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The 39-year-old centrist independent will win, it looks like, by a decisive margin of 65% to 35%.
Le Pen’s 35% is seen as still being an important indicator of political feeling in the country.
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Macron Still Faces Challenges
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The French president-elect, the youngest leader of the country since Napoleon and a man who was unknown a year ago, could find himself without much power to act if he doesn’t quickly form a movement to win a majority in the French national assembly.
In the run up to the election, two candidates were chosen from a dozen, with Macron getting voter support from 24% of French citizens and Le Pen getting 22%.
Between the two candidates, Macron won a decisive victory, getting 65% of the votes in an election in which relatively few people went out to vote for either option. In all, less than a third of the country voted for the president in the election.
Evidence of how divided France is can be seen in the 35% garnered by Le Pen, whose political views are considered extreme and very different from those of the new president, who was the first choice of less than a quarter of the French public. Another important statistic: 40% of France is against the EU (which represents globalization in Europe), which Macron is in favor of.
Analysts said that there has never been a similar situation in French political life.
Exciting B.C. Election
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The Liberals and Christy Clark did not receive a majority … yet.
They might not get one. They won 43 of B.C.’s 87 electoral districts, one short of a majority.
That means that the NDP with 41 and the Greens with 3 may form a coalition or other governing arrangement, and NDP leader John Horgan could find himself premier of B.C. This gives a special kind of power to the Greens (under leader Andrew Weaver) which they haven’t had before.
B.C. hasn’t had a minority government since 1953.
The outcome of the election is not yet final, however, as there will be recounts. Some districts were close, with Courtenay-Comox the closest at a 9-vote NDP win over the Liberals.
UK Hospitals Recover from Virus
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Around 24 hours after being hit by the big malware attack that affected 100 countries, 97% of UK hospitals were back to normal.
There is talk that the computers were breached through a vulnerability in older Microsoft systems which was long ago identified by the NSA and which the NSA included it in its list of cyber weapons. The NSA information was leaked earlier this year.
According to the FBI, ransomware attacks are up 300% since last year.
Most computer infections have the same MO as always: a user clicks on an attachment in an email that installs the malware, or that “patches” aren’t updated on systems when vulnerabilities come to light.
One way to protect computer information: Regularly back it up on an external drive or the cloud — somewhere secure.
Drones Helping with Elephant Problems
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Everywhere humans and elephants coexist, they come into conflict, resulting in injuries, deaths, and ruined crops.
While governments compensate farmers and others for injuries and ruined crops, people in countries like Tanzania and Kenya have said they believe the government’s real priority is the elephants, which bring in tourist dollars.
A few years ago by accident, a drone pilot in Tanzania discovered that elephants he was filming were afraid of his drone. Because conservationists had been looking for a way to deal with elephants getting too close to humans and farms, they seized on the opportunity and added drones to their bag of tricks, which already included making loud noises, movement, firing guns into the air, charging elephants with vehicles, and hanging spicy chili-soaked sheets.
Farmers and the groups that help them are still looking for a better, long-term solution to the elephant problem.
China Making It’s Own Wikipedia, but Public Can’t Edit It
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The government, which enforces strict censorship of media, has decided it needs its own online encyclopedia. Wikipedia, like many other popular free information sources on the internet, is blocked in China.
China’s encyclopedia will not be like Wikipedia, though. It will not allow public edits, and its editors will be hand-picked by the government.
The want to put together 300,000 entries. Analysts have said they do not expect to see subjects China does not like to talk about, such as “Tiananmen Square 1989” and “Falun Gong spiritual group” to be included.
First Pack of Wolves in Denmark in 200 Years
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Scientists might know the general whereabouts of up to 40 wolves in the country, but they are keeping the location secret because they fear public attention would have a negative impact on the wolves, which haven’t existed in Denmark for 200 years.
It’s thought the current inhabitants are making their way from Germany, about 500 kilometers away. One was spotted in Jutland 5 years ago.
The big news is of a recent sighting of a pair on CCTV, male and female, which generally only come together briefly to mate. Scientists predict there may be cubs within the the next year or two.
In other Northern European countries as well, a slight increase in wolves has been reported. They are harassing farmers and killing sheep and deer.
Leaked Doc Reveals UK Plans for Wider Internet Surveillance
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No more end-to-end encryption is one of the consequences of a new law proposed in a draft in the UK.
The authors of the draft want to force internet providers to monitor all communications in near realtime, as well as install backdoor equipment to break encryption, so providers can be required to turn over communications to authorities “in an intelligible form” (non-encrypted) within one working day.
In the UK, law already requires internet providers to store all browsing data for 1 year.
It isn’t yet known how the requirement for a backdoor will work, since many messaging and other apps use end-to-end encryption for security, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Wire, and iMessage, and these apps are based outside of the UK.
U.S. Forces May Stay in Iraq
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Prime Minister Al-Abadi wants some or all of the 7,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq to stay, even after ISIS leaves, according U.S. mainstream news reports.
Puerto Rico: Bankrupt
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The largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history is taking place in the territory of Puerto Rico. $120b debt and pension obligations need to be restructured.
It owes $72m to creditors, many of which will have to eat the losses.
The 3 million-strong territory will close 184 schools as part of its cutting down of social services costs (students will go to other schools). Pensions are also expected to take a hit.
The Puerto Rican economy faces many challenges. They have lost 10% of their population in the last 10 years (mostly to the U.S.), and 20% of the island’s jobs. The current unemployment rate is at 12%. Because they are a territory and not a state, they do not have representation and have a hard time getting funding from the U.S. government.
Huge Malware Attack Affects 70 Countries
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Most prominent among the victims: The UK’s National Health Service. Dozens of hospitals and medical centers had to be closed. Treatment was postponed, ambulances diverted. Appointments couldn’t be made because it was too dangerous. Medical workers had no access to important information.
However, some security firms reported that most of the affected computers were in Russia.
It has been reported that the hackers may have used a tool that was a NSA secret before it was leaked to the public earlier this year.
Wikipedia Creator Making News Version: Wikitribune
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Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales is creating Wikitribune, a news version of Wikipedia where he hopes news will be more fact-based than what he sees elsewhere.
He will be hiring many journalists for the initial phase, and see how things develop from there.
Wikitribune will not focus on doing original journalism. It will use the same community model as Wikipedia to put together long-form contextual articles for news events, as well as finding related questions that can be filled in by people at home.
Regarding whether the venture would succeed, Wales stated, “[O]ne of my main questions is the question of scale – I think if we can get to scale, it will be successful. If we aren’t able to produce enough good work early on to persuade people to contribute further support, I think that means that potentially we are going to struggle to get traction. But the response so far to the announcement has been so positive that I’m feeling ok.”