VERS L'URGENCE DE LA PROTECTION

 DE LA HAUTE MER

Les océans sont l’un des principaux réservoirs de la biodiversité dans le monde, ce sont des puits de carbone essentiels à la régulation du climat et donc indispensables dans notre lutte contre le dérèglement climatique. Ils constituent plus de 90 % de l’espace habitable sur la planète et abritent quelques 250 000 espèces connues ainsi que de nombreuses espèces encore inconnues.

Quelques mois après l’adoption d’un accord lors de la COP15 biodiversité visant à protéger 30 % des terres et 30 % des mers d’ici à 2030, l’adoption d’un traité sur la conservation et l'utilisation durable de la biodiversité marine en haute-mer est une étape clé pour protéger l’océan et sa biodiversité et permettre un juste partage de ses ressources.

Un accord historique après des années de pourparlers

Ce premier traité international de protection de la haute mer a été adopté le 4 mars par les pays membres des Nations unies. Une entente qualifiée d’historique, au moment où la santé des océans est menacée par le réchauffement planétaire, la pollution plastique, la surpêche et l’exploration minière des fonds marins.

Le nouvel accord est intervenu après plus de 15 ans de discussions, dont 4 années de négociations formelles entre les États membres de l’ONU. Il doit cependant être entériné par les quelque 190 pays membres avant d’entrer en vigueur.

Ce traité a vocation à élaborer un instrument international juridiquement contraignant afin de renforcer la gouvernance de la haute mer et d’établir les outils nécessaires à une protection effective de l’océan et à une utilisation durable de ses ressource

La haute me , ce sont les eaux internationales, qui commencent à la limite des zones économiques exclusives des États, soit à 370 km des côtes. La haute mer représente plus de 60 % des océans. Surtout, elle constitue près de la moitié (45 %) de la surface de la Terre.

Environ 1 % des eaux internationales sont actuellement l’objet de mesures de protection. Avec cette nouvelle entente, des aires marines protégées pourraient être créées en haute mer. Le nouveau cadre mondial pour la biodiversité, adopté à Montréal en décembre dernier, prévoit de protéger 30 % des océans.

Des éponges climatiques

Depuis le début de la révolution industrielle, vers 1750, les océans ont absorbé environ le quart des émissions de CO2 relâché dans l’atmosphère. Ils ont aussi absorbé presque tout l’excès de chaleur occasionné par la hausse des gaz à effet de serre, soit 93 % au cours des 40 dernières années. Sans les océans, les effets du réchauffement planétaire seraient encore plus importants. Mais en jouant ainsi le rôle d’éponge climatique, les océans s’acidifient et se réchauffent, ce qui modifie profondément certains écosystèmes marins.

Selon l’ONU, environ 90 % des populations d’espèces de poissons exploitées commercialement sont épuisées ou en voie d’épuisement.

Un eldorado minier au fond du Pacifique

Si les réserves terrestres de nickel sont estimées à 230 millions de tonnes métriques, celles situées au fond des océans sont évaluées à 306 millions de tonnes métriques. Or, la demande pour ce minerai est à la hausse, notamment pour assurer la production de voitures électriques. C’est le cas aussi pour le cobalt et les terres rares, dont les réserves sous-marines sont très largement supérieures à celles qu’on retrouve sur terre.

Appelée la zone de Clarion-Clipperton, cette fracture géologique longue d’environ 7200 km possède une superficie de 4,5 millions de mètres carrés, soit presque trois fois la superficie du Québec. À une profondeur de 4000 à 5000 mètres, on y retrouve des quantités importantes de cobalt, de terres rares, de nickel et de manganèse. Plusieurs permis d’exploration minière ont été délivrés par l’Autorité internationale des fonds marins ces dernières années.

Des zones presque inconnues

Plusieurs scientifiques et groupes environnementaux appellent à la prudence quant à l’exploration minière des fonds marins. Ils invoquent notamment le peu de connaissances de ces zones, plus difficiles à explorer que les milieux terrestres. Dans ces circonstances, les impacts des activités minières, par exemple, pourraient être sous-estimés, faute d’information.

L’un des éléments les plus importants du nouvel accord, c’est qu’il prévoit l’obligation de réaliser des études d’impact sur l’environnement pour des activités envisagées en haute mer, dans des zones qui échappent aux juridictions nationales.

LA CPI LANCE UN MANDAT D'ARRET

CONTRE VLADIMIR POUTINE

La Cour pénale internationale (CPI) a déclaré vendredi avoir lancé un mandat d’arrêt contre le président russe Vladimir Poutine pour sa responsabilité dans des crimes de guerre perpétrés en Ukraine depuis l’invasion russe

« Aujourd’hui, 17 mars 2023, la Chambre préliminaire II de la Cour pénale internationale a lancé des mandats d’arrêt contre deux personnes dans le cadre de la situation en Ukraine :

M. Vladimir Vladimirovitch Poutine et Mme Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova », commissaire présidentielle aux droits de l’enfant en Russie, a déclaré la CPI dans un communiqué.

M. Poutine « est présumé responsable du crime de guerre de déportation illégale de population [enfants] et de transfert illégal de population [enfants] des zones occupées d’Ukraine vers la Fédération de Russie », a ajouté la cour.

« Les crimes auraient été commis sur le territoire ukrainien occupé au moins à partir du 24 février 2022 », a poursuivi la CPI, ajoutant qu’il existait « des motifs raisonnables de croire que M. Poutine est personnellement responsable des crimes susmentionnés ».

La commissaire russe aux droits des enfants, Maria Lvova-Belova, a assuré vendredi qu’elle allait poursuivre son travail.

« C’est sympa que la communauté internationale ait estimé notre travail pour aider les enfants de notre pays, et qu’on ne les laisse pas dans des zones d’opérations militaires et qu’on les sorte […] Il y a eu des sanctions de tous les pays […] 

Mais on va continuer le travail », a-t-elle affirmé, citée par l’agence de presse russe Ria Novosti.

L’ex-président russe Dmitri Medvedev a pour sa part comparé vendredi le mandat d’arrêt à du papier toilette.

« La Cour pénale internationale a lancé un mandat d’arrêt contre Vladimir Poutine. Pas besoin d’expliquer où ce papier doit être utilisé », a-t-il écrit sur Twitter en anglais, terminant son message par une émoticône de papier toilette.

Lundi, le New York Times avait rapporté que la CPI s’apprêtait à lancer des poursuites contre des Russes pour le transfert d’enfants vers la Russie et pour des frappes délibérées sur des infrastructures civiles en Ukraine.

Le procureur de la CPI Karim Khan a déclaré plus tôt ce mois-ci après une visite en Ukraine que les enlèvements présumés d’enfants faisaient « l’objet d’une enquête prioritaire ».

La CPI, créée en 2002 pour juger les pires crimes commis dans le monde, enquête depuis plus d’un an sur d’éventuels crimes de guerre ou contre l’humanité commis pendant l’offensive russe.

Ni la Russie ni l’Ukraine ne sont membres de la CPI, mais Kiev a accepté la compétence de la cour sur son territoire et travaille avec le procureur.

La Russie nie les allégations de crimes de guerre. Les experts ont admis qu’il était peu probable qu’elle remette des suspects.

REFORME DE LA RETRAITE

 LE GOUVERNEMENT DEGAINE LE 49.3

Pour la seconde fois sous l’ère d’Emmanuel Macron, le dossier des retraites se trouve mis sur la table des discussions : 

lors du premier quinquennat, la réforme avait franchi une étape parlementaire, puis elle avait été enterrée sous les sables de l’épidémie du Covid-19. Elle se voulait systémique, uniformisant et universalisant un système de calcul par points à la place des années de cotisation, mettant un terme aux régimes spéciaux.

Aujourd’hui, la nouvelle version de cette même réforme apparaît comme un défi majeur du second quinquennat d’Emmanuel Macron. Elle a conduit à une union syndicale rare en France et à une forte mobilisation dans la rue. Elle a aussi engendré des débats houleux à l’Assemblée nationale, mettant à jour les dissensions entre la droite représentée par Les Républicains et la Macronie.

La séquence continue ce jeudi 16 mars 2023 avec le recours au 49.3 .

Élisabeth Borne et ses ministres répétaient à l'envi qu'ils ne voulaient pas utiliser le 49.3 et qu'un accord était encore possible. Mais après un Conseil des ministres extraordinaire convoqué ce matin, le gouvernement a annoncé qu'il allait avoir recours à l'article 49.3 de la Constitution pour faire adopter le texte ce jeudi 16 mars à l'Assemblée nationale. 

"Sur le fondement de l'article 49 alinéa 3 de la Constitution, j'engage la responsabilité de mon gouvernement sur l'ensemble du projet de loi de financement rectificative de la Sécurité sociale pour 2023", a annoncé Elisabeth Borne. 

Emmanuel Macron et Élisabeth Borne ont en effet choisi le passage en force. Les députés n'ont pas voté sur ce texte dont la mesure phare est le recul de l'âge légal de départ à la retraite de 62 à 64 ans.

Le choix du 49.3 pour la onzième fois

Un Conseil des ministres a été convoqué en urgence ce matin, afin d'établir la stratégie choisie pour adopter ce texte. Selon un participant à une ultime réunion du camp présidentiel autour d'Emmanuel Macron, « il a été considéré qu'il y avait trop d'incertitudes sur le vote » en raison du risque d'absence de majorité. « Le président voulait aller au vote, mais la Première ministre a considéré qu'en raison des incertitudes, elle devait demander au président de la République d'engager la responsabilité du gouvernement via le 49.3 », a ajouté ce participant.

Depuis quelques jours, les macronistes s'affairaient en effet pour savoir s'ils disposaient d'une majorité de députés disposés à voter en faveur du texte, tous les comptages montrant une marge de manœuvre extrêmement faible.

Aucune réforme névralgique ne peut être entreprise sans la garantie préalable d’un consensus avec une part majoritaire de la représentation. La majorité macroniste comptait sur le parti LR et sa droite modérée tiraillée entre ses aspirations centristes et sa peur d’être débordée par le RN.

Députés et sénateurs ont trouvé un accord mercredi sur une version commune du projet contesté, avec la mesure la plus décriée, le report à 64 ans de l'âge légal de départ à la retraite. Cela était indispensable pour un vote final, jeudi à l'Assemblée nationale.

Jeudi 16 mars, ce texte a été soumis au vote du Sénat, où la majorité de droite et centriste l'ont sans surprise approuvé, puis à l'Assemblée nationale, où le camp présidentiel ne dispose pas de la majorité absolue. Là, le vote était incertain : si le parti de droite Les Républicains disait vouloir adopter la réforme, avec cette idée que cette réforme, comme a dit Bruno Retailleau, c'est la réforme de la droite et que donc ne pas la voter serait incohérent, de nombreux frondeurs dans ses rangs entretenaient le suspense.

Un aveu d'échec qui montre que la majorité, très déstructurée, n'a pas pu convaincre sur ce texte, notamment à droite.

Aujourd’hui, bien qu’une très large partie de l’opinion se soit déclarée défavorable à la réforme, l’exécutif n’entend pas céder .

« On ne peut pas jouer avec l'avenir du pays », aurait martelé le chef de l'État ce jeudi 16 mars au matin.

C'est que les enjeux de cette affaire sont aussi multiples que considérables, au plan interne comme au plan international. La capacité de la France d’entreprendre, après le fameux quoiqu’il en coûte, un redressement de sa dépense publique sans creuser plus la dette, ne peut que rassurer ses partenaires politiques européens. Et c’est là un enjeu important, en cette période de hausse des taux d’intérêt.

Mais c’est dans la vie politique interne que le jeu bénéfice/perte est potentiellement le plus fort.

Il pourrait même marquer un tournant de ce deuxième quinquennat...... alors que l’on se pose toujours des questions sur la forme que prendra le mécontentement social.

BLACK TAPE PROJECT FASHION SHOW

 MIAMI SWIM WEEK 2022

Le nouveau « bikini à ruban adhésif », dévoilé à la Fashion Week de New York, a été créé par Black Tape Project et a encore fait sensation, sublimé par d'autres créateurs, lors de sa prestigieuse présentation à Miami.

Ces conceptions risquées sont fabriquées à partir de "bande corporelle artistique sans danger pour la peau" et de peintures artistiques stratégiquement placée sur le corps d'un modèle par le créateur.

Rappelons que le "pionnier" autoproclamé de la bande corporelle est Joel Alvarez.

Chaque année, le côté sexuel se trouve glorifié si bien que ces bikinis sauvages ont fait la une des journaux dans le monde entier.

Les fans peuvent y voir la nouvelle collection déclinée à l'envie sur le corps de mannequins plus beaux les uns que les autres.

A ROLEX OR NOTHING !!!!

 LA CONSOMMATION D'ANTIDEPRESSEURS 

EXPLOSE CHEZ LES JEUNES

Le rapport du Haut Conseil de la famille, de l’enfance et de l’âge (HCFEA), publié lundi 13 mars, fait part d’une explosion de la consommation de psychotropes chez les jeunes. Entre 2010 et 2021, la consommation des antidépresseurs a augmenté de 179 %, quand elle a fait un bond de 148 % pour les psychostimulants, de 114 % pour les antipsychotiques et enfin de 35 % pour les hypnotiques et anxiolytiques.

Le constat est alarmant.

Le phénomène concerne des dizaines de milliers d'enfants. Le niveau de prescription de psychotropes concerne un enfant sur vingt, précise le HCFEA.

Des chiffres alarmants qui peuvent s’expliquer à l’aune d’autres études ; l’une faisait récemment état de 62 % des 18-24 ans qui auraient des pensées suicidaires. Un jeune (dès l’âge de 12 ans) sur quatre se dirait malheureux.

Les prescriptions de psychotropes se font souvent hors autorisation de mise sur le marché (AMM), alerte le HCFEA, les médicaments appropriés n’existant pas pour les enfants. Selon le rapport, c'est le cas pour 40% des prescriptions en ville, et entre 67 et 94% de celles délivrées à l’hôpital.

Des responsabilités multiples

Le Covid et les confinements successifs ont eu un effet délétère sur la santé des enfants, selon le rapport. Les gestes suicidaires ou encore les sentiments d'angoisse sont également en hausse.

Ce fléau de l’usage des médicaments qui frappe la jeunesse en France a déjà largement touché les États-Unis avec le Ritaline. À cette question de l’usage et de la prescription abusive des médicaments s’ajoutent l’environnement « hyper-numérisé » et l’enfermement de l’esprit derrière des smartphones et des écrans. L’afflux permanent d’informations avec leurs doses d’angoisses (identitaires, climatiques…) est une prise d’assaut des cerveaux. C’était également sans compter sur les addictions numériques, à la pornographie notamment. Le rôle des parents, tantôt démissionnaires, tantôt déboussolés, peut aussi expliquer cette tendance comme celui de l’école, de moins en moins sanctuarisée.

La santé mentale est donc une problématique de santé publique de première importance chez l’enfant, en France comme dans les pays occidentaux. Lorsqu’ils surviennent précocement, les troubles mentaux et la souffrance psychique impactent toute une vie.

La baisse de l'offre de soin en cause

Or "l’offre pédiatrique, pédopsychiatrique et médicosociale est en recul et ne permet plus d’accueillir dans des délais raisonnables les enfants et les familles", note le HCFEA. Faute de spécialistes, la majorité des consultations de l’enfant est réalisée par le médecin généraliste. "Seuls 30% des enfants sont reçus par un pédiatre, qui concentre sa patientèle sur les moins de deux ans."

Le mal-être des enfants et adolescents est donc accentué par un déficit de l'offre de soin, note le rapport qui pointe un manque de spécialistes et une médecine scolaire dont la situation se détériore.

Les consultations en centres médicaux pédagogiques (CMP) ont été divisées par quatre. Le rapport dénonce un "effet ciseau" entre cette augmentation vertigineuse de la consommation de médicaments et la baisse de l'offre de soin en France.

De ce fait la prise en charge n’est pas à la hauteur des enjeux

Or les pratiques psychothérapeutiques : psychanalyse, pratiques psychodynamiques et cliniques, thérapies cognitives et comportementales, thérapies familiales et groupales…sont les plus adaptées pour les troubles mentaux chez le jeune. Pour certains cas seulement, un traitement médicamenteux peut être prescrit en deuxième intention, en soutien de l’accompagnement psychologique, éducatif et social de l’enfant et de sa famille.

Non seulement la HCFEA insiste sur le non-respect des Autorisations de mise sur le marché et sur la transgression des recommandations des agences de santé et des consensus scientifiques, mais elle s'alarme sur la substitution des pratiques psychothérapeutiques, éducatives et sociales par des pratiques médicamenteuses.

Face au malaise profond qui touche une large partie de la jeunesse, il est tant de réagir.

"La santé et le bien-être mental des enfants est une préoccupation qui doit mobiliser toute la société. Tous les acteurs des champs de l’action éducative et sociale doivent y apporter une réponse", indique le HCFEA .

CAC 40

 142 MILLIARDS DE BENEFICES MAIS POUR QUI ?

Les entreprises françaises du CAC 40 ont dégagé 142 milliards d’euros de bénéfices cumulés en 2022 grâce aux records du luxe et de l’énergie, soit moins que le sommet de 2021, mais augurant néanmoins d’une année faste pour les actionnaires.

Le chiffre d’affaires atteint 1 729 milliards d’euros, en hausse de 19 % sur un an, grâce aux ventes gonflées par l’inflation pour de nombreux groupes. Le bénéfice net recule de 9 % par rapport aux près de 156 milliards de 2021, année marquée par le résultat hors norme de près de 25 milliards de Vivendi en raison d’une cession. En 2022, le géant de médias est même passé dans le rouge, affichant avec 1 milliard d’euros la pire perte du CAC 40.

Ce calcul ne prend pas en compte deux groupes, Pernod Ricard et Alstom, qui ont des exercices comptables décalés. Le recul agrégé masque néanmoins des records tous azimuts, à commencer par l’énergie et son fleuron TotalEnergies, qui affiche avec 19,5 milliards d’euros le plus gros profit de l’indice, devant le constructeur automobile Stellantis avec 16,8 milliards d’euros. Le plus gros profit d’une entreprise française en 2022 est cependant celui de CMA-CGM, troisième armateur mondial, non coté en Bourse, avec 24,9 milliards de dollars.

Le luxe brille

Au total, le secteur de l’énergie réalise 23,2 milliards d’euros de bénéfice (+14%) malgré d’importantes charges liées à la guerre en Ukraine. Hors effets comptables, les bénéfices bondissent davantage, reflétant l’année exceptionnelle alimentée par la hausse des prix de l’énergie, dans le sillage de la reprise post-Covid et de la guerre en Ukraine. 

La guerre a également laissé des traces sur les industriels comme ArcelorMittal, avec un milliard de dollars de provisions pour couvrir ses pertes ukrainiennes. Renault affiche la deuxième perte nette du CAC, de 338 millions d’euros, après une charge de 2,3 milliards causée par la vente d’Avtovaz, fabricant russe des Lada.

À l’inverse, le luxe (LVMH, Kering, Hermès, L’Oréal) a vu ses profits enfler de 23 %, soit 4,5 milliards d’euros de plus sur un an et une progression de 80 % comparé à 2019 - profitant de pouvoir répercuter la hausse des coûts de production sur les prix de vente. Les plus fortes hausses de bénéfice reviennent à Orange (+820% comparé à 2021, année plombée par une dépréciation) et au fabricant de semi-conducteurs STMicroelectronics (+118%), qui a profité de la « forte demande » mondiale pour la denrée rare des puces électroniques.

TotalEnergies va investir 16 milliards de dollars, dont 4 dans des « énergies bas carbone », et payer près de 9 milliards d’euros de dividendes.

Mais où vont  principalement ces profits ?

Actionnaires récompensés

Comme les bénéfices, les reversements aux actionnaires progressent, sous une pluie de critiques reprochant aux entreprises de ne pas verser autant aux salariés, ni d’en faire assez pour le climat. Aucun groupe du CAC 40 n’a annoncé baisser son dividende alors que ceux-ci avaient déjà atteint un record en 2022, en France (56,5 milliards d’euros) et dans le monde (1 560 milliards de dollars).

LVMH, qui a payé 5 milliards d’euros d’impôts sur les sociétés dans le monde, devrait verser au total quelque 6 milliards d’euros à ses actionnaires, dont près de 3 milliards reviennent à la famille du PDG Bernard Arnault, et distribuer 400 millions d’euros à ses quelque 39 000 salariés français. Société Générale veut redistribuer 90 % de son bénéfice aux actionnaires, avec une hausse du dividende, malgré la chute de son résultat sous l’effet de la cession de sa filiale russe Rosbank.

Le sujet des dividendes a toujours fait l’objet de vifs débats en France, dans la mesure où une (très) faible minorité de Français détient des actions, contrairement à la population de nombreux autres pays (États-Unis, Royaume-Uni, Pays-Bas, etc.) pour qui il s’agit de la principale source d’épargne constituée en vue, notamment, de la retraite. Du côté des compagnies, leur réticence à ralentir les versements de dividendes tient au fait que ceux-ci leur permettent d’attirer des actionnaires dont les placements tirent à la hausse leur valeur boursière.

Rachat d’actions

Outre les dividendes, de plus en plus d’entreprises choisissent de racheter leurs propres actions - une opération destinée à soutenir le cours en Bourse. TotalEnergies prévoit de débourser ainsi deux milliards d’euros au premier trimestre, soit autant que ce que le groupe a versé au titre d’une taxe sur les superprofits dans l’UE et au Royaume-Uni. Mais bien moins que Chevron ou ExxonMobil qui vont respectivement dépenser jusqu’à 75 milliards et 50 milliards de dollars pour racheter des titres. Stellantis va gratifier ses actionnaires avec 4,2 milliards d’euros de dividendes, dépenser 1,5 milliard en rachats d’actions… et débourser 2 milliards en primes pour ses salariés.

La question de l'investissement

Une partie des bénéfices des grands groupes,notamment des groupes pétroliers, est aussi destinée à l’investissement dans les hydrocarbures, mais aussi dans les énergies renouvelables. Sur ce dernier point, les compagnies – en particulier américaines – ont été vivement critiquées du fait des faibles montants investis dans le solaire, l’éolien et les autres énergies renouvelables comparativement aux sommes qu’elles versent aux actionnaires. C’est une des raisons qui a conduit le président américain Joe Biden à vouloir quadrupler la taxe sur les rachats d’actions entrée en vigueur en janvier 2023.

Faut-il taxer ces superprofits ?

La question de l’instauration d’une taxe sur les profits des géants du pétrole est toujours l’objet de nombreux débats. En Europe, certains pays comme la France avaient choisi d’instaurer un bouclier tarifaire alors que d’autres, tels le Royaume-Uni, l’Italie ou la Hongrie, ont opté pour la mise en place de taxes.

Si l’instauration de taxes exceptionnelles sur les superprofits des compagnies pétrolières peut s’avérer utile pour compenser la hausse des prix de l’énergie, elle pourrait cependant avoir des effets contre-productifs en retardant la transition énergétique. Si les énergies renouvelables sont destinées à devenir des sources d’énergie essentielles d’ici quelques années, elles ne peuvent remplacer « au pied levé » le pétrole : 

la transition n’est pas immédiate et demande en effet du temps. Afin de promouvoir le passage aux énergies renouvelables et assurer la transition énergétique, il convient de prendre garde à ne pas interrompre brutalement les investissements dans le secteur pétrolier, ce qui pourrait advenir en cas d’instauration de taxes très élevées. Cela est encore plus important dans le contexte actuel de la guerre en Ukraine, puisqu’il est nécessaire de remplacer le pétrole russe par du pétrole en provenance d’autres pays.

Taxer lourdement les entreprises lorsque celles-ci réalisent des investissements qui s’avèrent gagnants peut en outre être contre-productif puisque cela reviendrait à taxer les compagnies les plus innovantes...

BAKHMOUT BIENTOT ENCERCLEE

UN REVERS DECISIF FACE AUX AVANCEES RUSSES

Le chef du groupe paramilitaire russe Wagner a affirmé ce mercredi 8 mars 2023 que ses troupes avaient pris "toute la partie orientale" de la ville de Bakhmout, épicentre des combats dans l'est de l'Ukraine. "Les unités Wagner ont pris toute la partie orientale de Bakhmout, tout ce qui est à l'est de la rivière Bakhmoutka", a indiqué Evguéni Prigojine, dans un message audio publié par son service de presse.

Ces derniers jours, la pression s'est considérablement accrue sur les forces ukrainiennes défendant Bakhmout, confrontées à des avancées russes et la menace d'un encerclement.

Aujourd’hui pratiquement détruite, Bakhmout est devenue au fil des mois le théâtre de la plus longue et la plus meurtrière bataille depuis le déclenchement de l’invasion russe en février

Un "retrait contrôlé" des forces ukrainiennes

Dans son dernier compte rendu, publié mardi, l'Institut pour l'Etude de la Guerre (ISW), un groupe d'experts américain, a indiqué que les troupes du Kremlin avaient "vraisemblablement" capturé la partie orientale de la ville après un "retrait contrôlé" des forces ukrainiennes de cette zone .

Face à la crainte de laisser un boulevard aux Russes pour s’emparer de villes de l’Est de l’Ukraine, le président ukrainien a fait savoir que son armée ne lâcherait pas le moindre centimètre à Bakhmout. Après Bakhmout, les Russes "pourraient aller plus loin. Ils pourraient aller à Kramatorsk, ils pourraient aller à Sloviansk, la voie serait libre" pour eux "vers d'autres villes d'Ukraine", a-t-il déclaré.

Une localité qualifiée même de "nœud important (des lignes) de défense des soldats ukrainiens dans le Donbass", selon les mots prononcés mardi par le ministre russe de la Défense, Sergueï Choïgou. " Sa prise permettra de mener de nouvelles opérations offensives en profondeur ", a-t-il ajouté lors d’une réunion.

Cependant, les troupes de Wagner mènent cette attaque au prix de pertes très importantes, de l’aveu même d’Evguéni Prigojine. Une situation qui pousse Kiev à continuer l’affrontement à Bakhmout pour user encore davantage les forces offensives russes. Et si Kiev tient bon suffisamment longtemps, cela lui permettra de préparer et lancer sa contre-offensive, prévue grâce aux armements lourds et blindés modernes promis par les Occidentaux.

"J’ai eu une réunion avec le chef d’état-major hier et les commandants militaires en chef (...) et ils ont tous dit que nous devions rester forts à Bakhmut ", a encore fait savoir le président d’Ukraine.

Si la valeur stratégique de Bakhmout est contestée, la ville a gagné une importance symbolique et tactique, au vu des lourdes pertes subies par les deux camps. Il s'agit de la bataille la plus longue et la plus meurtrière depuis le déclenchement de l'offensive russe en février 2022.

La BBC fait d’ailleurs état de 20 000 à 30 000 victimes russes, selon des responsables occidentaux au sujet des combats à Bakhmout, commencés à l’été 2022.   

OSCARS 2023 LE TRIOMPHE

DE "EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE"

La 95e cérémonie des Oscars s'est ouverte, dimanche 12 mars à Los Angeles, avec un survol d'avions au-dessus d'Hollywood, un clin d'œil à "Top Gun" de Tom Cruise. Mais c'est un autre film qui a raflé une vague de statuettes dorées.

La déferlante "Everything Everywhere" était annoncée depuis des semaines.

Le film qui raconte les aventures d'Evelyn, une propriétaire de laverie surmenée soudainement sommée de sauver une multitude d'univers parallèles d'une force maléfique, avait dominé toutes les remises de prix organisées avant les Oscars. La comédie déjantée,en lice dans 11 catégories, a obtenu l’Oscar du meilleur film. Le duo de créateurs loufoques derrière le film, Daniel Scheinert et Daniel Kwan, s'est lui partagé l'Oscar du meilleur réalisateur. Sur scène, le premier a remercié ses parents d'avoir toujours soutenu son côté foldingue.

"Merci de ne pas avoir écrasé ma créativité lorsque je faisais des films d'horreur dérangeants ou des comédies perverses, ou que je m'habillais en drag queen lorsque j'étais enfant", a-t-il lâché.

Avec son casting majoritairement asiatique, ce long-métrage loufoque s'impose comme un symbole pour Hollywood, souvent critiqué ces dernières années pour son manque de diversité.

"Merci à l'Académie, ceci est l'Histoire en marche", a ainsi lancé la Malaisienne Michelle Yeoh, héroïne du film et première actrice d'origine asiatique récompensée par l'Oscar de la meilleure actrice. Michelle Yeoh a démontré tout au long de sa filmographie qu'elle pouvait tout jouer, de la James Bond Girl dans « Demain ne meurt jamais » à la prix Nobel de la paix Aung Sang Suu Kyi dans « The Lady » de Luc Besson, sans oublier des seconds rôles emblématiques dans « Tigre et Dragon » d'Ang Lee, « Mémoires d'une Geisha » de Rob Marshall et dans le troisième volet de « La Momie » aux côtés de Brendan Fraser, Oscarisé ce soir. 

L'acteur vietnamien Ke Huy Quan, révélé à l'âge de 12 ans dans "Indiana Jones et le Temple Maudit", repart avec l'Oscar du meilleur second rôle masculin pour son incarnation de mari un peu gauche au potentiel insoupçonné. "Je n'arrive pas à croire que cela m'arrive à moi. C'est le rêve américain", s'est-il étonné. L'actrice américaine Jamie Lee Curtis a, de son côté, décroché le meilleur second rôle féminin pour son rôle de contrôleuse fiscale aigrie.

Le film a également été salué pour son scénario original et son montage, soit un total de 7 récompenses.

Plusieurs Oscars pour le film pacifiste "À l'Ouest, rien de nouveau"

Le film allemand "A l'Ouest, rien de nouveau" s'est imposé comme l'autre révélation de la soirée avec quatre Oscars. L'adaptation en allemand de "À l'Ouest, rien de nouveau", chef d'œuvre pacifiste du romancier Erich Maria Remarque sur les horreurs de la Première Guerre mondiale, a été sacrée meilleur film international.

"Merci, ça signifie tant pour nous", a déclaré son réalisateur Edward Berger, qui a piloté cette troisième adaptation du chef d'oeuvre de l'Allemand Erich Maria Remarque, la première dans la langue de Goethe.

Le film a également reçu les Oscars pour la meilleure musique originale, les décors et la photographie.

Brendan Fraser a, lui, signé un retour inespéré à Hollywood en remportant l'Oscar du meilleur acteur pour sa puissante interprétation dans le drame "The Whale", de Darren Aronofsky, dans lequel il incarne un professeur obèse reclus et tourmenté par le chagrin.De son côté, "Navalny", qui relate l'empoisonnement du leader de l'opposition et militant anti-corruption russe Alexeï Navalny, s'est vu décerner le prix du meilleur documentaire.

"Pinocchio par Guillermo del Toro", une version sombre du célèbre livre pour enfants qui se déroule dans l'Italie des années 1930, a remporté l'Oscar du meilleur film d'animation.

Parmi les moments forts, les stars Lady Gaga et Rihanna ont chacune interprété les chansons pour lesquelles elles étaient nominées.

Le public a également profité de l'exubérance du cinéma indien, grâce à une troupe de danseurs qui ont enflammé la scène sur "Naatu Naatu", la chanson du film "RRR" récompensée par un Oscar.

Le palmarès complet

Meilleur film : «Everything Everywhere All at Once»

Meilleure actrice : Michelle Yeoh pour «Everything Everywhere All at Once»

Meilleur acteur : Brendan Fraser pour «The Whale»

Meilleure réalisation : Daniel Scheinert et Daniel Kwan pour «Everything Everywhere All at Once»

Meilleur montage : «Everything Everywhere All at Once»

Meilleure chanson originale : « Naatu Naatu » - Rahul Sipligunj et Kaala Bhairava dans RRR

Meilleur son : « Top Gun: Maverick»

Meilleur scénario adapté : «Women Talking» écrit par Sarah Polley

Meilleur scénario original : «Everything Everywhere All at Once» écrit par Daniel Kwan et Daniel Scheinert

Meilleurs effets visuels : «Avatar : La Voie de l'eau»

Meilleure musique de film : « À l'Ouest, rien de nouveau » composé par Volker Bertelmann

Meilleurs décors : « À l'Ouest, rien de nouveau - Production Design : Christian M. Goldbeck ; Set Decoration : Ernestine Hipper

Meilleur court-métrage d'animation : « The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse »- Charlie Mackesy et Matthew Freud

Meilleur court-métrage documentaire : «The Elephant Whisperers» - Kartiki Gonsalves et Guneet Monga

Meilleur film étranger : «À l'Ouest, rien de nouveau» réalisé par Edward Berger (Allemagne)

Meilleurs costumes : «Black Panther: Wakanda Forever »- Ruth Carter

Meilleurs maquillages et coiffures : «The Whale» : Adrien Morot, Judy Chin et Anne Marie Bradley

Meilleure photographie : «À l'Ouest, rien de nouveau» - James Friend

Meilleur court-métrage en prises de vues réelles : «An Irish Goodbye»

Meilleur film documentaire : «Navalny» réalisé par Daniel Roher

Meilleure actrice dans un second rôle : Jamie Lee Curtis dans «Everything Everywhere All at Once»

Meilleur acteur dans un second rôle : Ke Huy Quan dans «Everything Everywhere All at Once»

Meilleur film d'animation : «Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio» réalisé par Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar et Alex Bulkley

STRIKE IN FRANCE STRIKE ARM BETWEEN UNIONS AND GOVERNMENT FOR PENSION REFORM

On the one hand, the various ministers, Elisabeth Borne in the lead, have multiplied public interventions in recent weeks to justify this reform as a budgetary imperative, while the seconds have repeated their opposition to any postponement of the age. retirement age, finally scheduled for 64 years by 2030.

Under these conditions, the calls for the “mobilization” of the employees became more and more insistent, with the first days of action being to be expected from the week of January 16th. What to expect from the coming social conflict?

A million protesters

Large processions took place Thursday throughout France to challenge the government's pension reform project while strongly followed strike calls disrupted public transport in particular. According to a police source, the million demonstrators in France will be exceeded

A police source said that the million demonstrators in France will be exceeded, while the official count of the authorities will be given at the end of the day this Thursday.

The CGT announces 400,000 demonstrators mobilized against the pension reform in Paris this Thursday. As a reminder, during the demonstration of December 5, 2019, the first day of mobilization against the previous reform, the union counted 250,000 people.

“Fair and responsible” reform

The President of the Republic was questioned from Spain this Thursday, January 19, 2023 on the January 19 strike against the pension reform. “It is a reform that was democratically presented during the presidential election and the legislative elections. It has been studied with the trade unions and has been validated by the government. It is a fair and responsible reform. France is a little out of step with other countries on the subject and if we want to be fair between the generations, we must carry out this reform”.

Emmanuel Macron had been questioned specifically on the question of a referendum after the announced success of the demonstrations on January 19. He did not answer this question, contenting himself with specifying that the “reform will be done”, in a “spirit of dialogue but with responsibility”.

The Head of State considered it "good and legitimate that all opinions can be expressed" but called for calm demonstrations. “I trust the organizers of these demonstrations so that this legitimate expression of disagreement can be done without creating too much inconvenience for all of our compatriots and obviously without overflow or violence or degradation”, he added.

A united trade union front

Over the years, recourse to strikes has thus tended to refocus on an increasingly small core of employees, in the public services or in certain industrial sectors, while it is reduced to the bare minimum in large fractions world of work, particularly in the service professions and in small and medium-sized enterprises. The last major interprofessional mobilization of the winter of 2019-2020, largely supported by public transport agents, highlighted this well. A resurgence of the wage dispute

Despite its weakening, trade unionism remains an essential player in social conflict. At least for the moment, the conflict that is opening up brings together – for the first time since 2010 – all the trade unions, already burned by the unemployment insurance reform and whose activists overwhelmingly reject any idea of extension of working time. For the first time in 12 years, therefore, the eight main unions called with one voice on the French to take to the streets.

Pensions and the issue of union repoliticization

Thus the pension reform places the trade unions on a crest line, enjoining them to take up a double challenge of magnitude. On the one hand, that of taking advantage of an exceptional unitary framework to build the broadest and most lasting mobilization possible, taking into account the fragmentation of the world of work and going beyond days of action without a future .

On the other, that of reinstating the refusal of reform, massive and inseparable among the opinion of a general opposition to government policy.

WHAT ABOUT DIFFICULTY IN THE PENSION REFORM ?

The day after a first day of major mobilization in the face of the reform – more than a million demonstrators across France according to the authorities, 2 million according to the CGT – the executive insists on the fact that the text is still negotiable.

But there is no question of questioning the overall philosophy of the bill, as the text is about to be debated in Parliament. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, insisted this Friday, January 20 on the "two essential pillars of the reform": the increase in the number of years of contribution to 43 annuities to benefit from a pension at full rate and raising the legal retirement age to 64.

“They must be preserved because they guarantee this financial balance by 2030, supports the tenant of Bercy on BFMTV. There can always be improvements to this text but I set only one limit: to guarantee financial equilibrium by 2030. All openings and discussions are interesting but they must fall within this financial framework. »

Two talking points

Gabriel Attal, Minister of Public Accounts, for his part opened the door to very targeted discussions. “We can still progress and enrich our project on two subjects. One, the chopped quarries [...]. Second thing, the employment of seniors, we can probably go further, ”recalls the former government spokesperson.

Gabriel Attal explains that “leave to help a loved one or a child with a disability” was not taken into account in the “long career” system provided for by the pension reform. "During periods when the French had to stop working for reasons suffered, perhaps we can enrich things," explains the minister.

Same observation on the question of the employment of seniors: "A lot has been done to make it progress. We can probably go further", admits Gabriel Attal, who recalls that the government wishes to set up a "senior index" to encourage companies to employ more employees over 55 years of age. “These are very concrete elements that we can continue to enrich through discussion,” insists the Minister.

But the project for the future of the pension system includes measures to prevent professional wear and tear. During the reform presentation on Tuesday, January 10, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne insisted on this point.

What about hardship at work ?

Four avenues are currently being considered by the government for physical or repetitive jobs: the creation of an investment fund of one billion euros for the prevention of professional wear and tear; the implementation of reinforced medical monitoring for employees with a difficult job; the possibility of financing retraining leave; the extension of the professional prevention account (C2P) to more employees and with more rights.

This famous C2P, born of "Macron orders", had replaced in 2017 the term "difficulty" in "professional risk factors" and had removed 4 factors (heavy loads, painful postures, mechanical vibrations and chemical risks) from the previous system, the personal hardship prevention account (C3P). But in December 2022, the Court of Auditors presented this C2P as “an unambitious and uncontrolled device” in its thematic public report on public policies in occupational health in companies.

Shouldn't we then also rethink with the social partners this precise point which stumbling blocks for long careers?

Work plays a determining role in the differences in life expectancy and health status between citizens. This finding is validated by numerous studies linking exposure to hardship factors with, in particular, early exit from employment, or state of health after 50 years. Disability-free life expectancy is also correlated with occupational categories.

However, the government refused to reinstate the 4 criteria excluded in 2017, while allowing, however, in the pension reform for employees exposed to heavy loads, painful postures and vibrations to benefit from new rights, each professional branch having to list the trades concerned. .. but subject to official recognition of incapacity. And this is where the shoe pinches: it creates a risk of mismatch between professions, some branches being able to recognize a profession as painful and others not.

One of the measures which should therefore only have a limited effect in order to avoid or reduce the evils of work.

The intersyndicale has announced a new mobilization date on January 31, 2023.

YOUR COMPUTER NEEDS !!

DEFRAGMENTATION TOOL

For the story, if at the time of the release of Windows 95 in 1995 the system contained a fast fragmentation tool effective and included in the system it is not the same currently.

Yes, Microsoft had also been criticized for providing a well-known Microsoft Internet Explorer web-browsing tool (included and free) to Windows 95, while many software companies at the time were selling web crawler software! !!

Today we do not know if it is for calculation, economy, or to leave the share to the other companies of software creation but it is a fact, the defragmentation tool provided with the current systems are not of a extraordinary performance. !!!!

Of course it is possible to buy a tool to complete your machine with a High Performance Defragmentation utility .

Defragmentation and a process that brings together the clusters that make up the files on your machine in a contiguous way to increase the performance of your PC.

Whatever the size of your Ram (memory of your PC) the system will anyway call for temporary files and a disk swap disk area performance because if the speed of the memories is measured in nanoseconds (0.000000001s ) the hard disks are in milliseconds (0.001s)

The new SSD-type drives are actually memories, but first and foremost their higher cost than the hard drives are one of the reasons why the classic hard drive still equips a very large fleet of machines.

The type of memory used in the SSD is not identical for many technical reasons to the RAM memory of a PC!

So yes the SSD is faster than a hard drive but there is still a very strong margin of progress in terms of disk type "Memory Disk" !!

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FRANCE / ÉTATS-UNIS / ROYAUME-UNI / ESPAGNE... QUELLES PERSPECTIVES POUR L'ACTION SYNDICALE DANS LE MONDE EN 2023 ?

Mardi 10 janvier, la Première ministre Élisabeth Borne a présenté les contours de la future réforme des retraites, qui prévoit notamment l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 64 ans. Aussitôt, huit syndicats, vent debout contre le projet, ont annoncé une première journée de mobilisation le jeudi 19 janvier. Et d'autres les mois suivants

Pour les syndicats, l’enjeu dépasse la contestation de la réforme : il s’agit également de retrouver de l’influence. Fin 2022, les grèves des contrôleurs de train ou encore des médecins généralistes ont été initiées par des mouvements nés sur Internet qui les ont court-circuités. En outre, le taux de syndicalisation stagne autour de 10 % en France, l’un des niveaux les plus bas en Europe, depuis près de 30 ans.

Qu’en est-il de l’action syndicale ailleurs dans le monde ? Cet essoufflement se retrouve-t-il ? Les difficultés économiques donnent-elles, au contraire, un élan nouveau aux syndicats ? En ce début d’année, les experts américains, britanniques, indonésiens ou encore espagnols de The Conversation vous proposent un tour d’horizon mondial.

Canada : les syndicats qui s’affirment obtiennent des résultats

Le mouvement syndical canadien compte parmi les plus solides de l’OCDE, le club des pays développés, une solidité liée aux lois qui protègent contre les phénomènes de « passager clandestin » : les travailleurs ne peuvent pas bénéficier des conventions collectives sans être syndiqués.

Le taux de syndicalisation au Canada se situe autour de 30 % des travailleurs depuis le début du siècle, même s’il est moitié moindre dans le secteur privé et qu’il y diminue lentement. L’indicateur reste en revanche élevé dans les services publics (plus de 75 %) et en progression.

Cette relative stabilité a permis aux travailleurs canadiens d’être mieux préparés à affronter l’impact de l’inflation sur leurs paies. Les syndicats ont formulé des revendications salariales plus élevées qu’au cours des dernières décennies, et ont plus fréquemment fait grève (poursuivant une tendance amorcée en 2021).

De janvier à novembre 2022, 156 mouvements de grèves ont eu lieu (un mouvement est comptabilisé dès qu’il implique au moins dix personnes sur une journée) tout secteur confondu. Au total, 1,9 million journées de travail ont été perdues, le chiffre le plus élevé depuis 15 ans.

Une vague printanière de grèves dans le secteur de la construction en Ontario, la province la plus peuplée du Canada, a bien symbolisé la montée du militantisme. Au plus fort de la vague, plus de 40 000 travailleurs, dont des charpentiers, des poseurs de placoplâtre et des ingénieurs, ont déposé leurs outils pour obtenir des salaires plus élevés. Des tentatives d’accords lancées par les autorités ont parfois été rejetés par les grévistes, prolongeant le mouvement.

Doug Ford, Premier ministre de l’Ontario s’est attiré les foudres des syndicats. Andrew Scheer/FlickR, CC BY-SA

Un autre fait historique est survenu plus tard dans l’année. Le gouvernement de droite de l’Ontario avait voulu faire usage d’une clause constitutionnelle rarement utilisée pour annuler le droit de grève de 55 000 travailleurs, personnel de soutien dans l’éducation. La menace des syndicats, des secteurs public comme privé, de déclencher une grève générale dans la province, a poussé le gouvernement à faire machine arrière.

Pendant ce temps, les blocages opérés par les employeurs (ou lock-out) ont pratiquement disparu. Cette tactique, par laquelle ces derniers suspendent l’activité jusqu’à ce que les travailleurs acceptent les conditions proposées, n’a été utilisée que huit fois de janvier à novembre dernier, alors qu’on en observait une soixantaine par an il y a dix ans.

La croissance annuelle des salaires a légèrement augmenté pour atteindre une moyenne de 5 % à la fin de l’année. Ce taux reste inférieur à celui de l’inflation (6,8 %), mais l’écart créé en 2021 se réduit.

Reste à voir si cette pression syndicale pourra être maintenue et faire face à la hausse rapide des taux d’intérêt, à une récession probable en 2023 et à la suppression continue par les gouvernements des droits syndicaux dans certaines provinces.

Royaume-Uni : un rameau d’olivier pour le service de santé ?

Phil Tomlinson, professeur de stratégie industrielle, Université de Bath

L’hiver de la colère se prolonge au Royaume-Uni : le pays subit sa plus grande vague de grèves depuis plus de 30 ans. La plupart ont lieu dans le secteur public, où l’évolution des salaires reste bien inférieure à l’inflation et accuse un retard considérable par rapport aux entreprises privées.

Le sentiment d’amertume est prononcé après une vague d’austérité et la baisse des salaires réels des années 2010. Les grèves – dont on estime qu’elles ont coûté 1,7 milliard de livres sterling (1,92 milliard d’euros) à l’économie britannique en 2022 – sont coordonnées par différents syndicats, ajoutant des désagréments publics supplémentaires.

Néanmoins, le gouvernement britannique refuse catégoriquement de céder. Il se retranche derrière les recommandations indépendantes des organes de révision des salaires du secteur public, même s’il ne les a pas toujours suivies. Il a également affirmé que des augmentations salariales du secteur public correspondant à l’inflation coûteraient à chaque ménage britannique 1 000 livres sterling (1 130 euros) de plus par an, bien que ce chiffre ait été démenti.

Le Trésor de Sa Majesté, le département gouvernemental en charge de la mise en place des politiques économiques, se fait également l’écho des préoccupations de la Banque d’Angleterre concernant le déclenchement d’une spirale salaires-prix. Elle semble pourtant peu probable : l’inflation actuelle est largement due à des chocs d’offre consécutivement à la crise sanitaire et que déclenchement de la guerre en Ukraine, et la croissance moyenne des salaires reste bien inférieure à l’inflation.

Il existe des arguments économiques en faveur d’un accord généreux, notamment dans le National Health Service (NHS) (le système de santé publique) : avec plus de 133 000 postes vacants non pourvus, de meilleurs salaires pourraient contribuer à améliorer la rétention et le recrutement du personnel.

Les travailleurs de la santé au Royaume-Uni ont plusieurs fois cessé le travail pour demander des revalorisations salariales, comme les ambulanciers le 21 décembre.

Bien sûr, financer ces mesures en période de récession implique des choix difficiles. Une augmentation des impôts s’avèrerait politiquement coûteuse, la charge fiscale n’ayant jamais été aussi élevée depuis 70 ans. Le recours à des emprunts publics pourrait, lui, aggraver l’inflation si la Banque d’Angleterre augmente la masse monétaire par le biais d’un assouplissement quantitatif.

L’opinion publique semble largement soutenir les grévistes, en particulier ceux du NHS. Toutefois, si le gouvernement cède dans un secteur, il crée un précédent pour les autres, avec des conséquences économiques potentiellement plus importantes.

Concernant le NHS, il pourrait plutôt avancer à 2023 les négociations de l’organe de révision des salaires du secteur public, afin de permettre une amélioration de l’accord, éventuellement accompagnée d’une prime pour difficultés. Ailleurs, il tiendra probablement bon en espérant que les syndicats perdront leur détermination.

Australie et Nouvelle-Zélande : les grèves restent rares malgré l’inflation

Jim Stanford, économiste et directeur du Centre for Future Work, Australia Institute

Les grèves en Australie sont devenues très rares au cours des dernières décennies en raison des lois restrictives adoptées depuis les années 1990. Malgré un taux de chômage historiquement bas et des salaires très en [retard sur l’inflation]. Ces lois permettent encore de court-circuiter la plupart des actions syndicales.

En 2022, le taux de syndicalisation est tombé à 12,5 % des employés, un niveau historiquement bas. En 1990 encore, il était supérieur à 50 % des travailleurs. Les membres d’un syndicat ne peuvent légalement faire grève qu’après que les négociations, les scrutins et les plans d’action spécifiques ont été rendus publics, révélant ainsi pleinement la stratégie du syndicat à l’employeur. Même lorsqu’il y a des grèves, elles ont tendance à être courtes.

Au total, 182 conflits du travail ont eu lieu au cours de l’année qui s’est terminée en septembre. (Les statistiques ne font pas de distinction entre les grèves et les lock-out des employeurs, qui sont devenus courants en Australie). Ce chiffre est similaire à celui des années précédant la pandémie et ne représente qu’une fraction des actions industrielles des années 1970 et 1980.

La seule poussée visible des actions de grève en 2022 reste une série de protestations d’un jour organisées par les enseignants et les personnels de santé en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud, l’État le plus peuplé du pays. Après avoir supporté une décennie de plafonnement austère des salaires par le gouvernement conservateur de l’État, c’en était trop lorsque l’inflation s’est fait sentir.

La plupart des autres travailleurs sont restés passifs, alors même que l’Australie a connu une croissance des salaires parmi les plus lentes de tous les grands pays industrialisés. Les salaires nominaux n’ont augmenté en moyenne que de 2 % par an en 10 ans jusqu’en 2021. Ce taux est passé à 3,1 % à la fin de 2022, mais cela reste moitié moins que le taux d’inflation de 7,3 %.

Le gouvernement travailliste nouvellement élu en Australie a adopté une série de réformes importantes du droit du travail à la fin de 2022, visant à renforcer les négociations collectives et la croissance des salaires. Cela pourrait annoncer une amélioration progressive du pouvoir de négociation des travailleurs dans les années à venir.

Les perspectives des relations industrielles en Nouvelle-Zélande sont, de leur côté, un peu plus hospitalières pour les travailleurs et leurs syndicats. Le taux de syndicalisation a augmenté en 2021, pour atteindre 17 % des salariés (contre 14 % en 2020). Le salaire horaire moyen ordinaire a connu une croissance impressionnante de 7,4 % au cours de la dernière période de 12 mois, grâce à une augmentation de 6 % du salaire minimum décidée par le gouvernement travailliste.

Les actions industrielles restent rares – peut-être en partie parce que les travailleurs réussissent à augmenter les salaires par d’autres moyens. Aucune donnée officielle sur les grèves n’est disponible pour 2022, mais en 2021, seuls 20 mouvements ont eu lieu, ce qui représente une forte baisse par rapport à une moyenne de 140 par an au cours des trois années précédentes.

Indonésie : colère contre les réformes du droit du travail

Nabiyla Risfa Izzati, maître de conférences en droit du travail, Universitas Gadjah Mada

Il y a quelques semaines, le gouvernement a remplacé sa « loi Omnibus » controversée par une nouvelle réglementation d’urgence, ce en réponse à la décision de la Cour constitutionnelle indonésienne qui l’avait jugée inconstitutionnelle en 2021.

Adoptée fin 2020, la loi omnibus incarnait l’ambition du président Joko Widodo d’attirer les investisseurs étrangers en réduisant les formalités administratives, mais au détriment des droits des salariés. Elle rendu plus facile les licenciements sans préavis.

Le président indonésien Joko Widodo a dû abandonner sa loi Omnibus, du moins officiellement. Picryl, CC BY-SA

Ont aussi été abaissées les indemnités de licenciement légales et la durée maximale des contrats temporaires a, elle, été allongée, tout en ignorant la protection des travailleurs. En 2022, la nouvelle formule de calcul du salaire minimum a également entraîné la plus faible augmentation annuelle jamais enregistrée. La loi a suscité de nombreuses critiques de la part des travailleurs, des militants et des organisations de la société civile.

Le nouveau règlement d’urgence est sans doute encore plus problématique. La majorité de ses dispositions ne font que copier la loi omnibus. Plusieurs changements et dispositions supplémentaires prêtent en fait à confusion et font double emploi avec les règlements précédents, tout en laissant de nombreuses failles qui pourraient être exploitées à l’avenir.

Pourtant, malgré les plaintes des travailleurs et des syndicats, arguant que les nouvelles règles ont été adoptées soudainement et sans consultation, il n’est pas question de faire grève. Le mode d’action reste peu populaire car elles ne peuvent être organisées qu’avec l’autorisation de l’entreprise concernée. Si les travailleurs organisent des grèves officieuses, les employeurs ont le droit de s’en débarrasser.

Les manifestations publiques constituent une alternative évidente, bien que les règles de la pandémie limitant la mobilité et les rassemblements de masse les aient rendues difficiles. Malgré tout, des milliers, voire des millions de travailleurs ont organisé des mouvements dans leurs villes respectives au cours du second semestre 2022.

Les travailleurs demandaient à ce que la loi Omnibus soit révoquée et que le gouvernement n’utilise pas les formules de calcul du salaire minimum stipulées dans la loi. Les protestations se sont intensifiées lorsque le gouvernement a augmenté les prix du carburant en septembre, ce qui a fait grimper l’inflation déjà élevée en raison de la hausse du cours des denrées alimentaires.

Les autorités politiques ont depuis publié un règlement distinct pour déterminer le salaire minimum de 2023. Les revendications ont donc abouti d’une certaine façon, mais les travailleurs comme les employeurs restent furieux que les règles relatives au salaire minimum aient à nouveau changé dans le cadre du règlement d’urgence.

Il est clair que les manifestants n’ont pas obtenu la suppression des autres règles issues de la loi omnibus. Certains travailleurs ont protesté sur les médias sociaux. Cela n’incitera peut-être pas le gouvernement à modifier la loi, mais quelques tweets viraux ont poussé plusieurs entreprises à changer leurs pratiques abusives.

La controverse devrait se poursuivre en 2023 et au cours de l’année électorale de 2024, notamment dans le contexte de possibles licenciements massifs en pleine récession mondiale.

États-Unis : la protestation des travailleurs montre des signes de vie

Marick Masters, professeur de commerce et professeur auxiliaire de sciences politiques, Wayne State University

Les travailleurs américains ont été de plus en plus nombreux à s’organiser et à rejoindre les piquets de grève en 2022 pour réclamer de meilleurs salaires et une amélioration des conditions de travail. Cela a suscité un optimisme certain chez les dirigeants syndicaux et les défenseurs des droits des travailleurs, pensant assister à un tournant des rapports de force dans le monde du travail.

Les enseignants, les journalistes et les baristas font partie des dizaines de milliers de travailleurs qui se sont mis en grève. Il a fallu un vote du Congrès pour empêcher 115 000 employés des chemins de fer de débrayer eux aussi. Au total, il y a eu au moins 20 arrêts du travail majeurs impliquant chacun plus de 1 000 travailleurs en 2022, contre 16 en 2021, en plus de centaines d’autres plus petits.

Les travailleurs de Starbucks, Amazon, Apple et des dizaines d’autres entreprises ont également déposé plus de 2 000 demandes pour former des syndicats au cours de l’année – un record depuis 2015. Les travailleurs ont remporté 76 % des 1 363 élections qui ont eu lieu.

Historiquement, cependant, ces chiffres restent tièdes. Le nombre d’arrêts de travail majeurs est en chute libre depuis des décennies : il s’élevait à près de 200 en 1980. En 2021, le taux de syndicalisation, 10,3 %, n’était pas loin du plus bas jamais enregistré. Dans les années 1950, plus d’un travailleur sur trois était membre d’un syndicat.

L’environnement reste encore très défavorable aux syndicats, avec un droit du travail timide et très peu d’employeurs montrant une réelle réceptivité à l’idée d’avoir une main-d’œuvre syndiquée. Les syndicats se trouvent limités dans leur capacité à modifier les politiques publiques. La réforme du droit du travail par le biais de la législation reste vague, et les résultats des élections de mi-mandat de 2022 ne devraient pas faciliter les choses.

Néanmoins, le soutien de l’opinion publique aux syndicats est à son plus haut niveau depuis 1965, puisque 71 % des citoyens disent approuver l’action syndicale, d’après un sondage Gallup du mois d’août. Et les travailleurs eux-mêmes montrent de plus en plus d’intérêt à les rejoindre. En 2017, 48 % des travailleurs interrogés ont déclaré qu’ils voteraient aux élections syndicales, contre 32 % en 1995, la dernière fois que la question a été posée.

Les succès futurs pourraient dépendre de la capacité des syndicats à tirer parti de leur popularité croissante et à surfer sur la vague des récentes victoires dans l’établissement d’une représentation syndicale chez Starbucks et Amazon, ainsi que sur le succès de la campagne « Fight for $15 », qui depuis 2012 a contribué à l’adoption de lois portant sur un salaire minimum de 15 dollars dans une douzaine d’États et à Washington DC. Les chances d’y parvenir sont peut-être grandes : il y a en tout cas des opportunités à faire germer.

Espagne : les mesures d’aide inégales pourraient causer des problèmes

Rubén Garrido-Yserte, directeur de l’Instituto Universitario de Análisis Económico y Social, Universidad de Alcalá

L’inflation mondiale provoque un ralentissement de l’économie mondiale et une hausse des taux d’intérêt à des niveaux jamais vus depuis avant 2008. Les taux d’intérêt continueront d’augmenter en 2023, affectant particulièrement des économies aussi endettées que l’Espagne.

Elle sapera à la fois le revenu disponible des familles et la rentabilité des entreprises (surtout les petites), tout en rendant plus coûteux le remboursement de la dette publique. Parallèlement, on devrait assister à une augmentation durable du coût du panier de la ménagère à moyen terme.

Jusqu’à présent, les actions gouvernementales ont partiellement atténué cette perte de pouvoir d’achat. L’Espagne a plafonné les prix de l’électricité, subventionné le carburant et rendu les transports publics gratuits pour les citadins et les navetteurs.

Des accords ont été passés avec les banques pour refinancer les prêts hypothécaires des familles les plus vulnérables. En outre, les retraites et les salaires du secteur public ont été augmentés et il est prévu de relever le salaire minimum.

Toutefois, nombre de ces mesures doivent nécessairement être temporaires. Le danger est qu’elles finissent par être considérées comme des droits auxquels il ne faut pas renoncer. Elles faussent également l’économie et créent des problèmes d’équité en excluant ou en soutenant insuffisamment certains groupes. Les salaires privés n’augmenteront pas suffisamment pour couvrir l’inflation, par exemple.

L’action a été telle qu’il y a eu très peu d’actions syndicales en réponse à la crise du coût de la vie. Le danger est qu’elles créent un scénario où le calme d’aujourd’hui peut être le signe avant-coureur d’une tempête sociale demain.

PARIS FASHION WEEK

THE PACO RABANNE SHOW AND

HIS SUCCESSFUL ICONIC REINTERPRETATIONS

The Paco Rabanne house punctuated this third day of Paris Fashion Week with a tribute show to its founder, who died on February 3, 2023. It was the first tribute to the "fashion metalworker", so called by Gabrielle Chanel, who died at 88 in Brittany where he lived.

The noise of dresses designed with improbable materials and the voice of Paco Rabanne resonated during this parade in memory of the designer who died in early February.

The role of clothing is to charm, it is to provoke love in others, the love that is the spring of all activity", said the couturier who we could hear during the parade, at the Paris Museum of Modern Art.

More than expected, this Parisian parade symbolizes a turning point for the fashion house Paco Rabanne with its artistic director Julien Dossena

Baptized "Chasing Dream", the parade opened in a rather minimalist setting with the ambition to highlight the silhouette and the garment only. No need for frills when you have such a creative heritage.

Early silhouettes were pretty demure, with fluffy ensembles that looked both modern and timeless.

On the color side, the beginning remains sober with pastel tones, between powder pink and mint green.

Then, little by little, the legacy of Paco Rabanne is felt.

The Dali capsule

Julien Dossena celebrates the historic friendship that linked Paco Rabanne and Salvador Dalí for a capsule with the Dalí Foundation.

Then began an anthology of stylistic retrospectives such as the prints featuring the paintings of Salvador Dali affixed to long dresses with marked waists.

Four of the surrealist painter's paintings adorn the dresses for fall-winter 2023-2024. Among them, The shadows of the falling night (1931) and Solar table (1935).

“The starting point of the collection was really this video of the performance that Dalí did with Paco Rabanne.

The one where Amanda Lear presents Paco Rabanne's dress, where he breaks sewing machines.

This idea really is a concentrate of avant-garde as we can imagine at the time. And from there we contacted the Dalí Foundation, for whom this collaboration also made sense."

Paco Rabanne had met the painter Salvador Dali through one of his muses, the famous Amanda Lear.

It was then a prosperous period, that of the creative Paris of the mid-1960s...

On the catwalk of this fall-winter 2023-24 show, Julien Dossena translates this unique era with ultra-shiny outfits, between sequins, tassels, gold and silver lurex and of course emblematic assembly techniques.

An exploration of textures

Made of aluminum, plastic and chains, Paco's clothes were famous for being as loud as they were revolutionary.

Julien carried on the tradition with a brilliant set of glass and metal cocktail dresses: a technological update of Rabanne's work.

It's a cacophony of sparkles and jingles, from an astonishing crystal ball skirt with a miniature bra to a remarkable metallic sheath where frozen plastic stalactites grow... The dressing room is orchestrated around an exploration textures.

What looks like fur is actually wool, the crystals of a dress take on the appearance of icicles...

An awakening of the senses and a new perceptive dimension which crystallizes more than ever Julien Dossena's vision for the house.

Several gold and silver dresses, maxi and mini, closed the parade by evoking the avant-garde creations of Paco Rabanne who had presented in 1966 his collection 12 improbable dresses in contemporary materials, to immediate success.

The presentation ended with a soundtrack repeating the words of the deceased founder, as a last echo and a nostalgic greeting to the man who, in his own way, reinvented fashion.

"A creative utopia"

His marriage between industry, metal, technology and fashion is perpetuated in this show, with the creations of his successor, Julien Dossena: "Thank you Mr. Rabanne for your creative utopia which has pushed back the boundaries of reality", said for his part says the French artistic director of the house, Julien Dossena, in the note of the parade.

Since the couturier's death, several celebrities have worn the house's creations, designed by Julien Dossena on the red carpet. For the Grammy Awards, the American rapper Cardi B chose a metallic dress associated with a head jewel, evoking the most emblematic creations of Paco Rabanne.

French actress Juliette Binoche wore a black long dress embroidered with sequins on the top and metal mesh on the ruffle of the skirt, to receive an international award in Seville, while Adele wore a black dress with metallic fringes for a of his recent concerts in Las Vegas.

LA GUERRE EN UKRAINE UN AN APRES

UN PUISSANT REVELATEUR

DES FRACTURES MONDIALES

La guerre en Ukraine est un puissant révélateur des fractures mondiales car les Occidentaux n’ont pas été massivement suivis dans leur condamnation de l’agression russe. En fait, l’essentiel de l’humanité s’est gardé de prendre position et de condamner la Russie. Ainsi, le G20 financier, réuni à Bangalore en Inde fin février 2023, n’a pas été en mesure de s’accorder sur un communiqué commun, notamment parce que Pékin ne veut pas condamner la guerre qui se déroule sur le sol ukrainien. L’UE peine à convaincre les pays des Sud de condamner l’agression russe.

"Sud global" contre "Nord global"

Dès le début de la guerre en Ukraine, est ainsi apparue une ligne de crête  au sein de la communauté internationale qui se caractérise par une opposition entre le Nord et le Sud. Un an après le début du conflit,  cette opposition s'incarne  davantage encore entre pays du "Sud global", cet ensemble hétérogène de pays autrefois dits "sous-développés" au rôle croissant sur la scène internationale, et ceux du "Nord global", autre nom de l’Occident, selon la terminologie employée par ces premiers

D’un côté, les pays occidentaux ont resserré les rangs autour de l’Ukraine, dépassant leurs rivalités internes pour s’unir face à une agression en contradiction avec l’ordre mis en place depuis la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. De l’autre, des pays du "Sud global", en Asie, en Afrique, au Moyen-Orient et en Amérique du Sud, ont opté pour un positionnement plus ambigu.

Les divisions sont devenues évidentes dès le 2 mars 2022, lors du premier vote de l’ONU pour condamner la guerre en Ukraine. Si une résolution appelant le Kremlin à cesser son offensive y a été votée par 141 pays, 35 États du "Sud global", historiquement liés à Moscou, dont la Chine, l’Inde, l’Afrique du Sud et le Sénégal se sont abstenus. Un mois plus tard, le nombre d’États abstentionnistes a encore grimpé, malgré la découverte du massacre de Boutcha. Cinquante-huit pays, dont le Brésil, ont refusé le 7 avril de participer au vote organisé pour exclure la Russie du Conseil des droits de l’Homme des Nations unies.

Parmi ces pays , des poids lourds comme la Chine et l'Inde qui, forts de leur dynamique économique et stratégique, entendent peser dans les relations internationales. Ces deux puissances ont jusqu'à présent adopté une neutralité calculée, articulée à la défense de leurs propres intérêts .Elles adhèrent au discours russe selon lequel Moscou aurait été "lésé", par l’Otan, en Ukraine.

"Neutralité calculée"

En Inde, la politique de "neutralité calculée" adoptée par le Premier ministre, Narendra Modi, sur la guerre en Ukraine fait consensus. L’adhésion dépasse largement le cercle des partisans du gouvernement hindou : opposants de gauche et médias lui ont emboîté le pas. Tous soutiennent que le conflit en Ukraine est une problématique européenne et que l’Inde doit privilégier ses propres intérêts.

La Chine entretient également un rapport de neutralité calculé avec son grand voisin russe allant jusqu'à menacer de livrer des armes à la Russie. La Chine n’a pas condamné l’agression russe de l’Ukraine. Xi Jinping vient également de proposer un plan de paix, une annonce vraiment inédite, concernant la guerre en Ukraine invitant à une désescalade de la violence pour parvenir à un cessez-le-feu. Là où les Occidentaux espéraient une condamnation de la guerre menée par la Russie en Ukraine et une demande de départ des troupes russes, la Chine demande de ne pas recourir à l’arme nucléaire et de respecter l’intégralité territoriale. Pékin ne souhaite pas, à l’évidence, une aggravation du conflit en Ukraine, mais montre une certaine solidarité avec la Russie, considérant l’extension de l’OTAN à l’Europe orientale comme agressive.

Vers une recomposition géopolitique

En effet à l’ombre de la guerre qui se joue sur le sol ukrainien, l’Europe se ré-OTANise. Les Etats-Unis l’ont revivifiée en s’appuyant sur les pays d’Europe centrale et orientale et incitent ses membres à passer à une économie de guerre. La Finlande et la Suède demandent à y entrer. La Pologne tient une place importante sur l’échiquier américain. Varsovie achète du matériel américain, militaire et nucléaire civil et a annoncé sa volonté de porter ses dépenses militaires à 4% de son PIB, proportionnellement les dépenses les plus élevées des membres de l’OTAN. La Pologne appartiendrait alors à un dispositif défensif qui va de la mer Baltique à la mer Noire. L’influence de Washington a beaucoup grandi en Europe centrale et orientale au prix de l'abandon d’une défense européenne, semble-t-il.

Mais, de leur côté, les marines russe, chinoise et sud-africaine participent à des manœuvres navales inédites qui sont avec le déploiement de missiles hypersoniques Zircon embarqués sur la frégate Amiral Gorchkov. Ces manœuvres illustrent la solidité de la relation qui lie Johannesburg et Moscou, malgré les pressions occidentales. Et illustre les limites de la "neutralité" et de la défense de son propre intérêt, que Pretoria ne cesse d’afficher.

Le conflit ne se résume pas à ‘l’Occident contre le reste du monde’"

Même si ces manœuvres navales - qui se déroulent dans l'océan Indien, au large des côtes sud-africaines – étaient prévues de longue date, elles interviennent à l'issue d'une tournée en Afrique du chef de la diplomatie russe, Sergueï Lavrov, qui visait à asseoir la stratégie d'influence russe sur le continent, de Bamako à Khartoum en passant par Nouakchott, après avoir visité fin janvier l'Angola et l'Afrique du Sud.  La Chine, elle, se rapproche des pays du Golfe, le dirigeant chinois a été bien reçu à Riyad en décembre 2022, ce qui n’avait pas été le cas de Joe Biden lors de sa tournée de l’été. Elle se rapproche aussi de l’Iran, qui a livré des drones à la Russie. Ce qui montrent bien que cette position de neutralité, partagée par de nombreux pays du "Sud global", est bénéfique à la Russie.

D'ailleurs la Russie profite économiquement de la politique de New Delhi et de Riyad

Le 5 octobre dernier, peu de temps après une visite de Joe Biden à Ryiad pour tenter de convaincre l’Arabie saoudite d’augmenter sa production de pétrole afin d’aider l’Europe à passer l’hiver, les membres de l’Opep ont décidé au contraire de la réduire. Aussi les plus grandes puissances du Sud ont-elles bénéficié des prix très bas pratiqués par la Russie pour écouler son pétrole et son gaz. La Chine en a importé des niveaux records, tandis que l’Inde a multiplié par 33 ses importations. Certains de ces pays ont atteint un tel niveau économique que l’Occident n’est plus en mesure d’exercer une quelconque pression à leur égard. Ce "Sud global" hétérogène trouve son unité dans la revendication d’un ordre mondial "multipolaire", face à "l’hégémonie unipolaire" de l’Occident. Un discours en écho à celui avancé par la Russie pour justifier l’invasion de l’Ukraine, malgré sa complète contradiction avec le droit international.

Monde "multipolaire" contre hégémonie occidentale

Quelques semaines avant d’ordonner l’invasion de l’Ukraine, Vladimir Poutine, en déplacement en Chine, ne signait-il pas déjà avec Xi Jinping une déclaration sur la nécessité de faire "avancer la multipolarité". Sergueï Lavrov, le ministre russe des Affaires étrangères, mène depuis le début de la guerre une opération de charme. De Pretoria à Khartoum, en passant par l’Égypte, le Mali et l’Éthiopie, il ne cesse d’invoquer la "création d’un ordre mondial multipolaire contre "l’hégémonie de l’Occident".

La Chine pas plus tard qu' hier lundi 6 mars 2023 dénonce sans ambages cette hégémonie occidentale «  Des pays occidentaux, menés par les États-Unis, ont mis en œuvre une politique d'endiguement, d'encerclement et de répression contre la Chine, ce qui a entraîné des défis sans précédent pour le développement de notre pays », a déclaré Xi Jinping selon un compte-rendu de l'agence de presse Chine nouvelle publié lundi soir. Une rhétorique proche de celle de son homologue russe.

Féroce rivalité entre la Chine et les Etats-Unis

D'autant que les sujets de frictions entre la Chine et les Etat-Unis se sont multipliés ces dernières années, du traitement des musulmans ouïghours au déséquilibre de la balance commerciale, en passant par Taïwan, la domination dans les technologies de pointe ou les accusations d'espionnage, dans l’affaire des ballons notamment. Pour la fabrication des semi-conducteurs, les Américains ayant perdu leur position dominante au profit du géant asiatique , les États-Unis, au nom d'une menace supposée à sa sécurité nationale, ont ainsi multiplié ces derniers mois les sanctions à l'encontre des fabricants de puces chinois, désormais entravés pour s'approvisionner en technologies américaines. En février c'est au tour de Tiktok d'être accusé de pouvoir accaparer les données de ses utilisateurs, et des semi-conducteurs…

Un découplage technologique s’annonce, organisé autour d’une bipolarisation sino-américaine, laissant l’Europe, décrochée, largement en retrait. Et qui en préfigure d'autres...

PRESIDENTIELLE

DONALD TRUMP L'INFATIGABLE ATTAQUANT

La présidentielle approche, et Donald Trump attaque. L’ancien président américain, qui a officialisé sa candidature en novembre en vue de l’élection présidentielle l’an prochain, s’est exprimé pendant près d’une heure quarante, n’épargnant personne, y compris son propre camp.

L’ancien président américain a averti samedi qu’il était le seul candidat capable de sauver les Etats-Unis des démocrates

 "bellicistes" ainsi que des "fanatiques et imbéciles" du parti républicain, lors de la grand-messe annuelle des conservateurs américains réunis à Washington.

Il s'est montré non seulement très critique envers son camp :

"Nous avions un parti républicain dirigé par des monstres, des néo-conservateurs, des mondialistes, (...) et des imbéciles".

 "Les électeurs américains, a déclaré Trump, sont fatigués des dynasties politiques enracinées dans les deux partis (républicain et démocrate, NDLR), des intérêts particuliers pourris, des politiciens amoureux de la Chine" et des partisans de "guerres étrangères sans fin."

« J’empêcherai la troisième guerre mondiale »

Mais il a aussi assuré qu'il était le seul candidat crédible pour empêcher "la troisième guerre mondiale". "Nous allons avoir une troisième guerre mondiale si quelque chose ne se passe pas rapidement", a-t-il averti après avoir ouvertement désapprouvé l’aide américaine à l’Ukraine. 

"Je suis le seul candidat qui peut faire cette promesse : j’empêcherai la troisième guerre mondiale", a assuré l’ex-président.

Un sondage réalisé par l'institut associé à l'Université Emerson de Boston, et publié mardi dernier, donne l'ancien président vainqueur en cas de duel avec Joe Biden. Il récolterait 46 % des voix contre 42 % pour l'actuel détenteur du poste. 5 % des personnes interrogées ne savaient pas encore pour qui elles voteraient, et 7 % choisiraient un autre candidat.

L’ancien président est peut-être le favori pour l’investiture républicaine, mais il n’est plus le leader unique de son parti.

Deux étoiles montantes chez les Républicains

Parmi les rivaux de Donald Trump, figure l’ancienne gouverneure de Caroline du Sud, Nikki Haley. Elle est la première à s'être déclarée candidate pour l'investiture républicaine après Trump. 

Depuis la fin du mandat Trump, les attaques de son ancienne porte-parole pendant deux ans sont plus devenues frontales, critiquant ouvertement la croisade post-électorale du président sur une supposée fraude jamais prouvée.

"Il est temps de désigner un républicain capable de gouverner et de remporter une élection nationale", confiait-elle récemment à Fox News.

A son arrivée à l’ONU en janvier 2017, cette responsable politique, alors sans expérience internationale, détonne avec ses formules percutantes sur des sujets explosifs. 

"On ne met pas du rouge à lèvres sur un cochon", dit-elle de l’accord sur le nucléaire iranien, qu’elle combattra fermement, quitte à rudoyer au passage certains des plus proches alliés européens des Etats-Unis. Certains de ses partenaires saluent le "pragmatisme" de cette femme directe et chaleureuse. Mais pour d’autres, elle est trop « idéologue » et « déconnectée de la réalité » dans ses approches.

Mais pour Nikki Haley comme pour Donald Trump , la menace pourrait également venir de Ron DeSantis, le gouverneur de Floride et étoile montante du parti. De façon notable, Ron DeSantis – qui devrait se présenter mais n’a pas encore déclaré ses intentions – n’a pas participé à la CPAC. Il a plutôt entrepris une tournée dans plusieurs États pour promouvoir son nouveau livre sur sa gouvernance de la Floride comme modèle pour la nation. Dimanche, DeSantis a prononcé un discours sur sa vision du parti à la bibliothèque présidentielle Ronald Reagan en Californie.

Les deux hommes ont des voyages prévus à Davenport, dans l’Iowa, au cours des deux prochaines semaines – visitant l’État où commence le processus d’investiture républicaine.

Premières publicités contre DeSantis

D'ailleurs Donald Trump ne s'y est pas trompé en visant certains membres de son propre parti "Nous avions un Parti républicain qui était dirigé par des monstres, des néoconservateurs (...) a déclaré Trump. Mais nous ne retournerons jamais au parti de Paul Ryan, Karl Rove et Jeb Bush". 

Paul Ryan, ancien président de la Chambre des représentants, s’est récemment prononcé contre Trump. 

Il siège au conseil d’administration de Fox News, un réseau dont les choix de couverture récents frustrent l’équipe Trump.

Jeb Bush, ancien gouverneur de Floride et rival de Trump en 2016, a parlé favorablement de Ron DeSantis.

En public et en privé, Trump a déjà commencé à s’en prendre à DeSantis, bien qu’il ne l’ait pas mentionné samedi. La campagne de Trump a dépensé une petite somme cette semaine pour diffuser ses premières publicités sur Facebook visant DeSantis, dont une avec une photo des deux hommes et la légende. Sur la photo un apprenti qui apprend du maître".

Le président Trump est toujours le candidat principal pour l'investiture républicaine. Mais c’est une course beaucoup plus ouverte qu’elle ne l’a été par le passé.

L'ONU A CONCLU UN ACCORD  POUR LA PROTECTION DE LA HAUTE MER

Les Etats membres de l’ONU se sont enfin mis d’accord samedi sur le premier traité international de protection de la haute mer, destiné à contrecarrer les menaces qui pèsent sur des écosystèmes vitaux pour l’humanité.

 "Le navire a atteint le rivage ", a déclaré la présidente de la conférence Rena Lee.

Après plus de 15 ans de discussions, dont quatre années de négociations formelles, la troisième "dernière" session à New York a finalement été la bonne, ou presque. Les délégués ont finalisé le texte au contenu désormais gelé sur le fond, mais il sera formellement adopté à une date ultérieure après avoir été passé au crible par les services juridiques et traduit pour être disponible dans les six langues officielles de l’ONU.

"Une étape majeure"

Malgré tout, "c’est une étape majeure », a commenté avant l’accord Veronica Frank, de Greenpeace, soulignant qu’il faudrait toutefois prendre garde à ce que ce processus ne soit pas « une porte dérobée pour rouvrir des questions".

Avec les progrès de la science, la preuve a été faite de l'importance de protéger tout entier ces océans foisonnant d'une biodiversité souvent microscopique, qui fournit aussi la moitié de l'oxygène que nous respirons et limite le réchauffement climatique en absorbant une partie importante du CO2 émis par les activités humaines. 

Mais les océans s'affaiblissent, victimes de ces émissions (réchauffement, acidification de l'eau...), des pollutions en tout genre et de la surpêche.

La haute mer commence où s’arrêtent les zones économiques exclusives (ZEE) des Etats, à maximum 200 milles nautiques (370 km) des côtes et n’est donc sous la juridiction d’aucun Etat.

Le nouveau traité, quand il entrera en vigueur, après avoir été formellement adopté, signé puis ratifié par suffisamment de pays, permettra de créer des aires marines protégées dans ces eaux internationales.

ETATS-UNIS LES CHUTES DE NEIGE HISTORIQUES

EN CALIFORNIE SORTENT L'ETAT DE LA SECHERESSE

Connue pour son ensoleillement et ses palmiers, la Californie vit depuis vendredi l'une de ses pires tempêtes hivernales depuis des décennies. De fortes chutes de neige se sont abattues dans la région, conséquences d'un rare blizzard. L'état d'urgence a même été décrété dans le comté de San-Bernardino. 118 000 personnes se retrouvent sans électricité.

Les autorités américaines ont décidé de fermer partiellement ou totalement plusieurs parcs nationaux en Californie dont le Yosemite, la Vallée de la Mort, Redwood ainsi que Sequoia and Kings Canyon en raison de la tempête hivernale qui sévit dans l’État américain. La Californie a également dû fermer certains de ses principaux axes routiers à cause du gel, sans perspective immédiate de réouverture.

Les lettres du célèbre panneau de Hollywood se sont retrouvées cachées sous la tempête, mais selon les spécialistes ce qui a d'abord été présenté comme de la "neige" ne seraient que de simples grêlons.

"Vous vous demandez quelles sont ces précipitations gelées qui tombent du ciel dans votre zone (si vous êtes en montagne)?", a tweeté le NWS de Los Angeles, associant à son message un graphique pour différencier la neige roulée de la grêle.

100.00 foyers privés d'électricité

En montagne, où le vent pourrait souffler avec force, les flocons devraient être légion. La neige et le vent ont déjà eu raison de lignes électriques, privant de courant 100.000 foyers californiens. Selon le NWS, même des vallées "qui ne sont pas habituées à recevoir de la neige" pourraient se couvrir d'un manteau blanc.

Si tout le monde ne se retrouvera pas sous la neige, les Californiens vivant en basse altitude pourraient recevoir des trombes d'eau, qui posent un risque d'inondations et de coulées de boue.

Sorti de la sécheresse

Pour la première fois depuis des années, plus de la moitié de l’Etat est sortie de la sécheresse. Seulement 49 % de l’Etat reste en situation de sécheresse. La quantité accumulée représente 177 % de la quantité normale pour cette période de l’année dans la Sierra californienne. A l’échelle de l’Etat, cette accumulation atteint les 190 %.

"Cette accumulation de neige rivalise avec celle de 1982-1983, qui est la plus importante jamais enregistrée", a déclaré Sean de Guzman, responsable de l’étude de la neige pour le département des ressources en eau de l’État, sur CNN.

TOURNEE DE EMMANUEL MACRON EN AFRIQUE

 LA DIFFICULTE POUR LA FRANCE DE TROUVER UNE PLACE POST FRANCE-AFRIQUE

L’Elysée a beau souligner qu’il s’agit au moins du 15^eme voyage en Afrique d’Emmanuel Macron depuis qu’il est président de la République, celui que le président entame ce mercredi au Gabon, en Angola, au Congo-Brazzaville et en République démocratique du Congo a un goût particulier.

Aucun pays du Sahel ne figure au programme, alors que les troupes françaises viennent de quitter le Mali et ont mis fin à leur mission au Burkina Faso après des années de lutte contre des groupes terroristes. "Ce déplacement a donc été conçu comme une illustration de la volonté du président de la République d’aller au bout du changement de posture et au bout du changement de logiciel qu’il avait souhaité engager dès 2017", explique l’Elysée.

"Répondre à une demande de partenariat" par "une approche nouvelle" en Afrique, acteur majeur des enjeux du monde : telle est l'ambition affichée par Emmanuel Macron, qui a présenté ce lundi sa vision des relations avec un continent où la France perd de l'influence au profit de puissances comme la Chine et la Russie, sur fond de guerre en Ukraine.

La fin de l'ère de la "Françafrique"

En fil rouge de sa tournée africaine figurait la volonté de tourner définitivement la page de la "Françafrique", avec ses pratiques opaques et ses réseaux d'influence hérités du colonialisme, et mettre en place un nouveau "logiciel", reposant sur "l'humilité" et des partenariats pragmatiques, de la protection de l'environnement à la santé.

"Cet âge de la Françafrique est bien révolu", a-t-il lancé jeudi depuis Libreville qui a longtemps incarné ces dérives sous la présidence d'Omar Bongo.

Au Gabon comme ailleurs, la France est un interlocuteur neutre", a-t-il martelé, alors que l'opposition gabonaise l'accusait d'apporter son soutien au président Ali Bongo Ondimba, fils et successeur d'Omar Bongo, en pleine année électorale , écartant tout risque d'ingérence et affirmant que la France était désormais un "interlocuteur neutre".

Cette prise de parole intervient alors que l'armée française a définitivement quitté samedi dernier le Burkina Faso, quelques mois seulement après avoir déjà été éjectée du Mali. Dans plusieurs pays africains, le refrain "France dégage" a été repris par les populations.

Le "made in Africa" en Angola

La France est présente de longue date dans le secteur pétrolier en Angola, mais la visite d'Emmanuel Macron est l'occasion d'explorer des collaborations dans d'autres secteurs, avec notamment des accords conclus pour renforcer la "résilience climatique" de l'agriculture angolaise ou accompagner sa filière café. En effet, l’Angola souhaite diversifier son économie, aujourd’hui totalement dépendante du secteur pétrolier et surtout garantir sa sécurité alimentaire dans un pays qui importe beaucoup. La France s’est donc engagée dans le secteur agricole avec notamment une aide de l’Agence française au développement (AFD) de 200 millions d’euros pour un programme de résilience climatique..

"Ça correspond à l'idée que je me fais du partenariat économique entre le continent africain et la France", a expliqué le chef d'État français devant une centaine de participants. À savoir "répondre aux défis de l'Angola avec les acteurs qui sont les nôtres, les solutions qui sont les nôtres, plutôt que de venir plaquer des solutions toutes faites, et le faire en défendant nos intérêts de part et d'autre de manière respectueuse mais déterminée"

C'est une "stratégie de souveraineté alimentaire à laquelle nous croyons pour le continent africain", consistant à "bâtir des partenariats équilibrés et réciproques" et à développer du "'made in Africa' qui doit devenir une référence", a-t-il dit.

La position équilibriste de Macron en RDC

Le président français Emmanuel Macron a fini par condamner le soutien du Rwanda au M23.

Chacun doit « prendre ses responsabilités, y compris le Rwanda », a-t-il déclaré. Puis plus loin : « Le pillage à ciel ouvert de la République démocratique du Congo doit cesser. Ni pillage, ni balkanisation, ni guerre », a encore martelé Emmanuel Macron. « La France a constamment condamné le M23 et tous ceux qui le soutiennent. »

À Kinshasa, le président français a surtout défendu le plan de paix régional avec le nouveau calendrier de sortie de crise, validé lors du sommet de l’Union africaine mi-février. Puis, il a évoqué la nouvelle date du cessez-le-feu du 7 mars à midi.

Si ce plan échoue, le chef de l'État a prévenu que des sanctions pourraient alors être prises contre ceux qui ont "des responsabilités".

Enfin, la France a annoncé une contribution de 34 millions d’euros à un pont aérien humanitaire qui doit être mis en place par l’Union européenne avec la ville de Goma.

La politique africaine de la France à l’épreuve du changement

Emmanuel Macron a affirmé lundi avant sa tournée africaine que la France était "au milieu du gué", que l’Afrique n’était plus son "pré carré" et qu’il voulait "bâtir une nouvelle relation équilibrée, réciproque et responsable". Au dernier jour de sa visite en Afrique, Emmanuel Macron a prononcé des mots en forme de déclaration d’amour à l’Afrique : "C’est un immense continent d’avenir avec lequel on a une histoire plurielle, si je peux utiliser ce terme, multiple, mais qui est un continent que j’aime".

Si Emmanuel Macron a tenté de trouver les moyens de nouer une nouvelle relation tournée vers l’avenir avec les pays africains, cette ambition s’est parfois heurtée à une réalité politique dans laquelle le passé a toujours sa place.

De plus coexiste en Afrique un certain désintérêt et un certain éloignement par rapport à la France et ce qu'elle représente.

WOKE CENSORSHIP AT WORK

IN JAMES BOND'S BOOKS

New indexes. Terms deemed offensive following 'sensitivity testing' and certain 'racial references' have been removed from new editions of classic James Bond works, British daily The Telegraph reported on Saturday (February 25, 2023). These re-edited versions of writer Ian Fleming's novels are also expected to carry a "disclaimer".

Contextualization and warnings

This disclaimer should be visible on the first pages of the book and could be worded as follows: "This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes that might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace" , says the newspaper. The latter continues: “A number of updates have been made to this edition, while remaining as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it takes place. »

Thus, certain terms, such as the word "nigger" which appeared in the writings of the 1950s and 1960s have been removed from this new version of the adventures of agent 007 which should be published next April. Some depictions of black people have been “reworked” or “removed”, while other references to other populations – such as Asians – have been retained. This is particularly the case of the caricatural and sometimes coarse description of Oddjob, the Korean henchman of the character of Auric Goldfinger, in the novel, of the same name.

However, certain phrases considered nowadays as obsolete, homophobic or particularly sexist have been retained. This is the case of a reference to "the sweet flavor of rape", to a "man's job" or to homosexuality as a "tenacious handicap", reports the English daily.

Controversy around the reissue of works by Roald Dahl

These corrections are the result of an order from the company holding the literary rights to the James Bond character. The latter has in fact placed an order for a rereading of the work of James Bond to a group of sensitive readers who are likely to make changes. This update comes, however, following an initial controversy in the United Kingdom over the rewriting of certain passages from Roald Dahl's children's books.

Indeed, the rights holders of Roald Dahl's work announced in mid-February that they intended to smooth the language of all the British writer's children's novels. The number of modified terms is vast, touching on issues considered sensitive: race and ethnicity, gender, weight, physical appearance, mental health, violence, etc. An “enormously big” character has therefore become “enormous”. “A crazy thing” has become “a weird thing”.

This revelation was particularly shocking in Great Britain. “This is absurd censorship,” writer Salman Rushdie wrote on Twitter. Despite this rewriting in English, at the initiative of the rights holders, its French publisher, Gallimard, indicated on Tuesday, February 21, that it intended to leave the texts of the British author intact.

PAMELA ANDERSON SHOWS UP HER CLAWS

For several years, the ex-sex symbol of the nineties has become a bit of a service nerd. She publishes books, campaigns, becomes political. It has just been released on January 31, 2023, indeed, both an uninhibited autobiography Love, Pamela , Ed. Dey Street Books, the French version of which will be released in April, and a punchy documentary (Pamela, a love story, on Netflix) in order "to take control of the narration of the story for the first time".

To deliver her own testimony, the 55-year-old American-Canadian shows herself in a new guise. Exit false eyelashes, smoky eyes, glossy lips and primed look… the Hollywood star agrees to remove her makeup.

Perfectly natural, she opens up like never before, overwhelming with sincerity.

Spotted...at a football game!

Because Pamela, like all true icons, has long been a woman written by and for others, captive body and soul of the imagination and desires of others. A kind of media abduction, almost in the literal sense, which occurs at the end of the 80s, when this Canadian fitness coach attends a football match in Vancouver.

The pretty girl, then 21 years old, suddenly saw her face appear in XXL mode on the giant screen of the stadium and all the TV channels broadcasting the match, spotted in the middle of the crowd by the cameraman responsible for entertaining the spectators. . She was then noticed by the Labatt beer brand.

Quickly coveted by magazines looking for the new playmate that will be snapped up on newsstands, she posed for Playboy in 1989, the start of a long and fruitful collaboration with Hugh Hefner's publication: she would become the most photographed in the magazine's history. For her, this experience is a revelation.

“Doing that first photo shoot gave me that little insight into what it was like to be a sensual woman, she explained to the Sunday Times after the death of the controversial tycoon. My sexuality was mine. possession of my power".

Before adding that he was the only man crossed during his professional career who had really respected her.

"He empowered so many women and broke down walls."

But it is above all her role in Baywatch in Baywatch, which contributes to starifying her, saving lives at all costs, photogenically leaning her double D chest on the victims to be resuscitated.

The hypersexualization of the image of the young Canadian, however, has only just begun and will experience its climax in the mid-1990s, to the point of eventually escaping her. With the sulphurous 1996 film Barb Wire, first. She embodies a mercenary in a black leather bustier, a character born from comic strips and looking like Gothic Lara Croft.

Pamela Anderson is mocked for her acting and reduced to her sometimes naked physical performance, as in other gently erotic TV movies she is shooting at the time. A situation that she experiences in an even more violent way when the famous affair of the sextape breaks out with her husband Tommy Lee, drummer of the group Mötley Crüe.

Terrible childhood trauma

"We were naked all the time and we were filming, we were stupid, but these tapes were not intended for anyone else to see," she told CBS Sunday Morning recently. I still haven't watched them. It was something that bothered me."

Later, another sextape, with her ex Bret Michaels this time, leaked on the Net. The refusal to be confronted with these events has not changed over time.

In Entertainment Weekly, a relative of the actress remained anonymous analyzed:

"In the 90s, Pamela's body was ruled by a judge as public property. There was no doubt the videotape was stolen property, but the court ruled it wasn't. because his body belonged to the world".

"I experienced it as a rape," she recalls in her documentary. The actress, who became the first victim of slut-shaming 2.0, had already experienced the worst several times years before, victim of touching by her babysitter as a child, raped by an adult neighbor when she was 12, then by a gang of seven boys in middle school."

"During these traumatic moments, I was leaving my body and floating in my own world."

It is partly because of all these waking nightmares that Pamela lost confidence in Man and launched herself into the defense of animals, by associating herself in particular with the organization PETA.

"For a long time, I prayed to the whales, with my feet in the ocean, she said in 2014 during the evening marking the creation of the Pamela Anderson Foundation, which campaigns for the defense of animal rights. My only friends until until I have children" (note: two, with Tommy Lee).

Romances and weddings

Still, the Pamela Anderson of the 2000s and then 2010 remains a great lover.

Six marriages in total (one of which lasts twelve days), more or less chaotic passionate relationships, as with the French footballer Adil Rami, whom she leaves accusing him of violence and infidelity. Their tough battles through the media feed the tabloid press. Gone are the days when the blonde let her destiny be dictated.

Above all, Pamela is more than ever a muse: the creator Jacquemus dedicates her, bewitching, in his collection at the end of 2022, Julien Doré invites her in one of his clips. A year ago, she bewitched Broadway by playing Roxie Hart in the famous musical Chicago.

Standing ovation at the key.

AYA NAKAMURA

AS A GLOBAL AMBASSADOR

“We are thrilled to announce that @ayanakamura_officiel is our new Global Ambassador.

An internationally renowned singer and style icon in her own right, Aya has transformed the musical landscape, in France and beyond.

Welcome to the Aya family!”, the brand wrote on Instagram in mid-February 2023.

A nomination that comes as the singer-songwriter released her last album called DNK on January 27, 2023.

The most listened to French-speaking artist in the world on the Spotify platform and whose repertoire has accumulated more than 6 billion plays, the 27-year-old young woman thus joins the closed circle of Lancôme muses: Juliette Binoche from 1995 to 2000 with "Poême". , Julia Roberts with the perfume "La vie est belle" in 2012, Penelope Cruz with "La Nuit Trésor" and "La Nuit Trésor la Folie", Kate Winslet with "Trésor", Zendaya with "Idôle"...

“I have followed Aya Nakamura's career for a long time because I admire her talent and her artistic bias.

She is a true role model for a whole generation, and I am happy to have her join the Lancôme family,” explains Françoise Lehmann, International President of Lancôme.

Aya Nakamura, whose music mixes African influences and pop rhythms like her hits "Djadja" or "Pookie", has already evolved in the world of fashion and beauty during her career, collaborating with a big name in luxury. (Balenciaga), but also players in the mass market segment (Undiz, MAC Cosmetics). Recently, the artist worked alongside the Vestiaire Collective site.

"I hope to inspire the women around me"

“Through this collaboration, I hope to inspire the women around me and push them to become what they have always wanted to be,” reacted Aya Nakamura, who becomes the second black personality to be named ambassador after the Mexicano actress. -Kenyan Lupita Nyong'o. Furthermore, Lancôme has also named the South Korean Jung Hoyeon, model and actress of the Squid Game series, brand ambassador.

A documentary film, born of the collaboration between Lancôme and Aya Nakamura, will soon be unveiled on Youtube.

It will show behind the scenes of the release of his new album and will highlight the artist until his series of concerts at the Accor Arena scheduled for the end of May.

Aya Nakamura will also feature in future Lancôme advertising campaigns.

HOW TO DEAL WITH DROUGHT IN FRANCE ?

The Minister for the Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, today receives the prefects coordinating the seven major basins of the country in order to encourage them to take measures now to "save water". Early restrictions to avoid the worst? "Anticipate!" asks the Minister for Ecological Transition to the prefects. Saturday, at the Salon de l'Agriculture, Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a "sobriety plan on the water".

Agriculture 45% of water

In France, agriculture accounts for 45% of water consumption, and up to 80% in the middle of summer. "It is by modernizing agricultural systems, by making them more efficient, that we achieve the greatest savings", assures Hélène Michaux, director of the program and interventions department of the Rhône Mediterranean Water Agency. Corsica. Micro-irrigation and drip rather than sprayers, instruments helping farmers to optimize their use of water… Technical solutions exist, provided they can be afforded.

In the context of climate change, these investments offer "a form of hedging against risk, since the farmer will be able to maintain his yields, even during very dry years", underlines Arnaud Reynaud, research director at the Institute National Research Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae).

The Minister of Agriculture also stressed that 60 new agricultural hydraulic works projects would be "commissioned" by June even if these works, including the controversial basins, meet strong local protests.

Respond urgently to network failures

It would also be necessary to renovate the old, undersized and sometimes poorly maintained water networks, which are an urgent project. "Knowing that a pipe is replaced on average every 160 years, the urgency is to invest massively in renovation", explains Guillaume Dolques, specialist in adaptation to climate change, at the Institute of the economy for the climate, he insists, while on average 20% of drinking water escapes from pipes via leaks.

Thanks to an extension of 17 million obtained in 2023, the Water Agency "launched at the beginning of January a call for projects of 20 million euros aimed at securing the drinking water supply of communities". Reduction of leaks, rehabilitation of dilapidated drinking water reservoirs, establishment of interconnections in rural areas, where municipalities can find themselves very vulnerable... The means implemented are numerous.

Accelerate the deployment of treated wastewater reuse

In Spain, 14% of water resources already come from the recycling of wastewater. This rate reaches 8% in Italy, against less than 1% in France. To make up for this delay, the Minister for Ecological Transition and the Minister for Agriculture have put forward an upcoming decree blowing up “regulatory brakes”.

Encourage sobriety, at all levels

Constrained or chosen, this sobriety is already at work in the Var, where more than half of the municipalities face a more or less high level of constraints. Friday, Saint-Zacharie and Riboux were placed at the level "reinforced drought alert" by the prefecture of the department. Ban on watering lawns, sports grounds and vegetable gardens during the day, ban on washing your car or filling your swimming pool...

In the Var, municipalities have decided to suspend building permits believing that there would not be enough water for future inhabitants...

THE NAMES AND SURPRISES OF THE CESAR 2023

The opportunity to honor several feature and short films but also screenwriters, directors, editors...

The big winner is of course “La Nuit du 12” by Dominik Moll, with six Césars including best film, best director and best adapted screenplay. “L'Innocent” by Louis Garrel, “Pacifiction” by Albert Serra, “A Plein temps” by Eric Gravel and “Simone” by Olivier Dahan won two Césars respectively. "November" by Cédric Jimenez and "En corps" by Cédric Klapisch left empty-handed.

It was therefore La Nuit du 12 which emerged as the big winner of the 48th Cesar ceremony. With 10 nominations, Dominik Moll's film won 6 awards on Friday 24 February. A success for this thriller retracing the investigation of two police officers from the Grenoble PJ

The triumph of "The night of 12"

Filmed mainly in the Alps, the film tells the investigation of two Grenoble police officers on a feminicide, the murder of a young girl. A story inspired by real events that received the most prestigious of awards: the César for best film. It succeeds Xavier Giannoli's Lost Illusions.

To adapt Pauline Guéa's book, 18.3 - a year at the PJ, Dominik Moll immersed himself for a week in the offices of the Grenoble judicial police. Many scenes were shot in Grenoble but also at the Eybens velodrome or even in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. The film, released in theaters on July 13, 2022, also received the César for best direction, best sound and the best fit. To complete the list, Bouli Lanners and Bastien Bouillon respectively won the Césars for best actor in a supporting role and best male hope.

The filmmaker signs with this thriller his second César for best director after that won with Harry, a friend who wishes you well released in 2001.

On the male performer side , Benoît Magimel won the César for best actor for the second year in a row, with "Pacification - Torment on the islands". Never seen.

The Franco-Belgian actress Virginie Efira was crowned the César for best actress for "Revoir Paris", by Alice Winocour.

The headliner of the film Simone, Olivier Dahan's biopic, was not nominated in the category of best actress. The film (nearly 2.5 million spectators in theaters) had to settle for two categories – best sets and best costumes.

Gérard Depardieu, indicted for rapes which he denies, did not have the honor of being selected either. However, in 2022, he was showing remarkable and very different films, such as Maigret by Patrice Leconte and Les Volets Verts, by Jean Becker, without forgetting, at the end of 2021, Robuste, by the young director Constance Meyer.

The surprise

The presence had been kept secret and David Fincher himself was surprised. After a nice speech by Virginie Efira who exposed us to her traumas following the films of the American director, she announced that she would leave her place to David Fincher's "Partner in Crime". And it was Brad Pitt who arrived on stage, all smiles. The actor starred in three films by the master, “Seven”, “Fight Club” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.

"Hello, my name is Brad Pitt, I have shot three David Fincher films, I am a survivor", first declared the star, all smiles, then telling how much the director of "Gone Girl" was a perfectionist . “Legend says he can do 90 takes of the same scene. It's wrong, it was 92, "he said in particular mockingly. The room drank in his words, time was suspended.

David Fincher then went on stage, thanked the Academy, his relatives.

"I salute the culture of French cinema, your commitment to a cinema that reflects what we are smallest and simplest, and not just our heroic aspirations when we put on tights," said Fincher.

Palmares

- Best film: "The Night of 12" by Dominik Moll

- Best Director: Dominik Moll for "La Nuit du 12"

- Best actress: Virginie Efira in "Revoir Paris"

- Best actor: Benoît Magimel in "Pacification - Torment on the islands"

- Best Supporting Actress: Noémie Merlant in "L'Innocent"

- Best actor in a supporting role: Bouli Lanners in "La Nuit du 12"

- Best female hope: Nadia Tereszkiewicz in "The Almond Trees"

- Best male hope: Bastien Bouillon in "La Nuit du 12"

- Best first film: "Saint Omer" by Alice Diop

- Best Original Screenplay: Louis Garrel, Tanguy Viel, Naïla Guiguet for "L'Innocent"

- Best foreign film: "As Bestas" by Spaniard Rodrigo Sorogoyen

- Best adaptation: Gilles Marchand and Dominik Moll for "La Nuit du 12"

- Best animated film: "My Afghan family" by Michaela Pavlatova

CHATGPT AND ARTIFICIAL "INTELLIGENCES" HOW TO IDENTIFY TRUE FROM FALSE

One of the reasons for this popularity is that ChatGPT has shown impressive capabilities in many areas as well as emerging capabilities, for example computer code generation and "multimodal" generation. Another reason is that its chat interface allows users to interact with a large underlying GPT3.5 language model more effectively and efficiently than before, through interactive chats.

These results led to the question whether these major language systems could be used for professional, documentary, educational or even artistic purposes. It is possible that this type of system will transform certain professions and that it will profoundly affect teaching and education – children being particularly vulnerable to these systems.

An “intelligence”… in appearance only

ChatGPT produces almost grammatically perfect texts despite having no understanding of what it is producing. He has truly amazing abilities and some of the cases shown as examples are remarkable. Its texts, often complex, may resemble the original data used for learning and have certain characteristics.

But with the appearance of being true, these results can sometimes be completely false. What is the nature and status of these artificial words without associated reasoning? The understanding of natural language involves complex and varied reasoning, spatial, temporal, ontological, arithmetic, based on knowledge and allowing to link objects and actions in the real world, which ChatGPT is far from integrating having no phenomenal insight.

While a few chosen examples may suggest that language models are capable of reasoning, they are in fact incapable of any logical reasoning and have no intuition, no thought, no emotions. ChatGPT speaks with confidence in good French as in other languages ​​after having swallowed billions of data, but understands nothing of what it says and can very easily generate fake news, discrimination, injustices and amplify the information warfare.

How to tell right from wrong: from technology to education

These approaches, which are not very transparent, can however be evaluated in many aspects on existing data (these are benchmarks) to show the lack of performance of the systems on logical reasoning problems such as deduction, induction or abduction – or even common sense.

Education can take up this subject to show the limits of this disembodied artificial language, and have students work on a better understanding of the concepts of numerical modelling, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Children who are more gullible in front of AIs

This is especially important because children can be especially gullible to such speech-enabled systems like ChatGPT.

Winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, the American Richard Thaler highlighted in 2008 the concept of “nudge”, a technique which consists in encouraging individuals to change their behavior without forcing them and by using their cognitive biases.

Furthermore, we were able to show that young children followed suggestions from dialog systems embedded in objects (like a Google Home or a robot) more than those from a human. Our research approach was based on a game about altruism and conducted as part of the IA Humane chair (for Human-Machine Affective Interaction and Ethics) on digital nudges_ amplified by AI. This interdisciplinary chair, a kind of laboratory for the study of human-computer interaction behaviors, brings together researchers in computer science, linguistics and behavioral economics.

Conversational agents like ChatGPT could become a means of influencing individuals. They are currently neither regulated nor evaluated and very opaque. It is therefore important to fully understand their operation and limits before using them, and in this context, the school has a major role to play.

Why is ChatGPT so powerful?

ChatGPT is an interactive multitasking multilingual system using generative AI freely available on the Internet. Generative AI systems rely on algorithms capable of encoding gigantic volumes of data (texts, poems, computer programs, symbols) and generating syntactically correct texts for a large number of tasks.

Transformers are one of these types of algorithms. These are neural networks that learn the most salient patterns of words in many contexts and are thus able to predict the word or sequence likely to be relevant later in a given text.

ChatGPT is the successor to the large language model (LLM) InstructGPT, to which a dialog interface has been added. InstructGPT works better than previous approaches: Indeed, the developers were able to better match generative AI (like GPT3.5) with user intent across a wide range of tasks. For this, they use "reinforcement learning", meaning that the AI ​​also learns from the comments that humans make on its texts.

Increasing the size of language models does not inherently make them better at following user intent. These large language models can generate results that are misleading, toxic, or just plain useless to the user because they don't align with the user's intent.

But the results show that fine-tuning through human feedback is a promising direction for aligning language models with human intent, even if InstructGPT still makes simple errors.

Thus, the technological performance of ChatGPT therefore comes from the size of the generative AI using "transformers" (175 billion parameters), from the alignment of the responses of the AI ​​by reinforcement learning but also from the possibility of dialogue with this system.

The impact of ChatGPT on the information retrieval market

Microsoft-OpenAI's ChatGPT is a threat to Google's querying model through its search and production power. Google is positioning Bard as a more thoughtful and accurate interactive search engine, which is not hampered by the topical issues encountered by ChatGPT since it was trained on data available before September 2021 – and therefore does not know the more recent news (for now).

The Chinese company Baidu also has a generative AI project with Ernie Bot. The "BigScience" project, created by HuggingFace and including funding from the CNRS and the Ministry of Research, has made it possible to create "Bloom", a generative AI using a language model of 176 billion parameters trained on multitasking multilingual data and above all in “open science”! This innovative project is a public/private cooperation and has involved more than a thousand researchers from many countries. This could lead to a “ChatBloom”.

Ethical issues

The current context is marked by widely disseminated achievements and applications of these systems, the massive impact of which requires ethical reflection.

These multilingual, multitasking and interactive generative AIs raise many questions: the data chosen to train them, the distribution of languages ​​in a multilingual system, system optimization parameters, ownership of the generated content, etc.

In addition, the generative power of AIs is often amplified by filters that allow certain subjects to be censored and logic deduction modules in order to verify the veracity of statements. A handful of humans (engineers, transcriptionists, evaluators) created this type of system used by millions of people.

These massively used artificial intelligence systems therefore pose major ethical challenges, including the transformation of the notion of information production, the relationship to truth and the massive risks linked to disinformation and manipulation.

Article by Laurence Devillers, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Sorbonne University

published in TheConversation on February 20.

To find out more, find the author in “Robots and men, myths, fantasies and reality”, published by Plon and “Emotional robots: and ethics in all this? », published by the Observatory.

BEHIND THE UKRAINIAN CONFLICT ISSUES

SUPERPOWERS

AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

This Wednesday Russian President Putin welcomed the head of Chinese diplomacy Wang Yi to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin judging that the Russian-Chinese relationship "stabilized the international situation", in full suspense around a Chinese peace plan for Ukraine , supposed to be released this week. "International relations are complicated today (...) In this context, cooperation (...) between China and Russia is of great importance for the stabilization of the international situation", declared the Russian president, by welcoming the head of Chinese diplomacy Wang Yi to the Kremlin. In addition, Vladimir Putin also said he was waiting for the visit of President Xi Jinping to Moscow.

Washington's "unwavering" support for Moscow.

At the same time, it was American President Joe Biden who met the group of nine leaders of the NATO countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the presence of the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance. This meeting aims to reassure these nine countries of the eastern flank of the alliance (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) of support " unfailing" of Washington against Moscow. Joe Biden's surprise visit to Kiev, a year after the invasion of Ukraine, is obviously not trivial. It aims to reaffirm the determination of the United States to support Ukraine, at a time when we fear the imminence of a Russian counter-offensive after a winter of stagnation of the belligerents on the eastern front.

But behind the war in Ukraine, what issues are hidden for the Russia-China couple in the face of the United States-Europe couple?

Relations between Beijing and Moscow "in concrete"

Visiting Moscow as recently as Tuesday, February 21, Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, told Nikolai Patrushev, one of Vladimir Putin's top advisers, that relations between Beijing and Moscow were "in concrete". and resist any challenge that may arise in a changing international environment. The Chinese statement could not be clearer to Westerners.

Wang Yi also told Nikolai Patrushev, also secretary of the Russian Security Council, that he is looking forward to discussing security issues and that it would be auspicious for China and Russia to work on new joint measures to guarantee the security of the two countries.

Moreover, since the start of the war in Ukraine almost a year ago, China has been careful not to condemn Russia's offensive or to qualify as an invasion what Moscow presents as a "special military operation ". A few days before the start of the conflict, Russia and China even concluded an "unlimited" partnership which has worried the West since Washington expressed its concern over possible arms deliveries from Beijing to Moscow...

“Sino-Russian relations are mature. They are concrete and will withstand any challenge in a changing international situation,” Wang Yi told Nikolai Patrushev.

This is because the analysis of China's international situation is in many ways similar to that of Vladimir Putin, who yesterday in his state of the nation address accused NATO and the West of fueling the conflict by Ukraine mistakenly thinking they can defeat Russia whose existence they seek to destroy. "The elites of the West do not hide their objective: to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, that is to say to finish us off once and for all", he hammered, in his diatribe against the West. “The responsibility for the fueling of the Ukrainian conflict and its victims […] rests entirely with the Western elites,” the Russian president continued. What does that mean ?

For us, what does this mean ? That means : finish us off once and for all. That is to say, they intend to transform a local conflict into a global confrontation.

Sources of tension between China and the United States

"In the context of the collective West's campaign to contain both Russia and China, the deepening of Russian-Chinese cooperation and exchanges in the international arena is of particular importance," said elsewhere added Nikolai Patrushev, quoted by the official Russian news agency RIA.

As proof: Did the adviser to the Russian president not indicate to the head of Chinese diplomacy that Moscow was aligned with Beijing's position concerning Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, all sources of tension between China and the United States?

The alliance of Russia and China against the United States and its European vassals around the Ukrainian conflict is part of the reconfiguration of a new shifting world order. And the Sino-American confrontation...

With a marginalization of Europeans...

ALL ABOUT THE CESAR 2023

It is Tahar Rahim who is the president of the 48th Cesar ceremony. Thirteen years after receiving the César for best male hope and that of best actor for his role in A Prophet by Jacques Audiard, this prestigious function returns to him.

He was noticed for his performances in Designated Guilty and The Serpent, a series broadcast on Netflix.

This year it is up to a host of artists to present, host and accompany the Eye Haïdara evening, Leïla Bekhti, Emmanuelle Devos, Léa Drucker, Ahmed Sylla, Jamel Debbouze, Raphaël Personnaz and Alex Lutz are expected on stage .

The consecration has been awaited and hoped for by Virginie Efira for years. Will she win the César for best actress?

She is nominated for her role in Revoir Paris, by Alice Winocour, in which she played a survivor of the November 13 attacks in search of answers and reconstruction.

The actress also starred in the moving En Attendant Bojangles, directed by Régis Roinsard, Les Enfants des autres by Rebecca Zlotowski and the astonishing Don Juan by Serge Bozon, in which she co-starred with Tahar Rahim.

For the same category, male equivalent, the big favorite is Benoît Magimel, highly acclaimed for his chiaroscuro role in Albert Serra's Pacifiction.

As for female revelations, the dazzling Rebecca Marder and Nadia Tereszkiewicz shone thanks to their respective roles in The Almond Trees by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and A young girl who is fine by Sandrine Kiberlain.

Or Denis Menochet. Named for Peter von Kant, it's as if he was also, on the sly, for As Bestas. Two huge performances that make him the actor of the year.

As for who will win the César for best film…

the match could be between Louis Garrel's luminous police comedy L'innocent, carried by a five-star cast which garnered 11 nominations and Dominik Moll's thrilling thriller La Nuit du 12, which dissects the investigation around a case of feminicide. The feature film received 10 nominations.

Great forgotten anyway. The virtual absence of the film Simone by Olivier Dahan may come as a surprise. Elsa Zylberstein was eligible for a nomination for her role as Simone Veil. The biopic is content with two nominations in technical categories (sets and costumes). November by Cédric Jimenez, the 3rd biggest success of the year, manages on the other hand to hold its own, with 7 nominations.

To succeed Cate Blanchett, the Césars have chosen to distinguish David Fincher, American director and producer, a Fight Club, admired for Gone Girl, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button... He also supervised the special effects of cult films such as Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi or The Neverending Story.

This evening, David Fincher will receive his honorary Cesar from the hands of Virginie Efira.

See you on Canal+ live and in clear.

THE DESCENT INTO HELL BY PIERRE PALMADE

Pierre Palmade was already sentenced in 2019 for acquiring drugs. As such, he does not incur 20 years of criminal imprisonment.

No specific memory

In front of the investigators, the comedian admitted to having consumed cocaine and synthetic drugs before taking the wheel. The actor was under the influence of 3-MMC at the time of the accident, a drug often used during “chemsex” practices in which the actor regularly indulged.

"However, he explained that he had no precise memory of the circumstances of the accident," said Jean-Michel Bourlès. The investigation will have to determine why he suddenly and brutally changed lanes to hit the Renault Mégane head-on.

On Sunday February 19, the Paris prosecutor's office also announced that it had opened an investigation into suspicions of possession of pornographic images, following a report from a man posing as one of his acquaintances. The Brigade for the Protection of Minors (BPM) was in charge of the investigation.

After spending nearly 48 hours in police custody, a liberty and detention judge issued house arrest with the wearing of an electronic bracelet.

Pierre Palmade has been sleeping since Friday in the addiction service of the Paul-Brousse hospital in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne). He cannot leave it for the time being and the summons is valid for a period of six months.

The Melun prosecution said it had appealed this decision. A hearing before the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal will soon have to rule on a possible incarceration.

As for the two passengers who were in his car the evening of the accident, they were both placed under the status of assisted witness. If they are not indicted at this stage, Mohcine E.-A, 33, and Sambou G., 34, are indeed accused of "non-assistance to a person in danger".

Facts

A very serious road accident involved comedian Pierre Palmade on February 10, 2023. The actor was driving his car on the D372, near Villiers-en-Bière (Seine-et-Marne), when he hit an oncoming vehicle. On board, a man, a pregnant woman and a six-year-old child.

Two passengers in the actor's car fled.

The three passengers will be transported to the hospital very seriously injured, the 38-year-old driver is admitted with a vital prognosis and still in a coma.

Her 6-year-old son woke up with a broken jaw that will require several surgeries. As for the driver's sister-in-law, a young woman of 27, she lost the child she was carrying.

She was six and a half months pregnant. Friday, Jean-Michel Bourlès, the public prosecutor of Melun, indicated that the autopsy had not made it possible to establish if this child was born alive. An additional expertise was ordered on this point.

Recognized as a comedian

At the age of 19, he left the bourgeois comfort of Bordeaux – where he was born on March 23, 1968 – to go to Paris. Already, he wrote sketches - Sweet, Salty -, was noticed during the Night of the theater (1987).

His first steps, he took them in 1988 in the FR3 show, La Classe, alongside Michèle Laroque and Muriel Robin, who took him under their wings They became friends and Palmade wrote the following year for Muriel Robin, Cheerleaders hide to die, let her play Tintamarre. His success earned him a nomination for the Molières.

After the decade of the 1980s marked by comedians whose political satires fall under the register of protest buffoonery, Palmade confirms on stage by drawing from everyday life the traits of a comic character and situation. In 1991, he wrote a play for Jacqueline Maillan, Piece mounted.

After many successes in one-man-show (My mother really likes what I do, We know each other?

Come see me on occasion), he triumphs with Michèle Laroque in two shows written with his accomplice Muriel Robin: They love each other (1996) and They loved each other (2001). These shows will be nominated several times for the Molières and the Victoires de la Musique.

He also writes for other artists such as Jean-Marie Bigard, Mimie Mathy and Guy Bedos. He inspires and co-writes in particular all the sketches of Muriel Robin's one-woman-shows. In 1995, he wrote and acted in the play My Sister is a Chic Guy with Dominique Lavanant, and wrote the dialogues for the film Pédale douce (1996).

From 1993 to 2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2020 and 2021, he also participated in Les Enfoirés shows.

In 1998, he played the role of the bard Assurancetourix in Asterix and Obelix against Caesar.

In 2001, he released the single J'te flashe, j'te love, written with Jean-Michel Jarre. But, after his show My first goodbyes (2000), his desires are more for comedy: Help, I am 30 years old! (2004), Three Fathers at Home (2004), etc.

Everything seems easy to Pierre Palmade, whose falsely good humor, sometimes grating, is in tune with the times.

At 37, Pierre Palmade decided to “change his life”.

He created a workshop, the Troupe à Palmade, which brought together around thirty talents and thus staged Brice Hillairet and Cédric Cizaire in They play Palmade, on the Point-Virgule stage.

In the meantime, he is writing Fugueuses, a tailor-made comedy for Line Renaud and Muriel Robin and preparing for his return to the Fontaine theater with his troupe in Le Comique, which evokes his unbridled life which will have a sequel with Le Fils du comic. He also finds the time to host on France 3 Made in Palmade, a program that quickly ends for lack of audience.

Homosexuality, chemsex...

Twelve years after his coming out, Pierre Palmade lived his homosexuality badly, to the point of writing during confinement a play on the subject, Assume brothel!, in which he revealed his discomfort.

"The guys I slept with are long gone, leaving me to sort things out on my own. Thanks guys! Can I blame them? I'm not sure."

And tried to assume "I would not like it to become a business. My sexuality does not make my artistic identity, I exist for other things fortunately. It is a question of living this homosexuality well. When we was raised like me, in the 1980s, in a somewhat bourgeois city, it wasn't always easy, but here it is, even if it leaves traces."

In 2020, out of 450,000 targeted controls, one in five was positive for narcotics, mostly young men. This risky behavior is increasingly widespread, despite the strong messages of prevention campaigns.

On the road, one in three fatal accidents in France today is caused by the consumption of narcotics. The most detected substances are cannabis, which alters reflexes, and cocaine, a stimulant.

In 2022, more than 700 people would have died as a result of accidents involving the use of cocaine or cannabis.

Need we remind you that drug trafficking and consumption are prohibited in France ?

CHINA "VERY CONCERNED" BY THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE PRONE "THE DIALOGUE"

A few days before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion on February 24, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed concern that China is considering supplying weapons to Russia - allegations denied by Beijing.

"It's been almost a year now that the crisis in Ukraine has seen a general escalation," Qin Gang, China's foreign minister, said Tuesday at a conference in Beijing.

"China is very worried about this conflict which is intensifying and even getting out of control," he stressed to several dozen foreign ambassadors and diplomats.

Beijing also views arms deliveries to Ukraine with suspicion. "We call on the countries concerned to stop throwing oil on the fire as soon as possible and to stop blaming China," said Qin Gang, referring in particular to Western calls for Beijing to put the blame on China. pressure on Moscow.

"We will continue to promote peace talks... and work with the international community to promote dialogue and consultation, address the concerns of all parties and pursue common security."

"Ruppet"

Qin Gang also dismissed any parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan, an island the People's Republic of China has intended to attach to the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

It is necessary "to stop making a fuss by shouting 'Today Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan'", underlined the minister, responding to concerns about a potential Chinese military invasion of the island territory of 23 million inhabitants. "The pressures and attempts to contain China, coming from outside, are growing stronger" and "pose a serious threat to China's sovereignty and security," Qin Gang said. "China has always been on the path of peaceful development. It has never initiated a conflict or war, nor invaded an inch of land from another country."

Meeting with Putin?

On Ukraine, Beijing said last week that it wanted to make public soon a proposal to find "a political solution" to the war. The head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, is expected on Tuesday in Russia, the last leg of a European tour which has already taken him to France, Italy, Hungary and Germany.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Wang could meet President Vladimir Putin during his visit, according to Russian news agency Tass. Western pressure is mounting on China, which has never publicly supported or criticized the Russian offensive, while repeatedly expressing its support for Moscow in the face of Western sanctions.

"Providing lethal support to Russia to aid in its war of aggression in Ukraine would have real consequences for our relations with China," Antony Blinken said. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, estimated that a possible delivery of arms by China to Russia would constitute a "red line" for the European Union

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, on Monday denied the US allegations, accusing Washington of "spreading false information".

"It is the United States and not China that is constantly sending weapons to the battlefield," he added.

CHEMSEX OR THE FATAL SEX AND DRUG DUO

Chemsex?

This contraction of the English terms chemicals (chemicals) and sex refers to the use of narcotics in the context of sexual practices.

Appeared in England in the mid-2000s, sexual practices under the influence of narcotics are developing dangerously

They spread first in the gay community before seducing non-homosexual groups, especially young heterosexuals.

Initially very urban, it spread to rural areas or among rather young populations. The Covid-19 epidemic and its successive confinements have brought out a solitary chemsex, with consumption of substances during sessions of watching pornographic films.

Most often, the drugs used are synthetic cathinones (including 3-MMC and 4-MEC), GHB and methamphetamine crystals as well as, to a lesser extent, cocaine, MDMA or ketamine.

The practice is also accompanied by the use of poppers or other disinhibiting substances that influence libido and stamina, such as alcohol.

What is the desired effect?

"Sexual performance, above all. The use of drugs, in this context, aims first of all to increase the time of enjoyment. These drugs increase the coital time, increase the pleasure, amplify the desire, but also the number of intercourse and the full time of sexual practice.

These are generally marathons of several hours, sometimes several days, and most of the time in groups", according to Pr Amine Benyamina, head of the psychiatry and addiction department at the Paul-Brousse Hospital (AP-HP). member of his family died in a chemsex"

What are the dangers of Chemsex?

The death ?

Chemsex is a dangerous practice that leads users to consume more and more drugs in an irresistible way (craving).

The consumption of ketamine is associated with mood disorders, hallucinations and states of panic.

Cocaine, methamphetamine and cathinones lead to cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory risks, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts.

GHB/GBL can cause unconsciousness. In general, these drug cocktails can lead to overdoses, poisoning and comas. Even death.

Because of their lack of inhibition, chemsex enthusiasts do not take the necessary precautions to protect themselves (sharing syringes, forgetting condoms). As a result, STIs and other contaminations by HIV, hepatitis B and C and syphilis are on the rise.

Finally, chemsex is associated with an increase in sexual assault and rape since the notion of sexual consent cannot always be clearly established.

According to a report submitted in 2022 to the Ministry of Solidarity and Health by Pr Amine Benyamina, the practice of Chemsex could concern around 20% of men who have sex with men, potentially 100,000 to 200,000 people in France.

A meta-analysis published in 2019 estimates that this prevalence would be between 3 to 29% in the United States and Europe.

As soon as addiction to chemsex is proven, it is necessary to consult a trusted health professional.

The CSAPAs (Centres for Care, Support and Prevention in Addictology) bring together addictologists, doctors and nurses who know the subject perfectly.

Faced with the increase in, the association AIDES has set up an emergency call number

(+33 1 77 93 97 77), an SMS line via the WhatsApp application (+33 7 62 93 22 29) and a private discussion group on Facebook.

THE "BORDELIZATION" OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

The elected officials of the Nation seem to have a field day during the very stormy debates on the pension reform project.

It is Minister Olivier Dussopt whom the rebellious deputy of Hauts-de-Seine Aurélien Saintoul describes as "murderer".

It is Thomas Portes who proudly displays himself, tricolor scarf on his shoulder, his foot on a ball bearing the effigy of the same Dussopt. It was Louis Boyard who exploded when a Renaissance deputy asked him to calm down at the end of a session:

"What's the matter with you ? Come ! Come !"

"Bordelization" - the expression is from the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin - within the lower house leaves more than one perplexed to such an extent that some of LFI, among others, François Ruffin, Clémentine Autain etc., dissociate troublemakers.

The qualities of eloquence were particularly valued for politicians at the time of great orators such Gambetta, Clemenceau...

Insults, intimidation, insulting remarks...were little accepted insofar as they contrasted with the restraint and calm that the Republicans then intended to impose on their speeches and on the manifestations of emotions, conceived as pledges of an "ethics of civic respect and democratic debate".

Léon Gambetta, Jules Ferry, Jean Jaurès, Aristide Briand, Léon Blum… who were nevertheless violently insulted, therefore generally refused to respond on the same level.

In this context, and therefore, at least when it is public, insult, which moreover remains repressed by the press law of 1881, constitutes a form of transgression, a breach of the norms of political well-being. .

So why use insult ?

Doesn't it want to be the weapon of the outsiders ?

Faced with the anger caused by the tweet of Thursday February 9, 2023 from the majority, the right and the RN who summoned him to apologize, Thomas Portes appeared. "I will never give up in front of the bourgeois," he blurted out as he left the hemicycle to his dumbfounded Nupes allies.

The insult thus appears clearly as the weapon of the political outsider fitting into a veritable strategy of scandalization. It allows you to set yourself up as the mouthpiece of the "real" people reduced to silence in the assemblies...

The ways of doing politics have changed under the effect of increased media coverage and the individualization of the political field, which emphasizes singularity more than exemplary or representativeness, and which values ​​a certain exhibition of feelings more than emotional restraint.

But already in 1885, the pamphleteer Henri Rochefort, founder of L'Intransigeant, a socialist newspaper which gradually evolved towards Boulangism, claimed in an interview for Le Matin (October 3, 1885) his desire to undermine political theater and the rules of the game laid down by the establishments?

"The Palais-Bourbon had been transformed into an old-age hospice, where everyone sleeps; now, my duty is to wake up the residents of this branch of Sainte-Périne. […]. And when, at the Palais Bourbon, we'll talk to Ferry, there won't be any more “Mr. President of the Council” as big as his arm, we'll go under his nose, we'll shake his bridle and we can call him “assassin”. parliamentary formulas will have had their day".

Now, ladies and gentlemen, get to work !

THE POPULIST SPEECH OF JOE BIDEN

ON THE STATE OF THE UNION

"WHAT TRUMP PROMISED, I DO IT"?

As one New York Times columnist aptly summed it up, Biden's message is ultimately to say:

" What Trump promised, I do."

A key moment in American political life, the President of the United States' State of the Union address took place on February 7: one of the rare occasions when the three branches of government come together.

The president takes stock of his action and presents his upcoming program live, in front of tens of millions of viewers and a few handpicked guests.

This event, established in 1790, has become, over time, a veritable political spectacle of pomp and ceremonial formalism, punctuated by applause and "standing ovations", especially since Ronald Reagan established the tradition of invite people to the podium. They are often ordinary citizens, honored in the speech for their heroism, or because they embody the exceptional values ​​of America… or even, more pragmatically, an aspect of the policy of the president.

The game consists in having the members of Congress, including those of the opposing party, applaud, even ovation, these heroes and the policy they illustrate.

The particularly moving presence of the mother of Tire Nichols, this young black man beaten to death by the police on January 7, to which all the elected officials paid tribute, was thus an opportunity for Joe Biden to ask Congress to pass his proposed law on police reform.

A Union Divided

Through this speech, which stems from a constitutional duty of the President to inform Congress of the "state of the Union" (Article II, Section 3), it is also a question of demonstrating to the people that the nation is united. Joe Biden concludes his intervention by reaffirming his belief in American exceptionalism, and by proclaiming that the union of the nation is strong “because the people are strong”. However, the show that was given on February 7 was rather that of division.

The president did start his speech on a unified note, congratulating his elected opponents in Congress, including new Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and insisting that Democratic and Republican lawmakers must work together in the House. drafting of laws.

But the issue of raising the federal debt ceiling, which must be voted on by Congress by June in order to be able to pay the debt on the financial markets, sparked hostilities. The most radical Republicans have in fact conditioned their vote on massive cuts in public spending, including social spending.

Joe Biden accused this fringe of the Republican Party of carrying out a form of blackmail and even of wanting to sign the death warrant of the very popular health programs for seniors (Medicare) and retirement insurance (Social Security). The president was obviously ready for a reaction from the opposition. This was not long in coming. The most radical of the elected Republicans did not hesitate to invective and boo the head of state, the elected extremist of Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene particularly signaling herself by shouting “You lie, you are a liar! ".

Improvising, the president then notes ironically that since Greene affirms that he is lying when he says that the Republicans want to bury the social programs… it is therefore that the latter do not wish to question them!

“We seem to agree, we don't touch it ?

We have unanimity then! “, he said mischievously, inviting the assembly to stand for the seniors, thus forcing many elected Republicans to join in the applause.

Economic nationalism and left populism

Beyond this unusual contest between a president and the opposing party, Joe Biden's speech also marks the consecration of a real ideological break with the enthusiasm for free trade and globalization that the two parties have had in common. over the past forty years. Advocating true economic nationalism, the Democratic president takes up his administration's slogan, "Buy American", which echoes Donald Trump's "America First" in 2016.

Hardly surprising for a president who has maintained some of the customs barriers put in place by his predecessor. And signed laws ending outsourcing, relaunched domestic industrial manufacturing and new infrastructure spending, and formalized open competition with China, notably through the CHIPS law on semiconductors or the law on the reduction of electricity. inflation, perceived elsewhere in Europe as protectionism.

Another similarity with Trump: Biden wants to be the defender of the forgotten whom he opposes to an elite, not cultural as the Republicans do, but economic.

He thus denounces the companies which “charge too much” and which “rip off” the little people, from “Big Pharma” to “Big Tech” via credit card companies and airlines, not to mention the billionaires who do not not pay their fair share of taxes. He then asked Congress to pass more regulatory laws (Junk Fee Prevention Act) and to reform taxes, as many measures as the Republican majority, which defends deregulation and tax cuts, will never pass. As one New York Times columnist aptly summed it up, Biden's message is ultimately to say, "What Trump promised, I deliver."

A campaign speech ?

Foreign policy issues, such as Ukraine or China, which nevertheless occupy a large part of the president's agenda, were very quickly skimmed over, Joe Biden choosing to focus on everyday domestic and economic issues, which concern more voters. His goal seems to be the reconquest of the popular white middle classes and blue collar workers, many of whom have abandoned the Democrats for Donald Trump.

In an unfavorable inflationary context, the president stresses that he is in the process of “rebuilding the middle class”, which is no longer in the majority in the country.

It also highlights a 50-year low unemployment rate, including for black and Hispanic workers, as well as job creation in the manufacturing industry “across the country”, “not just on the coast. but also in the middle of the country”. Beyond the figures, he emphasizes the need to “regain pride in what we do. »

It is, for example, the pride of the work of a metal erector, which he makes applaud. Pride's return sounds like a response to Trump's slogan of making America great again. One of the leitmotifs of the speech is that we must "finish the job", an expression repeated a dozen times.

As for social issues such as abortion or gun control, they are briefly mentioned but the president does not expand.

A taste of 2024 ?

On the Republican side, the official answer was given by the former spokesperson for Donald Trump at the White House, Sarah Sanders. She went on about culture war themes, like wokism or trans-identity, which Democrats and the Biden administration supposedly want to impose. According to her, the confrontation no longer takes place between left and right, but between “normality and madness. »

This could raise a smile coming from a party whose majority of elected officials campaigned on the theory of the "Big Lie" and whose most publicized face during the State of the Union speech was that of the notorious conspirator Marjorie Taylor Greene. It is a position which may appeal to the most radicalized base but which will have difficulty in convincing the whole of the population in a general election, because the primaries are played at the extremes, the general elections are often decided at the center, as seen in the 2022 midterms.

As for Joe Biden, who has not yet officially declared himself the candidate for 2024, he has one of the lowest approval ratings in recent history (42%). Even in his camp, 75% of Democratic voters do not want him to run again, in particular because of his age. His luck is that Donald Trump – who has already formalized his candidacy – is even more unpopular.

His only path to re-election is to appear as a reassuring figure in the face of worrying radicalism, but it's a long road full of pitfalls.

WITH HIS CANDIDACY FOR THE PRESIDENCY

NIKKI HALEY CHALLENGES DONALD TRUMP

"I've never lost an election, and I'm not going to start now"

She is the first of a long list of Republicans who are expected to kick off the 2024 campaigns in the coming months. 

They include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen.

Tim Scott of South Carolina. Joe Biden has said, for his part, that he intends to seek re-election in 2024, blocking any scramble for the Democratic nomination.

Ms Haley has regularly bragged about her track record of defying political expectations, saying : "I've never lost an election, and I'm not going to start now".

Upon her arrival at the UN in January 2017, this political leader, then without international experience, clashed with her hard-hitting formulas on explosive subjects.

"You don't put lipstick on a pig," she says of the Iranian nuclear deal, which she will firmly fight, even if it means bullying some of the United States closest European allies in passing. Some of her partners hail the “pragmatism” of this direct and warm woman. But for others, it is too "ideological" and "disconnected from reality" in its approaches.

A “change of generation”

Abroad, the name of this dynamic and ambitious curator is intimately associated with that of the former president, whose spokesperson she was for two years. 

Although anticipated, this announcement is nonetheless a volte-face coming from this former head of Donald Trump's cabinet, who declared two years ago that she would not challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. 

Changing her mind in recent months, the Republican cited, among other things, the country's economic struggles and the need for "generational change," a nod to Trump's age of 76. years.

Challenge Donald Trump

Stuck in a series of cases, former President Donald Trump, candidate since November 15, did not immediately react to Nikki Haley's announcement.

After going it alone for three months, Donald Trump is gradually seeing the ranks of his Republican rivals fill up. Its former vice-president, Mike Pence, its ex-head of diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, the governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin… 

Many Republicans plan to launch themselves in the coming weeks.

A spokesperson for Donald Trump's foreign policy for two years, Nikki Haley will take care to keep the leader at a safe distance despite everything. As during the debates in 2018 around the appointment of conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, accused of sexual assault: contrary to a large part of his camp, she calls to listen to his alleged victims.

Since the end of Trump's term, the attacks have become much more frontal, with Nikki Haley openly criticizing the president's post-election crusade over alleged unproven fraud. "It's time to appoint a Republican who can govern and win a national election," she told Fox News recently.

For Nikki Haley, the threat could also come directly from her state: South Carolina senator Tim Scott is also very openly flirting with a candidacy. But the spotlight is mostly on Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and rising star of the party. He hasn't officially entered the race either. The battle for the Republican nomination therefore promises to be bitter.

Elected, Ms. Haley would be the country's first female president and the first American president of Indian origin.

SEDUCTION SEDUCTION

The dredge before and today.

Nowadays there are plenty of applications to switch to flirt mode thanks to applications like Meetic where you register, just one click to tell the person you like by liking it.

But there are also ways to flirt. Already the first question is to try to see if the person is free or not because in this site there are plenty of married men or married women who pretend to be single they just want to get their shot.

This you will immediately notice because the questions are more about your physique and if you have sex right away if you like blowjobs or pussy licking.

Yes now individuals no longer know how to flirt. Just look at the rate of singles, which is growing and ranges from thirty to fifty, the age at which one would like to settle down. But why because we are in a consumer society a small problem and presto! we throw away the being who shares our life.

And after a new starting point, let's resume a lesson in seduction. Here we go.

First you have to focus on the pick-up spot so as not to get the wrong target. If it's a one-night stand, a champagne bar is enough. But if it's for more choose your place in relation to what you like.

The golfer will hang out at the bar of the club house, the jogger will do the shopping, the doctor the salons of his profession etc... then if it is without specific desire do not choose a restaurant because it is very difficult to hire the conversation take more a bar because the dialogue passes more easily for a man too easy.

''I can buy you a drink'' for a woman it's another woman.

For a young lady, she accidentally bumps into her male or female prey and plays her role of seduction by using neutral but very revealing factors.

Like touch patting the other on the shoulder taking a hand brushing it just a look of a cat them a cat says a lot a soft voice attracts more than a hoarse voice.

For an approach to play with all your senses of your assets, the art of making people laugh is a good approach.

Doubtful body language is very trendy we are no longer looking for an audible conversation but a quick rapprochement, for example to see if a man is receptive as in a man take his tie and put it back in place but that's being a little player you have to ask directly your hand gently on his pants at the tail.

To seduce a woman, blow her neck or brush her bodice by touching her nipples.

The way of dressing is also a seduction because if you wear a turtleneck, a tie shirt closed to the top shows that you are close.

On the contrary, if you have a fluid dress, an open top to see your skin gives a sexy look, a man in a negligent way gives an open look because the open flirt is open...

BEHIND THE WAR BALLS ARE PLAYED

FIRST POWER ISSUES

BETWEEN CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES

Nearly a week after a US fighter jet shot down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic, a new flying object was shot down on Sunday, February 12, 2023. The Pentagon said on Sunday that US and Canadians were planning an operation to try to recover the fourth object.

The first three craft were shot down by US F-22 fighters using AIM-9X missiles, authorities said. The first flying object was a Chinese balloon, about 60 meters high, and "carrying a kind of huge basket weighing more than a ton", according to the Pentagon.

Its size would be comparable to that of three buses. A senior US State Department official said the device had "numerous antennae, an array likely capable of collecting and geolocating communications" , and was "fitted with solar panels large enough to provide the energy required to operate multiple sensors collecting intelligence," the Pentagon said in a press release.

On Monday, February 13, 2023, it is China's turn to accuse the United States of flying balloons "illegally" in its airspace. "Since last year alone, American balloons have flown over China more than 10 times without any permission," Chinese diplomatic spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters. Washington quickly dismissed Beijing's accusations. China also announced on Sunday February 12, 2023 that it had spotted, in turn, a suspicious balloon off its coast.

High-altitude spy episode ?

For Washington, there is no doubt that these are Chinese spy balloons, which entered American territory several days ago. Beijing replies that these are civil aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological. Still, the debris of its various downed objects will be analyzed.

An official of the FBI, the agency responsible for examining them, has also recently indicated that only a “small part” of the surveillance equipment from the first balloon had been recovered. They are being examined at federal police labs in Quantico, Va., he added.

Possible link with tensions around Taiwan

According to specialists, American and Canadian intelligence continuously receive huge amounts of data and are particularly on the lookout for potential missiles, not slow objects like balloons.

US Deputy Defense Secretary Melissa Dalton said on Sunday that after the Chinese balloon was detected, the US air defense adjusted its radar systems to be able to detect smaller, slower-moving objects.

The United States believes the balloon was controlled by the Chinese military and was part of a fleet sent by Beijing over more than 40 countries on five continents for espionage purposes. For some analysts, this could be the start of a major Chinese spy operation to map out foreign military capabilities, ahead of a possible rise in tensions around Taiwan in the years to come.

A real high-flying spy mission, as assured in the press by American officials, or a simple scientific balloon tossed about by the winds ?

Beyond the exchange of arms between the two countries, the incident reminds us that these machines, used for more than fifty years to carry out atmospheric measurements (ozone, CO2, methane, etc.), can also respond to less innocent uses. .

Today's stratospheric balloons are very efficient: they evolve between 18 and 40 kilometers in altitude and the diameter of the largest can reach 130 meters, for a volume of 800,000 m3.

The largest balloons today are capable of carrying a ton of payload. As for autonomy, it can be pushed up to about three months. Ideal for carrying out scientific measurements, but also monitoring operations…

A fierce race for technological innovation

But the most important point according to the Wall Street Journal is that it is not just a question of unidentified flying objects but above all a new stage in the rivalry between the United States and China.

A growing rivalry: the Wall Street Journal recalls that last Friday, the United States Department of Commerce added new Chinese companies to the list of groups with which American companies are no longer allowed to trade.

Washington is thus trying to set up a glacis to hinder the technological development of China. In addition to the measures taken against Huawei and other major Chinese companies, the United States imposed in November 2022 drastic restrictions on the export of advanced semiconductors, in the name of “national security”.

Unprecedented measures which "aim to block the entire Chinese innovation system" and whose consequences - still hard to assess - could be heavy for Xi Jinping, who shows his desire to raise his country to the first place of world powers in all fields by 2049 - the year of the centenary of the seizure of power by the Communists - particularly in tech, a sector at the heart of American ambitions.

So what is trade warfare or espionage ?

"There is a gray area between the two, analyzes Marc Julienne in the article by our colleague Shirley Sitbon. For the Americans, preventing the Chinese from progressing technologically is a question of security".

A vagueness also maintained by the Chinese system, where the links between the government and private companies are sometimes difficult to determine as they can be intertwined in one way or another.

This balloon war only revives the strong tensions between these two rival powers that are the United States and China for a world first place...

HUMANITARIAN AID IN DROPS

IN SYRIA

DUE TO GEOPOLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS

This humanitarian aid is crucial, say the NGOs together, especially in the rebel areas where the situation was already dramatic. Even before the earthquakes, the north-west of Syria was home, according to the UN, to 2.9 million displaced persons and 4 million inhabitants in need of winter assistance.

And yet five days later, humanitarian aid is still struggling to arrive in Syria. While Turkey was able to benefit fairly quickly from international assistance - 95 countries responded to Turkey's request for aid - the Syrian neighbor appears to have been largely forgotten by this wave of support and was initially unable to count than on its Russian ally, then later on the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Egypt.

For what ?

A region torn apart by civil war

The country has been immersed in a civil war for 11 years between the central power led with an iron fist by Bashar Al-Assad and various armed rebellions. A conflict which has gradually isolated Damascus and its authoritarian ruler and which today makes it more difficult to send rescuers to the region.

The earthquake-affected north of Syria is indeed a deeply divided territory. The region is divided into four: the territories controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), mainly Kurdish, those managed by jihadists, the border area under Turkish influence and that subject to the regime of Bashar Al-Assad.

The region affected by the earthquake can be divided into four zones, each controlled by a different group.

On the one hand, the city of Aleppo and its surroundings which are in the hands of Bashar al-Assad's government. On the other hand, the rebel areas with the Idleb region, controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Cham (HTS heir to the Al-Qaeda group), those along the Turkish border with pro-Turkish rebels and those of east, held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

And these four areas are sometimes themselves divided by different factions and militias, describes geographer Jean-François Corty, member of Ifris.

“Each group will try to pull the blanket towards them and take advantage of this situation,” he laments. With the corollary of an instrumentalization of humanitarian aid...

The risk of Turkish blockage

Turkey's attitude is also a not insignificant blocking point in the delivery of food to Syria. The Turks want us to help them first. Erdogan plays part of his re-election on this.

And it is impossible to take the direction of Syria by road from Turkey without the agreement of Ankara. Not to mention the visceral hatred that the Turkish regime has for the Kurdish populations, who still live in the region, and who therefore cannot expect anything from Ankara.

A single crossing point at the Turkish-Syrian border

In addition, the only way to access northwestern Syria is through humanitarian corridors from Turkey, even if "snow and freezing temperatures" complicate the transport of equipment, explained El-Mostafa Benlamlih, coordinator with the UN, Wednesday during a press briefing.

Initially, the United Nations guaranteed the opening of four crossing points. But in 2020, under pressure from Russia and China, allies of the Syrian government, three cross-border crossings were closed.

There is only Bab al Hawa, the only crossing point on the border, guaranteed by a resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations. However, it was affected by the earthquakes, the UN said on Tuesday.

We therefore expect the reopening of the other three points to facilitate the establishment of humanitarian corridors to Turkey. A request relayed Thursday by the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres:

“I would obviously be very happy if the Security Council could find a consensus to authorize more crossing points,” he hoped.

Bashar al-Assad's Syria ostracized

For NGOs and states, the other solution would be to send aid directly from Syrian territory controlled by Damascus. A request that the government of Bashar al-Assad explicitly formulated on Tuesday, urging the international community to come to its aid and promising that this would benefit "all Syrians throughout the territory", including areas held by rebels in Syria, where 5.3 million people are at risk of homelessness, according to the UN.

But the international community has shown itself in all its ambiguity. Faced with the urgency of the situation, the European Union and the United States, which have severed all diplomatic relations with Damascus, seem to be looking for half-hearted solutions. On Thursday, France announced emergency aid to all Syrian regions, while insisting that this did not change Paris ' "political approach" vis-à-vis the Damascus regime.

The same goes for the United States: "We are determined to bring aid to the Syrian people as we have done for years as the first provider of international aid," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken Wednesday.

"But the funds will go to the Syrian people and not to the government in Damascus."

For their part, some Arab countries have reconnected and sent aid to President Bashar al-Assad as he has been ostracized since his exclusion from the Arab League in late 2011.

The United Arab Emirates, the first Gulf country to restore relations with Damascus, has already pledged aid of at least $50 million and sent planes loaded with humanitarian aid. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also pledged aid, including to government-controlled areas.

According to Nick Heras, a researcher at the New Lines Institute, these earthquakes could thus be an opportunity for Bashar al-Assad "to try to advance the process of normalization of his regime with the rest of the Arab world".

"It is imperative that everyone sees this situation for what it is: a humanitarian crisis in which lives are at stake. Please do not politicize it", launched Tuesday February 7 the spokesperson of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke.

MOLDOVA DESTABILIZED BY

THE WAR IN UKRAINE

Influx of refugees, energy crisis, fear of an invasion...

Exhausted by "so many crises", Natalia Gravilita, Prime Minister of the neighboring country of Ukraine, resigned on Friday February 10, 2023. And this after a year and a half in power in this former Soviet republic which is suffering the brunt of the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

As early as February 2022, when the first bombs fell on kyiv, Chisinau had declared a state of emergency throughout Moldovan territory and closed its airspace. A space violated on Friday by the overflight of a Russian cruise missile.

"An unacceptable violation" of airspace according to Chisinau.

The day before, the Moldovan intelligence services had also confirmed information from kyiv that Moscow was planning to overthrow the pro-European government in Chisinau.

In a few weeks, this small country of 2.6 million inhabitants saw an influx of 250,000 refugees. Dependent 100% on Russian gas before the war and regularly deprived of electricity by strikes on Ukrainian installations, it also took the full brunt of the energy crisis which caused inflation to take off (34%).

Extremely dependent on Russia, the small country of 2.6 million inhabitants nestled between Ukraine and Romania suffered a drastic reduction in deliveries from the giant Gazprom after the Russian invasion.

But more than anything, it is the fear of a Russian invasion that has been tensing Chisinau for a year. Part of its territory, Transnistria (500,000 inhabitants), has already been in the hands of separatists since 1991:

nearly 12,000 soldiers in the pay of the Kremlin are stationed in this pro-Russian enclave. 

Maia Sandu accused Moscow of being behind the trafficking of arms, goods, human trafficking or of financing anti-government demonstrations: in short, of waging a "hybrid war".

Threat not denied by Moscow...

On February 3, in a television interview, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, had he not mentioned a potential extension of the war in Ukraine to neighboring Moldova ?

His wrong in his eyes ?

Being in the hands of a pro-European president, Maia Sandu, tickled by "the desire to join NATO".

However, the question is not on the agenda even if the country submitted its application to join the European Union in June 2022.

Appointed this Friday afternoon by the President, the new Prime Minister Dorin Recean, 48, should be confirmed quickly by Parliament.

MORE THAN 19300 DEAD AFTER EARTHQUAKE IN TURKEY AND SYRIA

AND CRITICISM AGAINST ERDOGAN

According to the latest report announced overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, at least 19300 people died in Turkey and Syria after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks that hit the region on Monday. It exceeds this Thursday the 19300 dead, with more than 64000 injured in Turkey and 5000 in Syria. And the chances of survival are dwindling.

According to the latest reports from local authorities, Turkey officially deplores at least 16170 dead and 6444 buildings destroyed. This is the worst toll since the 1999 earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.4 and which left 17000 dead, including a thousand in Istanbul. In Syria, at least 3162 people have lost their lives, both in government-held and rebel areas. In total, the provisional toll stands at 19332 dead.

"The number of dead and injured is expected to increase significantly, with many families still under the collapsed buildings," Raed Saleh, the head of the relief service in northwestern Syria, said on Twitter Thursday morning. .

The Turkish interior minister warned on Tuesday that the next 48 hours would be "crucial" to find any survivors. International aid has started to arrive in Turkey, where national mourning has been declared for seven days.

It has already established itself as one of the ten deadliest of the century, and could exceed the 17000 deaths deplored during the last major earthquake in Turkey, in 1999.

Some Turkish experts even fear a balance sheet close to the 1939 earthquake (34000 dead, the worst in the country for seven centuries) because of the probably very high number of people engulfed under the rubble of thousands of buildings.

Erdogan, strongly criticized, recognizes "gaps"

After the violent earthquake that struck his country on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finds himself under pressure three months before the presidential and legislative elections which were already shaping up to be tight before the disaster. Faced with mounting criticism of the slowness and disorganization of relief, the leader in power since 2003 went to the disaster area on Wednesday and began a mea culpa.

"Of course there are shortcomings, it is impossible to be prepared for such a disaster," he pleaded from the province of Hatay, near the Syrian border.

“We had difficulties at the start with the airports and on the roads, but today it is better and it will be even better tomorrow”, replied the Head of State, Recep Tayyip Erdogan to defuse the anger.

"We have mobilized all our resources, the state is doing its job with Afad [public relief organization, editor's note] and the municipalities concerned with all the means at its disposal", hammered the Turkish president, in difficulty in the polls for re-election in the May 14 presidential election.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power since 2003, announced the distribution of 10000 Turkish liras (494 euros) to each affected family.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan probably remembers that it was the incompetence of the authorities during the last big earthquake in Turkey, in 1999, which led his party to victory three years later. The Prime Minister at the time, Bulent Ecevit, had been the subject of strong criticism for having neglected relief to the populations.

This time, the Head of State immediately declared a maximum level of emergency calling for international assistance.

"Any help needed, whatever it is"

The first teams of foreign rescuers arrived on Tuesday, with dozens of countries offering their services to Ankara including those from the European Union and the Gulf, the United States, China and even Ukraine.

According to Mr. Erdogan, who declared a state of emergency for three months in the ten provinces affected by the earthquake, forty-five countries offered their help.

"An effective response to the emergency could strengthen the head of state and his party, the AKP, by arousing a feeling of national solidarity under the leadership of Erdogan", estimates in a note Wolfango Piccoli, from the consulting firm in political risk Teneo, based in London.

For its part, the opposition claims that the high number of deaths is not only linked to the earthquake, but to poorly regulated and poor quality construction. Most Turkish homes are not built to earthquake-resistant standards, despite a law passed in 2007 that is poorly enforced due to corruption.

And Syria ?

On the Syrian side, the concern of the international community grows as the hours pass. Aid and relief and international in Syria are more difficult to implement due to geopolitical considerations. Emergency aid "should not be politicized", insisted the UN.

However, the United Nations (UN) has received assurances that part of the emergency humanitarian aid "would pass on Thursday, February 10, 2023" through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing point, the only one authorized between Turkey and northwestern Syria, said the UN special envoy in Geneva, Geir Pedersen. In Syria, however, the appeal launched by the authorities in Damascus was mainly heard by its Russian ally.

According to the army, more than 300 Russian soldiers are already on the spot to help the relief. On Tuesday, Washington said it was working with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Syria, insisting that " its funds will of course go to the Syrian people, not the [Damascus] regime"...

PRESIDENT ZELENSKY VISITS EUROPE

WITH ITS FIGHTER AIRPLANE REQUEST

FACING A NEW RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

Volodymyr Zelensky took the opportunity to once again urged his Western allies to provide him with the "necessary weapons" to stop the Russian invasion, including fighter planes in front of British parliamentarians.

"I ask you and the world - simple, yet very important words: fighter jets for Ukraine, wings for freedom."

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has asked the British army to study the possibility of delivering planes to the Ukrainian army, Downing Street said on Wednesday, assuring however that this could only constitute a "long-term solution". .

Ahead of the meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Rishi Sunak, Downing Street indicated that London would further strengthen the training provided by the British army to Ukrainian soldiers.

Pilots and Marines will thus be trained to use the equipment provided by NATO – this is a long-standing request from kyiv. This commitment is in addition to the 10,000 Ukrainians already trained in the last six months, and the 20,000 who are due to train this year.

The Prime Minister also renews his commitment to supply Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.

The risk of a new Russian offensive

According to a note from the British intelligence services published on Tuesday February 7, 2023, Russia is currently increasing the sending of armed forces to eastern Ukraine to carry out a new offensive.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu yesterday boasted of his army's progress after a strategic meeting with Russian top brass: "Currently, the fighting is progressing successfully in the areas" of Bakhmout and Vougledar which are disputed by the two camps for many months.

kyiv expects Russia to target northeastern Kharkiv and southern Zaporizhia regions in what it anticipates will be a major Moscow offensive designed to tip the balance of power into conflict.

In an interview with Reuters, Oleksiy Danilov, director of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council, said Russian troops were assessing Ukrainian defensive capabilities in the partially Russian-occupied Zaporizhia region to form a land bridge between eastern Ukraine and the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

The Russians would like to launch the assault around February 24, a year to the day after the outbreak of war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured during his televised address on February 5, 2023.

Several hundred thousand additional Russian soldiers "are completing their training on the border with Ukraine", said Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian Minister of Defense.

The Ukrainians are not the only ones to wave the red flag of a major offensive being prepared in Moscow. Julianne Smith, the American ambassador to NATO, also mentioned it at the beginning of February to insist on the "urgency" of sending tanks to Ukraine as quickly as possible to contain the Russian assault.

Even Russian President Vladimir Putin alluded to it, without speaking openly about a major offensive.

“He warned the army general staff that he wanted the territories lost by Russia in the Donetsk region [à la fin de la contre-offensive russe, NDLR] to be recaptured before March,” underlines Sim Tack, a military analyst for Forces Analysis, a conflict monitoring firm.

There are indeed "new troops who are redeployed to several places on the front line", noted this expert.

They are essentially soldiers who were doing their training in Belarus after being called to war during the partial mobilization of September 2022.

But Russia is not just sending more men. Artillery and, above all, new tanks are also heading towards the front.

THE WORLD IS HEADING TOWARDS

"A WIDER WAR" ACCORDING TO THE UN

"We started the year 2023 with in our sights a convergence of challenges never seen in our lifetime", was alarmed Monday, February 6, 2023 the Secretary General of the UN before the General Assembly.

The group of scientists managing the doomsday clock also recently estimated that humanity has never been so close to the end of the world, now at 90 seconds before midnight, he recalled, including seeing an alarm signal.

"We need to wake up and get to work", he insisted, listing the pressing issues for 2023.

At the very top of this list, the war in Ukraine.

Prospects for peace continue to dwindle.

The risks of further escalation and carnage continue to grow.

"I'm afraid the world is not sleepwalking into a larger war, but I'm afraid it's actually doing it with its eyes wide open", he said, before worry about other threats to peace.

MORE THAN 5000 DEAD IN POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE

IN TURKEY AND SYRIA

The first quake of magnitude 7.8 occurred in southeastern Turkey, about 60 km as the crow flies from the Syrian border; Dozens of aftershocks followed, before a new 7.5 magnitude quake in southeastern Turkey.

Several archaeological sites were affected in Syria and in particular the citadel of Aleppo.

In Turkey, nearly 3000 buildings have collapsed, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The toll continues to rise, with huge numbers of people remaining trapped under the collapsed buildings which number in the thousands. The rain and snow, which fell in some places in abundance, and the expected drop in temperatures will make the situation of people who find themselves homeless, as well as the work of the relief workers, even more difficult.

And the numbers keep climbing.

In Turkey, the death toll currently stands at 3419 and that of the injured at 20534, according to Vice President Fuat Oktay.

In Syria, at least 1602 people have died and 3,640 have been injured, according to Syrian authorities and rescue workers in rebel areas. In the government-controlled part of Syria, the death toll has risen to 812 dead and 1449 injured, according to the health ministry.

In areas under rebel control, the White Helmets (civil defense volunteers) reported 790 dead and more than 2200 injured.

The balance sheet is still likely to evolve in the affected cities, Adana, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir in particular. In Iskenderun and Adiyaman, public hospitals collapsed under the effect of the earthquake, which occurred at a depth of about 17.9 kilometers. The bad weather in this mountainous region paralyzes the main airports around Diyarbakir and Malatya, where it continues to snow very heavily, leaving the survivors haggard, in their pajamas outside in the cold.

The WHO itself said that it expected the worst and feared "tolls eight times higher than the initial numbers".

The first earthquake, which occurred overnight from Sunday to Monday, took place at the level of the East Anatolian fault, in the east of Turkey, where two tectonic plates meet. It is a major tectonic border between Anatolia and Europe.

The first earthquake was followed by numerous aftershocks, including a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, which occurred late Monday morning.

Turkey sits on one of the most active seismic zones in the world. Several earthquakes have occurred in recent years in the region. This earthquake is the largest in Turkey since the earthquake of August 17, 1999, which caused the death of 17000 people, including a thousand in Istanbul.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose reaction to this tragedy will most likely be closely watched before the May 14 election which promises to be very tight, called for national unity. A seven-day national mourning has been declared.

“We hope that we will come out of this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least possible damage,” he tweeted, adding that Turkey had received aid from 45 countries.

Condolences poured in from all over the world, from American President Joe Biden to his Russian counterparts Vladimir Putin to the still Chinese Xi Jinping, passing by Pope Francis who said he was "deeply saddened", as well as offers of humanitarian and medical aid...

AIRPLANES... AND STILL ON THE BED

UKRAINIAN SIDE ?

Ukraine's allies have taken new steps in military support to Ukraine by pledging to provide heavy tanks and longer-range rockets, among other things. The latest, Portugal, which has said it is willing to send Leopard 2 heavy tanks to Ukraine, but which must first work with Germany to restore some of its armor to working order.

Ukraine will receive armored vehicles from the United States and France: Bradley tanks for the former and AMX 10 RC, light armored vehicles, for the latter. The French president has promised to be at the side of the Ukrainians "until the return of peace in Europe".

In January 2023, Ukrainian President Zelenski insistently demanded Leopard 2 heavy tanks from Germany, after much hesitation Berlin accepted – somewhat forced – the re-export of about fifteen of its tanks.

In an interview granted this Sunday to the German weekly Bild, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted on revealing the existence of a "consensus" with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky around the use of weapons supplied by Westerners. These should not be used to carry out attacks on Russian territory, the Chancellor said. “There is a consensus on this point,” he said. For fear of becoming part of the war...

But does this condition allow kyiv to always demand more ?

After artillery and tanks, western planes for kyiv ?

Since the United States and Germany announced last week that they would supply Ukraine with heavy combat tanks, kyiv has been pressing to receive fourth-generation fighter jets, such as the American F-16.

If Joe Biden, like Poland and Germany, indicated that F-16 deliveries were not on the agenda, Emmanuel Macron opened the door more ajar to discussions on the case of fighter jets. Others, on the other hand, say they are ready to do so, including Slovakia, which could sell Soviet Mig-29s, or the Netherlands, which has begun replacing its fleet of F-16s with F-35s, the fighter plane claimed by President Zelensky.

What red lines ?

It is clear that the red lines set by the allies, for fear of escalation with Moscow, jumped one after the other over the course of the conflict: reluctant at first, the United States ended up promising kyiv their very efficient Patriot air defense system, and very recently tanks, like several European countries.

After opposing on Monday a categorical refusal to send US F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, did President Joe Biden not say on Tuesday that he was “going to talk” to his counterpart ?

Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky about his pressing demands for fighter planes and long-range missiles ?

Will Joe Biden's position change once again ?

Because the Ukrainians have understood well how to maneuver with Joe Biden “For each first request, you have to fight against the NO first. That means no as it is today […]

I remind you that with the German Leopard tank, it was no at first and now we have a coalition of tanks”, put into perspective Tuesday, January 31 at Paris Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.

Just like delivering heavy tanks to kyiv, the question of fighter jets will animate the discussions and divide the Western allies. And once again it is the Americans who will sort of decide for the Europeans.

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was however very clear, during an interview dated January 29 granted to the newspaper Tagesspiegel, to supply Ukraine with fighter planes.

"The question of combat aircraft does not even arise. I can only advise against getting into a constant bidding war when it comes to weapon systems",he said.

"NATO is not at war with Russia", the German Chancellor further specified.

EX-NATO GENERAL PETR PAVEL

ELECTED PRESIDENT OF CZECHIA

General Petr Pavel, a former high-ranking NATO officer, defeated populist billionaire Andrej Babis.

Posing as a "peace" candidate, the latter had caused an outcry by declaring that he would not send Czech troops to help Poland or the Baltic countries as part of NATO's collective defense.

He succeeds head of state Milos Zeman, a controversial politician, who had close ties with Moscow before flip-flopping when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Petr Pavel, 61, who won the election with 58% of the vote, promised to "restore order" in this country of 10.5 million inhabitants, a member of NATO.

"I can't ignore that people are feeling more and more chaos, disorder and uncertainty, that the state has somehow ceased to function," he said on his campaign website.

"We have to change that. We have to respect the rules valid for everyone. We need a general sweep," he insisted.

With a neatly trimmed white beard and white hair, the 60-year-old rarely smiled during the campaign, which was acrimonious and marked by controversy.

A communist past

Petr Pavel attended a military high school and then a military university. He joined the Communist Party - a move his opponents still blame him for - and began a rapid rise through the ranks of the military. He is also accused of having wanted to become a military intelligence agent.

When communism fell in 1989, Petr Pavel left the party but continued his intelligence training.

“For 33 years, I participated in the democratization of our country and campaigned for a pro-Western turn,” defended Petr Pavel.

"I believe that my actions clearly show what values ​​I defend and that I am ready to fight to preserve them," he said again.

NATO Commander

Petr Pavel is a hero of the war in the former Yugoslavia during which he notably helped to free French soldiers.

He then became Chief of the Czech General Staff, and from 2015 to 2018 held the post of Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, the highest post of military official in the Atlantic Alliance.

He promised to be an independent president, uninfluenced by party politics, to continue supporting aid to war-torn Ukraine, and to support kyiv's bid to join the EU.

"Of course, Ukraine must first meet all the conditions to become a member, such as progress in the fight against corruption. But I think it has the right to have the same chances that we had in the past,” he said.

Among other pledges, Petr Pavel vowed to be an independent president, uninfluenced by party politics, to continue supporting aid to war-torn Ukraine, and to support kyiv's bid for membership of the EU.

Although his role is essentially ceremonial in the Czech Republic, the head of state appoints the government, chooses the governor of the central bank and the constitutional judges, and assumes supreme command of the armed forces.

Mr Pavel will be the fourth president of the Czech Republic since it became an independent state after a peaceful split with Slovakia in 1993, four years after Czechoslovakia abandoned its communist rule.

BUGNES OF LYON

WORLD CAPITAL OF GASTRONOMY

Traditional French cuisine of Lyonnaise for Mardi Gras , Bugnes

The Bugnes are delicious, easy and quick to make !

To prepare fluffy dunes, here is the recipe:

Number of people 8

Preparation time 20 minutes

Cooking time 15 minutes

Degree of difficulty Very easy

Cheap Cost

ingredients

500 g sifted flour

200 g of soft butter

6 eggs

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

the zest of an untreated lemon or two teaspoons of lemon juice

1 generous soup picking rum

75 g caster sugar

1 pinch of fine salt

frying oil

icing sugar

Proceed in this way

Remove the butter from the cold 1 hour before to soften.

In a large salad bowl, mix flour, powdered sugar, salt and yeast.

Make a well, and split the butter

Put it in the well and gradually slide the flour on while mixing.

Make a hollow, break it, one by one, the eggs and mix each time

Add the rum at the end.

Grate the zest of the washed and dried lemon (or two teaspoons of lemon juice), mix again.

Collect a ball in the bowl, cover with a cloth and leave 3 hours in a cool corner but not in the fridge.

Then divide the dough into 8 pieces that you put on a lightly floured board. Spread each dough in rectangle or square.

Cut with a wheel the shapes you want: rectangles, triangles, squares, diamonds, ribbons, everything except circles.

Cover the cut-outs with a large clean cloth until frying.

Heat a good amount of oil, pastries must cook without interference.

When they are golden blond on all sides, remove them without waiting on paper towels.

Sprinkle generously with icing sugar and serve immediately before they cool.

Have a good meal !!

BEYONCE WORLD TOUR

"THE RENAISSANCE TOUR"

Beyoncé will pass in France on May 26 at the Stade de France - the same day as the French "queen" Aya Nakamura at the Accor Arena -, then at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille on June 11. The official partner of the Live Nation tour, announces a presale on Friday February 3 at 10 a.m. and the sale of tickets on Tuesday February 7 at 10 a.m.

The Renaissance Tour will also pass through Germany, Belgium, England, and many American cities. A total of 41 dates have so far been announced, including 24 in the United States.

Millimeter choreographies

Fans are still waiting for clips from her album Renaissance, released on July 29. Many performances on his new titles will be on the program for this new tour, with precise choreography and spectacular costumes. Beyoncé hasn't performed since her last On The Run Tour 2 with husband Jay-Z in 2018.

Beyoncé is also expected at the Grammy Awards ceremony which will take place on the night of Sunday to Monday February 6, 2023. She is the most nominated artist this year, and hopes to win the trophy for the first time in her career. Album of the Year, for Renaissance.

Beyoncé gave an exceptional private concert in Dubai on January 21 for the inauguration of a hotel paid nearly 24 million dollars. None of the songs from his new album Renaissance were played.

ALSO DENOUNCE THE PERSECUTION

OF 360 MILLION CHRISTIANS WORLDWIDE

One in seven Christians

Indeed the finding is clear: more than 360 million Christians were "heavily persecuted and discriminated against" because of their faith in the world in 2022 and North Korea is the worst country for Christians, according to a report by the Open Doors NGO published Wednesday, January 18. This Protestant NGO publishes an annual "global index" of the persecution of Christians, listing all attacks, ranging from "discreet daily oppression" to "the most extreme violence". This annual report reveals a global phenomenon of considerable magnitude.

Twice as many as thirty years ago

Between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022, "more than 360 million" Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Baptists, Evangelicals, Pentecostals from 76 countries were "heavily persecuted in the world, i.e. one Christian in seven". , said Patrick Victor, director of Portes Ouvertes France, during a press briefing.

A number identical to the year 2022. But for thirty years, "the persecution has spread" with today "76 countries with strong persecution against 40" listed in the first index of the NGO in 1993, underlined Guillaume Guennec.

In addition, "the persecution is intensifying in the countries concerned," he added.

In 2022, 5,621 Christians were killed.

The NGO also recorded "4,542 Christians detained" (including 1,750 in India), against 4,277 the previous year, and "5,259 Christians kidnapped" (including 4,726 in Nigeria), against 3,829. The total number churches closed, attacked, destroyed stands at 2,110, down (5,110 in 2021).

All persecutions combined, North Korea rose to the top of the ranking, dethroning Afghanistan. Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Sudan follow.

"80 Christians sentenced" in Iran

Over the past thirty years, three trends have been observed. "The African continent is marked by a rise in power of Islamic extremism", with 26 countries with strong persecution against seven in 1993.

In addition, "Christians are often the victims of religious or ideological nationalism", adds the NGO, citing China, since 2017, or even India, with an "explosion of violence". Finally, the organization deplores "the Christian exodus" in the Middle East: "the abuses of (the organization) Islamic State have encouraged Christians to flee Iraq and Syria".

Totalitarianism, religious nationalism, jihadism, Islamic and clan oppression, corruption are the factors of this persecution, analyzes Open Doors.

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DELIVERY OF HEAVY TANKS TO UKRAINE ?

Germany will authorize the delivery of Leopard tanks to the Ukrainian army.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to deliver Leopard 2 heavy battle tanks to Ukraine and allow allied countries to do the same, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, while the United States may they too send tanks to Kyiv to help it against the Russian offensive.

The information was welcomed by Ukraine, which had long been asking, through the voice of its President Volodimir Zelensky, for an acceleration of arms deliveries and the dispatch of tanks by its Western allies.

According to the German newspaper Der Spiegel, which first reported the decision from Berlin, the delivery concerns at least one squadron of Leopard 2 A6s. A squadron is traditionally made up of fourteen vehicles. This decision comes a few days after a meeting between NATO allies which did not lead to an agreement on sending heavy tanks to Ukraine.

Germany was facing increased pressure from several European countries, such as Poland, to allow them to supply Kyiv with Leopard tanks and also send its vehicles to help Ukraine in the face of Russia's offensive .

After the Germans, here are the Americans.

A few hours after the announcement made by Berlin of the forthcoming delivery of Leopard 2 heavy tanks to the Ukrainian army, the United States confirmed this Wednesday afternoon the shipment of M1 Abrams model tanks.

Logic: according to the German press, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's announcement only came after discussions with Washington around a joint commitment. 31 Abrams tanks will be sent to Ukraine, a senior American official announced on Wednesday evening, "in line with our efforts to provide Ukraine with the capabilities it needs to continue to better defend itself".

How many tanks ?

Of the 3,500 Leopard 2 tanks in the world, more than 2,000 are in use in 13 European countries. While it is true that Germany has drastically reduced the number of its main battle tanks to a measly 6-7% of 1989 stocks, it could still spare some of its more than 300 Leopard 2 tanks in service, even if only 100 to 150 are ready to use.

The Armed Forces could potentially spare its 19 Leopard 2A5 models used only for practice, along with a few dozen others if politically prioritized and replaced with industry stock later. Together, Germany could then supply about fifty Leopard 2 tanks in a few weeks. Not to mention the 180 older, less powerful Leopard 1 tanks that are still in industry inventory.

The firepower, capabilities and mobility of the Leopard 2s promise a lot to the decimated fleet of the Ukrainians, helpless in this sector against the Russian armada. Impressive technical sheet

Built in series from the 1970s, the Leopard 2 is not the ultimate weapon but it remains a machine with impressive properties. It can roll and fire its shells from its 120mm gun at the same time. With its 450 km range and especially its 1500 horsepower, the Leopard 2 is capable of pushing its top speed up to 70 km/h.

It will still be necessary to deliver them in sufficient numbers and to accompany the expedition with the necessary efforts in terms of preparation, underline the observers.

The United States, for their part, will deliver 31 Abrams tanks.

This heavy tank which features a 120mm gun is the mainstay of the US Army and has been continuously improved since its introduction in 1981.

The announcement is part of an American support program for Ukraine, which has been reinforced for weeks. On January 6, the administration pledged to deliver new aid of 3 billion dollars to Ukraine. At the same time, the government decided on the shipment to Kyiv of hundreds of lighter armored combat vehicles.

A turning point in the conflict ?

At the end of the afternoon, Joe Biden declared at a press conference that the United States would deliver 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. "To strengthen their positions on the battlefield, [the Ukrainians] must be able to carry out maneuvers in open terrain and to defend themselves against the Russian aggressor", specified the president.

The delivery of heavy tanks becomes an alternative solution which should make it possible to open new breaches in the Russian system. It is indeed for the Ukrainians to pierce the concrete wall built by the Kremlin whose forces are always capable of winning as shown by the battle of Soledar.

At the end of the morning this Wednesday, following the German decision, the Ukrainian presidency welcomed the future delivery of the 14 Leopard tanks. While urging Westerners to provide more to fight against Russian soldiers. "A first step has been taken", commented on Telegram Andriï Iermak, the head of the presidential administration who called for the implementation of an international "coalition" to organize the supply of heavy tanks to his country. Finally adding: “we need a lot of Leopards”.

"This is going to become a real punch of democracy against autocracy," Andriy Yermak said via messaging app Telegram.

TWO DEADLY ATTACKS

IN EAST JERUSALEM

The first took place on Friday January 27, 2023 in the evening, near a synagogue, and the second took place this Saturday, January 28, 2023 in the morning, near an archaeological site in the City of David.

The day after a first shooting that killed seven people on Friday evening in East Jerusalem (Israel), the city was again targeted this Saturday.

A father and son were injured in a second attack near an archaeological site.

Facts

In the first shooting, which took place on the evening of Friday January 27, a 21-year-old Palestinian man went near a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood during Shabbat prayers and started to shoot at those present.

Seven of them were killed.

Following a chase and exchange of fire with the police, the perpetrator was shot dead.

For the police chief, Kobi Shabtai, it is "one of the worst attacks" suffered by Israel in recent years.

East Jerusalem experienced a second attack this Saturday, January 28, in the morning. It took place near an archaeological site in the City of David, in the Silwan district and injured two people, a 47-year-old father and his 23-year-old son.

The assailant was "neutralized and injured" by bystanders who held a license to carry weapons, according to an Israeli police statement.

Heavy balance sheets, unseen for years, the bloody climax of four weeks of tension between Israelis and Palestinians.

One of the two 13-year-old attackers

Regarding the author of the first attack, little information had filtered about him on Saturday morning. Investigators arrested forty-two people on the sidelines of the shooting. Some of them are family members of the 21-year-old assailant or residents of his neighborhood.

The perpetrator of the second shooting this Saturday is another Palestinian. The police said it was a 13-year-old boy. He was quickly arrested by Israeli security forces.

Cascading reactions

The attack on Jerusalem "is a natural reaction to the crimes of the occupation against our Palestinian people", commented Hamas, while Binyamin Netanyahu promised "immediate measures". US President Joe Biden has slammed an "atrocious terrorist attack" and an "attack on the civilized world".

The head of the American diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, must visit Israel and the West Bank on Monday and Tuesday to insist, according to Washington, on "the urgent need to take de-escalation measures".  

DESPITE A NUMBER UP BY 32%

ONE MORE LAW TO CONTROL

IMMIGRATION IN DANGER

"The effects of the health crisis, which marked the migratory flows in 2020 and 2021, are now partially erased", explained yesterday the Ministry of the Interior.

In total, 34,029 undocumented migrants were regularized (+7.8% compared to 2021), while 15,396 deportations were pronounced, including 3,615 delinquent foreigners. Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, 65,833 displaced people have found refuge in France.

Regular or not, immigration again broke records last year, not even counting the forced exodus of Ukrainians.

For decades, the subject has not ceased to worry. However, nothing changes, everything gets worse: the makeshift camps are multiplying, tensions in certain neighborhoods or territories are rising dangerously and the links with the increase in delinquency are obvious.

This report comes as the government will bring forward a highly sensitive bill in March. "Its title - bill 'to control immigration, improve integration' - is an ode to 'at the same time'", analyzes a journalist Paul Chaulet.

A balancing act of "at the same time"

The debate on the immigration bill promises to be a little more delicate than expected for the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. Presented next Wednesday in the Council of Ministers, the text will be examined in the Senate in March then in the National Assembly, in May or June.

As it stands, the text transmitted to the Council of State provides for a series of measures to facilitate expulsions, especially of "delinquent" foreigners, a "structural" reform of the asylum system and an integration component, in particular for homeless workers. papers.

"To control immigration, improve integration", summarizes the title of the future law whose executive boasts "balance"

A text that results from a subtle balance.

To speak to the right, he intends to facilitate the measures for the removal of foreigners in an irregular situation, while the executive is accused of not doing enough on the obligations to leave French territory, while also creating a new one-year residence permit for workers in an irregular situation in shortage occupations according to the recurring demands of the left.

Find an agreement with LR

This text must be screened in March by the Senate, under the control of a right hostile to the project, then at the approach of summer in the National Assembly.

And, in addition to the burning issue of pensions, this other major text for the government, on the sovereign aspect, needs the LR vote to obtain a majority.

Except that the task promises to be particularly complex with Les Républicains. Because the vast majority of LR deputies are already expressing reluctance on this text, with a red line: the residence permit for jobs in tension, considered as an opening of the floodgates

"Parliamentary logic would like the text to pass first to the Assembly. So what is the purpose of sending this text first to the Senate, if not to try to find an agreement with Les Républicains?", pretends to question a source familiar with the matter, who believes that the Senate is the "key" to the future of the text.

Its integration component could be reduced to a bare minimum after the upper room washing machine, with the target of the measure of creation of a residence permit "jobs in tension", synonymous at LR with a wave of massive regularizations.

The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin however affirmed at the end of December that “everything that the LRs have always asked for, we offer it”.

The right wants to go even further on evictions

On Thursday, on the occasion of the publication of annual immigration statistics, his only position was on security grounds dear to the right: "Priority has been given to foreign offenders: 3,615 foreign offenders have expelled in 2022 (…) i.e. twice as many" as in 2021.

His ministry recalled on this occasion that the text was precisely intended to circumvent the "brakes" to expulsions, in particular "the existence of remedies" against them.

“Certain” measures, those favoring expulsions, “are going in the right direction but they are very largely insufficient”, has already swept the new president of the Republicans Éric Ciotti, who assured on January 18 that he would vote “against”.

Like his entire political family, which advocates tougher immigration, he felt that the government was "pretending to impose tougher measures". "It's total war," insists an LR deputy, who is already calling for a restriction on family reunification or the halving of student visas.

And what about the National Rally ?

And let's already apply the plethora of existing laws instead of giving new bills to the media !!!

SCANDAL AMONG DEMOCRATS

AFTER THE DISCOVERY OF NEW CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS AT JOE BIDEN

Five additional pages of confidential documents were indeed found in Joe Biden's family home, the White House said on Saturday, in the room adjacent to the garage. They would a priori concern Ukraine (before the war) and Iran according to the American media. These new discoveries, which date from the vice-presidency of Joe Biden under Barack Obama, were made after the visit to the Thursday evening, from presidential counsel Richard Sauber. The representatives of the Ministry of Justice accompanying him “immediately” took possession of these finds.

Before this week, several documents were discovered in November in an office in Washington, then at the end of December in his private residence in Wilmington, while for 45 years, American presidents and vice-presidents have been obliged to transmit, at the end of their mandate, all of their emails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives.

A special prosecutor for the investigation

In a solemn declaration to the press, the Attorney General (Minister of Justice), Merrick Garland, announced the appointment of a special adviser to investigate the case. This is Robert Hur, former prosecutor of Maryland and ex-executive of the ministry, also passed through the private sector.

The White House, for its part, communicated without delay about these new documents, recalling however that former President Donald Trump, too, was in the sights of justice for having brought confidential papers into his residence. in Florida.

Presidential counsel Richard Sauber reported on the update in a statement released Saturday. He indicates that he went to Donald Trump's successor to supervise the transmission to justice of a first set of confidential documents, found there on Wednesday. With authorization, additional excavations were thus carried out in this other room of the house, leading to these new finds, the same day that the United States Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland, appointed an independent prosecutor to investigate previous discoveries made at the house. the current president.

A lack of transparency?

Last November, other documents were discovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, in one of Joe Biden's former offices, and immediately entrusted to justice. However, the information was only revealed to the public on Monday, January 9, 2023, which is already worth criticizing the White House for its lack of transparency.

In addition to this criticism, the discovery of these additional documents could well compromise the political future of the American president.

In the Democratic ranks, where there is a united front around the president, this situation causes some embarrassment. “Any breach of security protocols regarding the storage and processing of classified information is obviously a serious matter,” said elected official Jamie Raskin, in a press release.

"Irresponsible"

The case hurts all the more as his predecessor is also in the sights of justice for having taken boxes of documents when leaving the White House. An attitude described as “irresponsible” by Joe Biden in the fall.

And it could also indirectly discredit Democratic criticism of Donald Trump, who targeted him for the hundreds of secret documents taken to his home in Mar-a-Lago.

Blessed bread for Republicans, who do not hesitate to recall that Biden had theatrically deemed "unacceptable" the retention of classified documents by Donald Trump in the program 60 Minutes.

A politically explosive file

The Republican opposition has been quick to denounce the Democratic leader's actions, picking up on a question thrown at Joe Biden by a journalist from the popular conservative network Fox News, suggesting that he could have left these documents next to his favorite car, a Corvette. "President Biden protects his Corvette better than confidential documents", criticized Republican elected official Buddy Carter on Friday, just before his colleagues announced the opening of an investigation in Congress on this file. They also denounce a justice at double speed.

With their new majority in the House of Representatives, the Republicans intend to exploit any potential Democratic flaw, with the 2024 presidential election in their sights. The opposition is already planning to launch an investigation in the House of Representatives.

There is no doubt that this affair is tarnishing the image of the president, who promised to remove the mystery about a possible candidacy at the start of the year.

Even if the White House pleads “inadvertence”, it is its silence in this affair which makes things delicate for Joe Biden who had nevertheless gained seven points of popularity in seven months.

HOW TO BEST MANAGE YOUR BREAKUP ?

Sometimes we leave, and sometimes we are left.

How do you end a long-lasting exclusive relationship ?

Do not imagine that it is easy and comfortable even if it is on your own initiative that you break up for other adventures.

Here is the reason for this little piece of writing :

realize that leaving can be as difficult as being left.

Why ?

1° This approach requires first of all courage because how to really explain to the other our departure without hurting him too much. It's not obvious you understand it well unless you tell him the worst nonsense like you have no ambition, you're a phew in the end...

2° You have to work a lot on yourself so as not to contact your ex again asking him to come back when you want something else elsewhere.

3 ° And in addition to wanting to get back in touch, it's risky because yes your relationship can resume but inevitably you will think back to what made you leave during the days of yelling. Always difficult to pick up the pieces in a couple, you must be aware of it.

4° But in the hard times post-breakup, you will have doubts because who to confide in now, who to ask for advice. You will be alone with your problems... and no one will take you in their arms to comfort you.

5° If you have lived for months in a relationship with a person, you will necessarily have lots of memories with him.

Everything reminds us of each other once we have ended our story.

A song, a restaurant, a street name...

So expect to see something spring up anywhere, in your ears, your eyes or under your feet that will remind you of your ex.

6° Getting dumped seems to be more difficult than the opposite. And yet breaking up of your own free will without a common agreement makes you bear a heavy responsibility because you know full well that you will make the other person suffer who did not expect it!

7° It takes time to turn the page and tell yourself that if you made this decision it is not without reasons. And our successive loves build us so that we can know what we really want.