Hondurans go to the polls Sunday, and many voters say they’re undecided who they’ll vote for. But one thing they do know is that they’ll be casting a vote to punish the current National Party.
(Image credit: SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett)
Far-right figure Eric Zemmour, touted as a potential president of France, was caught showing the middle finger to an angry woman who accosted him in Marseille. A minister later asked young people not to repeat the obscene gesture.
Zemmour, who is expected to officially announce his candidacy for the presidency early next month, arrived in Marseille on Friday as part of his promotional tour. He was met by a group of protesters that jeered and booed as the media personality was leaving the train station.
On Saturday, a woman approached Zemmour’s car outside city hall and gave him the middle finger. Zemmour, who rolled down his window, quickly responded in kind. The obscene gesture was caught by an AFP photographer’s camera.
According to AFP, Zemmour told the woman the finger was designed to go “very deep.” His team later told reporters that the woman had duped Zemmour’s security by posing as his supporter and was behaving aggressively.
Opponents jumped to slam the writer for the gesture. French European affairs minister Clement Beaune told LCI TV channel that the altercation has exposed the “true face” of Zemmour, as well as his “lack of respect, the divisiveness, the hatred and the violence.”
“This man praises French civilization and identity, presents himself as a man of culture and aspires to lead our country,” French member of the European Parliament Nathalie Loiseau tweeted.
Nadia Hai, the urban development minister, urged young people not to emulate Zemmour’s gesture and to fight “uncivilities wherever they come from.”
A source close to Zemmour told AFP that the gesture was “instinctive” on his end. “He told us, ‘I was insulted, I was shown the finger so I responded’,” the source explained.
Known for his fiery anti-migrant and anti-Islam rhetoric, Zemmour surged in the polls in October. At one point, around 18% of people said they would vote for him in the first round of the presidential election, scheduled for April 10. This would be enough for Zemmour to face President Emmanuel Macron in the second round. He was polling between 13% and 15% this month, according to recent surveys cited by French media.
Zemmour was fined several times in the past for inciting hatred against Muslims. He is currently on trial for calling child migrants “thieves, killers [and] rapists.”
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Eddie Ndopu, an award-winning disability activist from South Africa, and one of 17 United Nations advocates for the Sustainable Development Goals, lives with spinal muscular atrophy, and faces many difficulty daily challenges. Ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, on 3 December, Mr. Ndopu discusses how he has overcome barriers to travel the world advocating for others with disabilities.
Hondurans go to the polls Sunday, and many voters say they’re undecided who they’ll vote for. But one thing they do know is that they’ll be casting a vote to punish the current National Party.
(Image credit: SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett)
Israel has banned all foreigners from entering the country and tasked intelligence services with locating and tracking all recent arrivals from the hotspots of the newly-emerged Omicron coronavirus variant.
The new rules are set to go into effect on Sunday, making Israel the first country to completely seal its borders to foreign nationals for at least 14 days, following an emergency meeting of the Corona Cabinet. Only those specifically approved by a so-called Exceptions Committee will be allowed entry.
“The Government of Israel is working quickly and vigorously thanks to the conclusions that were formulated following the ‘Omega’ national drill which gamed various situations regarding the appearance of new variants,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett noted, referring to a national drill conducted just two weeks ago to assess Israel’s preparedness for an outbreak of a potential unknown new strain of Covid-19.
All Israeli citizens returning from abroad – even those fully-vaccinated with two doses and a booster – will be forced to quarantine for at least three days, while those coming from “red” states will have to stay in designated military-run hotels until they test negative for the virus twice.
Those who had visited an African state over the past week were urged to undergo a test and isolated voluntarily, while internal security agency Shin Bet was tasked with monitoring the compliance using its cell phone tracking capabilities.
The controversial contact-tracing program was first used during the outbreak of the original Covid-19 virus back in 2020, but has since been ruled “no longer justifiable” by the High Court of Justice.
The harsh measures come after Israel detected a single confirmed and seven suspected cases of the new variant B.1.1.529, first registered earlier this month in Botswana. During an emergency meeting on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially designated the new strain a “variant of concern,” calling it Omicron.
Growing fears of the Omicron variant promptly triggered global travel bans, with flights from South Africa and several of its neighboring countries being barred by a growing number of states. While little is known about the variant thus far, experts worldwide have already raised the alarm over its multiple mutations and potential for infection. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control designated the strain as presenting a “high to very high” risk, adding that there was “considerable uncertainty related to the transmissibility, vaccine effectiveness, risk for reinfections and other properties of the Omicron variant.”
