Have you been off the news a bit over the past two days? We summarize the main information to remember.
In Sainte-Soline, many injured in clashes during a demonstration against the mega-basin project
Some 30,000 demonstrators according to the organizers (6,000 according to the prefecture at the start of the day), from all over France and abroad, converged on Saturday March 25 towards the small towns of Melle and Vanzay to protest against the project of mega-basin in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres). The mobilization quickly degenerated into violent clashes between the demonstrators and the police.
The Niort prosecutor’s office confirmed on Sunday that a protester was between life and death. An investigation has been opened “to determine the exact nature” serious injuries to three protesters in total and “the circumstances in which” these people were injured, prosecutor Julien Wattebled said in a press release.
The latest report from the authorities reports twenty-nine injured among the gendarmes, including two serious, and seven among the demonstrators, including three seriously. Fifteen arrests have taken place since Friday, with twelve police custody. The gendarmes used 4,000 grenades, including tear gas and others for disencirclement, as well as shots from defense bullet launchers (LBD).
For their part, the demonstrators report 200 injuries: three would be in absolute emergency, including one for whom the diagnosis is reserved, confirmed, Sunday, the parquet floor of Niort. The demonstrators, who traveled a total of fifteen kilometers across fields, faced incessant grenade fire. The clashes also resulted in the burning of police vehicles.
The organizers and witnesses also accused the security forces of having hindered the action of the relief workers. According to observers commissioned by the League for Human Rights (LDH), the SAMU affirmed “not being able to intervene when the command had given them the order not to do so”. Asked about this, the Deux-Sèvres prefecture explained that “to facilitate and secure the arrival of help” the gendarmes first find them at a specific point to then escort them “to the danger zone”.
A GIGN gendarme shot dead in Guyana
A gendarme from the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) was shot dead in Guyana while taking part in an operation to combat illegal gold panning, we learned on Saturday. The 35-year-old soldier was in operation on the gold panning site of Dorlin, in central Guyana, where this illegal activity is the source of significant pollution.
Emmanuel Macron expressed “his great emotion” after the policeman’s murder. The head of state “Salutes the courage and the memory of this non-commissioned officer, fallen under fire, engaged since 2009 within the national gendarmerie and who served at the GIGN antenna in Cayenne since 2019”, wrote the Presidency of the Republic in a press release. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, expressed her “sadness” and addressed his “condolences to his family, his loved ones, his comrades and all the gendarmerie”.
The army and the gendarmerie regularly carry out major operations to dismantle illegal gold panning sites as part of Operation “Harpie”, launched in 2008 by Nicolas Sarkozy. From the end of October to the beginning of December 2022, up to five hundred soldiers were mobilized for seven weeks in order to “neutralize” the main clandestine gold mining sites.
Moscow to deploy ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons in Belarus
Vladimir Putin assured on Saturday that Moscow would deploy nuclear weapons “tactics” on the territory of its ally, Belarus, a country located at the gates of the European Union. “There is nothing unusual here: the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies”Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian television. “We have agreed to do the same”he added, saying he had the Minsk agreement.
The world
Special offer
Unlimited access to all our content from 10,99 €5.49/month for 1 year.
Benefit
The Russian head of state has also threatened to use shells containing depleted uranium in Ukraine if kyiv were to receive them from the West, as was recently mentioned by a British official. “Russia, of course, has something to answer for. We have, without exaggeration, hundreds of thousands of such shells. We are not using them at the moment”he warned.
kyiv, through the voice of its secretary of the national security council, Oleksi Danilov, estimated on Sunday on Twitter what “the Kremlin has taken Belarus as a nuclear hostage”. And to add that this decision is a “step towards the international destabilization of the country”. The announcement of the Russian President “maximizes the level of negative perception and public rejection of Russia and Mr. Putin in Belarusian society”also suggests Mr. Danilov.
In the United States, the spokesman for the National Security Council, John Kirby, assured that Washington had no “no indication [que Vladimir Poutine] fulfilled its commitment or that no nuclear weapons were transferred”. “In fact, we have no indication that he intends to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine”the spokesperson added.
At least 25 people killed after the passage of a tornado in the United States
Twenty-five people died on Saturday morning after devastating tornadoes ripped through Mississippi, a southern state in the United States, tearing off roofs, smashing cars and leveling entire neighborhoods. The bad weather also caused dozens of injuries, according to the Mississippi State emergency services (Msema). Search and rescue teams were still on the job to find victims.
In Rolling Fork, a town of some 2,000 people in central Mississippi, footage Saturday morning showed entire rows of homes torn from their meager foundations, streets littered with debris and cars flipped on their roofs. “My town no longer exists”Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker told CNN.
US President Joe Biden on Sunday ordered the deployment of federal aid, which is used for short-term housing, repairs and soft loans to cover uninsured property losses. In a previous press release, he had mentioned images “heartbreaking” and assured that the Federal State would “everything he can to help”, “as long as it takes”.
The end of the systematic printing of the receipt again postponed
The end of the systematic printing of receipts, which was to be effective from 1is April, has been postponed again due to inflation, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said on Sunday. Scheduled to come into force from 1is January 2023, this measure had already been postponed to 1is avril.
“We consider that the moment is not the right one for the measure to come into force”declared the office of Olivia Grégoire, Minister Delegate in particular for Trade, in the Sunday edition of the Parisian. “We have feedback from the field, we are discussing with consumer associations, with large retailers, who tell us that, faced with inflation, many French people want to check the accuracy of the amount of the shopping they do”, continues the firm. According to Bercy, a new date should be announced at the beginning of the week.
The Anti-waste and circular economy law, passed in 2020, provided for the ending of the printing of receipts at the end of a commercial transaction, unless explicitly requested by the customer, with the aim of reducing waste production. But, since this law, the high inflation, especially on prices in supermarkets, has made it more frequent for consumers to consult the receipt.
And also
Disappearance. Gordon Moore, co-founder of semiconductor manufacturer Intel, dies
Justice. A centrist elected official indicted for drug trafficking and possession of child pornography
Police violence. The dissolution of the BRAV-M is “not on the agenda”, according to the prefect of police
Retreats. Emmanuel Macron will receive Elisabeth Borne and the heads of parliamentary groups on Monday
Women’s Rugby. The French start their Six Nations Tournament with a painful success against Italy
