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France’s Brigitte Macron backs uniforms for schools

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France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, has stated that she thinks requiring kids to wear uniforms could help address social inequalities among French students.  She claimed that by not purchasing branded clothing, students would also save time getting dressed and money.

She made these remarks as the National Assembly of France was debating a law that, if it were to succeed, would require uniforms in public schools.  Pap Ndiaye, the minister of education, declared he would oppose the proposal.

Previously, Ms. Macron worked as a teacher in a school in northern France. The bill’s sponsor, French far-right National Rally member Roger Chudeau, wants all public schools to have branded uniforms.

His suggestion is that a uniform may eliminate the social divides between pupils that can be exacerbated by apparel. However, it also asserts that a mandatory uniform might stop the introduction of religious or ethnic dress in classrooms.

In a tweet, Mr. Chudeau thanked Ms. Macron for supporting his school uniforms bill and asserted that France’s secular education system was coming under increasing attack. He added: “Let’s hope MPs will vote in favour of this legislation approved by two-thirds of French people.”

The first lady was criticised by left-leaning MPs for endorsing the “backward-looking proposal” of the extreme right.

The education minister, however, asserted that he disagreed with the idea of legal uniform requirements. Instead, he asserted that individual institutions could decide to impose uniform requirements.

In France, public schools are free and open to all students, whereas private schools charge tuition, are frequently selective, and may impose uniform requirements on their students.

Smocks were typically worn at school until the 1960s in order to protect children’s clothing from ink stains. When ballpoint pens were introduced, they were gradually phased out.

However, schools in the French Caribbean regions of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana, as well as a few military high schools, continue to require uniforms.

Ms. Macron has been outspoken about the need to end cyberbullying and online bullying, and one of her videos urging immediate action on the issue will start a meeting of the Unesco in 2021.

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Lützerath eviction: German police drag climate protesters from coal village

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Climate activists who have been occupying an abandoned village in western Germany for months are being dragged away by police in riot gear. To stop the adjoining Garzweiler open coal mine from engulfing Lützerath, protesters shut themselves inside.

As the police started to evacuate the camp, several protesters hurled rocks and fireworks at them. In an effort to make the eviction more challenging, protesters climbed into treehouses.

The final resident of the village, which is owned by the energy company RWE, left over a year ago. As police in riot gear invaded the village early on Wednesday to remove the demonstrators, there were bloody altercations.

They pulled a few protesters through the muddy ground, several of whom had scarves covering their faces. The atmosphere was afterwards characterised as being calmer, but numerous demonstrators persisted.

Others have retreated to treehouses or the village rooftops, while others have created human chains. Lützerath is practically about to be engulfed by the enormous open coal mine that is right outside its door. The mine is run by RWE, who also has expansion ambitions. At the edge of the settlement, a massive mechanical digger stands a few metres from the treeline.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the mine is located, has promised to advance the phase-out of coal to 2030. The country’s goal is 2038.

Police are currently surrounding Lützerath, and one of them told the media this morning that the area would be cleansed.

However, the demonstrators are still adamant about delaying the eviction and the village’s apparent doom for as long as they can.

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Ukraine war: Russia controls most of destroyed salt mine town, Soledar, says UK

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After a protracted conflict with Ukrainian forces, the majority of the salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine is “possibly” now under Russian control, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

In the last four days, Russian troops and the mercenary Wagner Group, according to the UK, have advanced. Soledar is close to Bakhmut, the scene of another violent conflict with Ukraine.

According to President Zelensky, Soledar had “no full walls left” and “virtually no life.” He added, “The entire terrain around Soledar is littered with the occupiers’ corpses.”

Oledar, which prior to the conflict had a population of about 10,000, may be considered primarily as a stepping stone to seizing Bakhmut, and its strategic worth is debatable.

The creator of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, seeks ownership of the region’s significant salt and gypsum mines, a US official claimed last week.

The 200 km long abandoned tunnels were the subject of some fighting, according to the UK, and both Russia and Ukraine “are likely concerned that they could be exploited for infiltration behind their lines.”

Mr. Prigozhin has acknowledged his interest in the mines, referring to them as “the icing on the cake” for the Bakhmut region’s strategic importance.

He described them as a “network of underground cities” that can hold “a big group of people at a depth of 80-100 metres”, and can also allow tanks and other military vehicles to move freely.

Due to Ukraine’s “solid defence lines,” Russia is “unlikely” to soon seize Bakhmut, according to Britain.

Soledar is currently in Russian hands, according to a senior military officer from the US Department of Defense, who stated this on Monday.

Since Bakhmut has been the scene of fighting for months, the US source referred to the most recent skirmishes as “savage.” Two British nationals who were last spotted travelling to Soledar have vanished in the area.

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M3GAN: Horror robot doll turns meme fame into box office success

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Last year, fans flocked to reproduce and modify a nasty and sassy dance routine from the trailer of the horror movie M3GAN, about an AI doll who appears to be sweet.

Following that, it has now outperformed forecasts at the North American box office in its first weekend of release. Over the weekend, the movie brought in $30.2m (£24.9m), much exceeding projections of between $17m and $20m (£14m to £16.5m).

“Word-of-mouth is through the roof,” said Jim Orr from its studio Universal.

That put M3GAN second in the US and Canada box office chart behind Avatar: The Way of Water, which took another $45m (£37m) as it became the seventh highest-grossing movie in history.

Model 3 Generative Android, also known as M3GAN, is programmed to guard and befriend an eight-year-old girl whose parents were murdered in a vehicle accident.

When M3GAN starts to take its responsibility to protect young Cady extremely seriously, it quickly transforms from its initially harmless personality into one that is more frightening.

When the trailer first debuted in October, fans focused on one scene in particular: the blank-faced M3GAN performing a cutesy but terrifying dance before approaching another victim.

With alternative soundtracks from Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Megan Thee Stallion—who gave her namesake her seal of approval—that was quickly converted into a meme, and fans also replicated it themselves.

On TikTok, videos with the hashtags #M3gan, #M3gandance, and #M3ganmovie have received a total of 1.5 billion views.

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Meghan Markle Misled Oprah Viewers About Kate Middleton Feud, Says Prince Harry

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In his autobiography “Spare,” Prince Harry admitted that his wife Meghan Markle mislead viewers during their dramatic 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview.

According to the Duke of Sussex, his wife mislead viewers about the reason behind their argument with Kate Middleton. She attempted to blame Kate Middleton for the argument over the flower girls’ gowns, but the royal sister-in-law was also unhappy at a remark made by Meghan, according to the New York Post.


According to Page Six, the Princess of Wales was offended when Meghan said that she “must have a baby brain because of her hormones” in his tell-all novel. They weren’t close enough, Kate said to Meghan, for her to be making statements like that.

US Weekly cited an excerpt from the book, and quoted Harry as having written, “Meg asked if Kate was aware of what was going on right now. With her father. Kate said she was well aware, but the dresses were. ‘And the wedding is in four days!’” “A short time later I arrived home and found Meg on the floor. Sobbing,” Harry continued but noted that Kate didn’t mean ‘harm’. “I was horrified to see [Meghan] so upset, but I didn’t think it was a catastrophe… Indeed the next morning Kate came by with flowers and a card that said she was sorry.”

The former “Suits” actor revealed during the 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey that tabloids erroneously reported she caused Kate Middleton to weep during an altercation over flower girl outfits for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018.

The Duchess of Sussex stated, “The narrative with Kate, which didn’t happen, was terrible and something that I believe, that’s when everything shifted, really,” in the shocking interview with Oprah. “No, no, the reverse happened,” she continued. At that time, Meghan Markle claimed that although her sister-in-law had made peace, she was still furious over something.

William, the heir to the throne, has not spoken publicly, but UK media said that the brothers’ conflict had grown so acrimonious that it was doubtful they could ever mend fences.

In interview snippets and media leaks from his new memoirs “Spare,” Harry claimed that while he and his brothers always had a competitive relationship, things were tense because of his marriage to Meghan, an American former television actress, in 2018.

Harry complained to ITV in Britain that the royal family was treating him and Meghan like “villains” and that he wanted his brother back.

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Filippo Bernardini: Italian admits stealing unpublished books

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A man from Italy has admitted to stealing over 1,000 unpublished manuscripts, many of which were written by well-known authors. Filippo Bernardini pretended to be prominent members of the publishing community to dupe people into turning over their work.

He made advantage of his insider knowledge of the business from his time working for Simon & Schuster, a major publisher in London. Although Bernardini, 30, admitted to wire fraud in New York, his motivation was never made explicit.

Neither manuscripts nor demands for ransom were discovered to have been leaked online. The FBI detained Bernardini in January of last year, and his conviction looks to put an end to a mystery that has perplexed the literary community for years, with novelists like Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, and Sally Rooney among those targeted.

From 2016, according to the prosecution, he registered more than 160 phoney internet domains.

In order to obtain manuscripts of books by authors including Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood, phishing scams using slightly altered official-looking email accounts were used to target agents, editors, and Booker Prize judges.

Atwood said there had been “concerted attempts to steal the manuscript” of her book The Testaments before it was published in a 2019 interview with The Bookseller.

“There were lots of phoney emails from people trying to winkle even just three pages, even just anything,” she noted.

Daniel Sandström, editor of Swedish publisher Albert Bonniers Förlag, who was among those targeted, said it was difficult to know what the motivation for the scam was.

“The literary answer to that question, I think, I mean somebody was doing it for the thrill of it and there’s a psychological enigma at the bottom of this story,” he told the BBC.

“A less romanticised answer would be that… this was somebody who liked to feel important and pulling strings, and that this was a trick in order to achieve that.”

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Legendary surfer Márcio Freire, known as “Mad Dogs,” killed in Portugal’s massive waves

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Márcio Freire, a legend of Brazilian surfing, passed away while riding the massive waves in Nazaré, off the coast of Portugal. On Thursday, the 47-year-old injured himself while practicing.

In the 2016 documentary Mad Dogs about an attempt to ride Hawaii’s enormous “Jaws” wave, Freire was one of three pioneering Brazilian surfers featured.

In order to surf the largest and most hazardous waves in the world, he had relocated to the US state.

Freire reportedly crashed while practicing tow-in surfing, which involves using a Jet Ski or other form of artificial help to catch waves that are moving more quickly than they would be able to if they were paddling by hand.

He was brought back to the beach, where rescuers discovered him in cardio-respiratory arrest. Unable to be revived, he was declared dead at the spot, according to a statement from Portugal’s National Maritime Authority.

In the surfing fraternity, Freire was regarded as a big-wave pioneer who traveled the globe to surf enormous waves.

On social media, condolences have been pouring in. Nic von Rupp, a professional big-wave surfer, was the first to do so in an Instagram story:

The Nazaré Canyon on the seabed off the coast of Portugal is responsible for some of the largest and most dangerous waves in the world, which are present in the region where Freire perished.

Sebastian Steudtner, a German surfer, established the world record for thebiggest wave ever surfed in October 2020.

Several accidents have occurred there but until Thursday, none had ever been fatal.

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Pope Hails Benedict During Solemn Funeral for Being “Intelligent, Tender”

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In order to preside over the burial of his predecessor, who resigned from the papacy in 2013, Pope Francis has joined pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. As Pope Benedict XVI’s body was taken out and positioned on the steps of St. Peter’s cathedral in the Vatican, the dome was veiled in mist.

The believers who had gathered for the funeral applauded. Benedict was then buried beneath the basilica in a tomb. Cardinals in red robes, nuns, and monks in their dark robes were among the clergy from all over the world who had arrived. In a wheelchair, Pope Francis was wheeled out onto the dais.

The Sistine Chapel choir’s Latin songs resounded all over the area. The atmosphere was sombre and reserved.

A teacher named Daniele told me the weather was appropriate for the occasion after he and the former pope had met in a church in Rome. Pope Benedict’s enigma, the mystery of life and death, is symbolised by the fog.

Pope Francis talked of “knowledge, love and devotion that he showered upon us through the years” at the Mass, which was celebrated by cardinals, bishops, and priests.

“Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom,” he said referring to Jesus, “may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever.”

Police estimate that 50,000 people attended the funeral. Italy and Germany, the country of the late Pope Benedict, both sent official delegations. The king and queen of Belgium attended in a private capacity, as did several heads of state.

With Benedict’s passing, the extraordinary situation of a pope and a previous pope coexisting in the Vatican comes to an end. This position was made possible by Benedict’s resignation almost ten years ago.

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Romeo and Juliet: Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting sue over 1968 film’s ‘sexual abuse’

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Romeo and Juliet’s Oscar-winning 1968 cast members are suing Paramount Pictures for alleged sexual abuse related to a sequence in which they participated in naked behaviour. When they made the movie, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey were both young adults.

The English performers, who are now in their 70s, claim in a recent court case that director Franco Zeffirelli persuaded them to do naked scenes despite earlier promises that they wouldn’t have to. The claim has not received a public response from Paramount yet.

Based on the hardship they claim to have gone through and the money the movie has made since its premiere, the two actors are requesting damages totaling more than $500 million (£417 million).

They assert that Zeffirelli, who passed away in 2019, promised them at first that they would wear underwear with a flesh tone in the bedroom scene.

However, they claim the director informed them they would only wear body makeup the morning of the shoot and assured them the camera would be placed so as to not capture nudity.

Hussey’s exposed breasts and Whiting’s bare buttocks were briefly displayed during the scene in the finished movie.

According to their lawsuit, Zeffirelli instructed them to perform in the naked position “otherwise the picture would fail” and harm their careers. The performers “felt they had no choice but to perform in the body painted as required”

Whiting was then aged 16 and is now 72, while Hussey was 15 when the film was shot and is now 71.

The two are suing Paramount for fraud, sexual assault, and harassment. The Hollywood studio is charged in the lawsuit of sexually abusing the two young performers and disseminating pictures of young youngsters in their underwear.

According to the court document, Whiting and Hussey have endured years of emotional distress and mental suffering as a result of how they were handled. The movie was a tremendous hit when it came out and has since been viewed by countless students who are studying the Shakespeare play.

It was nominated for four Oscars—two of which were for best costume design and cinematography—including best director and best picture.

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Snow shortage threatens Alps with wet winter season

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The Adelboden resort in Switzerland has been holding its breath as temperatures touched a record high of 20C on January 1st, the hottest recorded north of the Alps.  The normal snowy slopes were actually dirt and grass, raising concerns about whether the ski World Cup would go place the following weekend.

It was warm even at 2,000 metres (6,500 feet), which is above freezing. In the end, it was decided to use the renowned Chuenisbärgli piste for the major slalom competitions.

It required an army of snow cannons and a little drop in temperature at the top of the run to make it happen. However, they will be skiing on synthetic snow when the best male skiers in the world sprint across the finish line.

The start of the ski season has been seriously hampered by the extremely warm and rainy weather across the Alps.

It’s called a snow scarcity or Schneemangel in German. Additionally, there is a term for when there is an abundance of snow: das Weisse Gold, or white gold. It serves as a reminder of how many mountain communities rely on winter sports for their economic survival. They are being forced to reconsider in January.

The ski resorts near Salzburg last received snow in Austria a month ago. Due to a lack of water to feed them, the snow cannon at Chamonix, France, are not in service. Some resorts in Switzerland have even begun to expose their summer bicycle routes in lieu of attempting to offer winter sports. Others have simply stopped operating their ski lifts.

Experts on climate suggest that we shouldn’t be shocked by the weather this January. Winters will get warmer and wetter due to global warming, they have long predicted. The rate at which ski resorts lose their viability, however, appears to be increasing, much like the Alpine glaciers’ diminishing.

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