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French President Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state
French President Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state

Toronto Sun

time5 days ago

  • Politics
  • Toronto Sun

French President Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state

Published Jul 24, 2025 • 2 minute read French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the army leaders at the Hotel le Brienne, Sunday, July 13, 2025, ahead of the Bastille Day parade in Paris. Photo by Ludovic Marin / AP PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine as a state, amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Macron said in a post on X that he will formalize the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September. 'The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved.″ The French president offered support for Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and frequently speaks out against antisemitism, but he has grown increasingly frustrated about Israel's war in Gaza, especially in recent months. France is the biggest and most powerful European country to recognize Palestine. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe. France has Europe's largest Jewish population and the largest Muslim population in western Europe, and fighting in the Middle East often spills over into protests or other tensions in France. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Israeli Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment. France's foreign minister is co-hosting a conference at the U.N. next week about a two-state solution. Last month, Macron expressed his 'determination to recognize the state of Palestine,' and he has pushed for a broader movement toward a two-state solution, in parallel with recognition of Israel and its right to defend itself. Thursday's announcement came soon after the U.S. cut short Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar, saying Hamas wasn't showing good faith. Momentum has been building against Israel in recent days. Earlier this week, France and more than two dozen mostly European countries condemned Israel's restrictions on aid shipments into the territory and the killings of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach food. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Palestinians seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and Gaza, territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel's government and most of its political class have long been opposed to Palestinian statehood and now say that it would reward militants after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Israel annexed east Jerusalem shortly after the 1967 war and considers it part of its capital. In the West Bank, it has built scores of settlements, some resembling sprawling suburbs, that are now home to over 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship. The territory's 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centers. Ontario World Sports Canada Canada

Heatwaves to become 'more frequent, more intense' in Europe
Heatwaves to become 'more frequent, more intense' in Europe

Irish Examiner

time09-07-2025

  • Climate
  • Irish Examiner

Heatwaves to become 'more frequent, more intense' in Europe

Intense heatwaves like the one that hit the Mediterranean late last month are set to become 'more frequent, more intense and impact more people across Europe', it has been warned. The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service said last month was the third warmest June ever recorded globally as an 'exceptional heatwave' impacted large parts of western Europe. It comes as Ireland is set for a period of hot weather of its own this week, with Met Éireann forecasting an 'Azores High' to bring temperatures as high as 28 degrees by the weekend. Copernicus said that June 2025 was just 0.2C cooler than the record last year in June 2024. However, it was 1.3C above the pre-industrial level which is only the third month in the last 24 with a global temperature less than 1.5C above this level which is seen as a crucial threshold above which the effects of climate change globally would worsen significantly. Copernicus said that western Europe saw its warmest June on record given it was the focus of the heatwaves. Heat stress It said much of the region saw the 'feels-like' temperatures exceeding 38C, bringing 'very strong heat stress'. Parts of Portugal saw temperatures feeling like 48C or 'extreme heat stress', it said. Conversely, it said that June 2025 was wetter than average in Ireland and the north of Britain. Although Europe saw significant heatwaves in June, this has continued well into July as France, Spain and others were subject to health warnings given the intense heat. Last week, temperatures were forecast to reach 40C in Paris and to stay unusually high in Belgium and the Netherlands. Meanwhile, 17 of Italy's 27 major cities were experiencing a heatwave, according to health officials. A tourist wearing a hat and a face mask walks during a heatwave at the Trocadero square in front of the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, on June 30. Picture: Ludovic Marin / AFP via Getty In Greece this week, authorities imposed mandatory work breaks in parts of the country expected to exceed 40C. The Labour Ministry ordered the midday to 5pm stoppage for outdoor manual labour and food delivery services, primarily in central Greece and on some islands. 'June 2025 saw an exceptional heatwave impact large parts of western Europe, with much of the region experiencing very strong heat stress,' Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said. 'This heatwave was made more intense by record sea surface temperatures in the western Mediterranean. In a warming world, heatwaves are likely to become more frequent, more intense and impact more people across Europe.' Temperatures in Ireland Met Éireann, meanwhile, has stated that high pressure will continue to build this week, with warm and settled weather expected to persist. It has also said it will become 'very warm or even hot from Thursday'. Friday and Saturday are set to be the warmest days, with temperatures ranging from 23 to 28 degrees. It previously said that June 2025 was the fourth warmest June on record in Ireland, despite being on the cloudier northern edge of the heat dome that hit Europe during that month. "[This] brought some uncomfortably high nighttime temperatures, contributing to the high June temperatures overall,' Met Éireann said.

The Tech Solving Infrastructure's Crisis: Construction Firms 'Build With Intelligence Built-In'
The Tech Solving Infrastructure's Crisis: Construction Firms 'Build With Intelligence Built-In'

Forbes

time04-07-2025

  • Business
  • Forbes

The Tech Solving Infrastructure's Crisis: Construction Firms 'Build With Intelligence Built-In'

The first train of Line 15, part of the Grand Paris Express project, is pictured within its first ... More driving test at the railway station of Champigny-sur-Marne, a Paris' suburb. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images) Construction megaprojects have a 91.5% failure rate—finishing late, over budget, or both. But a software breakthrough is changing this. It combines two existing technologies to create something new. Consider the $41 billion Grand Paris Express subway expansion. One hundred feet below the streets of Paris, thousands of workers are building something massive. It will add four new lines to the city's legendary Metro system. It's 124 miles of new tunnels and 68 new stations. It's Europe's largest infrastructure project, the equivalent of adding the entirety of Washington, DC's existing subway system. The scale is staggering. In one recent week, 10,000 people were working. They had 50 miles of track and 25 stations under construction at the same time. Projects this big usually fail. Less than 1% of big projects finish on time, on budget, and as planned. But the Grand Paris Express project is different. They're using a breakthrough that's transforming how major construction and infrastructure get built. The breakthrough combines two existing technologies. GIS (geographic information systems) maps the real world. BIM (building information modeling) shows construction details. Separately, these tools are useful. Together, they're revolutionary. The fusion is not just a new tool, but a whole new way of designing and building things. It creates something construction has never had: context and detail at the same time. Teams can see everything about where a project sits in the real world. They also see every detail about the project itself, down to individual wires and water connections. For the Paris Metro, this means total visibility. Designers see every existing utility as they plan new rail lines. They know what cables can stay, what pipes must move. Construction teams can sequence work stages, plan material deliveries, and schedule the right workers. The system also enhances 'clash detection.' It spots where concrete pouring, electrical installation, and track construction will conflict with the built or natural world — or with each other. Then it suggests solutions before problems happen. Everyone involved in the Grand Paris Express project sees the same information. Interior designers, city officials, lighting installers, problem-solving engineers, and community members all work from identical Construction and Infrastructure Need ThisBy many measures, the construction industry is in crisis. Rework alone—correcting things that have simply been done wrong—accounts for 12% of the cost of projects, on average. A root cause? Communication and collaboration. Design changes get misunderstood. Field problems don't get explained clearly to the office. Architects, engineers, and construction managers work in silos. It's frustrating to manage projects that get tangled in design disputes and construction delays. It's frustrating to be the people trying to get those projects built on the ground. And it is doubly or triply frustrating to be the client: the person, or company, or city waiting for the tunnel to be finished or the office building to be ready, with the bill growing as unmet deadlines pass. The combined GIS + BIM system helps tackle this. It creates 'data continuity'—everyone using the same information about every element. It builds a digital bridge between field and office, between builders and designers and their clients. It speeds decisions while also giving everyone more confidence in those decisions. It's designed to let architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms fulfill their promises. Thomas Lesage, digital transformation officer for the French firm, Egis, managing the construction of the Grand Paris Express, calls using the system 'a pleasure.'Building with IntelligenceOther projects see similar results. Peru used it to rebuild flood damage across an area four times the size of New York City. Until the convergence of GIS and BIM, no software system could handle the data and users for such a dispersed effort, with so many contractors and so many stakeholders across such a wide geography. Engineer David Castillo called the system built using GIS + BIM the project's 'greatest achievement.' It's the flexibility and adaptability that makes unifying GIS and BIM so valuable. It shows the reality, the plan, and it can model the future—or several different possible futures, depending on everything from climate to funding. San Francisco International Airport used it to rebuild Terminal 1 during the pandemic. They don't call it a 'digital twin'—they call it a 'dynamic twin' because it adapts in real time. This transformation in construction matters all the more because construction has a massive impact on the world. Buildings create 42% of global carbon emissions. Globally, we're constructing the equivalent of the building space in New York City every month—and will continue to do so for 40 years. A dozen New York Cities of new construction a year. We can't afford the current 91.5% failure rate. Every delayed project wastes resources. Every cost overrun cuts profits. Every mistake creates more emissions. The world needs smart construction. Projects that work the first time. That take into consideration the place they're being built. That meet both economic and environmental needs. Buildings designed for both today and 40 years from now. The GIS + BIM fusion doesn't just make better projects. It makes better processes and better places. It helps people work together faster and more naturally. The technology combines trusted tools companies already use. Early adopters say it transforms company culture, not just project outcomes. As one AEC management veteran said: 'We are nullifying the frustration.' For an industry swimming in frustration, that's more about how the AEC industry is leading the way forward to solve today's biggest infrastructure challenges using GIS technology.

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