Latest news with #CNews
Metro
5 days ago
- Science
- Metro
France's new rocket Baguette One to go where no baker has gone before
If seeing a gigantic baguette flying in space is on your bucket list, do we have news for you. Well, kind of. France will soon have a new player in the space race – a rocket called Baguette One. Humankind reaching the heavens was once unthinkable, with the rockets that have made it possible named after ancient gods like Apollo or mythical creatures like Pegasus. Then there's the boulangerie name that the Bordeaux-based start-up HyPrSpace has come up with for its 10-metre-high pocket rocket. Baguette One is intended to be a trial run for the company's larger rocket, the Orbital Baguette One (or OB-1, pronounced 'Obiwan', a nod to the Star Wars Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi). HyPrSpace CEO, Sylvain Bataillard, said she wanted to be 'serious but not sinister' when it came to picking a name. But the name wasn't quite serious enough for the presenters at TFI, France's main broadcaster, when they covered the Baguette One yesterday. When journalist Adrien Portron began giving a rundown on the rocket to the panel, even he struggled to keep a straight face when they were shown an AI-generated image of a baguette on a launchpad. Both baguette rockets are micro-launchers – delivery vans for small, 300kg satellites that drift just above the Earth's atmosphere. 'To understand, we can compare heavy-lift launchers to micro-launchers,' Bataillard told CNews. 'A micro-launcher is like a 'taxi' with a high fare currently between $40,000 and $50,000 per kilo to take it into space. A large launcher is like a bus with fares less than $10,000 per kilo. 'But with our rocket, we could offer a 'taxi' for around €20,000/kg.' These cosmic cabs will rely on a cheap, eco-friendly engine (at least, in the multi-million world of spacecraft propulsion systems), Bataillard said. Rather than using rocket fuel, 'space bakers' designed hybrid boosters that use a mixture of solid and liquid propellants, such as recycled plastic. Neither of the baguettes will use a turbopump, a costly piece of equipment which pushes high-pressure fluid into the engine's combustion chamber. Baguette One will be launched from one of three military bases next year -Biscarrosse, Saint-Médard-en-Jalles or Île du Levant – making it the first rocket launch in metropolitan France. HyPrSpace's Baguette One isn't a half-baked idea, though. Backed by President Emmanuel Macron, the firm received €35million (about £30million) in subsidies last year. This is part of the French government's France 2030, a fund that invests in innovative technologies. French defence officials have expressed an interest in HyPrSpace's propulsion technology as a novel way to chuck satellites into space. More than 26,000 satellites will be launched by 2032, amounting to eight satellites a day, consultancy firm Novaspace estimates. Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, owns around two-thirds of the sofa-sized orbiters whizzing above your head right now, according to the satellite tracker CelesTrak. Yet studies have shown that all this hardware above our heads means more harmful metals lingering in the atmosphere, while some space officials worry that the final frontier is becoming a celestial rubbing tip. Bataillard, however, remains optimistic. 'Space today is like the internet in the 1990s,' she added. 'We know that a lot of things are going to happen.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Felix Baumgartner's chilling last Instagram post moments before he died mid-air MORE: A new world may have been discovered beyond Neptune MORE: Asteroid size of 10-storey building to fly past Earth at 13,900mph today
The Sun
04-07-2025
- The Sun
French air traffic strike disrupts flights for second day in Europe
PARIS: A strike by French air traffic controllers entered its second day on Friday, causing further flight delays and cancellations at the start of Europe's peak travel season. Civil aviation agency DGAC told airlines to cancel 40% of flights at the three main Paris airports on Friday because of the strike, which the air traffic controllers say is over staff shortages and ageing equipment. Up to half of flights at France's other airports, mostly in the south, were also affected, DGAC added. French transport minister Philippe Tabarot called the strike unacceptable. 'The idea is to disturb as many people as possible,' he said in an interview with CNews. Even with the cancellations, DGAC warned that passengers could be affected by delays and significant disruptions. The Airlines for Europe (A4E) lobby group said late on Thursday that 1,500 flights had been cancelled over the two-day strike, affecting 300,000 passengers and causing cascading delays. - Reuters
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Yahoo
Syringe attacks during France's music street festival leave 145 jabbed and several hospitalised
French police have detained 12 suspects after nearly 150 people reported being assaulted with syringes across France during its annual "Fête de la Musique" summer festival. The outdoor festival took place all over France last Saturday, with authorities reporting "unprecedented crowds" in Paris. The Interior Ministry said that 145 people nationwide had reported being stabbed with needles, with Paris police reporting 13 cases in the capital. Upwards of a dozen women and underaged girls have been hospitalised. 'The ministry is taking this very seriously,' a spokeswoman from the Interior Ministry stated. "Some victims were taken to hospital for toxicological tests and the investigation is ongoing," the ministry added. Officials have yet to say if these were cases of needle spiking with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB, but the drugs rendered victims confused and vulnerable to sexual assault. Ahead of the festival, influencers like Abrège Soeur warned that calls had been made on social media for women to be targeted with syringes. Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez todl French broadcaster CNews: 'These are extremely serious incidents,' calling the online calls to inject women 'completely idiotic.' Two men were also arrested in the centre of the north-eastern city of Metz on suspicion of syringe attacks. The mayor of Metz, François Grosdidier, took to social media to address the situation: 'On social networks, a call for syringe assaults has been launched during the Music Festivals in major cities. It happened in two other cities in Moselle and all over France… 17 young girls (ages 14-20) were victimized in #Metz.' Grosdidier continued: 'A description of a syringe attacker was shared with the Urban Supervision Center (CSU) to help locate him on video footage, as well as with the municipal and national police. Municipal police officers identified him on Rue Serpenoise, arrested him, and handed him over to the National Police and judicial authorities. I hope the investigation – especially examining his mobile phone – will help identify other attackers.' Police said more than 370 people were detained nationwide during the festival on various charges. A reported fourteen participants in the festivities were seriously injured, including a 17-year-old who was hospitalised after being found sitting on the street with stab wounds to the lower abdomen. Thirteen members of law enforcement were also injured. This isn't the first time that syringe attacks targeting women have taken place. Similar cases took place in France in June 2022. Several suspects around France were detained for allegedly pricking people with a needle in nightclubs or at concerts. At the time, the French Ministry of the Interior confirmed to Euronews that 80 per cent of the targets were young women. French police tallied over 400 reports at the time, saying that the motive of the jabs was unclear. In Spain, the number of women reporting being jabbed with medical needles while at nightclubs or parties rose to 60 in 2022, according to the country's interior minister. There were similar incidents in the UK in 2021, prompting the British Parliament to publish a report in April 2022 about spiking cases.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Yahoo
Syringe attacks during France's music street festival leave 145 jabbed and several hospitalised
French police have detained 12 suspects after nearly 150 people reported being assaulted with syringes across France during its annual "Fête de la Musique" summer festival. The outdoor festival took place all over France last Saturday, with authorities reporting "unprecedented crowds" in Paris. The Interior Ministry said that 145 people nationwide had reported being stabbed with needles, with Paris police reporting 13 cases in the capital. Upwards of a dozen women and underaged girls have been hospitalised. 'The ministry is taking this very seriously,' a spokeswoman from the Interior Ministry stated. "Some victims were taken to hospital for toxicological tests and the investigation is ongoing," the ministry added. Officials have yet to say if these were cases of needle spiking with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB, but the drugs rendered victims confused and vulnerable to sexual assault. Ahead of the festival, influencers like Abrège Soeur warned that calls had been made on social media for women to be targeted with syringes. Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez todl French broadcaster CNews: 'These are extremely serious incidents,' calling the online calls to inject women 'completely idiotic.' Two men were also arrested in the centre of the north-eastern city of Metz on suspicion of syringe attacks. The mayor of Metz, François Grosdidier, took to social media to address the situation: 'On social networks, a call for syringe assaults has been launched during the Music Festivals in major cities. It happened in two other cities in Moselle and all over France… 17 young girls (ages 14-20) were victimized in #Metz.' Grosdidier continued: 'A description of a syringe attacker was shared with the Urban Supervision Center (CSU) to help locate him on video footage, as well as with the municipal and national police. Municipal police officers identified him on Rue Serpenoise, arrested him, and handed him over to the National Police and judicial authorities. I hope the investigation – especially examining his mobile phone – will help identify other attackers.' Police said more than 370 people were detained nationwide during the festival on various charges. A reported fourteen participants in the festivities were seriously injured, including a 17-year-old who was hospitalised after being found sitting on the street with stab wounds to the lower abdomen. Thirteen members of law enforcement were also injured. This isn't the first time that syringe attacks targeting women have taken place. Similar cases took place in France in June 2022. Several suspects around France were detained for allegedly pricking people with a needle in nightclubs or at concerts. At the time, the French Ministry of the Interior confirmed to Euronews that 80 per cent of the targets were young women. French police tallied over 400 reports at the time, saying that the motive of the jabs was unclear. In Spain, the number of women reporting being jabbed with medical needles while at nightclubs or parties rose to 60 in 2022, according to the country's interior minister. There were similar incidents in the UK in 2021, prompting the British Parliament to publish a report in April 2022 about spiking cases.
Euronews
24-06-2025
- Euronews
Syringe attacks during France's music street festival leave 145 jabbed
French police have detained 12 suspects after nearly 150 people reported being assaulted with syringes across France during its annual "Fête de la Musique" summer festival. The outdoor festival took place all over France last Saturday, with authorities reporting "unprecedented crowds" in Paris. The Interior Ministry said that 145 people nationwide had reported being stabbed with needles, with Paris police reporting 13 cases in the capital. Upwards of a dozen women and underaged girls have been hospitalised. 'The ministry is taking this very seriously,' a spokeswoman from the Interior Ministry stated. "Some victims were taken to hospital for toxicological tests and the investigation is ongoing," the ministry added. Officials have yet to say if these were cases of needle spiking with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB, but the drugs rendered victims confused and vulnerable to sexual assault. Ahead of the festival, influencers like Abrège Soeur warned that calls had been made on social media for women to be targeted with syringes. Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez todl French broadcaster CNews: 'These are extremely serious incidents,' calling the online calls to inject women 'completely idiotic.' Two men were also arrested in the centre of the north-eastern city of Metz on suspicion of syringe attacks. The mayor of Metz, François Grosdidier, took to social media to address the situation: 'On social networks, a call for syringe assaults has been launched during the Music Festivals in major cities. It happened in two other cities in Moselle and all over France… 17 young girls (ages 14-20) were victimized in #Metz.' Grosdidier continued: 'A description of a syringe attacker was shared with the Urban Supervision Center (CSU) to help locate him on video footage, as well as with the municipal and national police. Municipal police officers identified him on Rue Serpenoise, arrested him, and handed him over to the National Police and judicial authorities. I hope the investigation – especially examining his mobile phone – will help identify other attackers.' Police said more than 370 people were detained nationwide during the festival on various charges. A reported fourteen participants in the festivities were seriously injured, including a 17-year-old who was hospitalised after being found sitting on the street with stab wounds to the lower abdomen. Thirteen members of law enforcement were also injured. This isn't the first time that syringe attacks targeting women have taken place. Similar cases took place in France in June 2022. Several suspects around France were detained for allegedly pricking people with a needle in nightclubs or at concerts. At the time, the French Ministry of the Interior confirmed to Euronews that 80 per cent of the targets were young women. French police tallied over 400 reports at the time, saying that the motive of the jabs was unclear. In Spain, the number of women reporting being jabbed with medical needles while at nightclubs or parties rose to 60 in 2022, according to the country's interior minister. There were similar incidents in the UK in 2021, prompting the British Parliament to publish a report in April 2022 about spiking cases.
