5 stories you must read today, September 10: From ‘Block Everything’ protests in France to segregation controversy at IIT Kharagpur and more

Embattled President Emmanuel Macron and newly appointed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu have their work cut out as France has once again been gripped by protests, threatening to paralyse the country. The protests, which spread over the summer through social media, have no clear leadership but a wide range of grievances. The latest round of protests resulted in widespread disruption despite the deployment of 80,000 police officers. The protesters torched a bus, damaged a power line, disrupted trains, and clashed with police. Read more

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) has clarified that there was no food-based seat segregation in the dining hall of the BR Ambedkar Hall of Residence. IIT Director Dr Suman Chakraborty said that no such directive has ever been issued by the institute. Such segregation of sitting arrangements has never been institutionalised, and it goes against the institutional policy of equality, he said. An email last month by Nilanjan Paul, General Secretary (mess) of B R Ambedkar Hall, had stated that there were an increase in complaints about boarders occupying vegetarian tables while eating eggs, fish, or chicken, which goes against the mess seating rules. Read more

Russian officials have claimed that drones shot down by Poland in Polish airspace overnight had come from the direction of Ukraine. The Russian response came after Poland shot down a large number of alleged Russian drones that had entered its airspace. According to Poland’s military command, Polish airspace was repeatedly violated by “drone-type objects” during the Russian attack across the border in Ukraine. The incident has raised concerns over the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war spilling over to Poland, a NATO member country. Read more

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the details of assets owned by the late businessman Sunjay Kapur in a petition filed by his children from his second marriage to actor Karisma Kapoor, demanding a share in his estate. The Delhi HC, while directing Kapur’s widow, Priya Kapur, to disclose details of all his assets, refused to order a status quo on all assets. Sunjay died of a heart attack at the age of 53 while playing polo in London in June. The plaintiffs have raised suspicion over the genuineness of the will, alleging that Priya forged it to gain control over the assets. Read more

A day after Aishwarya Rai filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against the misuse of her name and images online, her husband and actor, Abhishek Bachchan, has also filed a similar suit. In his plea, Abhishek Bachchan has highlighted unauthorised use, including AI-generated and deepfakes of his image and persona, for the sale of merchandise as well as in pornographic content. Bachchan also alleged that sexually objectionable material, autographs, and merchandise were being sold without authorisation. Read more