PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday defended his rude remarks about the country’s minority of vaccine refusers, saying he cannot accept them infringing on others’ freedom.
The 44-year-old outspoken president, who is expected to seek re-election later this year, made headlines earlier this week by using the word “emmerder” — a vulgar French word meaning to rile or to bug.
He was talking about his strategy for pressuring vaccine refusers to get coronavirus jabs. His vulgar language dominated news broadcasts and provoked angry reactions from his political rivals.
Speaking in a news conference in Paris, Macron acknowledged the term may have upset some, but said he takes full responsibility for it.
“When some make from their freedom ... a motto, not only do they put others’ lives at risk, but they are also curtailing others’ freedom. That I cannot accept,” he said in reference to unvaccinated people. “When you are a citizen you must agree to do your civic duty.”
Like much of Europe, France is in the grip of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, recording an average of more than 200.000 new cases per day. On Friday, health authorities noted 328,214 confirmed new infections.
The rapid spread of omicron has put a strain on the already over-burdened hospitals, and some pharmacies are running out of home test kits the government distributes for free to children in an effort to slow infections so classes can stay open.
France’s strategy is to “vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” he insisted, as the country reported this week Europe’s highest-ever single-day confirmed infection count. About 77 percent of the population, including more than 91 percent of adults, are fully vaccinated.
Macron also advocated for the new vaccine pass to encourage more people to get the vaccine by restricting the social life of those non vaccinated.
The measure will exclude unvaccinated individuals from places such as restaurants, cinemas, theaters, museums and sports arenas. The pass will also be required on inter-regional trains and buses, and on domestic flights.
The bill is to be debated at the Senate next week. The government hopes to put it in place around mid-January.
Macron defends his rude remarks about France’s unvaccinated
https://arab.news/ph2zd
Macron defends his rude remarks about France’s unvaccinated
- He was talking about his strategy for pressuring vaccine refusers to get coronavirus jabs
- Macron acknowledged the term may have upset some, but said he takes full responsibility for it
Ukraine says Russian drone, missile attacks damage power facilities
- Regional officials said Russian forces had attacked infrastructure in the Kamianske district near the city of Dnipro
KYIV0: Russian missile and drone attacks hit thermal and hydro power plants in central and western Ukraine, power grid operator Ukrenergo said on Friday, the latest assault on the already damaged power infrastructure.
“During the night, the Russians struck again at energy facilities in a massive and combined attack,” Ukrenergo said on the Telegram messaging app.
“Thermal and hydroelectric power plants in the central and western regions were damaged,” it said.
Regional officials said Russian forces had attacked infrastructure in the Kamianske district near the city of Dnipro. At least one person was wounded, they added.
Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko also said power facilities in Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Cherkasy regions were attacked this morning.
“Electricity generation facilities were targeted by drones and missiles,” Gelushchenko said on Facebook.
Ukrainian television reported that explosions were heard in Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi regions and the city of Dnipro as Russian cruise missiles were spotted in Ukrainian air space.
The largest private power firm DTEK said its three thermal power plants were attacked.
“The equipment was severely damaged. After the attack ended, the power engineers promptly started to repair the damage,” the company said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainian power distributor Yasno said this week DTEK lost about 50 percent of its capacity after being hit by Russian missile and drone attacks.
‘A unique place’: Foreigners visit post-war Afghanistan
- Decades of conflict made tourism extremely rare in Afghanistan, but most violence has now abated
- Yet visitors are confronted with extreme poverty, dilapidated cultural sites and scant infrastructure
MAZAR-I-SHARIF: His soldier son toured Afghanistan with insurgents in his crosshairs, but American traveler Oscar Wells has a different objective — sight-seeing promoted by the Taliban’s fledgling tourism sector.
“It is a unique place, it touches my heart,” the 65-year-old Indiana farmer told AFP, praising “its magnificent mountains” with “people living in the old way.”
Marvelling at the 15th century Blue Mosque in northern Mazar-i-Sharif, Wells is among a small but rising number of travelers coming to Afghanistan since the war’s end.
Decades of conflict made tourism extremely rare, and while most violence has now abated, visitors are confronted with extreme poverty, dilapidated cultural sites and scant hospitality infrastructure.
They holiday under the austere control of Taliban authorities, without consular support after most embassies were evacuated following the fall of the Western-backed government in 2021.
They must register with officials on arrival in each province, comply with a strict dress code and submit to searches at checkpoints by men armed with Kalashnikovs.
Islamic State attacks also still pose a potential threat in the country.
“The first thing your loved ones say is: ‘You’re crazy to go there!’” said French tourist Didier Goudant, a 57-year-old lawyer, of a country that Western governments warn against visiting.
Security concerns worried Nayuree Chainton, the 45-year-old Thai owner of a travel agency in Bangkok, who made a trip for six days recently with a group to test the waters.
“I feel safe despite the checkpoints in the cities,” she said, during a visit to a shrine in the capital Kabul.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Afghanistan rose 120 percent year-on-year in 2023, reaching nearly 5,200, according to official figures.
The Taliban government has yet to be officially recognized by any country — in part because of its heavy restrictions on women — but it has welcomed foreign tourism.
“Afghanistan’s enemies don’t present the country in a good light,” said information and culture minister Khairullah Khairkhwa.
“But if these people come and see what it’s really like... they will definitely share a good image of it,” he said.
But Wells and Goudant — on a trip with firm Untamed Borders, which also offers tours of Syria and Somalia — describe their visit as a way to connect with Afghanistan’s people.
Tourists “like us are curious and want to be in contact with the population, to try to help them a little” said Goudant, on his second trip, which included skiing in central Bamiyan province.
He said part of his visits is making donations to local groups, something he describes as “small-scale humanitarian work” in a country that has seen foreign aid drastically shrink since the Taliban takeover.
For Wells, there is a “sense of guilt for the departure” of US troops.
“I really felt we had a horrible exit, it created such a vacuum and disaster,” he said. “It’s good to help these people and keep relations.”
Untamed Borders brought around 100 tourists to Afghanistan last year, with a nine-day package starting in neighboring Pakistan costing $2,850.
The end of the fighting means tourists “can do more things,” said founder James Willcox.
“But on the other hand it is disruptive,” he added, noting a woman tour guide with the company fled to Italy after the Taliban return.
While the Taliban government has shut girls and women out of education, and much of public life, foreign women are granted greater freedoms.
For solo traveler Stefanie Meier, a 53-year-old American, who spent a month traveling from Kabul to Kandahar via Bamiyan and Herat in the west, it was a “bittersweet experience.”
“I have been able to meet people I never thought I would meet, who told me about their life,” she said, adding that she didn’t face any issues as a woman on her own.
She experienced “disbelief that people have to live like this,” she added. “The poverty, there are no jobs, women not being able to go to school, no future for them.”
With little by way of official information, tourists band together on social media and messaging apps to trade tips.
While two airlines serve Afghanistan’s major cities, backpackers prefer the bus, and don’t shy away from the 20-hour journey from Kabul to Herat.
An active WhatsApp group named Afghanistan Travel Experience brings together over 600 people from places as far flung as Mexico, India and Italy who are already in the country or on their way out.
They pepper the group with questions, such as one from user Alberto asking if it is “haram” (not allowed) to travel with a dog, or if it’s a problem to have visible tattoos.
Another, Soo, asked: “Is there a co-working space in Mazar?”
Bus plunges off a bridge in South Africa, killing 45 people; 8-year-old child is lone survivor
- Authorities said the bus carrying worshippers was traveling from the neighboring country of Botswana to the town of Moria, which hosts a popular Easter pilgrimage
CAPE TOWN, South Africa: A bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in South Africa on Thursday, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.
The only survivor of the crash was an 8-year-old child, who was receiving medical attention, according to authorities in the northern province of Limpopo. They said the child was seriously injured.
The Limpopo provincial government said the bus veered off the Mmamatlakala bridge and plunged 50 meters (164 feet) into a ravine before busting into flames.
Search operations were ongoing, the provincial government said, but many bodies were burned beyond recognition and still trapped inside the vehicle.
Authorities said they believe the bus was traveling from the neighboring country of Botswana to the town of Moria, which hosts a popular Easter pilgrimage. They said it appeared that the driver lost control and was one of the dead.
Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga was in Limpopo province for a road safety campaign and changed plans to visit the crash scene, the national Department of Transport said. She said there was an investigation underway into the cause of the crash and offered her condolences to the families of the victims.
The South African government often warns of the danger of road accidents during the Easter holidays, which is a particularly busy and dangerous time for road travel. More than 200 people died in road crashes during the Easter weekend last year.
The Zionist Christian Church has its headquarters in Moria and its Easter pilgrimage attracts hundreds of thousands of people from across South Africa and neighboring countries. This year is the first time the Easter pilgrimage to Moria is set to go ahead since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Macron says G20 must agree before inviting Putin to summit
BRASILIA: French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that members of the G20 would have to agree before Russian leader Vladimir Putin is invited to attend the group’s summit in Brazil in November.
“The meaning of this club is that there must be consensus with the 19 others. That will be a job for Brazilian diplomacy,” he said during a joint press conference in Brasilia with his counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
If such a meeting can be “useful, it must be done,” Macron said, though he warned division on the matter could scuttle any Russian invitation.
Brazil, the current chair of the G20 group — which represents 80 percent of the global economy — has opposed the US-led drive to isolate and punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, arguing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Western countries share some of the blame for the war.
Putin missed last year’s G20 summit in the Indian capital New Delhi, avoiding possible political opprobrium and any risk of criminal detention under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant.
In September 2023, Lula said there was “no way” that Putin would be arrested if he attended the Rio de Janeiro summit.
Shortly after, he backtracked and said that it would be up to the justice system to decide on Putin’s eventual arrest and not his government.
Biden, Trump provide campaign split-screen with dueling NYC events
WASHINGTON: Joe Biden and Donald Trump were on the campaign trail in New York on Thursday as the Democratic president prepared to host a star-studded fundraiser and his Republican predecessor and 2024 rival paid tribute to a fallen police officer.
Trump made a short statement after attending the wake of police officer Jonathan Diller, who was shot and killed on Monday during a traffic stop.
“We have to stop it. We have to get back to law and order,” said the 77-year-old billionaire, who refrained from criticizing his 81-year-old rival directly.
Trump’s entourage contrasted his solemn trip with a lavish fundraiser Biden will headline later alongside former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, which organizers say has reaped an eye-watering $25 million.
“President Trump will be honoring the legacy of Officer Diller and paying respects to his family, friends, and the NYPD,” said the Republican’s spokesman Steven Cheung.
“Meanwhile, the Three Stooges — Biden, Obama, and Clinton — will be at a glitzy fundraiser in the city with their elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors.”
The White House said Biden had called New York Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday to offer his condolences over Diller’s killing.
The Democrat has not been in contact with the officer’s family but “grieves” with them, his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said, adding that the president “has stood with law enforcement his entire career and continues to stand with them.”
Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that Biden was “deeply grateful for the sacrifices police officers make to keep our communities safe.”
Biden’s fundraiser will feature a debate between the three Democratic leaders, hosted by late-night TV comic Stephen Colbert.
Singers Lizzo and Queen Latifah, among others, will perform at the event, to be held at Radio City Music Hall in midtown Manhattan in front of 5,000 people.
The star-studded fundraiser is the first event of its kind to feature the three Democratic presidents.
According to NBC News, guests can pay $100,000 for a photo with the trio.
“The numbers don’t lie: today’s event is a massive show of force and a true reflection of the momentum to reelect the Biden-Harris ticket,” Jeffrey Katzenberg, the campaign’s chief fundraiser, said in a statement, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris.
He contends that Biden will raise more money in one evening than Trump did in the entire month of February.
Biden has better-stocked campaign coffers than his Republican opponent, who is using some of the funds raised from his supporters for legal expenses in the multiple lawsuits he is facing.
Trump’s trial for allegedly covering up 2016 hush money payments to a porn star when he was running for his first term in office begins in New York on April 15.
He devotes much of his campaign rhetoric to attacking illegal immigration and criticizing his Democratic rival for being lax on policing.
But the Republican, who faces 88 felony counts for a wide variety of alleged criminality, is also a harsh critic of law enforcement, regularly accusing the FBI of pursuing a politically motivated “witch hunt” against him.