Around the World

Written by Rob Picheta, Antonella FranciniSaskya Vandoorne, CNN French Prime Minister Jean Castex is being sent ladies’ underwear in the mail, as part of a protest by lingerie store owners whose outlets have been forced to close under the country’s lockdown. The imaginative activists have been sharing pictures online of the various undergarments they have sent Castex, tucked inside an envelope with a letter explaining their grievances. The protest, organized by the group Action Culottée, came about after lingerie stores were classed as non-essential businesses, and were therefore forced to close to reduce transmission of Covid-19. “We managed to get…

This week, Tesla’s booth at the Shanghai Auto Show was briefly besieged by protesters complaining about problems with its cars, criticism that has dogged Elon Musk’s company for months in the world’s biggest market. Video footage of the incident on Monday, which later went viral in China, showed a woman climbing on top of a Tesla vehicle, alleging that her car had defective brakes. The demonstrator — who wore a white T-shirt emblazoned with a Tesla logo and the words “brake failure” — was later pulled away by security. The incident overshadowed an announcement the US company made the same…

Graveyards are running out of space, hospitals are turning away patients, and desperate families are pleading for help on social media for beds and medicine. India reported 295,041 cases of coronavirus and 2,023 deaths Wednesday, its highest rise in cases and highest death increase recorded in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health. “The volume is humongous,” said Jalil Parkar, a senior pulmonary consultant at the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, which had to convert its lobby into an additional Covid ward. “It’s just like a…

Facebook (FB) announced several new tools for creating and sharing audio on Monday. Similar to its moves into video behind YouTube, disappearing photos after Snapchat and short-form content on the heels of TikTok, Facebook is once again following the growth of a new medium and competitor. Audio has seen a resurgence with the rise of podcasts and more recently with live social audio on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces. Facebook wants to “treat audio as a first-class medium in the way that we treat photos and videos,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Monday in an interview with journalist Casey Newton on another…

Chad’s long-serving President Idriss Deby has died from injuries sustained in clashes with rebels, an army spokesman told state TV. CNN’s David McKenzie reports. Source link

Army spokesman Azem Bermendao Agouna told state TV said Deby — a longtime Western ally in efforts to quell Islamist militias in north Africa — died “as a result of his injuries on the front line.” Reuters said Deby had been visiting troops fighting rebels in the north of the country. The announcement came a day after it was announced that Deby, who had been in power for 30 years, was projected to win a sixth consecutive term in elections held earlier this month. Rebels, who have been seeking to oust Deby since 2016, had claimed a number of victories…

Zelensky extended the invitation on Tuesday night during a public address, urging Putin to restore a ceasefire in the region where he said “millions of lives” are at stake. “A proposal was made to meet at the contact line in order to see and understand the situation as accurately as possible. What should I understand? I go there every month. Mr Putin!” Zelensky said. “I am ready to go even further and invite you to meet anywhere in the Ukrainian Donbass, where there is a war,” he said. A build-up of Russian troops along the border has reignited tensions in…

While it has been a pioneer in hybrid and even hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles, Toyota has been slower than some other major automakers, such as General Motors and Volkswagen, to enter the fully-electric vehicle market. In the early 2000s, the Toyota Prius was received with the sort of excitement now seen for Tesla models. There were wait lists if you wanted to order one. Celebrities like Ryan Gosling, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cameron Diaz were conspicuously photographed by paparazzi driving them. Other automakers were criticized for not making more forward-thinking hybrid models like that. Almost 20 years after the second-generation Prius…

Produced by SAIC-GM-Wuling, a company partially owned by General Motors (GM), the Hong Guang Mini EV sells at a starting price that’s equivalent to about $4,400. Now the Hong Guang Mini EV family is growing. The company recently unveiled a new range of pastry-inspired colors and a convertible version of the tiny car. The Hong Guang MINI EV Macaron was introduced earlier this month. It’s offered in three pastel hues — green, yellow and pink — suggestive of the meringue-based cookies. The Macaron models cost the equivalent of between $5,775 and $6,700. The Hong Guang Mini EV Cabrio, which was…

Between April and July of 1994, some 800,000 people were slaughtered, mainly from the ethnic Tutsi minority but also some Hutus. “The message of the Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister today is a key step in getting our two countries closer,” a French presidential adviser told reporters on Monday in response to the Rwandan report. Ever since the genocide, critics of France’s role have said that then-President Francois Mitterrand failed to prevent the massacres or even supported the Hutu-led government that orchestrated the killings. “The French Government bears significant responsibility for enabling a foreseeable genocide,” the Rwandan government wrote in its…