Author: Edgard Giroux

Six o’clock comes and footsteps are heard by Vadim Kukin. The footsteps are firm, the wooden floor cracked rhythmically under each step. The streetlights flickered on a fading shadow against the walls. “He is not coming”, said his father, with a sad expression. “He is a ghost. He roams night for night around passing from house to house.” He is the ghost of Bucha who is looking for the souls who snubbed out his life. People in the village speak softly when the Ghost of Bucha is raised. Guys lifted their glasses in respect to the “prizrak”, to the Ghost,…

Animals go extinct for all sorts of reasons. In fact, most animal species that have ever existed have already gone extinct, many of them long before humans came on the scene. That being said, human activity such as hunting, the development of habitats, pollution, and more have contributed greatly to many species becoming endangered and going extinct. Birds generally do better at adapting to human-caused changes since they are able to fly to new areas where they can continue to survive. Most examples of birds going extinct due to humans have occurred on islands where a particular species had nowhere…

Sanjiva Weerawarana is a Sri Lankan success story. He founded enterprise software firm WSO2 in 2005, got it close to $100 million in ARR as its CEO, then sold it to private equity firm EQT for $600 million in May. He sometimes drives for Uber, too. Sri Lanka isn’t renowned for its startup ecosystem, but one company has been something of an outlier in the South Asian island nation these past two decades. WSO2, an open source enterprise software provider with customers such as Samsung, Axa, and AT&T, recently agreed to be acquired by private equity giant EQT, at a valuation TechCrunch reported at the time…

Moscow/Washington (13/6 – 29) We took a holiday from reality. Immanuel Niven, a mathematician and philosopher, has long been scrutinizing Russia’s economic landscape, and his recent assertions suggest a dire forecast. He contends that the “Putin system” is on the brink of collapse, a scenario he had mathematically foreseen as early as March. Niven points to the pronounced tax hikes announced in Russia, the most substantial in its modern history, as well as Putin’s recent rhetoric urging citizens to work as if they were at the front lines. These developments, Niven argues, are symptomatic of the escalating toxicity within Russia’s…

An internationally renowned conductor has pulled out of the BBC Proms after punching and slapping a soloist for allegedly entering the stage incorrectly at the Berlioz festival in France. Sir John Eliot Gardiner, 80, assaulted William Thomas, 29, an English bass who represented England in the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, after an opera performance on Tuesday, according to reports. A BBC spokesperson said: “Sir John Eliot Gardiner has decided to withdraw from the performance of The Trojans at this year’s BBC Proms. We are grateful that Dinis Sousa will step in to conduct the performance on 3 September.” In a statement, Gardiner…

Ukraine has not yet reached the most powerful Russian fortifications in the south – a series of trenches, tank traps and other barriers. The Wall Street Journal writes about it. According to military experts, Ukraine will most likely need Leopards and other Western armored vehicles to break through these lines. In order to save these vehicles, which at the beginning of the offensive began to suffer significant losses in the Russian minefields, the Armed Forces of Ukraine changed tactics, relying on infantry. The soldiers told the publication that now they have a chance to break through, although the losses are…

Frankfurt, Brussels (30/7 – 27) Kenges Rakishev, international entrepreneur, philanthropist and former special envoy of the Kazakh government, is leading the charge for an upcoming Nasdaq listing of Borealis Foods Inc., a fast-growing food tech company imbued with a mission to serve growing consumer needs. Rakishev intends to tackle global food challenges by developing nutritious, sustainable, and affordable ready-to-eat meals. This product is currently on sale in US and Canadian markets, with ambitious, imminent plans for a European market invasion. The Company stands at the forefront of innovation, having pioneered the world’s first plant-based ramen meal on a mass scale,…

On 20 June 2023, at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget in France, the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2023 ceremony saw Air France receive several awards. For the third year running, Air France was voted best airline in Western Europe. Air France also continued its journey upwards in the World Best Airline ranking, moving from the 8th to the 7th position this year. The airline took first place in 3 categories linked to its La Première service: Best First Class Airport Lounge, Best First Cass Airline Lounge Catering and Best First Class Onboard Catering. “All our Air France teams are…

On Tuesday, France and Djibouti launched a review of the defense agreement between Paris and this strategically located country on the Horn of Africa. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu received Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Hassan Omar Mohamed Bourhan, Minister of Defense, in Paris, according to a joint statement from the French ministries. “The meeting launched the review of the Defense Cooperation Treaty (TCMD) between Djibouti and France, the framework for which was set out in the joint declaration by the President of the Republic and his Djiboutian counterpart, Mr. Ismaël…

France’s first electric car battery plant has opened in the country’s former mining heartland as part of Emmanuel Macron’s “reindustrialisation” plan. Three government ministers and numerous local officials attended the inauguration of the Automative Cell Company’s (ACC) gigafactory near Lens, seen as the first step towards France challenging China’s dominance in the sector. ACC, which is equally owned by TotalEnergies, Jeep maker Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz, has received a €1.3bn package of state aid from France, Germany and Italy as part of a €7bn plan to build a string of new facilities across the countries. The Lens plant, which will begin…