French general in charge of Notre-Dame rebuild dies in mountain fall

Body of former chief of defense staff Jean-Louis Georgelin, 74, found on Mount Valier in Pyrénées

The French army general appointed by Emmanuel Macron to oversee the reconstruction of the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral has died while hiking in the Pyrénées.

Mountain gendarmes discovered the body of Jean-Louis Georgelin, 74, the former chief of the defense staff, after he failed to return to a mountain refuge on Friday.

He is believed to have fallen on Mount Valier, near the Faustin pass in the Ariège, south-east France, at an altitude of 2,650 metres.

The public prosecutor’s office in Foix confirmed on Saturday the body had been formally identified and that the death was being treated as an accident.

Macron tweeted on Saturday: “With the death of General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the nation has lost one of its great soldiers, France one of its great servants and Notre-Dame the master manager of its renaissance.”

Georgelin, a graduate of France’s elite Saint-Cyr military academy, first joined the infantry then a parachute regiment before returning to the infantry. He also trained at the US Army Command and General Staff college, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; served in Algeria, Lebanon and Bosnia; and oversaw French military operations in Ivory Coast and Afghanistan.

He was the military chief of staff and special adviser to the then French president Jacques Chirac from 2002–06.

A practicing Catholic, he was nominated to take charge of the restoration of Notre-Dame after it was damaged by fire in April 2019. In the aftermath, Macron had made what many saw as an overly optimistic pledge to rebuild the cathedral in five years.

Georgelin said: “It’s not abnormal to choose a Catholic for such a mission. My role is to return the cathedral to the Catholic religion in the best possible conditions.”

People of “all persuasions” in France had wept to see the Paris landmark burn, he said.

The general took a military approach to the job, designating himself as chief of operations of a Notre-Dame “taskforce” and reportedly adopting the motto: “Advance without procrastination”.

He was known as a plain speaker. In 2019, the government rebuked Georgelin after he told the Notre-Dame reconstruction’s chief architect, Philippe Villeneuve, to “shut his mouth” in a dispute over whether to replace the spire with an exact replica or a modern alternative.

The culture minister, Franck Riester, described Georgelin’s outburst as “not acceptable”, adding: “Respect is a cardinal value in our society. As public officials, we must be exemplary.”

Georgelin dismissed the incident, insisting there had been no quarrel just “respect and reciprocal esteem”.

French general in charge of Notre-Dame rebuild dies in mountain fall (theguardian.com)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/french-general-in-charge-of-notre-dame-cathedral-rebuild-dies-in-mountain-fall

Spotless giraffe, thought to be only one in world, born at Tennessee zoo

Brights zoo hopes publicity around unnamed female, who lacks distinctive patches, will draw attention to plight of giraffes in wild

Oliver Milman

Mon 21 Aug 2023 14.12 EDT

One of the rarest sights in the animal kingdom has appeared in the unlikely setting of a Tennessee zoo, which has hosted the birth of what is thought to be the world’s only singularly colored giraffe.

The female giraffe, born on 31 July, is a uniform brown color, lacking the distinctive patched pattern that giraffes – along with their exceptionally long necks – are known for. Brights zoo said the giraffe is already 6ft tall and is under the care of her mother and zoo staff.

The zoo believes the giraffe is one of a kind, given that giraffes are very rarely born without their mottled appearance, which primarily serves as a form of camouflage in the wild.

The skin under the spots also has a system of blood vessels that allows giraffes to release heat through the center of each patch, providing a form of thermal regulation.

Each giraffe – apart from the Tennessee newcomer – has a unique pattern of patches, with researchers believing that these patterns are inherited from their mothers.

Brights zoo said it hoped the unusual birth would help highlight the challenges faced by giraffes in the world. The world’s tallest animal is threatened by the fragmentation of its habitat in Africa, as well as from illicit poaching.

“The international coverage of our patternless baby giraffe has created a much-needed spotlight on giraffe conservation,” the founder of Brights zoo, Tony Bright, said to the local television news station WCYB. “Wild populations are silently slipping into extinction, with 40% of the wild giraffe population lost in just the last three decades.”

The zoo has announced a contest for the public to name the new giraffe. The shortlisted options are Kipekee, which means “unique” in Swahili; Firayali, which means unusual; Shakiri, which means “she is most beautiful”; and Jamella, which is “one of great beauty."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/21/spotless-giraffe-tennessee-zoo