Tomorrow is the big day! France goes to the polls for the 1st round of balloting to elect the next President of the 5th Republic. In a race widely seen to be a dive to the centre (or right) for the top three candidates, the media has a whole pile of goodies out there, for instance, about the pragmatic voter, the endemic economic and racial problems in the banlieues, straight-up overviews the candidates, or focusing on the frontrunner's book. The election itself is a tossup with 40% of those polled still undecided, so it should make for an interesting election night.
Russian police beat down a bunch of protesters this week as 2,000 protesters met 9,000 riot police in St. Petersburg. Given the size of the crackdown, Spiegel asks an important question: what exactly is Putin afraid of? Russian police held and questioned former world-champion chess player Kasparov about comments he made on a radio programme, attempting to gather evidence to charge him with making 'extremist' remarks against the government. Slate compares this protest with the protests that are going on in the Ukraine. And you wonder why Britain gave opposition figure Boris Berezovsky political asylum.
Putin's government shut down a media foundation after a police raid because its President didn't declare some currency she brought back from the EU - apparently the private actions of an executive member is enough to bring everything to a stop. It's not all about the political freedoms either. Russia is making it much more difficult for Westerners to adopt children from orphanages, despite the large demand - 260,000 children are considered available for adoption in Russia. Adoption agencies, who helped place almost 7,000 children last year, are facing a dramatic increase in the amount of bureaucracy to reapply for their status this year. Finally, the trust between the EU and Russia is at a very low level, although the main issue here is whether Russia can provide a constant natural gas supply.
Couple of interesting science stories out there this week. The results of Gravity Probe B scores another victory for Einstein. Astronomers have found that big ass stars are really bad for planetary formation. Speaking of stars, our own sun has recently found to have musical potential. In a page directly out of sci-fi, some are speculating that deflector shields could be used to protect future astronauts from radiation. Oh, and looking for a new way to explore other planets? Why not try smart dust!
Also:
- Yay! No more limbo!
- If I haven't said it before, animal rights activists are seriously crazy.
- One Tory MP is looking to censor the internet in Canada.
- Slate argues for promiscuity.
- A 1,400 year-old business files for bankruptcy.
- What is Stephen Harper Reading?
- Women do more work overall then men, right? The empirical data is in, and in the West, it's actually a tie.
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