Pele added to dictionary

Brazil’s Michaelis dictionary lists the late football icon as a synonym for greatness

Brazilian football legend Pele has been added posthumously to the latest edition of the Portuguese-language Michaelis dictionary. Pele, the entry reads, is an adjective describing someone or something whose “superiority cannot be equaled.”

The addition was announced on Wednesday by the Pele Foundation, which had led a campaign to enshrine the sporting icon’s name in Brazil’s most popular dictionary. In less than a month, a petition circulated by the foundation gathered more than 125,000 signatures.

The definition of ‘Pele’ reads: “Something or someone who is out of the ordinary, something or someone who by virtue of their quality, value or superiority cannot be equaled to anything or anyone, just like Pele, nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022), considered to be the greatest athlete of all time; exceptional, incomparable, unique.”

“Examples: He is the Pele of basketball, she is the Pele of tennis, she is the Pele of Brazilian dramaturgy.”

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The only player to have won the World Cup three times, Pele is widely considered to be the best footballer in history. Over a two-decade career, Pele scored a record 1,281 goals with the Brazilian national team, Brazilian club Santos, and the New York Cosmos. After his sporting career was over, Pele was appointed a UN ambassador for ecology and the environment in 1992 and an UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 1994.

He passed away in Sao Paulo in December aged 82, after a battle with colon cancer.

“His name in the dictionary is a very important piece of his legacy that will keep Pele alive forever,” Joe Fraga, executive director of the Pele Foundation, said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Protesters face prison for flipping off Macron

Three demonstrators are charged with contempt of a person holding public authority and could be jailed for a year

Three protesters from the commune of Selestat face criminal charges after making obscene gestures at French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to the town last Wednesday. The trio have pleaded guilty to contempt of a person holding public authority, prosecutor Catherine Sorita-Minard of the town of Colmar announced on Saturday.

For giving their leader “le doigt” – the middle finger – the two men and a woman may be punished with up to a year in prison and €15,000 fine. The protestors, none of whom have any criminal history, are between the ages of 23 and 42. They will go to trial in September. A fourth person was also arrested but has not been charged due to insufficient evidence, Sorita-Minard said. 

Macron has faced strong opposition as he travels the country trying to convince his constituents of the merits of the pension reform package he signed into law earlier this month in the face of opposition from two thirds of the electorate. The law raises the retirement age by two years and extends the period of employment necessary to receive a full pension.  

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Protesters banging on pots and pans have drowned out the president’s speeches at appearances throughout the Alsace region. Police in the village of Ganges actually confiscated saucepans from the backpacks of demonstrators, declaring them forbidden “portable sound devices” based on a regulation hurriedly passed just hours before Macron arrived, and the president has reportedly been forced to travel with a generator truck due to unions shutting off power to the areas where he is speaking.  

Last month, a Yellow Vest protester from St. Martin with no criminal history was charged with contempt of a person holding public authority for allegedly writing “Macron ordure” (Macron trash) on a wall in Arques and referring to the president as trash in a social media post. Last week, French publisher Ernest Moret was arrested on anti-terrorism charges upon his arrival in London for his alleged involvement in protests at home. 

Macron’s approval ratings hit rock bottom last week, with just 26% of respondents to a BVA poll for RTL voicing a favorable opinion of the president. He has nevertheless vowed not to back down on pension reform, ordering his government to “restore peace” over the next 100 days. At the same time, the protesters have vowed to stand their ground, promising “100 days of action and anger” and threatening to cut the power to major events such as the Cannes film festival and the Monaco Grand Prix.