In Paris’ Battle Against Motorists, the Flâneur Is Winning
NEED TO KNOW
In Paris’ Battle Against Motorists, the Flâneur Is Winning
FRANCE
Paris has long been a city that celebrates walking, so much so that it has a name for those who stroll, observe, and contemplate the big and the small: “flâneur.”
Now, Parisians want to make their city even more flâneur-friendly.
On Sunday, Parisians voted on a plan that would close 500 more streets in the city to cars and other motor vehicles and instead replace them with trees, plants, and flowers.
About 66 percent of voters approved of “making” Paris into a “garden city,” according to the City of Paris. To do so, the city will create from five to eight new tree-lined pedestrianized streets in each of the city’s 20 districts within the next three years – after consulting the neighborhoods this spring.
“With this vote, Parisians have the choice of whether to accelerate Paris’s adaptation to climate change, fight against pollution, and improve the residential environment (near) their homes,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo ahead of the vote.
Supporters of the proposal in the non-binding referendum, in which only 4 percent of the 1.4 million registered voters took part, say making more streets dedicated to pedestrians and filling them with greenery will help make the city more livable and more breathable. Paris is one of the least green cities in Europe as measured by green space and is one of the most polluted.
The initiative also aims to reduce the “urban heat island effect” with the temperature-moderating greenery and to improve flood resilience by replacing impermeable surfaces with soil that can absorb more rain, wrote Bloomberg.
It will also make the city safer for pedestrians and cyclists, supporters added.
Marc Remaggi, a 37-year-old teacher, who cast his ballot in favor of the initiative, told Agence France Presse that it’s an important move. “It’s essential to prepare the city for tomorrow’s climate and to make Paris a more pleasant place to live,” he said.
Opponents, meanwhile, say the changes will cause headaches for those who have to get around by car or truck, especially those who live in the suburbs and work in the city.
“Large cities cannot become open-air gardens,” Yves Carra, spokesperson for Mobilité Club France, an automobile association, told Radio Monte Carlo. “But the decisions have already been made. If (the vote) is yes, they’ll build 500 (pedestrian) streets. If it’s no, they’ll build 480. Their initial idea for years, under the guise of ecology, has been to drive out cars.”
“Why such relentless harassment of drivers,” added the 40 Million Motorists, another automobile association, adding that they expected about another 60,000 parking spots to disappear in the next five years.
Moves to restrict cars and make cities cleaner and greener have become more common around the world. For example, New York, London, Singapore, and other cities have congestion-pricing programs for vehicles, while almost every major European city has some type of rules in place to restrict vehicles, the Washington Post reported. The Netherlands has just begun to build a neighborhood in the city of Utrecht that will be car-free.
At the forefront of that trend, Hidalgo, the Socialist Party mayor of Paris since 2014, has been pushing for big changes for the city for years.
Over the past decade, she has closed about 220 streets to traffic, imposed stricter speed limits, removed tens of thousands of parking spots, increased fees for high-emissions vehicles to enter the city, and built more than 300 miles of new bicycle lanes to reduce air pollution.
Last year, voters approved a new fee on SUVs and other larger and more polluting vehicles to park in the city.
As a result of these initiatives, motor vehicle traffic has fallen more than 40 percent in the past decade.
Still, not all of the city’s environmental initiatives have gone down so well with Parisians.
In 2023, Parisians overwhelmingly voted to ban self-service e-scooters in the city, a popular transportation mode that drew the ire of officials and residents alike over a rising number of accidents, France 24 reported.
Since their introduction in 2018, the scooters, known locally as trottinette, were billed as a green alternative to cars and saw their use skyrocket to the highest rate in Europe.
But nearly 500 people were injured in Paris by e-scooters in 2022. Also, many Parisians lamented how they were “just left lying” everywhere, becoming a hazard and an eyesore in a city that values beauty over almost anything else.
Still, even those supportive of making the city greener and more car-free were critical of the lack of details in the plan and the budget – about an average of 500,000 euros per pedestrianized street.
Others say the closing to most traffic of the heavily touristed Rue de Rivoli, an almost two-mile long main artery on the right bank bordered by the Tuileries Gardens and the Marais district, which since May 2020 has been only for pedestrians, cyclists, and buses, and has been a success.
“A few years ago, there were almost non-stop traffic jams and honking horns in this area,” Sylvain Dauphin, who owns a store on the street told France’s Challenges magazine. “Today, the street is calmer, and that helps.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Migration Missiles: Poland Restricts Asylum Rights
POLAND
Poland suspended asylum claims by migrants arriving via Belarus, part of efforts to shore up its border in the face of hybrid war tactics by Russia’s ally to use migrants to destabilize the European Union, the Associated Press reported.
Despite concerns that such a law could make it harder for Belarussian dissidents to flee the repressive regime and find refuge in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk appealed to Polish President Andrzej Duda to sign the controversial bill, which allows authorities to suspend asylum rights for up to 60 days at a time.
This law restricts the right to apply for international protection for individuals who have crossed the border into NATO and the EU member states illegally.
The provisions allow for exemptions for unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, the elderly, the sick, individuals at “real risk of serious harm” if repatriated, and citizens of countries accused of instrumentalizing migration, according to the BBC.
The government said the suspension applies to those who could be a threat to state security, such as “large groups of aggressive migrants trying to storm the border.”
Human rights groups criticized the bill. Human Rights Watch had urged Poland to reject it and said the EU should take legal action against Poland if implemented as it could “effectively completely seal off the Poland-Belarus border, where Polish authorities already engage in unlawful and abusive pushbacks.”
Tusk dismissed these criticisms, saying that Poland wants to reject claims from people who cross the border illegally “in groups organized by Lukashenko,” referring to Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
EU eastern countries and the European Commission have accused Belarus and Russia of weaponizing migration to destabilize the EU by creating new routes into the bloc.
Since 2021, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Finland have seen increased migration flows, with migrants crossing their borders illegally from Belarus and Russia.
Poland has sent thousands of troops and border guards to its border with Belarus, where it built an 18-foot steel fence. Thousands of migrants remained stranded there.
According to human rights groups, more than 100 people have died on the borders between Belarus and Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia since 2021.
South Korean Opposition Leader’s Path Cleared to Presidency
SOUTH KOREA
The conviction of South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on charges of violating election laws was overturned this week, removing the main hurdle to the popular politician’s future presidential bid, Reuters reported.
The Seoul High Court on Wednesday overruled a lower court and invalidated Lee’s conviction on charges of making a false claim during a 2021 parliamentary audit of a land development project in the city of Seongnam, where he served as mayor.
After the verdict, Lee said the court’s decision vindicated him and showed the case was politically motivated, according to Al Jazeera.
In 2024, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Lee to one year in prison – a sentence that was suspended for two years – and one that, if upheld, would have stripped him of his parliamentary seat and jeopardized his run for the presidency.
After the ruling, however, prosecutors said they would appeal it to the Supreme Court.
Lee is leading the polls as the most likely candidate to replace President Yoon Suk-yeol if the embattled leader’s impeachment for his short-lived declaration of martial law in December is upheld by the Constitutional Court.
If upheld, South Korea must hold a snap election within 60 days.
Lee ran against Yoon in the 2022 presidential election and lost by the narrowest margin in the country’s electoral history.
However, Lee – the leader of the Democratic Party – faces other legal challenges on charges ranging from bribery to his involvement in a property development scandal.
According to South Korean law, politicians convicted of election law violations and fined $680 or more, or given a suspended sentence, are barred from running for elections for at least five years and lose their parliamentary seats.
Brazil’s Top Court: Bolsonaro Must Face Trial Over Attempted Coup
BRAZIL
Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday to try former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly attempting to orchestrate a coup after losing the 2022 presidential elections, in a case that could reshape Brazil’s political landscape ahead of the next national vote in 2026, Reuters reported.
The court’s five-judge panel agreed that the right-wing former leader should be tried for an array of charges, including leading a criminal organization, attacking the democratic rule of law, and plotting a military coup.
The case centers on Bolsonaro’s role in the storming of key government buildings in the capital of Brasília by his supporters on Jan. 8, 2023. The incident happened months after Bolsonaro lost the election to his leftist rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and a week after Lula’s inauguration.
If convicted, Bolsonaro could face a decade in prison, legal analysts told the Wall Street Journal.
The decision comes after a two-year investigation, with prosecutors accusing Bolsonaro of instigating the insurrection by discrediting the election and allegedly encouraging senior military officials to support a plot to block the peaceful transfer of power.
Investigators added that the former president also considered violent options to prevent his rival from taking office, including plots to assassinate Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
The court also accepted charges against seven of his former top aides, including former Defense Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira and former Chief of Staff Walter Braga Netto, both retired generals. The case marks the first time in modern Brazilian history that high-ranking military officials will face trial for attempting to undermine democracy.
Observers described the ruling as a swift legal escalation against Bolsonaro, who has already been barred from seeking public office until 2030 by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court for attacking the integrity of the voting system.
Regardless, Bolsonaro has continued to draw thousands at rallies and remains a central figure in Brazilian conservative circles.
Following Wednesday’s decision, Bolsonaro denied the allegations, while denouncing the court’s actions and accusations as “grave and baseless.” He insisted that no armed coup attempt took place and cast the court’s move as a bid to eliminate political opposition.
The verdict also comes as Lula’s approval ratings continue to decline, with inflation and public discontent threatening his administration.
Analysts predict Bolsonaro’s trial will deepen Brazil’s political polarization, especially if the former president is convicted and imprisoned.
DISCOVERIES
A Bigger Role
A set of 2,400-year-old ceramic puppets discovered on top of a pyramid in El Salvador is reshaping how archeologists view the region’s ancient past.
In 2022, archeologists unearthed five rare figurines at the San Isidro site in what is now western El Salvador, dating from around 400 BCE.
The ceramic figures – four women and one man – are believed to have played a central role in ritual performances, possibly reenacting “readily decodable events, mythical or real,” the researchers explained in their new study.
“This finding is only the second such a group found in situ, and the first to feature a male figure,” lead author Jan Szymański, an archeologist at the University of Warsaw, said in a statement.
Three of the puppets – measuring nearly one foot tall – have articulated heads and expressive faces that seem to shift with the viewer’s perspective.
“Seen from above they appear almost grinning, but when looked at from the level angle they turn angry or disdainful, to become scared when seen from below,” Szymański explained. “This is a conscious design, perhaps meant to enhance the gamut of ritual performances the puppets could have been used in.”
Though first assumed to be grave goods, the absence of human remains and the placement of the figurines atop a prominent pyramid led researchers to believe they were meant for public rituals. The researchers also recovered other figurine fragments, including parts that may depict a birth scene.
They explained that these puppets closely resemble others found in Guatemala and are accompanied by jade pendants typical of cultures in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama – suggesting that the site’s elites were part of a wider cultural and trade network.
Once believed to be culturally isolated, El Salvador was long considered a peripheral player in ancient Central America because of its volatile geography and limited archaeological record.
Volcanic eruptions, such as the catastrophic Ilopango blast around 400 CE, buried many ancient settlements and erased much of their artifacts. Large-scale excavations have also been difficult because of the region’s high population density today, according to Live Science.
However, the recent discoveries challenge those assumptions and hint that El Salvador may have been far more connected to its Central American neighbors than previously thought.
“This discovery contradicts the prevailing notion about El Salvador’s cultural backwardness or isolation in ancient times,” added Szymański. “It reveals the existence of vibrant and far-reaching communities capable of exchanging ideas with remarkably distant places.”