the kind of liberal, safe, down-the-line morality that leaves the reader unimplicated.”
Alain Mabanckou, the award-winning Congolese writer and professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, wrote on X that Condé was the “Grande Dame of World Letters” and had bequeathed a body of work “driven by the quest for a humanism based on the ramifications of our identities and the fractures in history”
Born Maryse Boucolon in Guadeloupe in 1934, the youngest of eight children, Condé described herself as a “spoilt child … oblivious to the outside world”. Her parents, she told the Guardian, never taught her about slavery and “were convinced France was the best place in the world”. She went to Paris at 16 for her education, but was expelled from school after two years: “When I came to study in France I discovered people’s prejudices. People believed I was inferior just because I was black. I had to prove to them I was gifted and to show to everybody that the colour of my skin didn’t matter – what matters is in your brain and in your heart.”
Studying at the Sorbonne, she began to learn about African history and slavery from fellow students and found sympathy with the Communist movement. She became pregnant after an affair with Haitian activist Jean Dominique. In 1958, she married the Guinean actor Mamadou Condé, a decision she later admitted was a means of regaining status as a black single mother. Within months their relationship was strained, and Condé moved to the Ivory Coast, spending the next decade in various African countries including Guinea, Senegal, Mali and Ghana, mixing with Che Guevera, Malcolm X, Julius Nyerere, Maya Angelou, future Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and Senegalese film-maker and author Ousmane Sembène.
Unable to speak local languages and presumed to hold francophile sympathies, Condé struggled to find her place in Africa. “I know now just how badly prepared I was to encounter Africa,” she would later say. “I had a very romantic vision, and I just wasn’t prepared, either politically or socially.” She remained outspoken until she was accused of subversive activity in Ghana and deported to London, where she worked as a BBC producer for two years. She eventually returned to France and earned her MA and PhD in comparative literature at Paris-Sorbonne University in 1975.
Her debut novel, Hérémakhonon, was published in 1976, with Condé saying she waited until she was nearly 40 because she “didn’t have confidence in myself and did not dare present my writing to the outside world”. The novel follows a Paris-educated Guadeloupean woman, who realises that her struggle to locate her identity is an internal journey, rather than a geographical one. Condé later recalled the Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo telling her: “Africa … has codes that are easy to understand. It’s because you’re looking for something else … a land that is a foil that would allow you to be what you dream of being. And on that level, nobody can help you.” “I think she may have been right,” Condé later wrote.
In 1981, she divorced her husband after a long separation and, the following year she married one of her English-language translators, Richard Philcox.
She gainedprominence as a contemporary Caribbean writer with her third novel, Segu, in 1984. The novel follows the life of Dousika Traore, a royal adviser in the titular African kingdom in the late-18th century, who must deal with encroaching challenges from religion, colonisation and the slave trade over six decades. It was a bestseller and praised as “the most significant novel about black Africa published in many a year” by the New York Times.
The next year she published a sequel, The Children of Segu, and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach in the US. Over the coming decades, she would become a prolific writer of children’s books, plays and essays, including, in 1986, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, based on the story of an American slave who was tried for witchcraft; Tree of Life in 1987; Crossing the Mangrove in 1989; Windward Heights, a Caribbean retelling of Wuthering Heights, in 1995; Desirada in 1997; The Belle Créole in 2001; The Story of the Cannibal Woman in 2003; and Victorie: My Mother’s Mother, in which she reconstructed the life of her illiterate grandmother, in 2006.
After teaching in New York, Los Angeles and Berkeley, Condé retired in 2005. She wrote two memoirs: 2001’s Tales from the Heart: True Stories from My Childhood, and in 2017, What is Africa to Me? She was awarded France’s Legion of Honour in 2004, and shortlisted for the Man Booker International prize, then a lifetime achievement award, in 2015. When she won the New Academy prize, the one-off award intended to replace the Nobel prize in literature when it was cancelled in 2018, she described herself as “very happy and proud”.
“But please allow me to share it with my family, my friends and above all the people of Guadeloupe, who will be thrilled and touched seeing me receive this prize,” she said. “We are such a small country, only mentioned when there are hurricanes or earthquakes and things like that. Now we are so happy to be recognised for something else.”
In her final years, she lived in the south of France with Philcox. Her novel The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana, translated into English in 2020, explores the dangers of binary thinking through the lives of two twins. Her eyesight became too bad for her to write unassisted, so she wrote her last books by dictating to a friend.
Her last novel, The Gospel According to the New World, published in 2021 and translated into English in March 2023, was shortlisted for the International Booker prize. The novel follows the journey of a baby rumoured to be the child of God.
Writing, she once wrote, “has has given me enormous joy. I would rather compare it to a compulsion, somewhat scary, whose cause I have never been able to unravel.”
Since 1996, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC; Congo) has been embroiled in violence that has killed between 6 and 10 million people. The conflict has been the world’s bloodiest since World War II. The First and Second Congo Wars, which sparked the violence, involved multiple foreign armies, ad hoc militia groups, and investors from Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad, Libya, and Sudan, among others, and has been so devastating that it is sometimes called the “African World War.”
Fighting continues in the eastern parts of the country, destroying infrastructure, causing physical and psychological damage to civilians, and creating human rights violations on a massive scale. Rape is being used as a weapon of war, and large-scale plunder and murder are also occurring in efforts to displace people from resource-rich land.
Today, most of the fighting is taking place in the regions of North and South Kivu, on the DRC/Rwanda border. Some fighting is political, resulting from unrest caused by Hutu refugees from the 1994 Rwandan genocide now living in DRC, while other fighting results from an international demand for natural resources. DRC has large quantities of gold, copper, diamonds, and coltan (a mineral widely used in cell phones and other small electronics), which many parties desire to control for monetary reasons. However, funds from the sales of these resources has not reached average citizens. Currently the education, healthcare, legal, and road systems are in shambles.
In 2006, the DRC held its first multi-party elections in over 40 years, and over 25 million citizens participated. The elections signified the end of a three-year transition period during which time the country moved from intense war to a system of power sharing between the former government, former armed forces, opposition parties, and civil society. Elections were held again in 2011 when Joseph Kabila was re-elected in a vote disputed by the opposition and deemed flawed by international observers. The most recent elections were in 2018, when Félix Tshisekedi won the presidency. Though disputed by many, President Tshisekedi’s election was the first peaceful transfer of power in the DRC’s history.
The government of the DRC continues to struggle to function. National and local structures cannot ensure basic security for communities, and are not transparent about how the country’s resources and wealth are managed. These government structures have also been unsuccessful in addressing severe problems with corruption, poverty, lack of development, and heightened ethnic and regional tensions.
In the eastern part of the country (Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces), the war never actually ended. A range of armed forces, including the Congolese military, called the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), continue to perpetrate violence against the civilian population. They have participated in forced displacement, abductions, looting, forceful recruitment and use of child soldiers, and rampant sexual violence. Instead of safeguarding the Congolese people, the FARDC has been accused of committing widespread atrocities and establishing criminal networks in eastern Congo. Ethnic hostility is widespread, much of it stemming from Belgian colonialism and the Rwandan genocide, and is fed by inter-group violence and competition for resources. The result has been the creation of an environment where groups fear their existence is under threat and engage in preemptive attacks against each other. In this complex situation, multiple armed forces, including the national armed forces and various militias, prey on the civilian population. Among the most brutal of the armed forces are the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group whose leadership is associated with the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
In 2023 a significant trend has reshaped the landscape of the fast food industry: the rise of the pizza vending machine. This innovative concept isn’t just a novelty; it’s a strategic business move that’s changing how companies approach quick-service dining. Let’s look at some of the players in this burgeoning field, including PizzaForno, as well as some of the challenges and environmental considerations of operating a pizza vending machine.
PizzaForno, a leading name in automated pizza technology, has been at the forefront of the pizza vending machine revolution. Recognizing the increasing demand for convenience and quality, PizzaForno has installed numerous pizza vending machines — that bake pizza in less than three minutes — in high-traffic areas. The brand recently announced its latest expansion into Mexico, marking its second international breakthrough in the last two years.
Its business model focuses on minimizing overhead costs while maximizing customer reach. Unlike traditional restaurants, these machines require no staff, reducing labor costs significantly. Additionally, the use of high-quality ingredients and advanced cooking technology ensures a gourmet experience, attracting a broad customer base.
Food and beverage giant Nestlé has also ventured into the realm of pizza vending machines. Leveraging its extensive distribution network and brand recognition, it has introduced vending machines under its DiGiorno brand that offer an array of pizzas, also baked in around three minutes.
Nestlé’s strategy revolves around tapping into existing markets where they already have a strong presence. In the summer, DiGiorno began trialing two “pizza kiosk” sites, one located in a Walmart in Colorado and the other on Nestlé’s campus in Ohio. These sizable machines are equipped with a commercial-grade oven and stock frozen, pre-made, 10-inch thin-crust pizzas in two classic flavors: Cheese and Pepperoni.
As the popularity of pizza vending machines grows, new players are entering the market, intensifying competition. Companies are investing in research and development to innovate and improve the functionality and variety offered by these machines. Some are experimenting with customizations, allowing customers to choose their toppings, while others focus on speed, delivering a pizza in just a few minutes.
The success of pizza vending machines relies heavily on technological advancements. Modern machines are equipped with state-of-the-art ovens and refrigeration systems, ensuring fresh ingredients and consistent cooking quality. Furthermore, the integration of digital payments and user-friendly interfaces enhances customer experience, making the process of ordering a pizza as simple as using an ATM.
Despite the lucrative prospects, operating these machines comes with its own set of challenges. Ensuring a consistent supply of fresh ingredients, maintaining the machines and addressing technical glitches are some of the operational hurdles. Companies are tackling these issues by partnering with local suppliers for fresh produce and setting up dedicated maintenance teams for regular servicing of the machines.
In an era where sustainability is crucial, especially in the food industry, companies operating pizza vending machines are also focusing on eco-friendly practices. This includes using biodegradable packaging, sourcing ingredients from sustainable farms and investing in energy-efficient machines.
This year marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the fast food industry with the rise of pizza vending machines. Companies like PizzaForno and Nestlé are not only reaping the benefits of this trend but are also shaping the future of quick-service dining. As technology advances and consumer preferences evolve, pizza vending machines are poised to become a staple in the fast food landscape.
In Auchan stores in Yvelines, the “historic” strike continues
They don’t intend to give up anything. A week after their first walkout, employees of Auchan stores of the Yvelines once again expressed their dissatisfaction this Friday March 29, 2024.
This unprecedented social movement in the history of the mass distribution brand follows the failure of the NAO (Mandatory Annual Negotiations) carried out within the company since January 2024. The unions are demanding an increase of 5% salaries while management offers between 1.3 and 1.5% salary increase.
“A fed-up employee”
At the hypermarket Pleasure nearly a hundred employees marched in the morning through the aisles of the store and the shopping mall at the call of the inter-union (CFDT, CFTC, CGT, FO).
“It’s historic at Auchan. We have already had strikes but never inter-union. This shows that all employees are fed up. » Reyhan Genc, CFTC union representative of the Maurepas-Rambouillet living area and employee at Auchan Plaisir
The trade unionist denounces “achievements which are regressing or disappearing. We are not well paid, we hardly have any bonuses anymore… And their salary increase proposals do not even cover inflation. »
More than 150 sites affected
The strikers, however, thought they had struck hard with this first action on March 22, bringing together thousands of employees in more than 150 sites throughout France. “We hoped that the national leadership would understand and hear us. But that didn’t change anything, regrets Reyhan Genc. It’s a shame they don’t take this into account. »
Françoise Hardy is a pop and fashion icon celebrated as a French national treasure. With her signature breathy alto, she was one of the earliest and most definitive French participants in the yé-yé movement (a style of pop music that initially emerged from Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal before spreading to France in the early 1960s). She is one of only a few female vocalists who could or would write and perform her own material. She offered a startling contrast to the boy’s club of French pop in the early ’60s, paving the way for literally thousands of women all over the globe. Known for romantically nostalgic songs and melancholy lyrics, Hardy’s first single, “Tous Les Garçons et les Filles,” sold over two million copies and made her a European star overnight. Outside music, Hardy also established herself as a fashion model, actress, astrologer, and author. Though she has recorded songs in several languages, it was her early French tunes — that ranged across pop, jazz, blues, and more — that helped to establish her as a legend. In the ’70s, she reinvented herself as an artist transcending teen-friendly pop to interpret songs by everyone from Leonard Cohen to Patrick Modiano and has remained a grande dame of French popular song ever since.
Hardy was born in Paris in 1944. She and her sister were raised by a single mom who made a meager living as an accountant’s assistant. Money was always in short supply. After graduating from high school, she was given a guitar by her absent father — he had to be convinced by her mother to purchase it. As a teen she was influenced heavily by French chanson, especially the music of Charles Trenet and Cora Vaucaire. Thanks to the pervasive reach of Radio Luxembourg, she also found inspiration in the music of English-speaking singers such as Paul Anka, the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, and Connie Francis. While attending the Sorbonne to study political science and Germanic languages, she answered a newspaper notice advertising for young singers. Hardy failed that first audition, but she was inspired to attend others. She auditioned a bit later for the French Vogue label and signed her first recording contract at the end of 1961. She was 17. In April of the following year, she left university and released her first record, “Oh Oh Chéri,” written by Johnny Hallyday’s creative team. The flipside was her own composition “Tous Les Garçons et les Filles.” Riding the emergent French wave of yé-yé introduced to the country by songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, the recording was a smash, selling over two million copies. In 1963, she took fifth place (for Monaco) in the Eurovision Song Contest with “L’amour s’en Va” and was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque. Soon she was on the cover of virtually every top music magazine. It was while working on a photo shoot for a magazine that Hardy would meet photographer Jean-Marie Perier, who transformed her image from a shy schoolgirl into a cultural trend setter. He became not only her lover but also the greatest influence on her early career. Their shoot established her as a fashion icon as well as a pop star, and Perier persuaded Hardy to model. Because of her place in pop music, he was able to persuade top designers including Paco Rabanne, Chanel, and Yves Saint-Laurent to adopt her as a model. French director Roger Vadim offered her a prime role in Château en Suède; the experience only increased her national popularity, but her heart was in music not cinema. In 1963 she sang at the L’Olympia Theatre in Paris for the first time as an opening act for yé-yé singer Richard Anthony. She stole she show. Her debut album was essentially an umbrella for her singles and sold exceptionally well, and the recording won the Prix de l’Académie Charles-Cros and Trophée de la Télévision Française awards. In 1965, she tried film again, this time Jean-Daniel Pollet’s Une Balle Au Cœur. Released in February of 1966, her performance drew raves from critics and audiences alike. Hardy’s reputation as a singer spread across Europe and soon she was spending time with artists ranging from the Beatles and Mick Jagger to Bob Dylan (the latter once refused to play his second set at L’Olympia until she showed up). She quickly became her country’s most exportable pop star, releasing ten albums between 1962 and 1968.
Perier and Hardy ended their romance in 1967, the stress and strain of a jet-set lifestyle was beginning to take its toll. That said, she met songwriter and pop star Jacques Dutronc the same year and fell in love — they wed in 1981. After massive whirlwind tours of Europe, she cut her sophomore outing, Ma Jeunesse Fout L’Camp, which was issued in 1968, just before the curtain fell on yé-yé in France. That same year she gave a farewell performance at London’s famed Savoy and seemingly retired from the stage to concentrate on her recording career. This caused friction with her label and resulted in a court battle from which she emerged free but wary of all future business dealings. Hardy carefully considered her next step. In 1970, as a nod to her fans in Switzerland and Germany, she released the German-language Träume for United Artists. But it was a stop-gap. 1971’s self-titled offering for Sonopress, written in collaboration with female Brazilian guitarist Tuca, was her first mature outing and featured the singles “Chanson d’O” and “La Question.” While it didn’t do well commercially, it remains the singer’s favorite recording and the one that established her as an influence on later generations. She didn’t care about the relatively poor sales; she considered it an artistic achievement, and history has proven her correct. The new decade also helped establish Hardy as burgeoning professional astrologer. In the summer of 1973 she gave birth to a son with Dutronc. Amazingly, the couple, not yet married, didn’t live together until well after their child was born.
Hardy signed to the North American Warner Brothers label late in the year, and proceeded to record Message Personnel with producer Michael Berger. The pair disagreed on many things during the sessions, but its title track single became one of her most beloved songs. In the spring of 1974 she worked with French violinist, composer, and singer Catherine Lara and English producer Del Newman for Entr’Acte. The album was only a moderate success commercially, but has since become one of her most beloved among fans. Hardy abandoned fashion in 1974, and all but left music for two years to concentrate on being a mother. She did write and record “Que Vas-Tu Faire” for the soundtrack of Claude Lelouch’s film Si C’était à Refaire. (It was arranged by Jean-Michel Jarre.)
Through a friend, Hardy met Gabriel Yared, a great fan of her music. He offered to produce and arrange a new album for her. Entitled Star, the set featured excellent material by herself, Michel Jonasz, Gainsbourg, William Sheller, Janis Ian, and Lara; it proved a commercial and critical success. Issued by Pathé-Marconi, Star revealed a different side of the singer, establishing her with a second generation of younger fans. The record sold exceptionally well and brought Hardy back to the forefront of French popular music. In all, the singer and producer/arranger cut four very successful albums together including J’Ecoute de la Musique Saoule (1978), Gin Tonic (1980), and A Suivre (1982, that was also the first of her albums to feature the talents of songwriter Jean Claude Vannier). The latter album featured two chart-topping singles in “Tamalou” and “Villégiature.” Fans have argued for decades that the album would have been even more successful had she resumed touring, but Hardy was far more concerned with astrology and motherhood. Over the next two years, she released only two new singles while her label focused on issuing compilations. In 1988 she issued Décalage. Announced as her final recording, her lyrics were set to music by name writers including William Sheller, Etienne Daho, and husband Dutronc. Interestingly, while it has developed a reputation as one of her finest records, it was greeted with only middling praise at the time. Apparently, fans expected more from a grand finale.
Her retirement proved short-lived. In 1992, she recorded the duet “Si Ca Fait Mal” with songwriter Alain Lubrano, a young singer/songwriter from the south of France. The topic, about love, sex, and AIDS, was cut for the AIDS fund-raising compilation album Urgence. She later re-recorded it as one of her own singles — again with Lubrano. In 1995, Hardy signed with Virgin Records. Le Danger, her debut for the label, appeared in 1996 and established her as a pop star — at the age of 52 — in the U.K. Hardy co-wrote all 13 songs, enlisting help from Lubrano and Rodolphe Burger (Kat Onoma). Deeply influenced by the alternative music scene — especially the music of Portishead — Hardy again reinvented her sound as a totally modern brand of indie pop. The album was successful beyond her dreams; she appeared at the BBC on radio and television, on John Peel’s program and eventually guested on recordings by Malcolm McLaren and Blur.
Hardy crowned the new century with her second Virgin album, Clair-Obscur, in 2000. The set was marked by a wide range of songs from composers ranging from Django Reinhardt, Lubrano, and Daho to Eric Clapton and Don Everly. It also included a pair of critically regarded duets in “Puisque Vous Partez en Voyage” with Dutronc, and “I’ll Be Seeing You” with Iggy Pop. In 2004, she issued Tant de Belles Choses, with songs by Lubrano, Benjamin Biolay, Thierry Stremler, and Jacno (Denis Quilliard of Stinky Toys fame). She also enlisted assistance from English singer/songwriter Ben Christophers and Irish songwriter Perry Blake. Her son, Thomas Dutronc, produced and/or played guitar on four tracks. Two years later she issued Parenthèses, a collection of duets with material from her back catalog. Her collaborators included Alain Bashung, Biolay, Rodolphe Burger, Maurane, Arthur H, and French film star Alain Delon. She also recorded with her husband and son at the same time — a first. The set’s first hit single was a version of “Partir Quand Même” with Julio Iglesias. Not touring left Hardy plenty of time for pursuits other than music and astrology, including writing. In 2008, Editions Robert Laffront published her memoir entitled Le Désespoir des Singes et Autres Bagatelles (The Monkey’s Despair and Other Trifles). The book became an instant best-seller. Hardy didn’t rest, however, and in 2010 issued the album La Pluie Sans Parapluie. She penned all the lyrics herself and collaborated on the music with Lubrano, Ben Christophers, Pascale Daniel, Stremler, and others. Rather than the cool, wry wit and melancholy that was her trademark, this set offered listeners a different portrait of the singer, one more sensitive and intimate. Two years later, Hardy celebrated her 50th anniversary in music with both a novel (her first) and an album that shared the title L’Amour Fou. She was also battling cancer of the lymphatic system and designated it her last album. She again composed all the lyrics with assistance on the music side from Stremler, Calogero, Benoît Carré (Lilicub) and Julien Doré. Dominique Blanc-Francard and Bénédicte Schmitt co-produced the recording.
While Hardy hasn’t set any sales records with her post-millennial output, virtually all of her recordings did well enough to remain commercially viable and enhance her legend. In the aftermath of publication and release of L’Amour Fou, the singer was absent for nearly five years. After its release she became ill while undergoing chemo and eventually ended up in a coma for eight days. While recovering and continuing to undergo treatment, she had little to no interest in recording again — that is, until she heard the song “Sleep” by the Finnish band Poets of the Fall. She played for producer and songwriter Erick Benzi (Celine Dion), who loved it. As a response, he sent Hardy several melodies of his own, inspiring her to pen lyrics for them. French indie songwriter La Grande Sophie (Sophie Huriaux) knew she had started writing again and emailed Hardy the song “Le Large.” Other composers who contributed were Pascale Daniel and Yael Naim, who gave her “You’re My Home.” When Hardy began recording with Benzi, the sessions went uncharacteristically smoothly, resulting in the album Personne d’Autre. Preceded by the single “Le Large”–which was also released as a video directed by François Ozon — the full-length was released in Europe and the U.S. in April of 2018.
When the largest earthquake in Taiwan in half a century struck off its east coast, the buildings in the closest city, Hualien, swayed and rocked. As more than 300 aftershocks rocked the island over the next 24 hours to Thursday morning, the buildings shook again and again.
But for the most part, they stood.
Even the two buildings that suffered the most damage remained largely intact, allowing residents to climb to safety out the windows of upper stories. One of them, the rounded, red brick Uranus Building, which leaned precariously after its first floors collapsed, was mostly drawing curious onlookers.
The building is a reminder of how much Taiwan has prepared for disasters like the magnitude-7.4 earthquake that jolted the island on Wednesday. Perhaps because of improvements in building codes, greater public awareness and highly trained search-and-rescue operations — and, likely, a dose of good luck — the casualty figures were relatively low. By Thursday, 10 people had died and more than 1,000 others were injured. Several dozen were missing.
“Similar level earthquakes in other societies have killed far more people,” said Daniel Aldrich, a director of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University. Of Taiwan, he added: “And most of these deaths, it seems, have come from rock slides and boulders, rather than building collapses.”
Across the island, rail traffic had resumed by Thursday, including trains to Hualien. Workers who had been stuck in a rock quarry were lifted out by helicopter. Roads were slowly being repaired. Hundreds of people were stranded at a hotel near a national park because of a blocked road, but they were visited by rescuers and medics.
Since the 2018 earthquake of magnitude 6.4, in which seven people died, local authorities have strengthened coordination with government units and non-governmental organisations for disaster response and relief.
Taiwan is no stranger to earthquakes, being located near the junction of two tectonic plates, and many are concentrated along the picturesque, mainly rural and sparsely populated east coast. The region is also a major draw for tourists with its rugged mountains, hot spring resorts and tranquil farms.
That 1999 quake, commonly referred to as the “921 quake” as it hit on Sept. 21, was a spur for the government to revise building codes and strengthen disaster management laws.
Yet Tai Yun-fa, a structural engineer who runs Taiwan’s Alfa Safe that develops quake-resistant building materials, said that while a tightening of building codes had helped better prepare the island for disaster, some developers were still cutting corners.
Since the 2018 earthquake of magnitude 6.4, in which seven people died, Chang said local authorities have strengthened coordination with government units and non-governmental organisations for disaster response and relief.
In Hualien, Donna Wu, deputy director of the county branch of The Mustard Seed Mission, a Christian group, said the response in 2018 had been chaotic and they had learned their lesson.
Taiwan has another compelling reason to ready its response – the potential for attack from China, which has been ramping up military and political pressure to try and force Taiwan’s democratically-elected government to give in to Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
The earthquake alert system, with its piercing alarm sounding on mobile phones, is the same one the government would use to warn of an impending Chinese air raid.
Taiwan holds its Min’an civil defence drills annually, nominally to focus on natural disasters, though last year it also covered how to respond to the aftermath of a Chinese attack as part of those exercises.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs, which only began operating in 2022 and has been leading the charge to ensure the resilience of communication networks, reported largely unaffected networks after the latest quake, especially internet services.
Sandra Oudkirk, the de facto U.S. ambassador to Taiwan, praised the response in a message to the Taiwanese people carried on Facebook. “Taiwan has demonstrated a successful model of disaster prevention, disaster management, and humanitarian rescue to communities around the world,” she wrote.
Le journal du peintre 2 