News Trending

French Government Implements Controversial Pension Reforms Despite Protests and Strikes

By 221 0

French President Emmanuel Macron has signed the controversial pension reforms into law, increasing the state pension age from 62 to 64. The move came after the Constitutional Council approved the changes, rejecting opposition calls for a referendum but also removing some aspects of the reforms due to legal flaws.

The reforms have faced strong opposition, with protests and strikes occurring for twelve days since January. The approval of the reforms has led to further protests and unrest in Paris, with 112 people arrested.

Unions have vowed to continue their opposition, calling for more demonstrations on 1 May. President Macron has defended the reforms as necessary to prevent the pension system from collapsing, and the government used special powers to implement the changes in March.

Trade unions made a final appeal to President Macron not to sign the pension-age increase into law following the Constitutional Court’s ruling. They argued that the rejected concessions made the reforms even more unbalanced.

The court struck down some of the reforms, including the “senior index” which encouraged companies to employ workers over 55. In response, Olivier Dussopt, Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, promised to improve employment rates for those over 50 to ease concerns about the financial impact of the raised retirement age.

Despite a ban on protests outside the Constitutional Council building, demonstrators gathered nearby and jeered at the ruling.

Following the signing of the pension reforms into law, protesters expressed their intent to continue their demonstrations until the changes were withdrawn. Riots broke out in Paris, with several fires being set across the city, and police using tear gas to control the situation.

The police arrested 112 people. There were also protests in Rennes and Nantes, with fires being lit during the demonstrations. In Lyon, there were tense standoffs between protesters and police.

A protester named Lucy, aged 21, expressed her disappointment, saying that no one is listening to them despite their efforts to raise their voices. She vowed to continue protesting.

French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne tweeted that there were no winners or losers following the signing of the pension reforms into law. While the Constitutional Council rejected an initial bid for a referendum on the reforms, it will consider another proposal for a national vote by the left next month.

According to French political analyst Antoine Bristielle, the protests that have taken place across France for the past three months are unlikely to end soon. He noted that despite the expected approval of the reforms, there is still significant opposition to the changes, with 70% of the French population against them. Bristielle predicted that there will be more riots and strikes in the country in the coming hours and over the weekend.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright

News Trending

Anne Perry: Murderer turned crime writer dies aged 84

By 253 0

Anne Perry, a crime author, who was convicted for helping to murder her friend’s mother when she was 15, has passed away at the age of 84. Perry served five years in prison for bludgeoning Honorah Mary Parker to death in 1954 in Christchurch, New Zealand.

She was known as Juliet Hulme at the time and later adopted the name Anne Perry as her pen name for her writing career. Perry’s declining health had been ongoing for several months after suffering a heart attack in December.

Her agent confirmed her death, which was the inspiration for Peter Jackson’s 1994 film, Heavenly Creatures, featuring Kate Winslet. The murder plot was discovered through journals found by the police.

Honorah Mary Parker was bludgeoned to death with a brick about 20 times, and during the trial, it was revealed that the two teenage girls had planned the murder to avoid separation when Perry’s parents were sending her abroad.

Perry, who was 16 at the time, was supposed to go to South Africa to live with relatives, and the girls believed that Parker’s mother would interfere with their plan. As both girls were under 18 years old at the time of the murder, they were not eligible for the death penalty and were sentenced to prison instead.

Anne Perry was born in Blackheath, London, in October 1938, and after moving to the Bahamas at eight years old, she settled in New Zealand. She had a difficult childhood due to illness, and as a result, she missed a lot of school and was fostered. After her release from prison for her involvement in the murder, Perry returned to the UK and briefly worked as a flight attendant.

She later converted to Mormonism and lived in a small Scottish village called Portmahomack. Perry’s writing career started with the publication of her first novel, The Cater Street Hangman, in 1979. She authored numerous novels that were part of different series and sold 25 million copies worldwide.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright

News Trending

The plan to make a giant hot water bottle underground

By 255 0

During the Cold War, Sweden stored 300,000 cubic metres of oil in caverns beneath the city of Västerås, in case of a war that could cut off their energy supplies. Recently, Swedish energy company Mälarenergi has decided to clean and repurpose the caverns as a large underground hot water tank that can hold up to 120 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

This project will create the largest underground thermos in Europe and will be filled with hot water reaching up to 95C. The location of the caverns remains undisclosed, but Lisa Granström, acting head of business unit heat and power, says that the caverns are warmer and damper than expected and still smell a bit oily. The new underground tank will be 11 times bigger than the largest above-ground hot water tank Mälarenergi currently has nearby.

Experts suggest that we should make more use of below-ground heat storage systems, like the one being developed by Mälarenergi in Västerås, as a means of caching warmth for later use. The heat from the underground hot water tank will be transmitted to a district heating network that provides heat to almost all households in the city.

The company plans to start filling the caverns with hot water by the end of the year, providing up to 500MW of district heating power. The heat comes from a nearby power plant that burns waste or biomass to generate electricity or thermal energy, but carbon capture technology is yet to be installed. The underground reservoir will help Mälarenergi maintain the heat supply to homes during peak demand in winter without reducing electricity production at the power plant.

Storing heat underground is effective due to the insulating properties of the ground, which makes it difficult for heat to escape. Mälarenergi’s caverns are expected to retain heat for several weeks, and the heat loss will be minimal once the adjacent ground temperature rises after a few years.

In London, the clay surrounding the tunnels on the Underground has been heated by people and trains, making it challenging to cool down tube carriages and platforms. The Västerås project is not the first of its kind, as a similar system in Finland supplies heat to 25,000 apartments all year round. Fleur Loveridge at the University of Leeds praises the cavern solutions as a great option among others for energy storage.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright

News Trending

ESA’s Juice Mission: Exploring Jupiter’s Moons to Unlock the Mysteries of Life Beyond Earth

By 220 0

On Thursday, the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch a highly ambitious mission, sending a satellite to Jupiter’s major moons – Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede – which are believed to contain oceans of liquid water beneath their icy surfaces. The ESA hopes to determine if the conditions on these moons could potentially support life. The eight-year journey to Jupiter is one of the most challenging and complex missions ever attempted by the organization.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission aims to investigate whether the hidden oceans on Jupiter’s moons, which are believed to contain liquid water, could sustain simple microbial organisms. Although Juice is not equipped to detect life or send back images of any potential organisms, it could help scientists determine whether the moons have the necessary conditions to support life.

Professor Carole Mundell, the director of science at ESA, notes that microbial life exists in extreme environments on Earth, and there is no reason to believe it cannot exist elsewhere in similar conditions. The mission aims to study these conditions on Jupiter’s moons.

Juice will conduct 35 close passes of Jupiter’s moons, getting as close as 400km to their surfaces, before eventually entering orbit around Ganymede. The spacecraft is equipped with ten instruments, including cameras, particle detectors, a radar, and a lidar for making 3D maps of surface terrain.

However, the magnetometer provided by Imperial College London could provide the most significant data. This instrument will help scientists determine the properties of the moons’ hidden oceans, including their depth, salt content, and contact with the rocky mantle.

This information, along with observations from other instruments, could reveal if there is organic material on the moons’ surfaces and provide insight into their interior structures.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright

News Trending War

Pentagon Leaks Reveal Discord Among Russian Officials Over Ukraine War’s Death Toll

By 200 0

Recently leaked US documents have brought to light that disputes within Russia’s security apparatus have led to the country’s defence ministry being accused of intentionally undercounting the number of casualties resulting from the Ukraine conflict.

Publicly, Russia has been reticent about disclosing the extent of its losses during the conflict. However, according to the leaked files, the FSB security service claimed that officials were neglecting to include the deaths of various groups, including the Russian National Guard and Wagner mercenaries. The Russian government has dismissed the leaks as potentially fabricated and purposely disseminated by the US.

Nevertheless, the documents provide additional evidence to support the already established notion that there have been frequent disagreements between Russia’s military and security entities regarding the management of the Ukraine war and that Russia has refrained from publicising the actual figures regarding deaths and injuries.

The FSB’s estimation of nearly 110,000 casualties in February, as reported in the leaked documents, is still considerably lower than the figures disclosed in previous US leaks this week.

According to those documents, the number of Russian losses ranges between 189,500 and 223,000, with 35,500-43,000 men killed in action. Russia’s most recent official casualty count dates back to September 2022, when officials confirmed the deaths of 5,937 servicemen.

The leaked documents suggest that the military’s reluctance to communicate negative news to higher-ups is demonstrated by its underreporting of casualties within the system. This has led some commentators to speculate that President Vladimir Putin has been shielded from the true extent of Russia’s losses on the battlefield.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright

News Trending War

Ukraine conflict: President Zelensky condemns beheading video

By 204 0

The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has urged world leaders to respond after a video emerged showing a Ukrainian soldier allegedly being beheaded by a Russian serviceman. The Ukrainian security service is investigating the incident as a “war crime”, while the Kremlin has called the video “awful” but said that its authenticity and the identity of those involved must be verified.

The graphic video, filmed on a mobile phone during the summer months, shows a man wearing a yellow armband, commonly used by Ukrainian soldiers, being beheaded by a man in military uniform wearing a white band, which is used as identification by Russian soldiers. The men can be heard speaking Russian, but it is unclear whether they are Russian soldiers or Ukrainians who speak Russian.

The graphic video shows a man with a yellow armband being beheaded by a man wearing a white band around his leg. The victim’s body armour has a trident mark, which is the state symbol of Ukraine, and also features what appears to be the Punisher symbol, a comic-book character. The location and date of the video remain unclear, as there are few visual clues to identify it.

However, it appears to have been filmed during the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia, where white and yellow armbands have been used as identification by opposing sides. The leaves in the video suggest that it may have been filmed in late spring or summer of last year. The video began circulating on Telegram after a pro-Kremlin blogger shared it with his followers.

After a pro-Kremlin blogger shared the video on Telegram, it spread to Twitter, and the authenticity of the video was called into question by the Kremlin, which said it needed to be verified. The EU foreign affairs spokeswoman emphasized that Russia must comply with international humanitarian law, and perpetrators of war crimes must be held accountable. Another video has also been circulating, showing a destroyed military vehicle and two bodies without heads or hands, which may suggest an alleged beheading. The victims appear to have been fighting on the Ukrainian side, and at least three soldiers can be seen standing over the bodies in the video.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright

News Trending

Italy declares state of emergency to address influx of migrant boats

By 205 0

The Italian government has declared a six-month state of emergency in response to an increase in the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa. The move will release €5m in funds and comes as 3,000 migrants arrived in just three days, with many landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Since Friday, the coastguard has rescued around 2,000 people, but 400 people on a fishing boat are still awaiting assistance. Despite attempts by Italy’s right-wing coalition government to tackle irregular migration, migrant arrivals have surged compared to the same period last year.

Over the weekend, at least four people died and 20 more were missing after two migrant boats sank off Tunisia. German aid group ResQship rescued 22 survivors and took them to Lampedusa.

Tunisia has recently become the largest departure point for migrant boats, leading to a series of incidents off the coast, including a disaster on Saturday in which at least four people died. Lampedusa, an Italian island, is located 185km away from the Tunisian port of Sfax. Sea and Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci has reported a 300% increase in migrant flows, calling it an “absolute emergency” that puts Italy’s infrastructure at risk.

However, the minister stressed that the state of emergency alone would not solve the problem and that responsible intervention by the European Union was required.

The extra funding released by the Italian government will reportedly allow officials to speed up reception procedures and the repatriation of those who are not allowed to remain in Italy. It is unclear how the measure will address the rising numbers of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

The Italian coastguard is escorting two boats in the Ionian Sea off Sicily, with one boat carrying around 400 people believed to have set out from Tobruk in Libya. The rescue mission is being hampered by difficult sea conditions, and an unofficial hotline for migrants called Alarm Phone reported that the boat was experiencing medical emergencies, water filling the vessel, and no fuel left.

The situation was described as dramatic. A second boat carrying around 800 people is also under coastguard escort, with no information about where it set out from. The boat was found adrift in Maltese waters, and an urgent alarm was raised with the authorities of Italy, Greece, and Malta.

German non-governmental organisation Sea-Watch International reported that two merchant vessels near the boat had been ordered not to help with rescue efforts by Malta while the boat was in Maltese waters.

According to monitoring group IOM Missing Migrants Project, over 26,000 people have died or gone missing at sea in the Central Mediterranean since 2014. The Armed Forces of Malta stated that “no rescue was requested by the people on board”.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright

News Trending

Vladimir Putin Suffers From “Blurred Vision And Numb Tongue”, Doctors Panic Over His Health: Report

By 235 0

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has been in the news frequently since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict last year. According to a fresh report, the Russian President’s health has gotten worse, causing “great pain in his brain, blurred eyesight, and paralysis of the tongue,” according to Metro. This puts doctors in a state of worry.

The latest development occurs while many rumours regarding the Russian President’s declining health condition are circulating.

The General SVR Telegram channel, a Russian publication that has been making allegations about Putin’s ill health, issued the most recent assertions regarding the Russian President’s health.

Putin also claimed “partial loss of sensation in his right arm and leg,” according to the report, necessitating immediate medical attention. Also, a council of medical professionals administered first aid and gave Putin the go-ahead to take medication and take a few days off.

The Russian president reportedly declined to take a nap and requested information about his country’s invasion of Ukraine.

”The president’s relatives were more worried, For them such a sharp deterioration in Vladimir Putin’s health caused a nervous reaction, more like panic. The temporary sharp deterioration in the president’s health has already made those closest to him tense. The sudden death of Putin will put them all in front of the unknown, or rather, on the brink of survival,” said General SVR.

A video showing the President moving his feet in an odd way in February 2023 added to health worries. As seen in various videos posted on social media, the Russian President struggled to control his twitching feet during his meeting with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

Both Parkinson’s disease and cancer are reportedly being treated for by the Russian president, according to the Spanish news outlet Marca. In stolen Kremlin emails, a security service insider provided confirmation of this “I can affirm that he has Parkinson’s disease in its early stages, but it is already advancing. This reality would be concealed and denied in every manner imaginable “According to the site, the insider had stated in the emails.

The Russian minister and the Kremlin, however, have repeatedly refuted medical assessments and asserted that the Russian president is in excellent condition.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright

News Trending

Pierre Lacotte: French dancer who helped Rudolf Nureyev defect dies

By 175 0

The legendary Rudolf Nureyev was helped by French ballet choreographer Pierre Lacotte, who died at the age of 91. Ghislaine Thesmar, his wife and a retired main dancer, stated, “Our Pierre departed us at 4:00 am.”

In 1961, Lacotte assisted Nureyev in eluding Soviet investigators in Paris so he could seek refuge at the city’s Le Bourget airport. In the Ralph Fiennes-directed film The White Crow from 2018, his part in the well-known defection was recalled.

According to Ms. Thesmar, her spouse passed away as a result of a septic cut. As a young man, Lacotte began his professional career with the Paris Opera Ballet before focusing on the resurrection of long-forgotten 19th-century works.

He met Nureyev in 1961 while he was on tour in Paris, and they became friends. Lacotte said to the BBC in 2012 that he went on multiple tours with Nureyev of the city’s eateries, bars, and museums.

As a result, Nureyev was informed that he would be sent home by the KGB agents who were travelling with him. Nureyev thought he wouldn’t be permitted to leave the country once more.

At the airport, Nureyev begged Lacotte to stay at his side but was mobbed by KGB agents. Clara Saint, a socialite, and Lacotte requested the agents if they might bid their friend goodbye before he went.

“I said, listen Rudolf, look behind me there is Clara Saint, and behind Clara Saint is a policeman. You just have to come to him. You kiss me, you kiss Clara and you say you want to be free. And it’s done,” Lacotte said.

“I said don’t be afraid, stay quiet and do as I say.”

Nureyev then made a dash towards two French police and declared that he wished to remain in the West.

Despite being recognised as one of the greatest dancers of his era, Nureyev and his family paid a heavy price. He was only allowed back to the USSR more than 25 years later when his mother was dying, while his Soviet friends’ careers were made to suffer.

Lacotte focused his emphasis on the 1968 Paris Opera archives after suffering an ankle ailment.

These included La Sylphide, which debuted in 1832 and was the first ballet to be performed entirely “en pointe,” or with the dancers standing on the tips of their toes.

The Red and the Black, a 2021 production that was based on the 1830 novel by French author Stendhal, was his final piece of work. His wife said that he was still employed at the age of 91.

“That makes me sad. He was still working on a book and has several other projects “Added she.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright

News Trending War

“Putin Called Me A War Criminal So He’s Not My Best Friend”: Elon Musk

By 199 0

Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, clarified that Vladimir Putin labelled him a “war criminal” and added that he is “not exactly my greatest friend” with Putin. The second-richest person in the world tweeted this in response to a user who questioned why Russian authorities were permitted to use the social media site. The user, Anonymous Operations, provided a screenshot of Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president, who claimed that Ukraine will “vanish” because “no one needs it” in a tweet. The user tagged Elon Musk and questioned why he had permitted Russian officials to re-enter the site.

“I’m told Putin called me a war criminal for helping Ukraine, so he’s not exactly my best friend. All news is to some degree propaganda. Let people decide for themselves,” Mr Musk said in his reply.

The tweet divided users, with some arguing “it’s important to allow everyone to speak freely” and others saying “truth in its pure form is only found in mathematics and empirical engineering”.

Twitter is no longer limiting the reach of Russian official media organisations, according to a story published by The Telegraph on Friday.

Additionally, it noted that Twitter’s timeline, search results, and recommendation tools “are showing Mr. Putin’s presidential account, the Russian Foreign Ministry, and its UK Embassy – all of which had restrictions placed on them when hostilities broke out.”

Mr. Musk has repeatedly shared his thoughts on the war in Russia and Ukraine throughout the crisis. He received credit from Mr. Putin’s advisors for putting out a peace proposal that the West rejected but was seen as favourable by the Russians.
Yet, Mr. Musk received criticism from Russian media in January after his business, SpaceX, gave the Ukrainian military more than 20,000 Starlink satellites.

Vladimir Solovyov, a host on Russian official television, referred to Elon Musk as a “war criminal” during the same conversation. The Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs’ advisor Anton Gerashchenko shared a translated version of the video on Twitter.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright