After several flight delays and cancellations, a couple from the Quebec region decided to take drastic measures to return to Pont-Rouge: they took an Uber for more than 800 kilometers.

Mélissa St-Laurent and her husband were due to return from a trip to Florida via San Antonio last Sunday, but things didn’t go as planned.

“When we arrived at the airport, they already informed us that our flight had been canceled and that they would transfer us to a new flight,” she explains. Our flight was supposed to be at 2:30am but it was delayed to 3:30am and then to 4:30am.

The flight was eventually canceled and delayed again the next day.

The couple was finally able to travel to New York on Tuesday.

But further delays and cancellations on Wednesday due to wildfire-related weather conditions are prompting Quebecers to turn to Uber’s option.

“When our driver arrived, we explained our story to him and then asked him to take us to customs,” says Ms St-Laurent. He offered to pick up his passport to take us home.”

The total bill is 1,100 US dollars or 1,450 Canadian dollars.

“I contacted my insurance company and they told me to file my claim and they sent me all the paperwork that I need to do, so that’s going to be another story,” she continues.

However, Mélissa St-Laurent says she has fond memories of her trip.

“It just makes us nervous about traveling again,” she says.

United Airlines declined our request for an interview on the subject.

Watch the full report in the video above.

Twitter has temporarily limited the number of tweets each user can read per day. This was announced by the company’s owner, Elon Musk, after thousands of users complained about errors loading the platform’s content for several hours. As Musk himself explained through a message On the same platform, they had to set “time limits” on the activity to “counter the extreme scale of the system’s data extraction and manipulation.” The DownDetector website, which specializes in detecting glitches in Internet-connected services in real time, has been recording user incidents since 1 p.m. (Spanish Time) who are facing problems loading history messages (the timeline) or refreshing the home page warned.

More information

One of the messages users reported when trying to load the timeline is “Quota limit exceeded. Wait a few minutes and try again. Accordingly Social Networking Policies, the limit quota marks the maximum number of requests allowed in a period. Musk has stated that the temporary caps are as follows: “Verified accounts are limited to reading 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts to 600 posts per day, and new unverified accounts to 300 posts per day.”

Musk did not specify how long this “time limit” will apply or how this daily tally will be evaluated. That is, when the count begins, when certain publications are selected, when each message consulted in a thread is calculated, or when replies to a tweet are checked, or when already directly adding the messages that appear when traversing the chronology of the main publication appear on screen. In a late-afternoon tweet, Musk stated that “limits will soon be increased to 8,000 for verified, 800 for unverified, and 400 for new unverified.”

To counteract the extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation, we have introduced the following temporary restrictions:

– Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts per day
– Unverified accounts up to 600 posts/day
– New unverified accounts up to 300/day

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023

This new change on the social network comes on top of another, according to Efe, which specialized media pointed out on Friday that Twitter has closed its content, including tweets, threads and profiles, to visitors who do not have an account: for these users a message will appear , prompting them To or enter their credentials. When asked by a Twitter user if this was a technical issue, Musk tweeted that it was “a temporary emergency measure,” noting, as he did this Saturday, that it was “on due to the extreme extent of data extraction”. “: “Almost every company that runs AI, from start-ups to some of the largest corporations in the world, has analyzed huge amounts of data. “It’s quite irritating to have to bring a large number of servers online in an emergency just to facilitate the outrageous tasks of some AI startups,” the tycoon said. in a tweet.

According to Portal, Musk had previously expressed dissatisfaction with artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, using Twitter data to train their large language models. The social media platform had previously taken a number of steps to win back advertisers who left Musk-owned Twitter and to boost subscription revenue by including ticks in the Twitter Blue program.

User Complaints

On this occasion, according to DownDetector, the peak of the incidents happened around five in the afternoon and not only in Spain. Incidents and user complaints were reported worldwide: the USA, Portugal, Brazil, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, among others, also reported disruptions in the operation of the social network on this website. Some users reported that when trying to refresh their home page, it was blank and only displayed a message confirming that “some error” had indeed occurred, that “it’s not possible to fetch tweets at this time” or that “something “ What happened went wrong.” During the afternoon, users even managed to trend the #Twitterdown hashtag by reporting the problems the application was causing.

It’s not the first time in the last year that Twitter has faced user complaints about problems interacting with the social network. Since Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October last year, there has been a first significant failure as early as late December, when the social network caused problems for tens of thousands of users for several hours around the world. In doing so, access to the social network was blocked and some of its key functions failed, such as accessing the account from the computer or the inability to load certain tweets. In March, the social network went out again and, as on this occasion, although it was possible to write new posts, the history or timeline did not resume them normally.

One of the actions Musk took after acquiring the social network was to lay off more than half of the workforce. This sparked complaints from many observers, as the platform’s systems could be left vulnerable in the event of an unforeseen event.

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Debris and human remains from the Titanic have been recovered. Here are 9 questions we don’t have the answers to yet.

• Also read: Submarine implosion: Still promoting a visit to the wreck of the Titanic

• Also read: “Supposed Human Remains” found in wreckage of Titan

• Also read: IN PICTURES | Debris from the Titan was brought to the surface

The five-day search for the Titan submersible ended on June 22 when debris was discovered near the wreck of the Titanic.

Stockton Rush, CEO and founder of OceanGate, British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, famous French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman embarked on the trip of a lifetime on June 18 and traveled some 13,000 feet down the surface of the Atlantic Ocean to view the wreck of the famous ship.

AFP

However, the five explorers met a fate similar to that of the Titanic.

On June 28, officials said debris and what is believed to be human remains had been recovered from the seabed where the deadly implosion took place.

Even though we know the fate of the submersible, some questions still remain unanswered.

What caused the submarine to implode?

Rear Admiral Mauger told reporters the discovery of the wreckage revealed the submarine and its occupants died in a “catastrophic implosion”.

Getty Images via AFP

“After consultation with guidance experts, the debris is consistent with the loss of the hyperbaric chamber,” he told The Independent newspaper in an interview.

An underwater implosion means that the ship suddenly and violently contracts in on itself under intense pressure from the depths of the ocean.

The Independent reports that it’s unclear exactly where the implosion took place, but the trip to the wreck was expected to take around two hours and the ship lost contact around an hour and 45 minutes later.

The cause of the implosion is still unclear at this time, but several safety issues with the Titan submersible have been addressed and potential problems with the submarine have been detailed.

AFP

Is the cheap design to blame?

In addition to the choice of materials, questions were also asked about the prefabricated elements used to assemble the submarine, reports The Independent.

In a November interview, OceanGate CEO Rush boasted that the submarine was operated with a video game remote and its components were purchased by Camping World.

Recall that the company’s former Director of Marine Operations, David Lochridge, accused OceanGate of ignoring its safety concerns about Titan.

Mr. Lochridge began working with OceanGate in 2015 and was tasked with conducting a final security review of Titan.

In his lawsuit, Mr. Lochridge had raised “critical safety concerns” about the submarine’s “experimental and untested design.” The man was then released.

AFP

Why was the rubble so big?

Deep-sea robots brought debris from Titan to the surface, reports The Independent.

Although the images of the pieces recovered from the seabed prompted reactions from many, Arun Bansil, a physics professor at Northeastern University, said the debris was consistent with events.

“Titan’s initial failure would have been at its weakest points, such as hull defects,” he explained in an interview with The Independent. “However, once a crack opens, large parts of the hull are no longer subjected to large forces and remain more or less intact.”

How did authorities recover “believed human remains”?

The US Coast Guard had previously said that the depth of the debris and the nature of the passenger deaths made it unlikely that any human remains would be recovered, The Independent said.

However, on June 28, authorities announced that they had recovered “believed human remains” from the seabed. Medical professionals will now conduct a formal analysis to confirm that the remains are indeed human.

Why is OceanGate still announcing visits?

More than ten days after the tragedy and a week after its confirmation, the OceanGate website still lists available dates for two eight-day Titanic observation expeditions next year.

Getty Images via AFP

The company’s future is uncertain, The Independent reports, as industry experts told the New York Post that all planned Titanic expeditions have been cancelled.

If the submarine wasn’t safe, why could it take tourists on expeditions?

Because Polar Prince and Titan operated in international waters, they were not subject to any country’s regulations, including a US law requiring passenger submersibles to be registered with the Coast Guard.

What were the knocking noises?

On June 20, buoys registered knocking noises from the search area, indicating that survivors could still be found.

“We do not know the source of this noise, but we have shared this information with naval experts,” US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told The Independent at the time.

The noise was spotted at 2 a.m. local time by a Canadian P-3 aircraft.

Officials admitted the rumors were “inconclusive”. Some experts suspect the knocking sound was the sound of debris from Titanic or Titan at sea.

The Coast Guard admitted on June 23 that the US Navy had detected sounds suggestive of an implosion or explosion sometime after Titan disappeared on June 18 and before rescue efforts began the following day. Officials said the information had not been released at the time because it was not final.

Why was so much money and effort put into the research when the United States knew it had already imploded?

One of the biggest questions that remains is why US officials have not disclosed that US Navy equipment picked up the sound of the implosion and why so much money and effort was put into the search and rescue operation when they knew it was in vain.

Although the Navy shared the information with the US Coast Guard, which was conducting the search, the information was not released during the operation, reports The Independent.

The US Coast Guard said United Command, the US Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard decided not to release information about the acoustic anomaly because they did not want to disrupt the search and rescue mission.

Will OceanGate face legal action?

Before embarking on the underwater adventure, the five passengers had signed a liability waiver, accepting that doing so could result in death.

The waiver may not protect OceanGate from potential lawsuits from victims’ families.

“If it can be determined that the implosion was caused by failure of the sub’s mechanics or engineering, the responsible party may be held liable even if a waiver was signed,” said Timothy E Allen, attorney and former Secret Service agent at of the newspaper The Independent.

Russian rebel warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has set up a new base for 8,000 men of his Wagner private army in Belarus, new satellite images show.

The Wagner boss has been exiled to Belarus since his mercenary group threatened mutiny in an attempted coup to Moscow – only to withdraw at the eleventh hour, saving Vladimir Putin’s blush.

The move to Belarus was part of the deal the Kremlin struck with Prigozhin to end last weekend’s uprising, which posed the biggest threat to Putin’s authority since he took office more than 20 years ago and prompted fears from the Russian despot to foment a civil war.

Prigozhin and his fighters escaped prosecution and were given refuge in Belarus by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. He said his country could use their experience and expertise and offered the paramilitary group an “abandoned military unit” to set up camp.

Just days after they arrived, images from Planet Labs PLC show dozens of tents have been pitched over the past two weeks at the former military base outside of Osipovichi, a Belarusian town 142 miles north of the Ukrainian border.

Russian rebel warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin (pictured) has built a new base in Belarus for 8,000 men of his Wagner private army, new satellite images show

In the last two weeks, a new base for Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagnerian private army has been established. On June 15, no traces of the rows of white and green structures clearly visible today were visible

Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves the headquarters of the Southern Military District June 24, 2023 during the group’s withdrawal from the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia. He has now arrived in Belarus

Satellite images from June 15 and 30 are in stark contrast to each other. Two weeks ago there was no trace of the rows of white and green structures that are clearly visible today.

Aliaksandr Azarau, leader of the anti-Lukashenko ex-military guerrilla group BYPOL, said Thursday that construction of a base for Wagner mercenaries was underway near Osipovichi.

And a spokesman for Ukraine’s border guards told local media that up to 8,000 Wagner celebration fighters could be stationed in Belarus.

Speaking to Ukrainska Pravda newspaper, Andriy Demchenko said that given the threat of a possible Wagner invasion, Ukraine will strengthen its 674-mile border with Belarus.

Ukraine’s move follows a meeting of its top military commanders on Thursday. Subsequently, President Zelenskyy said on social media: “The decision rests with the Supreme Commander Valery Zaluzhnyi and the Northern Commander Serhiy Naev to implement a number of measures to strengthen this direction.”

Lukashenko had previously allowed the Kremlin to use Belarusian territory to send troops and weapons to Ukraine.

He also welcomed the continued Russian armed presence in Belarus, including joint military camps and exercises, and the deployment of some of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons there.

Prigozhin and his fighters escaped prosecution and were given refuge in Belarus by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko (pictured with Putin on June 9).

Ukraine will strengthen its 674-mile border with Belarus amid threats of a possible Wagner invasion

Lukashenko said he told Prigozhin he would be “crushed like a bug” if he tried to attack Moscow and warned that the Kremlin would never back down his call to overthrow Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov will comply .

Earlier this week it was alleged that Prigozhin was plotting to kidnap Russian military chiefs during a visit to the south.

But Russia’s FSB intelligence agency found out about the plan and Shoigu and Gerasimov changed their trip to avoid capture, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed officials.

Mr. Demchenko told Ukrainska Pravda on Saturday that around 2,000 soldiers from regular Russian army units were still stationed in Belarus as of this week.

At a gala evening Friday to mark Belarusian Independence Day, Lukashenko said the Belarusian armed forces could benefit from training from Wagner officials and assured that the mercenaries posed “no threat” to the Belarusians.

He also said he was “sure” that Belarus would not need to use the nuclear weapons stationed on its territory and would not directly intervene in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Lukashenko said, “The longer we live, the more we believe that (nuclear weapons) should be in a safe place with us in Belarus.” And I’m sure we’ll never have to use them as long as we have them, and the enemy will never set foot on our soil.”

Lukashenko said he was “sure” that Belarus would not need to use the nuclear weapons stationed on its territory and would not directly interfere in Moscow’s war against Ukraine

This contradicts previous statements by the dictator, in which he had insisted that he was not afraid of using nuclear weapons sent by Russia to Belarus.

Earlier this year, Putin announced plans to deploy short-range nuclear weapons to Moscow’s neighbor and ally, a move widely taken as a warning to the West, which is stepping up its military support for Ukraine.

The Russian President has stressed that Moscow will retain control over them, but Lukashenko’s previous statements contradicted this.

“God forbid I have to decide today to use these weapons, but we would not hesitate if faced with aggression,” Lukashenko, known for his stormy remarks, said last month, according to the state news agency BelTA.

Ever since Lukashenko welcomed Prigozhin and his men to Belarus, the Wagner boss, formerly called Putin’s boss, has boasted that he could cross Ukraine “in one day” and the border separating the countries just 125 miles away could conquer from Kiev.

Prior to his arrival, Prigozhin reportedly holed himself up in a windowless Minsk hotel room to avoid assassination after breaking up an armed insurgency against the Russian Defense Ministry.

To increase support, Vladimir Putin will increase military salaries by 10.5 percent

Beginning October 1, the Russian military will get a pay rise as Putin seeks to win his troops over to his side. (file image)

After last Saturday’s Wagner mutiny, which saw thousands of heavily armed troops take the city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, it appeared the group and its charismatic leader had been marginalized by the Kremlin.

However, it seems that there is more to their move to Belarus than getting them out of harm’s way – hence Ukraine’s decision to oppose the move.

Wagner also continues to recruit soldiers from cities across Russia for future deployments.

So it seems that for the group, despite the apparent feud between Prigozhin and Putin – and threats from the Kremlin to disband Wagner – “business is going on as usual”.

Amid the aftermath of Wagner’s mutiny, the mercenary group’s logo was pictured today being removed from the windows of their former headquarters in St Petersburg – perhaps to erase any reminder of the threat to power Putin faced.

What follows is a desperate attempt by Putin to increase his support, beginning with the announcement that he will increase military salaries by 10.5 percent.

Today the Wagner logo was removed from the windows of the former headquarters in St. Petersburg

The PMC Wagner Center has several logos on the windows that were removed by staff today

Vladimir Putin attended a rare meet-and-greet where he was surrounded by a crowd while posing for selfies with young girls

Russian President Vladimir Putin takes a selfie with a devoted teenager from Dagestan

From October 1, soldiers’ salaries will increase, according to a government decree published yesterday on the official web portal.

Putin was also seen attempting to further solidify support through a rare gathering where the dictator was cheered on by a crowd while posing for selfies with young girls.

Footage from Wednesday night’s event — an appearance by the president during a trip to the city of Derbent in Russia’s Dagestan region — showed him blending into the night crowds like a Hollywood actor at a red carpet show.

He made another public appearance on Thursday, where he was bizarrely pictured doodling on an interactive whiteboard during a surprise tour of the North Caucasus region of Dagestan.