Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 21, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba B4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM P ARIS — The Louvre remained closed Monday, a day after his- toric jewels were stolen from the world’s most-visited museum in a dar- ing daylight heist that prompted au- thorities to reassess security measures at cultural sites across France. The museum’s staff asked dozens of visitors who were queuing in front of the glass pyramid entrance to leave. In a message posted on social media, the Louvre said visitors who have booked tickets will be refunded. It did not pro- vide additional details. The Louvre will also be closed on Tuesday, its weekly closing day. On Sunday, thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre’s facade, forced a win- dow, smashed display cases and fled with priceless Napoleonic jewels, offi- cials said. The theft occurred about 30 minutes after the museum opened, with visitors already inside, and was among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory. It unfolded just 250 metres from the Mona Lisa, in what Culture Minister Rachida Dati described as a profession- al operation that lasted just a few min- utes. French Justice Minister Gerald Dar- manin acknowledged security failures on Monday. “One can wonder about the fact that, for example, the windows hadn’t been secured, about the fact that a basket lift was on a public road,” he said on France Inter radio. “Having (previously) been interior minister, I know that we cannot completely secure all places, but what is certain is that we have failed.” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez ordered prefects across France to im- mediately reassess security measures protecting museums and other cultural sites and enhance them if needed. Culture Minister Rachida Dati said investigators are working on evidence found at the scene. “We did find motorcycles and they have a licence plate,” Dati said on news broadcaster CNews. “I also want to pay tribute to the security officers who pre- vented the basket lift from being set on fire. One of the criminals tried to set it on fire, but they forced him to flee. This allowed us to recover evidence at the scene.” Officials said the heist lasted less than eight minutes in total, includ- ing less than four minutes inside the Louvre. “They went straight to the dis- play windows, they knew exactly what they wanted. They were very efficient.” Dati said. Dati stressed that a decade-long “Louvre New Renaissance” plan that was launched earlier this year includes security improvements. “When the Louvre Museum was de- signed, it was not meant to accommo- date 10 million visitors,” she said. The 700-million-euro (US$760-mil- lion) plan is intended to modernize infrastructure, ease crowding and give the Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery by 2031. Sunday’s theft focused on the gilded Apollo Gallery, where the Crown Dia- monds are displayed. Alarms brought Louvre agents to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the robbery was already over. A worker in the Louvre filmed a per- son in the Apollo Gallery on Sunday morning wearing a yellow jacket and standing by a glass encasing, according to video viewed and verified by BFM television. It is unclear whether the per- son is one of the suspects. Eight objects were taken, according to officials: a sapphire diadem, neck- lace and single earring from a match- ing set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; and Empress Eugénie’s diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch, a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble. One object, the emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum, French authorities said. — The Associated Press NICOLAS Sarkozy will become the first former French president in living memory to be imprisoned when he is expected to begin a five-year sentence today in Paris’ La Santé prison. Convicted of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya, Sar- kozy maintains his innocence. Regard- less, he will be admitted to serve his time in a prison that has held some of the most high-profile inmates since the 19th century. They include Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, wrongly convicted of treason because he was Jewish, and the Vene- zuelan militant known as Carlos the Jackal, who carried out several attacks on French soil. Sarkozy told Le Figaro newspaper that he expects to be held in solitary confinement, where he would be kept away from all other prisoners for sec- urity reasons. Another possibility is that he is held in the prison’s section for “vulnerable” inmates, colloquially known as the VIP section. Former La Santé inmates described their experiences and what the for- mer president might expect to face. The prison, which was inaugurated in 1867, has been fully renovated in recent years. “It’s not Nicolas Sarkozy, president of the Republic, that’s coming … It’s a man and he will live exactly the same thing that everyone” does, Pierre Bot- ton, a former businessman-turned-au- thor who was imprisoned in La Santé’s vulnerable section between 2020 and 2022 for misappropriation of funds from a charitable organization, told The Associated Press. In an unprecedented judgment, the Paris judge ruled that Sarkozy would start to serve prison time without wait- ing for his appeal to be heard, due to “the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offence.” The former president has denied any wrongdoing and protested the decision that he should be imprisoned pending appeal. “I’m not afraid of prison. I’ll hold my head high, including in front of the doors of La Santé,” Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper. “I’ll fight till the end.” La Tribune Dimanche reports Sar- kozy has his prison bag ready with clothes and 10 family photos he is al- lowed to bring. Sarkozy also told Le Figaro news- paper he would bring three books — the maximum allowed — including The Count of Monte Cristo in two volumes and a biography of Jesus Christ. The hero of The Count of Monte Cristo by French author Alexandre Dumas, es- capes from an island prison where he spent 14 years before seeking revenge. One of Sarkozy’s sons, Louis, called for a rally this morning in support of his father in the high-end Paris neigh- bourhood where Sarkozy lives with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The super- model-turned-singer has shared photos of Sarkozy’s children and songs in his honour on her social media feeds since his conviction. Under the ruling, the 70-year-old Sar- kozy will only be able to file a request for release to the appeals court once he is behind bars, and judges will then have up to two months to process the request. The National Financial Prosecutor’s office told Sarkozy the specifics of his detention last Monday, but details have not been made public. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed that Sar- kozy will enter La Santé today and that he’ll personally visit him to make sure security conditions are met. In the so-called VIP section, Sarkozy could have his own room in one of 18 identical 96.8-sq.-ft. cells in a wing separated from other general prison inmates. Botton, who says he has known Sar- kozy for decades, expressed doubt that the former president will be accorded many special privileges in prison. “Even if you are president of the Re- public, even if you are a very rich man, you decide nothing.” — The Associated Press NEWS I WORLD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2025 Minn. woman who cast dead mother’s ballot for Trump must write essay on voting JACK DURA A MINNESOTA woman convicted of filling out and submitting a mail-in bal- lot for her deceased mother in support of Republican Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential election was or- dered by a judge to write an essay and read a book about voting’s importance to democracy. Trump, who won a second term last year, has railed against mail-in voting as fraudulent and falsely claimed it as one reason he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Itasca County At- torney Jake Fauchald said the Minne- sota case shows how well the election system works and catches attempted voter fraud. Danielle Christine Miller, 51, of Nash- wauk, in a rural area about three hours north of Minneapolis, was charged last fall with three felonies after local election officials notified authorities in October about two absentee ballots that had been flagged for fraud. One of those was from a registered voter who had died, Miller’s mother. According to court papers, Miller told an investigator that she had filled out her mother’s absentee ballot and signed her mother’s name on its signature en- velope. She said her mother was an avid Trump supporter and wanted to vote for him, but she died in August 2024 before receiving an absentee ballot, according to the complaint. Miller also said she signed her mother’s signature as a wit- ness on her own ballot, the document said. Miller pleaded guilty last week to intentionally making or signing a false certificate. As part her plea, she claimed she was intoxicated when sub- mitting the mail ballots and was unable to precisely remember what she did, but agreed that the evidence could find her guilty, Fauchald said. A message left for Miller’s attorney was not immediately returned. Minnesota Ninth Judicial District Judge Heidi Chandler on Wednesday dismissed the other two charges. Mil- ler’s sentence includes up to three years of supervised probation and an $885 fine. The judge also imposed some other unorthodox conditions. Miller must read a book about the his- tory of voting in America and current related issues, Thank You for Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, Inspir- ing Truth About Voting in America, by Erin Geiger Smith; and she was ordered to write a 10-page paper “regarding the importance in voting in a democracy and how election fraud can undermine the voting process.” Fauchald said the sentence is a fair outcome. He called the paper a unique aspect of sentencing, but a fair expect- ation. — The Associated Press Myanmar military raids major cybercrime centre BANGKOK — Myanmar’s military has shut down a major online scam oper- ation near the border with Thailand, detaining more than 2,000 people and seizing dozens of Starlink satellite in- ternet terminals, state media reported Monday. Myanmar is notorious for hosting cyberscam operations responsible for bilking people all over the world. These usually involve gaining victims’ confi- dence online with romantic ploys and bogus investment pitches. The centres are infamous for re- cruiting workers from other countries under false pretences, promising them legitimate jobs and then holding them captive and forcing them to carry out criminal activities. Scam operations were in the inter- national spotlight last week when the United States and Britain enacted sanc- tions against organizers of a major Cambodian cyberscam gang, and its alleged ringleader was indicted by a federal court in New York. According to a report in Monday’s Myanma Alinn newspaper, the army raided KK Park, a well-documented cybercrime centre, as part of oper- ations starting in early September to suppress online fraud, illegal gambling, and cross-border cybercrime. It published photos displaying seized Starlink equipment and soldiers said to be carrying out the raid, though it was unclear when exactly they were taken. KK Park is located on the outskirts of Myawaddy, a major trading town on the border with Thailand in Myanmar’s Kayin state. The area is only loosely under the control of Myanmar’s military government, and also falls under the in- fluence of ethnic minority militias. There have been previous crack- downs on cyberscam operations in My- anmar earlier this year and in 2023. — The Associated Press EMMA DA SILVA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Police patrol at the Louvre museum the day after Sunday’s jewels robbery in Paris. Former French president set to start serving five-year prison sentence JEFFREY SCHAEFFER AND NICOLAS GARRIGA Louvre remains closed one day after jewel heist SYLVIE CORBET Police hunt thieves as France reassesses security at museums, culture sites CHRISTOPHE ENA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Nicolas Sarkozy leaves a Paris court Sept. 25 after being sentenced to fiv years in prison. U.S. nuclear security furloughs workers as part of shutdown MATTHEW DALY WASHINGTON — The federal agency tasked with overseeing the U.S. nucle- ar stockpile has begun furloughing employees as part of the ongoing fed- eral government shutdown, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Monday. In a visit to Nevada, Wright said the National Nuclear Security Admin- istration is furloughing 1,400 feder- al workers as part of the shutdown, which began Oct. 1. Nearly 400 federal workers will remain on the job, along with thousands of NNSA contractors, the Energy Department said. The NNSA, a semi-autonomous branch of the Energy Department, also works to secure nuclear materials around the world. “Tough day today,” Wright said in Las Vegas before a scheduled visit to the Nevada National Security Site in Mercury, Nev. “We’re working hard to protect everyone’s jobs and keep our national stockpile secure,” Wright said. The furloughs do not pose an im- mediate threat to national security, Wright said, adding: “We have emer- gency employees and the current nu- clear stockpile is safe.” President Donald Trump’s Republic- an administration fired hundreds of NNSA employees earlier this year, be- fore reversing course amid criticism the action could jeopardize national security. Similar criticism emerged Monday after Wright’s announcement. Wright said the disruption would af- fect employees and their families and will delay testing of commercial react- ors, including some small modular re- actors that the Trump administration has pushed as a cheaper alternative to costly nuclear plants that can take years or even decades to bring online. “These are jobs of great gravity,” Wright said, urging congressional leaders to reopen the government as soon as possible. Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Mas- sachusetts said it was “dangerously unacceptable that the Trump adminis- tration claims it will have to tempor- arily suspend certain nuclear security programs because of the ongoing gov- ernment shutdown.” “There is no justification for relax- ing security and oversight when it comes to our nuclear stockpile,” Mar- key said. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said lawmakers were informed of the pend- ing furloughs late last week. “These are not employees that you want to go home,” he said at a news conference Friday. “They’re manag- ing and handling a very important strategic asset for us. They need to be at work and being paid.” Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the furloughs unacceptable. “We cannot allow delays or interrup- tions to our nuclear programs during this shutdown. This is not a partisan issue, and for the sake of our nation- al security” Congress should immedi- ately reopen the government, Wicker said in a statement. “In the interim, it is incumbent upon Secretary Wright to work with Congress, OMB and the White House to ensure our nuclear weapons stockpile remains safe, se- cure and capable of deterring our ad- versaries.” At the heart of the government shutdown are looming health insur- ance spikes for millions of people. Democrats are seeking negotiations on expiring health care subsidies while Republicans say they won’t discuss it, or any other policy, until the govern- ment reopens. The February firings, which initially included NNSA workers, were part of a massive purge of federal workers led by then-Trump adviser Elon Musk and his Department of Government Effi- ciency. One of the hardest-hit offices at the time was the Pantex Plant near Ama- rillo, Texas. Those employees work on reassembling warheads, among the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise, with the highest levels of clearance. Employees received furlough notices dated Sunday for 30 days or less, with an expiration date of Nov. 18. Employ- ees who are not involved in performing critical functions such as those related to the safety of human life and the pro- tection of property or working on the orderly suspension of operations were being placed in a furlough status with- out pay. — The Associated Press ;