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France Bans Smoking in Beaches, in Parks and Bus Shelters

A beachgoer smokes a cigarette on the beach at La Baule on the Atlantic coast, France, June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
A beachgoer smokes a cigarette on the beach at La Baule on the Atlantic coast, France, June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
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France Bans Smoking in Beaches, in Parks and Bus Shelters

A beachgoer smokes a cigarette on the beach at La Baule on the Atlantic coast, France, June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
A beachgoer smokes a cigarette on the beach at La Baule on the Atlantic coast, France, June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

France will ban smoking on beaches and in parks, public gardens and bus shelters from Sunday, the government said.

The decree, published in the official government gazette Saturday, will also ban smoking outside libraries, swimming pools and schools, and is aimed at protecting children from passive smoking.

Health and family minister Catherine Vautrin said in May that tobacco must disappear where there are children.

The freedom to smoke "stops where children's right to breathe clean air starts", she said.

Offenders face a fine of up to €135 ($154), Vautrin added.

The ban will not extend to France's iconic cafe terraces however, the minister said.

Electronic cigarettes, which have boomed in France in recent years, are also not covered.

An estimated 35 percent of France's population are smokers – higher than the averages for Europe (25 percent) and the world (21 percent), according to the World Health Organization.

Around 75,000 people are estimated to die from tobacco-related complications each year in France.

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James Cameron Describes Strategy for Surviving Titanic Disaster

Titanic ocean liner after it struck an iceberg in 1912 off the coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean (Shutterstock/3d illustration)
Titanic ocean liner after it struck an iceberg in 1912 off the coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean (Shutterstock/3d illustration)
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James Cameron Describes Strategy for Surviving Titanic Disaster

Titanic ocean liner after it struck an iceberg in 1912 off the coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean (Shutterstock/3d illustration)
Titanic ocean liner after it struck an iceberg in 1912 off the coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean (Shutterstock/3d illustration)

James Cameron, the filmmaker behind the hit 1997 disaster movie Titanic, has revealed his strategy for hypothetically surviving the famed 1912 cruise liner sinking.

Titanic starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and is one of the highest-grossing films of all time. The film was set during the sinking of the RMS Titanic, which claimed the lives of more than 1,500 people.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron was asked: “If you were traveling by yourself as a second-class passenger on Titanic when it hit an iceberg, what would you have done?”

As the filmmaker explained, third-class passengers were trapped below decks, while first-class passengers were more likely to secure a spot on the lifeboats, according to the interview reported by The Independent.

“I think there were interesting ways to what-if or second-guess the whole thing,” Cameron replied. “One I like to play with my Titanic experts is – with what we know now, and if you had the captain’s ear – how could you save everybody?

“The other is: What if you’re a time traveler, you go back and want to experience the sinking, and your little time-travel thing that gets you back fails, and you’re like, ‘I’m really on the ship, I’ve got to get off it.'”

In this latter scenario, Cameron argued that the best thing to do would be to stand by the edge of the deck, and wait for a lifeboat to launch during the early stages of the evacuation. At this point, he would jump off, and swim to the boat, relying on the passengers to pull him aboard.

“Most people wouldn’t have had the courage to jump into the water,” he continued. “They couldn’t quite believe that the ship was really going to sink. But if you knew for sure it was going to sink and you weren’t on a lifeboat, you jump in the water next to the boat the second it casts off."

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Hiker Killed in Rare Suspected Mountain Lion Attack in Colorado

FILE - The General Store is seen Oct. 24, 2006, in Glen Haven, Colo. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Karl Gehring, File)
FILE - The General Store is seen Oct. 24, 2006, in Glen Haven, Colo. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Karl Gehring, File)
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Hiker Killed in Rare Suspected Mountain Lion Attack in Colorado

FILE - The General Store is seen Oct. 24, 2006, in Glen Haven, Colo. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Karl Gehring, File)
FILE - The General Store is seen Oct. 24, 2006, in Glen Haven, Colo. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Karl Gehring, File)

A hiker in Colorado has died in the state's first suspected fatal mountain lion attack in over 25 years, authorities said.

The woman was found unresponsive by other hikers on the Crosier Mountain trail northeast of Estes Park around noon on Thursday.

The hikers saw a mountain lion near the woman's body and scared it away by throwing rocks. A doctor was among the hikers and attended to the woman but found no pulse, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Kara Van Hoose told reporters, according to Reuters.

CPW officers responded to the ⁠scene and shot dead two lions in the area. It is not known whether one or multiple animals were involved in the suspected attack, the agency said in a statement. It is believed the woman was hiking alone.

“There were signs that this was consistent with a mountain lion attack,” Van Hoose told a press ⁠conference.

Mountain lion attacks on humans in Colorado are rare, with 28 reported to CPW since 1990. The last fatal attack was in 1999.

CPW pathologists are performing necropsies on the dead animals to check for abnormalities and neurological diseases like rabies and avian influenza, as well as human DNA, Van Hoose said.

CPW policy mandates the killing of any mountain lion involved in an attack on a human so as to prevent repeat incidents. If human DNA is not found on either dead lion, authorities will continue to ⁠search for animals that may have been involved, Van Hoose said.

Larimer County Coroner will release the identity of the victim and cause of death, she said.

Colorado has a healthy mountain lion population, estimated by CPW to be between 3,800 and 4,400 adults. Conservation efforts have brought the species back from near extinction in the 1960s due to bounty hunting.

Mountain lions are common in the Front Range area where the woman was found, Van Hoose said. The animals go down to lower elevations in winter in search of prey like deer and elk, increasing chances of encounters with humans.

Varieties

Heroic Staffer Blocks 400-pound Runaway Prop at US Disney Theme Park

FILE - The road to the entrance of Walt Disney World, Monday, March 16, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
FILE - The road to the entrance of Walt Disney World, Monday, March 16, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
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Heroic Staffer Blocks 400-pound Runaway Prop at US Disney Theme Park

FILE - The road to the entrance of Walt Disney World, Monday, March 16, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
FILE - The road to the entrance of Walt Disney World, Monday, March 16, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

A staffer at Disney World in Florida was hailed as a hero after he blocked a 400-pound (180-kilogram) rubber boulder that was bouncing toward the audience at an Indiana Jones-themed live show.

"Woah! That's heading right for us!" an audience member can be heard saying on a YouTube video of the incident on Tuesday as the weighty object bounces off its track.

The boulder bashes into the staff member who had moved to try to block the prop from bouncing into the audience, knocking him down. Colleagues rush to his aid and quickly get him to his feet, with blood visible on his scalp.

Disney confirmed the incident happened during an "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular." It said a performer was injured when a prop moved off its track.

"We're focused on supporting our cast member, who is recovering," a Disney spokesperson said in a statement to AFP on Friday.

"Safety is at the heart of what we do, and that element of the show will be modified as our safety team completes a review of what happened," the spokesperson added.

The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular is staged at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. A blog post on the company's website says the boulder is made of rubber and weighs 400 pounds.