Tensions between Iran and Israel
PHOTO TOMER NEUBERG, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The sky over Israel lit up when the air defense system was activated to intercept missiles fired from Iran, during the night from Sunday to Monday.
Israel and Iran may have been sworn enemies for 45 years, but the Islamic Republic had never directly attacked the Jewish state before Sunday’s attack. This is in response to the strike of 1er April against its consulate in Damascus, Syria, that Iran launched a drone and ballistic missile attack against Israel. The Jewish state claimed to have intercepted, with the help of the United States in particular, 99% of the more than 350 projectiles. Until the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Israel and Iran enjoyed cordial relations. With the fall of the shah, however, allies became antagonists. The two countries entered into an indirect conflict, which lasted for decades. The escalation of this conflict could quickly metamorphose into a regional war in the Near and Middle East, according to experts interviewed by journalist Fannie Arcand.
Read the text “A shadow war revealed in broad daylight”
When our politicians scare the world
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, leader of the Parti Québécois
“I want to govern so that Quebec remains Quebec,” announced François Legault last week. A loaded sentence that Philippe Mercure dissected. The words “so that France remains France” were first uttered by Jean-Marie Le Pen, then taken up as a campaign slogan by far-right candidate Éric Zemmour in 2022, he recalled. This week, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon for his part affirmed that the “federal regime” in Ottawa “openly and explicitly plans our decline”. “We have the impression that the leaders of the CAQ and the PQ have challenged themselves to see who is the best at the game “Tonight, we scare the world”,” writes the columnist. The PQ leader’s speech is indeed alarmist, added Isabelle Hachey, who specifies in her column that fear is not a winning condition for winning a third referendum. On the contrary, even, she concludes.
Read Philippe Mercure’s column
Read Isabelle Hachey’s column
Eco-friendly objects: be careful with excess!
PHOTO GETTY IMAGES
Are your water bottles and reusable bags piling up in a drawer? Be careful, you may not be as eco-friendly as you think. According to a Quantis study, a new aluminum bottle should be used 10 to 20 times to offset its environmental impact against that of a single-use plastic bottle, we learn in a text by Florence Dancause. Some accessories never even offset their environmental impacts despite the number of uses, such as bamboo straws and beeswax wraps. That’s without mentioning the grocery bags, which we sometimes forget when we arrive at our destination, which forces us… to buy more. Mélissa de La Fontaine, co-founder of the Incita cooperative, speaks frankly of “reformatting” her brain. We must first become aware of our purchasing habits and our needs, she says, and then we can ask ourselves if we really need the new fashionable ecological object.
Read the text “These eco-friendly objects that we overconsume”
Trump on criminal trial
PHOTO JANE ROSENBERG, REUTERS
Sketch of former US President Donald Trump, seated alongside his lawyers, during jury selection in his criminal trial in the 2016 case of paying money to former porn star Stormy Daniels.
We’ve been talking about it for months… and Donald Trump would have liked to do without it (or at the very least postpone it until much later), but here we are: for the first time, a former American president is being tried in a criminal trial. In New York, correspondent Richard Hétu reports, supporters and opponents of Trump gathered in front of the court on Monday for the start of jury selection. The court must determine whether the politician falsified documents to conceal the payment, 12 days before the election that brought him to power in 2016, of US$130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels in order to guarantee her silence on a sexual relationship with him. The former president is playing big: he could lose a lot of support if he is found guilty, many polls suggest.
Read the text “Curtain raises on a historic trial”
The CH: where is the reconstruction?
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Mike Matheson (center) surrounded by some of his Montreal Canadiens teammates, during the last game of his season, Tuesday evening, at the Bell Center
The Montreal Canadiens’ season of misery is (finally) over. Of course, no one expected the rebuilding team to make the playoffs this year. The important thing, many Sainte-Flanelle fans will tell you, was that the team improved this season. Overall, “there remains a lot to do before the Canadian becomes a contender for great honors,” notes columnist Alexandre Pratt. Can we expect participation in the series next year? “It seems to be a very ambitious objective,” believes the columnist. According to him, “the Canadian should find his way back to the playoffs within three years.” Those who are bored of the series that ignite the city in the spring will have to be patient…
Read Alexandre Pratt’s column