A French bus driver has died after he was kicked and punched in the head for asking passengers to wear face masks in line with Covid-19 rules.
Philippe Monguillot, 59, was left brain-dead after the attack last Sunday in the town of Bayonne and died on Friday after his family switched off his life-support system, daughter Marie said.
"We decided to let him go. The doctors were in favour and we were as well," she told AFP.
Police have charged five people over the attack including two – aged 22 and 23 – for attempted murder. Prosecutor Jerome Bourrier said he would ask for the latter charges to be upgraded after Monguillot’s death.
Two other people have been charged for failing to assist a person in danger and another for attempting to hide a suspect.
Prosecutors previously said the group was known in Bayonne for taking drugs and drinking alcohol.
France’s recently appointed prime minister Jean Castex led tributes to Monguillot, describing the assault as “cowardly”.
"The Republic recognises him as an exemplary citizen and will not forget him. The law will punish the perpetrators of this despicable crime," he tweeted.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who was to meet Bayonne’s bus drivers on Saturday to discuss safety measures, said the attack was an “abhorrent act”.
"The coward responsible must not go unpunished," he said.
Local bus drivers used their right to refuse to work in the aftermath of the attack but will resume on Monday under reinforced security.
Monguillot's family had organised a silent march in his honour on Wednesday, departing from the bus stop where the assault took place.
On Tuesday, assistant prosecutor Marc Mariee told a press conference that the attack had been “extremely violent”.
"There were insults and then shoving. The bus driver was pushed out of the bus. Two individuals then violently kicked and punched the upper part of his body, including his head,” he said.
Earlier this week Monguillot’s wife Veronique said he had been due to retire in a year and the couple were going to buy a motor home in September. She said she was “living in a nightmare”.
Face masks remain mandatory on public transport in France to slow the Covid-19 outbreak, which has claimed nearly 30,000 lives in the country.
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Safety 'top priority' for rival hyperloop company
The chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Andres de Leon, said his company's hyperloop technology is “ready” and safe.
He said the company prioritised safety throughout its development and, last year, Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, announced it was ready to insure their technology.
“Our levitation, propulsion, and vacuum technology have all been developed [...] over several decades and have been deployed and tested at full scale,” he said in a statement to The National.
“Only once the system has been certified and approved will it move people,” he said.
HyperloopTT has begun designing and engineering processes for its Abu Dhabi projects and hopes to break ground soon.
With no delivery date yet announced, Mr de Leon said timelines had to be considered carefully, as government approval, permits, and regulations could create necessary delays.
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The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh, University of Chicago Press
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
