SAINT-QUENTIN-FALLAVIER, FRANCE // The French town where a terrorist decapitated a man and targeted a gas plant is now grappling with the aftermath: a climate of heightened suspicion and division among its 6,000 residents.
Neighbours came in groups – walking and peering out car windows – to gawk at the forest of cameras that popped up on Friday on Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near Lyon.
They were anxious to share their emotions and find out about the assault after the attacker placed his victim’s severed head with flags carrying Arabic inscriptions at a factory entrance before driving into the plant and ramming into gas cannisters.
Akin Yilmaz, a 20-year-old studying law in Lyon, was worried that the attack will add to what he said is animosity towards Muslims.
Anti-Muslim sentiments were aggravated by the assaults on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery in Paris that left 17 people dead in January, he said.
“This has dirtied Islam’s reputation,” he said. “A lot of people will mix things up. They’ll believe Islam is the enemy.”
President Francois Hollande said the incident was clearly an act of terrorism.
The government has arrested a suspect, who had been under surveillance from 2006 to 2008 because of links to Salafist movements, and is investigating whether or not he has accomplices.
Saint-Quentin residents voiced concerns that show Mr Yilmaz’s fears may be well grounded.
A man who declined to be named blurted out that France is paying the price for being too hospitable to immigrants.
A woman walking by with her daughter said she does not feel safe anymore, because the neighbouring larger cities of Villefontaine and L’Isle d’Abeau have seen their populations expand in the last 10 years and now include many jobless youths who are children of immigrants.
On rue Alfred de Vigny, where the father of three lived in a four-storey building next to a small park, most people had their blinds lowered on Saturday morning and there was little activity, save a few journalists trying to find out where exactly the killer’s apartment was.
On a bench across from her apartment block, a woman wearing a veil who declined to give her name said she has never known such commotion after swarms of journalists turned up and special police emptied the building where she lives.
The woman, from Tunisia, said she raised her eight children in the compound and her husband worked for a nearby factory of chemical products.
Even the ordinary police had never come to the building in 25 years, she said.
Back in Saint-Quentin, residents were still coming to terms with the shock.
“It’s impossible to feel safe anywhere now,” said Shirley Dieude, 24, who works as a painter. “I used to think this could never happen here, in the countryside, and then last year six jihadists were arrested in La Verpillere”, a neighbouring town.
Prime minister Manuel Valls vowed on Sunday that the government is taking all necessary actions to counter the terrorist threat and ensure that the population is safe. Yet Ms Dieude wonders whether the government can effectively protect everyone from such attacks.
“It’s terrifying to think that the whole place could blow up with this plant and that nothing can be done to prevent it,” she said. “You can’t have the army guarding every single one of them, can you?”
* Bloomberg
BLACKBERRY
Director: Matt Johnson
Stars: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson
Rating: 4/5
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 217hp at 5,750rpm
Torque: 300Nm at 1,900rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh130,000
On sale: now
Turning waste into fuel
Average amount of biofuel produced at DIC factory every month: Approximately 106,000 litres
Amount of biofuel produced from 1 litre of used cooking oil: 920ml (92%)
Time required for one full cycle of production from used cooking oil to biofuel: One day
Energy requirements for one cycle of production from 1,000 litres of used cooking oil:
▪ Electricity - 1.1904 units
▪ Water- 31 litres
▪ Diesel – 26.275 litres
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
Rating:+2.5/5
Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
The full list of 2020 Brit Award nominees (winners in bold):
British group
Coldplay
Foals
Bring me the Horizon
D-Block Europe
Bastille
British Female
Mabel
Freya Ridings
FKA Twigs
Charli xcx
Mahalia
British male
Harry Styles
Lewis Capaldi
Dave
Michael Kiwanuka
Stormzy
Best new artist
Aitch
Lewis Capaldi
Dave
Mabel
Sam Fender
Best song
Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber - I Don’t Care
Mabel - Don’t Call Me Up
Calvin Harrison and Rag’n’Bone Man - Giant
Dave - Location
Mark Ronson feat. Miley Cyrus - Nothing Breaks Like A Heart
AJ Tracey - Ladbroke Grove
Lewis Capaldi - Someone you Loved
Tom Walker - Just You and I
Sam Smith and Normani - Dancing with a Stranger
Stormzy - Vossi Bop
International female
Ariana Grande
Billie Eilish
Camila Cabello
Lana Del Rey
Lizzo
International male
Bruce Springsteen
Burna Boy
Tyler, The Creator
Dermot Kennedy
Post Malone
Best album
Stormzy - Heavy is the Head
Michael Kiwanuka - Kiwanuka
Lewis Capaldi - Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent
Dave - Psychodrama
Harry Styles - Fine Line
Rising star
Celeste
Joy Crookes
beabadoobee
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
The six points:
1. Ministers should be in the field, instead of always at conferences
2. Foreign diplomacy must be left to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation
3. Emiratisation is a top priority that will have a renewed push behind it
4. The UAE's economy must continue to thrive and grow
5. Complaints from the public must be addressed, not avoided
6. Have hope for the future, what is yet to come is bigger and better than before
SPEC SHEET: APPLE IPAD PRO (12.9", 2022)
Display: 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR, 2,732 x 2,048, 264ppi, wide colour, True Tone, ProMotion, 1,600 nits max, Apple Pencil hover
Chip: Apple M2, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: Storage – 128GB/256GB/512GB / 1TB/2TB; RAM – 8GB/16GB
Platform: iPadOS 16
Main camera: Dual 12MP wide (f/1.8) + 10MP ultra-wide (f/2.4), 2x optical/5x digital, Smart HDR 4
Video: ProRes 4K @ 30fps, 4K @ 24/25/30/60fps, full HD @ 25/30/60fps, slo-mo @ 120/240fps
Front camera: TrueDepth 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.4), 2x, Smart HDR 4, Centre Stage, Portrait, Animoji, Memoji; full HD @ 25/30/60fps
Audio: Four-speaker stereo
Biometrics: Face ID, Touch ID
I/O: USB-C, smart connector (for folio/keyboard)
Battery: Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi; up to nine hours on cellular
Finish: Silver, space grey
In the box: iPad, USB-C-to-USB-C cable, 20-watt power adapter
Price: WiFi – Dh4,599 (128GB) / Dh4,999 (256GB) / Dh5,799 (512GB) / Dh7,399 (1TB) / Dh8,999 (2TB); cellular – Dh5,199 / Dh5,599 / Dh6,399 / Dh7,999 / Dh9,599
WHY AAYAN IS 'PERFECT EXAMPLE'
David White might be new to the country, but he has clearly already built up an affinity with the place.
After the UAE shocked Pakistan in the semi-final of the Under 19 Asia Cup last month, White was hugged on the field by Aayan Khan, the team’s captain.
White suggests that was more a sign of Aayan’s amiability than anything else. But he believes the young all-rounder, who was part of the winning Gulf Giants team last year, is just the sort of player the country should be seeking to produce via the ILT20.
“He is a delightful young man,” White said. “He played in the competition last year at 17, and look at his development from there till now, and where he is representing the UAE.
“He was influential in the U19 team which beat Pakistan. He is the perfect example of what we are all trying to achieve here.
“It is about the development of players who are going to represent the UAE and go on to help make UAE a force in world cricket.”
KLOPP AT LIVERPOOL
Years: October 2015 - June 2024
Total games: 491
Win percentage: 60.9%
Major trophies: 6 (Premier League x 1, Champions League x 1, FA Cup x 1, League Cup x 2, Fifa Club World Cup x1)
Top 10 most competitive economies
1. Singapore
2. Switzerland
3. Denmark
4. Ireland
5. Hong Kong
6. Sweden
7. UAE
8. Taiwan
9. Netherlands
10. Norway
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000