Parts of the U.S. in a Deep Freeze With Heavy Snow and Numbing Temperatures

LOWVILLE, N.Y. — Heavy snowfall and numbing temperatures kept parts of the U.S. in a deep freeze Sunday as the Thanksgiving holiday weekend draws to a close. Despite the Arctic-type weather, however, snowmobilers and skiers are reveling in their respective wintry terrains, and weather forecasters gave possible good news ahead of the NFL game in Buffalo.

In the remote Tug Hill region of upstate New York, where lake-effect snow off Lake Ontario can dump several feet of snow at a time, there was up to 46 inches (117 centimeters) in the Barnes Corners area.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

“We just keep digging out,” Kevin Tyo, a local businessman, said Sunday. “We were out all day yesterday, plowing.”

Like many locals, he has a plow attached to the front of his truck for much of the winter, “and I have a tractor with a bucket, and a snowblower.”

His advice? “If you’re not used to it, stay home. If you’re out, slow down.”

Buffalo Bills kickoff set for Sunday night

In Buffalo, officials with the NFL’s Bills had sought stadium snow shovelers for the season, including ahead of Sunday night’s game against the San Francisco 49ers. The team said it would pay $20 per hour and provide food and hot drinks.

A lake-effect storm began hitting the area Saturday near the Bills’ stadium in Orchard Park, New York. Snow was continuing to fall near the stadium just hours ahead of the game, according to the State Weather Risk Communication Center in New York.

“Snowfall totals will be highly dependent on whether the current lake effect snow shifts just south of the stadium, or remains in place over the stadium longer,” the center said in a post on the social media site X.

Arctic air late last week brings bitter temperatures

A blast of Arctic air late last week brought bitter temperatures of 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit below average to the Northern Plains, the National Weather Service said, prompting cold advisories for parts of North Dakota. Frigid air was expected to move over the eastern third of the U.S. by Monday, with temperatures about 10 degrees below average.

Officials in Erie, Pennsylvania, said Sunday that the heavy lake-effect snow has produced “treacherous” conditions that are causing even snowplows to get stuck as they work around the clock to try to clear city roads.

The city estimated Sunday morning that there were “about 100 cars throughout the city that are blocking roads and need to be towed out of the way so plows can get through.”

Commercial vehicles remained banned in both directions of I-90 in western New York along a nearly 134-mile stretch to the Pennsylvania line. The National Weather Service said lake-effect snow was expected to continue east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario on Sunday, with additional snowfall of 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) possible.

New York, Pennsylvania declare emergencies

In a phone interview Saturday with WWNY-TV, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state prepared for the storm for days by deploying snowplows and thousands of workers and consulting with utility providers. She also dispatched personnel from other parts of the state to assist.

“I know it’s something they’re all accustomed to and they can handle, but I want to let them know we are there with reinforcements and to make sure everyone can travel safely, especially over this really busy holiday weekend,” she said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a disaster emergency proclamation Saturday and said parts of Erie County in the northwest received nearly 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow with more expected through Monday night.

Pennsylvania State Police responded to nearly 200 incidents during the 24-hour period from 6 a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday, officials said. Authorities closed part of I-90 in Pennsylvania and westbound lanes of the New York Thruway heading toward Pennsylvania.

Michigan battered by lake-effect snow

Parts of Michigan were battered by lake-effect snow, which happens when warm, moist air rising from a body of water mixes with cold dry air overhead. Bands of snow rolling off Lake Superior buried parts of the Upper Peninsula under 2 feet (61 centimeters) or more, said Lily Chapman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Marquette, Michigan.

There were 27 inches (69 centimeters) of snow just northeast of Ironwood, in the Upper Peninsula’s western reaches, and another 2 feet (61 centimeters) in Munising, in the eastern area.

Lake-effect snow could add more than a foot (30.5 centimeters) over the eastern Upper Peninsula through Monday morning, with 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) or higher to the west, Chapman said Saturday.

Gaylord, Michigan, received 24.8 inches (63 centimeters) of snow Friday, setting a new single-day record for the city in a region dotted by ski resorts, said Keith Berger of the weather service’s Gaylord office. The previous record of 17 inches (43 centimeters) was set March 9, 1942.

The snowfall was good news for Treetops Resort, which features 80 acres (32 hectares) of ski hill terrain among its 2,000 acres (809 hectares). It boosted the base that snowmaking machines will increase before the resort’s season opening next weekend, Recreation Director Doug Hoeh said.

“Obviously when you get that much snowfall, it’s great for the snow hills, but it’s bad for the parking lots, so we’re kind of digging out,” Hoeh said.

source https://time.com/7199157/us-weather-thanksgiving-weekend-snow-arctic-air/

Shirley Chisholm’s Legacy Still Looms Large

As the first Black woman in Congress and the first Black woman to run for the Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination, Shirley Chisholm clearly had no shortage of vision. Even so, the glass-ceiling-shattering politician—who was born on Nov. 30, 1924—might not have imagined what would come 100 years after her birth. Her centennial year has seen the first woman of color at the top of a major party ticket, and Chisholm, who died in 2005, has been the subject of a Netflix series and multiple biographies. The New York City Council has declared Nov. 30 as Shirley Chisholm Day, to be celebrated every year. Even so, her impact has not always been recognized to the same extent as that of other Black leaders.

This short documentary by RetroReport examines Chisholm’s legacy—and how she has served as an inspiration to many, even as the reality of a woman being elected President remains unrealized in the United States.

source https://time.com/7198395/shirley-chisholm-legacy-video/

Syrian Insurgents Are Inside Aleppo in a Major Setback for Assad as Government Forces Regroup

BEIRUT — Thousands of Syrian insurgents fanned out inside Aleppo in vehicles with improvised armor and pickups, deploying to landmarks such as the old citadel on Saturday, a day after they entered Syria’s largest city facing little resistance from government troops, according to residents and fighters.

Witnesses said two airstrikes on the city’s edge late Friday targeted insurgent reinforcements and hit near residential areas. A war monitor said 20 fighters were killed.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Syria’s armed forces said in a statement Saturday that to absorb the large attack on Aleppo and save lives, it has redeployed and is preparing for a counterattack. The statement acknowledged that insurgents entered large parts of the city but said they have not established bases or checkpoints.

Insurgents were filmed outside police headquarters, in the city center, and outside the Aleppo Citadel. They tore down posters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, stepping on some and burning others.

The surprise takeover is a huge embarrassment for Assad, who managed to regain total control of the city in 2016, after expelling insurgents and thousands of civilians from its eastern neighborhoods following a grueling military campaign in which his forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.

Aleppo has not been attacked by opposition forces since then. The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters after 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war.

The push into Aleppo followed weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas. Turkey, which has backed Syrian opposition groups, failed in its diplomatic efforts to prevent the Syrian government attacks, which were seen as a violation of a 2019 agreement sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran to freeze the line of the conflict.

The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, primarily Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has backed Syrian government forces since 2015, have been preoccupied with their own battles at home. A ceasefire in Hezbollah’s two-month war with Israel took effect Wednesday, the day the Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive. Israel has also escalated its attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria during the last 70 days.

Insurgents raise flag over Aleppo Citadel

A witness in Aleppo said government troops remained in the city’s airport and at a military academy but most of the forces have already filed out of the city from the south. Syrian Kurdish forces remained in two neighborhoods.

The redeployment “is a temporary measure and (the military central command and armed forces) will work to guarantee the security and peace of all our people in Aleppo,” the military statement said.

Speaking from the heart of the city in Saadallah Aljabri square, opposition fighter Mohammad Al Abdo, said it was his first time back in Aleppo in 13 years, when his older brother was killed at the start of the war.

“God willing, the rest of Aleppo province will be liberated” from government forces, he said.

There was light traffic in the city center on Saturday. Opposition fighters fired in the air in celebration but there was no sign of clashes or government troops presence.

Abdulkafi Alhamdo, an teacher who fled Aleppo in 2016 and returned Friday night after hearing the insurgents were inside, described “mixed feelings of pain, sadness and old memories.”

“As I entered Aleppo, I kept telling myself this is impossible! How did this happen?” He said he strolled through the city at night, visiting the citadel, where the insurgents raised their flags, a major square and the university of Aleppo, as well as the last spot he was in before he was forced to leave for the countryside.

“I walked in (the empty) streets of Aleppo, shouting, ‘People, people of Aleppo. We are your sons,’” Alhamdo told The Associated Press in a series of messages.

The insurgents launched their shock offensive in the Aleppo and Idlib countryside on Wednesday and wrestled control of dozens of villages and towns before entering Aleppo on Friday.

The pro-government Al-Watan newspaper reported airstrikes on the edge of Aleppo city targeting rebel supply lines. It posted a video of a missile landing on a gathering of fighters and vehicles, in a street lined with trees and buildings.

City hospitals are full

Twenty fighters were killed in the airstrikes, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Aleppo residents reported clashes and gunfire. Some fled the fighting.

Schools and government offices were closed Saturday as most people stayed indoors, according to Sham FM radio, a pro-government station. Bakeries were open. Witnesses said the insurgents deployed security forces around the city to prevent any acts of violence or looting.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the city’s airport has been shut and all flights suspended. On Friday, Aleppo’s two key public hospitals were reportedly full of patients while many private facilities closed, OCHA said.

In social media posts, the insurgents were pictured outside of Aleppo Citadel, the medieval palace in the old city center, and one of the largest in the world. In cellphone videos, they recorded themselves having conversations with residents they visited at home, seeking to reassure them they will cause no harm.

The Syrian Kurdish-led administration in the country’s east said nearly 3,000 people, most of them students, had arrived in their areas after fleeing the fighting in Aleppo, which has a sizeable Kurdish population.

State media reported that a number of “terrorists,” including sleeper cells, infiltrated parts of the city. Government troops chased them and arrested a number who posed for pictures near city landmarks, state media said.

On a state TV morning show Saturday, commentators said army reinforcements and Russia’s assistance will repel the “terrorist groups,” blaming Turkey for supporting the insurgents’ push into Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

Russia’s state news agency Tass quoted Oleg Ignasyuk, a Russian Defense Ministry official coordinating in Syria, as saying that Russian warplanes targeted and killed 200 militants who launched the offensive in the northwest on Friday. It provided no further details.

source https://time.com/7199107/syrian-insurgents-inside-aleppo-setback-for-assad-government-regroup/

Netflix’s New Senna Miniseries Captures the Thrilling Life and Tragic Death of the Auto Racing Star

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Senna.

On May 1, 1994, at the start of the sixth lap at Italy’s San Marino Grand Prix, 34-year-old Ayrton Senna Da Silva crashed his newly-designed Williams race car into a concrete wall at 145 miles per hour. Later that day, the Formula 1 driver, winner of three championships, would be pronounced dead at a local hospital, sending shockwaves throughout the racing world and his home country of Brazil.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The event makes up the first brief sequence in Senna, a new six-episode Netflix miniseries, which traces the majority of his adult racing life and his ascent to the top of his sport. In the process of achieving greatness on the track (he finished his 10-year career with 41 victories, 65 pole positions, and 80 podiums), Senna became one of the few drivers to transcend the sport itself—he was both a global superstar and a national hero to Brazilians, who gathered around televisions every time he strapped into his car and flipped down his helmet lid. When he drove, everyone watched. 

Across the series, showrunner and co-director Vincente Amorim (Santo, Yakuza Princess) chronicles the creation of his almost-mythic celebrity and the challenging ladder he climbed to reach the sport’s ultimate heights. Like most elite athletes, Senna, played with fierce determination by Gabriel Leone, inherited an early love for racing and paired it with his inflexible determined personality, an unrelenting desire to be the best which shaped his relationships with family, teammates, and competitors. As he graduated from different levels of racing and made his way to F1 in 1984, he possessed extreme command in the driver’s seat, exhibited aggressiveness at every opportunity, and proved he could win at any level, on any surface, against any opponent.

Read More: McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown Takes on Red Bull, Ferrari

You might already know some of this journey and background if you watched the identically-titled Senna, director Asif Kapadia’s engrossing and award-winning 2010 documentary that’s (conveniently) also available on Netflix. In a break from typical documentary form, Kapadia exclusively used archival home and racing footage, sacrificing talking heads for a more intimate and immediate account of Senna’s driving prowess and quest for greatness as he moved between racing teams and navigated Formula 1’s politics. Though the miniseries dramatizes many of the same moments, it also fills in some of the off-track gaps that Kapadia leaves out, including Senna’s first marriage, his early racing career in the U.K., and the intricacies of his rivalry with French driver Alain Prost (Matt Mella). 

Three decades after Senna’s untimely death, the Brazilian driver is still widely considered one of the best (and the fastest) drivers in Formula 1 racing history. Read more about the series, his prolific and influential 10-year career, and the legacy of a life cut short.

Senna’s Rise to F1 Glory

Even as a child, Senna had an irregular thirst for driving and began racing Go-Karts at age 13. Early success motivated him to move to the U.K. in 1981, race with real cars, and pursue Formula motorsports. 

As Senna attempted a professional route, his native Brazil was in the midst of a 21-year military dictatorship, which left most of the country in poverty. As unemployment rose, Senna offered many Brazilian residents hope and pride. Amorim and co-director Júlia Rezende occasionally nod to Brazil’s economic and political struggles in various newspaper headlines and television reports, and during a few glimpses of a Brazilian father and son, who flock to the television when Senna races. 

The majority of Senna’s first two episodes chronicle his growth as a driver in England. Though his win-first, aggressive tactics didn’t ingratiate him to his team, Senna still won the Formula Ford series championship in his first year. Senna initially retires to appease his wife Lillian and his parents, who want him to take over the family business, but his instant success pulls him back to England. It’s not long before he ditches a life in Brazil, separates from Lillian, and continues his climb up the Formula ladder. 

In the midst of Senna’s migration between teams and racing levels, Amorim highlights some of the biases facing Latino athletes. After Senna wins the F3 championship, Formula 1 teams—specifically Lotus—begin taking notice. But no matter his impressive lap times, the majority of executives refuse to give Senna a fair shake. “He’s just not British,” says a higher-up at Imperial Tobacco, a Lotus title sponsor.  

Eventually, Senna latched on with Toleman, a smaller racing outfit that didn’t have the car design or engine to compete with the top F1 brands. And yet, during his first year, he proved his skills to the world. “It’s like a drug,” Senna said after finding early success. “Once you experience it you keep searching for it all the time.”

The Rivalry Is Born

It’s difficult to capture the thrill and danger of Formula 1 and condense it onto the small screen, but Amorim effectively translates the feeling inside the cockpit. Leaning on a soundtrack of accelerating engines and gear changes, he deftly drops in archival overhead shots of races with the hyper-focused close-ups of his own camera, blending CGI and real cars to match the sport’s blistering pace and Senna’s stomach-turning corner hugging. At points during his championship runs, the Brazilian describes the experience of driving like he was “in another dimension,” and Senna commits to that out-of-body dimension with abstract, kinetic energy.

As Senna developed into first a feisty driver at Toleman and then a threatening one at Lotus, Prost had become the face of the racing world at McLaren. The pair would soon forge a rivalry, though their frosty relationship didn’t crystalize until they became McLaren teammates in 1988. At one point in the season, Senna shoved Prost towards a pitwall (a tempestuous act not featured in the miniseries), and their rivalry remained contentious as Senna’s star began to outshine Prost en route to the Brazilian’s first F1 championship.

The intensive public battle didn’t start until 1989, when Senna passed Prost at Imola during a restart, breaking what Prost believed to be a gentleman’s agreement. Over the next two years, each engaged in title-deciding crashes by cutting corners (one that earned Senna a disqualification and suspension) and tarnishing F1’s reputation, with Senna calling out Prost’s political maneuvering and Prost griping about Senna’s impulsive driving

The rivals would eventually become friendly once Prost left for a broadcasting role, but their relationship fueled F1 storylines for years and made their races must-watch events. 

An End Forshadowed

At the beginning of the 1994 race season, Senna could foresee a tragedy on the horizon. 

At the time, he was unhappy with his Williams car (which had recently lost its automatic suspensions and gearboxes thanks to a series-wide ban) and didn’t trust the San Marino track’s asphalt. His concerns before his final race grew during the Friday qualifier, when driver Rubens Barrichello, Senna’s friend and fellow Brazilian, flipped his car and hit a tire barrier, necessitating an airlift to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken nose and bruising. The next day, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger died instantly after ramming into a concrete barrier due to a front wing failure.

Senna felt the gravity of these moments. In the final episode, he calls for the F1 president to postpone the Grand Prix, one of many occasions that the Brazilian voiced frustrations about safety regulations and questioned Formula 1’s leadership. That same weekend, as depicted in the final episode, Prost urges him to lead the Driver’s Association because of the massive pull he has with other drivers and the leverage he has as the sport’s biggest name.

Ultimately, those tragedies didn’t dissuade Senna from competing. In a pivotal scene before the race, Senna’s doctor, Sid Watkins, asks him why he has to keep racing and can’t just “give it up and go fishing.” Senna responds: “Sid, there are certain things over which we have no control. I cannot quit, I have to go on.” In the wake of his death, Formula 1 made renewed efforts to improve its safety measures, which included limitations placed on the bodywork aerodynamics of cars and a pit lane speed limit. As a result, it was 21 years between Senna’s death and that of  Jules Biachi, who died in 2015 from injuries incurred at the Japanese Grand Prix. 

But Senna’s legacy extends beyond the track. After his death, his family established the Instituto Ayrton Senna, a charitable foundation he’d wanted to form with his sister, Vivianne, before competing in 1994. Throughout his career, he’d made large donations to aid impoverished Brazilian children and wanted a unified place to focus on education and human development for the next generation. Today, Vivianne is the non-profit’s president and is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth in the memory of her brother. 

source https://time.com/7198851/netflix-senna-formula-1/

Breaking Down Donald Trump’s Call for ‘Energy Dominance’ and Its Potential Real-World Limits

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is set to create a National Energy Council that he says will establish American “energy dominance” around the world as he seeks to boost U.S. oil and gas drilling and move away from President Joe Biden’s focus on climate change.

The energy council — to be led by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s choice to head the Interior Department — will be key in Trump’s pledge to “drill, drill, drill” and sell more oil and other energy sources to allies in Europe and around the globe.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The new council will be granted sweeping authority over federal agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, with a mandate to cut bureaucratic red tape, enhance private sector investments and focus on innovation instead of “totally unnecessary regulation,” Trump said.

But Trump’s energy wishes are likely to run into real-world limits. For one, U.S. oil production under Biden is already at record levels. The federal government cannot force companies to drill for more oil, and production increases could lower prices and reduce profits.

A call for energy dominance — a term Trump also used in his first term as president — “is an opportunity, not a requirement,” for the oil industry to move forward on drilling projects under terms that are likely to be more favorable to industry than those offered by Biden, said energy analyst Kevin Book.

Whether Trump achieves energy dominance — however he defines it — “comes down to decisions by private companies, based on how they see supply-demand balances in the global marketplace,” said Book, managing partner at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington research firm. Don’t expect an immediate influx of new oil rigs dotting the national landscape, he said.

Trump’s bid to boost oil supplies — and lower U.S. prices — is complicated by his threat this week to impose 25% import tariffs on Canada and Mexico, two of the largest sources of U.S. oil imports. The U.S. oil industry warned the tariffs could raise prices and even harm national security.

“Canada and Mexico are our top energy trading partners, and maintaining the free flow of energy products across our borders is critical for North American energy security and U.S. consumers,” said Scott Lauermann, speaking for the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s top lobbying group.

American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents U.S. refineries, also opposes potential tariffs, saying in a statement that “American refiners depend on crude oil from Canada and Mexico to produce the affordable, reliable fuels consumers count on every day.”

Scott Segal, a former Bush administration official, said the idea of centering energy decisions at the White House follows an example set by Biden, who named a trio of White House advisers to lead on climate policy. Segal, a partner at the law and policy law firm Bracewell, called Burgum “a steady hand on the tiller” with experience in fossil fuels and renewables.

And unlike Biden’s climate advisers — Gina McCarthy, John Podesta and Ali Zaidi — Burgum will probably take his White House post as a Senate-confirmed Cabinet member, Segal said.

Dustin Meyer, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, called the new energy council “a good thing” for the U.S. economy and trade. “Conceptually it makes a lot of sense to have as much coordination as possible,” he said.

Still, “market dynamics will always be the key” for any potential increase in energy production, Meyer said.

Jonathan Elkind, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, called energy dominance a “deliberately vague concept,” but said, “It’s hard to see how (Trump) can push more oil into an already saturated market.”

Trump has promised to bring gasoline prices below $2 a gallon, but experts call that highly unlikely, since crude oil prices would need to drop dramatically to achieve that goal. Gas prices averaged $3.07 nationally as of Wednesday, down from $3.25 a year ago.

Elkind and other experts said they hope the new energy council will move beyond oil to focus on renewable energy such as wind, solar and geothermal power, as well as nuclear. None of those energy resources produces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

“Failure to focus on climate change as an existential threat to our planet is a huge concern and translates to a very significant loss of American property and American lives,” said Elkind, a former assistant energy secretary in the Obama administration. He cited federal statistics showing two dozen weather disasters this year that caused more than $1 billion in damage each. A total of 418 people were killed.

Trump has played down risks from climate change and pledged to rescind unspent money in the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s landmark climate and health care bill. He also said he will stop offshore wind development when he returns to the White House in January.

Even so, his Nov. 15 announcement of the energy council says he will “expand ALL forms of energy production to grow our Economy and create good-paying jobs.”

That includes renewables, said Safak Yucel, associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

“The mandate for the energy council is U.S. dominance globally, but what’s more American than American solar and American wind?” he asked. A report from Ernst & Young last year showed that solar was the cheapest source of new-build electricity in many markets.

Trump, in his statement, said he wants to dramatically increase baseload power to lower electricity costs, avoid brownouts and “WIN the battle for AI superiority.”

In comments to reporters before he was named to the energy post, Burgum cited a similar goal, noting increased demand for electricity from artificial intelligence, commonly known as AI, and fast-growing data centers. “The AI battle affects everything from defense to health care to education to productivity as a country,″ Burgum said.

While Trump mocks the climate law as the “green new scam,” he is unlikely to repeal it, Yucel and other experts said. One reason: Most of its investments and jobs are in Republican congressional districts. GOP members of Congress have urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to retain the law, which passed with only Democratic votes.

“A lot of Southern states are telling Trump, ‘We actually like renewables,'” Yucel said, noting that Republican-led states have added thousands of jobs in recent years in wind, solar and battery power.

If renewables make economic economic sense, he added, “they’ll continue.”

source https://time.com/7199047/donald-trump-energy-dominance-plans-limits/

See Notre Dame Cathedral’s New Interior Five Years After Devastating Fire

PARIS — After more than five years of frenetic reconstruction work, Notre Dame Cathedral showed its new self to the world Friday, with rebuilt soaring ceilings and creamy good-as-new stonework erasing somber memories of its devastating fire in 2019.

Images broadcast live of a site visit by French President Emmanuel Macron showed the inside of the iconic cathedral as worshippers might have experienced it back in medieval times, its wide, open spaces filled with bright light on a crisp and sunny winter’s day that lit up the vibrant colors of the stained glass windows.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Outside, the monument is still a construction site, with scaffolding and cranes. But the renovated interior — shown in its full glory Friday for the first time before the public is allowed back in on Dec. 8 — proved to be breathtaking.

Stonemasons fixed the ripped-open ceilings

Gone are the gaping holes that the blaze tore into the vaulted ceilings, leaving charred piles of debris. New stonework has been carefully pieced together to repair and fill the wounds that had left the cathedral’s insides exposed to the elements. Delicate golden angels look on from the centerpiece of one of the rebuilt ceilings, soaring again above the transept.

The cathedral’s bright, cream-colored limestone walls look brand new, cleaned not only of dust from the fire but also of grime that had accumulated for centuries.

The cathedral attracted millions of worshippers and visitors annually before the April 15, 2019, fire forced its closure and turned the monument in the heart of Paris into a no-go zone except to artisans, architects and others mobilized for the reconstruction.

Macron entered via the cathedral’s giant and intricately carved front doors and stared up at the ceilings in wonder. He was accompanied by his wife, Brigitte, the archbishop of Paris and others.

Techniques new and old deployed

Powerful vacuum cleaners were used to first remove toxic dust released when the fire melted the cathedral’s lead roofs.

Fine layers of latex were then sprayed onto the surfaces and removed a few days later, taking dirt away with them. Cleaning gels were also used on some walls that had been painted, removing many years of accumulated dirt and revealing their bright colors once again.

Carpenters worked by hand like their medieval counterparts as they hewed giant oak beams to rebuild the roof and spire that collapsed like a flaming spear into the inferno. The beams show the marks of the carpenters’ handiwork, with dents made on the woodwork by their hand axes.

Some 2,000 oak trees were felled to rebuild roof frameworks so dense and intricate that they are nicknamed “the forest.”

It’s a sneak peak ahead of the reopening

Macron’s visit kicked off a series of events ushering in the reopening of the 12th-century Gothic masterpiece.

Macron will return on Dec. 7 to deliver an address and attend the consecration of the new altar during a solemn Mass the following day.

Macron’s administration is hailing the reconstruction as a symbol of national unity and French can-do.

source https://time.com/7199024/notre-dame-cathedral-new-interior-five-years-after-fire/

Israel Launches First Airstrike on Lebanon Since Ceasefire, Accusing Hezbollah of Breaching Truce

BEIRUT — The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.

There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel’s aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah militants are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers.

On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Read More: Will a Hezbollah-Israel Ceasefire Last?

An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.

The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”

Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.

A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.

Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.

More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.

Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.

In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.

source https://time.com/7198959/israel-hezbollah-lebanon-ceasefire-breaches/