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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 11 december 2019

Parisians dodge strikes by logging on to share rides, bikes

By CLAIRE PARKER country’s pension system.
Associated Press Teachers, health care
ARGENTEUIL, France (AP) workers and bus drivers
— Adrien Lachevre and were among those taking
Nailat Msoili live a few kilo- to the streets.
meters (miles) apart in Paris’ Carpooling startups are
northwest suburbs, but their among the big winners.
paths had never crossed Msoili, a receptionist in the
until Lachevre picked Msoili Paris suburb of Saint-Denis,
up in his gray Fiat on Tues- usually takes a train and a
day morning. bus to work each morning.
An app had matched their For the first two days of the
schedules and morning walkout, she stayed at a
commutes, and the two friend’s house close to her
had arranged to meet at job.
a nearly deserted gas sta- When the strike outlasted
tion well before dawn, hop- the weekend, she took a
ing to beat the traffic that colleague’s recommenda-
has clogged highways in tion and signed up for BlaB-
recent days. laLines, a city ride-sharing
As a general strike across service set up by popular
France stretched into its French long-distance car-
sixth day, they were among pooling company BlaBlaC-
many commuters who Parisians ride bicycles Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019 in Paris. ar. BlaBlaLines drivers, un-
have turned to technology Associated Press like those with Uber, aren’t
— and strangers — to get trying to make a living
by. Use of carpool apps, drop off where you want. All this is changing the na- day, and many Paris sub- from giving rides to others;
big and small, has spiked. Commuters are finding ture of French strikes, un- way lines remained closed they’re ordinary car own-
So has demand for shared places to sleep near their dercutting unions’ power as transit workers and oth- ers who were already plan-
bikes and electric scooters workplaces via Facebook to paralyze the country. er unions protested Presi- ning to drive somewhere
that you activate with your or online couch-surfing Only about a fifth of French dent Emmanuel Macron’s and agree to take others
phone and pick up and communities. trains ran normally on Tues- proposed overhaul of the along.q

Tens of thousands of Czechs call on

prime minister to resign

Associated Press to drop charges Babis was facing over
PRAGUE (AP) — Tens of thousands of alleged fraud involving European Union
Czechs returned to the streets of Prague subsidies.
on Tuesday to urge Prime Minister Andrej In a separate case, a leaked EU report in
Babis to resign. recent days concluded that Babis might
The protest at the central Wenceslas have had a conflict of interest over EU
Square and a march followed two huge subsidies involving his former business em-
rallies earlier this year when a quarter of a pire.
million people demanded that Babis step The European Commission has not pub-
down in the biggest such demonstrations lished the result of its audit because the
since the 1989 anti-Communist Velvet procedure hasn’t been completed.
Revolution. “Resign, resign,” the crowd chanted. Several thousands demonstrators gather to demand the
resignation of Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Andrej Babis,
The latest protest was fueled by the move Babis, a populist billionaire, has denied at the Wenceslas square in Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday,
of the country’s chief prosecutor who wrongdoing and repeatedly said he Dec. 10, 2019.
overturned last week a previous decision wasn’t planning to leave office.q Associated Press