Mass protests in France spiral into worst riots in years
Rioting erupted in cities across France on Oct 17 as demonstrations against rising living costs and declining public services spiralled out of control in some of the worst violence the country has witnessed for decades.
While hundreds of thousands protested peacefully in street marches in scores of cities, violent fringe groups targeted public buildings, looted luxury boutiques and supermarkets and attacked police vehicles and officers.
In Limoges, the city hall was set ablaze, as Marseille black-clad protesters broke into City Hall and defaced the building with anarchic graffiti and in Lyon protesters torched the city’s tourist office.
‘You can’t die like this’: flydubai pilot recalls attack in first interview
PHOTO: AFP
The captain of a flydubai flight whose co-pilot attacked him with an axe in an alleged bid to bring down the plane said one thought kept running through his head as the harrowing ordeal unfolded: “You can’t die like this.”
Indian pilot Smit Machchhar recounted the “traumatic” experience to Sky News Arabia in his first interview since the incident late in September in which he, passengers and other crew members were credited with averting disaster on the Tel Aviv-bound flight.
With his head and one hand bandaged and glasses perched on his nose, Machchhar spoke from his hospital bed in the UAE.
Haaland brace extends Man City’s winning start in Premier League
PHOTO: AFP
Erling Haaland struck twice as Manchester City defiantly extended their blistering start to the Premier League season with a 3-2 win against Ipswich on Oct 17.
Phil Foden put City ahead in the first half at the Etihad Stadium before Daizen Maeda grabbed a shock equaliser for Ipswich.
Haaland netted before the interval and struck again after the break to take his tally for the season to 12.
It was City’s second win since the club were found guilty of more than 100 breaches of Premier League financial regulations in September.
A reporter who saw Covid-19 coming has died
PHOTO: PHILIP KEITH/NYTIMES
Helen Branswell, a leading reporter on infectious diseases who wrote with foresight, urgency and clarity about the emerging danger of the Covid-19 pandemic, ahead of the vast majority of journalists and even many medical experts, died on Oct 13 in Ottawa. She was 69.
Her death, at a hospital, was from complications of a recurrence of breast cancer, her sister Brenda Branswell said.
Branswell “saw the pandemic coming well before anyone was paying attention,” Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator in 2022 and 2023, said on social media.
Alberta support for Canada rises ahead of separation referendum
PHOTO: REUTERS
Support for Alberta remaining in Canada gathered pace ahead of a referendum on whether the province should begin a legal process to separate from the country, according to a poll from Abacus Data.
The survey of 1,021 eligible voters, released on Oct 17, found 68% of Albertans would vote to remain in Canada, up from 64% last month. Support for beginning a legal process that could ultimately lead to separation was unchanged at 24%, while the share of undecided voters or those planning not to vote in the Oct 7 to 13 poll fell to 8% from 12%.
Albertans will decide on Oct 19 whether to remain a Canadian province or to set the stage for a second, binding vote on secession. At stake is the future of Canada’s largest oil-producing province, which pumps more than 4 million barrels a day, most of it for export to the US.