Traffic managers are setting up a special system to facilitate the movement of the public and participants for the 2023 Carnival in the city of Fort-de-France.

To contribute to the movement of participants and spectators of the 2023 Carnival, the RTM (Régie des Transports de Martinique) is organizing a special device during the fat days (Sunday 19 to Wednesday 22 February 2023).

• Shuttles departing from the Bricorama car parks (e.g. Weldom) and the Dillon hypermarket serve the city center.

Pas many shuttles departing from the Pierre Aliker stadium in Fort-de-France

BHLS (High Level Service Bus) in Fort de France. • ©Martinique the 1st

• BHLS (High Level of Service Buses) must depart from TCSP (Public Transport on Clean Site) stations, Mahault and Carrère (Lamentin) and terminate at Bishop station. The RTM states that “François Mitterrand, Félix Eboué, Pointe Simon and Almadies Bo Kannal stations will not be served”.

• regular buses 1 Cité Dillon, 2 La Meynard District Hospital, 3 East Zac, 32 Rivière Roche, 4 Volga, 11 Jambette, 421 Gondeau, Mangot Vulcin Hospital and 422 Basse Gondeau will execute their terminus in the port of Fort-de-France.
• lines 10 Langellier, 16 Redoubt Coridon, 320 Saint Joseph, 18 Ravine Vilaineand the road to Balata 19 Godissard, 20 Morne Laurent, 21 Bois Thibault, 22 Poste Colon, 25 Balata, 27 Didier, 5 Moutte, 12 Trenelle, 24 Route de Schoelcher and 33 Cluny ends at Xavier Orville station.
• Schoelcher line buses Ravine Touza 104 and 105 Monastery end in Bricorama (ex: Weldom).
• The lines 110 Rectorate, 111 Hill, 112 Approach and 114 Plateau Fofo will form their terminus at Boulevard Attuly.

Central network bus (Fort-de-France, Lamentin, Schoelcher and Saint-Joseph). • ©Martinique the 1st

In addition, the RTM points out that the Paper carnival pass are sold within Center network points (Pointe Simon, Nardal, 120 Boulevard du Général de Gaulle, Carrère and Mahault), but also at Shuttles depart from Dillon and Bricorama hypermarket car parks (e.g.: Weldom).

For dematerialized passports, they are marketed through the mobile application MT TICKET (available on iPhone and Android).

The carnival pass (costs: €5) is valid from Sunday, February 19 to Wednesday, February 22, 2023 throughout the center network.

Covid damages the heart and an American study explains how. Oxidative stress, inflammation, heartbeat changes, impaired blood and oxygen pump function to other tissues are some of the effects that Sars-CoV-2 infection has on the “motor organ” of the human machine. They are described by Andrew Marks, a cardiologist and professor of biophysics at Columbia University, and Steven Reiken, a researcher in Marks’ lab, authors along with other colleagues of a study presented in San Diego, California, at 67 the Biophysical Society.

Covid-19 disease can cause life-threatening heart problems, researchers explain. Studies suggest that people with Covid have a 55% higher risk of suffering a major cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack, stroke or death, compared to people who are not infected. They are also more likely to have other heart problems, such as arrhythmias or myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. Marks’ team therefore attempted to understand the mechanisms underlying these disorders.

The team observed an increase in oxidative stress and inflammatory signals in heart tissue from Covid patients. The researchers also found changes in a protein called RyR2, which is responsible for regulating calcium ion levels in the heart. An element, calcium, that the heart – like all other muscles – needs to contract. In particular, the “calcium pathways” are essential to the heart for the coordinated contraction of the atria and ventricles. When calcium levels become imbalanced, cardiac arrhythmias or heart failure can occur.

To better understand the nature of the “blows” Covid inflicts on the heart, Marks and colleagues used a mouse model infected with Sars-CoV-2. They saw changes in the heart tissue of the rodent suffering from COVID-19, including infiltration of immune cells, accumulation of collagen indicating injury, death of heart cells and formation of blood clots. The researchers also measured how the cardiac proteome, the set of proteins expressed by heart cells, changed, highlighting changes consistent with those seen in human Covid patients, as well as markers of cardiomyopathy that are associated with the Hearts can make it difficult to pump blood to the rest of the body and can therefore cause heart failure.

“The more awareness you gain of the specific mechanisms of a disease, the more likely you are to improve patient care,” says Marks, noting that “clinicians should be aware of and look for the cardiac changes associated with COVID-19 infections .” . With ongoing research, “we really want to understand what causes heart disease” associated with Sars-CoV-2 “and how to fix it.”

Understanding the changes COVID-19 is causing in the heart at the molecular level can point to drug targets that help relieve infection-related heart symptoms and help healthcare professionals more effectively diagnose and treat these problems. Additionally, insight into the heart complications of Covid-19 can help public health officials make more informed decisions about how to respond to the pandemic and target the highest-risk groups.

The General Directorate of Missiles led the exercise with heroin company Bandera Roja Numero Uno, an operational unit responsible for launching a new type and better capacity “Hwasongpho-15”.

The training was organized at dawn on the written order of the head of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim Jong Un.

According to the military command, the aim of the surprise exercise was to reconfirm the reliability of this weapon system and to demonstrate the combat readiness of the nuclear armed forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

He also pledged to demonstrate the safety and ensure proper mobility, responsiveness, reliability, effectiveness and combat capability of state nuclear deterrent components.

The company launched from Pyongyang International Airport the device of the type “Hwasongpho-15” in the form of maximum firing range and high angle.

According to the source, the missile covered a distance of 989 kilometers in 4,015 seconds, with a maximum altitude of 5,768 meters, with a precise target at sea defined in the East Korean Sea.

The Central Military Commission rated the launch as excellent in preparation for the military environment being created on the Korean Peninsula and the serious military threat posed by the United States.

DPRK’s core strategic forces insist on guaranteeing nuclear counterstrike capability against enemy forces as a guarantee and demonstration of powerful physical nuclear deterrence.

jha/Leg

But the samba schools were also modern: for the first time a man paraded with “Arranco” as the flag bearer in the sambodromo. The twelve best schools work until dawn on Sunday and Monday. Tens of thousands in the stands and millions in front of television in Brazil and around the world usually follow the parades on the huge catwalk designed by the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in the 1980s.

Rio Carnival is known as the “biggest party in the world”. The city expects to raise around 810 million euros, the tourism agency Riotur expects up to 5.5 million carnival people in the city. The hotels recorded an occupancy rate of 91.5 percent. Mayor Eduardo Paes opened this year’s carnival this Friday afternoon (local time) by handing over the key to the city to “King Momo”. After two years in which the pandemic prevented or restricted the party, Paes, who also advanced with corona vaccines aimed at carnival, said: “Thanks to science, thanks to medicine, thanks to the public health system and those who are vaccinated, we can go back to celebrating life by meeting at the Rio Carnival.”

In Brazil, the healthcare system collapsed at the height of the 2021 pandemic. Mayor Paes has canceled street carnivals for the past two years because of Corona. Only the parades at the Sambódromo took place after a postponement in April 2022. But now Carnival is back in full force. The city hall approved 445 parades of carnival groups – the so-called blocks – this season. In the afternoon, the first official “Blocos” like the traditional “Carmelitas” from the bohemian neighborhood of Santa Teresa paraded through the streets of Rio or played in the squares.

Tens of thousands of “cariocas”, as the cariocas are called, and tourists got into the carnival atmosphere last weekend with musicians and dancers in the streets of various parts of the city. It’s the middle of summer in the southern hemisphere and it’s particularly hot right now. The thermometer scored 41.8 degrees on Friday, the perceived temperature, which differs from the real one due to humidity or wind, was 53.8 degrees.

But Rio Carnival is also more than a sizzling party: following the assault on the government district in Brasilia on January 8, Mayor Paes proclaimed the “Carnival of Democracy”.

During the parades, each samba school takes the spectator into another world – usually a world where all is well. But there have also been political comments in recent years. For example, the winning school “Mangueira” 2020 criticized the Bolsonaro government.

The “blocos” always formed something like a carnival parallel to the strictly regulated parades in the sambodromo, in which a jury assigns marks as in figure skating. This year, however, they are also remarkably organized, given the enforced break they’ve had plenty of time to prepare. However, the “blocks” retained a lot of spontaneity and creativity. In Whatsapp groups, carnavalescos exchange information about where a “Bloco” currently is and which one will be next.

In the gospel, Jesus confirms our belonging and suggests: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. He speaks this after admonishing us to live in love and forgiveness towards our neighbour”.

Father Cesar Augusto, SJ Vatican News

Called by God to holiness: this is the theme of this Sunday’s liturgy.

The Lord created us to be holy and to be what He is. Every son wants to be like his father if the reference is right and the girl has in her mother a role model to emulate.

Likewise, the Lord rejoices that we are like Him, for indeed we were created in His image and likeness.

Today’s first reading from Leviticus tells us, “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”

And what is it to be holy? According to the reading, it means not having hatred, warning others against sin, not being vengeful, not holding grudges, and loving your neighbor as yourself.

To be holy means to behave differently from other people who do not know their divine origin. Whoever knows where he comes from, who his family is and is aware of it, behaves nobly because he knows the value of his blood. Not only were we created by God in his image and likeness, but we were washed by the blood of Christ and born again in baptism. We are truly children of the saint.

In the gospel, Jesus confirms our belonging and suggests: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. He speaks this after admonishing us to live in love and forgiveness towards our neighbors. Do not retaliate against insults and aggression, do not hate and love the enemy, in short, behave like father.

Finally, the second reading, the first letter from São Paulo to the Corinthians, warns us that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul adds that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Paul wants to tell us that our life model, our parameter, should be God our Father and Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Let’s face it: worldly values ​​will not give us the happiness we want, only God will. Only Jesus has words of eternal life!