Eighth day of mobilization: seven deputies and seven senators meet behind closed doors

Seven deputies and seven senators are meeting behind closed doors to seek a compromise on pension reform, under high tension at the Palais Bourbon on Wednesday. The inter-syndicate is calling for an eighth day of action this Wednesday. In the energy sector and among Parisian garbage collectors who voted to continue their movement “at least until March 20,” strikes remain very popular. In refineries and certain areas of transport, mobilization seems to be running out of steam. According to police sources, intelligence forecasts between 650 and 850,000 demonstrators on the streets, fewer than on March 7, the peak of the mobilization (1.28 million).

Paris Olympic Games: Macron calls for “general mobilization” in the face of security and transport challenges

Emmanuel Macron has started the countdown to the Paris Olympics. Faced with mounting security and transport challenges, the French president sounded the “general mobilization” in view of the world's biggest sporting event. The Head of State announced “the next 500 days are fundamental (...) Don't let anything go! ” to some 500 officials involved in organizing the Games at the Paris Prefecture. For him, “you have to manage a long time, prepare for an event where there will (also) be very short time, where there may be crises.”

Air incident: tensions remain high between Washington and Moscow

Following an air incident, the United States accuses Russian aviation of having “intercepted and crashed” an American Reaper drone over the Black Sea and causing it to fall. This leads to high tensions between Washington and Moscow. Instead, Russia has denied this allegation. “Our MQ-9 drone was carrying out routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian plane, causing the MQ-9 to crash and lose,” said General James Hecker, commander of the American Air Forces in Europe. He confirmed reports of an incident involving a Reaper in the Black Sea. According to him, before one of the Russian Su-27 fighters collided with the propeller-damaging drone, they had dropped fuel and flew over the aircraft several times.

Silicon Valley Bridge Bank: customers called upon to bring back their deposits

The boss of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank called on customers on Tuesday to bring their deposits back to the entity so that it can continue doing business. Silicon Valley Bridge Bank is the entity created by American regulators to succeed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) after its bankruptcy. After massive withdrawals of customers, SVB became insolvent. It was placed under the control of the authorities on Friday, who handed it over to the American Deposit Insurance Agency (FDIC).

IN SHORT

For the eighth day of interprofessional mobilization against the pension reform, traffic will remain disrupted today at SNCF with 3 TGVs out of 5 and difficulties in Ile-de-France. Traffic will also be slightly disrupted in the Paris metro and very disrupted in the RER.

On another day of mass strikes amid the cost of living crisis, London must unveil a budget to encourage thousands of Britons to return to the job market in the face of labour shortages.

Daniil Medvedev advanced to the quarterfinals at Indian Wells for the first time. The two previous winners Taylor Fritz and Cameron Norrie, Aryna Sabalenka and Maria Sakkari also joined him on Tuesday.