Summit of the Twenty-Seven: Zelensky calls for fighter planes “as soon as possible”

Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to be in Brussels on Thursday as the guest of honor at a summit of the Twenty-Seven. Occasionally, the Ukrainian president should plead, as he did Wednesday in London and Paris, for his allies to deliver fighter planes to him “as soon as possible.” Indeed, he began a surprise European mini-tour yesterday, only his second trip abroad since the outbreak of war on February 24, 2022 after his trip to the United States in December.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz believes that “it is a strong signal that the president is personally participating in this first meeting of the year of EU heads of state and government, a signal of European solidarity.” Thus, he was received in London on Wednesday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and by King Charles III. Also, he was welcomed in the evening by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who had also invited Mr. Scholz for a late dinner at the Élysée Palace.

Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: the toll continues to rise

The death toll from the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria exceeded 15,000 on Thursday. Indeed, with the chances of survival dwindling two days after the disaster, and rising criticism in Turkey, forced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to acknowledge shortcomings in the government's response. Amid increasing online criticism of the authorities' handling of this tragedy, Twitter has become inaccessible on the main Turkish mobile phone providers. After the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that shook south-east Turkey and neighbouring northern Syria at dawn on Monday, followed by powerful aftershocks, rescuers have been working in the freezing cold for two days on the ground. While the first 72 hours are crucial to finding survivors, according to the head of the Turkish Red Crescent, Kerem Kinik, bad weather is complicating the task of rescuers.

Pension reform: a fifth day of mobilization announced for February 16

A fifth day of mobilization is announced by the unions on 16 February against the pension reform. The eight main unions agreed on 16 February for another day of strikes and demonstrations against the reform, including the raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64. According to the Ministry of the Interior, during the third day of mobilization 757,000 people met and “nearly two million” according to the organizers, figures lower than the previous days, on 19 and 31 January.

Agricultural decline: more than a thousand farmers marched in Paris on Wednesday

More than a thousand farmers marched in Paris against “agricultural degrowth” on Wednesday. For them, this decline is induced by the ban on pesticides that they consider essential to their activity. According to FNSEA, 620 machines left their farms in the Île-de-France region before dawn to reach the center of Paris in the morning. Among these is a sugar beet harvester. The government's decision, on 23 January, to abandon the granting of a derogation allowing the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, toxic to bees, for sugar beet cultivation, in accordance with a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) is the basis for this mobilization.

IN SHORT

Algeria recalled its ambassador to France “for consultations” to protest against the “illegal exfiltration” via Tunisia of the Franco-Algerian activist Amira Bouraoui.

The Annecy court sentenced three men, two of whom were registered by the police as belonging to far-right groups, for violence committed on the evening of the France-Morocco match in mid-December, to sentences of four to nine months in prison.

In the last three months of 2022, Disney+ lost 2.4 million subscribers and the entertainment giant announced it would cut 7,000 jobs.

On the day the social network launched a long format that can go up to 4,000 characters per message, tens of thousands of Twitter users reported technical problems with the platform on Wednesday, including being unable to tweet.