This illusion is created to test your observational skills.
And make sure to keep practising these puzzles as psychologists at The University of Glasgow found that staring at an optical illusion can improve eye sight by allowing you to see small print.
And according to ZenBuisness: “Visual puzzles can give you a good mental workout that can, in turn, help you think more efficiently and solve problems more easily.”
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There it is, did you find it?
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Try to find a horse hidden in this image
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There it is did you find it?
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Can you see the elephant hiding in this photo?
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Were you one of the 1 per cent that can find it?
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The average person can only find four out of six faces in this image
“This is Russia’s war against any rules at all,” Zelenskyy said, to applause from the auditorium, adding:” If you do not manage to act now, Putin will make the next years catastrophic for other countries as well.”
Zelenskyy’s appearance in Munich is part on an ongoing campaign to strengthen Kyiv’s ties with its Western allies. Before coming to Munich, he was in Berlin and Paris to sign security agreements, adding to a similar pact with the United Kingdom.
Although Russia has more ammunition, the war is also causing problems, forcing it to plead for help from ramshackle dictatorships. “For the first time in Russian history, Russia bowed to Iran and North Korea for help,” said Zelenskyy.
Despite problems like ammunition shortages and retreats from cities like Avdiivka, Zelenskyy insisted that Ukraine can prevail in the war against Russia, especially if its allies give it more arms and ammunition.
“We can get our land back, and Putin can lose,” he said, adding: “We should not be afraid of Putin‘s defeat and the destruction of his regime. It is his fate to lose — not the fate of the rules-based order to vanish.”
It has been an inexorably long saga, the very worst kind of transfer saga in fact, with endless posturing, incessant lies and spin and thousands upon thousands of stories claiming that it is finally happening.
Well now, once and for all, it surely is. Mbappe will leave PSG and you’d have to assume that next season, he will play in the Bernabeu (assuming another club doesn’t have the opportunity to pip them and he ends up at, say, Osasuna) and the football world can concentrate on talking about other stuff like, you know, football matches.
The world’s best player will not rot in PSG’s reserves, believe it or not. He won’t be put on gardening leave either. Instead, he’ll play for the club he’s wanted to play for forever and Real Madrid will sign the player they’ve wanted to sign forever. Imagine that.
If you think we have had it bad here, try living in Spain where the coverage has been akin to the kind we would get for the death of a royal family member in the UK.
In recent months, since Mbappe did not take up the option to extend his contract until 2025, things have gone feral. On TV and radio, whether Real Madrid are winning matches or losing matches, whether Jude Bellingham is scoring goals or not, whether Carlo Ancelotti is staying as manager or leaving, Mbappe news trumps the lot.
Do not fret, the saga is almost over (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Ancelotti will regularly face questions about Mbappe in press conferences, which you kind of expect. But Real Madrid players, Javier Tebas (the president of La Liga), even Xavi and Joan Laporta over at Barcelona, they have all been quizzed for their Mbappe opinions. Honestly, who cares? Other than the TV producers who need to quench an insatiable need for 24/7 rolling football coverage.
Why would anyone want to know what Laporta thinks about another club signing another player? Just ask Nick Knowles what he thinks of the UK slipping back into recession while you’re at it. It’s pointless to the point of utter saturation, a stage we reached with this on/off transfer yonks ago.
Front pages have been dominated by Mbappe in Spain for ages, focusing unremittingly on ‘the decision’.
“Mbappe will want to play for Real Madrid,” one Marca headline screamed in April 2020. Presumably “in 2024” was in the small print.
“Mbappe takes the step” followed in September of that year, implying he was on his way to Madrid. Presumably just on holiday.
“The game of the summer” was last year. Maybe they meant the Ashes.
There has even been a saga within the saga, with Madrid feeling betrayed by Mbappe when he chose to sign his last extension with PSG. Madrid fans said they wouldn’t forgive Mbappe… for choosing to stay with his current employers. Grow up.
The journalists were at it too. Mbappe’s decision to remain in Paris was called “the biggest mistake in his career”; even if he won the Champions League and another World Cup, it wouldn’t be enough. Oh, and the fact he wanted to stay in the fifth-best league in the world indicated “he holds himself in very low esteem”.
Mbappe in 2022 committing his future to PSG for, well, another couple of years at least (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
That does feel like a very Real Madrid thing, though; sheer indignation at any player in the world daring to turn them down. It’s a very special kind of attitude, one that has fuelled and exacerbated the dullest soap opera storyline since Ian Beale’s weight loss struggles on Eastenders.
There has never been a moment when it did not seem as if Mbappe was heading to Real Madrid at some point soon. It has always been when, not if — even when he tweeted “LIES” about a report saying he wanted to join Real last summer. “I have already said that I will continue at PSG where I am very happy,” he added, while doing the David Brent long nose mime.
To be honest, we say it’s a done deal, but no doubt we should be prepared for the next chapter. Which club will Mbappe join now that he has confirmed he is leaving PSG? Within minutes of today’s news breaking, an odds comparison website sent out an email (in such a hurried fashion that the email subject mistakenly read “Kylian Mbappe set to leave Real in summer 2024”) stating there was an “implied chance of 83.3 per cent” that Mbappe was off to Madrid, but also a 3.8 per cent chance he could go to Barcelona, a move that would involve more lever pulling than an octopus running a train station.
But for now, it feels like it’s finally over. And when we see Mbappe, at last, holding aloft that famous all-white kit, we’ll all be relieved. Unless it’s Leeds United on a Bosman from PSG in 2034.
IN the drawing room of a country house near Portsmouth a petite French lady is dwarfed by a 14ft-high map.
Madame Arlette Gondree, 84, is studying a top-secret chart that was used during World War Two to plan Britain’s D-Day landings on France’s Normandy beaches.
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Arlette Gondree’s family owned the first building in France to be liberated as part of the D-Day operationsCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
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Her family had helped the Resistance, as well as Brit spies – it was like something out of ‘Allo ‘Allo but without all the laughsCredit: BBC
She points to a spot near the Normandy town of Ouistreham.
The tiny village of Benouville is so small it is not even named on the map at Southwick House — nerve centre of the invasion to drive the Nazis out of France 80 years ago.
But it is where Arlette’s family ran a cafe and helped the French Resistance and British spies, like something from BBC sitcom ’Allo ’Allo but without all the laughs.
The cafe, still in the family today, was also the first place liberated by British troops sent to defend a nearby canal crossing, to be forever known as Pegasus Bridge.
Mum-of-three Arlette married a Brit and splits her time between the UK and running the family’s Cafe Gondree in France with son Giles, 60, and granddaughter Alisse, 24.
And in early June, she will be there to welcome a party of British veterans, all around 100 years old, to thank them on this 80th anniversary for having saved her country.
Best champagne
In particular, she hopes commemorations this summer to mark the anniversary will finally convince the French that Britain, and not just America, liberated their country.
She says: “For some reason, French people still think the Americans won the war. Maybe it is the way they teach children at school.
Relive best of Arthur Bostrom playing Officer (Captain) Crabtree as Censors go after Allo ‘Allo for French gags
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The café is still in the Gondree family, and Arlette still spends some of her time running itCredit: FTR Features
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Arlette wants to remind France that Brits helped liberate her country too, as she thinks America’s role in the war is over-emphasised by young peopleCredit: Getty
“But more than 22,000 young British men lost their lives and many more were wounded in 1944 freeing my country from the Nazis. We must never forget them.”
She is delighted King Charles will lead commemorations on June 6 at the new British Normandy Memorial overlooking Gold beach.
On the map at Southwick House, the famous Gold, Sword and Juno beaches, where British troops came ashore at 7.24am on June 6, 1944, are all plainly marked.
These beaches where thousands of British troops were killed as they clambered ashore were each given fish-inspired code names by the Allied high command.
Juno was originally Jellyfish but British Prime Minister Winston Churchill changed the name “because no man should die on a beach named Jelly”.
D-Day is always commemorated on June 6 but for Madame Gondree the invasion began at 11.16pm the night before.
That was the moment her parents’ cafe was liberated by British paratroopers.
Within an hour of the first British troops arriving in gliders that landed in fields around Benouville, Arlette’s beaming cafe-owner dad Georges was serving them champagne.
When the Nazis invaded France four years earlier in 1940 he had hidden his best bottles under his vegetable patch.
While firefights were going on around the cafe during the first skirmishes of D-Day, Georges dug up his bottles of bubbly and popped the corks in honour of the hero Brits.
The occupation was very difficult. We were short of food, we were short of clothes and they had hardly any supplies which they could sell but we were tied together as a family
Arlette Gondree
Arlette is delighted that, at long last, there is now a dedicated British Normandy Memorial, overlooking Gold Beach just outside the village of Ver-sur-Mer.
Some veterans say the memorial, only completed during the recent Covid crisis, is “too little, too late”.
But Arlette says: “It is never too late”. Time has takent its toll, though, and it is believed that only around 40 British World War Two veterans will be fit and well enough to travel to Normandy this summer.
Although she was just four years old on D-Day, Arlette can remember every detail of the day she, her sister Georgette, ten, her father and her mother, Therese, were saved.
It was thanks for the family’s work for the Allies during the war, when vital information from Café Gondree found its way to Southwick House where it was used by British admiral Bertram Ramsey to plan the world’s biggest ever invasion from the sea.
Arlette says: “For my parents, the occupation was very difficult. We were short of food, we were short of clothes and they had hardly any supplies which they could sell but we were tied together as a family.
The dangerous fact is that my parents were passing on information through my father who spoke English well — but the Germans never knew.
“My mother, who was from Alsace and spoke Alsatian, was serving in the cafe most of the time.
“She could hear what the Germans were saying because we couldn’t stop them coming to drink.
“Little did they know that Mummy knew what they were doing in the village, what they were doing on the bridges and what they were likely to do.
“Daddy would also welcome a couple of British spies in the house, while the cafe front door was open to both the local inhabitants and the occupants.
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Arlette’s dad Georges was ready to serve up champagne to Brit forces right after they liberated the cafeCredit: PA
“But he was also meeting with Monsieur Melan who was the chief engineer responsible for all the bridges along the canal, and Madame Viand who was in charge of the maternity hospital — they were the Resistance people.”
On the eve of D-Day, Georges was tipped off by British spies not to move out of the cafe.
So he and Therese took their two daughters down to the cellar below the bar where the children bedded down in two empty cider barrels filled with straw.
Arlette remembers: “It wasn’t long after that when we were shaken by a tremendous crashing noise, which was horrific.
“Then we heard noises around the cafe so Daddy left us for a short time and went upstairs to see what he could see.
“The shutters of our dining room were being forced open and the window panes were being broken above our heads. We thought the Germans were coming in to get us.
“Daddy brought down two figures we had not seen before, covered in black with nets.
“One of them grabbed me, took me in his arms, and I was very frightened.
“But Mummy started kissing them and they gave me something I hadn’t had for a long time — chocolate and biscuits.
“Because we were under German time, it was the last hour of the 5th of June.
I will go on serving champagne to the men who saved our country, until the last one is left
Arlette Gondree
“That’s why we celebrate with my beloved veterans, whether they be older or youngsters of today, at that very special time of 23.16, with some champagne.
“Within the hour, my father had unearthed bottles from the garden and brought them out to the British soldiers, who were digging their trenches, to say thank you to them.
“By then there were casualties, so Daddy opened the front door and the cafe was transformed into a First Aid post. The wounded were lying everywhere.
“The dining room became the operating theatre and Mummy, who was a trained nurse, helped the doctor in charge.
“It was an horrific sight, very frightening, because I wanted to be with Mummy in the dining room. The noise, the cries and the smell . . . ”
“The veterans have always regarded Cafe Gondree as a shrine and a home to them.
“I will go on serving champagne to the men who saved our country, until the last one is left.”
The truth is, Europe only has itself to blame for the morass. Trump has been harping on about NATO’s laggards for years, but he hardly invented the genre. American presidents going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower have complained about European allies freeloading on American defense.
What Europeans don’t like to hear is that Trump has a point: They have been freeloading. What’s more, it was always unrealistic to expect the U.S. to pick pick up the tab for European security ad infinitum.
After Trump lost to Biden in 2020, its seemed like everything had gone back to normal, however. Biden, a lifelong transatlanticist, sought to repair the damage Trump did to NATO by letting the Europeans slide back into their comfort zone.
Even though overall defense spending has increased in recent years in Europe — as it should have, considering Russia’s war on Ukraine — it’s still nowhere near enough. Only 11 of NATO’s 31 members are expected to meet the spending target in 2023, for example, according to NATO’s own data. Germany, the main target of Trump’s ire, has yet to achieve the 2 percent mark. It’s likely to this year, however, if only because its economy is contracting.
The truth is, Europe was lulled back into a false sense of security by Biden’s warm embrace. Instead of going on a war footing by forcing industry to ramp up armament production and reinstating conscription in countries like Germany where it was phased out, Europe nestled itself in Americas skirts.
Sam Skinner’s late try was controversially ruled out by the TMO as Scotland suffered a 20-16 defeat by France at Murrayfield in the second round of the Six Nations.
Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s sensational individual effort after 70 minutes gave France the lead for the first time with just under 10 minutes remaining but Scotland regained territory and fought back to get Skinner over the line.
The decision was deliberated for a long time before it was ruled that there was not enough evidence to award the try, giving the visitors a narrow victory.
More to follow…
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A logo outside a Societe Generale SA bank branch in Paris, France.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Societe Generale on Thursday reported a sharp decline in fourth-quarter net profit on the back of weaker net banking income, but launched a new 280 million euro ($302 million) share buyback program.
The French lender posted a group net income of 430 million euros, slightly above a consensus analyst forecast of 404 million euros, according to LSEG data, but well below the 1.07 billion euros recorded for the final quarter of 2022. It comes after the bank posted posted a group net income of 295 million euros for the third quarter, as resilient investment bank performance offset a sharp downturn in its French retail business.
Thursday’s result took France’s third-largest listed bank’s annual net profit to 2.49 billion euros, slightly above analyst expectations of 2.15 billion euros.
However, quarterly net banking revenue dropped 9.9% year-on-year to 5.96 billion euros, which the bank attributed largely to a decline in net interest income in French retail, and its private banking and insurance division, along with the negative impacts from unwinding hedges.
SocGen announced that it would be proposing a cash dividend to shareholders of 90 cents per share, and launching a 280 million euro share buyback, equivalent to 35 cents per share.
Other key figures the bank reported included its CET1 ratio, which sat at 13.1% to end the year, its reported return on tangible equity for the fourth quarter of 1.7%, and a cost-to-income ratio of 78.3%.
Group CEO Slawomir Krupa said 2023 was “a year of transition and transformation” for the bank, which is targeting revenue growth of 5% or above in 2024.
“The exceptional momentum of BoursoBank, the strength of our Global Banking and Investor Solutions franchises, the performance of our international banking activities across all regions, plus the capacity of our new bank in France and Ayvens to implement unprecedented transformations are all strong proof points on our ability to execute at a high level,” Krupa said in a statement.
“At the same time, while 2023 was negatively affected by a sharp decrease in net interest income in French Retail Banking and the elevated cost of integrating LeasePlan, it was also characterised by disciplined management of costs, risks and capital.”
Online and mobile banking subsidiary BoursoBank was a particular highlight for the Soc Gen, posting a record quarter for new client acquisitions at 566,000 compared to a year ago. It takes BoursoBank’s total clients to 5.9 million by the end of 2023.
Workers at French cosmetics giant L’Oréal have been back in the office three days per week for over a year now. But, company brass has decided, that’s no longer enough. As of last week, Fridays are now mandatory office days, twice a month. The company’s 87,000 employees were told of the new rule last month, and it took effect on Thursday, The Sunday Times reported. Leaders hope the new rule “boosts employee collaboration,” per the Times.
Things weren’t always like this. Back in November 2022, L’Oréal’s USA CEO David Greenberg, like many of his peers, announced that workers had to return to the office three days per week. And Greenberg sweetened the deal: workers at the cosmetic giant’s West Coast headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., would be welcomed back with a personal butler.
In-person workers at L’Oréal, whose subsidiaries include Kiehl’s, Maybelline, and La Roche-Posay, would—for $5 an hour—be able to hire a concierge for personal chores, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. This included taking their cars to the gas station, picking up their laundry, or bringing their pets to and from doggy daycare.
L’Oréal has offered the concierge perk in some capacity since 2009, but after everyone went remote during the pandemic, it took on renewed significance as a bargaining chip in luring workers back to their desks. Ultimately, the company was better positioned than most: Its offices have gyms, restaurants, tons of free products, and even coffee bars that occasionally double as bars, Fortune reported in 2022.
The nearly-free concierge perk is nonetheless the crown jewel. L’Oréal subsidized the cost of those concierges, which CEO Greenberg felt was worth it. “We’re in an industry that’s very much people-driven,” Greenberg told the L.A. Times. “[There is] necessary engagement, creativity, sharing, and learning from each other.”
Among the large companies that similarly enacted return-to-office mandates, like Meta, Salesforce, and Google, only L’Oréal made a genuine effort to sweeten the deal. The others actually worked backwards, taking away the pandemic-era perks workers enjoyed. (Meta in 2022 ended its free laundry and dry cleaning benefit and it also curtailed the cutoff time for its free-meal rule, 6:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.)
Passion, attachment and creativity
At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, its global CEO, Nicolas Hieronimus, said that even at three in-office days per week, workers were lacking “passion, attachment and creativity.”
It’s an unusual move, if you ask other business leaders. Over the summer, Steven Roth, the billionaire chairman of Vornado, one of New York City’s biggest commercial landlords, officially deemed Fridays as “dead forever,” and even Mondays are on the chopping block.
“I thought this would be more stable, but I guess…Friday [is] increasingly winning out in the WFH stakes,” Stanford economist and WFH expert Nick Bloom told Fortune by email in August. “I think it’s part of the bigger push towards coordinated hybrid, whereby we have firms pushing for folks to come in on the same days.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Fridays are consistently the emptiest days in the office. The average worker jumps at the chance to start their weekend a bit early, and even pre-pandemic, the allure of “Summer Fridays” spoke to the general population’s desire for a bit more of a soft entry into Saturday. Add the growing push for four-day workweeks—which generally shave off Fridays first—it’s no wonder that L’Oréal is one of the very few firms to mandate Fridays in particular.
Not as far as L’Oréal is concerned. One of the reasons L’Oréal “hit the ground running” on returning to the office after the pandemic, Hieronimus went on at Davos, “is that we did not do like many tech companies and say everybody works from home all the time, and now they say: ‘Oh my God, that was a mistake, please come back.’”
“I think it’s vital to be in the office. It’s about serendipity. It’s about meeting people,” Hieronimus said, adding that remote work is “very bad” for workers’ mental health to boot. In-person work, on the other hand, is “vital for the company, and it’s vital for the employees. It’s also fair to the blue-collar workers that work every day in the factory.”
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The EU’s unrelated effort to funnel cash to Ukraine from its central budget faced serious political resistance, prompting governments to look at alternative sources of money. It took weeks of diplomatic backchanneling before leaders convinced Hungary on Feb. 1 to lift its veto over the EU’s €50 billion cash pot for Ukraine.
Financial stability
The assets confiscation plan could generate over €200 billion to support Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction, according to backers of the proposal. G7 countries are aiming to come up with a coordinated roadmap amid growing pressure from the United States, which, along with the United Kingdom and Canada, has fewer qualms than EU countries such as Germany, France and Italy.
In Europe, there are fears Moscow might retaliate by lodging a flurry of appeals against Euroclear, a Belgium-based financial depository that holds the vast majority of Russian reserves in Europe.
“An institution like Euroclear is a very systemic financial institution,” Belgian Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem said | Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga/AFP via Getty Images
“An institution like Euroclear is a very systemic financial institution,” Belgian Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem told reporters at the end of January. “We should … try to avoid an impact [of Russian asset confiscation] on financial stability.”
In a sign of the sort of retaliation countries fear might come, Russian entities have already filed 94 lawsuits in Russia demanding payback to Euroclear, which operates under Belgian law, after their investments and their profits in Europe were frozen, according to a Belgian official with knowledge of the proceedings.
Top Russian lenders, including Rosbank, Sinara Bank and Rosselkhozbank, filed legal claims against Euroclear worth hundreds of millions of rubles.
The earlier target represents a loss for the German Greens who, ahead of a three-day party congress in Lyon this weekend, had pushed for the climate neutrality target to be delayed to 2045, according to amendments seen by POLITICO.
The election manifesto, which was adopted by a large majority of national delegations, warned that meeting these climate objectives “must not rely on false solutions such as geo-engineering.”
The Greens are at risk of losing about a third of their seats in the European Parliament at the EU election in June, while a backlash against Brussels’ green agenda has been sweeping across the Continent in recent weeks. The party’s response has been to redouble the push on its core demands for higher climate ambition.
The final manifesto, for example, calls for the EU energy system to rely on 100 percent renewable sources and to phase out all fossil fuels by 2040, “starting with coal by 2030.” It also calls on the EU to adopt a plan for phasing out “fossil gas and oil as early as 2035 and no later than 2040.”
That point is another loss for the German Greens, who had pushed for deleting phaseout dates for fossil gas and oil from the manifesto.
The Greens have also been fighting back against the conservatives’ and far right’s attacks blaming them for farmers’ current struggles and for forcing the green transition to quickly on the sector.
Over the weekend, the Greens amended their manifesto to respond to farmers’ discontent, saying they will campaign for “a new agricultural model that reduces emissions, protect the environment, and foster social justice.”
The text insists that “farmers should make a decent income of their work,” and that the Greens will push to “make sure farmers are not exposed to unfair competition from products not respecting the same standards, including those imported from third countries” — which have been key demands of farmers’ unions during the recent demonstrations.
Ireland produced a magnificent display in Marseille as they registered a first Six Nations win in France since 2018
Ireland began life in the post-Johnny Sexton era in ideal fashion, as a terrific Six Nations performance saw them to a bonus-point 38-17 victory over France in Marseille.
Scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, lock Tadhg Beirne, wing Calvin Nash, hooker Dan Sheehan and replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher scored tries at the Stade Velodrome against a French side who saw lock Paul Willemse shown a red card during the first half for two yellows – both high tackles.
Ireland fly-half Jack Crowley, 24, started nervously but grew in confidence and into the contest, kicking one penalty and five exquisite conversions, while also producing a gorgeous try assist for Beirne in a record points total and winning margin for Ireland in France.
Damian Penaud and lock Paul Gabrillagues scored France’s tries, who continued to fight hard and never appeared truly out of it – Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony was sin-binned in the second half with the gap seven points – but they ultimately had to swallow a home defeat.
Jack Crowley, Johnny Sexton’s Ireland replacement in the No 10 jersey, pulled the strings to victory in the Stade Velodrome
For many in the sport, France vs Ireland was the Rugby World Cup final that never was back in October’s Paris showpiece, and although the hosts carved out the first threatening attack, Ireland were far the quicker to settle into their groove.
Crowley edged Ireland into an early lead with a close-range penalty, and after Willemse collected his first yellow for a high hit to the head of Andrew Porter, the visitors notched the opening try.
Centre Bundee Aki did magnificently for it, charging forward and freeing his hands to offload for Gibson-Park to sprint in.
Ireland scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park scored the first try after great work from Bundee Aki
A huge try chance was spurned by Ireland after Beirne charged down Antoine Dupont’s replacement Maxime Lucu to win a turnover just after a France maul – Crowley and Aki playing narrow when a wide ball would have resulted in a certain try down the left.
Within moments, Crowley missed poorly off the tee for the chance to go 13-0, with Thomas Ramos then striking at the other end after a scrum penalty.
Perhaps illustrating a measure of his mentality, Crowley brushed off a tough few minutes to play Beirne in for Ireland’s second try via an exquisitely disguised short-ball.
Tadhg Beirne scored Ireland’s second try after being brilliantly played in by Crowley
Crowley then converted for 17-3, with Willemse – only recently back on – then shown his second yellow, which was upgraded to a straight red following a bunker review, after connecting with the head of Caelan Doris in Ireland’s first carry following the restart.
France lock forward Paul Willemse was red carded for committing two yellow card offences – a very rare occurrence
Back-to-back penalties at the ruck against Ireland invited France forward, however, and though Beirne stole a lineout, a costly scrum penalty against the head eventually resulted in Penaud diving over as French persistence in kicking to the corner was rewarded seconds before the break.
Damian Penaud hit back for France with a try seconds before half-time
After Ramos uncharacteristically dragged a penalty wide, Ireland scored through Nash after they sprung the play wide and Robbie Henshaw had stepped, accelerated and offloaded brilliantly for Doris to find the championship debutant.
Calvin Nash scored Ireland’s third try on the occasion of his Six Nations debut
Crowley produced a sensational conversion off the touchline for 24-10, but France were back within a score seven minutes later, after a long TMO review saw Gabrillagues awarded a try and O’Mahony sin-binned for a cynical act in attempting to deny him.
Ireland composed themselves to get back up the other end, though, and after the brave decision to kick to the corner instead of for points, Sheehan flew over the try-line from a maul for their fourth.
Dan Sheehan’s try wrapped up the bonus-point and put Ireland on firm course for victory
There remained time for one last try, and it was almost identical to Sheehan’s as Kelleher controlled possession at the back of a maul which romped over.
Fittingly, the boot of Crowley was the final scoring act via the extras.
Farrell: A special Irish victory | O’Mahony: I’m proud – the young players a big part
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell to ITV Sport…
“Any victory here, on a Friday night to start the Six Nations off is always going to be a hard task but I think coming away with a bonus-point win is special.
“I was proud of the performance because we kept on playing for the full 80 minutes and we got what we deserved in the end.
“When you play against 14 men, the tendency is sometimes to shut up shop but we kept on playing.
“These are guys that have been in around the squad for the past couple of years so we had no doubt they are ready to play.
“Some of them, their form guarantees they are going to be in. But it is a 23-man game.”
Ireland captain O’Mahony to ITV Sport…
“It is hard to sum up. It was a serious Test match.
“I am very proud of the lads for the control of the game. We were cool, composed, might have been a bit frantic in the last 10 minutes down to 14, but we stayed to the plan the whole time.
“We didn’t get carried away with positive and negative moments and I thought it was a good start.
“I think a big chunk of the performance was the young fellas, Calvin Nash, Jack Crowley, big Joe [McCarthy]. Some big, big performances from guys getting an opportunity.”
What’s next?
Ireland are in action next Sunday, February 11 for the second round of the championship, hosting Italy at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin (3pm kick-off GMT).
Ireland’s Six Nations 2024 fixtures
Friday, February 2
France 17-38 Ireland
8pm
Sunday, February 11
Ireland vs Italy
3pm
Saturday, February 24
Ireland vs Wales
2.15pm
Saturday, March 9
England vs Ireland
4.45pm
Saturday, March 16
Ireland vs Scotland
4.45pm
France travel to face Scotland at Murrayfield in Edinburgh next Saturday, February 10 (2.15pm kick-off GMT), in Round 2 of the Six Nations.
France’s Six Nations 2024 fixtures
Friday, February 2
France 17-38 Ireland
8pm
Saturday, February 10
Scotland vs France
2.15pm
Sunday, February 25
France vs Italy
3pm
Sunday, March 10
Wales vs France
3pm
Saturday, March 16
France vs England
8pm
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A boss from one of most Italy’s most violent mafias who escaped from a maximum security prison last year by using bed sheets has been captured in France, authorities in both countries said Friday.
Marco Raduano, described as “dangerous” on Europol’s list of Europe’s most wanted criminals, was detained in Bastia on the French island of Corsica.
He had escaped from a heavily secured prison in Nuoro, Sardinia, in February 2023, using sheets to scale down the walls. The escape was captured on surveillance footage and shared widely on social media. In the video, Raduano can be seen dangling from the sheets before jumping to the ground and running away.
Come fa un boss mafioso a evadere da un carcere di massima sicurezza? Calandosi con le lenzuola annodate dal muro di cinta. È successo a Nuoro con la fuga di Marco Raduano pic.twitter.com/XJOyWf1OGS
His “right-hand man,” Gianluigi Troiano, was also picked up near Granada in Spain, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said, in what he described as “another major blow against organized crime.”
Raduano, 40, is the boss of the rural Gargano clan operating within a young and little-known organised crime syndicate in Foggia, in the southern Italian region of Puglia, known as the Fourth Mafia.
He had been serving a 24-year prison sentence for membership of a criminal organization, drug trafficking, holding illegal weapons and other crimes, according to Europol.
Europol said he was “at the top” of his criminal organization, “with the role of promoter, organizer and ruthless killer of the group dedicated to the perpetration of murders, drug trafficking and management of the extortion racket”, it said.
His escape was hugely embarrassing for Italian authorities and underscored the power of the Fourth Mafia, today considered Italy’s most violent organized crime syndicate.
Less sophisticated than the wealthy ‘Ndrangheta, the Naples-based Camorra or Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, the Foggia clans rely on extortions, bombings and threats to extort locals even as they engage in drug trafficking, armed robberies and vehicle and livestock theft.
Raduano’s capture comes about a year after authorities arrested Italy’s most-wanted fugitive, taking mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro into custody after a 30-year manhunt. In September, Messina Denaro died in a hospital prison ward.
Macron’s comments come as European nations grapple with the looming consequences of Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House, with the NATO-skeptic ex-president on track to win the Republican nomination. In the U.S., further military aid for Ukraine is also stalled in Congress, with Republican lawmakers reluctant to continue funding Kyiv. Ukraine has been fending off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion for almost two years now.
“This is a decisive and testing moment for Europe. We must be ready to act to defend and support Ukraine whatever it takes and whatever America decides,” Macron said during a speech at Sweden’s Military Academy Karlberg.
Ahead of a key European summit this week focused on Ukraine, Macron also said the EU will have “to accelerate the scale” of its support, given that the costs “of a Russian victory are too high for all of us.”
EU leaders are hoping to agree on a €50 billion aid package for Ukraine at a European Council summit this Thursday, but fears are growing that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will use his veto to block the funds for Kyiv.
Macron is currently on a two-day visit to Sweden to discuss partnerships in areas from energy to defense. French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his Swedish counterpart Pål Jonson are expected to sign letters of intent on air defense and air surveillance systems.
France and Sweden are among the very few European countries with a wide-ranging defense industry that can also manufacture their own fighter jets — France’s Rafale by Dassault Aviation, and Sweden’s JAS 39 Gripen made by Saab.
“We both have a very strong model in terms of production,” Macron told the audience, listing equipment, weapons, missiles and ammunition. Cyber and space, he added, are “clearly two areas of conflictuality for the future where there’s a lot to do together.”
The partnership between the French and Belgian armies — dubbed CaMo — is a model that could be replicated between France and Sweden, Macron added.
While the scale and target of Biden’s promised response is not yet clear, any unilateral move is likely to draw blowback from key allies in the Middle East who worry about sparking a regional war.
Turkey, a key NATO ally, has denounced Israel’s campaign in Gaza, while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused the U.K. and the U.S. of trying to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of blood.”
“Turkey does not want to be drawn into this conflict because it shares a border with Iran,” said Selin Nasi, a visiting fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. “If the U.S. as its main ally in NATO gets involved in this military conflict directly then Turkey has to choose a side, and that will mean it’s harder to maintain a balanced approach — like it has done with the war in Ukraine.”
The challenge for Biden is how to retaliate without risking escalation by Iran and its partners in the region. Conversely, doing nothing — especially after having said he would avenge the deaths of the three U.S. soldiers — would leave him vulnerable to a charge of weakness from Trump.
“Iran’s leadership probably calculates that the United States will be reticent to fulsomely respond in any manner that would risk escalation of tensions in the Middle East and spark the region-wide [conflict] the Biden administration has admirably tried to prevent the past three months,” said Jonathan Panikoff, a former U.S. deputy national intelligence officer.
But the U.S. may have “to undertake a more fulsome response to restore deterrence,” he added.
Jamie Dettmer, Jeremy Van der Haegen and Laura Kayali contributed reporting.
The French government rushed to appease the country’s farmers on Sunday in a last-ditch bid to prevent a major blockade of the French capital this week. But agriculture union leaders showed no signs of backing down from their ongoing protests over a range of grievances related to taxes, regulations and prices.
Freshly minted French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal spent Sunday visiting a cattle farm in Indre-et-Loire, as Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau promised new measures would be unveiled as soon as Tuesday to address farmers’ concerns at both the EU and national level.
The ministers are trying to head off a promised “siege” of Paris by the farmers, with major roads around France already facing blockages.
Attal acknowledged Sunday that longstanding rules have been throwing “sticks in the wheels” and heaping new burdens on farmers over recent decades, and lamented that politics seemed to be pitting farmers against the environment. While he announced some concessions on Friday, Attal said he was well aware that the government had not yet addressed the issues at the root of the farmers’ grievances.
Key agriculture union leaders seemed unimpressed by the government’s promises. Plans for a full-scale action haven’t changed, said Arnaud Rousseau, head of the FNSEA farmers’ union. Speaking to BFMTV from a barricade near Beauvais, north of Paris, Rousseau told farmers to rest up ahead of a week “full of dangers.”
Discontent among farmers has boiled over into major protests around Europe, driven by complaints about environmental regulations and increases in taxes on diesel fuel. Despite significant subsidies from the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy, far-right political groups have increasingly sought to capitalize on farmers’ anger by linking their concerns to EU technocrats and foreign migrants.
Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Rally party, also met with farmers on Sunday, questioning whether the government wants to “eradicate” French agriculture to further globalization.
The gardener must at times give plants protection against too intense light and against excessively high temperatures.
Damage from intense light is most likely to occur when naturally shade loving plants are exposed to direct, strong sunshine; when sun loving plants, comparatively soft and tender from being grown in a greenhouse or cold frame, are transferred outdoors; and after plants are transplanted. The trunks of trees that have been growing closely together in woodland or nursery may be damaged by sunscald on their south facing sides following their transference to sunnier locations; by heavy pruning, branches previously shaded by foliage may be exposed to sunshine sufficiently strong to sunscald them. Damage by sun occurs not only in summer; in winter, when the ground is frozen, evergreens, especially, are likely to suffer from this.
The provision of shade is the obvious method of avoiding damage by light that is too intense. Shade needing plants should be grown in naturally shaded areas, such as woodland, under solitary trees or groups of trees, and areas shaded by high walls or buildings or in locations artificially shaded by lath houses, lath or burlap screens or other appropriate means.
The trunks of trees may, with advantage, be wrapped in burlap or in special tree wrapping
paper for a season or two following transplanting. When annuals, vegetables, young biennials and perennials are set out in hot sunny weather they should be shaded for a few days following the transplanting operation.
Not a great deal can be done to lower summer temperatures; but in every garden some locations are noticeably warmer than others. At the base of a south facing wall, for example, the temperature is very noticeably higher than at the base of a north facing wall; it is likely to be cooler near a pool or other body of water than elsewhere; parts of the garden that receive reflected heat from walls and pavements are warmer than those where plants grow alone in more open areas; in enclosed, “pocketed” spaces temperatures are higher than in more open locations through which breezes blow; and in the shade it is always much cooler than in the sun.
In selecting locations for plants known to prefer cool summer conditions, all these factors should be borne in mind. It should also be remembered that moisture has a cooling effect, and so plants should not be permitted to suffer from lack of water during dry weather.
As a temporary measure, shading may be used to offset some of the ill effects of temperatures that are too high. Spraying the foliage lightly with water lowers its temperature somewhat and has a refreshing effect on plants.
Many plants Clematis and Lilies, for example can withstand high atmospheric temperatures, provided the soil is kept reasonably cool and moist. In really hot weather an even temperature at the roots and a steady supply of water go far to ensure success with a great many kinds of plants, especially those that are surface rooters such as Azaleas, Blueberries and Rhododendrons. Summer mulching is an excellent garden practice designed to conserve moisture and keep the soil temperature moderate and even.
Clive Owen on balancing nostalgia with fresh perspective for new role in “Monsieur Spade” – CBS News
In “Monsieur Spade,” executive producer and actor Clive Owen revives the role of Sam Spade in 1960s France, balancing nostalgia with a fresh perspective. He joins “CBS Mornings” to talk about his new role.
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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday he plans to sign a bilateral security agreement with Kyiv during a visit to Ukraine next month.
Macron said France would “continue to help Ukraine to hold the front line and protect its skies,” and that the two countries “were finalizing a deal.” Speaking at a Paris press conference, Macron also announced the delivery of 40 Scalp long-range missiles and “several hundred” bombs to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
France has been working on a deal for several months, aiming to shore up Ukraine’s defenses and finances in the long term. Macron’s statement comes in the wake of last week’s visit to Kyiv by British PM Rishi Sunak, during which he signed a bilateral security deal and pledged €3 billion in military aid to Ukraine over the next two years.
European partners are under pressure to up their military support for Ukraine as Russia continues its relentless air strikes and U.S. aid seems stalled in Congress.
Earlier this month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz issued an unusually stark call to other EU countries to deliver more weapons to Ukraine. The arms deliveries planned so far are “too small,” he said, despite Berlin’s pledge to double its military aid to Kyiv to €8 billion this year.
According to the Kiel Institute, which tallied military aid to Ukraine in the public domain, Germany was the second-highest donor last year after the U.S., with €17.1 billion, followed by the U.K. with €6.6 billion, and then Nordic and Eastern European countries. France, in comparison, has only contributed €0.54 billion, Italy €0.69 billion and Spain €0.34 billion.
Macron also said France and Europe would have to take “new decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” likely a reference to talks in Brussels to resolve a dispute over a €50 billion aid package to Ukraine.
LIGHTS flashing and horns blaring, 3,000 tractors trundled through Hanover in Germany bringing its streets to a gridlocked standstill.
Stepping down from his cab, arable farmer Axel Friehe told me his beleaguered nation’s economy is “breaking down”.
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Tractors of protesting farmers line the streets in front of the Brandenburg Gate in BerlinCredit: Getty
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Major German cities have been paralysed by demonstrating agricultural workers, truckers and small business peopleCredit: EPA
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Turnip farmer Christoph Berndt said ‘The AfD use the demonstrations to draw attention to themselves’Credit: Louis Wood
“We hope our protests are the start of something big,” he said of the tractor cavalcade being cheered by locals.
Farmer Friehe, 51, may soon have his wish.
Troubled Germany’s major cities have been paralysed by demonstrating agricultural workers, truckers and small business people.
Some 500 tractors gathered at Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate and 5,000 paraded through Munich’s streets.
While French farmers have made protesting something of a national pastime — infamously torching a lorry full of British sheep in 1990 — their German counterparts are traditionally less militant.
Yet a heavy-handed bid by its government to slash a tax break on diesel used in agricultural machinery — worth around £2,500 a year to each farmer — has made zealots of German country folk.
I watched on Wednesday as locals in Hanover gave farmers hearty cheers and the thumbs up despite the traffic tailbacks in the north German city of 536,000 citizens.
For the tractor strike is a symptom of a wider malaise gripping Germany.
The country’s once booming export market made it the industrial powerhouse at the heart of Europe.
Yet since the pandemic its sluggish economy has grown by just 0.3 per cent — compared to 1.4 per cent in the UK — making it by far the worst performer in the G7 group of nations.
Stringent green initiatives, including the rolling out of heat pumps, have been unpopular with many.
‘Hungry, naked and sober’
And mass migration — last year Germany had more than 350,000 asylum applications — has become a major political flashpoint.
Its ruling coalition of the left-of- centre Social Democratic Party, the Greens and liberal Free Democrats have been trying to plug a near £15billion budget black hole.
Into this economic and social maelstrom has stepped the far-right Alternative for Deutschland, who critics say are “infiltrating” the farmers’ demonstrations.
Last week it was reported that high-ranking AfD officials were caught at a secret conference where a “masterplan” for the forced deportation of millions of migrants to Africa was discussed.
The meeting, at a luxury hotel last November, featured a talk by far-right Identitarian Movement activist Martin Sellner, who is permanently banned from the UK for extremism.
It was claimed that the “remigration” proposals discussed at the event, infiltrated by news network Collectiv, included deporting immigrants with German passports.
Those in attendance — reportedly alongside neo-Nazis — included Roland Hartwig, a personal aide to AfD leader Alice Weidel, and AfD MP Gerrit Huy.
The AfD denied it had a “secret plan” but added: “We need passport withdrawal for criminals and remigration!”
At last week’s Hanover protest, turnip farmer Christoph Berndt, 31, insisted: “The AfD use the demonstrations to draw attention to themselves.
“They say the farmers are on their side, which isn’t true.”
Driving nearly 40 miles on his green John Deere tractor to be at the good-natured demonstration, he added: “The politicians in Berlin make it more difficult for us to work and make money.
“So we go on to the street and try to animate people to understand us and what we do in the fields.”
German flags fluttered from tractor cabs with signs on their front loaders reading: “No food without us.”
Another read: “Without agriculture you’d be hungry, naked and sober.”
Air horns sounded in the sub-zero chill as farmers gathered outside Lower Saxony’s regional parliament building in Hanover.
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Locals cheered the tractor cavalcadeCredit: @UNCOFILM
Expressing the fury felt by many, Volker Hahn, who helped to organise the demo, said: “The Government needs money and they will take it from the farmers. It’s a horrible situation.”
Volker, 55, who tends pigs, chickens and potatoes at his 600-acre farm, added: “We don’t welcome the support of AfD.
“They’re extreme.”
To add to the air of despondency felt by many, Hanover and other German cities have also been crippled by train driver strikes this week.
At the parliament building I met Sonja Markgraf, from the Rural People of Lower Saxony group, which also helped to organise the tractor protest.
She said: “The French people were always on the barricades but in Germany everyone felt comfortable.”
Now, she says, times have changed, with farmers seething at being asked to help plug the Government’s budget gap.
She added: “We are very happy that the protests are peaceful — but loud. The population stands behind us.”
Sonja, 53, says people from all backgrounds are facing unrealistic demands on environmental issues.
She added: “Heat pumps are a good example. It’s not wrong to do it, it’s the way they do it.
“It was too quick, wasn’t well explained and people are worried about the price.
“Reforms are necessary but you have to take the people with you.
“This feeling is in every part of the population, whether you’re poor, rich or middle-class. It’s not great for the general mood.”
She blames people’s fears over illegal immigration for AfD’s rise, saying: “Even three or four years ago it wasn’t an issue.
“Now the municipalities say they have no rooms, no flats or apartments so it’s more visible now.
“So the AfD tries to profit from it.”
Germany has long been renowned in British minds as a land of efficiency, where everything works.
It was praised for how it faced up to its Nazi past and built a vibrant, liberal democracy with a turbo-charged economy.
That booming post-war Germany was summed up in Audi’s 1980s advertising slogan “vorsprung durch technik”, meaning “progress through technology”.
Now its famed export trade of cars and machinery is in deep trouble.
German car makers produced almost 40 per cent fewer vehicles in 2022 than they did a decade previously.
And politicians have failed to tackle creaking infrastructure, a housing shortage and high-speed internet rollout.
Labelled the Sick Man of Europe — an historic term that was used to describe Britain in the 1970s — its economy is predicted to perform worse than Britain’s in the next decade.
Though expected to return to growth this year, Germany — the world’s third biggest economy — is forecast to be overtaken by Japan in 2026 and India in 2027.
At Hanover’s regional parliament building I met the AfD’s Frank Rinck, who denies his far-right party has “infiltrated” the farmers’ demos.
The MP and chairman of the Lower Saxony AfD said the group were “simply engaging with these demonstrations like any other political party”.
Frank, an agricultural contractor, says the Government’s subsidy cut will lead to a “further death” of the farming sector.
He added: “At some point our domestic agricultural sector will not be able to feed indigenous people.”
He said it was news to him that AfD politicians had attended a “remigration” conference, describing reports as “a storm in a teacup”.
He added: “In Germany things like this tend to come up when problems arise and people demonstrate.”
Watching the AfD’s rise warily are the centre-right Christian Democratic Union party, currently Germany’s leading party in opinion polls.
Its agriculture spokesman in Lower Saxony’s parliament, Dr Marco Mohrmann, ruled out working with the AfD in a coalition.
The dad of three told me: “A big part of the AfD is extreme right — and that’s not our way.”
While accepting Germany should take in asylum seekers and skilled migrants, he admitted Britain’s stuttering Rwanda policy may also be a way forward for his country.
Conservative-leaning Marco, 59, said: “I think the model the UK is doing with Rwanda is interesting.
“It’s a third-country solution where you can look at someone and decide if they can get asylum or not.
“A year ago we couldn’t discuss something like this but now we can, and we have to.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has tried to contain farmers’ rage by phasing out the diesel tax break over time and scrapping plans to abolish tax exemption on agricultural vehicles.
Yet the scale of the protests — and their support across German society — suggests he has not done enough.
Yesterday 5,000 tractors and 10,000 protesters blockaded Berlin in a climax to a week of protest. Fresh talks with Government representatives are set.
Rural People of Lower Saxony’s Sonja Markgraf insisted: “If it’s not good for the farmers then we say, ‘We go on’.”
Germany’s Great Tractor Revolution may still only be in first gear.
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Volker Hahn helped to organise the demonstration in HanoverCredit: Louis Wood
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has tried to contain farmers’ rage by phasing out the diesel tax break over time and scrapping plans to abolish tax exemption on agricultural vehiclesCredit: Getty
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Sonja Markgraf, from the Rural People of Lower Saxony group, also helped to organise the tractor protestCredit: Louis Wood
BRUSSELS — One of Europe’s most senior politicians recounted how former U.S. President Donald Trump privately warned that America would not come to the EU’s aid if it was attacked militarily.
“You need to understand that if Europe is under attack we will never come to help you and to support you,” Trump told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in 2020, according to French European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was also present at a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“By the way, NATO is dead, and we will leave, we will quit NATO,” Trump also said, according to Breton. “And he added, ‘and by the way, you owe me $400 billion, because you didn’t pay, you Germans, what you had to pay for defense,'” Breton said about the tense meeting, where the EU’s then-trade chief Phil Hogan was also present.
Breton told the anecdote at an event in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, just days before the Republican Party holds its January 15 caucus in Iowa, the opening contest in Trump’s bid to win the Republican nomination for a run at returning to the White House. Party members will cast their votes for candidates including Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who both trail way behind the ex-president in opinion polls.
Brussels is rife with fear about the possibility Trump will return to the U.S. presidency.
As the commissioner in charge of the EU’s industrial policy and defense agenda, Breton has pushed for the EU to boost its own self-defense capabilities amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, and on Tuesday floated a €100 billion fund to ramp up arms production in the bloc.
“That was a big wake-up call and he may come back,” Breton said about Trump. “So now more than ever, we know that we are on our own, of course. We are a member of NATO, almost all of us, of course we have allies, but we have no other options but to increase drastically this pillar in order to be ready [for] whatever happens.”
