UNDERGROUND CHINESE POLICE STATIONS

 IN UK AND USA

The Foreign Office "notified the Chinese Embassy that any function relating to such 'police stations' in the UK was unacceptable and that they should not operate under any circumstances", said the Secretary of State to Security Tom Tugendhat in a written statement to Parliament released on Tuesday.

In response, Chinese authorities promised to shut them down, according to the secretary of state's statement. The presence of such antennas has been mentioned in the United Kingdom but also in France or the United States, but China has always denied their existence. The UK Home Office and London police had launched initial investigations after human rights group Safeguard Defenders documented the existence of the places last year.

There would be three or even four in the United Kingdom, according to Mr. Tugendhat. He said police visited every suspicious location and "no illegal activity" was identified.

"We believe that the police and public oversight has had an effect," said the Secretary of State. "However, these 'police stations' were established without our permission and however low the level of administrative activity carried out, they will have worried and intimidated those who have left China to find safety and freedom in the UK." , he adds.

From the golden age to the rotten age

In April, The Times newspaper published an article about Lin Ruiyou, a Chinese businessman with connections to the British Conservative Party, running a food delivery business in the borough of Croydon, south London and operating also as an undeclared Chinese police station.

The Chinese Embassy in London then claimed to have already repeated "repeatedly that there are no so-called police stations abroad" and criticized the dissemination of "false accusations".

After the "golden age" desired by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015, relations between London and Beijing have deteriorated markedly in recent years:

Due in particular to the repression of the anti-democracy movement in Hong Kong, a former British colony, the fate of the Uyghur Muslim minority and suspicions of espionage relating to the telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei.

SECRET RESEARCH PROGRAMS

ON UFO'S IN THE UNITED STATES ?

In an article from the scientific site The Debrief (in English) published Monday, June 5, a former American intelligence agent claims that programs are underway in the United States to exploit material from UFO crashes, "unidentified flying objects ", now referred to as "PAN" ("Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena").

Experiments that would have been hidden from Congress.

David Charles Grusch served in the armed forces in Afghanistan, before working at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA).

He was notably assigned, from 2019 to 2021, to the team responsible for investigating UFOs. The ex-soldier assures that the American authorities have collected, in recent decades, "intact and partially intact" devices. These are "non-human" elements, that is to say of unknown or extraterrestrial origin, "according to their shape" and their "unique" characteristics, such as "their radiological signature".

In a file dated April 6, 2023, stamped "Department of Defense (DOD)", the officer explains that he tried to inform his hierarchy about the existence of secret American programs. According to him, these works have been practiced for decades.

As early as July 2021, the whistleblower is providing classified information to the Inspector General of the Department of Defense (DOD-IG). Almost a year later, in May 2022, David Charles Grusch filed a complaint with the intelligence department. The reason ?

He was allegedly pressured to remain silent.

Also according to the whistleblower, this "classified information" would have been "abusively withheld" or "hidden" from Congress by agents "to deliberately and intentionally thwart the legitimate monitoring", by parliamentarians, of the UFO analysis program .

Not all experts are convinced.

“So far, Grusch has only reported hearsay and documents he has seen, tempers Avi Loeb, physicist at Harvard, To make scientific progress, we need access to data and materials.

These revelations come three years after the publication of a Pentagon report on UFOs.

This document confirmed the existence of more than a hundred unexplained "aerial phenomena" over the past twenty years.

A DELICIOUS STRAWBERRY MOUSSE

For 10 people

Ingredients

For the strawberry coulis

Strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and cut into 2-500 g (about 2 cups)

Sugar-50 g (¼ cup)

Lemon juice or kirsch-15 ml (1 tbsp)

For the gelatin and cream

Gelatin-7 sheets

Cream 35%-400 g (1 ¾ cup)

For the Italian meringue

Sugar-100 g (½ cup) + 15 ml (1 tbsp)

Water-60 ml (¼ cup)

Large egg whites, at room temperature - 2 or 60 g

Lemon juice-5 ml (1 tsp)

For mounting

whipped cream-to taste

Strawberries-

Preparation

For the strawberry coulis

In a bowl, mix the strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice. Let it rest for a few hours (preferably in the fridge overnight) to extract the juice from the fruit.

Mix the ingredients until a homogeneous mixture is obtained and pass the coulis through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the pips.

For the gelatin and cream

Place the gelatin sheets, one by one, in a bowl of cold water.

Whip the cream into soft peaks and prepare the Italian meringue.

For the Italian meringue

In a small saucepan, combine 125 ml (½ cup) of sugar and water. Heat the mixture over high heat, stirring, until boiling.

Once it comes to a boil, stop stirring the mixture. Cook the sugar syrup until it reaches 115°C (240°F) on an instant-read thermometer or candy thermometer.

Brush the sides of the pan, if necessary, with a pastry brush dipped in water.

Meanwhile, combine the egg whites and lemon juice in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Set the mixer to medium speed and mix until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes.

When the sugar syrup has reached the right temperature, increase the speed of the mixer and add 15 ml (1 tablespoon) of sugar.

While the mixer is running, slowly and carefully pour in the hot sugar syrup in a trickle.

Increase the speed to high and whip the meringue until it reaches soft, yet firm peaks and has completely cooled.

For mounting

Put the strawberry coulis in a large bowl.

Remove the gelatin sheets from the water and squeeze them to remove excess liquid.

Transfer them to a small bowl and microwave them for 30 seconds or until completely melted and hot (don't let them boil).

Incorporate the hot gelatin into the strawberry coulis using a whisk.

Incorporate half of the Italian meringue using a whisk to lighten the mixture. Using a spatula, then fold in the rest of the meringue, then the whipped cream.

Continue to fold the mixture until it is homogeneous. Immediately pour the meringue into your serving bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve with a little whipped cream and strawberries.

TOWARDS TAX REFORM

FAIR AND TRANSPARENT

In a world where taxes weigh increasingly heavily on citizens and businesses, tax havens have become attractive havens. They offer considerable tax advantages and are the result of intense tax competition between states. However, to reach an equitable solution, it is essential to rethink the role of tax havens while holding accountable the States which seek to attract wealthy taxpayers and companies, and to institute a flat tax rate of 5% everywhere.

Tax competition issues :

Exacerbated tax competition between States fuels the proliferation of tax havens, thus creating significant disparities in taxation. Some States offer very favorable tax conditions to attract investors, which has the effect of depriving States of legitimate tax resources and worsening inequalities.

In-depth reflection on the management of this competition is necessary to establish a balance between the needs of States and the need for fair taxation.

Hold states accountable and account for every penny :

States, whether they are considered tax havens or not, must be held accountable for their tax policies. It is imperative to demand full transparency from them, as well as rigorous accountability regarding the use of tax revenues.

Leaders in high-tax states must account for every penny spent and ensure public funds are used responsibly and efficiently. Abuse and waste of public money must be severely condemned, and independent control mechanisms must be put in place to ensure transparent financial management.

Rethinking tax havens towards a balanced reform : 

Rather than systematically condemning tax havens, it is necessary to rethink their role in the global tax system. Fair tax reform should aim to reduce the disparities between states in terms of taxation, ensuring that all contribute fairly to the financing of public services. One proposal could be to introduce a flat tax rate of 5% everywhere, thus ensuring a fair and predictable level of taxation for citizens and businesses.

A tax haven for all : rethinking tax hells

In the debate on tax havens, it is essential to recognize that many countries have become veritable tax hells for citizens and businesses. Taxpayers face overwhelming tax pressure, complex regulations and excessive bureaucracy. It is therefore not surprising that many people are looking for alternatives to reduce their tax burden.

Faced with this reality, it is legitimate to ask why citizens and businesses do not deserve a real tax haven.

After all, if states can create oppressive tax environments, there should also be just reasons why taxpayers should benefit from favorable tax conditions.

Finding a tax haven for all does not mean evading taxes, but rather finding a reasonable balance between tax contribution and economic stimulation.

A favorable tax environment can encourage investment, foster job creation, attract talent and stimulate economic growth.

This would benefit both citizens and businesses, creating shared prosperity.

However, it is crucial to emphasize that the search for a tax haven for all must not be at the expense of tax justice and social equity.

Tax rules and regulations should be transparent, fair and applicable to all actors.

It is essential to avoid abuses, tax evasion and fraudulent practices that weaken public finances and fuel inequalities.

The creation of a tax haven for all requires a profound tax reform, based on the principles of transparency, accountability and fairness. States must recognize that favorable fiscal conditions can be a powerful economic engine, attracting investment and promoting prosperity.

However, this must be accompanied by strong control mechanisms to ensure that the tax benefits actually benefit the economy and society as a whole.

The discussion on tax havens needs to be broadened to include a reflection on the tax hells that many taxpayers face.

It is time to rethink tax systems, aiming to create a real tax haven for all, where the tax contribution is fair, the environment is favorable to business and the economy, and where prosperity is shared fairly. Balanced and transparent tax reform is the key to achieving this ambitious goal.

To achieve a lasting and equitable solution, it is essential to hold States accountable, to rethink the role of tax havens and to introduce a fixed tax rate of 5% everywhere. This will promote more balanced tax competition, reduce inequalities and ensure that all taxpayers participate equitably in financing the needs of society.

Moreover, it is imperative to promote transparency, accountability and the responsible use of public funds in order to restore citizens' confidence in taxation.

Only fair and transparent tax reform can ensure a fair and efficient tax system for all...

BLOW JOB BENEFICIAL FOR HEALTH ?

The oral practice of sexual pleasure, known as blow job, is truly beneficial to health, whether or not one appreciates this intimate experience !. 

For what reasons ?

The reasons are multiple, sperm, of course, is a real ally to be in good shape !

 Let me explain !

 Blow job prolongs life expectancy.

Two Austrian researchers looked into this question and concluded that contact with sperm through oral sex (in other words, ingestion, commonly known as seminophagy) increased our lifespan. 

Indeed, sperm contains many elements which, among other things, slow down the aging process!

Tobias Eisenberg and Frank Madeo, our two researchers, explain to us that sperm contains spermidine (a molecule present in certain foods such as soy and grapefruit), which promotes the regeneration of cells in the human body. But that's not all !...

It also turns out that semen is rich in melatonin, prolactin and serotonin, substances that act as antidepressants on the morale of women, according to the University of Albany in the United States.

 And this is true since women in direct contact with their partner's sperm are 87% less depressed than the others !

A significant result, then !

Californian researchers conducted a study of 15,000 women between the ages of 25 and 45, 6,246 of whom regularly practiced blow job. They concluded that two oral sex a week would reduce the risk of breast cancer by 40%.

To top it off, dieters will find their account, because sperm is very low in calories, acting as an "appetite suppressant" and therefore helping to lose weight !

Rich in proteins (sodium, potassium, magnesium, vitamins...), it also contains alkaline, which acts as a fat burner (but only in the presence of all the other components of sperm...).

The practice of seminophagy, that is to say fellatio, is therefore extremely beneficial for health, so....!!

WAR IN UKRAINE HYDROELECTRIC POWER STATION DESTROYED

The Kakhovka dam, taken at the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, was destroyed on Tuesday, June 6. Moscow and kyiv reject responsibility for the attack on this structure, which notably supplies water to the Crimean peninsula. The area is flooded and residents being evacuated.

At the heart of strategic issues since the start of the war, the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam located in territory occupied by Moscow was, according to Ukraine, blown up by Russian forces overnight from Monday to Tuesday. Russia, for its part, denounced an act of "deliberate sabotage" by Kiev, considering that one of Ukraine's objectives was to "deprive Crimea of ​​water", a Ukrainian peninsula annexed in 2014 by Russia. Ukrainian, "it is physically impossible to blow up [the dam] in one way or another from the outside, with bombardments", the version put forward by Moscow to explain this destruction in the night.

"Around 2 a.m. there were a number of repeated strikes on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, which destroyed the valves. As a result, water from the Kakhovka reservoir began to flow uncontrollably downstream “, declared, according to the Russian agency TASS, the mayor of the city of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev.

One of the largest hydroelectric dams in the country

The dam is located on the Dnieper River, upstream from Kherson. Built partly of concrete and earth, the structure is 16 meters high and 3,850 meters long. It retains more than 18 million cubic meters of water in the artificial Kakhovka reservoir, which is 240 kilometers long and up to 23 kilometers wide. It is one of the largest infrastructures of this type in Ukraine. It also includes a hydroelectric plant (with a power of 334 megawatts (MW) according to the operating company Ukrhydroenergo), and a road bridge, now destroyed.

Built in 1956 during the Soviet period, the purpose of the dam was both to regulate the course of the river on its last, much narrower stretch, and to send water into the North Crimean Canal, whose adduction is sheltered by the structure. Currently, millions of cubic meters flow from the lake and into the southern part of the Dnieper, on the banks of which dozens of villages are built. On both sides, these could be engulfed by the gradual rise of the water in the hours to come. According to local authorities installed by Moscow, the water rose to a level between 2 and 4 meters.

24 villages already flooded, 80 threatened

According to Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko, 24 villages were already flooded around 1 p.m., and a thousand people had already been evacuated. "About 16,000 people on the right bank of the region are in the critical zone," said the head of the region's military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin in the morning. "About a thousand" civilians were evacuated from the area. . “The Ministry of the Interior has already evacuated about a thousand people.

In Kherson, about 1,300 people were evacuated at 3 p.m. (2 p.m. in Paris), following the explosion of the Kakhovka dam, the national police announced on Tuesday. "According to preliminary information, 13 localities on the right bank of the Dnieper and more than 260 houses were flooded," she said on Telegram. The evacuation continues,” he told Ukrainian television.

Safety at the Zaporizhia power plant

The dam, which held back more than 18 million cubic meters of water, also allows the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant located 150 kilometers upstream - in the "energy capital of Ukraine, Enerhodar - to supply itself with water from cooling.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, tempers the risks. On Twitter, she said her experts are "closely monitoring the situation" after seeing "reports of damage", and announces for the moment that there are "no immediate security risks. nuclear plant". An opinion shared by nuclear risk specialists. On the other hand, the explosion will complicate the possible restarting of the Energodar nuclear power plant, which before the war represented 6,000 MW of installed power and 23% of Ukraine's electricity production...

The dam breach added a complex new element to Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, now in its 16th month, as Ukrainian forces were widely seen as moving forward with an expected counter-offensive since a long time.

STRIKE OF JUNE 6 MOBILIZATION AT THE LOWEST

The examination, Thursday, June 8, 2023, of the Liot bill aimed at canceling the decline in the legal age of departure to 64 years was not enough to mobilize: in most cities, the processions had never been so little provided since the beginning of the social movement in January.

In Paris, there are – according to the CGT – 300,000 demonstrators who demanded the abandonment of the reform, the first implementing decrees of which have already been promulgated, 31,000 according to the police headquarters. A low also reached on February 11 and March 11, according to the central.

During the previous day of mobilization on May 1, the latter had counted 550,000 opponents in the streets of the capital, against 112,000 for the police headquarters – figures very far from the Parisian record of March 23 (800,000 for the CGT , 119,000 for the police).

Weakest ever recorded

This decline is also observed on a national scale, with “more than 900,000” demonstrators throughout France according to the CGT and only 281,000 according to the Ministry of the Interior. Figures very far from those given during the mobilization peak of March 7 (between 1.3 and 3.5 million according to Place Beauvau or the unions),

"The match is ending, whether we like it or not, with this unknown of what will happen Thursday at the Assembly," admitted Laurent Berger on Tuesday.

The number one of the CFDT called on the unions to "weigh in the balance of power to come" on other subjects such as wages or working conditions.

REPUBLICAN MIKE PENCE STARTS

IN THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL

This evangelical conservative, fierce opponent of abortion, will therefore challenge Donald Trump in the Republican primaries of 2024. He should publish Wednesday, June 7, the day of his 64th birthday, his entry into the running with a meeting in Iowa. The candidate will be on the sets of the CNN chain, had confided at the end of last week of the relatives, on condition of anonymity, to NBC and other American media.

"The crazier we are"

Mike Pence had helped Donald Trump conquer the religious right by being his running mate during the 2016 presidential campaign. After years of unwavering loyalty, he changed his tone because of the assault on the Capitol. The break between the two men jeopardizes the chances of Mike Pence, whom many activists loyal to Donald Trump continue to consider a "traitor". To all these candidacies should be added that of the governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, very little known in the country. All to the delight of Donald Trump.

"The crazier we are, the merrier," he said on Fox News after the entry into the race of the only female Republican candidate, Nikki Haley.

Mike Pence's campaign launch is less likely to interfere with the former president's candidacy than that of Ron DeSantis, currently second in the polls after Donald Trump. Like the former vice-president, the 44-year-old governor is also betting on a very conservative, albeit more offensive, speech.

Unlike 2016, when Donald Trump had caused amazement by winning the Republican nomination, then the election, the former president this time is surfing at the top of the voting intentions. But the logic remains the same: a Republican primary with a dozen candidates, all anxious to block the way to the septuagenarian, may ultimately lead to a dispersion of votes, in favor of the former reality TV star. A scenario that takes more and more thickness, while Mike Pence, Chris Christie and Doug Burgum are about to launch.

The tribune, whose fall has been announced a thousand times, has so far survived all the scandals.

"Republican primary contenders can do their best, but if rape accusations (and the Capitol storming) haven't swayed Trump's base, neither will these candidates." , predicts Democratic strategist Amani Wells-Onyioha.

MILKSHAKE QUEEN BEVERAGE OF SUMMER

Gourmands will make their milkshake with Nutella or other spread. The original recipes of milkshakes are not lacking: choose from our recipes below to spend an unforgettable summer!

Milkshake fishing for 2 people

1 Remove the skin from the peaches, put the 2 bags of vanilla sugar, put the 2 yogurts of 125 g, add 700 ml of milk, mix a little, and voila!

Milkshake light strawberry

same ingredients and 125 g strawberries

1 Strawberries: clean and cut in half.

2 Mix the ingredients in the bowl of the robot and let's go .... mix until you get some mousse.

3 Pour without waiting in large glasses and sip your delicious milk shake with a straw

This dessert brings only 98 calories per person, why not use it ....

Raspberry Milkshake

Frozen raspberries

4 mint leaves

1 tablespoon powdered sugar (shaved)

1 Put in a blender a glass of raspberry chips for about three glasses of milk. Add some mint leaves and sugar to taste according to your taste.

2 Turn on the blender for a few seconds.

You get a delicious frozen milkshake (raspberries are frozen) and light because it does not contain ice. Ideal for summer ...

Yogurt and vanilla milkshake

Ingredients / for 2 people

2 sweet yogurts

2 scoops of vanilla ice cream

1 sachet of vanilla sugar

Cocoa powder or chocola vermicelli

Mix the plain yogurts, vanilla sugar and two scoops of vanilla ice until the mixture is sparkling .

2 Pour the milkshake into two glasses, sprinkle with cocoa powder or chocolate vermicelli.

Ice coffee

Ingredients for 4 persons

a rest of coffee put in the refrigerator (about 20 cl)

4 scoops vanilla ice cream about 20 cl unsweetened condensed milk (liquid)

5 cl of milk

1 sachet of vanilla sugar

6 ice cubes

chantilly

1 Put in a good blender condensed milk, milk, ice cubes, cooled coffee and vanilla sugar. settle until the mixture forms only foam (or almost). Attention it must inflate very quickly.

3 Arrange the glasses and introduce a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

4 Put in the glasses the mixed mixture.

5 Add whipped cream above.

Serve with a straw immediately. And enjoy without waiting. Enjoy ... under an umbrella by the pool or at the beach, in your bungalow away from the rays of the sun while waiting for the evening freshness...

THE REASONS FOR THE DEADLY RAILWAY CATASTROPHE IN INDIA

The search and rescue operations for the victims are now complete on Sunday June 4, 2023 and the time has come for questions about the precise course of the events that took place on Friday evening.

"We have identified the cause of the accident and the people responsible for it," Indian Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, adding that it was "not appropriate" to release further details beforehand. the final investigation report. According to the minister, "the change that occurred during the electronic switching is at the origin of the accident", in reference to the complex computer system managing the traffic on the Indian railways to prevent the collision of trains.

Confusion reigns at this stage but The Times of India, citing the preliminary investigation report, said on Sunday that "human error" may have caused the collision between three trains, one of the worst train disasters in India's history. country. The Coromandel Express, linking Calcutta to Madras, had been given the green light to run on the main track but was rerouted due to human error on a track where there was already a freight train, according to the newspaper.

The passenger train then struck the freight convoy at a speed of around 130 km/h. Under the impact, twenty-one cars derailed and three of them were ejected onto an adjacent track, where another passenger train was traveling at the same time . Three carriages then fell onto the adjacent track, hitting the rear of an express train which was operating between Bangalore and Calcutta. It was this collision that caused the most damage, adds the Times, citing the preliminary report. The passengers were crushed, dismembered, under a shock similar to an explosion.

The tragedy unfolded near Balasore, about 200 kilometers from Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Odisha. a signaling error.

Modi's reaction

At least 288 people died in the tragedy and 900 were injured, the deadliest rail crash in nearly 30 years. But the death toll is expected to rise further, and could reach 380 dead, according to the director general of the Odisha State Fire Service, Sudhanshu Sarangi.

"No one responsible" for the accident will be spared, promised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who went to the scene of the disaster on Saturday and met the injured in hospital. “I pray that we get out of this sad moment as soon as possible,” he told public broadcaster Doordarshan.

At this point, Friday night's train crash is India's deadliest since 1995, when two express trains collided in Firozabad, near Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, killing more than 300 people. But the deadliest in the country's history remains that of June 6, 1981 when, in the state of Bihar (east), seven wagons of a train crossing a bridge fell into the Bagmati River, causing between 800 and 1,000 dead.

New investments and technological improvements

India has seen a number of deadly train accidents, but safety has improved in recent years thanks to new investments and technological improvements. Indeed, the investment plan that has been selected for between now and 2030, is 715 billion dollars that are invested in rail infrastructure, both for passengers and freight trains.

But one of India's problems is that it has chosen to maintain rail transport for heavy, large goods. And so there's a kind of telescoping that's happening between the surging passenger traffic and freight traffic.

And the accident of June 2 is precisely linked to the fact that you have a freight train - we are in the eastern region of India, where there are all the coal mines, iron mines, etc. - which was at shutdown, and it was probably not detected that it was shut down quickly enough by the computer system.

POLITICAL SCANDALS MIXING

URSULA VON DER LEYEN FOR THE ENTRY

OF BULGARIA IN THE EURO ZONE

In this recording revealed by Radostin Vassilev, an MP for the centrist Let's Keep the Change party going, former Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov relates to party colleagues a conversation he allegedly had with Ursula von der Leyen on May 21 regarding the entry of Bulgaria in the euro area and the Schengen area.

“[…] I asked him: what are our chances of being accepted [in the Schengen area and in the euro zone]. She replied: “For Schengen, you have great chances. For the Eurozone, you have to figure out how to get around the rules. In other words, how do you comply with the rules”. And I was like, 'Can we have [an estimate of] inflation minus the effect [of the war] in Ukraine,' and she was like, 'Listen to me, we'll try to help you ’” Mr. Petkov related.

Bend the rules? !

In the airlock for almost three years for this country with widespread corruption

Bulgaria is the poorest country in the EU, of which it has been a member since 2007. Widespread corruption in the Balkan country for years has always blocked its membership of the euro. According to the Minister of Finance, "no compromise was possible" in Parliament precisely to vote on texts on money laundering, the powers of the central bank or even bankruptcies.

Placed under a strict austerity regime in the wake of a serious economic crisis in 1996-1997, Bulgaria integrated in 2020 the banking regulatory framework of the euro zone and the ERM II mechanism, a fixed parity system. A state must stay there for at least two years before being admitted to the euro zone.

Croatia became the twentieth member of the euro zone in January, seven years after Lithuania joined. The country had expressed its desire to adopt the single currency as soon as it joined the EU in 2013. Like Bulgaria, five other countries in the antechamber of the single currency (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden) n have not obtained the backing of Europe, but they have no very short-term membership project.

On Saturday (27 May), the European Commission confirmed that Ms von der Leyen and the former Bulgarian Prime Minister had had a conversation about it and "discussed important issues on Bulgaria's agenda, including the entry of Bulgaria in the euro zone and in the Schengen area”.

The president of the European executive would have reaffirmed her support for Bulgaria's accession to Schengen, according to the Commission. “There is a well-structured process for joining the euro zone, which applies to each country. The Commission's job is to support the implementation of the [membership] criteria. It is obvious that the rules must be respected, ”continues the executive, according to Radio Bulgaria (BNR).

The strategy of the Let's continue the change party revealed

The recording made public the strategy of the party Let's continue the change, which was to be implemented after the election of a government with the support of Boyko Borissov, founder of the centre-right party Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria ( GERB).

Leaders of Keeping Up the Change point in particular to a state purge of personnel close to President Rumen Radev, GERB, as well as employees suspected of working for the Russian intelligence services.

The formation of a government threatened

Prior to the disclosure of the recordings, the Continuing Change — Democratic Bulgaria coalition had reached an unprecedented agreement with GERB to form a government. For the first nine months, Nikolay Denkov (Let's continue the change) was to take over the post of Prime Minister, then he was to be replaced by Mariya Gabriel (GERB).

However, after the recordings were released, the GERB announced that it was freezing negotiations with Keeping Up the Change until it received assurances that the future government would uphold the principles of the rule of law.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORRYING CONFLICT

 IN KOSOVO

While tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have been recurrent since Kosovo's self-proclaimed independence in 2008 – still unrecognized by Belgrade – the threat of a new war in Europe is real.

A regional crisis that never ends.

On Friday (26 May), the situation in Serb-majority northern Kosovo deteriorated after ethnic Albanian mayors, elected after the massive resignation of Serbian civil servants at the end of 2022, took office in four municipalities in the north.

The majority Serbs in four towns in northern Kosovo boycotted the municipal elections in April at the call of Srpska lista, their main party, very close to Belgrade. As a result, Albanian mayors were elected despite a very low turnout of 3.5%.

Serbs in the north of the country do not accept the new mayors elected with the lowest turnout in the country's history and have tried to prevent them from entering town halls. On Monday, the situation worsened considerably and dozens of injuries were reported.

Ignoring insistent calls from the European Union and the United States for restraint, the Kosovar government enthroned these city councilors last week, which set fire to the powder.

Serb protesters then gathered in front of the town halls concerned to demand the departure of the Albanian mayors and the Kosovar police forces, whose presence in the region has long aroused their anger. These demonstrators tried to force the entrance door of the town hall of Zvecan, but were repelled by the Kosovar forces. KFor then tried to separate the two sides before starting to disperse the more violent protesters. The protesters then responded by throwing stones, bottles and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers.

Nineteen Hungarian and eleven Italian soldiers were injured in the clashes, KFor said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that they suffered in particular from "fractures and burns caused by improvised incendiary explosive devices". "Three Hungarian soldiers were injured by firearms," ​​according to the same source. At least 52 people were injured in the ranks of the Serb demonstrators, three of them seriously, said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Why did the Serbs boycott these municipal elections ?

Pristina organized this election to fill the vacuum left by the massive resignation of the Serbs in November from the common local institutions. Hundreds of Serb police officers integrated into the Kosovo police, as well as judges, prosecutors and other officials, had left their posts to protest against a decision by Pristina, now suspended, to ban Serbs living in Kosovo from using license plates. registration issued by Belgrade.

"Each time, it's the same blow: Kosovo multiplies the vexations against the Serbs", judge Alexis Troude, professor of geopolitics at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) and Balkan specialist. "Pristina has never respected the 2013 agreements and regularly tries to establish its authority over northern Kosovo, causing tension with the Serbian population," adds the specialist.

The 2013 agreements not respected

The Serbian minority numbers around 120,000 people – out of 1.8 million inhabitants – largely loyal to Belgrade, a third of whom live in northern Kosovo, near the border with Serbia, which supports them financially. The other members of the minority are dispersed in about ten enclaves.

A 2013 agreement providing for the creation of an association of ten "municipalities", which includes the four towns where the boycott of the municipal elections took place and where the Serb minority lives, remained a dead letter. Belgrade and Pristina do not agree on their competences. Many Albanian Kosovars fear the creation of a parallel government controlled by Belgrade.

700 additional peacekeepers in northern Kosovo

On Tuesday (30 May), Serbs continued their demonstrations in four northern municipalities.

At the same time, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that 700 soldiers would be deployed to Kosovo in the coming days as part of the NATO Mission in Kosovo, KFOR. 700 additional troops in Kosovo within a few days and to place additional forces on alert. These are prudent measures. NATO and KFOR have the forces and capabilities to fulfill the UN mandate,” he said.

EU and USA call for calm

The move comes after US Ambassador Jeff Hovenier said Kosovo's participation in the NATO-led Defender 2023 exercise, which is taking place across the region, would be canceled as a "consequence" for Pristina.

“We have asked the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, to take measures to reduce tensions in the north. He did not respond to these requests. We are in the process of analyzing what our next actions will be,” said Mr. Hovenier.

China and Russia support Belgrade

As Westerners try to calm things down, China and Russia have voiced support for Serbia.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning blamed the violence on Kosovo's failure to respect Serbian political rights and said he supported Serbia's efforts "to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity". "We oppose the unilateral actions of Kosovo's temporary self-governing institutions," Mao told a press conference, referring to the institutions in Pristina.

"We call on the West to finally stop its false propaganda and stop blaming the incidents in Kosovo on desperate Serbs who are trying to defend their legitimate rights and freedom through peaceful and unarmed means," the ministry said. Russian Foreign Affairs. Russian Ambassador Aleksandar Boshan-Kharchenko added: "Moscow is following the development of the situation with the utmost seriousness, and we understand that this type of situation can cause a serious crisis or even an explosion in the whole region".

Since the start of Russian aggression in Ukraine, Serbia has refused to apply most EU sanctions against Moscow or to align itself more broadly with the European and Western foreign policy line.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has urged the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to immediately defuse tensions following clashes in northern Kosovo which he described as "unacceptable".

Not give in to the extremists ?

In Pristina, Prime Minister Albin Kurti remained a firm believer that newly elected mayors are legitimate and must be allowed to do their job. He called the protesters extremists and said they did not represent the Serbian people.

“Yesterday, it was finally proven to us […] that we were confronted with masked far-right groups, who vandalize, attack and burn everything they do not consider Serbian, and who exalt nationalist and chauvinist symbols , such as the four-pointed cross, the S's and the Z's of Russian aggression in Ukraine,” he said. He was referring to the recent appearance of these symbols in the north of the country.

Petar Petkovic, chief negotiator for Serbia under the Brussels-facilitated dialogue, told local media that Mr Kurti was trying to provoke a war in order to avoid his obligations under various EU agreements, in particular the Association of Serbian Municipalities.

“[Albin] Kurti is someone who wants to present himself as a little [Volodymyr] Zelensky, but in fact he is a little Hitler who wants to expel the Serbian people and shoot at the Serbian people, the State of Serbia will not allow it to do so,” Petković stressed. He added that the Serb demonstration was "peaceful" and that the riot would not have happened if KFOR had not used force against them. “We don't need to come into conflict with NATO, but KFOR's mandate is to protect the Serbian people,” he concluded. Meanwhile, opposition parties in Serbia have called on the international community to “reason with” Mr. Kurti to avoid further violence.

The question of the independence of Kosovo proclaimed in 2008

The battle of the mayors in fact touches on the question of the independence of Kosovo proclaimed in 2008, almost a decade after a war which left around 13,000 dead, the majority of them Albanian Kosovars.

For Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, sovereignty is intangible and nothing can be discussed without recognizing the reality of independence. But many Serbs consider Kosovo their national and religious cradle, like Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, who wrote on France Télévisions on Monday after his victory in the first round of the Roland- Garros, "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia, stop the violence".

Kosovo is recognized by a hundred countries, including most Westerners, and recently by Israel. Belgrade, on the other hand, has never admitted independence, no more than Russia and China, which deprives Pristina of a place in the UN. Five members of the European Union are also on this line.

UNPRECEDENTED MEGAFIRES

IN EASTERN CANADA

After the west of the country and the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan at the beginning of May, it is the east and in particular Nova Scotia which have just been affected by huge fires due to very bad weather. hot and dry, in a province unaccustomed to fires.

Unusual fires in Nova Scotia

In Nova Scotia, at the heart of all concerns in recent days, 16 fires were active on Thursday. Some 200 homes were destroyed and nearly 20,000 people evacuated. "Breathtaking numbers," said Tim Houston, the province's premier. Since the beginning of the year, the Atlantic province has experienced nearly 200 wildfires that have burned more than 19,000 hectares and displaced more than 25,000 people. In 2022, there were only 152 fires that burned 3,390 hectares. But while fires are not uncommon in Nova Scotia, they tend to be much smaller. Located on the east coast of Canada, Nova Scotia's climate is heavily influenced by the North Atlantic Ocean, which brings higher humidity and more moderate temperatures than in many other parts of the country. In addition the region is covered by what is known as the "Acadian forest", which contains many broadleaf trees, such as sugar maples, mixed with evergreens, such as conifers. Hardwoods are less flammable than conifers because their branches and leaves are further from the ground and their leaves retain more moisture. The Acadian forest is much less prone to large fires than the forests of western Canada. mixed with evergreen trees, such as conifers. Hardwoods are less flammable than conifers because their branches and leaves are further from the ground and their leaves retain more moisture. The Acadian forest is much less prone to large fires than the forests of western Canada. mixed with evergreen trees, such as conifers. Hardwoods are less flammable than conifers because their branches and leaves are further from the ground and their leaves retain more moisture. The Acadian forest is much less prone to large fires than the forests of western Canada.

But Atlantic Canada received light snowfall this winter, followed by an unusually dry spring. Nova Scotia's capital, Halifax, received just 120 millimeters of rain between March and May, about a third of the average, according to Michael Carter, meteorologist with the Weather Network. A scorching heat wave at the end of the May pushed temperatures in Halifax up to 33 degrees Celsius on Thursday, about 10 degrees above normal for this time of year.

And with the arrival of an extreme heat wave and strong winds, "we are far from out of the woods", explained David Steeves, of the Ministry of Natural Resources, speaking of a situation "very dangerous and volatile".

Firefighters from the United States and South Africa are expected as reinforcements in the coming days. "We need Mother Nature on our side on this," added David Steeves.

One of the huge fires reached the suburbs of the province's main city, Halifax, and forced authorities to evacuate more than 16,000 people northwest of the city. It now seems partially under control. But another fire near Lake Barrington is under particular scrutiny, as it is still out of control after ravaging 20,000 hectares. It is the largest fire ever recorded in the province.

Heat records

In the other provinces of eastern Canada, notably in Quebec and Ontario, record temperatures were reached in several places. In Toronto, the thermometer reads 30.7°C, according to Environment Canada, surpassing the previous daily record of 28.3°C set in 1948.

In the west of the country, a month after the outbreak of fires that forced the province of Alberta to declare a state of emergency, more than 60 fires were still in progress and more than 1.13 million hectares have already burned. In the neighboring province of Saskatchewan, one of the breadbaskets of the country, about twenty fires were counted and more than 850,000 hectares went up in smoke.

Canada, which, due to its geographical location, is warming faster than the rest of the planet, has been confronted in recent years with extreme weather events.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM

But what is its origin ?

In ancient Greece, the goddess Rhea of ​​motherhood was already celebrated. While among the Romans they celebrated Matraliana the goddess.

But the real beginning was in England and then in the United States with Mother's Day.

In France it happened after the Second World War around 1950.

Mother's Day takes place in France on the last Sunday of May.

In Belgium, Switzerland, Italy it is generally three weeks before.

And yes it is a tribute to the woman who gave us life and if we have children it is also our party.

Often our little darlings make us key rings, paintings, drawings in kindergarten.

Then in elementary class it will be more poems of the letters that we love Thank you to the teachers.

We love this tradition and generally we keep these gifts from our little monsters of love our children all our lives.

It is customary in the old French bourgeoisie to go to the restaurant that day dressed in their best clothes.

Personally, I love the breakfast in bed prepared by my children who are excited to give me their present. Roll on Sunday I can't wait to see what the teachers have prepared for us.

SALMON GRAVLAX

WITH ORANGE AND BEET

Here is a very simple and fresh recipe that highlights the salmon and combines it with the fresh tastes of citrus fruits and beets.

The ingredients for this recipe:

For the dry marinade:

1 large raw beetroot, grated

80 ml (1/3 cup) brown sugar

80 ml (1/3 cup) sea salt

30 ml (2 tbsp.) orange juice, freshly squeezed

7.5 ml (½ tbsp.) fennel seeds, crushed

For the lemon lime yogurt:

The zest of an orange

30 ml (2 tbsp) fresh dill, chopped

2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) black pepper

1 salmon or trout fillet 500g, skinless

180 ml (3/4 cup) 0% fat plain Greek yogurt

Supremes of a lime

Juice and zest of one lime

Chives, chopped, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

The preparation :

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the dry marinade. Coat the fish well with this marinade and wrap it in plastic wrap. Place the coated piece of fish on a baking sheet.

Place another plate on the fish and add a weight in the center (to crush the fillet well and trap the taste).

Leave to marinate for 12 to 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Take out and remove the marinade from the fish. Run cold water quickly. Drain the salmon well. With a sharp knife, very thinly slice the fish fillet to make the gravlax. Finally, combine all the ingredients for the yogurt sauce.

PORK MEATBALLS IN SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE

An easy recipe to intoxicate your taste buds in all circumstances

500g sausage meat

100g breadcrumbs

1 clove of garlic

3 cm ginger root

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 tablespoon dry white wine

1 pinch of Chinese five-spice

3-4 tbsp neutral oil

1 onion

1 red pepper

1 small red pepper

3 tbsp apricot jam

1 lime

3 tablespoons brown sugar

75ml rice vinegar

1 tablespoon of Maizena

Preparation

1° Mix the sausage meat with the breadcrumbs, grated garlic and ginger, soy sauce, wine and spices. Make dumplings.

2° Cut the onion into strips and cut the pepper into pieces.

3° Mince the chilli. Cook them in a little oil until they are soft and barely coloured.

4° Brown the meatballs in the oil on all sides.

5° Mix the jam, a little lime juice, the sugar, 2 spoons of soy sauce and the rice vinegar.

6°Dissolve the cornstarch in a little cold water and add to the mixture.

7° Combine the meatballs, the mixture of peppers and onions and the sauce. Simmer until meatballs are cooked (10 minutes minimum).

HOMOSEXUALITY PUNISHABLE TO DEATH PENALTY

IN UGANDA

The new law introduces the concept of “aggravated homosexuality”. In other words, the sexual act between people of the same sex is now considered a crime punishable by death in case of recidivism. Another provision is of great concern to NGOs. According to the text, anyone – individual or organization – “knowingly promotes homosexuality” faces up to 20 years in prison. If it is an organization, it risks a ten-year ban. The President's enactment of the law was first announced on Twitter by Speaker of Parliament Anita Among before being confirmed by Yoweri Museveni's spokesperson.

Outcry

The vote on the bill in Parliament on March 21 sparked an international outcry. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, had denounced a “discriminatory text – probably the worst in the world of its kind”. After the announcement by the Western partners of potential economic consequences if the law were promulgated as it stands, President Yoweri Museveni had asked Ugandan parliamentarians, at the end of April, to reconsider certain provisions. Thus, in the text adopted on Monday, there is no longer any question of criminalizing the mere fact of being homosexual, nor of denouncing the practices of one's neighbor.

"The President of Uganda has today legalized state-sponsored homophobia and transphobia," said Clare Byarugaba, a Ugandan rights activist. “This is a very dark and sad day for the LGBTIQ community, our allies and all of Uganda,” she added.

But above all, on a continent where homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment in some thirty countries, activists fear the spillover effect of Ugandan law. "Why should a country criminalize part of its population based on their sexuality? I think it's very barbaric, it's primitive, and it goes back to the colonial era," said Alex Kofi Donkor, president of LGBT rights in Ghana. Ugandan [...] There have already been three proposed laws criminalizing homosexuality in the DRC.

Same-sex relationships are also considered a crime under colonial-era legislation in neighboring Kenya, whose President William Ruto recently declared homosexuality to be a Western import incompatible with “customs, traditions, Christianity and Islam.” of his nation.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was "dismayed" to see this "draconian and discriminatory" bill come into force, "contrary to the Constitution and international treaties", which opens the way to " systematic violations of the rights of LGBT people”.

A DEMAGOGICAL SOCIAL ANTI-FRAUD PLAN ?

"This is a ten-year project for which I am setting a first stage: in 2027, we will have twice as many results as in 2022", he says, promising the creation of a thousand additional jobs during this five-year period. and an investment of 1 billion euros in information systems, "in particular to better cross-check data".
Adjustments have already increased by 35% over the past five years. These announcements come three weeks after a first plan, presented in an interview with Le Monde, centered on the fight against tax evasion.

"Our desire is to look at where the situations of fraud are and respond to them, without stigmatization, without instrumentalization", affirmed Mr. Attal to journalists, and "to be neither in denial of a large part of the left nor in the lies of much of the far right".

Fraud to social benefits alone is estimated at between 6 billion and 8 billion euros per year, according to the Court of Auditors. “Social fraud, like tax evasion, is a form of hidden tax on working French people,” the minister told Le Parisien.

Merge Vitale card and identity card

Gabriel Attal explains that he wants to "reinforce" the conditions of residence in France "to benefit from social allowances". It will now be necessary to spend nine months of the year in the country, against six currently planned, to benefit from family allowances or the minimum old age. Similarly, for personalized housing allowances (APL), which only require eight months of presence for the time being.

Another announcement, with potentially concrete repercussions for the French: the government is considering a merger between the Vitale card and the identity card in order to fight against fraud in health benefits. "We can imagine a model where, from a certain date, when you redo your identity card, it automatically becomes your Vitale card", specifies the minister. He adds that a prefiguration mission would be launched by the summer and could reach conclusions by the end of the year. By the way, the idea of ​​a biometric Vitale card seems to have been abandoned, especially given its cost.
Bercy also wants to target retirees living outside European borders in order to better identify those who have died but whose allowances are still being collected. This announcement follows an experiment carried out since September 2022 in Algeria, during which 300 files of "quasi-centenarian" retirees out of 1,000 cases studied were declared non-compliant, affirms the minister, recalling that more than a million pensions were paid abroad, half of them outside Europe.

If no one denies that social fraud exists in France, it is however necessary to put its importance into perspective. The maintenance of this fantasy , according to which France would be full of potential fraudsters, has several objectives, among which that of delaying structural reforms and that of always reinforcing the repressive arsenal of the administration...

To fight against fraud, shouldn't it be necessary, above all and above all, to carry out a radical simplification of the social aid system ?

A TRIUMPH IN OPTICAL ILLUSION FOR THE UNBREAKABLE TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN ?

Despite a high turnout of 85%, center-left opponent Kemal Kiliçdaroglu was unable to bring down Erdogan. The loser, with a very honorable score in a context where the dice were heavily stacked against him, admitted his defeat. But he also said that this campaign had been “one of the most unfair in years”, in particular with the enormous inequality of means between the two camps which faced each other.

Why did the majority of Turks elect Erdogan despite a deteriorating economy and now chronic hyperinflation – a situation that would likely bring down any government in a democratic country? How did Erdogan win the elections?

A free but unfair election

The presidential election was certainly free, insofar as the political parties were able to put forward candidates on their own and to campaign. Parties also had the right to have representatives at each polling station to ensure that ballots were correctly counted. Finally, voters were free to vote. However, the election was far from fair.

First, a potential rival in the race, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, was sentenced last December to more than two years in prison for “insulting public figures”. The popular Imamoglu had above all made the mistake of inflicting on Erdogan's party a rare defeat in the 2019 municipal elections in Istanbul. Polls had shown that if he had run for president, he could have won against Erdogan by a comfortable margin. Some argue that Imamoglu's conviction was politically motivated. Be that as it may, Imamoglu being out of the game, the opposition had to rally behind Kiliçdaroglu, the weakest of all the high profile candidates.

In addition, Erdogan also exercises an almost generalized influence on the Turkish media, through Fahrettin Altun, head of media and communication at the presidential palace, and has taken the opportunity to intervene very often. The opposition leader, on the other hand, received minimal airtime, and when he appeared in the media, he was portrayed as an unfit leader to govern the country. Altun not only controlled traditional television and print media, but also social media.

Everything that surrounds the election, therefore, the general conditions of democracy – the banned or marginalized opposition media, the forced absence of several political actors, disqualified, even thrown into prison by a justice “at orders”, censorship on the Internet, etc. – would make the Turkish political landscape look more like a "democracy" (portmanteau word formed from "democracy" and "dictatorship"), according to some observers.

And the question remains open as to whether this new re-election of Erdogan sounds the death knell for democracy in Turkey for a long time, or whether the process could one day be reversed. Didn't the opposition speak this year of "last chance elections"?

Massive support from religious voters

The indestructible Turkish president has won over a conservative electorate who continue to trust him despite an unprecedented economic crisis and 105% inflation.

First of all the call to vote in favor of Erdogan launched by Sinan Ogan, who came third in the first round of the presidential election two weeks ago, with 5.2% of the vote played in his favor.

But above all it was Erdogan's conservative and religious voters for whom the outgoing president is a religious hero and a savior who voted for him. Turkey's religious population has long suffered persecution in the name of secularism. For them, Kiliçdaroglu and his Republican People's Party symbolize this persecution. Although Kiliçdaroglu abandoned the party's strict secular policies, these voters never forgave him for preventing Muslim women from wearing the headscarf in educational institutions and public institutions, and for holding religion to the fore. away from public life and politics for decades.

Turkey's conservative and religious right sees Erdogan as a world leader and a hero who fought against ill-intentioned forces, both inside and outside, to make Turkey great again.

And after the elections?

A few years ago, Erdogan promised a renaissance of Turkey by 2023, the date of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Republic. Turkey was supposed to enter the top 10 global economies by then. However, Turkey barely makes it into the top 20.

The economy has experienced a significant downturn over the past three years. The value of the Turkish lira fell, leading to a dollar-based economy. Reviving the economy and restoring purchasing power to the population are among its priorities.

A felicitated but ambiguous partner

Congratulated from all sides abroad, Erdogan finds himself at the head of a "courted" country. Congratulations poured in the next morning, Monday, including from countries with which Turkey has very difficult relations. At the official level, almost everyone rushed to recognize the victory of the strong man of 'Ankara, and hope to work fruitfully with it: Putin praises 'independent foreign policy'; Westerners "the ally with whom we must deepen relations"; the Taliban hope for the advancement of political Islamism. Erdogan, he wants internationally, to be desired.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey wants to be a crossroads, a pivot around which everything revolves, between Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Russia. In foreign policy, Erdogan will continue to try to make Turkey a regional power independent of NATO, the European Union and the United States. He is likely to continue to strengthen Turkey's ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which worries the country's Western allies.

All this, in a very difficult domestic socio-economic context in Turkey, even though the country's economic difficulties could also push Erdogan to become more conciliatory with the Europeans, in the Mediterranean or the Black Sea, for maritime trade. Turkey, for example, aspires to become an energy hub, for transport (oil pipelines, gas pipelines), but also for production, with offshore soundings in the eastern Mediterranean, which have led to the militarization of the sea and tensions with Greece.

A triumph, but for how long?

This is Erdogan's last term, according to the Turkish Constitution, and it is possible that it will be cut short. The 69-year-old president has numerous health problems. He is more and more physically fragile, he has trouble walking and his speech is often jerky. In the years to come, his health could deteriorate...

Although this country of 85 million inhabitants is experiencing a certain political stability for the moment, does the country not risk experiencing economic, social and political unrest in the near future ?

THE FIRST FLIGHT OF THE COMAC C919

THE CHINESE PLANE A FUTURE COMPETITOR OF AIRBUS AND BOEING

This Sunday, May 28, 2023, the Comac C919, the first aircraft produced by China, made its maiden commercial flight. This flight raises high hopes for the country which wishes to compete with the giants of civil aviation, namely Airbus and Boeing.

This is an event of great importance for China.

After having long depended on the old Russian Tupolevs as well as the French-German and American Airbus and Boeing respectively, the Chinese aeronautical industry now has its own airliner, designed entirely in China: the Comac C919.

The latter therefore made its very first commercial flight this Sunday, May 28, 2023.

Before takeoff, state media showed dozens of passengers gathered at Shanghai airport, all admiring the sleek white aircraft.

Subsequently, these passengers boarded the plane which, after taxiing on the runway, took off.

After a little over half an hour of flight, the plane landed "smoothly" at Beijing International Airport, about 40 minutes early, around 12:30 p.m. local time.

Upon landing, several passengers shared their impressions of the flight, calling it "extremely smooth, comfortable and memorable" to Chinese media.

All passengers received red boarding passes and enjoyed a sumptuous themed meal on board to celebrate the event.

From this Monday, May 29, 2023, the Comac C919 will be deployed in China to operate scheduled flights between Shanghai and Chengdu, a city located in the south of the country, in collaboration with China Eastern Airlines.

China, which aims to become self-sufficient in the technology sector, has invested heavily in the production of this Chinese airliner.

THE PALMARES OF CANNES WITH THE PALME D'OR

FOR ANATOMY OF A FALL

The closing ceremony was, as on May 16, orchestrated by Chiara Mastroianni. Among the beautiful emotional moments of this year, the amazed face, the wide eyes and the feverishness of Merve Dizdar, rewarded for her role in Les Herbes secs, but also the standing ovation for the legendary American director Roger Corman, introduced by Quentin Tarantino. In terms of speeches, Jane Fonda distinguished herself by a refreshing speech and took advantage of her platform to recall a few truths: in 1963, the date of her first appearance at the Festival, no woman was nominated in competition and no one cared about it. “You have to celebrate change when it happens,” she said, with seven female directors in competition.

The Palme d'Or goes to Anatomy of a Fall

a very great film, where Justine Triet suddenly took a huge step forward in her art. After, already, disheveled portraits of women who were just as disheveled (The Battle of Solferino, Victoria and Sybil), the filmmaker, 10 years after her debut, tells the story of a writer, played with by the disturbing l German actress Sandra Hüller (double honored this evening, since she is also on the bill, in the role of the wife of Rudolf Höss, of The Zone of Interest, of Jonathan Glazer, Grand Jury Prize), accused of the murder of her husband found his head bleeding at the foot of their Savoyard chalet.

The reactions of the heroine, an annoying and icy woman interpreted by the sublime Sandra Hüller, are analyzed with great acuity by a filmmaker specializing in female portraits who notably revealed Virginie Efira. Sandra Hüller plays "a character who assumes her freedom, her sexuality, her life choices. She looks strong and that makes her suspicious", describes the director. "I have always made films around women. This time, it's someone who is not easy to understand".

Anatomy of a Fall, whose screenplay was co-written by the director and her companion, actor and director Arthur Harari, is based on a cerebral and meticulous deconstruction of the mechanisms of the couple and of justice.

"I had really wanted to redo a trial film for a long time (since the film "Victoria" in 2016 Editor's note). I was even hesitant to make a series of it. questions of the couple, of living together. For "Anatomy of a fall", I was fascinated by the Amanda Knox affair "

From the police investigation to the trial that follows, Anatomy of a Fall is above all the implacable dissection of a couple in disintegration, unbalanced when the success of one provokes resentment in the other, all seen by the paradoxical gaze of their visually impaired child.

A story that remains obscure and undecidable until the end.

"It's perhaps the most intimate film I've made," explains the filmmaker on stage.

Winners of the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Palme d'Or

Anatomy of a fall, worn by Sandra Hüller by Justine Triet

Short Film Palme d'Or

Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter receives a special mention for Far and Flóra Anna Buda receives the

The Golden Camera:

The Golden Butterfly Tree of An Pham Thien.

Best Actor Award

Koji Yakusho is singled out for his lead role in Perfect Days, Wim Wenders.

Best Actress Award

Turkish actress Merve Dizdar for her role in Dry Herbs by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Script Award

The prize is awarded to Yūji Sakamoto for Monster, by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Jury Prize

Dead leaves by Aki Kaurismäki.

Best Director Award: Tran Anh Hung for La passion de Dodin Bouffant

Grand Prize

The Zone of Interest, directed by Jonathan Glazer.

SICK CELINE DION CANCELS HER CONCERTS

IN EUROPE UNTIL APRIL 2024

The Quebec star, suffering from "Stiff-Person Syndrom" (stiff person syndrome, SPR), a rare neurological pathology against which she "continues her treatment", had already announced in December that she was canceling or postponing the concerts planned for Europe between February and July 2023.

"Unfortunately, these spasms affect my everyday life on many levels. I sometimes have a lot of difficulty walking and I can't always use my vocal cords to sing as I would like," she explained then.

"I'm so sorry to disappoint you once again. I'm working very hard to regain my strength, but tours can be demanding and difficult, even when you're at 100%, says the artist on his Instagram account. It would be unfair to you to postpone the concerts once again, and although it breaks my heart, it is better to cancel everything now, until I am really ready to go back on stage. "I want you to know that I'm not giving up... and above all, I can't wait to see you again!", She adds.

Stiff-person syndrome (SPS) or stiff-person syndrome is a rare neurological disease. This autoimmune disease - caused by a malfunction of the immune system - results in muscle rigidity in the trunk or limbs. She remains relatively unknown. It was first identified in 1956.

After several months of rumors about her state of health, Celine Dion had come out of silence in a video published on Thursday, December 8, 2022 on social networks. "I sometimes have a lot of trouble walking and I can't use my vocal cords to sing as I would like," she explained, sobs in her voice.

Celine Dion's last concert dates back to March 2020, in Newark (United States). His world tour had been interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. She could never resume.

TRIBUTE TO THE ROCK & ROLL ICON

TINA TURNER

Two days after the death of Tina Turner at the age of 83, a report specifies the causes of her death.

As reported by the Daily Mail, the singer died of "natural causes" at her home in Switzerland .

The "queen of rock & roll", however, suffered from many health problems.

The press release announcing her death also indicated that she had died “peacefully at her home in Küsnacht in Switzerland following a long illness”.

"I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion."

In 2013, three weeks after her marriage to the Swiss, Erwin Bach, Tina Turner suffered a stroke.

This attack had made the interpreter of What's Love Got to Do With It lose the ability to walk and it took him several months before managing to move normally. "I put myself in great danger".

Three years after her stroke, Tina Turner was also diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016.

She had to undergo a kidney transplant in April 2017 thanks to the donation of her husband, Erwin Bach.

On March 9, 2023, on the occasion of World Kidney Day, the singer also confided on social networks that she had put herself "in great danger" by not taking enough interest in her health problems. kidneys.

"I didn't realize that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine," she said.

And to add: "I put myself in great danger by refusing to see reality in the face: I needed daily drug treatment for life. For too long, I believed that my body was a bastion untouchable and indestructible."

The tumultuous beginnings of the duo The Ike and Tina Turner Revue

Tina Turner, whose real name is Anna Mae Bullock, was born on November 26, 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee.

Daughter of a worker and a foreman on a farm, she comes from a modest background.

Raised by her grandmother, she spent her childhood in Tennessee with her sister. As a child, she began to sing in the church choir. As a teenager, she joined her mother in Missouri.

Discovered at the age of 18 in Saint-Louis by the rocker Ike Turner, she became one of his choristers and took part in his concerts. In 1960, he asked her to record a duet, A fool in love, which met with great success.

The young woman changes her first name and is now called Tina.

Meanwhile, she marries Ike Turner, and their duo, The Ike and Tina Turner Revue, will experience a succession of hits; River deep, Mountain high, Come together, I want to take you higher…

Indispensable, the duo went on tours during the 60s.

But the aggressive temperament of Ike Turner and his drug addictions plunge the couple adrift in the mid-1970s.

"My relationship with Ike was doomed the day he realized that I was going to become his livelihood," she explained in 2021 to the American channel HBO.

The relationship quickly turns into a nightmare, Ike Turner is violent and beats the singer daily.

She will eventually file for divorce in the late 1970s.

After their separation in 1976, Tina Turner moved away from the stage for a while. In 1978, she returned with her first solo album, Rough, but public reception was mixed.

In 1983, she released Let's stay together in England, which quickly rose to the top of the charts and relaunched her career.

She made her real comeback in 1984 with the release of the album Private Dancer, carried by the hit What's love got to do with it.

Success and love with Erwin Bach

In 1985, she met Erwin Bach, a manager of the EMI record company, in Europe. "We met at Cologne airport, and her manager Roger Davies asked me to pick her up," said Erwin Bach in the documentary "Tina".

At the time, the man was 16 years younger and the singer immediately fell in love with him:

"That was crazy, I thought:

"But where does it come from?"

My heart was beating fast and my hands were shaking," she confided in "Tina."

Tina Turner lives a beautiful and long love story.

The singer then experienced a resurgence of success with two other albums Break Every Rule (1986) and Foreign Affair (1989).

She multiplies artistic collaborations and sings in duet with Bryan Adams (It's only love) and Rod Stewart (It takes two).

She also recorded the soundtrack for the film Jours de Tonnerre (Break through the Barrier).

During the 90s, she released new albums Wildest dreams (1996) and Twenty four Seven (1997).

Since the beginning of the 2000s, Tina Turner has gradually moved away from the front of the stage.

However, it publishes best of; All the best (2004) and Tina! Her greatest hits (2008).

In October 2008, she returned to the stage with a tour after several years of absence. In 2009, Turner retired after completing his Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour.

At the same time, the singer made some forays into the cinema; Tommy (1975), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Last Action Hero (1993).

In 2000, she made an appearance in the series Ally McBeal. A biopic titled What's Love Got to Do with It is adapted from her autobiography I, Tina: My Life Story.

Her consistent contributions to rock music have earned her the title "Queen of Rock & Roll" ("Queen of Rock & Roll"). In addition to rock, she has also distinguished herself in R'n'B, soul, dance and pop.

She was the first black artist and the first woman to grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine which listed her among the 100 greatest artists of all time and the 100 greatest singers of all time.

She is one of the most influential African-American singers of the 20th century with Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin.

FRANCO-GERMAN FRIENDSHIP

COMPROMISED BY NUCLEAR

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and German Economy Minister Robert Habeck addressed the parliamentarians, saying their views were very different.

Nuclear energy should not be considered a renewable energy source, said Economy Minister Robert Habeck, amid the current disagreement over the revised renewable energy directive. His counterpart Bruno Le Maire called nuclear energy a "red line" for France.

When it comes to energy policy collaboration, Germany and France are “moving on their own,” Habeck said, summarizing the two countries' position on the matter.

“It would be a total misunderstanding if we assumed that because we work in depth and in confidence, the consensus is always there. I would say it's the exact opposite,” Mr. Habeck told the plenary.

Last week, the French government caused a lot of noise after blocking the approval of the revised EU Renewable Energy Directive, which sets minimum levels for energy production from renewable sources.

Approval was mostly seen as a formal step, since negotiations between the European Parliament and member states had already been concluded.

However, France wants to obtain additional guarantees: the country wants the low-carbon hydrogen produced by nuclear energy to be deducted from its renewable energy targets.

The German government considers nuclear energy to be separate from renewable energy and has insisted on maintaining the compromise that was previously agreed, Habeck said.

“Mr. Robert knows that nuclear policy is an absolute red line for France,” said Mr. Le Maire, adding “it is about our [energy] sovereignty.”

The timing of a new attempt to pass the legislation depends on France.

GOVERNOR RON SANTIS ANNOUNCES

HIS CANDIDACY FOR THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL LIVE BY ON TWITTER

Ron DeSantis was waiting for the end of the parliamentary session in Florida in May to officially declare himself a candidate for the Republican primary for the presidential election of 2024. History to highlight his record as governor of the Sunshine State, after an election won by a hair in 2018, then won hands down with 59% of the vote for a second term in November 2022.

A former foal of Donald Trump

Is Ron De Santis really the most serious candidate, the main opponent of Donald Trump? In any case, given the virulent criticism of the former president against him, it is clearly the Republican who has the best chance against the ex-president in the primaries of the party.

He is actually a former colt of Donald Trump and he shares a lot of his ideas. DeSantis is the conservative leader of the "culture war" that is tearing America apart. "Florida is where wokism is going to die," he asserted in early January. His goal is to demonstrate that he is more Trumpist than Donald Trump, his former mentor who has become an adversary, and more radical than the MAGA (“Make America Great Again”) base of the former president, in order to hope to win the primary. republican. He has also made himself known throughout the country thanks to his ultra-conservative policies that he implemented in Florida on education or immigration. Questions of gender and homosexuality are no longer allowed to be discussed at school, for example in Florida.

Thursday, May 18, the multinational Disney canceled a campus project of more than 1 billion dollars (925 million euros), which should have created south of Orlando 2,000 jobs, with average annual salaries of 120,000 dollars .

At the heart of this decision is the culture war waged against Disney. The firm, which operates the gigantic Disney World amusement park in Orlando, criticized a year ago the law nicknamed "Don't Say Gay" ("do not talk about homosexuals"), which prohibits approaching in schools so-called “gender” issues and homosexuality up to the equivalent of CE2.

Ron DeSantis retaliated by depriving the firm of the right to self-manage its estate, a privilege negotiated in the late 1960s, but that was without counting on the reaction of his boss, Robert Iger, who took the governor to court, denouncing "a targeted government retaliatory campaign". Then, Mr. Iger canceled the construction of the campus.

This former naval officer has therefore gained popularity by multiplying the ultra-conservative outbursts on education or immigration, in the name of a battle against the supposed "good-thinking".

On this point, the two candidates are hunting on the same ground. Ron DeSantis indeed multiplies the hard positions on immigration, the Covid-19 or even gender issues.

Disabilities and strengths

But Ron DeSantis' path to the White House is strewn with pitfalls. The main handicap of this father of three children: a lack of charisma, pointed out from all sides. And on which the Trump camp does not hesitate to attack it. “Announcing his candidacy on Twitter is perfect for DeSantis. That way he doesn't need to interact with anyone, "said one of Donald Trump's advisers.

According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, former US President Donald Trump, who has already announced his candidacy for the 2024 election since November 16, 2022, maintains a comfortable lead.

The growing notoriety of Ron DeSantis in the ranks of the Republicans and his ability to raise funds probably make him the biggest rival of Donald Trump. Ron DeSantis has another advantage: he is young, he is only 44 years old. He is the father of three young children. We are far from the 76 and 80 years of Donald Trump or Joe Biden.

The two men, however, remain the two favorites for the Republican nomination. The other declared Republican candidates – Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson – for the moment rarely exceed 5% of voting intentions.

The candidate chosen by the Republican camp at the end of the primaries will face in November 2024 the one nominated by the Democratic Party.

THE RISE OF THE STEPS OF THREE SACRED MONSTERS OF CINEMA MARTIN SCORSESE ROBERT DE NIRO AND LEONARDO DICAPRIO

The American director adapts in this feature film the eponymous bestseller by David Grann, published in 2017, and telling the true story of a series of unsolved murders, committed in a Native American community in Oklahoma, in the years 1920.

The cast includes several actors from the Amerindian community, who came to Cannes to climb the steps under the flashes of the photographers.

Killers Of The Flower Moon will air from October 18.

NATO THINKS BIGGER IN ITS MECHANISMS

OF DEFENSE

Deployments in the Baltics and Poland

NATO members are now considering increasing deployments in the Baltics and Poland to brigade size, which would mean adding thousands more troops "where and when needed".

Military equipment, which is long and complicated to transport, is prepositioned in the east as part of this plan. Exercises like "Spring storm" are intensifying to help allied forces communicate better, work together and know the terrain.

Airborne assault of American troops, night landing of British Marines, parachuting of French commandos: in Estonia, on the eastern flank of NATO, the countries of the Alliance are training in the shadow of the war led by Russia against Ukraine.

Concretely, Great Britain, which leads the NATO battle group in Estonia, will keep troops on standby in their home bases to reinforce the approximately 1,000 British and French soldiers present on the ground.

The message is clear. “It indicates that we can deploy very quickly in a very short time,” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Edouard Bros, commander of the French deployment in Estonia, whose forces are taking part in the “Spring storm” exercise.

"This is an essential change: an additional layer of capabilities to reinforce the force in place before the outbreak of conflict," said British Brigadier General Giles Harris, NATO Deployment Commander in Estonia.

"This change must make the alliance fit for large-scale operations to defend every inch of its territory," US General Christopher Cavoli, NATO's supreme commander in Europe, said this month.

“Collective defense has again become the most important task and we need to get ourselves in order,” says Kristjan Mae, head of the policy planning department at the Estonian Ministry of Defence.

A force of 300,000 soldiers

While Estonia seems happy with this model, its neighbour, Lithuania, wants to have additional troops permanently on the ground and is still discussing with its main partner, Germany, how to obtain them. These deployments reinforce the armies of the countries on the front line and constitute the tip of NATO's forward defense. Finland's - and eventually Sweden's - membership will help strengthen its eastern flank.

More detailed plans must be approved by leaders in Vilnius. They specify how the alliance would defend each region in the event of an attack, with the number of forces, the countries of origin and the duty stations. NATO wants to have a force of 300,000 soldiers ready to be deployed within 30 days.

All these new deployments will inevitably require money, resources and forces. The question is whether the allies are ready to put their hands in their pockets. Before Vilnius, NATO members are negotiating a new commitment to increase defense spending as a percentage of gross domestic product.

Only seven members of the alliance have reached the 2% target set for 2024 and the minimum target for Vilnius will be to turn this 2% into a floor rather than a ceiling. Estonia, which has never ceased to regard Russia as an existential threat, wants to see its allies commit to spending 2.5% of their GDP on defense and wants the new defense strategies to become operational as soon as possible.

"It's one thing to have good plans on paper. Another is to make them executable and achievable," Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said during the "Spring Storm" exercise. "That's the challenge for all of us."

PAKISTAN THE SPECTER OF IGNITION

In several cities, violent clashes pitted sympathizers of his party, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (Pakistan Justice Movement, PTI, of Islamo-nationalist tendency) and the security forces.

On May 12, the politician was released following a Supreme Court decision, but his legal troubles are not over, since he still has to appear for the charges against him.

This episode of protest, unprecedented in its intensity, is part of the long standoff between the PTI and the coalition gathered around the current Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, while the army, in this country of 230 million inhabitants, continues to play a leading role.

An unexpected explosion

The scale and virulence of the mobilizations seem to have taken the government and the army by surprise, which for the first time was directly targeted by the protesters. This effect of surprise is due in particular to an erroneous perception of Imran Khan's social base: according to a cliché widely spread among their opponents and in government circles, the supporters of the PTI are essentially "keyboard activists" confining their commitment to the networks social.

These clichés have been severely contradicted by the composition of the rioting crowds of the last few days, among which were found highly motivated women as well as businessmen and young people from working-class backgrounds. In this regard, it should be noted that 60% of the population of Pakistan is between 18 and 35 years old. This generation has grown up in a world where the jihadist threat has lost its existential character and where the central role of the army is no longer self-evident.

The ability of Imran Khan and his party to unite anger and provide meaning and direction to vastly different sections of the population has been minimized by authorities, both civilian and military.

However, this is not the first time that the PTI has demonstrated its mobilization capacities: in 2014, the party organized a "freedom march" which, for four months, drained thousands of people from Lahore to Islamabad.

A society crossed by a multitude of social, ethnic and religious divisions

The social conflicts that agitate Pakistan are also measured through the anti-militarist movements that have appeared in recent years in the country's tribal marches, particularly in Balochistan, and in the Pashtun regions, where the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (Pashtun Protection Movement - PTM) succeeded in mobilizing massively to denounce the abuses committed by the security forces in the context of anti-terrorist operations, despite fierce repression.

In recent years, Sindhi nationalist groups, which are more marked on the left, have also been in the news, in particular by attacking Chinese interests. But it is above all in Balochistan, on the border with Iran, that ethnic nationalism poses the greatest challenge to the State and to a unitary conception of the nation that would be satisfied with Islam as a reference. It is in this region, forbidden to foreign observers, that the Pakistani army and pro-government militias show the most uninhibited violence.

Added to this are religious divisions, opposing Sunnis and Shiites (around 20% of the Muslim population, which itself constitutes 96% of the population) but also different Sunni religious currents, in particular the Barelwis, followers of a devotional with Sufi influences, and the Deobandi, belonging to a reformed current which broke away from popular Islam through its rigor and scripturalism.

Finally, Pakistani society is deeply unequal. In Punjab and Karachi – two regions historically rooted in the Indian world – caste hierarchies remain very significant. In Pashtun countries or in Balochistan, society remains dominated by notables or tribal chiefs, while in rural Sindh economic and political power is concentrated in the hands of large landowners. In this context of superimposed social hierarchies, the theme of “people against the establishment”, which the PTI has taken up, is highly mobilizing.

The great strength of the PTI is to have succeeded in overcoming these structural divisions by articulating an anti-system discourse transcending the divisions of caste, class and ethnicity, while promoting an Islamo-nationalism which, if it appears to exclude minorities religions (Hindus, Christians, Ahmadis), brings together the entire Muslim population.

While broadly unifying, Imran Khan has however strongly polarized Pakistani society. He divided the army, some of whose officers seem to support him, but also the families, where the PTI and its leader arouse strongly contrasting opinions. It is also these divisions that explain the depth of the current crisis, which crosses the institutions rather than opposing them head-on.

A disunited ruling coalition

There is only a front unity in the current ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition.

The political dynasties at the head of the Pakistan Peoples Party (the Bhutto-Zardari) and the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (the Sharif) are historical rivals, who have not stopped vying for power since the end of the regime. Zia-ul-Haq military in 1988.

They do, however, share one objective: to consolidate democratic institutions in order to strengthen their autonomy in the face of military power, even if they often bow down to the force of the army, out of weakness or opportunism. The objective of the PTI and its leader is significantly different: it is rather for them to submit all the institutions, including the army, by forcing them to pledge allegiance to the leader of the nation.

Imran Khan fights neither for democracy nor against the military institution. He is in a very personal balance of power with the army chief, who in some ways recalls Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's attempt in the 1970s to monopolize power around himself.

The weight of the army

The army retains a central role in all areas of activity. There are retired generals at the head of many institutions, from the National Accountability Bureau (the anti-corruption agency behind the arrest of Imran Khan on May 9) to the management bodies of the universities. Through its foundations, the army controls whole sections of the economy. It is also one of the first landowners in the country, both in rural areas (where deserving officers are allocated land at the end of their careers) and in large cities (where it manages numerous real estate projects).

At the political level, since the end of the 2000s, the military has been careful not to put themselves on the front line and prefer to control affairs behind the scenes. This is what led them to support the accession to power of Imran Khan, after the 2018 elections. It was then for the army to contain the PPP and the PMLN, which for it represented a threat, with their desire to strengthen the autonomy of civil power and democratic institutions at the expense of military power.

Over the following years, a hybrid regime was set up, presenting a democratic facade but in reality controlled by the military. However, Imran Khan was quick to want to become independent from his former bosses, in particular by trying to place at the head of the army and its powerful intelligence services generals reputed to be close to him.

This is what caused his fall, following a motion of no confidence, in April 2022 – an impeachment in which the leadership of the PTI saw a plot hatched by the Pakistani army and the United States. The conflict has escalated further following the recent arrest of Khan, for which he publicly blamed the army chief, General Asim Munir.

For the leader of the PTI, however, it is less a question of launching a process of demilitarization of the country than of settling scores and winning a showdown with the only man likely to stand up to him. Even if it engages the future of civil-military relations, it is more a conflict of people than of institutions.

What scenarios can we consider ?

The first scenario is that of a rise in tensions between the PTI and the army. Playing the card of polarization and agitation, Imran Khan could call his supporters to resistance, betting on the support of part of the army or even on a mutiny which would push General Munir towards the exit. This scenario is very unlikely. If the army seems more divided than ever, it remains united behind its leader for the moment.

A second scenario is that of a return to power by Imran Khan, following the elections currently scheduled for October 2023. army leaders and opponents of the PTI resign themselves to the return of Khan, one of whose first objectives will be to punish and imprison his opponents.

The last scenario, the most probable in the short term, is that of an authoritarian consolidation at the initiative and for the benefit of the army. This seems determined to exploit the violent mobilizations of the last few weeks to bring the PTI to heel. Thousands of party supporters have been arrested in recent days and could be tried in military courts. Many of the party leaders are also behind bars. This repressive strategy has the support of the government of Shahbaz Sharif which, not without cynicism, exploits the anger of the army to settle its own accounts with the PTI. Some members of the ruling coalition would even like to take advantage of the events of recent days to ban their main rival, in order to prevent him from running in the next elections.

In any case, democracy risks not emerging from this ordeal...

Article by Laurent Gayer, CNRS research director at CERI-Sciences Po, published in The Conversation.

VEGETABLE CARPACCIO

SHEEP'S TOMME

Introduced to cooking from an early age by her father, Anne Etorre gives you a delicious spring recipe

Ingredients for 4 persons

500 g of radishes of all kinds (black, red and blue meat, red, etc.)

1 kohlrabi

100 g sheep cheese 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

3 tablespoons herbaceous olive oil

flower of salt

ground pepper (rather a little citrus)

Preparation

Brush the radishes, remove the damaged parts.

Peel the kohlrabi. Slice them very thinly, using a mandoline or a knife, and put them in a large bowl. Add vinegar, olive oil and a little salt. Mix well to coat the vegetables. Let stand 15 to 20 minutes.

Arrange the vegetables nicely on a platter.

Cut shavings of tomme cheese with a peeler and insert them with the vegetables. Pepper.

RUSSIANS ANNOUNCE CONTROL OF BAKHMUT

While the Ukrainian army and the mercenaries of the paramilitary group Wagner, supported by units of the regular Russian army, have been fighting over control of this small town in Donetsk oblast since last August, the latter seem about to win. Moscow claimed on Saturday evening the full capture of the city of Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine and the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle in the country since the Russian assault, in February 2022.

This Saturday, Yevgueni Prigojine, the head of Wagner, declared in a message published on the instant messaging application Telegram that his men would have seized Bakhmout "at noon", adding "we took the whole city, house by house . From Bakhmout, Yevgeny Prigojine – in conflict with the military hierarchy in Moscow – pointed out that the capture of the city had taken “224 days” and that there were “only Wagner here”, no regular troops from the army. Russian army.

According to him, his group will withdraw from the city from May 25 and leave its defense to the regular army, remaining available after rotation and training for future operations from Moscow.

That same evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a statement congratulating Wagner and the soldiers of the regular army who gave them their support for the completion of "Operation to Liberate Artyomovsk", the name Bakhmut Soviet.

This is not the first time that the Ukrainian and Russian governments have disputed control of the city through press releases: last April, after his men seized the town hall of Bakhmout, Yevgueni Prigojine assured that it, "from a legal point of view", was in the hands of the Russian forces.

“Ruins and dead Russians”

An assertion that seemed to have been confirmed the next day by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan: “Bahmut is only in our hearts, he said. There's nothing left there […] except ruins, and dead Russians. »

But where this declaration had then been greeted with mockery from the Ukrainian general staff, it would seem that the announcement made on May 20 by Yevgueni Prigojine is more credible: indeed, according to Kiev, the situation on the ground would be “ critical", and the Ukrainian army would only control "certain industrial installations" and residential buildings.

If the city had indeed come under Russian control, it would put an end to a ten-month battle, considered by some observers to be one of the bloodiest of the 21st century. Quoted by the BBC last March, Western officials estimated Russian losses in Bakhmout at between 20,000 and 30,000 people, killed or injured.

The conflict in Ukraine escalates

The Russian claim came during a surprise visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Hiroshima, Japan, for the G7 summit, where he was to meet his US counterpart Joe Biden.

The latter, after having paved the way for future deliveries of American-built F-16 fighter jets to help Ukraine "defend itself" against Russia, met with Mr. Zelensky on Sunday in Hiroshima (Japan). Two days after an announcement paving the way for the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to kyiv, the President of the United States promised new American weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. These new shipments will include “ammunition, artillery, armored vehicles,” Joe Biden said.

But the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to kyiv raises questions. “The question revolves around crossing the Russian border. The purpose of combat aviation is to bring fire to the enemy. However, there is a political obstacle here”, analyzes an expert on France 24 “Not to cross the Russian border, it would be to make a very limited use of this type of armament. Flying F-16s only in the Ukrainian sky would be like putting birds in a cage”, summarizes the specialist in military matters. Asked again Monday about the possibility of supplying American F-16s to Ukraine, John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, had reaffirmed no later than Monday May 15 the opposition of Washington which seemedwant to maintain a defensive strategy in Ukrainian skies.

The two camps are now awaiting a major counter-offensive announced by the Ukrainian authorities, backed by Western arms deliveries.

NEW-YORK SUSKS INTO WATER UNDER WEIGHT

OF ITS SKYSCRAPERS

"In 2012, Hurricane Sandy pulled seawater into the city, while heavy rains from Hurricane Ida in 2021 overwhelmed drainage systems due to heavy runoff in the mostly paved city."

"A deeply concentrated population of 8.4 million people face varying degrees of flood danger in New York City," experts warn.

All the buildings in the Big Apple would today represent a weight of 764 million tonnes, thus making this collapse of the city all the more rapid. The study chronicles the passage of two recent hurricanes that killed people and caused heavy damage in the Big Apple to illustrate the dangers that await the huge urban center, including the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

“Urbanization itself can exacerbate the problem; the cumulative pressure applied to the ground by tall buildings contributes to subsidence through the initial primary settlement of the ground compression and the reduction of vacant space.”

Stop coastal constructions

However, the ground of New York is, in certain zones, composed of soft elements, such as clay and sand. The city's surficial geology consists of silt, sand, clay lake, beach deposits and rock outcrops among others, the study reads. Soils rich in clay and artificial fill are particularly susceptible to subsidence, say the researchers.

New York, Jakarta, soon under water ?

The subsidence could be made worse by the construction of new buildings but also by the extraction of groundwater combined with rising sea levels, they warn. The world's population is growing, and one projection estimates that 70% of it will live in major cities by 2050, they add.

In the future, floods could increase. New York is one of the cities most at risk from future flooding. She's not the only one.

In Indonesia, the capital Jakarta could be under water in barely twenty-five years. Some neighborhoods are sinking nearly 11 centimeters a year due to groundwater pumping.

PASTRAMI

Of Jewish origin from Eastern Europe, pastrami has made the success of Delicatessen all over the world. A recipe that can be done partly on the barbecue, partly in the oven, or all on the barbecue, if you want.

Pastrami probably comes from Romania

The word is pastrami, trama initially is a mixture of spices. It will take a lot of time, about four days, to make our pastrami.

Ingredients

A brisket of beef weighing about two kilos

60 grams of salt

60 grams of brown sugar

Recipe

I First grind or crush the following mixture:

30 grams of mustard seeds, black pepper, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, juniper berries, pink pepper and smoked paprika.

Start by mixing the coarse salt and brown sugar, then rub the mixture on the beef brisket.

Then place this well-wrapped beef brisket in the refrigerator for 48 to 72 hours. Then remove it, remove the sugar, the salt, pass it under water, dry it completely with absorbent paper.

Rub it again with the spice mixture to completely cover it.

Then place the meat in a dish in the oven at 110 degrees for six hours. Slow cooking will make the meat super tender and release some of its juices.

Remove the meat from the oven, let it cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Put it on the barbecue with a few wood chips that have been moistened beforehand to lightly smoke it, wrap it in parchment paper or aluminum foil and then collect the cooking juices. Add two tablespoons of ketchup, ideally homemade, a tablespoon of honey, a clove of crushed garlic, two teaspoons of smoked paprika. Reduce the sauce and coat.

HARRISON FORD AT THE CANNES FESTIVAL

INDIANA JONES AND HONORARY GOLDEN PALM

It's a final installment of Indiana Jones for legend Harrison Ford. He will not participate in the series on the illustrious character, currently in preparation at Disney. This last installment represents one of the most expensive threads in history with a budget of 300 million dollars.

At the end of the afternoon, the 80-year-old actor found the whole team of the film directed by James Mangold for a climb of the historic steps. He did it on the arm of Calista Flockhart, the unforgettable interpreter of Ally McBeal whom he married in 2010.

In the packed hall of the Palais des Festivals, he saw a clip of his greatest films ("Star Wars", "Indiana Jones", "Witness" which he had presented at the opening of the 1985 edition, etc.) before to receive an honorary Palme d'Or. The actor then wanted to share his emotion to see his life as an actor flash before his eyes and to be celebrated by the family of world cinema. He had tears in his eyes. an “I love you” then sprung up in the room. To which he replied “I know and I love you too”!

A surprise Palme d'Or

Before the screening, the general delegate Thierry Frémaux asked the star of the day to get up… before inviting him to receive a surprise Palme d'honneur from the hands of the new president of the Cannes Film Festival, the German Iris Knobloc.

"I am deeply touched by this distinction," reacted the 80-year-old American actor, visibly very moved.

A figure of Hollywood cinema, he has played a wide range of characters, from Han Solo in the "Star Wars" saga to "Blade Runner", passing by the adventurer with the hat and the whip, which he has played since 1981 and the first episode, "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

Will he have taken the time to meet Steven Spielberg, who is said to be discreetly present on the Croisette but who did not show up on the steps, obviously not wanting to overshadow James Mangold to whom he gave in? the making of the film after having long wanted to sign it himself.

CANNES FESTIVAL MICHAEL DOUGLAS

RECEIVES THE PALME D'OR D'HONOR

The opportunity to celebrate his brilliant career, his commitment to cinema, but also to man, because Michael Douglas works for many causes. Remember that since 1998, he has been a messenger of peace for the UN. Very quickly, he committed himself against international nuclear armament and for the control of firearms in the United States.

Michael Douglas back on the Croisette

In 1979, Michael Douglas went to the Cannes Film Festival for the very first time. It presents The Chinese Syndrome alongside actors Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon, as well as director James Bridges. In 1992, Paul Verhoeven's sulfurous Basic Instinct was presented in Competition. Shaking up the genre of thriller, the film shakes up the Croisette: it propels Sharon Stone to the rank of international icon and confirms all the power of play of Michael Douglas. The following year, Chute libre by Joel Schumacher was also presented in Competition, marking the American actor's third appearance at the Cannes Film Festival. It will then be necessary to wait 20 years for Michael Douglas to return to show the Marches du Palais du Festival. We are in 2013 and it is the world premiere of the film My life with Liberace by Steven Soderbergh.

And finally the consecration, twenty years later, this Tuesday, May 16, 2023 with the Palme d'or d'honneur. It is the American actress Uma Thurman who gives the Palme d'or d'honneur to this “eternal star”, this “generous artist”, as she calls him so well: Michael Douglas. Acclaimed by the public for his capital career and his commitment to cinema, the actor declares: “There are hundreds of film festivals in the world, but there is only one Cannes. I have wonderful memories of this Festival. The pleasure is immense to be able to meet and talk with such different people around the cinema. While a pandemic and then a terrible war have divided the world, the Cannes Film Festival confirms that cinema can transcend limits and bring people together. It's a privilege to

"You know the basics of my training, which has lasted for more than 50 years. We work with as much relentlessness on our failures as our successes. I thank the hundreds of teams, my wife Catherine and my daughter. I send them all my love, and thank them for their patience," the actor continued.

He recalls that his last role, that of Benjamin Franklin and recalls the links between France and his country. He concludes in French: "I would like to kiss you with all my heart".

Passed in front of the camera of the greatest such as Robert Zemeckis for In pursuit of the green diamond (1984), Ridley Scott for Black Rain (1989) or Barry Levinson with Harassment (1994), he goes so far as to obtain the grail of industry: the Oscar. He thus became the best actor of 1987 for his interpretation of Gordon Gekko, a greedy New York broker on Wall Street. The sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, was screened Out of Competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

"There are hundreds of festivals but there is only one Cannes Film Festival"

“The Festival has always reminded me that the magic of cinema is not only in what you see on screen but also in its ability to move people around the world."

ALERT ON LOW WATER IN THE LAKES

AND TANKS OF THE WORLD

The bottom of Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia, has completely dried up, transformed into a desert. The lake of Serre-Ponçon, in the Alps, reveals new banks, it is the same in Spain or in Voglans, in the Jura.

"Lakes are in danger globally, and this has broad implications," Balaji Rajagopalan, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and co-author of the study, told AFP. “They allow societies and humanity to live, and yet they don't get the respect they deserve. »

Lakes cover about 3% of the earth's surface, but account for 87% of liquid fresh water on Earth. They are used for human consumption, agriculture, or even the production of electricity. About a quarter of the world's population lives in an area with a lake or reservoir (a body of water regulated by a dam) that is drying up.

Nearly 2,000 bodies of water studied

Previous work has already looked at the decline of larger lakes individually. But this study is the first to offer a detailed view of global trends, and the causes of change, through satellite observations.

In total, the researchers studied 1,972 bodies of water, representing the vast majority of natural lakes (focusing on those larger than 100 km2) and reservoirs. Over the nearly 30-year period studied (from 1992 to 2020), the study concludes that they drained the equivalent of all the water consumed by the United States in 2015.

The study has an unexpected result: lakes lose water not only in arid areas, but also in humid regions. "It is generally considered that when the climate warms up, the arid regions dry out even more, and the humid regions become wetter", explains Balaji Rajagopalan. But even in the latter, “the lakes are in decline”, which is “surprising”, he underlined, giving the example of India.

To determine the causes of the observed trends, the scientists segmented their analysis according to the type of body of water. For natural lakes, they attribute about half of water loss to human activities and rising temperatures, which cause increased evaporation – the latter factor being linked to climate change.

In addition, humans or herds may need to consume more water due to higher temperatures.

With regard to reservoirs, the construction of new dams has made it possible to increase their overall volume of water, but nearly two thirds of the large reservoirs are in decline. Sediment accumulation was the main factor reducing their storage capacity, although droughts also affect some, such as in the southwestern United States.

Many consequences

The consequences of this decline are numerous. Lack of water can cause population displacements. Water quality can also be affected if a lake's level is low. Like the oceans, the lakes also store carbon, and no longer play this role when they disappear, in turn aggravating global warming.

But the researchers' message is not fatalistic: on the contrary, they seek to raise awareness. Decision makers are now “armed with information”.

KALININGRAD RETURNS TO OLD NAME

In its opinion published on Tuesday (9 May), the Polish Commission for the Standardization of Geographical Names (KSNG) recommended using the name Królewiec, the Polish version of the name given to the city founded in the 13th century by the Teutonic Order, to which the territory belonged at the time, rather than Kaliningrad.

“It is not even a question of Russophobia anymore, but of a decision which borders on madness”, declared the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, quoted by the agency TASS.

Explaining the reasons for this new recommendation, the KSNG said that the town was historically known in Poland by its original name, Królewiec.

Naming such an important city close to Poland after Mikhail Kalinin, "a criminal" who was co-responsible for the murder of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest, among other places, is "artificial and unrelated to the city itself, nor with the region".

Current political circumstances were also cited as the reason for the recommendation, with the KSNG believing that Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Moscow's information warfare should reignite the debate over Russian-imposed names.

Reaction in Russia

The replacement of the city's name also drew strong reactions from former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. If Poland does not like the name Kaliningrad, the names of Polish cities previously occupied by Germany should be replaced with German names, he said, as quoted by TASS.

To give some examples, he suggested using the name Danzig instead of Gdansk, Stettin instead of Szczecin, or Breslau instead of Wroclaw.

A town named after the Czech king by warrior monks

The city was founded in the mid-13th century on the site of the former Prussian colony of Twangste by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades and was named Königsberg, translated into Polish by Królewiec, in honor of King Ottokar II of Bohemia, which helped the Teutonic Order conquer the territories of the Prussian tribes. Until the 1500s, the city was one of the states of the Teutonic Order, an important urban center and the capital of the Grand Master of the Order between 1457 and 1525. Until the Second World War, it remained under Prussian and then German domination.

After Królewiec was captured by the Soviet Union on April 9, 1945, the Potsdam Agreement of 1945 placed it under Soviet administration.

CHAOS ON THE US-MEXICO BORDER WITH

THE END OF TITLE 42 ?

In the coming weeks, the United States authorities expect a "chaotic" situation, in the words of Joe Biden himself, with massive arrivals of migrants at the Mexican border.

In an attempt to respond, the federal state has mobilized more than 24,000 agents and law enforcement at the border, in addition to 4,000 soldiers. The cause ?

The expiry this Thursday of a public health order known as "Title 42".

Disorder indeed reigns on the US southern border, according to US border officials, with Title 42 ending at 11:59 p.m. (EDT) Thursday, May 11, 2023.

Nearly 10,000 migrants were intercepted, hours before the end of the measure, as they desperately tried to cross the border between Mexico and the United States.

Title 42, which had been in place since March 2020, allowed border patrol officers to deport migrants who arrived illegally on US soil before they could apply for asylum, amid a pandemic.

End of Title 42

"Title 42" refers to Clause 42 of the U.S. Governmental Code, established July 1, 1944.

It is a law that gives federal authorities the power to prohibit the entry of people and products into the country in order to limit the spread of a communicable disease.

It is therefore this clause that the Trump administration invoked in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, to limit the entry and receipt of immigration applications. Its objective was to prohibit border control agencies from detaining migrants in "gathering places" such as detention centres, where the COVID-19 virus could spread rapidly.

This measure having ended Thursday evening, several migrants rushed to the border, hoping to be able to take advantage of this chaotic transition to the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Thursday that “a high number of arrivals” had been observed “in “certain sectors” before the expiration of Title 42. The federal government expects receive up to 13,000 migrants a day immediately after the measure expires, compared to around 6,000 on a normal day.

“Chaotic” situation

Local authorities are grappling with the large migratory flow of the last few days, in addition to the duty to deal with undocumented migrants already intercepted. The Biden administration planned to release these irregular immigrants without deporting them to breathe new life into border guards.

However, a federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered a conflicting notice requiring officers to serve notices to appear for immigration court, a time-consuming process that border officials say is harmful.

“This is a harmful regulation that will lead to border congestion, which impedes our ability to effectively carry out procedures and deportations of migrants and which risks creating dangerous conditions for border agents and migrants.” A quote from the US Border Patrol

To help local authorities, 24,000 additional agents were deployed on Wednesday in addition to 4,000 soldiers in view of the large influx of migrants.

The situation, although chaotic, was however expected. President Joe Biden himself recently said that the situation will be "chaotic for a while" as he tries to keep a balanced policy on this file.

Faced with a risk of a migration crisis, the Democrats are therefore displaying a discourse of firmness. "I want to be very clear: our border is not wide open. People crossing our border illegally and without a legal basis to stay will be immediately [...] deported," said Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas.

However, he admits to being lucid about the challenges that we will probably face in the days and weeks to come.

"We are ready to respond to it ," said the minister, noting "that a high number of arrivals" had already been observed "in certain sectors".

To restrict irregular crossing at its border, the US government wants to introduce new restrictions.

Visa-free migrants who passed through other countries before reaching the United States and who did not apply in those countries will no longer be eligible to apply for asylum. However, those who have made an appointment on the CBP One mobile application for their application will be exempt from the measures.

The only exception to the rule will be unaccompanied minors.

Illegals who do not meet the criteria will be subject to the "accelerated deportation process" which will prevent them from entering American soil for the next five years.

Migrants "who have no reason to stay, we will remove them very quickly with what we now have at our disposal, our traditional powers of immigration control", explained the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The impacts with the return of clause 8

Since the Term 42 policy began, the Border Patrol has reportedly conducted 2.8 million migrant deportations, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Before the pandemic, Clause 8 was the main resource available to immigration authorities when deciding whether to detain a person at the border or release them with a permit to seek asylum or to invoke humanitarian reasons.

Term 8, however, provides severe penalties for returned migrants for illegal entry, including a re-entry ban for at least five years and potential criminal prosecution for repeated attempts to illegally enter US territory.

The return of the application of clause 8 should reduce the number of repeated border crossings, which increased considerably during the application of clause 42.

However, this clause provides exceptions for people who belong to vulnerable populations, for example those who report a credible fear of persecution. They could appear before a judge, who will then decide whether they can stay in the United States or not.

Contain the flow of migrants

The Biden administration has decided to send 1,500 troops for 90 days to the US-Mexico border.

A total of 4,000 military personnel are mandated to assist border authorities with various non-law enforcement tasks.

This measure is not unanimous among Democrats, some deploring that President Biden has decided to militarize the border with Mexico.

Meanwhile, the United States has opened new processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala, which will allow migrants to be screened through legal pathways, such as asylum seeker or refugee status, before going to swell the ranks of the population at the border.

Alejandro Mayorkas, head of Homeland Security, said in a statement that his department would process the migrants according to "standard procedure", that is, subjecting them to deportation proceedings.

Delicate political dossier

Republicans accuse Democrats of not tightening enough security at the country's gates, while migrant rights groups say the government is blocking asylum seekers from accessing their rights. civil rights (ACLU) is suing the Biden administration to counter new restrictions on asylum seekers.

The new government policies want to encourage migrants to adopt the legal process to enter the country. The problem identified by the organization is that the system requires appointment booking via a mobile application, while many applicants do not have access to the Internet or even a mobile device.

It's a political problem for Joe Biden. A timely migration crisis for Republicans, as Donald Trump makes his comeback on the American political scene?

For the former president, "Joe Biden has officially abolished what was left of America's borders".

On the side of the Democrats, we want a humanitarian treatment of migrants. Everyone wants new immigration laws, but congress is so divided they can't pass new laws.

In the meantime, Republicans, who have a majority in the House of Representatives, plan to hold a vote on the new "Secure the Border Act of 2023" next week. The bill would restore many of ex-President Trump's most controversial border policies.

Kyrsten Sinema, Democratic Senator from Arizona, and her Republican colleague from North Carolina, Thom Tillis, are currently working on a bill that would grant a two-year temporary authorization to continue deporting migrants from the United States, so with powers similar to those conferred by clause 42.

This measure is not unanimous among Democrats, some deploring that President Biden has decided to militarize the border with Mexico with the sending of 1,500 American soldiers as reinforcements to the Mexican-American border.

Meanwhile, the United States has opened new processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala, which will allow migrants to be screened through legal pathways, such as asylum seeker or refugee status, before going to swell the ranks of the population at the border.

Separately, as early as Thursday, Republicans intend to pass a bill, known as HR 2, that would codify some of the border agendas implemented by former President Donald Trump, including the policy that demanded that migrants remain in Mexico while following the asylum procedure.

He also plans to devote more resources to border security, relaunch the construction of the wall between the two states, increase border personnel and modernize border technology.

So far, the United States has agreed with Mexico to contain migrants turned back by Washington.

And Mexico in all this ?

For its part, Mexico has agreed to welcome migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti under the old clause under the new parole procedures implemented by the Biden administration in the United States. beginning of the year. These policies have resulted in a significant drop in the number of illegal border crossings by nationals of these four countries.

However, despite ongoing talks with the United States, it is uncertain whether Mexico will agree to continue hosting non-Mexicans rejected by the United States without the Term 42 mechanism.

SURPRISE VICTORY OF THE PRO-DEMOCRACY PARTY

IN THAILAND AGAINST THE MILITARY JUNTA

For nine years, the country had been ruled by Prayuth Chan-ocha, who came to power after a military coup.

A “tradition” (Thailand has experienced a coup every seven years on average since 1932) that the electorate supports less and less. He therefore preferred the Move Forward and Pheu Thai parties to the royalists and the military.

Marching towards democracy with Pita Limjaroenrat ?

The hope of seeing the country give birth to a democracy now has a name: Pita Limjaroenrat. This leader of the opposition, claimed this Monday, May 15 the victory of his center left party Move Forward, en route to form a government coalition to succeed the generals in power for almost ten years.

A true idol of Thai youth, this businessman from a good family hopes to become the next Prime Minister of Thailand. He embodies the break with the military in power for a decade in Thailand.

“It is clear that the Thai people have expressed their desire to put the Move Forward Party in the lead. We can therefore manage the formation of the future government,” insisted the charismatic leader, aged only 42. With a confident posture and a determined gaze, Pita Limjaroenrat said he was "ready to become the next Prime Minister". He pleaded on Monday for a "smooth transition" at the head of the government.

Imposing itself outside its usual urban strongholds, its young reformist formation won more than 150 parliamentary seats out of the 500 in the Assembly and established itself as the leading political force in the kingdom.

A Senate under orders

Having to negotiate within the framework of constitutional rules distorted by the military, who led the 2014 coup, Khun Pita, as his supporters call him, must succeed, in the coming weeks, in forming a large majority made up of at least 376 parliamentarians. To minimize the weight of the 500 deputies elected by the people, the generals have, in fact, ensured total control of the Senate. Its 250 members are not elected but appointed by various conservative institutions.

To be appointed Prime Minister, the leader of Move Forward must therefore convince 376 deputies to join his executive. This Monday evening, he assured that he was already certain to rally at least 309 elected officials, from six parties. In particular, he has the support of Pheu Thai, the populist party, led by the family of billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, which had so far won all the legislative elections since 2001, and should, this time, have just over 140 elected.

Gag procedures

But nothing is won. Because going forward is very offensive on the issue of the reform of the crime of lèse-majesté which, for a wrong word on King Rama X, continues to send Thais to prison. However, this is not the position of its future coalition partners in a country where the monarchy divides.

We cannot exclude a dirty trick from the military either. Pita's supporters fear a procedure for ineligibility on the pretext, however firmly denied, that he is a shareholder in a media company, which the electoral code prohibits.

In the past, legal gag proceedings have on several occasions made it possible to dismiss the intruders, whether they are former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, in exile since in Dubai, or even the former opponent Thanatorn Juangroongruangkit. In 2020, justice had dissolved the party The Future Ahead of Us, ancestor of Going Forward.

"It's a spectacular challenge for the power in place in the Kingdom", considers for his part the correspondent of the Times who nevertheless judges, like the whole of the international press, that the Thai generals will not be so easily ousted from the power, and "that there is no guarantee that Pita can become Prime Minister", despite his electoral victory.

Pita's victory "marks the culmination of the protest movement that began in 2020, with massive pro-democracy protests, when thousands of youth and student-led people challenged the military-linked government, by demanding both the resignation of the Prime Minister and the reform of the monarchy", underlines the correspondent of El Pais.

FROM ELECTIONS IN TURKIYE TO INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

After 20 years of reign, the "sultan of modern times" is more fragile than ever. The Turks penalized him for his role in the collapse of the economy and his management - much criticized - of the deadly earthquakes of February.

Yesterday, the youth vote weighed in the balance. They are 6.4 million first-time voters (out of 64 million voters) born and raised under Erdogan's reign. A generation that the reis failed to transform, as he had promised, into 'a pious generation'".

The presidential election of 2023 is certainly played on economic issues and the ability of candidates to stop the inflation that is undermining the country. But international issues make this election an event that goes beyond the national framework. The outcome of these presidential elections could indeed have an impact on Turkey's foreign policy.

Put Turkey, a military power, back in the center of the map

Despite the economic and political difficulties that the Turkish state has been going through for a few years, it is interesting to see that the foreign policy pursued by Erdogan since he came to power has continued to follow the objective of putting Turkey back at the center of the map. A bridge between Europe and Asia and a true crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean, Ankara has many assets that make it essential on the European, Asian, Middle Eastern scene, and to a lesser extent, on the African scene. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, over time, has proven to be a skilled diplomat, using his country's central geographical position. A link between Europe and the Middle East, in direct contact with the war in Syria, in discussion with the Gulf countries, in mediation on the war in Ukraine. He talks to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping while being at the head of NATO's second army, in fact a valuable ally of the United States. His departure would cast a shadow of uncertainty over many issues.

In addition, a rising military power with military expenditure of 15.48 billion dollars (i.e. 2.1% of its GDP), Turkey has a very active defense industry, which has mainly made itself known with MALE drones Bayraktar TB-2. The embargo put in place by France and Germany on the sale of arms to Turkey in 2019 has pushed the country to improve its strategic autonomy. It now aims to produce 100% of its weapons. In 2021, Ankara produces 70% of its weaponry and begins to carve out a place for itself among the major arms exporters. The Turkish state intends, among other things, to produce a national fighter, the TF-X, but also an anti-aircraft defense system, the SIPER. Three Turkish companies are also now among the 100 largest arms companies in the world.

In addition to a strategic geographical location, Turkey has adopted a strategy of influence , based both on "Turkish-style" pan-Islamism and on arms exports, which gradually seems to be making its mark. evidence within the Turkish strategic environment.

An ambiguous role on the European scene

Ankara, under the presidency of Erdogan, is characterized by its particularly ambiguous role on the European scene: while Turkey is a candidate for the EU and a member of NATO, it has gradually moved away from Western countries since the lockdown country's policy started in 2016, and makes it a point of honor to maintain close relations with Russia. This ambiguity can be seen above all through its position on the relaunch of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 by serving as an intermediary to circumvent international sanctions against Moscow. Turkey is playing a balancing act here. It delivers Bayraktar drones to Ukraine, while opposing sanctions against Moscow. A position that even allowed him to sponsor an agreement between the two belligerents to let Ukrainian cereals out through the Black Sea. Even if the Turkish state seems to be playing a murky game between the two belligerents, it ultimately strives to exploit its position of "balance" between two poles of power - one centered around the European Union and the another centered around Moscow - in order to chart its own course and eventually become a regional power.

Recep Erdogan tempers, as much as possible. But in the context of the presidential election on May 14, 2023, his opponent Kemal Kiliçdaroglu will not necessarily be able to maintain the balance. It will be more complicated because with Erdogan, Russia had only one interlocutor.

If the opposition wins, there will be several. The opposition is a team of six very different political currents. And the candidate behind whom they lined up promises a collegial presidency to break with the verticality of Recep Erdogan.

A thorn in the side of NATO?

The war in Ukraine has also revealed Turkey's influence within NATO. Finland and Sweden, which until then wanted to stay away from the organization, have applied. Ankara finally agreed to join Finland, while letting Stockholm wait. Recep Erdogan is asking Sweden to extradite sympathizers he considers to be “PKK terrorists”. He wanted to show [his electorate] that his country is a country that counts in international organizations. The signal he sends is that of a president who does not jeopardize the safety of his citizens like that.

Within the Atlantic Alliance, Turkey is the second largest army behind that of the United States. A country with which the relationship has been ambiguous since Ankara opted for the Russian S-400 missile system to the detriment of its American equivalent. The United States responded by refusing to sell them F-35 fighter jets.

A subject of contention which could quickly calm down with the arrival of Kemal Kiliçdaroglu in power.

The end of a stormy relationship with the European Union?

Another tense relationship is that of Turkey with the European Union. Troublesome folders won't disappear in the blink of an eye. Recep Erdogan will probably continue to play the balance of power. As for his opponent, if he plans to calm the relationship, he still risks suffering from the tensions left as a legacy.

It plans to modify the penal code, protect freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Giving pledges to the West would give Turkey a better image, which would eventually attract foreign investors. In turn, to put the customs union project with the EU back on the table. And why not to offer more flexible visa conditions for Turkish youth eager for Europe. The challenge will be to convince Brussels, which is no longer as open as it used to be, of the interest of a rapprochement with Ankara.

On the other hand, we should not expect a change of foot on Cyprus or Syria. These are security issues, regardless of the power in place. The majority of Turks feel threatened by what is happening in Syria.

A possible normalization in the eastern Mediterranean

With the economic crisis that Turkey is undergoing, Ankara needs stability with its neighbors. After a period of tension in the eastern Mediterranean, relations with Greece are tending to normalize. Recep Erdogan and Kemal Kiliçdaroglu would go in the same direction. It must be said that the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria in February helped calm things down. Athens immediately gave its support which was appreciated and noticed. Exploration vessels flying the Turkish flag are also less aggressive in the area in an attempt to get their hands on the important gas resources.

Turkey has therefore succeeded in securing a place of choice in its strategic environment. The strengthening of its military capabilities, the dazzling growth of its defense industry, but above all its great ambitions should enable it to become, in the long term, a power of regional scope.

However, the country still faces many challenges, especially domestically: the poor state of the Turkish economy, aggravated by the two earthquakes, requires fundamental reforms which will undoubtedly vary depending on the candidate who wins the presidential elections , but also of the party which will carry the ballot of the legislative elections.

A change at the head of the country after more than twenty years of governance by the AKP party could have a considerable impact on this state with great ambitions, which until then used its ambiguous relations to gain power.

"But the balance of power is never far away. It is even the hallmark of Turkish diplomacy in recent years: the lack of clarity while ensuring a certain stability."

ACTOR TOM HANKS NOT ALWAYS FRIENDLY

ON FILM SETS

RELEASES HIS FIRST NOVEL

Mr. Hanks was talking about his first novel, The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece, which is partly about making a blockbuster superhero movie. The Forrest Gump star has revealed his novel features a series of characters, including an overbearing and highly obstructive male actor who disrupts and delays filming.

"I've behaved like this on a film set, admits Hanks. Not everyone is at their best every day on a film set. I've had difficult days where I was trying to be a professional when my life was falling apart in more ways than one and I had to be funny and charming and loving…and that's the last thing I feel."

The All-Nighter in Seattle actor then spoke of the "deadly sin in the film industry" of delay.

"What can't happen on a film is that someone can't play with the schedule, the shooting time or the budget, he said, before adding:

You'd be surprised how many people know they can get away with doing it anyway, because they're carrying the movie on their shoulders."

In the novel, he refers to actors who are "whiners, psychological wrecks, alcoholics on the wagon, drug addicts off the wagon...and more than a few talent feuds".

Hanks unsurprisingly didn't take the opportunity to divulge particular examples or offer specific mea culpa.

The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece was released on May 9, 2023. Although it is Hanks' first novel, it is his second work of fiction, following his 2017 short story collection, Matters of Character.

He will also star in Wes Anderson's next film, Asteroid City, which will be released on June 21, 2023.

DEADLY SHOOTING IN A SYNAGOGUE

IN TUNISIA

The Tunisian authorities are investigating, Wednesday, May 10, 2023, to elucidate the circumstances of the attack carried out by a gendarme who killed three of his colleagues and two faithful in front of a synagogue on the island of Djerba, during the annual Jewish pilgrimage, before be shot.

Security forces “encircled the synagogue and secured everyone inside and around it,” according to the Interior Ministry. “Investigations are continuing to elucidate the motives for this cowardly attack,” added the ministry, refraining at this stage from mentioning a terrorist attack.

Preliminary investigation opened

Two worshipers taking part in a Jewish pilgrimage and two gendarmes were killed Tuesday evening by an agent of the Tunisian maritime guard who opened fire in front of the Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba, announced the Ministry of the Interior.

A police officer who was hospitalized after Tuesday's attack died of his injuries on Wednesday, according to a medical official quoted by TAP, bringing the death toll to five.

This synagogue, the oldest in Africa, had already been targeted in 2002 by a suicide truck bomb attack that killed 21 people.

"A preliminary criminal investigation has been opened," said Fethi Bakkouche, spokesperson for the court in Medenine, on which the island of Djerba depends.

The attack came in two stages as hundreds of worshipers took part in the annual Jewish Ghriba pilgrimage which was coming to an end on Tuesday evening.

A security device was deployed in the perimeter of the synagogue, closing all the roads giving access to it.

According to the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior, the gendarme who fired the shots first shot and killed one of his colleagues in the port of Djerba and seized his weapon and ammunition. He then went to the outskirts of the synagogue, about fifteen kilometers away, where he opened fire on the police who were providing security for the place, before being shot.

Two faithful, a Tunisian and a Franco-Tunisian were killed by the assailant's shots, and four others were injured and evacuated to a hospital, according to the authorities. Six gendarmes were also injured by the assailant's shots.

One of them succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday evening, according to the Interior Ministry.

Tourism affected again ?

According to organizers, more than 5,000 Jewish pilgrims, mostly from abroad, took part in the Ghriba pilgrimage this year, which resumed last year after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Organized on the 33rd day of Passover, the Ghriba pilgrimage is at the heart of the traditions of Tunisians of the Jewish faith, who are only 1,500 – mostly settled in Djerba –, compared to 100,000 before independence in 1956.

Pilgrims also traditionally come from European countries, the United States or even Israel, but their number decreased considerably after the 2002 attack.

The attack comes as tourism is rebounding strongly in Tunisia after a sharp slowdown during the pandemic. This key sector for the economy had been seriously affected after the 2015 attacks against the Bardo museum in Tunis and a hotel in the seaside resort of Sousse, the toll of which had risen to 60 dead including 59 foreign tourists.

ROBERT DE NIRO FATHER OF A SEVENTH CHILD

GIA VIRGINIA

"Seven, actually. I just had a baby," he revealed.

But it was not until Thursday, May 11, 2023 that the Oscar-winning actor decided to lift the veil on this mysterious newborn, during an intervention on the CBS Morning program. Showing the first public photo of the newcomer, De Niro said it was a baby girl born on April 6 and named Gia Virginia (the first name is a tribute to her mother, who died in 2000). The show confirmed who the baby's mother is: martial arts expert Tiffany Chen, whom De Niro was often seen with after his long and tormented romance with ex-wife Grace Hightower ended.

Page Six and other outlets reported that his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, who had shown a baby bump on private outings in recent weeks, recently gave birth. The couple have known each other since 2015 but would only be together since 2021, three years after the actor's divorce from Grace Hightower.

The child's mother would be Tiffany Cheng, Robert de Niro's supposed companion since 2021. A professional Tai-chi athlete, they met on the set of the film "The New Intern". The 45-year-old was then the martial arts teacher for the feature film team.

De Niro, who is 79, has had six more children with three women over the past 35 years. The eldest is Drena, 51, whom De Niro adopted when he married his mother, Diahnne Abbott, in 1976. De Niro also had Raphael, 46, with Diahnne Abbott. He had twins, Aaron and Julian, 27, with actress and model Toukie Smith, then two children with his second ex-wife, Grace Hightower: Elliot, 25, and Helen, 11.

Actor since the 1960s, the actor with two Oscars is expected at the next Cannes Film Festival to present the film "Killers of the Flower Moon" alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese.

DONALD TRUMP FOUND GUILTY OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND DEFAMATION

The former president will have to pay $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages for the sexual assault and defamation.

E. Jean Carroll, 79, spoke in a written statement.

"I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and get my life back. Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me, but for all women who have suffered because 'They weren't believed,' she claimed.

E. Jean Carroll said she was encouraged to break her long silence on the sexual assault by the Harvey Weinstein case and the #metoo movement. In a book published in 2019, E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of raping her in a fitting room at the Bergdorf Goodman store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan in 1996. The former president denied the accusation on Truth Social in 2022, calling the case a " total scam", "a 'hoax' and a 'lie'.

The jury rejected the allegation that Donald Trump raped E. Jean Carroll, that is, he had sex with her without her consent. But he concluded that the property developer had sexually assaulted the journalist.

'A disgrace,' says Trump

Donald Trump, he had made his reaction known immediately after the announcement of the verdict in a message published on Truth Social, his platform.

"I have absolutely no idea who this woman is," he wrote.

This verdict is a disgrace – a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time

Later, on Fox News Digital, he added, “We will appeal. We were treated very badly by the judge appointed by [Bill] Clinton. "I have no idea who this woman is."

His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, has also promised to appeal the verdict.

“Strange verdict,” he told reporters.

"It was a rape complaint, it was a rape case all along, and the jury dismissed that complaint and made other findings. We will obviously appeal those other findings."

ADOPTION OF THE RECOVERY LAW

NUCLEAR BY SENATORS

“It is a new energy pact that we are building”, rejoiced the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

The text on the relaunch of nuclear power is indeed part of the government's strategy of reducing the energy consumption of the French, facilitating the development of renewable energies and nuclear power.

The text had been adopted at first reading in the Senate at the end of January and in the National Assembly at the end of March, before being sent to the joint joint committee (CMP) to build a compromise text between parliamentarians.

The CMP, bringing together seven deputies and seven senators on May 4, reached an agreement on the nuclear stimulus bill, which aims to facilitate the construction of six new EPR reactors promised by Emmanuel Macron by 2035.

The CMP underlined the maintenance of most of the provisions that it had introduced in the text along four axes.

In terms of energy planning, she cites the removal of "three obstacles to the revival of nuclear energy resulting from the 2015 'Energy Transition' law" - repeal of the objective of reducing nuclear energy to 50% and of the ceiling of authorization of 63.2 gigawatts (GW) and obligation for the government to revise the multiannual energy program (PPE) to withdraw the trajectory for the closure of the 14 existing reactors (article 1 A). The next "five-year energy law" will also have to set an objective for the construction of EPR2s and SMRs and specify the means to achieve it (article 1)

Nuclear safety and security

The committee also considers that it has strengthened nuclear safety and security through several provisions – integration of resilience to climate change in the safety demonstration of reactors, both at the licensing and review stage, and cyber-resilience, in their protection against malicious acts (article 9 bis), maintenance of a five-year report on nuclear safety within the framework of the review (article 9).

Instead of a merger deemed "badly assessed and badly anticipated" of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) and the Institute for Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Radiation Protection (IRSN) as envisaged by the government, it consolidated the powers and resources of ASN (articles 11 to 11 ter and 15). Penalties for trespassing on nuclear power plant sites have also been increased and supplemented (Article 13).

Nuclear revival

The project aims to speed up town planning procedures and facilitate administrative procedures to launch the construction of six EPR 2 nuclear reactors, then to consider the construction of eight others. The first concrete is expected for 2027, hope the defenders of its revival.

On Tuesday, 315 senators voted in favor of the work that came out of it. The 12 senators from the ecologist group (Ecology, solidarity and territories - GEST), as well as one from the socialist group (Socialist, ecologist and republican - SER) positioned themselves against, while the 15 from the communist group (Communist, republican, citizen and ecologist — CRCE) abstained.

Environmentalists up in arms

Far from being an acceptable compromise for environmentalists, the bill as it emerges from the work of the CMP "moves even further away from democratic and environmental imperatives", they denounced in a press release.

On the merits, Mr. Salmon deplored the removal of the objectives of reduction and/or contraction of nuclear power in the French energy mix. So many locks that had to be removed, rather argue the defenders of the text.

The senator is also alarmed by the partial consideration of the effects of climate change on the existing and new nuclear fleet and the downward revision, by the government, of the data on the use by the nuclear fleet of water resources. .

For the left, the redevelopment of nuclear power runs counter to the EU's need for energy independence and its climate objectives.

As for the Communists, the latter abstained, although the president of the group Fabien Gay, reminded the podium that his group was "favorable to the development of new nuclear reactors".

But according to him, the text presented in the chamber "does not address any of the structural questions that are essential to the objectives assigned to it", noting the shortcomings in terms of financing, training, etc.

Conversely, among those who voted in favor of the bill, the senators of the group affiliated with the presidential majority (Rally of Democrats, Progressives and Independents - RDPI) note that it allows "one more step to concretize the President Emmanuel Macron's project to strengthen our sovereignty and make France the first major country in the world to get out of its dependence on fossil fuels".

For supporters of nuclear power, its very low CO2 rate - four times less than solar power, for example - makes it an essential energy for the low-carbon transition. Nuclear power avoids the release of 2 billion tons of CO2 each year worldwide, the equivalent of the production of 400 million cars.

The conclusions of the CMP will be examined Tuesday, May 16 by the deputies. The latter had voted by a large majority in favor of the text during the first reading.

WILL TURKEY GO OUT OF ERDOGANISM ?

By voting in the presidential elections for Recep Tayyip Erdogan and in the legislative elections for the parties of the Popular Alliance formed around him and his formation the AKP (Party of Justice and Development), they will support the consolidation of an autocratic regime. implementing a repressive national-Islamist policy.

The other option is to vote for the return to democracy, the rule of law and the parliamentary system. The leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP, republican, social democrat and secular) Kemal Kiliçdaroglu embodies this second option, which would mean the end of Erdoganism, a regime tailor-made for the power of one man. For the first time, a very broad coalition – the Table of Six, gathered around the CHP, is united against Erdogan and his regime. Will this be enough to put an end to a system whose construction began twenty years ago?

Erdogan's hardening

The gradual slide towards autocracy began after the 2011 legislative elections.

Victorious for the third time in the general elections, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister since 2003, then began to praise a presidential system that would allow him to "run the country like a limited company" and "make decisions as soon as possible".

In 2014, for the first time, the President of the Republic must be elected by universal suffrage. Erdogan gets elected and declares that from now on “the regime has become, in fact, presidential”.

The coup attempt of July 15, 2016 and the state of exception that followed gave him the opportunity to transform this state of fact into a state of law.

Thanks to the support of the far-right MHP party, a new and essential ally of the AKP to retain the majority in Parliament, the presidential regime was narrowly ratified (51.4%) in April 2017, after a referendum marred by irregularities.

An elective and repressive autocracy, without separation of powers, based on a nationalist-religious ideology, a chaotic economic policy and an aggressive and opportunistic foreign policy was thus put in place. The economic successes of yesteryear have given way to a serious crisis marked by very high inflation, chaotic growth and the vertiginous depreciation of the Turkish lira.

The earthquakes of February 6, 2023, which caused tens of thousands of deaths, revealed all the weaknesses of the system put in place: the negligence of the institutions, the consequences of hypercentralization and nepotism in the administration, the results of the authorizations granted for electoral purposes to buildings that do not comply with anti-seismic standards… It is in this context that Turkey entered the electoral campaign.

An opposition finally united

Erdogan, losing popularity and for the first time in a defensive position, had to widen the coalition formed with the extreme right – the Popular Alliance – towards very minority parties claiming radical Islamist fundamentalism. Facing him, a coalition formed on the eve of the June 2018 elections, the Alliance of the Nation, expanded to other parties and became, in February 2022, the "Table of Six".

The first experience of forming an anti-Erdogan united front had yielded convincing results during the 2019 municipal elections. Building on this success, the leader of the CHP, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, imposed on his party an aggiornamento to form alliances with conservative parties.

The Table of Six, or the Alliance of the Nation, therefore brings together the CHP, the Good Party (nationalist right formed in part by dissidents of MHP), two liberal and conservative parties created by dissidents of the AKP, and a party which represents historical Islamism and is very critical of the corruption and nepotism of the AKP. These six parties nominated Kiliçdaroglu as their candidate for the presidential election.

The left-wing pro-Kurdish party HDP (People's Democratic Party), which represents the majority of Kurdish voters in Parliament (the Kurdish population is estimated at around 18%), as well as the various currents of the left, have also called for a vote for him.

Seeing this danger of a united front coming, Erdogan had nevertheless taken care beforehand to have the very popular mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu (CHP), elected in 2019, removed from the presidential race, by having him sentenced in December 2022 to two years and seven months in prison for “insulting” certain senior regime officials.

The Head of State hoped to see the Table of Six tear itself apart in the search for its presidential candidate and finally break up. His strategy failed and the broad consensus achieved around a single anti-Erdogan candidate changed the traditional political context in which the latter used to maneuver easily.

A ballot that looks like a referendum for or against Erdogan

Since Erdogan's shift towards religious and authoritarian nationalism at the beginning of the 2010s, one of the major axes of his political strategy has been to stir up ethnic (Turkish-Kurdish), confessional (Sunni-Alevis) and cultural ( modernists-conservatives) who work society.

He placed himself as the natural leader of the Turkish sociological majority, Sunni and conservative, accusing the representatives of the opposition of being "dividers of national and confessional unity", "the extension of terrorist organizations" or agents foreign powers with designs on Turkey.

The expression "authentic and national" became his leitmotif to qualify the actions of his government.

But the composition of the parties that form the Table of Six around Kiliçdaroglu, the support of the Kurdish movement and leftist movements and the serious economic crisis have blurred his strategy.

The divide between supporters and opponents of Erdogan seems likely to overdetermine the outcome of the May 2023 elections.

With a personality diametrically opposed to that of Erdogan, Kilicdaroglu is positioning himself as a "quiet force" in this electoral campaign and has succeeded in creating real electoral momentum in recent weeks.

It responds to the aspiration of a large part of the population for a return to tranquillity, to a certain democratic normality and to more rational, less chaotic and unpredictable economic policies, for example with regard to interest rates than Erdogan pushed below 10% as inflation nears 100%.

For its part, the HDP, despite the almost daily repression and discrimination it suffers, succeeded in forming an alliance with small left-wing parties for the legislative elections.

And to short-circuit the sword of Damocles of a dissolution by the Constitutional Court on the eve of the election which has weighed on him for two years, he took the decision to stand for election under the colors of another party, the Green Left Party. This alliance, which does not present a presidential candidate and calls for a vote for Kilicdaroglu in the first round, will also have a decisive role to play in the future assembly. The support of its elected officials will probably be necessary to form a parliamentary majority with the Nation Alliance.

The common denominator of all these new rapprochement movements is their desire to end Erdogan's twenty-year rule, to return to parliamentary rule through constitutional change, to restore the rule of law and fundamental rights and freedoms, to put an end to arbitrariness, nepotism, corruption and the use of religion as an active political instrument, and finally to restore the confidence of international economic actors and to relaunch negotiations with the EU, which had stalled for several years.

And after the elections?

If the opposition wins these elections, the task of getting out of the system bequeathed by Erdoganism will be immense, and in any case Turkey will not quickly become a peaceful democracy. We can only hope that this great moment of democratic effervescence will not be temporary, as has been the case several times in the past.

On the other hand, in the event of a new victory for Erdogan and the AKP, Turkey will for a long time be engulfed in the camp of populist autocracies and authoritarian national-capitalism. Hopes for a possible exit from the autocracy through elections will be weakened.

What if the opposition wins but Erdogan does not recognize the election results or if the legal system he has put in place announces contrary results?

This question is of course in the minds of all opposition voters in Turkey. But apart from organizing a large civil mobilization to ensure the security of the ballot and doing hard work to convince reluctant voters to vote for change, all opposition parties are unanimous in not talking about this dark hypothesis before the elections.

First, so as not to frighten voters with such a scenario of chaos, for the moment hypothetical, and thus dissuade them from going to vote; then, because it is impossible and above all counterproductive to talk today about the means and methods of fighting against such a coup which would mean that Erdogan will have crossed the Rubicon and will have embarked on the path of an assumed dictatorship Such as.

The opposition first aspires to win the elections at the ballot box; it will be time, then, to take the necessary measures so that the popular will is respected.

Article by Ahmet Insel, published in The Conversation.

Economist, political scientist, professor emeritus at Galatasaray University, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Ahmet Insel is a founding member of the Green Left Party in Turkey created in 2012.

CEREMONY OF MAY 9, 2023 PUTIN DENOUNCED

A WAR ORCHESTRATED BY THE WEST

AGAINST RUSSIA

Vladimir Putin believes that his country is still under attack. "A war has been launched against our homeland," said the Russian president in front of thousands of soldiers in Red Square, Moscow.

These commemorations were an opportunity for him to draw a parallel between the Second World War and the Ukrainian conflict. As during the Second World War, "civilization is again at a turning point", believes Vladimir Putin, who called for "victory" for his troops in the conflict in Ukraine.

For him, the future of Russia depends on this military victory, which is currently still lacking, more than a year after the invasion of the neighboring country.

"Nothing is more important right now than your military task. The security of the country today rests on you, the future of our state and our people depends on you," he said at the address of its armed forces. “You fulfill your military missions with honor, you fight for Russia,” the former KGB officer continued, before launching: “For Russia, for our valiant armed forces, for victory! Hooray!”

This seriousness, like the appearance of the word "war" in the president's lexicon, responds to a certain logic: Not only is it a war that is raging in Ukraine, but it has reached the national territory like the attack on drones over the Kremlin.

In addition, this annual parade comes as Yevgeny Prigojine, leader of the Wagner group, continues to openly criticize the strategy of the Russian army and the military hierarchy, which he accuses of not providing enough ammunition. He notably accused soldiers of the Russian regular army on Tuesday of having fled their positions in Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, and accused the state of being incapable of defending Russia.

The Heads of State or Government of seven countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States made the trip to Moscow: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Belarus. In 2022, there were none. Among observers, some saw in the invitation of these leaders to the official platform the best possible protection for Mr. Putin

Russia threatened with 'collapse' and 'destruction', Putin says

In Moscow, the numbers engaged (10,000 men) approach those mobilized in 2022, which were down by a third compared to the previous year. On the other hand, no tanks or heavy equipment were presented, with the exception of the historic T-34 tank, and the air component of the parade was canceled. In the Republic of Tuva, in Siberia, horses have replaced tanks.

Across the country, the Immortal Regiment parade, popular with Russians, has been canceled; the same goes for military parades in around twenty cities, sometimes far from the Ukrainian border. Most have highlighted security issues, but the approach of a possible Ukrainian counterattack also plays a role.

A Violent Charge Against the West

For Russia, there is no hostile people neither in the East nor in the West, we wish a peaceful, free and stable future, insisted the Russian president.

“We have repelled international terrorism, the world is at a crossroads. Any ideology of superiority is repugnant, criminal, deadly. asserted the Russian leader without flinching, continuing his rhetoric opposed to the West.

According to Putin, it is the "globalized Western elites" who are at the root of the tensions between the West and Russia. The Head of State accuses these elites of "pitting peoples against each other, dividing societies, provoking bloody conflicts". For him, "their goal is to bring about the collapse and destruction of our country".

FOR HEALTH REASON

STROMAE STOPS HIS TOUR

For several weeks now, concerns have been hovering over his state of health.

Stromae resigns himself to putting an end to his tour. On social networks, the Belgian star announced on Tuesday that he needed "rest" and completely stopped his "Multitude Tour", already partially stopped and which was to last until December 2023.

"Stromae's state of health does not allow him to ensure his performance", indicated his tour producer, Auguri.

In a message posted on Instagram, he confides to his fans and his community: "I have to resign myself to the fact that my health unfortunately does not allow me to continue to come to meet you for the moment. I share this news with you with a lot of regret and deep sadness, but I have to listen to my limits".

Stromae admits not feeling well for a while now: "A few months ago, I felt a deterioration in my state of health which led me to give up a few first dates in France and then in Europe".

The 38-year-old singer claims to be surrounded by "[his] doctors, [his] family, [his] friends and [his] team". A precious entourage to support him in this umpteenth ordeal and help him through the difficulties he encounters.

The artist was back on stage in the summer of 2022 after a long period of absence caused by depression, accompanied by "suicidal thoughts" which he had sung in his title "Hell".

Before the total cancellation of his tour, Stromae had already announced the cancellation of 15 concerts until the end of May.

"I was hoping to be able to recover quickly to get back on the road and find you as soon as possible" lamented Stromae on his social networks. “Unfortunately, today I have to accept that this time of rest and remission will be longer than I imagined”.

Stromae confides that "this decision is difficult and necessary to be able to get better" and presents his "sincere apologies for these missed appointments that I was waiting for as much as you".

CHARLES III AND CAMILLA CROWNS

BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY

Charles III and Queen Camilla were officially crowned on Saturday May 6, 2023 at Westminster Abbey, then returned to Buckingham Palace in the Gold State Coach, a golden carriage used at each coronation, and the two sovereigns then greeted the crowd from the palace balcony.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla, accompanied by working members of the royal family, stepped out onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace on Saturday to greet tens of thousands of people gathered for their coronation.

Wearing a crown and in ceremonial dress, the king and queen were surrounded in particular by the heir to the throne, William, with his wife, Kate, and their children, as well as Anne and Edward, brother and sister of the sovereign. They attended a flypast, the duration of which was reduced due to the rain, entered the palace and then came out again to briefly greet the compact crowd again despite the rainy weather.

Neither Charles's youngest son, Harry, nor his brother Andrew, both withdrawn from the monarchy, were there. The Duke of Sussex (Harry) and the Duke of York (Andrew) are no longer active members of the royal family, the first since his voluntary departure for the United States with his wife, Meghan, in 2020, while the second fell into disgrace after accusations of sexual assault which he denies and which he settled with a financial agreement. They both attended the coronation from the third row of Westminster Abbey.

In front of nearly 2,300 guests, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, laid St Edward's crown on the head of Charles III.

Shortly before, the sovereign took an oath to serve his subjects and to protect the Church of England of which he is the supreme head.

Charles III finally received the anointing, protected from view by screens.

New compared to the previous coronation.

It is replaced by a "tribute of the people":

the British and other populations of which Charles III is the head of state are called upon to pledge allegiance to the king.

For the first time, women bishops will participate in the coronation. Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist religious leaders also took part in the festivities and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, read a passage from the Bible. Another first in the field: the various texts were read in English but also in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic.

For the first time, a coronation ceremony for a British sovereign was punctuated by the performance of a gospel group. This formation called Ascension Choir, which had been created especially for the occasion, breathed a welcome energy into the stuffy setting of Westminster.

A long weekend of festivities.

Britons are invited on Sunday to gather for convivial lunches on the occasion of the king's coronation.

A concert is also scheduled for the evening at Windsor Castle, in front of an audience of 20,000 people.

Monday has been declared a public holiday in the United Kingdom. The royal family invites the public to take advantage of this day off to carry out charitable actions near their homes.

“Long Live King Charles”!

ITALY BEST GASTRONOMY IN THE WORLD

ACCORDING TO CNN

At the top of the ranking therefore, Italy, China then France.

For France, CNN highlights snails. “Immense respect for having given them an incredible taste”, writes the American media. Macaroons and baguettes, icons of French bakeries around the world, are also given pride of place. On the other hand, CNN Travel strongly criticizes the taste of foie gras.

At the bottom of the pack, the United States, although "many popular foods have their origins in another cuisine", Mexico, which "offers a bit of everything" and Thailand, which "combines the spicy, sour , the salty, the sweet, the soft, the crunchy and the slippery in the same dish".

If CNN highlights the cheeseburger and chocolate chip cookies, the media advises against "overly processed foods such as Twinkies (...) or [the products] KFC" in American gastronomy.

European countries well ranked

In this ranking, Greece comes 7th, thanks to its olive oil, which CNN describes as a "gift from the gods".

Spain climbs to 4th place and can thank its "culture based on, around and sometimes even inside food: all those bars and tapas, those dinners at 9 p.m., those snacks nibbled all along of the day, interspersed with hearty meals".

Notice to traveling gourmets !

CANADA OVER 100 FIRES IN ALBERTA

DECLARED STATE OF EMERGENCY

The Canadian province of Alberta declared a state of emergency on Saturday after around 100 forest fires broke out there and drove some 25,000 residents from their homes, an "unprecedented" situation, announced the premier of the province.

Authorities have asked thousands more to be ready to leave at any time.

"We have declared a provincial state of emergency to preserve the safety, health and well-being of Albertans," Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said at a press conference.

This Canadian province, one of the largest oil producers in the world, and where 103 forest fires have broken out in recent days, “had a hot and dry spring and with so much kindling, all it takes is a few sparks to start really scary fires," Ms Smith had earlier explained.

All of these factors together "have resulted in the unprecedented situation our province faces today." About 122,000 hectares have burned, she said, and 20 localities have been evacuated.

The state of emergency gives the provincial government "increased powers to respond to extreme situations", Ms. Smith said, including the mobilization of additional resources and the release of emergency funds.

Alberta in the middle of an election, and a significant area of ​​the neighboring province of Saskatchewan, as well as a large part of the Northwest Territories are currently facing an extreme risk of fires, according to the federal government.

According to a map posted on the government website, these areas are on moderate to severe drought alert, a situation made more likely and more intense with global warming.

If precipitation is expected and could help slow the spread of the largest outbreaks, it should not be enough to put out the fires, estimates with Radio-Canada Josée St-Onge, communication officer for the provincial agency of fight against fires.

Drayton Valley, a town of 7,000 people in Alberta about 140 kilometers west of Edmonton, is among the evacuated communities.

In Fox Lake, northern Alberta, a violent fire destroyed 20 homes, a store and a police station. Residents were evacuated by boat and helicopter.

EUROPE THANKS TO OPERATION PANDORA

MORE THAN 11,000 WORKS OF ART SEIZED

Operation Pandora, which takes place every year, was held from September 13 to 24, 2022. Several thousand checks were carried out at various airports, ports and border crossing points, as well as at auction houses, museums and private residences.

Two weeks of cyber patrol were organized during Pandora VII, in May and October respectively, with more than 8,495 checks carried out online and 4,017 stolen goods seized.

Pandora VII has made it possible to find, among others, the following stolen objects:

77 old books in Italy; a Roman marble female bust in Seville, Spain; 3,073 old coins, seized from an online sales platform by the Polish police; 48 religious sculptures and other religious objects recovered by the Portuguese authorities; 13 archaeological objects from the Russian Federation, seized in a post office in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Some 130 investigations are still ongoing, raising the prospect of further seizures and arrests as investigators around the world go after those who damage and destroy cultural heritage.

Operation Pandora, first launched in 2016, is an annual law enforcement operation. It is carried out within the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats (EMPACT).

RECAP PEOPLE

WEEK OF MAY 1 TO 7, 2023

Prince William knelt before his king father in Westminster Abbey to swear allegiance to him.

But according to people magazines, this prince who had a past affair with Rose Hanbury, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, the King's Grand Chamberlain, would be "angry and resentful", and more serious, accused by his brother Harry of being "sold":

the latter said that William had made a secret agreement and withdrawn his complaint in exchange for a large sum of money in a lawsuit against British tabloids (Public).

And yet when we see him with his lovely Kate and her children...

A weekend with friends you say?....

Michelle and Barack Obama have invited their friends Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw to take a private jet to go and see a concert by Bruce Spingsteen… in Barcelona.

But according to the gossip press, "the pleasant Barcelona stroll has turned into madness worthy of the Rio carnival".

No possibility of escaping the crowds of tourists and fans at the Sagrada Familia as well as at Montserrat Abbey

Did you know that Juan Carlos would have a hidden girl.

This is what the Spanish journalist José Maria Olmo reveals in the book entitled "King Corp" which will be released on May 8, 2023 in Spain.

Alejandra, this is the first name of the young woman, would have been born at the end of the 70s, the beginning of the 80s.

She would be the fruit of one of his extramarital affairs with a woman "a great socialite" known in her youth, from the aristocracy and older than him.

The author of the book also claims that the existence of the young woman was known at the Zarzuela Palace...

Another love disappointment for Sophie Marceau who would have broken with the theater producer Richard Caillat, too invested in his work in Marseille.

It is in tears that Sophie would have asked her lover one last time during a Parisian dinner to commit, in vain.

And the favorite actress of the French would have separated from her agent Elisabeth Tanner.

THE CROWN OF KING CHARLES III

An exceptional crown.

St Edward's Crown, the centerpiece of the Crown Jewels worn by Elizabeth II at her coronation in 1953, in turn capped her son Charles within days.

More than two kilos of silverware

Traditionally worn by British monarchs at the time of their coronation, this piece was created for King Charles II in 1661, to replace the medieval crown that had been cast down in 1649.

Commissioned from the royal goldsmith, Robert Vyner, in 1661, it is designed in solid gold and set with 444 precious stones (ruby, sapphire, amethyst, topaz, etc.), 30 centimeters high and no less than 2.23 kg.

Composed of its purple velvet, which gives it its recognizable hue, and of ermine at its base, it is made up of four pattée crosses, alternating with four fleur-de-lys.

On its upper part, two arches set with pearls support a cruciger orb, above which sits a final cross pattée, also richly decorated. In total, the crown is valued at more than 4 million euros.

An ever-powerful symbolic value

This is not the only crown that Charles III wears on the day of the ceremony, each symbolizing the monarch's authority over an element of his kingdom.

Thus, during the service led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 74-year-old monarch also wears the imperial ceremonial crown, a piece regularly worn by Elizabeth II, notably on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during her coronation.

A crown that had also sat on his coffin for two days. Moreover, two monarchs since 1661 have replaced the crown of Saint Edward for their coronation, judging it too heavy, Queen Victoria and Edward VII.

Even today, this purple crown is used as a symbol of royal authority in the Commonwealth realms.

Other jewels embodying the British monarchy

The dove scepter

This scepter, made up of a golden stick, adorned with a globe, a cross and a dove at its top, represents the spiritual and pastoral power of the sovereign. It has been used at every coronation since that of Charles II in 1661. 110 centimeters long, it weighs 1,150 grams.

The scepter at the cross

Also used since 1661, the scepter represents the temporal power of the sovereign. It weighs 1170 grams for 92 centimeters long. In 1911 the 530.2 carat Cullinan I diamond was added, so heavy that the scepter had to be reinforced to support its weight.

The royal orb

This 27.5 centimeter globe surmounted by a cross symbolizes the Christian world. It consists of a hollow gold sphere set with precious stones and pearls. A cross set with diamonds, with a sapphire in the center on one side and an emerald on the other, surmounts the globe. During the coronation ceremony, the orb is placed in the right hand of the monarch, before being placed on the altar.

The Dove Cane

Used for all queen consort coronations since 1685, this small ivory scepter surmounted by a dove will be held by Queen Camilla during the ceremony, despite calls not to use it in opposition to the ivory trade. Camilla will also be given a gold scepter surmounted by a cross.

the light bulb

This golden object in the shape of an eagle with outstretched wings contains the oil used during the anointing of the sovereign, considered the most sacred moment of the coronation. The Archbishop of Canterbury pours oil from the eagle's head into a spoon, before anointing the monarch. The figure of the eagle comes from a legend according to which the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Thomas Becket, and gave him a golden eagle and a vial of oil intended for the anointing of future kings of England.

spurs

These gold spurs, symbolizing chivalry, have been used since the coronation of Richard the Lionheart in 1189. They are attached to the ankles of sovereigns, and in the case of queens simply placed on the altar.

The state dress

This large purple silk and velvet cape is embroidered with the monarch's monogram, ears of wheat and olive branches. Made especially for the coronation, it required 3,500 hours of work by twelve seamstresses from the Royal School of Couture.

King Edward's chair

Commissioned by King Edward I in 1300, this oak throne, over 2 meters high, has been at the center of royal coronations for over seven hundred years. It originally encapsulated the "Stone of Destiny", a block of sandstone symbolizing the Scottish monarchy and brought from Scotland as spoils of war by Edward I.

Briefly stolen by Scottish students during a daring undertaking in 1950, the stone was symbolically returned to Scotland in 1996, in the midst of the rise of independence sentiment. But it is agreed that she will return from Edinburgh Castle to Westminster for the coronations.

The Cross of Wales

Another symbol of the king's spiritual power, this silver cross contains fragments, according to the Vatican, of the cross on which Jesus was crucified, and offered by Pope Francis as a gift to mark the coronation of Charles. These fragments were fashioned into a small cross appearing behind a pink rock crystal. The Cross of Wales will be used at the head of the Coronation Procession, which will lead the newly crowned King from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace.