Last gasp for the wolf-whistle as France imposes penalties of £655
Pelican scores fishy slam dunk
THIS is the moment a flying fish loomed over a pelican’s “basketball hoop” bill before the greedy bird gobbled it up in a lunchtime slam dunk.
Retired police detective inspector Brian Boyes, 63, captured the moment on camera during feeding time at Paignton Zoo, Devon.
Brian, of Beccles, Suffolk, said: “I’ve taken photos of the pelicans eating time and time again. But to get the exact moment the whole shadow of the fish was looming over the pelican’s beak, I was really pleased.
“The pelican’s beaks are amazing. The bottom jaw has a hinge on it so when it’s closed it looks normal but then they can stretch it out. It’s really impressive, it looks like a hoop.” MEN who wolf-whistle or sexually harass women on French streets face fines of up to £655 as the government yesterday declared war on the behaviour.
Politicians approved tougher legislation to combat sexual violence. President Emmanuel Macron said the Bill is meant to ensure “women are not afraid to be outside”.
It comes amid a worldwide wave of sexual assault allegations against men in business, entertainment and politics, which have sparked online protest movements.
In a drive to discourage sexual harassment on the street, cat-callers and aggressively lecherous individuals of either sex can be hit with on-the-spot penalties.
Bawdy
But some critics have mocked the measures as an end to French romance. Emmanuelle Menard, a far-Right female politician, denounced the legislation as a “witch-hunt against men”. She said the move outlawed “a certain bawdy behaviour which cannot be compared to harassment”.
However, a government spokeswoman said the law was not looking to stamp out flirtatious behaviour and “kill the culture of the French lover”, but simply looking to establish that consent was key.
The legislation has been approved by the national assembly which will now be debated in the senate.
The crackdown comes after surveys show virtually all French women have been harassed on public transport, in the street or elsewhere at some time. Only a few countries, including Belgium and Portugal, have banned such behaviour. The UK and others have broader laws against harassment in general but none so specific.
Marlène Schiappa, France’s equality minister, defended the plan. She said: “At the moment, one can’t file a lawsuit for street harassment when someone breaks into your vital space, talks to you within 10 or 20 centimetres of your face, follows you for three, four, five or six streets, or ask for your telephone number about 17 times.”
Gilles-William Goldnadel, a lawyer, accused Ms Schiappa of seeking to outlaw “heavy Latin chat-up lines”. He said the consequences of the law would be to enrich feminist lawyers and to clog up the court system.
Ms Schiappa has also outlined plans to change age of consent laws so that minors under 15 who have sex with adults would be presumed not to have given consent.
The measure was aimed after a case where a man in his 20s was cleared of rape for having sex with an 11-year-old girl.
It was initially deemed that assumption might be unconstitutional, so laws were redrawn in rape cases if the victim under 15 “lacked the necessary discernment to consent”.
Underage victims have also now an extra decade up to 30 years to file complaints.