French

- A + A PARIS (Oct 21): France's lower house of parliament voted to approve extending the country's COVID-19 health pass measures until at least July 31, 2022, as governments around Europe look to ensure they can curb the virus as the winter season approaches. The pass proves the holder has been fully vaccinated against COVID, or has recently tested negative for COVID, thereby allowing the holder to enter places such as bars and restaurants and sports venues where the health pass is compulsory. Nationwide demonstrations broke out in France in August by those opposed to the COVID health pass, although the numbers of protesters have gradually fallen in recent weeks. …

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Blyth offshore windfarm. - A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has acquired a 49% stake in Blyth Offshore Demonstrator Ltd (BODL), an offshore wind farm company in the UK, from EDF Renewables (EDFR), a subsidiary of French utility company Électricité de France (EDF). In a statement on Wednesday (Oct 20), the national power company said the acquisition was done via its wholly-owned subsidiary Vantage RE Ltd and marked TNB’s maiden entry into the international offshore wind market as BODL currently owns offshore wind assets off the coast of Blyth, Northumberland, England. “The assets include five turbines with a total installed capacity of 41.5MW (Blyth 1) and further development rights for a floating offshore wind project of up to 58.4MW (Blyth 2) located off the Northumberland coast. “The wind farm has been in operation since 2017 under the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC) subsidy regime that is expected to provide stable revenues. …

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A leading feminist organisation in France said it was suing the promoters of the Miss France beauty contest in a labour court, alleging they used discriminatory criteria to select participants. The "Osez le feminisme" (Dare to be a Feminist) group, along with three failed contestants, said they were targeting the Miss France company as well as Endemol Production, which makes the annual TV programme screened on the TF1 channel. The plaintiffs argue that the companies are breaking French labour law with discriminatory selection criteria by obliging aspiring beauty queens to be more than 1.70 metres tall, single, and "representative of beauty". The French labour code forbids companies from discriminating on the basis of "morals, age, family status or physical appearance," Violaine De Filippis-Abate, a lawyer for Osez le feminisme, told AFP. The case, filed at a labour court in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, will hinge on whether magistrates recognise Miss France contestants as de …

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PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's former chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, now seeking the centre-right ticket in France's 2022 election, said the country was deeply divided and accused President Emmanuel Macron of being oblivious to the daily worries of citizens. Barnier said that what he called out-of-control immigration was weakening France's sense of identity - a pitch to voters within conservative circles of the political right as he seeks to counter the far right. "When the foundations are fragile, when they move, you cannot build on top," Barnier told reporters. "Our country's base is weak: our unity is fragile, our togetherness is in question." Barnier is locked in a divisive race for the Les Republicains (LR) party nomination that has brought deep rifts within the party to the surface and distracted from an election race that is warming up six months out from the vote. Barnier's bid for the presidential nomination was widely dismissed as hopeless in newspaper …

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SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Singapore has moved up one notch to second place in a global ranking of how well countries attract, develop, support and retain talent - behind Switzerland but ahead of the United States. The yearly global talent competitiveness index, which covers 134 countries, is published by French business school Insead and non-profit research body Portulans Institute. In the same index for cities, Singapore ranked seventh, down from third last year but still the only Asian city in the top ten. San Francisco topped the city index, followed by Geneva, Boston and Zurich. For the country ranking, Singapore made it to top three in four of the six criteria, which encompass enabling, attracting, growing and retaining talent, vocational and technical skills, and global knowledge skills. The Republic was praised for enabling talent with its strong regulatory landscape, attracting talent around specific areas such as bio-nanotechnologies, and …

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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said Wednesday it will direct up to $120 million to boost access to Merck’s Covid-19 drug in low-income countries, a first-of-its kind treatment that could be easily distributed in countries with low vaccine supplies and that trials suggest could slash the risk of hospitalization or death in high-risk groups. Key Facts The money from the Gates Foundation will support the activities needed to develop and manufacture generic versions of Merck’s drug, molnupiravir, the foundation said in a statement . The funding is contingent on the drug gaining approval from regulators, the foundation said, and builds on its ongoing work to improve access to Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests, including $1.9 billion in funding since the start of the pandemic. The foundation said initial data on molnupiravir, which Merck developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, was promising …

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The meal delivery market is expected to turn to a phase of consolidation in the coming months as players look to adjust operations after the explosive boom in demand served up to them during the COVID-19 pandemic. The industry, which includes the likes of Uber Eats, Just Eat Takeaway and Deliveroo, generally saw share prices spike during 2020 as lockdowns and other restrictions kept people eating at home. Investor sentiment has turned in 2021 in anticipation of a return to normal, but experts say consumers' ordering habits have likely changed permanently. "Food delivery app usage has not slowed down, even as consumers return to in-person dining more frequently," said Alisha Kapur of Similarweb, which analyses web traffic and app downloads. Yet most of the companies are losing money and the increasing need for scale means the market is ripe for consolidation, according to industry experts. Kapur said it was "very rare" for significant numbers of …

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French startup Lexilife, which specialises in designing lamps for dyslexic people, has just unveiled its new connected model, due on sale in 2022. This updated version will let users customise and save their own settings, as well as follow their progress in reading. The startup is already looking further ahead and is preparing to launch Lexilight 3.0, a connected lamp that will make its debut at the next CES consumer technology show in Las Vegas, before launching on the European market in 2022. This Lexilight 3.0 is wireless and easily portable. It diffuses pulsed and modulated light thanks to special LEDs. Equipped with a more powerful algorithm than the previous versions, the Lexilight 3.0 emits the same amount of light but is fully customisable. It is announced with an operating time of about 12 hours. Via an accompanying mobile application (available on Android and iOS), users will be able to set their own settings for pulsation, modulation and light intensity. The app will …

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Off the Lebanese coast about 60 kilometres north of Beirut a 104-metre battleship stands vertically, with her bow and some 30 metres of her length plunged into the mud. The seabed is 140 metres down, but you can even scuba-dive on the stern if you are a technical diver. The ship is a bit like Lebanon, for reasons I'll explain later. Five years ago Lebanon still looked like a middle-class country with a lot of poor people. Now it looks like a very poor country with a few rich people. If you want the numbers, the proportion of people living below the official poverty line has gone from 30% two years ago to 80% now. Indeed, even the civil war of 1975-1990 did less damage to the economy, though it destroyed several hundred thousand lives and much of the country's infrastructure. The current disaster's roots are in that war. It drove the Lebanese back into the relative safety of their own sectarian communities, Christian, Sunni Muslim, and Shia Muslim, and warlords arose to protect …

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Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former product manager on Facebook’s civic integrity team, will testify in a US Senate hearing on Tuesday, October 5, 10 am, Eastern time or Tuesday, 10 pm, Philippine time. A summary of the hearing as well as a livestream feed can be found on this US Senate page. Haugen recently revealed internal documents that became the basis of a series of Wall Street Journal articles that showed Facebook knew and ignored the harms of its product, specifically Instagram and its negative effects on teens. It's damning in the sense that this is concrete evidence that Facebook has real knowledge of the harms of its platforms but is purposely ignoring to fix these harms. Facebook has resisted external oversight, and acts against dissenting voices strongly, not unlike strongman figures who have learned to weaponize the platform. Just last August, the company banned New York University researchers who were studying how …

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