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23 MARCH STRIKE IN PARIS: THE FRIGHT OF THE RESIDENTS OF A BUILDING HIT BY A RUBBISH BIN FIRE

Some people set fire to rubbish that had accumulated in the streets. The flames quickly spread to the front of a building.

The situation degenerated in a matter of minutes. On Thursday, during a demonstration against pension reform, some people deliberately set fire to some rubbish littering the rue Saint-Marc, in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. The fire quickly spread to the front of the neighbouring building.

"We went to the window and saw that people were starting to burn rubbish bins," a local resident told BFMTV. "And it started to catch fire everywhere.

140 fires in Paris

The flames hit the wooden storefront on the ground floor of the building and quickly spread. "Suddenly, the flames exploded and lots of people gathered around", recalls a resident of a neighbouring building. "I thought I was going to go out and put the fire out, but the flames got so big so quickly that I couldn't."

In the street with their simple fire extinguishers, the mobile firefighters were unable to bring the flames under control themselves. People in the street then tried to remove the rubbish to prevent the fire from growing.

"We saw that the building was on fire, and we started clearing away the debris", reported an off-duty policewoman on the street. "We're trying to clear it away, we were only thinking of one thing: people. Get the people out."

Some of the building's residents left, fearing that the flames would spread to the entire building.

When the CRS arrived on the scene, they secured the street to allow a fire truck to arrive. It took the fire brigade around twenty minutes to bring the fire under control. The door to the ground floor flat had to be forced open to make sure no-one was inside.

A total of 140 fires were reported to have started in Paris on Thursday, during demonstrations against pension reform.

Text by BFMTV Damien Gourlet, Pierre Barbin with Laurène Rocheteau

One year after the slap in the face at the Oscars, Chris Rock's scathing response to Will Smith

The comedian, who was punched live by the actor in the middle of the Oscars ceremony after making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, returned to the episode with some anger in a show broadcast on Netflix

A year after being slapped by Will Smith in front of a worldwide audience, American comedian Chris Rock hit back on Saturday, unleashing his punches in a stand-up routine broadcast on the Netflix platform.

In March 2022, the American actor took to the stage at the Oscars and hit out at the comedian who had just mocked the very short haircut of his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia. A few minutes later, Will Smith received the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in King Richard. He later apologised to Chris Rock, but was banned from the Oscars for a decade.

The comedian refused to press charges and has remained virtually silent about the incident ever since. But on stage in Baltimore on Saturday, he came out swinging, accusing the Hollywood star of "selective indignation", and claiming that he had attacked a man shorter than himself because he was upset that his wife had cheated on him.

"Will Smith practices selective outrage," Chris Rock said during the show, which was broadcast live on Netflix. The comedian added that Will Smith was widely mocked after an episode of his wife's podcast in which the couple talked about her affair and how it affected him.

"It still hurts

"Why would you do that?" asked Chris Rock. "Everyone called her a slut. They called his wife a predator. Everybody called him a slut," he said, noting that he tried to offer his support after news of the affair became public.

"People (ask me), 'Does it hurt? It still hurts," he said, referring to the slap he received. "Will Smith is definitely bigger than me. Will Smith played Mohamed Ali in a film. Do you think I auditioned for that?" he quipped.

The comedian, who seemed angry at times during his performance, said that before the slap he had always liked Will Smith, first as a rapper and then as an actor. "He'd made some great films. I've supported Will Smith all my life." But now he says he sides with the slave master who beats up Will Smith's character in his latest film, Emancipation.

Text by Le Temps with AFP

"Mummy, I won an Oscar": Ke Huy Quan's incredible revenge

Awarded Best Supporting Actor for "Everything Everywhere All At Once", Ke Huy Quan, the child star of "Indiana Jones", had hardly made a film in 36 years.

Some revenges are more savoury than others. That of actor Ke Huy Quan, Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor - it was his first nomination - at the age of 51, surpasses all others at this incredible 95th ceremony. For there were many thwarted destinies in Hollywood who finally received recognition during the evening. Like Brendan Fraser, a former leading man who was blacklisted following health problems and a sexual assault, who won the Best Actor statuette for his performance as a hyper-obese man in "The Whale".

He too was nominated for the first time, as were two of the actresses in the feature film that won the evening's seven statuettes, including Best Film, "Everything Everywhere All At Once": Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis. The former, at the age of 60, walked away with the Oscar for Best Actress, after a long and magnificent career previously ignored by the Academy. At 64, the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh won the Best Supporting Actress award, again thanks to this crazy film.

But the man who has followed the most tortuous path in life - both personally and professionally - is Ke Huy Quan. As he tearfully recalled on stage at the Oscars: "My journey began on a boat". Born in Saigon in 1971, the young Vietnamese fled his country in precarious conditions with his parents and other "boat people" when he was just 4 years old. Taking refuge in the United States with his family, he was spotted by Steven Spielberg in California, where he was attending school, when he was just 12. The filmmaker gave him the role, adored by the public, of Half Moon, opposite Harrison Ford in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", the huge success of 1984 that launched the now young actor.

"Mummy, I've won an Oscar!

The following year, he followed this up with another Spielberg production: "The Goonies". A few series followed... and that was about it. In the space of 36 years, Quan would only appear in five feature films, in minor roles, and three TV projects. Hollywood has forgotten him. But he wasn't about to give up film for all that. Armed with degrees in languages and cinema, he is also a specialist in taekwondo, a martial art to which he was introduced on the set of Indiana Jones. So, to earn a living, he became a behind-the-scenes actor, more precisely a stuntman and a stand-in, setting the highly choreographed scenes in action films thanks to his mastery of taekwondo on features such as "X-Men".

So he was almost surprised when the "Daniels", aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the directors of "Everything Everywhere All At Once", asked him to play Michelle Yeoh's husband in the film. But they, who are such film buffs and pop culture aficionados, hadn't forgotten Half Moon. And they know that his martial arts skills will serve him well in the film's many action sequences. Since then, he and his new film 'family' have been living a daydream. In the space of a few months in 2022, the feature film that audiences have dubbed "EEAAO" has become the phenomenon that everyone in America is talking about. This has brought the team of Hollywood veterans even closer together, and two young filmmakers have been able to call on them.

It's easy to understand the emotion that gripped each of them in turn on the Oscar stage. Ke Huy Quan in particular. The boat-people child, who shouted "Mummy, I've won an Oscar", saw "EEAAO" announced as the winner of Best Film by Harrison Ford, the one-night winner, and Steven Spielberg, the unfortunate contender, was in the audience to witness Half Moon's belated triumph... A story that would make a fantastic screenplay, and one that Spielberg may already be thinking about...

Text by Le Parisien Renaud Baronian

War declared as Benzema attacks Deschamps head-on

Following an interview with the coach about his withdrawal from the World Cup, the Madrid striker hit back, calling him a liar.
For the first time since the World Cup, Didier Deschamps opened up in a lengthy interview with Le Parisien. His extension at the helm of Les Bleus, the final against Argentina, the resignation of Noël Le Graët... The coach discusses a host of subjects.

Deschamps talks about Benzema's move to Qatar

These include the case of Karim Benzema, who travelled to Qatar with the French team before withdrawing just a few days before the start of the tournament.

Deschamps went back over his discussion with KB9 on the night of his withdrawal: "I'm losing a very important player, another one. I have to accept that. Karim is devastated because this World Cup meant so much to him. He says to me, 'It's dead'.

The striker will be leaving the Les Bleus hotel as soon as possible. "When I left him, I said to him: Karim, there's no hurry. You organise your return with the team manager. When I woke up, I learned that he had left. It's his decision, he won't tell you otherwise, and I understand and respect it.

The coach also defended himself against any potential unease surrounding the situation of the Ballon d'Or winner, Les Bleus' top scorer at the Euros: "
Not at all. No player rejoiced at his departure as I may have heard or read. Karim knows it too.

The two men recently spoke about the future, but Benzema will not be returning to wear the colours of the Rooster. He's confirmed to me that he's decided to end his international career," continues DD. Don't ask me for his arguments. It's up to him whether or not he communicates them.

"Liar!" Benzema's riposte

These statements were quick to provoke a reaction from the man himself, who had already implied that the official version of events was not entirely accurate.

His response was posted in a two-part Instagram story, firstly highlighting DD's "audacity".

Before an even more explicit video message: "Liar! Yes, you, liar. You're a liar. You're a big liar."

A video message accompanied by the following caption: Sacré Didier, good night".

Text by Goal.com Robert Oleksiak