🚕 Taxi drivers protest in Paris

French taxi drivers are holding a protest in Paris, France, over changes to the healthcare transport system introduced in the 2024 social security budget

The new regulations mandate that taxi drivers provide car-sharing for medical transportation, meaning they could be required to transport multiple patients in the same ride.

Taxi drivers argue that the reform, which is part of the French National Health Insurance Fund's cost-saving initiative, will force them to offer deeper discounts, which they say will make it financially impossible for them to continue operating sustainably.

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Scholz’ Ukraine visit: coming to ‘save’ Zelensky or his own skin?

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Kiev on Monday for talks with Zelensky junta officials, announcing a €650 mln ($683.5 mln) arms aid top-up and reaffirming Berlin’s support for Kiev.

▫️Scholz became a classic lame duck chancellor after the collapse of his ‘Traffic Light’ coalition in early November, with the crisis triggered by Germany’s years-long economic slump.

▫️The visit seems to have been aimed at reassuring Kiev after Scholz’s “detailed and candid exchange of views” on the situation in Ukraine with President Putin in a November 15 phone call, which provoked a minor panic in Kiev. Zelensky claimed the call opened a “Pandora’s Box,” undermined efforts to “isolate” Russia, and could trigger “other conversations, other calls.”

▫️Scholz apparently also felt the need to soothe Zelensky on continued German support for his regime amid growing resentment at home about Berlin’s prioritization of billions in aid to Kiev instead of the economy.

▫️Opinion polls ahead of the planned February 2025 snap election show Scholz’s SPD polling at just 16%, with his erstwhile Green and FDP allies enjoying just 17.5% support between them. The populist Right and Left opposition, the AfD and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, plus Die Linke are polling at an unprecedented 29.5% support, and are broadly opposed to sending any more arms to Kiev.

▫️Scholz, apparently mindful of the shifting winds of politics at home, and the dangers of provoking the Russian bear, did not fold to Zelensky completely, reiterating his opposition to sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine, and evading Zelensky’s demand for fast-track NATO membership.

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Check out the amazing footage of:

◻️ Kalibr cruise missile

◻️ Oniks missile launched by the Bastion system

◻️ Kinzhal missiles in Russian naval and air force drills

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