Almost 150,000 dead around the world, several countries including France, and a disrupted global economy ... Every day, millions of you logically follow the news around the Covid-19 epidemic. But other information, unrelated to the coronavirus, may have escaped you. We have selected five of the most significant of the day. Virus-free guarantees.
The homage of Christophe's relatives
The singer died in the night from Thursday to Friday and tributes are multiplying since to this singular artist with a long and battered career. The words of those who knew him are obviously the most touching. Among them, Michèle Torr, with whom Christophe had married and with whom he had a child, Romain, and his friend Jean-Michel Jarre.
" I am upset. When you love someone, it's for life, ”said the singer. From their meeting in a cellar in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, during a Europe 1 broadcast in 1965, to their separation, two years later, through the birth of Romain, Michèle Torr told us recounted his relationship with the singer.
Jean-Michel Jarre was a friend of 50 years of Christophe. "It's a part of my life that is falling apart, a paradise that has been definitively lost," he told the Parisian. I lost one of the greatest French singers, of course, but also a member of my tribe. "Together, they had notably created the songs" Les Paradis Perdus "," Les Mots Bleus "or" Senorita ".
MSF withdraws from the Mediterranean
Their partnership lasted four years and saved 30,000 people in the Mediterranean. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced on Friday that it would stop its missions to rescue migrants at sea on board the Ocean Viking, failing to reach an agreement with SOS Méditerranée which charters it, on the possibility of operating despite the health crisis.
The situation is still just as serious for those who have fled Libya, since Malta and Italy have officially closed their ports to migrants, but "unfortunately the security conditions were no longer met for the crews and those rescued", a explained Sophie Beau, the general manager of SOS Mediterranean. Going back to sea meant taking the risk of finding yourself "faced with deadlock situations that drag on at sea", "without any guaranteed landing", and "medical evacuations made very hazardous by the crisis conditions sanitary ”.
📝 READ Today, @Dunja_Mijatovic, #Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of # Europe #CoE_fr said that #EU states must provide sea rescue and safe landing during the # Covid19 crisis 👉https: //t.co/3fQzdOgZQG#SaveRescueAtSea
- SOS MEDITERRANEE France (@SOSMedFrance) April 16, 2020Until further notice, the Ocean Viking will therefore remain in Marseille, its home port. "We could not take the responsibility of going back to sea when all the indicators are red," continued Sophie Beau.
A journey in the wrong direction on the highway
She could have done a lot of damage. In the Gard, a driver who had consumed alcohol and drugs took this Friday the A9 motorway in the opposite direction, causing a chase with the gendarmes over thirty kilometers to nearly 150 km an hour. At the arrival? None injured, luckily. But "it is a real miracle that there was no death on the A9," said a source close to the investigation.
The gendarmes were able to stop the young woman, aged 25, and her passenger, aged 30, about 20 minutes after the first report. The driver, "in an extremely degraded state of health" and who made "delusional words" according to the prosecution, was placed in police custody, as was his acolyte.
Three astronauts back on Earth
If they waited this Friday to enjoy their full freedom and the great outdoors, after more than 200 days on board the International Space Station (ISS), it is unfortunately missed. In the middle of a pandemic, two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth this Friday.
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The capsule, with Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripotchka on board, landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan shortly after 7 a.m. (French time), according to the Russian space agency Roskosmos. They must now return to their homes. However, it will not be through Karaganda Airport, which is closed like hundreds of other airports around the world.
Home safe and sound. 🌍
Today's landing wraps up a 205-day mission for both @Astro_Jessica and Oleg Skripochka and a 272-day mission for @AstroDrewMorgan. Welcome home!
Watch live as the space travelers are helped out of their vehicle: https://t.co/0A4ev0XgBq pic.twitter.com/4ZkpnJ8OhE
Thus, Oleg Skripotchka will return to Russia aboard an aircraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome, used for launches to the ISS. For their part, NASA astronauts will leave for the United States on an airplane from the city of Kyzylorda, after a journey of several hours by car. Welcome back to them.
Who burned the town hall of Villefontaine?
During the night of Thursday to Friday, the municipal building of the town of Villefontaine, in Isère, was partially burned down, without causing any casualties. The method used is unusual, since it was a burning car that was thrown into the entrance hall, according to several sources. A detail that makes the mayor of the city say that it is a "criminal act".
“According to initial reports, an individual drove a ram car into the hall of the town hall, then set it on fire. The fire then spread to the side of the entrance hall of the town hall only, the intervention of the firefighters having made it possible to contain it ", continued the councilor who will file a complaint," revolted at this unspeakable act "
The damage, described as "significant", is yet to be assessed. An investigation has been opened. According to the Public Prosecutor of Vienna, “the only thing that can be ruled out is the accident. It is a tort and totally intentional act. Ultra-left or delinquent from Villefontaine, no track is ruled out and none is privileged at this stage ”.