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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

Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: several children rescued on Friday, keeping hopes alive

Several earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria early on Monday 6 February.
Estimates, still provisional, put the death toll at more than 24,000.
Nevertheless, 120 hours after the tragedy, the search is intensifying, and living children were pulled from the rubble on Friday.

Several children were pulled alive from the rubble on Friday 10 February in Turkey and Syria, five days after the earthquake that killed more than 24,000 people. On the same day, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for "an immediate ceasefire in Syria to help support the disaster-stricken population.

Several rescues on Friday

On both sides of the border, thousands of homes were destroyed and rescue workers are stepping up their efforts to find survivorsEven though the crucial 72-hour window for finding survivors has closed. However, on Friday, a six-year-old boy, Moussa Hmeidi, was pulled alive from the rubble, to cheers, in the north-western Syrian town of Jandairis, according to an AFP journalist. He was in a state of shock and had facial injuries.

In the south of Turkey, in Antakya, "at the 105th hour After the earthquake, rescuers pulled an 18-month-old infant, Yusuf Huseyin, from the rubble of a building, and then, twenty minutes later, his brother Muhammed Huseyin, according to the NTV television channel. Two hours earlier, Zeynep Ela Parlak, a three-year-old girl, had already been rescued in this city devastated by the earthquake.

In the Gaziantep region (south-east), Spanish soldiers also rescued a mother and her two children from the rubble on Friday afternoon. In Nurdagi, in the same province, Zahide Kaya, six months pregnant, was pulled out alive after some 115 hours under a pile of ruins, according to the Anadolu agency. An hour earlier, her daughter Kubra, aged six, had also been rescued.

And while the search for survivors continues, according to the latest official figures, the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, followed by around a hundred tremors, killed at least 24,000 people.

Text TF1 info by Pierre Antoine VALADE

NBA: LeBron James, a record for the ages

Stratospheric: LeBron James has become the NBA's all-time leading scorer. With 38,390 points, the Lakers player has overtaken Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record.

LeBron James did it with 10:9 remaining in the 3rd quarter of the Lakers' 133-130 home loss to Oklahoma City. It was a successful turnaround shot that suddenly stopped time, the match and the breath of some 20,000 fans - including celebrities such as Jay-Z, LL Cool J, John McEnroe, Magic Johnson and wealthy people who paid up to 24,000 dollars for a seat - in a Crypto.com Arena in meltdown.

Still striving for excellence at the age of 38, 'King' James, the man with a host of other records and 4-time champion, achieved this long-term feat in his 20th season, scoring the required 36 points.

So it was time for a break to celebrate James' achievement, and he was overcome with tears as his family and friends came to share the emotional moment, immortalised by cameras and mobile phones.

He also thanked"Lakers faithful, one of a kind" . Not forgetting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who came along to pass on the torch. " Being in the presence of such a legend means a lot to me. It's a great lesson in humility. Please give the captain a standing ovation!" .

A tough brand to beat

Last week, James agreed that he was aware that he was taking on ". one of the greatest records in sport in general, one of those that you think will never be beaten" . The facts prove him right, as the throne has only changed hands once since 1966, when Abdul-Jabbar overtook Wilt Chamberlain, now 7th on the all-time scoring list.

Text by RTS.ch agences/tai

American youtuber Mr.Beast helps 1,000 people regain their sight

The American content creator used his fame and colossal resources to produce a particularly moving video.

With 130 million subscribers, Mr.Beast is constantly coming up with ever more impressive concepts to entertain its community. And this time, he has set himself the challenge of enabling 1,000 blind people to see again, by funding the necessary operations.

Extremely positive reactions on the networks

The people featured in this video have been able to regain their sight thanks to a very specific operation. These are people whose crystalline lens has become opaque, a handicap that the surgeon treats by sucking out the material present in this part of the eye and replacing it with an artificial lens.

In addition to this already financially onerous operation, Mr.Beast also offered some patients in need large sums of money to finance their studies or help their families. He even went so far as to offer a Tesla to one of the young people taking part in the experiment.

The power of this video is that it shows a thousand people with corrected sight, who can finally see the faces of their loved ones and begin a simpler life. For some, this disability was an enormous burden in their lives, preventing them from pursuing their work or living life to the full.

Released two days ago, the video already has 44 million views and has received an extremely positive response on social networks:

Hopefully, more content creators with as much impact will follow suit and take part in this kind of initiative.

Text by radiofrance.fr

The apocalypse clock has never been so close to midnight, the hour of the end of time

It's 90 seconds to midnight and that means that humanity has never been so close to a global cataclysm, announced the group of scientists who run the apocalypse clock, which monitors not time but the end of time. The war in Ukraine has been singled out.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which has been in charge of this symbolic project since 1947, unveiled its new timetable, designed to measure the imminence of a global catastrophe, at a press conference in Washington.

It has been brought forward by 10 seconds and now stands at 90 seconds to midnight, the fateful hour he hopes will never be reached.

The dangers of war in Ukraine

Since 2020, the clock has been 100 seconds shy of midnight, a record since its creation. The doomsday clock "is a symbol that measures how close we are to destroying the world with dangerous technologies that we have made ourselves", according to the scientists.

"We're moving the clock forward, and it's the closest it's ever been to midnight", said the group as it unveiled the new schedule, referring in particular, but "not exclusively", to "the growing dangers of war in Ukraine".

"We live in a time of unprecedented danger, and the doomsday clock represents this reality", explained Rachel Bronson, President of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Moving the clock forward "is a decision that our experts are not taking lightly. The US government, its Nato allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue at their disposal; we urge leaders to do their utmost to explore all of them in order to move the clock back", she added. This is why the expert group's communiqué will be available in English, Russian and Ukrainian, a first, she added.

In addition to the war in Ukraine and the nuclear threat, the scientists took into account "the persistent threats posed by the climate crisis", as well as the fact that "devastating events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, can no longer be considered as rare events that occur only once every hundred years". The group of experts also discussed misinformation and surveillance technologies.

Saving time in 1991

Originally, after the Second World War, the clock read minus 7 minutes to midnight. By 1991, at the end of the Cold War, it had moved back to 17 minutes before midnight. In 1953, as well as in 2018 and 2019, it showed minus 2 minutes to midnight.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb. The group of experts sets the new time every year.

RTS afp/fgn

Germany to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev

According to Der Spiegel, Olaf Scholz will give the green light to this delivery, as requested by Kiev.

Germany is to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks, as requested by Kiev, two German media reported on Tuesday evening. For its part, the United States may agree to supply Abrams tanks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to give the go-ahead, probably on Wednesday, for the dispatch of German Leopard 2 type 2A6 tanks, according to Le Spiegel on its website, without citing a source. The media outlet adds that this involves "at least one company", i.e. at least ten heavy tanks. The NTV news channel, quoting sources close to the government, also reports that the German Chancellor, who has been under pressure for several weeks to give his agreement, is preparing to announce it.

World-renowned weapon

When questioned by AFP, the Social Democrat Chancellor's entourage declined to comment on Tuesday evening. The German leader, who is due to address the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, at 12:00 GMT on Wednesday, would also give his agreement to countries, including Poland, that wish to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev, according to these media.

The Leopard 2 heavy tank, which Ukraine has been demanding for months from Germany and the West, is a world-renowned weapon with the potential to have a "significant" impact on the battlefield, according to experts. Designed by German manufacturer Krauss-Maffei and mass-produced from the late 1970s onwards to replace the American M48 Patton tank and then the Leopard 1 tank, the Leopard 2 combines firepower, mobility and protection.

Finland and Poland ready to do it

In Berlin, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Wednesday morning that he had "expressly encouraged partner countries that have Leopard tanks ready for deployment to train Ukrainian forces on these tanks".

So far, Finland and Poland have said they are ready to do so. Warsaw, which wants to create a "coalition of countries supporting Ukraine with Leopard 2″ tanks, has officially sent a request to this effect, the receipt of which was confirmed by Berlin on Tuesday.

"We will deal with the request as a matter of urgency in accordance with the procedure laid down", a German government spokesman said on Tuesday.

20min.ch

Noël Le Graët: investigation opened into psychological harassment

An investigation into psychological and sexual harassment was opened on Monday, following a report of "sexist contempt" targeting the president of the French Football Federation.

An investigation into psychological harassment and sexual harassment was opened on Monday, following a report of "sexist contempt" targeting the president of the French Football Federation, Noël Le Graët, the Paris public prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

This alert was issued after Sonia Souid, an agent for several French internationals, gave evidence to auditors from the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (IGESR), according to the daily newspaper Le Monde.

Last week, Sonia Souid publicly denounced in the daily newspaper L'Equipe and on RMCThe French Football Federation (FFF) president, who has been president of the FFF since 2011, is considered to have behaved in a sexist manner. "He told me face-to-face, in his flat, very clearly, that if I wanted him to help me, I'd have to go to the pot," she said.

Referring to her past professional dealings with the head of French football, she explained that she had had the feeling that "every time, the only thing he was interested in - and I apologise for using vulgar language - was my two breasts and my arse". On 11 January, Noël Le Graët was "withdrawn" from the presidency of the federation by the executive committee.

"At this stage, I don't know what I'm accused of or who is behind it.

Noël Graët, Chairman of the FFF

When contacted on Saturday, the Ministry of Sport stated that the Minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, had been informed of the report, in accordance with procedure, and that she would not be commenting further on the subject.

"I have just been astonished to read an article in the World Le Graët reacted on Saturday in a statement sent to AFP after the report was revealed in the daily newspaper.

At this stage, I know neither the facts of which I am accused nor the people behind them," he said. More generally, I am surprised that information can be divulged even though the provisional report has not yet been sent to me and I have not been able to comment on it.

The investigation has been entrusted to the BRDP.

Text by Le matin.ch/AFP