Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

LIFE IN PARIS

Paris honours British cryptographer Alan Turing with street name

Sixty five years after his death, the British mathematician and cryptographer Alan Turing has been honoured by having a Paris square named after him.

Published: 25 September 2019 15:55 CEST
Paris honours British cryptographer Alan Turing with street name
Alan Turing took his own life in 1954. Photo: AFP

The British codebreaker and wartime hero will now be remembered on the Parvis Alan Turing – an open square that is home to the Station F business startup hub in Paris' 13th arrondissement.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she was “proud that Paris was paying homage to Alan Turing”.

 

“Mathematician and cryptographer of genius, hero of the Second World War, he is an icon of the fight for the recognition of rights for LGBTQI+ people. His legacy is considerable,” she tweeted.

Deputy mayor Christophe Gerard added: “Sixty five years after his death, due to his conviction for homosexuality, Paris pays tribute to Alan Turing. He was a brilliant avant-garde mathematician and a war hero.”

The new Alan Turing square is an open plaza on which is sited Station F, a business space dedicated to tech-based start-ups in a nod to his status as the father of modern computing.

Turing lead the British code-breaking team at the top secret Bletchley Park during the Second World War, cracking the Germans' Enigma code in an achievement that is widely credited with shortening the war.

However in 1952 he was prosecuted for homosexual acts, which at that time were illegal in the UK.

He accepted chemical castration as an alternative to prison, but later took his own life. In 2009, following an online campaign, he was formally pardoned by the British Prime Minister.  

 

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

STRIKES

Striking workers block Paris airport terminal, flights delayed

Striking airport workers have blocked part Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, with some flights already delayed by at least one hour.

Published: 2 July 2021 12:29 CEST
Striking workers block Paris airport terminal, flights delayed
Striking airport workers outside Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris. Photo: Geoffroy van der Hasselt | AFP

Last month, trade unions representing workers at the Aéroports de Paris (ADP) – the city’s Charles-de-Gaulle-Roissy and Orly airports – called for a strike between July 1st and July 5th in an ongoing dispute between French airport workers and bosses over contract renegotiations.

A second wave of protests are expected next week, after a strike notice was filed for July 9th.

Tensions mounted on Friday morning as some 400 protesters staged a raucous demonstration at CDG’s terminal 2E, which mostly deals with flights outside the Schengen zone, as police officers looked on.

At Orly airport, meanwhile, some 250 people demonstrated “outside”, while a small group was inside.

The dispute is over a long-term plan by ADP to bring in new work contracts for employees at the airports, which unions say will lower pay, job losses and a reduction in rights and bonuses for employees.

The strike is being jointly called by the CGT, CFE-CGE, Unsa, CFDT and FO unions, who said in a joint press release that the proposals will “definitively remove more than a month’s salary from all employees and force them to accept geographical mobility that will generate additional commuting time”.

Unions say that staff face dismissal if they do not sign the new contracts.

ADP said on Wednesday that it expected ‘slight delays for some flights but no cancellations’ to services – but it urged travellers to follow its social media operations for real-time updates.

On Thursday, the first day of action, 30 percent of flights were delayed between 15 minutes and half-an-hour.

ADP’s CEO Augustin de Romanet had said on Tuesday that ‘everything would be done to ensure no flight is cancelled’. 

ADP reported a loss of €1.17 billion in 2020. 

Stressing that discussions are continuing over the proposed new contracts, the CEO called for “an effort of solidarity, with a red line: no forced layoffs.”

SHOW COMMENTS