The news
More than 90,000 cases in 24 hours in France, an absolute record. Contaminations by Covid-19 have exceeded 90,000 new cases recorded in 24 hours, a threshold never reached and an absolute record in France since the start of the epidemic in March 2020, according to figures released Thursday by Public Health France. The figure reached 91,608 new cases, under the effect of the fifth wave and as the omicron variant is spreading in France. Over the past seven days, the average was 61,274 cases. The previous all-time high, 86,852 cases, dates back to early November 2020, at the peak of the second epidemic wave. In addition, the incidence rate, that is to say the number of positive Covid-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, passes the 1,000 mark in Paris, the most affected department. Follow our live.
Under his Santa Claus costume, Putin advances his pawns but calms things down in Ukraine. Facing the cameras, Vladimir Putin wanted to be both firm and magnanimous. During the four hours that lasted his annual meeting with Russian and foreign media, this Thursday, the Russian president adopted a tone that was sometimes paternalistic and reassuring, when he addressed social or domestic economic issues, sometimes more scathing. when the responses were intended for “Western partners”. Asked about the subject that has preoccupied people’s minds in recent weeks, namely the possibility of Russian military action in Ukraine, the strongman of the Kremlin decided to lower the tension. Last week, Moscow presented two draft treaties to Washington, outlawing any future expansion of NATO to the east, and ending Western military activities near Russian borders. “For now, we are seeing a positive reaction, our American partners tell us that they are ready to start this discussion, these negotiations, from the start of the year in Geneva”, welcomed Putin. Our article.
Novelist, essayist, journalist and screenwriter Joan Didion died Thursday, December 23, at the age of 87 from Parkinson’s disease, leaving orphaned a whole generation of authors (Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney, Donna Tartt) who took it, form and substance, for reference. In more than half a century of activity, Didion has never had more than two subjects: America and herself, which in fact form only one, one reflecting the other. She was a columnist from the outside and the inside, who had completely immersed herself in the writing of oneself with the Year of Magical Thinking (Grasset 2007), where she recounted the mourning of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, struck down in late 2003 by a heart attack. It is with this book that most French readers have discovered it. Read our necro.
Franck Provost indicted for abuse of corporate assets and aggravated tax evasion. The Nanterre public prosecutor’s office communicated on the indictment of the businessman at the beginning of the week, suspected of having provided his franchisees with software making it possible to hide part of their turnover from the eyes of the tax authorities. Franck Provost has since been under judicial supervision. Read our article
Guadeloupe: anti-health pass demonstrators break into a session of the Regional Council. Protesters from the sanitary antipass collective burst into the hemicycle of the Regional Council of Guadeloupe in Basse-Terre on Thursday, breaking windows and other objects, AFP learned from the Regional Council. “The collective broke the entrance gate and the door to the reception hall, and they entered the hemicycle as a plenary session was ending”, according to a communications manager in the region. She added that the elect had “Had time to leave the hemicycle” and “The president of the region locked himself in his office”.
MH17 crash in Ukraine: life imprisonment required against four accused. Dutch prosecutors on Wednesday called for life in prison against the four men prosecuted for the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, accusing them of murdering 298 people on board. Read our article.
Nuclear: the Belgian government confirms the shutdown in 2025 of the country’s seven reactors. An agreement concluded this Thursday morning between the partners of the government coalition confirms that the country will indeed shut down its current seven nuclear reactors by the year 2 025. And this at a time when France wants to build new nuclear power plants. The gradual phase-out of nuclear power has been enshrined in law in Belgium since 2003. Read our article.
A French fugitive caught up on a sailboat in Indonesia after twenty years on the run. French fugitive Thierry Ascione was arrested in October after a boat accident in Indonesia. Sentenced to life imprisonment for a double murder of a couple of French restaurateurs in Guatemala, he had been on the run for twenty years. Read our article.
Also read on liberation.fr
Covid-19 around the world: from alpha to omicron, the year everything changed. Vaccinate quickly and massively to defeat Sars-Cov 2: the plan was clear at the end of 2020. It was without counting on a constantly evolving virus. From one variant to another, the battle against the coronavirus is far from over. Read our retrospective.
Covid-19: before the holidays, mass distribution is putting its nose in the sale of self-tests. The big brands have been asking since last spring to be able to market these popular devices as Christmas Eve approaches. They offer to sell them at cost price, an approach that is not disinterested. Read our article.
At the town hall of Bordeaux, the anti-capitalist union is crumbling. The alliance between the NPA, LFI and yellow vests which had made it possible to elect three candidates in the last municipal elections has been undermined since one of them, Antoine Boudinet, announced his resignation against a background of “placardization” of ‘a collaborator of the collective. Read our article.
Zemmour in Ivory Coast on a French army base: a gross anti-Macron comedy coup. The far-right polemicist discreetly went to Abidjan before sending a message to the French soldiers on Thursday by pushing himself from the collar. An obvious attempt at political instrumentalisation, addressed to the Head of State who canceled a trip to Mali, with the Barkhane force. Read our article.
In Belarus, a military rapprochement with Russia to destabilize Ukraine. To please Moscow, joint patrols and training with the Russian army have increased in Belarus. The catastrophic scenario of an invasion of Ukraine from the north exists but an offensive still seems distant. Read our article.