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Russian soldier seeks asylum in France after recounting ‘chaos’ of Ukraine invasion

Suddenly notorious for a scathing first-person account of the war in Ukraine published online, Russian paratrooper Pavel Filatiev arrived in France seeking political asylum Sunday after quitting his country for fear of reprisals.

JUST IN - Russia's #Gazprom to further cut natural gas shipments to #Engie, one of France's largest energy companies, from today.

@disclosetv

Slowly, the eyelids lifted. The eyes appeared, incredibly large. The white was very clear, very pure. The wide iris, a little eclipsed by the upper lid, was the blue of a summer night sky, strewn with golden flakes.

The eyes remained fixed, looking at the ceiling that they probably did not see. Then something clicked, the eyebrows furrowed, the eyes moved, looked, and saw. First they saw Simon, then Moïssov, Lebeau, the nurses, everyone.

An expression of stupor invaded the woman's face. She tried to speak, opened her mouth, but could not control the muscles of her tongue and throat. She emitted a sort of rattle. She made a huge effort to lift her head a little, and looked at everything. She didn't understand where she was, she was afraid, and no one could tell her anything to reassure her.

Mosesov smiled at her. Simon was trembling with excitement. Lebeau began to speak very softly. He recited two verses of Racine, the most harmonious words that no language had ever assembled: "Ariane, ma sœur, de quel amour blessée...". It was the song of the verb, perfect and soothing. But the woman did not listen.

📖 The Ice People (1968) — René Barjavel

René Magritte ~ La Condition humaine (1935)

🇫🇷🏊‍♂️ France reveals hidden swimming pools with AI, taxes them

🤖 Using an artificial intelligence computer vision system developed by French IT firm Capgemini, the French tax office has identified 20,356 residential swimming pools that had previously gone undeclared. According to The Guardian, this has opened up 10 million euros in additional tax revenue, leading the way to the government taxing other undeclared architectural features such as annexes or verandas.

💸 The French government taxes real estate based on its rental value, which increases when owners build additions or improvements such as swimming pools. For example, a 30 square meter swimming pool will result in around 200 euros of extra taxes per year.

🔎 French newspaper Le Parisien reports that the project to discover undocumented swimming pools is somewhat controversial, but not for the reasons you might expect. Capgemini, a multinational IT firm with headquarters in Paris, has come under fire for using American tech giant Google as a subcontractor for cloud processing on the project. Google has a long-running history of tax disputes with the French government. Controversies aside, DGFiP plans to roll out the program nationwide soon, resulting in an estimated 40 million euros in additional tax revenue.

🔗 Source (Ars Technica)

🇫🇷✊🏾👵🏻 89-YEAR-OLD GRANDMOTHER SAVAGELY ATTACKED BY A GROUP OF THREE ARAB IMMIGRANTS IN CANNES (FRANCE)

🔎 In Cannes, in the South of France, a group of three Arab immigrants violently attacked an 89 year old grandmother in order to steal her wallet which contained 10€.

🔗 Source : Ouest France (MSM)

When the Bank of England was established in 1694, one of its principal aims was to provide sufficient finance so that England could prosecute its war against France. At that time, France was the premier world power both in terms of maritime forces and territorial possessions.

Since 7 June 1654 France had been ruled by its most glorious monarch, King Louis XIV, the Sun King. Louis was well versed in the wiles of the bankers. When he discovered that his Superintendent of Finances, Nicolas Fouquet, was a representative of what we term today the money power, he had him arrested. Fouquet was put on trial and sentenced to complete isolation for the rest of his life in the inaccessible fortress of Pignerol.

The War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1714) was the largest military conflict since the Crusades. It was fought after Louis declared his intention to place his grandson, Philip, Duke of Anjou, on the Spanish throne. This attempt, if successful, would have created a vast Franco-Spanish empire and posed a direct threat to the Bank of England and its proxy, the government of Great Britain.

With the ability to create money out of nothing, the English were able to build a large fleet and buy the loyalty of France’s enemies by bankrolling them. Louis held out for nine years, until his heirs suddenly started to die in unnatural circumstances.

📖 A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Manking (2014) — Stephen Mitford Goodson

🇫🇷🎒 Just the french minister of education being happy of the french back to school.

The ability of the English to command vast sums of money had not gone unnoticed by the French, who realized that the war had not been won because of a deficiency in financial credit. On 1 May 1716 a Scotsman, John Law, received a patent to open a private bank, the Banque Générale, which was patterned on the Bank of England and which was entitled to issue bank notes and exchange them for gold.

The regent of Louis XV, Phillipe II, Duke of Orléans, realized that this bank could provide government with a means of financing its expenditures and in 1718, France’s first central bank came into existence and was renamed the Banque Royale.

The adoption of the Bank of England paradigm of creating money ex nihilo soon enabled the French economy to recover and flourish. However, this period of prosperity was of short duration.

In January 1720 the French government received a record-breaking loan of 100 million livres. The following month news spread suddenly that the bank was experiencing difficulty in exchanging its bank notes for gold coins and an “atrocious panic” ensued. The source of these rumours is not clear, but the most likely suspect would have been the Bank of England which wished to destroy its dangerous rival.

In November 1720 the Banque Royale declared itself bankrupt and its founder and Controller General of Finances, John Law, fled the country the following month. For the Bank of England and its Jewish stockholders, the demise of the Banque Royale was an unmitigated triumph.

📖 A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Manking (2014) — Stephen Mitford Goodson

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France to restart all nuclear reactors by winter amid energy crunch

France’s minister for energy transition said Friday that French electricity giant EDF has committed to restart all its nuclear reactors by this winter to help the country through the broad energy crisis aggravated by the war in Ukraine.

🇫🇷🇺🇦 ROMAN SALUTE DURING A FRENCH TV REPORT ON UKRAINE?

👉🏻 The French TV outlet "France 2" released yesterday a report focusing on the lives of Ukrainian children. In it, two girls can be seen in the background doing what could be described as a roman/nazi salute (0:04).

🗣 France 2 has called off these claims: «We have rushes proving that they salute several times in a friendly manner by raising their hands or by simulating a military salute. We attest that this is in no way a Nazi salute. At no time did they make such a gesture»

🔎 But further into the report, one can see that the children were also standing next to the red and black flag of the Right Sector, a Ukrainian far-right organisation (1:21).

❓ So who should you believe? We decided to subtitle and share the entire report, feel free to make up your own mind.

🔗 Source

Tomorrow, at dawn, at the moment when the land whitens,
I will leave. You see, I know that you are waiting for me.
I will go through the forest, I will go across mountains.
I cannot stay away from you any longer.

I will walk eyes fixed on my thoughts,
Without seeing anything outside, without hearing a noise,
Alone, unknown, back hunched, hands crossed,
Sorrowed, and the day for me will be as the night.

I will watch neither the evening gold fall,
Nor the faraway sailboats descending upon Harfleur.
And when I arrive, I will put on your grave
A bouquet of green holly and heather in bloom.

📖 Demain dès l'aube — Victor Hugo (1856)

🖼 The Thinker — Auguste Rodin (1904)