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Spectator who caused Tour de France pileup ashamed of ‘stupidity’: prosecutor
AFP
An arrested cycling spectator who caused a mass pileup at the Tour de France has told investigators she feels ashamed of her “stupidity” and is worried about the huge public interest in her case, a prosecutor said on Thursday.
The 30-year-old woman, who has not been named, was arrested on Wednesday, five days after the accident on Saturday that left dozens of cyclists nursing cuts and bruises and one with fractured hands.
Wearing a bright yellow coat, she was caught on camera during the first stage of the race in northwestern Britanny holding up a large cardboard sign with the words “Go! Grandpa and granny” in front of the cyclists.
Riding on the outside of the tightly packed peloton, German cyclist Tony Martin was unable to avoid colliding with the sign and the ensuing pileup led to a five-minute delay as riders and bikes were untangled.
“The suspect has expressed her feelings of shame and fear about the consequences of her act,” local prosecutor Camille Miansoni told reporters at a press conference that was shown live by some French TV channels.
“She said she is worried about the media attention for what she has called her ‘stupidity’,” Miansoni added from the city of Brest.
The accident has sparked a debate about safety and spectator conduct at the Tour de France, where fans are allowed to line the roads, but has also inflamed passions and led to widespread abuse of the woman on social media.
Local police chief Nicolas Duvinage said that an appeal for witnesses posted on Facebook led to more than 4,000 messages, some of which “were verging on incitement to violence”.
“We need to stay reasonable and calm on social networks,” he told the press conference. “The suspect has some personal vulnerabilities and we need to avoid a lynching in the media or on social media.”
– Overblown? –
Prosecutor Miansoni explained that the woman had gone to watch the race with her partner as it passed several kilometres (miles) from their home in rural Britanny.
The message on her sign — which she showed in the direction of television cameras, meaning her back was turned to the riders — was intended for her grandparents who were watching on TV at home like millions of other French people.
Miansoni added that she had no previous criminal record and a decision would be made shortly on whether to charge her with putting others in danger through negligence and causing unintentional bodily harm.
Earlier on Thurday, the organiser of the Tour de France race said it was withdrawing its legal complaint against her.
“The incident has been blown out of all proportion,” director Christian Prudhomme told AFP. “So we’d like to calm things down now that the message has got across that the roadside fans need to be careful.”
Martin, a six-time Tour de France stage winner, had earlier called for a severe punishment.
“Not only did she fail to stick around and help us get up from the floor, she didn’t present herself to the police or present her excuses,” the 36-year-old told German daily Bild.
Martin, who competes for Team Jumbo–Visma, is still in the Tour but Spain’s Marc Soler is one of the riders who had to leave after the crash in which he fractured both hands.
Soler told Spain’s La Vanguardia newspaper on Wednesday he intended to lodge an official complaint about the woman.
“People come to the race to mess around and at the end of the day they go home all right, but we cyclists pay for it with our bodies,” he said.
Sin categoría
Trump files $15 billion defamation suit against The New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a $15 billion defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times, which denounced the legal move on Tuesday as an attempt to silence the press.
In this new stage of his presidency, the 79-year-old Republican leader has escalated his long-standing hostility toward traditional media, repeatedly attacking critical journalists, limiting their access, or taking them to court.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Florida, seeks $15 billion in damages, along with additional punitive compensation “in an amount to be determined at trial.”
The New York Times had reported last week that Trump threatened legal action over articles concerning a birthday letter allegedly sent by him to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The letter featured a typed message inside the outline of a nude woman. Trump denies that the accompanying signature is his.
“For too long, The New York Times has been allowed to lie, defame, and slander me freely — and that ends NOW!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Sin categoría
Maduro warns Venezuela would enter armed struggle if attacked by foreign forces
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stated on Friday that if his country were attacked, it would enter a phase of armed struggle, amid his claims of “threats” from the United States, which is conducting a military deployment in Caribbean waters near Venezuela’s coast under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
Maduro emphasized that Venezuela is currently in the non-armed phase, which he described as political, communicational, and institutional, but added that if the country were somehow aggressed, it would move to a planned, organized armed struggle involving the entire population, whether the threat is local, regional, or national.
“We would enter a stage of armed struggle, in defense of peace, territorial integrity, sovereignty, and our people,” Maduro said during an event activating citizen militias, broadcast on state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
He also noted that Venezuela is currently in a phase of readiness and preparation to defend the country and will proceed to the deployment of defensive capacities, including training and retraining of the entire Venezuelan population.
Maduro described the Venezuelan people as pacifist yet warrior-like, asserting that “no one will enslave us, neither today nor ever.”
Sin categoría
USCIS gains law enforcement powers: Agents now authorized to investigate and arrest immigration violators
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), traditionally responsible for handling naturalizations, visas, residence permits, and work authorizations, is now expanding its role to include law enforcement powers, according to a statement released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Under the new directive, specially designated USCIS agents are now authorized to investigate, arrest, and bring to justice individuals who violate U.S. immigration laws. Previously, USCIS primarily managed administrative and bureaucratic processes, while enforcement responsibilities were handled by agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Illegal immigration has been a central issue under President Donald Trump’s administration, with DHS reporting that over 300,000 migrants have been arrested in the first six months of his presidency. However, the number of people who have crossed U.S. borders illegally in recent years remains controversial, with experts estimating between 8 to 10 million individuals.
The policy shift also comes amid heightened legal battles over immigration enforcement. Recently, a federal judge blocked the deportation of minors to Guatemala, who were moments away from boarding a flight. Trump’s aggressive measures, including large-scale raids in cities like Los Angeles, have faced multiple judicial challenges, some upheld and others overturned at various federal levels, including the Supreme Court.
According to the DHS statement, the expanded authority allows USCIS to “manage investigations from start to finish rather than referring cases to ICE,” aiming to reduce backlogs and combat fraud within the immigration system.
USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow will have the power to appoint and train special agents under the order signed by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, ensuring that the agency can effectively execute its newly granted enforcement responsibilities.
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