Plane, fire truck collide on runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport

(The Center Square) – A majority of American voters favor guardrails on K-12 political activism during school hours and say students should remain focused on academics, according to a new poll. 

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found 58% of voters support limits on activism during school hours, and 39% say schools should focus strictly on academics and avoid activism altogether during the school day.

The poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights between March 2–5, 2026, surveyed 2,659 registered voters, including 1,177 Republicans, 1,270 Democrats and 773 Independents, of whom 330 do not lean toward either major party. It is among the most comprehensive tracking polls in the country.

The poll was weighted by party affiliation, age, region, gender, education and race/ethnicity.

The issue breaks along party lines. Among voters who supported former President Donald Trump, 71% favor clear limits on school activism, compared with 35% of voters who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Joe Biden. 

Among true independents, about 69% support some form of limits. Only 10% of all respondents support allowing full activism during school hours.

Parents with children in school were especially supportive of limits, with majorities favoring guardrails during instructional hours. Older voters were also more likely than younger voters to support stricter limits.

Mike Noble, founder of Noble Predictive Insights, said the issue shows a clear consensus among voters.

“This activism issue seems like one of those no-brainer issues,” Noble said. “Very few people support having no guardrails.”

As activism on K-12 campuses has increased, the group Defending Education has begun tracking student walkouts and protests nationwide. The organization reports 307 protests or walkouts so far in 2026, compared with 46 in 2025.

“By allowing these protests, school leaders are increasing the chance of harm befalling students and decreasing much-needed instructional time in the classroom,” Rhyen Staley, research director at Defending Education, said. “Administrators need to put an end to these acts of ‘civil disobedience’ before they lose complete control.”

The Center Square reached out to teacher unions for comment, but has not received a response.

The poll’s margin of error is +/- 1.9%.

A long-awaited trial into Greece's worst train tragedy was adjourned to April 1 after starting on Monday amid chaotic scenes in a courtroom too small to handle the huge interest in the case, officials said.

Hundreds of people turned up for the trial into the 2023 train collision that left 57 dead, leading to angry complaints from lawyers that the venue was "insultingly" unsuitable, and booing from family relatives.

A prominent member of the association of victims' families, Maria Karystianou, told reporters that relatives had been "packed like sardines".

She said it was "an absolute disgrace and contempt" towards victims' families.

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis insisted that the venue chosen, a remodelled university lecture hall in the central city of Larissa, was one of the two biggest courtrooms in Greece.

Marinakis told reporters that the hall had seating for over 460 people and blamed the issue on a higher-than-expected number of observers.

Thirty-six people face charges and over 350 witnesses are due to be heard at the trial.

It is being conducted around 30 kilometres (nearly 20 miles) from the spot near Tempe, central Greece, where a freight train and a passenger train smashed into each other on February 28, 2023.

Among those to testify are survivors and family members of the victims, some of whom are believed to have burned to death after surviving the initial collision. 

Most of the dead were students returning from a carnival weekend.

"This trial is starting with great delay... What we want is exemplary punishment of those responsible," Pavlos Aslanidis, whose 26-year-old son died in the accident and who heads the Association of Victims' Families, told reporters before the start of the trial.

- 'Burned alive' -

Karystianou, a paediatrician who led the association for years, and is now planning to launch a political party, said no investigation was carried out into how her daughter "burned alive".

She called the trial "stunted".

"We want the truth to come out," she said outside court on Monday.

The accused include the station master on duty on the night of the accident, other railway officials and two Italian former employees of the trains' parent company, Ferrovie dello Stato.

The two trains had run on the same track for more than 10 minutes without triggering an alarm.

The head-on collision exposed the parlous state of the Greek railway network's safety precautions -- despite European Union grants for their modernisation and repeated warnings from unions. 

"This trial clearly demonstrates all the corruption of the Greek state, the corruption that killed our children," Christos Vlahos, a parent of one of the victims said outside court.

The trial is expected to last several years.

Thirty-three of the defendants face criminal charges and risk prison sentences of up to life imprisonment. 

None of the accused are currently in prison, although some have served time in pre-trial detention.

The head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, Laura Kovesi, said the collision could have been avoided if the signalling system had been modernised in time using EU funds.

Train workers were staging a 24-hour strike on Monday in what their union called "an act of collective remembrance, protest and democratic vigilance".

- 'Killed our people' -

The accident - now commonly known as the "Tempe crime" -- sparked widespread anger that has never subsided. 

Tens of thousands of people joined protests nationwide to mark the accident's third anniversary last month.

The accused include the duty station master, Vassilios Samaras, who was arrested the day after the collision, and two other station masters who had left their posts before the end of their shift. 

They are accused of having committed "acts dangerous to the safety of railway traffic... resulting in the death of a large number of people and serious bodily injuries to a large number of people," according to the indictment seen by AFP.

Managers and employees of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE), the rail network operator, are also on trial, as well as two senior transport ministry officials and two Italian executives from Hellenic Train, a subsidiary of the Italian state's Ferrovie dello Stato. 

No political official will be in the dock.

This has fuelled resentment at a time when the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is already facing fierce criticism for what is widely seen as a disastrous handling of the accident.

There are also claims by the opposition and civil society that officials are shielding those responsible.

Communist party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas told reporters on Monday the investigation was closed "hurriedly", leaving "huge gaps" in the case.

He called it a "blatant cover-up".

Two former ministers, including ex-transport minister Kostas Karamanlis were also referred to justice by parliament but face only misdemeanour charges at present.

"There are people who should be here as defendants, such as Kostas Karamanlis, who killed our people," said Aslanidis.

Valuable evidence was also lost when, just days after the collision, a bulldozer levelled the site. 

Despite the disaster, Mitsotakis comfortably won re-election just months later and went on to defeat two parliamentary votes of no-confidence on the issue.

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The Mizzou gymnastics team will find out its NCAA Championships regional destination Monday, and the program is inviting fans to join it for a watch party.

The event is set for 11 a.m. Monday at the Columns Club at Memorial Stadium, with doors opening at 10:30 a.m.

The four sites for regionals that will take place April 1-5 are Lexington, Kentucky; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Tempe, Arizona; and Corvallis, Oregon.

The NCAA Championships take place April 16 and 18 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The No. 8 Tigers are coming off a sixth-place finish in the SEC Championships on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The stacked league dominates the national rankings, with teams in seven of the top nine spots. No. 3 Florida won the event in Tulsa, with No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 LSU, No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Georgia also finishing ahead of the Tigers, in that order.

The NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships selection show airs at 11 a.m. Monday on ESPNU.

A German top court on Monday rejected a landmark climate case brought by environmentalists that had aimed to force auto giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz to stop selling combustion-engine cars from 2030.

The case at the Federal Court of Justice was brought by campaigners of the group Environmental Action Germany (DUH), and marked the latest example of activists turning to the judiciary to enforce climate action.

The plaintiffs built their case on a landmark 2021 ruling by Germany's Constitutional Court that the state has a duty to protect future generations from the effects of climate change and sought to apply the principle to companies.

But handing down its ruling, Germany's highest court for civil and criminal matters rejected DUH's arguments. It found that citizens' personal rights were "not affected... by the business activities of the defendant," in a decision that upheld rulings by lower courts.

"Private individuals cannot demand that automobile manufacturers refrain from placing passenger cars with internal combustion engines on the market" ahead of European Union deadlines, it said.

The DUH case demanded a 2030 phase-out of fossil fuel-powered cars -- five years earlier than the target year in a European Union plan that was last year watered down after intense lobbying by automakers.

DUH executive director Barbara Metz said the decision did not "absolve Mercedes-Benz and BMW of their responsibility for the climate crisis, which stems from their sale of millions of internal combustion engine vehicles in order to maximise profits".

But she said the court had made it clear that responsibility for action lies with the federal government, and called on Chancellor Friedrich Merz to step up action to protect the climate.

The DUH said it was also considering whether to file an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

- Activists turning to courts -

Mercedes welcomed the ruling for providing "a clarification of our democratic system".

"Setting legal requirements for climate targets is the responsibility of the legislature, not the judiciary," said the group in a statement, adding that climate protection remained a key consideration.

BMW added that the decision contributed to "legal certainty for companies operating in Germany". 

"Throughout the proceedings, we have consistently maintained the position that the debate over how to achieve climate targets must take place within the political process through democratically elected parliaments," the group added in a statement. 

The legal action is part of a wider trend of climate activists turning to courts.

Campaigners celebrated last May after a regional court in northern Germany ruled that companies could in principle be sued over the consequences of their emissions.

However, the court did not award damages to a Peruvian farmer, Saul Luciano Lliuya, who had brought the case against utility firm RWE.

The case against the carmakers was passed up to the Federal Court of Justice on appeal after lower courts in Stuttgart and Munich ruled in favour of the firms, finding they had complied with relevant regulations.

German carmakers have invested billions in the transition to electric and hybrid vehicles in a bid to meet EU climate targets.

But progress has been slowed by lower than anticipated demand, with many consumers put off by higher upfront costs and still patchy charging infrastructure.

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(The Center Square) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing a proposal that would let publicly traded companies report earnings twice a year instead of quarterly.

It is a change that supporters say could reduce pressure to make short-term decisions.

President Donald Trump and SEC Chairman Paul Atkins support the idea. They argue that quarterly reporting can push companies to prioritize near-term results over long-term growth.

Critics argue that less frequent reporting could reduce transparency for investors and limit insight into company performance.

A study from the McKinsey Global Institute found 87% of executives said short-term pressure has increased, while 65% said they would delay a positive investment to meet quarterly targets. The same report found that more than 40% of companies that miss earnings estimates still see their stock prices rise.

The European Union and the United Kingdom eliminated mandatory quarterly reporting about a decade ago. A CFA Institute study found no harm to corporate investment. Additionally, many companies continued reporting quarterly voluntarily.

The issue has surfaced in corporate disputes, including a conflict involving CoStar Group and its residential listings platform, Homes.com.

Hedge funds Third Point and D.E. Shaw have pushed CoStar to shut down Homes.com, a platform built to compete with Zillow.

Antitrust scholar Hal Singer said D.E. Shaw holds about $204 million across Zillow, Opendoor, Rocket/Redfin, Compass, and Anywhere Real Estate. Meanwhile, he said Third Point held roughly $184 million in Redfin’s parent company. He said neither disclosed those stakes in letters to CoStar’s board.

Singer added that D.E. Shaw owns just 0.22% of CoStar’s stock but holds about four times that value in CoStar’s competitors.

The consumer impact is also part of the debate. 

Zillow routes buyers away from listing agents and collects referral fees of up to 40%. Meanwhile, Homes.com connects buyers directly to the listing agent with no fees.

The Federal Trade Commission has sued Zillow and Redfin over an alleged $100 million deal to suppress rental listing competition.

Supporters of the SEC proposal argue that quarterly cycles can increase pressure from activist investors seeking short-term gains. 

Performance data for hedge funds has also drawn scrutiny. Third Point’s flagship Offshore Fund has underperformed the Russell 3000 in nine of the past 10 years, while D.E. Shaw’s Composite Fund has underperformed in seven of the last 10.

The SEC has not released full details of the proposal. The idea will likely draw input from investors, companies, and policymakers.

Former French prime minister Lionel Jospin, a Socialist who introduced the 35-hour work week and civil partnerships for gay couples, has died aged 88, his family said on Monday.

Jospin -- who was head of government from 1997 to 2002 before being overtaken by the far right in presidential polls -- died on Sunday, they told AFP.

He had said he had a "serious operation" and had returned home to rest in January, without providing details.

To supporters, Jospin was honest and strait-laced. To his critics, he was a colourless technocrat.

He paid a high price for his lack of pizzazz when he ran for president in 2002.

A former economics professor, Jospin cast himself as a clean pair of hands compared to his conservative rival, the corruption-tainted but chummy and charismatic Jacques Chirac.

But far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen beat him to the second round and Socialist voters ultimately rallied around Chirac in the runoff vote.

Jospin's defeat by Le Pen -- the father of current far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen -- prompted him to announce his retirement from politics.

- 'From a simple background' -

While the bespectacled intellectual with a crown of white curls was credited with being an effective prime minister, his lack of rapport with the public always made him an unlikely father of the nation.

Born on July 12, 1937, in the Paris suburb of Meudon to a middle-class Protestant family, Jospin joined the Scouts as a teenager and was a keen basketball player.

"I come from a simple background. I have absolutely no desire to belong to a sort of 'upper class'," he said in later years.

As a politics student, he opposed France's war with independence fighters in Algeria and flirted with Trotskyism.

But like generations of business and political leaders before and after, he studied at the elite National School of Administration (ENA).

Jospin began his career at the foreign ministry and also worked as an academic before joining Francois Mitterrand to try to reform the Socialist Party.

After Mitterrand's landmark election as France's first Socialist president in 1981, his trusted adviser took over the party leadership.

Jospin was elected to parliament twice, representing the working-class 18th district of Paris and later the southwestern Haute-Garonne region.

In 1988, he became education minister in the government of reformist prime minister Michel Rocard, setting up seven new universities within four years.

But as accusations of corruption and dirty tricks against Mitterrand began to mount, his relations with the president became more distant.

Bidding to succeed his former mentor in 1995, Jospin shocked many Socialists by claiming a "right of inventory" over Mitterrand's legacy -- a right to reassess a record that loyalists deemed sacrosanct.

That year, he narrowly lost the presidential election to Chirac.

Two years later, though, Jospin won a revenge of sorts when the cocky Chirac called an early general election, expecting his right-wing RPR party -- forerunner of Nicolas Sarkozy's Republicans -- to win easily.

The Socialists stole the day, ushering in five years of uneasy "cohabitation" between Chirac as president and Jospin at the helm of government.

Jospin, who has two children with his first wife, also remarried that year, to feminist philosopher Sylviane Agacinski.

- 'Courage' -

President Emmanuel Macron praised Jospin on X for his "rigour, his courage and his ideal of progress".

As prime minister, he charted a pragmatic economic course and sought to stamp out corruption, appointing only scandal-free ministers to his team.

He brought down unemployment and revived growth, but it was his social reforms that defined his tenure.

Apart from chopping four hours off the working week, he introduced civil unions -- laying the ground for a gay marriage bill that was adopted over a decade later, despite mass protests.

But Jospin tripped up in his 2002 presidential rematch against Chirac, making a number of gaffes, including a swipe at his opponent's age that was seen as below the belt.

In the end he trailed in third place behind Chirac and Le Pen, in one of the biggest political upsets in post-war France.

"I assume full responsibility for this defeat," an ashen-faced Jospin announced, bowing out of politics to howls of dismay from supporters.

He later blamed his demise on the failure of other left-wing factions to support his bid, splitting the vote.

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France's World Cup-winning striker Antoine Griezmann is to hold talks with Major League Soccer's Orlando City, having been permitted by his present side Atletico Madrid to go to the US during the international break, a source close to the player told AFP.

Should both parties agree a deal, the 35-year-old would move to Orlando this summer after seeing out the present campaign with the La Liga outfit.

Griezmann "has been authorised by his club to travel to Orlando during his days off in order to make progress in the discussions linked to his future," said the source on Monday.

A move to the MLS has been rumoured for years, with the 2018 World Cup winner known to be an admirer of other American sports leagues such as the NBA and NFL.

Atletico had shut the door on their all-time record goalscorer -- he has scored 211 goals over two spells -- moving this season with the MLS transfer window opening on March 26.

Griezmann, who also played in the 2022 World Cup final defeat by Argentina, retired from the French national side in 2024 having made 137 appearances, scoring 44 goals.

Griezmann signed an extension last year to his present contract, taking him up to June 2027, but is no longer an automatic first choice for Atletico.

Despite falling down the pecking order he has scored 13 times this season and can entertain hopes of ending his time with Atletico with one last hurrah.

They play Real Sociedad, the club he began his professional career with, in the final of the Copa del Rey on April 18, just after facing Barcelona in their two-legged Champions League quarter-final.

Griezmann inspired Atletico in his first spell to 2018 Europa League glory, but missed out on the biggest prizes, losing in the 2016 Champions League final and finishing runners-up in the title race in 2018 and 2019.

Orlando are badly in need of a cutting edge up front as in the present MLS campaign they have won just one of their five matches, losing the other four.

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The world faces an energy crisis worse than both 1970s oil shocks combined if the Middle East war drags on, the head of the International Energy Agency warned Monday, as Israel launched fresh strikes on Tehran and threatened weeks more fighting.

As the war grinds into its fourth week, US President Donald Trump threatened to "obliterate" Iranian power plants if Iran failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours -- setting an effective deadline of 23:44 GMT Monday.

Tehran has retaliated against US-Israeli assaults by throttling traffic in the vital waterway, conduit for a fifth of global crude oil, hitting energy sites and US embassies across the Gulf as well as firing missiles and drones at Israel.

The Islamic republic issued a firm response to the new ultimatum, with powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf vowing vital infrastructure across the region will be "irreversibly destroyed" if Trump acts on his threat.

In a stark warning over what lies ahead unless the fighting ends soon, IEA chief Fatih Birol said the world was losing more oil each day than the combined impact of both 1970s oil shocks and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"This crisis as things stand is now two oil crises and one gas crash put all together," Birol said. 

"No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction."

At least 40 energy assets across the oil- and gas-exporting region have already been "severely or very severely damaged", Birol said, with oil prices driven above $100 a barrel over supply fears.

In recent days, Iran has allowed a handful of vessels from countries it considers friendly to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, but warned it would block ships from nations joining the "aggression" against it.

Oil prices rose again Monday while stocks tumbled after Trump and Iranian leaders traded threats -- and Israel said the Middle East war could last several more weeks.

Further sign of the real-world impact far beyond the region, a major Cambodian energy supplier said it would halt sales of liquefied petroleum gas due to war-linked supply disruptions.

- 'Weeks' more fighting -

Weighing in from Beijing, China's foreign ministry warned in response to Trump's latest threats that further fighting risks creating an "uncontrollable situation" in the Middle East.

But the US leader has offered varying timelines and objectives for the war, saying Friday he was considering "winding down" the operation -- only to later threaten Iran's power plants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken of a long-term campaign against Iran's government, a state sponsor of Hamas, which launched the October 7, 2023 attack against Israel, triggering the war in Gaza.

Israel launched fresh strikes Monday at Iran on Monday, with an AFP journalist witnessing a thick column of black smoke rising above Tehran, while Israel's military urged people to take over as it worked to intercept missiles fired from Iran.

Israel has also expanded its ground campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning of a "weeks of fighting" in the country.

The violence in Lebanon has killed more than 1,000 people, according to the health ministry, with more than a million displaced.

Israeli forces were given orders to destroy bridges they said were used by Hezbollah to cross the key Litani river, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the border -- in what Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called "a dangerous escalation" seen as a prelude to a ground invasion.

- Iran takes toll in Israel -

Israel prides itself on its air defences, and Trump and Netanyahu both claim to have knocked out key Iranian military sites.

But Iranian missiles evaded the defences over the weekend to land in two southern towns, including Dimona, close to Israel's desert nuclear facility, injuring dozens on Saturday.

"We thought we were safe," Galit Amir, a 50-year-old care provider, told AFP in Dimona. "We didn't expect this."

According to rescuers, a missile landed about five kilometres from what is widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal -- although Israel has never admitted to possessing nuclear weapons, insisting the site is for research.

Iran said it was retaliating against a hit on its own nuclear site at Natanz, but Israel's military said it was "not aware of a strike".

In Iran, at least 3,230 people have died in the war, including 1,406 civilians, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. AFP is not able to access the sites of strikes nor independently verify tolls in Iran.

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A plane carrying dozens of people collided with a fire truck late Sunday on a runway at New York's LaGuardia airport, forcing a halt to flights at the transport hub, authorities said.

AFP pictures showed the heavily damaged nose and cockpit section of the Air Canada Express plane, which had arrived from Montreal, on the tarmac flanked by emergency vehicles with their lights flashing.

Authorities have not released information about whether any of the fire crew or the 76 people thought to be onboard the plane were injured.

The aircraft operated by Jazz Aviation, a regional partner of Air Canada, struck a firefighting vehicle on Runway 4 at around 11:40 pm on Sunday (0340 GMT Monday) as it responded to a separate incident, New York's port authority said.

A preliminary passenger list showed the 76 people onboard included four crew members, Jazz Aviation said in a statement.

US aviation authorities ordered all flights at the airport to be grounded, adding there was a "high" likelihood of an extended suspension.

"The airport is currently closed to facilitate the response and allow for a thorough investigation," the port authority said in a statement to AFP.

Emergency response protocols had been "immediately activated," it said.

Jazz Aviation said the crash involved a CRJ-900 aircraft that had flown into LaGuardia from Montreal as flight AC8646.

Flight tracking platform FlightRadar24 said the plane "was rolling down the runway when it struck" the rescue vehicle as it crossed its path.

New York's emergency management authority warned people to "expect cancellations, road closures, traffic delays & emergency personnel," and use alternate routes near the airport.

LaGuardia had already been suffering from flight disruptions due to poor weather, the airport said Sunday on X.

Passengers were also waiting longer to pass security due to "staffing impacts" from a federal funding lapse, it said last week.

Located in the New York borough of Queens, LaGuardia is New York's third-busiest airport, serving 33.5 million passengers in 2024, according to port authority figures.

It completed an $8 billion redevelopment in 2024, upgrading its aging infrastructure with new terminals and roadways.

Several fatal aviation incidents have occurred in the United States in recent months, including a collision between a passenger jet and an army helicopter near Washington in January last year that killed 67 people.

Other incidents and close calls have taken place while aircraft have been on the ground.

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Russia is pushing its Max messenger -- a social media platform without encryption -- onto its citizens with a massive promotion campaign and the simultaneous blocking of Whatsapp and Telegram, the country's two most popular messenger apps.

The rollout has raised concerns among critics and digital rights groups that Moscow will use Max to surveil its citizens and further cut digital links to the West.

"Any data that passes through this application can be considered to be in the hands of its owner, and in this case, the hands of the Russian state," cybersecurity researcher Baptiste Robert, CEO of the French company Predicta Lab, told AFP.

Launched in 2025 by Russian social media giant VK, the app has been compared to China's WeChat, combining social media and messaging functions with access to government services, a digital ID card system, banking and payments.

It is not officially mandatory, but the authorities are making it clear that life without Max will become increasingly hard.

President Vladimir Putin has touted it as a more "secure" platform that meets Russia's demand for "technological sovereignty."

Moscow has been pushing that agenda for years.

"This is the culmination of policies aimed at creating a sovereign internet," Marielle Wijermars, an associate professor of internet governance at Maastricht University told AFP.

"Russia wants to restructure the internet to better control what is published" including "by migrating all Russians to platforms that are more state-controlled," she added.

- 'Forced' to download -

Max has been pre-installed on phones and tablets sold in Russia since September.

The design is familiar and resembles Telegram, offering private messages, public channels and cute stickers.

Unlike Telegram and Whatsapp, it is also on Russia's "white list" of approved digital services that stay online during the increasingly common forced internet blackouts that Moscow says are necessary to thwart Ukrainian retaliatory drone attacks.

Initially only available to users with a Russian or Belarusian SIM card, the app is now available in English and to those with phone numbers from 40 other countries -- only those Russia deems "friendly," like Cuba, Pakistan and ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia.

It is not available in the European Union -- or Ukraine. 

That has not stopped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowing to infiltrate the messenger.

One of the reasons Russia wants to ditch Telegram is because it has become a platform used by Ukraine to recruit Russians for sabotage attacks, including assassinations.

Inside Russia, opinions are split.

"You can send messages, photos and videos. What more do you need?" said Yekaterina, a 35-year-old dance teacher.

Irina, a 45-year-old doctor, however, complained she has been "forced" to use Max for school activities for her children and to access the government's official online portal, Gosuslugi, where her patients make appointments.

She plans to "buy another SIM card to download Max on another phone."

Large businesses have been accused of forcing employees to download the app and schools have migrated all communication with parents to the platform.

At the same time, celebrities and popular bloggers are moving their content to Max.

Dmitry Zakharchenko, founder of the Russian analytics agency GRFN, has compared the "aggressive" campaign with Soviet propaganda billboards.

The carrot-and-stick approach has driven downloads -- more than 100 million users in March, according to the service.

- 'Being watched' -

The launch of Max comes years into Russia's political and technological campaign to develop a "sovereign internet", less reliant on -- and vulnerable to -- foreign services.

Russian telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor and the security services have enjoyed growing powers to monitor and block sites they deem dangerous.

Unlike Telegram and Whatsapp, Max does not use end-to-end encryption and its terms of use state that user data is stored exclusively on services in Russia.

Varvara, a 35-year-old interpreter said she was not worried about that as she was not a "foreign agent" and had nothing to hide -- referring to a label used by the Kremlin to target critics.

Even so, she has ditched Max in favour of IMO, a less popular US-made app that has encryption.

Scientist Alexandra, 32, refuses to download Max "out of contrariness" to its heavy-handed promotion.

"We're already being watched everywhere," she added, dismissing the privacy concerns.

But another resistant user -- Natasha, 48 -- shows the general feeling of resignation when it comes to the future of the app in Russia.

"Sooner or later, there will be no alternative."

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