All posts tagged: Roads & transport

Climate activist Greta Thunberg joins protest against new French motorway

Climate activist Greta Thunberg joins protest against new French motorway

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Climate activist Greta Thunberg on Saturday joined a banned anti-motorway protest in southern France where police fired tear gas and made arrests a day earlier. Issued on: 10/02/2024 – 12:41Modified: 10/02/2024 – 18:20 2 min Thunberg came as part of a delegation of French, Belgian, Swedish and Spanish activists to the site near the southwestern city of Toulouse. “We are here to stand in solidarity with the people who are resisting this project and this madness,” Thunberg told reporters, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh.  “Unfortunately, these kinds of projects are not unique to France but are happening all over the world and are a symptom of a global crisis,” she said.   A global figure in the fight against climate change, Thunberg has been fined by one Swedish court for her direct-action protests there. But she saw another case against her thrown out by an English court last week. French authorities had banned the gathering in Saix, where a new motorway is planned, because of “risks of serious harm to public order”. But protest organizers Cabanade …

French farmers press on with Paris ‘siege’ in stand-off with govt

French farmers press on with Paris ‘siege’ in stand-off with govt

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Protesting farmers encircled Paris with traffic-snarling barricades for a second day on Tuesday, using hundreds of lumbering tractors and hay bales to block highways leading to France’s capital to pressure the government over fuel taxes, regulations and falling incomes. Issued on: 30/01/2024 – 07:51Modified: 30/01/2024 – 14:58 4 min The blockading of major thoroughfares around Paris – host of the Summer Olympics in six months – and protests elsewhere in France promised another difficult week for new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, less than a month into the job. Attal’s government was expected to announce new measures on Tuesday following talks with farmers’ unions, after pro-agriculture measures unveiled last week fell short of their demands that producing food should be more lucrative, easier and fairer. Farmers block traffic on the A4 highway near Paris on January 29, 2024 © Yves Herman, Reuters Farmers deployed convoys of tractors, trailers and even rumbling harvesters on Monday in what they described as a “siege” of Paris to gain more concessions. Some protesters came with reserves of food, water and …

French farmers block motorways around Paris ahead of talks with PM Attal

French farmers block motorways around Paris ahead of talks with PM Attal

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French farmers choked off major motorways around Paris on Monday after threatening to blockade the capital in an intensifying stand-off with the government over working conditions, taxes and regulation. Key farmers’ unions met with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal for an hours-long meeting later in the day.  Issued on: 29/01/2024 – 07:16Modified: 29/01/2024 – 22:52 3 min Protests have been staged in recent weeks across France, a major agricultural producer, by farmers angry about shrinking incomes, red tape and environmental policies they say undermine their ability to compete with other countries.  Protesting farmers blocked the A13 highway to the west of the capital, the A4 to the east and the A6, which saw hundreds of tractors rolling towards Paris from the south.  03:36 By mid-afternoon they appeared to have met their objective of establishing eight chokepoints on major roads into Paris, according to Sytadin, a traffic monitoring service. A banner on one tractor in the protest read: “We will not die in silence.” “We need answers,” said Karine Duc, a farmer in the southwestern Lot-et-Garonne department, as she …

French govt prepares to head off ‘siege’ of Paris planned by agricultural unions

French govt prepares to head off ‘siege’ of Paris planned by agricultural unions

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France’s government said Sunday it was making plans to avoid any blockage of routes around the French capital as agricultural unions prepared to mount a “siege” of Paris, part of efforts to pressure the government to meet their demands on pay, taxes and regulations. Issued on: 28/01/2024 – 11:54Modified: 28/01/2024 – 18:10 2 min Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Sunday tasked law enforcement officials with putting into place “extensive security measures” to prevent farmers from blocking Paris area airports or its Rungis market and “to prohibit any entry into Paris”. The leaders of two of France’s largest farming unions said Saturday that members from the regions around Paris “will begin an indefinite siege of the capital” on Monday. “All the major roads leading to the capital will be occupied by farmers,” they said, announcing their intention to blockade the massive Rungis wholesale food market south of the capital. Read moreIn pictures: French farmers block roads, bridges as protests sweep country French farmers are furious at what they say is a squeeze on purchase prices for produce …

Schools in Ukraine’s Kharkiv go underground amid Russian bombardments

Schools in Ukraine’s Kharkiv go underground amid Russian bombardments

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Since the start of the year, Russia has been increasing its strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city. After almost two years of war, the city’s inhabitants have been adapting to their new way of life across all areas. School, for instance, has been held almost exclusively online as many buildings have been destroyed and are seen as potential targets, while in-person classes are now being held underground in the city’s metro stations. FRANCE 24’s Ukraine correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports.  Issued on: 22/01/2024 – 16:20 1 min 2024 has brought renewed Russian shelling on Kharkiv, as yet another school in Ukraine’s second city was shelled on January 2. Fortunately, no students were harmed, as schools across the country closed after Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022. While school has been held almost exclusively online since then, the inhabitants of Kharkiv found a creative solution to facilitate in-person instruction, by converting the city’s metro stations into classrooms.  “We hadn’t worked since February 2022. We all really missed it – the kids, their emotions, their laughter…,” says Olena Chyrva, one …

United, Alaska Airlines report loose bolts on Boeing 737 MAX planes

United, Alaska Airlines report loose bolts on Boeing 737 MAX planes

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United and Alaska Airlines both reported on Monday that loose hardware had been discovered on some of their Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes during preliminary inspections after a dramatic mid-flight incident last week. Issued on: 09/01/2024 – 05:22 3 min The disclosures come as US federal transportation inspectors continued to probe what caused a so-called door plug component to blow out last Friday on an Alaska Airlines passenger plane, forcing it to make an emergency landing. United said Monday it had “found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug — for example, bolts that needed additional tightening.” Hours later, Alaska Airlines announced its staff had found that “loose hardware was visible on some aircraft.” Boeing shares tumbled Monday as investors began to assess the financial implications of the incident, while US aviation authorities provided airlines with protocols to check planes with similar configurations to the 737 MAX 9 aircraft involved in Friday’s incident. Hundreds of flights have been canceled due to the grounding of a fraction of the MAX fleet. “As …

IOC ‘extremely confident’ about Paris Olympics, executive director says

IOC ‘extremely confident’ about Paris Olympics, executive director says

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Back to homepage / Shows / The Interview Issued on: 08/01/2024 – 17:33 12:11 THE INTERVIEW © FRANCE 24 In exactly 200 days from now, the Olympic Games will be taking over Paris. There are promises of sporting glory, but security and logistical challenges are already raising a number of concerns, especially over the ambitious opening ceremony on the River Seine. FRANCE 24’s James Vasina spoke to Christophe Dubi, the Olympic Games Executive Director at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who sounded an optimistic note. “We feel extremely confident,” Dubi said in an interview from Lausanne, Switzerland. “These games are incredibly well-designed and delivered,” he added. Read more on related topics: Source link

Boeing jetliner that suffered inflight blowout was restricted amid concern over warning light

Boeing jetliner that suffered inflight blowout was restricted amid concern over warning light

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The Boeing jetliner that suffered an inflight blowout over Oregon was not being used for flights to Hawaii after a warning light that could have indicated a pressurization problem lit up on three different flights, a federal official said Sunday. Alaska Airlines decided to restrict the aircraft from long flights over water so the plane “could return very quickly to an airport” if the warning light reappeared, said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. Homendy cautioned that the pressurization light might be unrelated to Friday’s incident in which a plug covering an unused exit door blew off the Boeing 737 Max 9 as it cruised about three miles (4.8 kilometers) over Oregon. The warning light came on during three previous flights: on Dec. 7, Jan. 3 and Jan. 4 — the day before the door plug broke off. Homendy said she didn’t have all the details regarding the Dec. 7 incident but specified the light came on during a flight on Jan. 3 and on Jan. 4 after the plane had landed. …