JOE BIDEN WITHDRAWS HIS CANDIDACY

IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve you as President. And although I have intended to run again, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to step aside and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President until 'at the end of my term,' writes the Democratic president, who will address his compatriots 'during the week to explain [his] decision in more detail.'

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praises Joe Biden's action

At 81, Joe Biden joins the very select club of outgoing American presidents who threw in the towel while seeking a second term. But he is the first to do so this late in the campaign. The only one, too, to have to give up due to questions about his mental acuity.

This shocking announcement, even if it was expected despite the repeated denials of the main person concerned, upsets a campaign which has already experienced many twists and turns, first and foremost the assassination attempt against Donald Trump on July 13.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said in a statement:

"Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader, he is also a truly exceptional human being. His decision obviously was not an easy one to make, but he has once again made his point country, his party and our future first Joe, today you show that you are a true patriot and a great American.

This announcement comes less than four months before the election, scheduled for November 5. A new Democratic Party candidate must replace him to face his Republican rival.

Who to replace Joe Biden in the race for the White House?

We must now find a replacement for Joe Biden, who was supposed to be inducted at his party's convention in mid-August in Chicago. In a post on X, the American president supports Kamala Harris:

“My very first decision as the party's candidate in 2020 was to choose Kamala Harris as my vice president. And it was the best decision I made. Today, I want to offer my full support and endorsement to Kamala to be our party’s nominee this year. Democrats, it's time to unite and defeat Trump. »

His vice-president Kamala Harris would be a natural, but not automatic, choice to become the Democratic candidate. The last word goes to the delegates of the Democratic Party, 3,900 people with very varied profiles and for the most part completely unknown to the general public.

A candidate under pressure for several weeks

This withdrawal comes as more and more doubts were expressed regarding the ability of Joe Biden, aged 81, to secure the presidency of the United States for four more years.

Initially discreet when the Democratic president multiplied the slips of the tongue, the criticisms became more numerous after a catastrophic debate against Donald Trump. In front of millions of Americans, the octogenarian appeared in constant difficulty, having difficulty expressing himself when his opponent clearly aligned the arguments one after the other.

Americans are then furious, feeling like they have been fooled by the White House and the media. Billionaire Bill Ackman, followed by 1.3 million Internet users, calls the shots and accuses the media of complacency: ““60 Minutes” [show on CBS] knew; CNN knew; MSNBC knew, left-wing media had complete access to the president, his staff and his administration. They all knew, but they told you otherwise. They blatantly lied to you. » The New York Times must explain.

Representatives in the House, some senators…. and even George Clooney or the editorial office of the New York Times: Biden's supporters at the start of the year, everyone asked him after Thursday June 27 to "pass the torch".

The historic figures of the Democratic Party, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, also ended up giving in. The former Speaker of the House of Representatives and current leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate understood that a defeat for Joe Bien could mean a "red wave" in Congress in November, with Americans going to the polls on the same day to elect their president, their deputies and their senators.

Stubbornness despite a myriad of blunders

At the start of the month, however, the octogenarian assured that he could give up if and only "if the Lord Almighty came down and said 'Joe, withdraw from the race'".

But on Thursday July 11, a sign of the end, Joe Biden made the most monumental blunder of his mandate by calling Volodoymyr Zelensky “President Putin” during the NATO summit in Washington. Two hours later, in a press conference broadcast live and in prime time, he mentioned his “Vice President Trump” instead of Kamala Harris.

Everything accelerated after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump on Saturday July 13, in Pennsylvania. When the former tenant of the White House was welcomed as a hero at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19. In an interview broadcast two hours later before the suspension of his campaign and the start of his period of isolation, the Democrat said that he would re-evaluate his candidacy... if he was diagnosed with a medical problem.

In a poll, published on Wednesday July 17, nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters said they were in favor of withdrawing Joe Biden's candidacy in favor of another candidate.

This withdrawal opens a period of uncertainty for his camp, one month before the convention, which will have to confirm another candidate. But it also puts an end, at least temporarily, to a spiral which threatened to carry the Democratic Party into an electoral rout.

TO THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION

THE EAR BANDAGE

AS A SIGN OF RALLYING TO DONALD TRUMP

This weekend, during a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump was the target of an assassination attempt. A 20-year-old man opened fire, killing one person and injuring several others.

Trump, hit in the ear, got up after being protected by Secret Service agents, bleeding but determined, his fist raised. His message was unequivocal: even in the face of danger, Donald Trump remains steadfast.

Donald Trump's Missing Shoe

“Give me my shoe,” insisted Donald Trump, with a bloody ear, to Secret Service agents after the shooting.

Since this event, Trump has used this act of violence to galvanize his supporters. At the Republican convention, with an ear bandage and a smile on his face, he was greeted with an ovation. His supporters, always fervent, immediately adopted this new look.

Known for their enthusiasm for wearing MAGA slogans, pins, socks and other accessories bearing the image of Trump, this time, they chose the bandage as a new emblem of solidarity.

Pay tribute to Trump

The trend has even spread to elected officials: Joe Neglia, delegate from Arizona, proudly displayed his own bandage. He told Fox News: "When [Donald Trump] walked in and the room exploded with love, I asked myself what I could do to honor the truth and show him my support.

I saw his bandage and decided to do the same to pay tribute to him."

True to her conservative beliefs, Neglia clarified: “There is a male version and a female version because there are only two genders!”

Convinced of the impact of this gesture, he told CBS News that it was "the new fashion" and that "everyone would soon be wearing them, everywhere."

Her colleague, Arizona delegate Stacey Goodman, was also seen with a white bandage on her right ear.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST DONALD TRUMP

IN THE MIDDLE OF A MEETING

Former US President Donald Trump was injured in the ear after being the target of gunfire this Saturday July 13, 2024 during a campaign rally in the town of Butler in Pennsylvania, in the eastern United States. -United.

One spectator died and two others injured.

The attacker was neutralized by the police.

An attack in the middle of a campaign meeting

A few days before the Republican convention which begins on Monday July 15, 2024, Donald Trump was urgently evacuated from his campaign meeting when he had just started his speech. He was hit by several bullets, injuring his right ear.

Sounds of explosions caused panic among the crowd, and Trump was immediately knocked to the ground by Secret Service agents, responsible for the security of presidents and ex-presidents.

Shortly after, he got up, his hair in disarray and without his famous red cap, surrounded by his agents. He could be heard saying "Let me get my shoes" as his face was bloodied.

Escorted from the stage to his car, he raised his fist in defiance several times, cheered by his supporters.

Spectator Killed, Two Others Seriously Injured

The Secret Service has confirmed that one spectator was killed and two others seriously injured during the meeting. Their identity remains unknown at this time.
According to a witness interviewed by NBC News, the killed spectator died "instantly" after being hit in the head.

The victim was "in the path of the shots" between the shooter and the ex-president .

The gunman, who was shot, was stationed on a roof

The shots rang out at 6:15 p.m., the gunman having “fired several times from a high position,” according to the Secret Service press release.

The attacker was outside the compound where the meeting was being held, Butler County Prosecutor Richard Goldinger said on CNN, without providing details on his identity.
“We have no information on the shooter, who is deceased,” Donald Trump also declared on his social network The Social Truth
During a press conference, the FBI announced that it was “close to an identification” of the shooter .

The FBI confirms an “assassination attempt”

The FBI has confirmed that the shooting targeting the ex-president constituted an “assassination attempt”. Kevin Rojek, an FBI official, said at a press conference: "Tonight we witnessed what we call an assassination attempt against our former President Donald Trump."

Pennsylvania police said there was “no reason” to fear another threat.
Donald Trump denounces "unacceptable violence"

On his social network, Donald Trump reacted by specifying that a bullet had pierced the top of his right ear.

“It is unbelievable that such an act could happen in our country,” he wrote, adding that he would still attend the Republican convention on Monday.

He told his supporters in an email: "I will never surrender

Donald Trump calls for unity .

On his social network Truth Social, the former president assured to pray “for the recovery of those who were injured”. “We hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed,” he added. “I look forward to speaking to our great nation this week from Wisconsin,” the Republican candidate wrote

It is more important than ever that we stand together and show our true character as Americans,” Donald Trump wrote on the social network Truth Social, hours after being injured in an assassination attempt during a rally. country house in Pennsylvania

President Joe Biden, who faces Trump in November's election, expressed relief that his opponent was in good health. “Everyone must condemn” such violence, he said in a televised address

. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was “horrified”

“ No place for political violence in our democracy,” responded former Democratic President Barack Obama.

Former President Bill Clinton expressed relief at knowing Donald Trump was safe, as did former US President George W. Bush who deplored a "cowardly attack on his life. "

Hours later, President Biden was able to speak with Trump and announced that he was returning to the White House earlier than expected.

UNITED STATES WHO WAS THE SNIPER TM CROOKS ?

PANIC AMONG DEMOCRATS ABOUT JOE BIDEN’S ABILITIES FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL

In the evening, the American administration published a letter from the president's doctor, confirming that Joe Biden did not consult a neurologist outside of his annual check-ups.

Biden determined despite criticism

Ten days after his failed debate with Donald Trump, Joe Biden shows no intention of withdrawing. On the contrary, he redoubled his efforts. He told MPs he was "not blind" to the "concerns" raised since the debate. But during a call broadcast during an MSNBC show, he sharply criticized his party's rebels. “These guys who think I shouldn't run, let them run against me... Challenge me at the August Democratic convention,” he said angrily.

This week, Joe Biden hosts the NATO summit in Washington. An opportunity for allied leaders to judge the state of fitness of the American president, although a spokesperson for the executive, John Kirby, affirmed not to have detected signs of concern among NATO members . Joe Biden will also hold a rare solo press conference on Thursday.

The division within the Democratic Party

To show his dynamism, the 81-year-old president has increased his public appearances, such as his speeches and crowds in Pennsylvania on Sunday. He also announced new trips, notably to Michigan on Friday, then to Texas and Nevada.

Not enough to convince the rich donors of the Democratic Party, among whom doubt has set in: what if the President was not able to lead the country for the next four years? Through tweets, some of them are demanding concrete pledges attesting to the leader's liveliness, which the White House continues to report on. Entrenched at Camp David, the campaign residence of American Presidents, the Biden clan is closing ranks, hoping that the storm will pass. However, several elected Democrats are openly calling for its withdrawal.

Call from Democrats to renounce

A first dike gave way on Tuesday. Democratic tenor Nancy Pelosi, former president of the House of Representatives and still very influential within her party, believes that it is “legitimate” to question the state of health of Joe Biden. In the process, a first elected Democrat, Texan Lloyd Doggett, calls on the President to give up running for a second term, urging him not to “hand us over to Trump in 2024”. A second parliamentarian followed suit 24 hours later, while a handful of others expressed, for the first time publicly, strong reservations about the captain's age.

Adam Smith, an influential parliamentarian, said on CNN that Joe Biden should "step down," saying he "is not the right person to carry the message of the Democratic Party."

Others, like Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democratic minority in the House of Representatives, reaffirmed their support. “I made it clear and publicly the day after the debate that I supported President Joe Biden... My position has not changed,” he told CNN.

Despite the divisions, will a protest crystallize and lead to a coordinated offensive to push Joe Biden to withdraw? Such a decision would have serious consequences in a very tight timetable. And there is no guarantee that the American president would agree to give up his place.

“No one is more qualified than me” to “win” the election, Joe Biden said Friday evening during a twenty-minute interview on ABC.

AMERICAN NATIONAL HOLIDAY 2024

DAYNEWSWORLD BIRTHDAY

O n this national holiday, we are delighted to share with you exceptional news which marks a significant milestone in the history of Daynewsworld.

As we celebrate the 151st anniversary of our newspaper, we have reached an impressive milestone: more than 250 million readers follow us daily.

This achievement demonstrates our continued commitment to journalistic excellence and our ability to evolve with the times.

The past year has been particularly successful for Daynewsworld.

In 2023, we celebrated our 150th anniversary, marking a century and a half of dedication to quality information.

Since our first edition printed on July 4, 1873, we have come a long way, always seeking newness and innovation.

Today, we are proud to say that our newspaper is more dynamic than ever.

Exceptional Growth and a Global Audience

The milestone of 250 million daily readers is an achievement that we owe to you, dear readers.

Your loyalty and commitment have allowed Daynewsworld to establish itself as a go-to source for high-quality news.

In 2024, we continued to embrace the challenges of modernity while remaining faithful to our primary mission: to inform, educate and entertain.

Innovation and Modernity at the Heart of Our Strategy

Our success is largely based on our ability to adapt to technological developments and the changing expectations of our audience. In 2023, we strengthened our digital presence, offering an ever richer and more interactive user experience. This digital transformation has allowed us to reach new horizons, thus consolidating our leading position in the global media landscape.

A Dedicated and Passionate Team

The driving force behind our success is our team of experienced and passionate journalists. Their dedication and talent guarantee the quality of the information we provide you every day.

Since our first edition, we have been committed to presenting a diversity of topics, covering national and international news, science, culture, economics, and much more. This editorial diversity is one of the keys to our success, meeting the varied expectations of our large audience.

An Unwavering Commitment to Quality

We firmly believe that quality content is the cornerstone of our newspaper.

Each article, each edition, is an opportunity for us to offer you the best information. In 2024, we continue to emphasize in-depth reporting, insightful analysis and diverse perspectives, always with our hallmark integrity and professionalism.

A Sincere Thank You to Our Readers

We would like to express our deep gratitude to each of our 250 million readers. Your trust and support are the pillars of our success. It is thanks to you that we have been able to continually grow and improve. You are our reason for being, and we are honored to share this adventure with you.

Towards a Bright Future

On this day of celebration, we raise a glass to these 151 years of journalistic excellence. We are committed to continuing to inform, entertain and enlighten you for many years to come.

Daynewsworld is your newspaper, and it is with immense pride that we write a new page of this beautiful story every day.

FIRST MAJOR FIRE OF THE YEAR 

RAVES LOS ANGELES AREA

This first major wildfire of the year in Los Angeles County quickly covered an area of ​​more than 60 square kilometers.

The day before, this fire had already forced the evacuation of more than 1,200 campers, off-road enthusiasts and hikers from the Hungry Valley recreational area. Dubbed the Post Fire, the fire was only 2% contained as of Sunday, and no casualties had been reported. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire.

Firefighters, facing sweltering conditions and steep terrain, raced to control hot spots created by unpredictable winds that blew embers in front of the flames. Kenichi Haskett, section chief for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said gusty winds also hampered aerial crews' efforts to drop water and fire retardant.

"When it's windy, the water disperses everywhere except where it's needed, which makes our job more difficult..." Mr. Haskett said.

Meanwhile, in Northern California, another wildfire, dubbed the Point Fire, triggered evacuation orders and warnings for a sparsely populated area near Lake Sonoma.

This fire, which started on Sunday, released a huge plume of black smoke as it spread through brush and woods, about 130 kilometers north of San Francisco.

The Point Fire was 15% contained.

The Southern California fire started Saturday afternoon near Interstate 5 in Gorman, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.

The flames were heading toward Pyramid Lake, a popular destination for boaters, which was closed as a precaution on Father's Day. Although no homes were threatened Sunday, authorities warned residents of Castaic, a community of 19,000, that they may have to evacuate if the fire spreads south.

“If you are in a warning zone, prepare a “go bag” with night clothes, your cell phone, medications and glasses. Fuel your car and be ready to evacuate,” advised Haskett.

Weather forecasts from the National Weather Service in Los Angeles called for low humidity and gusts of up to 50 mph throughout the day, with winds likely to strengthen after sunset.

About 120 kilometers to the east, the Hesperia Fire, covering an area of ​​5 square kilometers, prompted road closures and evacuation warnings. This fire broke out Saturday near the mountain communities of San Bernardino County and was 19% contained as of Sunday evening.

Weather conditions, characterized by low humidity and strong winds, combined with difficult terrain, made firefighting efforts particularly arduous. Local authorities continue to closely monitor the situation and provide regular updates to affected residents.

Firefighters are working around the clock to contain the flames and protect lives and property. Crews on the ground and in the air are working to limit the spread of the fire despite the challenges posed by the weather conditions.

Coordination efforts between different fire agencies are essential to effectively manage this crisis.

Los Angeles County has mobilized all available resources to support firefighting operations. Authorities encourage residents to stay informed and follow instructions from emergency services.

The safety of residents and firefighters remains the top priority.

As California enters fire season, officials are calling for vigilance and preparation.

Collaboration between residents, firefighters and government agencies is crucial to minimizing the impacts of wildfires. Prevention and preparedness efforts, as well as rapid responses to emergencies, will play a key role in protecting communities and natural resources.

In summary, the wildfires currently ravaging the Los Angeles area and other parts of California highlight the importance of disaster preparedness and rapid response.

Residents are encouraged to remain alert and follow instructions from authorities to ensure the safety of themselves and their loved ones. The collective efforts of all stakeholders are essential to overcoming these challenges and protecting communities from the dangers of wildfires.

UNITED STATES MAJOR ISSUES IN PRO-PALESTINIAN DEMONSTRATIONS ON UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES

Dismantling of demonstrator camps

On Wednesday, May 1, police forces were mobilized on several American university campuses, where recent arrests took place, coming after similar interventions in Los Angeles and New York, places of convergence of student mobilization against the conflict in Gaza which is agitating the country. At the University of Texas at Dallas, police dismantled a protester encampment and arrested at least 17 people for “criminal trespass,” according to information provided by the establishment.

Officials also reported that law enforcement apprehended several individuals at Fordham University in New York and evacuated an encampment established earlier in the day on campus. New York City police reported at a news conference that nearly 300 people were arrested at two university sites in the city.

During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the authorities used force to dislodge pro-Palestinian demonstrators holed up in a building at the prestigious Columbia University in Manhattan, the starting point of the student mobilization in favor of Gaza.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Minouche Shafik, the university’s president, said Wednesday. She explained that the demonstrators were defending "an important cause", but that recent "destructive actions" carried out by "external students and activists" had led to the intervention of the police, also condemning the "anti-Semitic comments " held during these gatherings.

At Harvard, as well as at many other universities, protests broke out, accompanied by counter-protests, highlighting the differences within the student community and the growing complexity of managing confrontations. Anti-Semitic incidents, criticism of Israel and debates around support for the Palestinians fuel divisions on campus.

This polarization brings the Israeli-Palestinian question to the center of concerns, putting university leaders in a delicate position: they must in fact constantly arbitrate between the protection of freedom of expression and that of security, while maintaining good relations with donors, who represent a major source of funding for higher education institutions in the United States.

The delicate position of university presidents and the weight of donors

Particularly in the United States, university leaders face complex dilemmas. Their official statements are scrutinized not only by students and the media, but also by donors. Some benefactors have openly criticized university presidents for insufficiently firm stances towards the violence perpetrated

At the University of Pennsylvania, President Liz Magill was disavowed for having authorized the participation and expression of figures considered anti-Semitic, including Roger Waters, former frontman of the rock band Pink Floyd, at the Palestine Writes literature festival. This led to the resignation of several board members and sparked a series of protests among donors.

Harvard was also in the spotlight, following an open letter signed by numerous student organizations, published on social networks on the evening of October 7, accusing Israel of bearing responsibility for the ongoing violence. Outrage erupted over the initial silence of Harvard President Claudine Gay, who ultimately condemned the letter days later.

Influential figures such as former University President Lawrence Summers (who served as U.S. Treasury Secretary from 1999 to 2001 under Bill Clinton), as well as Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney (themselves former of Harvard) called for stronger measures against anti-Semitism, highlighting the risk of endangering Jewish students. Harvard has also lost the support of certain major donors, including the Wexner Foundation.

Given the economic model of large American research universities, essentially dependent on income from their capital (endowment) and patronage, donors exercise increasing influence.

The challenge of reconciling academic freedom and donor expectations spares no institution.

A challenge as the presidential election approaches

As the US presidential election approaches, it is worth taking a close look at how the Trump and Biden campaigns are responding to the ongoing student protests.

The White House condemned this Wednesday, May 1, a “small percentage of students who cause disorder.” “Students have the right to go to class and feel safe,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, spokesperson for the executive.

Biden similarly condemned “anti-Semitic protests” and “those who don’t understand what’s happening with the Palestinians.” Trump called the recent protests “anti-Semitic” and “much worse” than the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Su Fox Nerws, the banner on the screen mentioned “anti-Israel” demonstrators. On the air, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's shadow advisor, asserted that "this is all because of Joe Biden. He and his party are fanning the embers of anti-Semitism."

In the United States, pro-Palestinian mobilization on campuses is becoming an issue in the presidential election.

THE UNITED STATES TO THE RESCUE OF UKRAINE

WITH 61 BILLION AID

It had been blocked in the American Congress for several months, the aid amounting to 61 billion dollars, or 57 billion euros.

After the favorable vote of the House of Representatives, with a Republican majority, the American President, Joe Biden, can count on the support of the Senate, where the Democrats are in the majority, to finally release the financial aid of 60.8 billion dollars (56 billion euros) promised to Ukraine.

"Churchill or Chamberlain"

The tenant of the White House owes this outcome to the change of heart of the Republican speaker of Congress, Mike Johnson. This Trumpist conservative, Christian evangelist, considered that the war in Ukraine could not give rise to a game of political calculations. Also, without fear of facing the anger of a part of his camp which had cost his predecessor the place, Mike Johnson had invited the members of the House to "vote in conscience", according to their wishes. The result was unequivocal. The aid plan was validated by 311 votes to 112.

“To put it bluntly: I would rather send ammunition to Ukraine than send our boys to fight,” he pleaded. Before mentioning, not without a certain emotion, the case of his son, who is preparing to enter the Naval Academy. “This is a life-size test for me, as for so many American families,” he said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky quickly congratulated the decision, assuring that it “will prevent the war from spreading” and “save thousands and thousands of lives.” The text will arrive very quickly in the Senate, where it should be adopted without problem.

Massive help...

This massive aid that the Ukrainians were impatiently awaiting mainly includes military and economic assistance. Part of this aid actually corresponds to purchases on American soil from American manufacturers for the American army, which will be able to replenish its stocks and get rid of older equipment.

In this aid plan: $27 billion will finance the purchase of weapons for the Ukrainian army and the training of troops. 23 billion will be used to buy back weapons and ammunition from American stocks sent to kyiv. The list of equipment is not yet known.

Around 10 billion will be dedicated to economic assistance for the energy and infrastructure sectors. This non-military aid is sent in the form of a loan.

This vote by the US Congress also authorizes President Joe Biden to confiscate and sell Russian assets so that they can finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.

...But late

This aid comes at the right time for Ukrainians lacking ammunition. The CIA director said that without help, Ukraine "could lose on the battlefield by the end of 2024." The Russians are indeed encroaching on ground, benefiting from an unbalanced balance of power in terms of ammunition. Putin's army fires five times more shells than kyiv's.

It is not certain, however, that this will be enough to reverse the course of a conflict in which Russia has taken the upper hand. The Russians are also advancing in certain areas of the front line.

A Pyrrhic victory for Joe Biden which is also part of an awareness among some conservatives of a de facto alliance bringing together Russia, China and Iran, a new “axis of evil” which is raging in Ukraine but also in the Middle East and as far as Asia.

UNDERSTANDING DIVERSITY

BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND ISRAEL

AFTER THE IRANIAN ATTACK

Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi once again warned on Tuesday that “the slightest action” by Israel against “Iran's interests” would provoke “a severe, widespread and painful response” from his country.

This development raises concerns about a possible deterioration of the situation, with a significant risk of regional escalation if Israel decides to retaliate in accordance with the wishes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And the Israeli Prime Minister called for unity from the international community in the face of what he describes as “Iranian aggression threatening world peace”.

Yet the United States, which has played an active role in defending Israeli territory attacked for the first time since 1973 by a regional state power, has declared its opposition to any escalation or expanded war with Iran. They warned that they would not participate in retaliatory action while affirming their unwavering support for Israel.

An evolution of the American position?

These new official statements appear to indicate an evolution in the American position with regard to the ongoing conflict.

Indeed, for several weeks, differences have been increasing between the American administration and Netanyahu's government.

On March 25 , the United States abstained for the first time during the vote, by the United Nations Security Council, on a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as well as the release of all the hostages. A position commented on by the Israeli Prime Minister who described it as a “clear setback” harming war efforts.

More recently, during a telephone exchange, Joe Biden allegedly threatened to condition aid to Israel on “tangible” measures if Israel did not change its way of conducting the war in Gaza.

How can we explain this evolution in the posture of Joe Biden's United States?

On the one hand, the very high human and material losses in Gaza are causing growing disapproval from public opinion even within Western countries.

On the other hand, the military objectives pursued by Israel are giving rise to more and more questions and reservations.

Indeed, among the Israeli war goals, that of eradicating Hamas presented as indisputable evidence is considered unrealistic by even Israel's allies. Military officials in Washington would consider that the maximalist objective set by the Israelis is not achievable as such.

Furthermore, in the context of the American electoral campaign, Joe Biden has everything to lose by showing unwavering support for Israel in his speeches. Part of his electorate criticizes him for “double standards” which has also cemented an anti-Western political discourse.

It is clear that the Biden administration's decision to increase humanitarian aid while continuing to provide the financial and material support necessary for the war effort creates incomprehension and frustration for part of public opinion. in the United States, particularly within the Democratic camp.

Biden cannot completely ignore it and lose part of his electorate. However, the United States remains Israel's best ally since its creation.

THE OLD INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE UNITED STATES THE COLLAPSE OF THE BALTIMORE BRIDGE

HIT BY A CARGO

Biggest Marine Insurance Loss

This “tragedy has the potential to become the largest marine insurance loss on record.” The previous record was the disaster of the luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia in 2012. According to analysts at Morningstar DBRS, the tragedy could result in up to $4 billion (3.71 billion euros) in insurance claims.

Lloyd's, with more than 50 member companies, is active in the marine and property insurance markets. In 2022, it recorded gross premiums of more than 6 billion pounds (7.01 billion euros) in maritime, aviation and transport insurance and reinsurance. North America is its largest market. Bruce Carnegie-Brown also added that the insurer had set aside £1.6 billion in reserves over the past two years for planes stranded in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Earlier today, Lloyd's reported a pre-tax profit of £10.7 billion for 2023.

The obsolescence of American infrastructure in question

Named the “Dali”, the boat began a 27-day journey, interrupted after half an hour. It measures some 300 meters long – the equivalent of three football fields – and 48 meters wide, with a draft of around 14 meters. Its maximum load is 116,000 tonnes. However, the cargo ship hit a pile of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, located in the state of Maryland in the United States, 3 km long, and caused its collapse.
This was built in 1977 and was not specially designed to withstand this type of accident, while the channel did not have any protection. With a main span of 400 meters, it was the second longest continuous truss bridge in the United States.

The accident, which left six people missing, now presumed dead, rekindles an old debate on the dilapidation of American infrastructure, in particular that of bridges, even if it is difficult to see how any steel structure could have withstood such a shock.

The collision between the container ship Dali and the largest bridge in the Maryland metropolis shuts down a major access point for international trade on the East Coast, a strategic crossroads for automobiles, coal and sugar.

SUPER TUESDAY

TOWARDS A TRUMP / BIDEN DUEL

And there is no doubt that we are heading towards a Trump/Biden duel.

Indeed, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday March 4 by overturning a judgment excluding it from the ballot in Colorado. The decision, made public this Monday, thus cancels that of Colorado which, last December, had recognized the ex-president ineligible for the presidency due to his participation in an “insurrection” on January 6, 2021. American states cannot prevent Donald Trump from running for the White House.

“GREAT VICTORY FOR AMERICA!!!”, wrote Donald Trump on his social network just after the announcement of the Supreme Court decision.

Without ruling on his involvement in the assault on the Capitol, the justices agreed that only Congress had the power to enforce section three of the Fourteenth Amendment. According to them, “it would be incongruous to read this specific amendment as granting states the power to disqualify a candidate for federal office.”

The Supreme Court also justified its decision by warning of the risk of a “chaotic patchwork according to the States, in contradiction with the principles of the federalism of our nation”. Maine and Illinois had, like Colorado, declared Donald Trump ineligible. The judges therefore also invalidate the decisions of these two States.

Among the 15 states voting today, there are two demographic juggernauts: Texas and California.

AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL

NEW CRUSHING VICTORY FOR TRUMP

IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Nothing seems to be able to prevent the former Nothing seems to be able to prevent the former head of state from being a presidential candidate.

Donald Trump's victory was projected by the American media just a few seconds after the polling stations closed. Saturday February 24, the septuagenarian billionaire inflicted a scathing defeat on his last Republican rival, Nikki Haley, during the South Carolina primary. With almost all the ballots counted at 7:00 a.m. local time (12:00 p.m. GMT) on Sunday, the main American media gave the former real estate magnate well ahead, with around a little less than 60% of the votes. In his first victorious declarations after the South Carolina vote, he simply ignored Nikki Haley, preferring to designate the current tenant of the White House as his main opponent. “Joe (Biden), you’re fired!” he said from Columbia.

Governor of South Carolina for six years, Nikki Haley was nevertheless playing at home for the Republican primary organized in this state, this Sunday, February 25 in the United States.

However, Nikki Haley, 52, is hanging on, refusing for the moment to leave the race for the Republican nomination. “The fight continues. See you in Michigan,” the candidate posted on X (formerly Twitter) shortly after her defeat. Nikki Haley, who embodies a more moderate wing of the party, is Donald Trump's latest Republican rival.

At a meeting in Charleston, she promised to continue “fighting for America.” “We will not survive four more years of Trump’s chaos,” she assured. I am not giving up this fight.”

On Tuesday, the two rivals should therefore face each other in Michigan. Republicans from Idaho, Missouri and North Dakota will then vote in turn, a well-orchestrated ballet that will lead the candidates to one of the biggest political events of the year: Super Tuesday. On March 5, around fifteen states, including Texas, California, Colorado and Virginia, will simultaneously organize their polls during this major election day.

KANSAS CITY THE SUPER BOWL PARADE

DEADLY SHOOTING

A shooting broke out in Kansas City, Missouri, this Wednesday, February 14, 2024, during the parade celebrating the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory.

The shooting broke out at the end of the parade of the Kansas City Chiefs (Super Bowl winners), in this Missouri city located in the center of the United States.

One person died following this attack and at least 21 others were injured, according to a provisional report communicated by the emergency services.

Eight life-threatening patients were taken to hospital within 10 minutes of the shooting, Chief Ross Grundyson said at a news conference.

Stacey Graves, the Kansas City police chief, said that three people in total had been arrested in connection with the shootings.

Children's Mercy Pediatric Hospital said it had just treated 12 injured people from the gathering, including 11 children.

“Nine have injuries caused by firearms,” detailed a spokesperson for the establishment.

Tens of thousands of people celebrated the Chiefs, who paraded through the streets of Kansas City to celebrate their victory on Sunday in the Super Bowl, the annual high mass of American football.

The traditional convoy of double-decker buses traveled up Grand Boulevard towards Union Station. The shooting took place near the Union Station parking lot as the parade was winding down.

“I thought they were fireworks,” John O’Connor told our colleague from the daily The Kansas City Star, explaining that he heard “between 15 and 20 shots in a short period of time.”

The police indicated a few minutes later on the social network

The police managed to arrest two armed people "for further investigation", they said for the moment without further details.

Police also said "Anyone in the vicinity should leave the area as quickly and safely as possible" to facilitate the treatment of gunshot victims, also advising people to avoid the Union Station parking lot for allow first responders to pass.

In a statement, the Kansas City Chiefs said they were “saddened” and condemned a “senseless act of violence,” adding that all of their players, coaches and staff members, as well as their families, were safe.

Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes said "pray for Kansas City" in a post on X.

According to Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, authorities have been in contact with the White House, which has offered federal assistance.

The latter specified that President Joe Biden had been informed of the situation.

The mayor of Kansas City, who was present with his family during the parade, said he was "angry".

A parade to celebrate a Super Bowl victory, "it's a day that many people hope to remember for the rest of their lives; and what they shouldn't have to remember is the threat posed by gun violence,” Quinton Lucas said at a news conference.

About 49,000 people died from gunfire in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year.

This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides. However, it is the shootings with many victims that mark people’s minds the most.

However, let's not stop only at firearms!

As proof, a simple van which rushes into a pedestrian lane during a festive demonstration and it becomes a horror, a massacre with multiple deaths, such as for example the case of Nice in France on July 14, 2016, 86 dead and hundreds of injured, all without firearms!!.

However, all this should not make us forget that these criminal acts are the work of a handful of people with failing mental and moral health, but also the result of the loss of bearings, often caused by a malaise which takes root at the heart of an increasingly suffering population.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S MENTAL HEALTH BECOMES A SERIOUS DISABILITY

FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL

On Thursday, American President Joe Biden assured that he had a “very good memory”.

This speech came shortly after the release of a 388-page summary in which special counsel Robert Hur highlighted the deterioration of the mental health of the tenant of the White House, while recommending not to engage prosecution in the case of classified documents. For investigator Robert Hur, Joe Biden turns out to be “an elderly, friendly, well-meaning man but with a bad memory”.

The report also recalled forgetting the date of death of her son, Beau.

“How the hell dare he?” “, castigated the head of state, before getting stuck in an embarrassing sequence. Asked about the humanitarian corridor separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt, Joe Biden referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as the "president of Mexico."

Joe Biden also recently confused Emmanuel Macron with “Mitterrand of Germany” during a meeting.

The repeated omissions and blunders of the oldest American president in history fuel criticism and deal a serious blow to the image of the president, a candidate for his own re-election.

Biden's age, at 81 the oldest American president in history, is a concern for more than three-quarters of voters, including half of Democrats, and a favorite angle of attack for Republicans, who present him as a senile old man.

A duel with Donald Trump in perspective

The Democratic Party is dramatically worried. Joe Biden is the only real Democratic candidate, with both candidates being complete unknowns to voters. Traditionally, it is always an advantage to have the incumbent president running again because he is not exposed to real primaries and he campaigns at the same time as he governs.

A few months before the presidential election, he nevertheless appears to be the only one who can block the path of former president Donald Trump. 

AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL

TOWARDS A BIDEN-TRUMP DUEL

It seems increasingly certain that they will win their respective party's nominations this summer, preparing to face each other again on November 5.

Donald Trump, 77, confirmed his landslide victory the previous week in the Iowa caucuses by relegating the only strong competitor still in the running, Nikki Haley, to a significant distance. In the Atlantic coast state, where unaffiliated voters could participate in the primary, he won a landslide victory with 54.6 percent of the vote to Haley's 43.2 percent.

The particularism of this state allowed Haley, aged 51, whom the extremism of the populist billionaire qualifies as moderate, to achieve a respectable score. However, this proved largely insufficient to worry Trump, who is confirming his status as "boss" of the Republican Party thanks to the unwavering support of the populist faction known as "Maga" (Make America Great Again).

Defeated for the second time in eight days, Donald Trump's challenger, Nikki Haley, however, maintains that "the race for the Republican Party nomination is far from over."

“The competition is far from over,” asserted the former governor of South Carolina with confidence, following the announcement of the results from New Hampshire. However, in her own state, where elections will take place next month, she is presumed to lose, with local political elites having already rallied to Trump's camp.

The former President expressed his annoyance at Haley's refusal to step down, telling supporters gathered in Nashua, "What a shame!" Before qualifying her, with her usual rudeness, as a “bird brain” on social networks.

On the Democratic side, 81-year-old Joe Biden won an easy victory against Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips (51.6% to 19.7%) and writer Marianne Williamson (4.7%). , even though his name did not appear on the ballots due to a dispute between the Party and its local branch. His supporters had to register it “manually”.

The outgoing President is only preparing to enter the campaign and intends to "kill" the semblance of competition on February 3 during the Democratic primary in South Carolina, where he took a significant lead during the 2020 primaries.

Could the conclusion of the primaries mean that the poster for November 5, marking the re-edition of the Biden-Trump duel of 2020, is already established ?

Uncertainties however

In each state, candidates are accumulating delegates who will exert their influence at each party's conventions, scheduled for this summer. At this point, Trump has 62, while Haley has 17. The former President, if he succeeds in winning all the delegates, could collect the necessary 1,215 of the 2,429 as early as March, after Super Tuesday, where Simultaneous primaries will be held in 16 states. The same opportunity presents itself for Biden.

On a political level, the outcome seems predictable: almost no one now contests the victory of the two favorites. “We now need to focus on Joe Biden, not Nikki Haley,” said Tim Scott, a South Carolina senator and former candidate who briefly rallied to Trump.

Reacting to the New Hampshire results in a press release, Joe Biden also seems to have turned the page on the primaries: “It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican candidate. Our democracy, our individual freedoms, our economy... Everything is in question. game."

However, other types of extra-political uncertainties persist. The hypothesis of a health problem or the incapacity of one of the candidates seems more and more plausible, taking into account the fact that Trump and Biden, the two oldest candidates in American history, have sometimes showed signs of confusion without a teleprompter.

Less theoretical, the legal setbacks of Donald Trump, faced with four separate cases (bank fraud, theft of secret documents, attempted subversion of the 2020 presidential election and incitement to the Capitol riot), could disrupt the game.

His candidacy, contested in several states under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, must still be validated by the Supreme Court, probably by March.

WHAT IS AT STAKE FOR THE TRUMP-BIDEN 

AMERICAN ELECTIONS ?

At the end of 2024, American citizens are preparing to elect their “new” president as well as all of their representatives in Congress. No election in the electoral history of the United States has been so crucial.
This electoral meeting, through the international issues it raises and the unusual configuration it presents, could well signal a fundamental transformation for American democracy itself. A central protagonist in this political saga is Donald Trump.

A radicalized Donald Trump? Joe Biden as a preferable alternative?

After failing to obtain a second term in 2020, Donald Trump is embarking on a new presidential race despite the numerous legal disputes against him. His situation is made even more delicate by his recent declared ineligibility in the states of Colorado and Maine, following his involvement in what was described as a “rebellion” during the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Currently,
the Trump's fate remains unresolved, depending on an appeal filed before the Supreme Court, which refused to deal with the matter urgently. This decision contributes to making the former president's judicial calendar even more uncertain, as the battle for the nomination begins with the Iowa caucus on January 15.

Joe Biden's words speak for themselves: "If Trump wasn't a candidate, I'm not sure I would run." The outgoing president positions himself as the guarantor of American democracy, presenting his role as a bulwark against the “Trump threat”. Faced with this threat, Biden chooses to describe himself as the “normal president”, making this normality his main and indisputable argument.

In the absence of Donald Trump, the Democratic Party would find itself in a much more difficult position to rally its left wing. Faced with his predecessor, Joe Biden simply continues to emerge as a preferable alternative. However, could this dynamic continue in the presence of figures such as Ron DeSantis, who is younger, or Nikki Haley, a moderate woman from the Republican camp and from an ethnic minority?
Donald Trump's stated intentions, such as "I will not be a dictator except on day one," appear to add a serious threat to American institutions. Pro-Trump ads sometimes depict the former president putting his political opponents behind bars, illustrated by a photo captured in Miami in June 2023 during a Trump appearance in federal court in Florida in the White House documents he allegedly kept after his defeat.

Thus, the electoral process presents itself as a doubly restrictive choice . Both Trump and Biden are seen as favorites by default. American voters find themselves forced to choose not the best candidate, but the one considered to be the least worst. An essentially negative confrontation which generates a record level of dissatisfaction among citizens.

A new political reality.

In this particular political climate, the use of the “Trump scarecrow” presents itself as the most effective deterrent weapon. Usually, when an incumbent president runs for re-election, the election takes the form of a referendum for or against him.

During the previous election, Joe Biden initially announced his commitment to a single term. Despite his advanced age, he revised his position after the positive results of the mid-term elections, declaring in May 2023 his candidacy for his own succession.

Current vice president and running mate for 2024, Kamala Harris, remains in the background. As for the declared contenders for the Democratic nomination, they are stagnating due to the lack of notoriety or support of the party. Whether it's Marianne Williamson, 71-year-old author specializing in personal development, Dean Phillips, millionaire entrepreneur and Minnesota MP, or Robert F. Kennedy Jr, known mainly for his name, the latter presenting himself as an independent. None of these rivals seems able to challenge Joe Biden's privileged position as Democratic candidate, barring a serious health incident. But beyond the president's age – he was born in 1942 – his state of health weighs on the multiple “affairs” which are catching up with his son Hunter. They concern his drug consumption, tax fraud of 1.4 million dollars, and above all consulting activities with Ukrainian and Chinese energy companies... His only major challenge therefore remains to cross the campaign physically and in the media, avoiding gaffes and failures during travel, interviews and debates.

Disoriented voters

The Republican Party primaries are proving more competitive. Apart from Donald Trump, the four main candidates still in the running are Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations, Vivek Ramaswamy, young pro-Trump entrepreneur, and Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey. None seem to actually threaten Donald Trump. This observation defies predictions because the ex-president's supporters suffered severe defeats in the mid-term elections.
Although several trials are planned for the first half of 2024 (Stormy Daniels, classified documents, invasion of the Capitol), the repercussions remain uncertain. An impeachment investigation was opened against the sitting president with the Trump team's attempt to establish an equivalence between his legal woes and the indictment of Joe Biden's son for tax fraud.

Donald Trump thus maintains a strong chance of being nominated as the Republican candidate, benefiting from significant support among both the wealthiest and the least educated voters. With 60% of Republican voters having a level of education less than or equal to the baccalaureate, compared to 30% among the Democrats, he maintains an advantage within the general staff of the party, despite the persistent divisions on his chances of victory in next November. Trump's popularity remains his main shield.

On the Democratic Party side, the electoral base appears less stable. Despite the traditional support of educated urban categories, their influence is limited by a voting system which accentuates the weight of rural and sparsely populated states. An internal divide has been emerging since October 7, linked to the debate on military support for Israel and the rise of anti-Semitism on university campuses.
Democrats, seeking to regain lost ground, are questioning their ability to capitalize on the issue of abortion, an issue skillfully manipulated by their opponents to win decisive support from the female electorate.
Contrary to the usual dynamic of primaries aimed at mobilizing the base, the Democrats are entering a different year, focused on the need to seduce Independents and demobilize moderate Republicans without fragmenting their own electoral base. They also seek to increase turnout by fighting voter ID legislation, promoting early voting and attracting young voters, despite Biden's approval rating hovering around 35%.

Although President Biden holds a unifying strategy, a danger looms with his relative decline among minorities, attributed to a mixed economic record. The middle and lower classes have suffered a drop in purchasing power despite a historically low unemployment rate (3.7% as of December 19, 2023). The promise to raise the minimum wage has not been kept, and climate policies, although applauded by young people and progressives, do not show tangible effects in the short term.

In a flammable international context, electoral fever extends beyond American borders. What divisions will the election be based on? The involvement of the United States in Ukraine or the Middle East pushes us to open a debate on balanced budgets. Issues linked to immigration, in particular the security of the southern border weakened by the expiration of anti-Covid restriction measures. ? Joe Biden's trip to Mexico at the end of December 2023 indicates the importance of this issue for the Democratic candidate.

Rivalry with China, both economically and militarily, is also a major concern, particularly regarding the future of Taiwan.

JOE BIDEN AND XI YINPING SUMMIT

REUNION DESPITE STRONG RIVALRIES

IN INTERDEPENDENCE

The time has come for appeasement between China and the United States. This is the message that Xi Jinping and Joe Biden will try to convey during their meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning in San Francisco, on the sidelines of the APEC summit. Beijing, Monday.

The American president is due to meet with his counterpart for several hours, near San Francisco, California, on the sidelines of an Apec summit, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

According to Voice of America, the meeting, scheduled for 6:45 p.m. GMT, will take place in an upscale and bucolic estate, about forty kilometers from the famous Golden Gate Bridge.

The two men want to show that the rivalry between their two countries remains under control. In an international context complicated by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, this meeting, which takes place a year before the American presidential election, will allow them to discuss "peace and development in the world", assured Joe Biden .

No “decoupling”

Despite geopolitical rivalries and security tensions, despite the trade war started by Donald Trump and continued by Joe Biden, the decoupling of the two economies is no longer at all relevant, Americans and Chinese assure in unison. Jack Sullivan, the White House Security Advisor, puts it in full: “the United States and China have interdependent economies”. Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary, warns that “a complete breakdown would have significant negative repercussions on the economy.” In Beijing, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs goes further: “We are opposed to a definition of Sino-American relations in terms of competition.” The very nationalist Chinese daily Global Times explains that the big subject of San Francisco is the stabilization of economic relations between the two countries to revive global growth.

Just before this tête-à-tête, the tone was intended to be very conciliatory. “We are not trying to decouple ourselves from China,” Joe Biden assured Tuesday, for whom the objective is to “be able to pick up the phone and talk to each other if there is a crisis.”

“We are opposed to a definition of Sino-American relations in terms of competition,” even said a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The two leaders, who have known each other for several years, spoke for three hours on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Indonesia a year ago. The relationship has since turned sour, particularly with the flight over American territory by a Chinese balloon at the start of the year. Joe Biden irritated Beijing by highlighting in February the “enormous problems” that, according to him, China encounters economically.

Previous provocative statements

We are a long way from the provocative statements of March when Xi Jinping criticized, with rare virulence, an American strategy of “encirclement” while Washington is strengthening its alliances in the Asia-Pacific. China denounces the sanctions imposed on it by the United States in the technological field, while Washington protests against Beijing's "provocative" actions in the South China Sea.

Even the famous “panda diplomacy” had suffered from the cold snap: on November 8, the three giant pandas from the Washington Zoo left for China, marking the end of an animal-diplomatic practice begun in 1972.

The tone between Washington and Beijing, however, softened enough in the summer to allow the organization of the Californian face-to-face meeting.

Taiwan, Israel, Ukraine

Joe Biden “wants to ensure that we manage this very important bilateral relationship in the most responsible manner possible,” White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.

On the American side, China is expected to guarantee its non-interference in Taiwan's next presidential election in January 2024, to begin military de-escalation in the South China Sea and to put an end to its intimidation operations around the island

The status of the island, of which Beijing claims sovereignty, and to which Washington provides substantial military assistance, remains a central subject of friction. The increase in demonstrations of force by the Chinese army off the coast of Taiwan worries the United States, as the presidential election on the island looms in January. On the Chinese side, the visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the American House of Representatives, in August 2022, was very poorly received by Beijing, which had suspended most regular military communications with the United States.

“Xi Jinping will once again defend the One China policy before President Biden. Because the impassable red line, as the Chinese government has repeatedly said, is the question of Taiwan!”, advances RFI Gao Zhikai, vice-president of the Center on China and Globalization in Beijing. Joe Biden must reaffirm to China that Washington does not support independence for Taiwan, and that American policy on the matter has not changed.

The two leaders must also address the two major conflicts of the moment: in Ukraine and the Middle East. Before the meeting, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her administration was "concerned that equipment critical to Russia's military effort is evading [US] sanctions and being delivered to Russia.

" The United States certainly does not expect China to cut ties with Russia, but hopes that it does not further deepen its friendship with Vladimir Putin by directly supplying him with weapons.As part of the outfit annual meeting of the Xiangshan Security Forum Zhang Youxi, first vice-president of the Central Military Commission, expressed China's wish to deepen cooperation with Russia in the military field. “China stands ready to actively work with Russia to respond to various security threats and challenges in order to jointly safeguard global strategic balance and security,” he said, quoted by the official agency. New China.

The United States also asks China not to aggravate major international crises, and in particular the war between Israel and Hamas, which Joe Biden does not want to see spread. “They have lines of communication in the region that we don't have,” John Kirby said, referring to the relationship between Beijing and Iran. Building on its recent mediation in the reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the United States hopes that China will put pressure on Tehran so that the Shiite power does not seek to become more involved in the Gaza war.

However, during international crises, "China loves to be seen as a major player, but it is very little involved in resolving problems. It is first and foremost focused on its own issues, particularly economic and strategic, because it likes also increase the circle of those who can support it", underlines Valérie Niquet, head of the Asia pole at the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS)

Renewing a joint dialogue

The crisis in Taiwan has damaged the military relationship between China and the United States. Washington wants a resumption of dialogue. “President [Biden] is committed to seeing the restoration of military-to-military ties because he believes it is in the national security interests of the United States,” said Jake Sullivan, the American adviser to national security, on the American channel CBS. “He believes that communication between armies is necessary to ensure that this competition does not escalate into conflict.”

If the United States wants to control any escalation in the military domain, while maintaining vigorous competition in the technological and economic domains, China does not distinguish between these domains, because they are interconnected.

A working group on joint climate action

Tuesday, on the eve of the meeting between the two men, China and the United States announced the upcoming creation of a working group on climate cooperation, a few weeks before the international climate conference (COP28 ).

This working group will focus on "energy transition, methane, circular economy and resource efficiency, low-carbon and sustainable provinces/states and cities, and deforestation", it said in a statement shared by Chinese state media and the US State Department. The members of the group will lead “dialogue and cooperation in order to accelerate concrete actions in favor of the climate”, according to the text.

The meeting between the two largest CO2 emitters countries "offers tempting hope in terms of climate action", estimates, in an article, Kate Logan, of the Asia Society Policy Institute, a few days before the opening of the COP28 in Dubai, November 30. “A high-level agreement between the United States and China could provide the change of course necessary to keep global temperatures below 1.5°C” increase compared to the pre-industrial era, she assures. .

Why this change of tone ?

Both leaders currently find themselves in a delicate phase on the domestic front, where the need for positive economic outcomes is more crucial than ever. In the United States, with the election just a year away, polls reveal growing skepticism toward Bidenomics among the population. In order to preserve the growth that the United States is experiencing, it is imperative to ease tensions that could potentially hamper the national economy.
In Beijing, Xi Jinping is resigned to reality: China will not become the leading world power as quickly as initially expected. Faced with slowing growth and rising unemployment, particularly among young people, Xi recognizes that now is not the ideal time to clash with such a crucial trading partner. Indeed, the American market represents a vital outlet necessary to maintain the operation of factories and revive an activity devastated by the real estate crisis.

Recent figures for "Singles' Day", the Chinese equivalent of "Black Friday", which occurred on November 11, are hardly encouraging, according to Reuters. Exports recorded a fall of 6.4% year-on-year in October, and the youth unemployment situation in urban areas has reached such a worrying level since June (21.3%) that the government has reportedly decided to no longer report publicize these figures.

On the Chinese side, demands revolve around the review of customs duties, the lifting of controls on American exports to China and the easing of sanctions against Chinese companies. These aspirations reflect Beijing's desire to strengthen its commercial ties with the United States in an increasingly complex and uncertain economic context. An easing of tensions could bring American companies back to the Chinese market.

A group of big bosses very involved in the largest market in the world such as Elon Musk with Tesla will participate in the dinner organized in honor of Xi Jinping. Their investments and their purchases are more welcome than ever to support Chinese growth.

What to expect from this summit ?

Obviously, the grievances harbored on both sides are too numerous and too deep to hope for anything other than the affirmation in Beijing and Washington of the shared desire to renew a dialogue conducive to rebuilding the path of mutual trust. .
For Masahiro Okoshi, head of the Washington Bureau of the Japanese media Nikkei Asia, - quoted by Pierre-Antoine Donnet in Asialyst - it would be illusory for the United States to expect from this summit a change in strategy from the Chinese regime to towards America. According to him, nourishing the hope of a change in Chinese strategy towards America would be illusory.

The crucial aspect of the meeting between Biden and Xi lies in the possibility for each to truly understand the other's position. He believes that this mutual understanding would potentially be more meaningful than resounding declarations.

Thus, beyond the spectacular announcements, the real challenge would be to promote a deep understanding of the respective positions. These reflections shed light on the complexity of Sino-American relations, in a delicate geopolitical context.

“The San Francisco meeting will at least have allowed the American and Chinese presidents to speak directly to each other. And therefore to avoid misunderstandings which can lead to the worst,” according to a specialist.

UNITED STATES 22 DEAD AND MORE THAN 50 INJURED

IN MASS SHOOTING IN MAINE

The scene is real carnage. A shooter opened fire Wednesday evening, October 25, at a bowling alley and bar-restaurant in a city in the northeastern United States. Initial reports show at least 22 people killed and more than fifty injured, according to the authorities, who published the photo of a man actively wanted.

An “armed and dangerous” man, still on the run.

These horrific shootings occurred in Lewiston, the second largest city in the state of Maine. Residents were forced to confine themselves in the face of the threat posed by this “armed and dangerous” man, still on the run, according to the police. “We have 22 confirmed dead and many, many injured,” said Robert McCarthy, elected official from Lewiston, a city of more than 36,000 residents.

The region's hospital infrastructure proved incapable of handling this type of shooting. According to local authorities, there were between 50 and 60 injured.

Lewiston police are currently attempting to locate the suspected shooter, identified as 40-year-old Robert Card. The motivations behind these actions remain unknown. Photos circulating show a man dressed in a brown top and dark blue pants, armed with a semi-automatic rifle that he had taken in his hand. The shots rang out in at least two different locations, a bowling alley and a bar-restaurant, as reported by local law enforcement.

The Boston FBI, the federal police, is also involved in the investigation. "Hundreds of police officers are investigating across the state to determine the whereabouts of Mr. Card, a potential suspect," the commissioner said. Maine Public Safety Officer Mike Sauschuck during a press conference.

According to several media outlets, Maine law enforcement indicated in a news bulletin that Robert R. Card was a trained weapons instructor and U.S. Army reservist who had recently reported that he had suffered from mental disorders.

This tragedy unfortunately joins the long list of shootings which regularly mourn the United States, a country where firearms are abundant and easily accessible. Another shooting took place during the same evening in a logistics center of a Walmart supermarket, according to several American media. These tragedies once again reignite the debate over the role of the NRA in each mass shooting.

The NRA, considered the most powerful lobby in the world, enjoys considerable influence in defending the right to bear arms in the United States. While a third of Americans say they own a gun, American authorities are struggling to tackle the roots of the problem. At issue: fundamental American law.

Indeed, if the Constitution allows the population to arm themselves, the carrying of a rifle has serious defenders. On one side, the Second Amendment, on the other, the National Rifle Association (NRA).

The NRA, a staunch defender of the Second Amendment

Created in 1871 with the aim of uniting hunters and shooting enthusiasts, the organization evolved from 1975 to become involved in the political arena, with the primary mission of preserving the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights, a text written in 1791, the day after the American War of Independence, including the first ten amendments to the American Constitution, deemed untouchable.

The Second Amendment states that "in view of the necessity of a well organized militia for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." Faced with multiple threats to this right, the NRA created the Legislative Affairs Division in 1934, although it did not lobby directly at that time. In 1975, recognizing the need for urgent political defense of the Second Amendment, the NRA established the Institute for Legislative Action.

Currently, the association has more than five million members and has an annual budget of 300 million dollars (around 281 million euros). During election campaigns, the NRA intervenes by airing ads opposing candidates who might challenge the Second Amendment.

In 2012, the NRA spent $32 million on political lobbying, including $700,000 on direct financing of candidates, 88% of whom were affiliated with the Republican Party. .
The NRA also funds many politicians, with a recent list published by the New York Times revealing which members of Congress had received money from the association, sparking heated debate on social media.

The United States is paying a heavy price for the proliferation of firearms on its territory, as well as the ease with which Americans can obtain them.

Excluding suicides, more than 15,000 people have lost their lives to gun violence so far this year in the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA).

THE AMERICAN CONGRESS PARALYZED

CHAOS TAKES AWAY SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES KEVIN MCCARTHY

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, was removed from office on Tuesday, following a vote led by the conservative fringe of the Republican Party. During the vote, 210 Republicans supported the Californian elected official, but eight dissident elected officials brought down the "speaker".

A first in the history of Congress. Kevin McCarthy thus became the first “speaker” to be removed from this eminent position, which placed him at the top of the hierarchy of the American Congress and second in the order of presidential succession after Vice-President Kamala Harris.

After a meeting with his Republican colleagues, the California representative announced that he would not prolong his humiliation by running for his own succession.

"I will never abandon the American people, but that doesn't mean I have to be speaker of the House," he said at an evening news conference.
Speaking of the extremist Republicans who contributed to his downfall, he added: "They have no right to call themselves conservatives because they are angry and chaotic. That's not the party I belong to. "

It was the elected official from North Carolina, Patrick McHenry, main negotiator with the White House during the debt crisis, who was chosen by Kevin McCarthy to become temporary Speaker, while waiting for a vote to take place. Given the internecine war among Republicans in the House, this could take time: in January, it took 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to be elected in the face of opposition from the same group. And the countdown has already begun: the extension to avoid the “shutdown” only runs for 45 days, with finance laws still in an impasse.

Old internal fractures This motion of censure is the latest act in a series of crises within the right in the House of Representatives. The vote was initiated by a motion from Matt Gaetz, elected Republican from Florida, in reaction to the bipartisan agreement reached on Saturday to avoid a shutdown of federal public services.

Kevin McCarthy's continued position was still precarious. This was due to a red wave that did not occur in the midterm elections in November 2022, with a tiny Republican majority of five votes. This was mainly due to a dozen ultra-conservative elected officials from the Freedom Caucus who had demanded, to break the deadlock in January, that a vote of confidence could be triggered at the request of a single representative. Since 2010, the Republican Party has been in crisis in the House, first with members of the Tea Party, then with those of the Freedom Caucus, who pushed John Boehner to resign in 2015. The impeachment of Kevin McCarthy was widely

criticized by Republican senators, more centrist than in the House. “We saw the same thing with (John) Boehner, (Paul) Ryan and now McCarthy. I'm sure the next Speaker will face the same terrorist attacks,” blasted Texan John Cornyn.

Other Republican representatives expressed fear that the chaos caused by Matt Gaetz could end up helping Democrats regain the majority in the House in 2024. "
I prefer common sense to chaos," said New York Republican Rep. Anthony D'Esposito on Fox News. “I think we should focus on governance rather than political maneuvering, and the fact that we have someone who is holding us back and holding America back is a real problem.”

Donald Trump above the fray

Donald Trump, who counts Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz among his allies, was surprised by this fratricidal conflict which has shaken the Republican group in the House since its conquest of the majority in 2022.

"Why are Republicans always fighting among themselves, why aren't they fighting the radical left Democrats who are destroying our country?" the former president wrote in a post on Truth Social during a break in his trial civil case for fraud in New York and before the vote on the motion to impeach Kevin McCarthy

The way out of the crisis was not clear Tuesday evening, while negotiations began. Republicans and Democrats held separate meetings to address the question of the next House speaker. Democrats already have their candidate: New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, minority leader

The Republican choice will not be so simple. The names of five potential candidates were circulated Tuesday evening: Patrick McHenry (North Carolina), Steve Scalise (Louisiana), Tom Emmer (Minnesota), Tom Cole (Oklahoma) and Jim Jordan (Ohio).

Of these, Scalise and Emmer are part of the Republican staff in the House, the first as majority leader, the second as whip.

JOE BIDEN UNDER SHOT

OF AN INVESTIGATION INTO IMPEACHMENT

After the impeachment precedents of Trump and Clinton, the shadow of possible impeachment now hangs over the presidency of Joe Biden. This week, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, announced the launch of an investigation into the activities of Joe Biden in connection with those of his son Hunter, thus marking the start of a possible impeachment procedure .

This development highlights the tense partisan atmosphere that continues to reign in Washington, as well as the gradual normalization of a constitutional measure once considered exceptional, reserved for desperate situations.

Republicans accuse Joe Biden of not only knowing about the controversial business activities of his son Hunter and his brother James Biden, but also of directly participating in them when he was vice president during the Obama administration. They accuse Joe Biden of having “deceived” the American people.

This investigation primarily stems from the affairs surrounding Hunter Biden, who allegedly entered into questionable deals in China and Ukraine between 2009 and 2017.

This is not the first time that a parliamentary investigation has targeted the sitting president, who is also a candidate for re-election. The White House spokesperson sharply criticized a previous Republican-led investigation, calling it a nine-month fruitless search devoid of any hard evidence of wrongdoing.

Joe Biden faces increasingly virulent opposition from Trumpist elected officials in Congress, and questions persist about his age and state of health, raising concerns even within his own party.

ASSAULT OF THE CAPITOL

RECORD SENTENCE OF 22 YEARS IN PRISON

FOR ENRIQUE TARRIO EX-LEADER OF THE PROUD BOYS

On January 6, 2021, around 200 members of the Proud Boys stormed the Capitol, seat of the US Congress, in an attempt to prevent the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory over Republican President Donald Trump.

Last week, the four other members of the Proud Boys, convicted last May with Enrique Tarrio, were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 to 18 years in prison. Unlike the four other defendants, if Enrique Tarrio was not in Washington on this fateful date, the judge considered that he was the “ultimate leader of the conspiracy”.

President of the Proud Boys from 2018 to 2021, a far-right organization that promotes violence to achieve its political ends, Tarrio was convicted last May, like three other leaders, of “seditious conspiracy”. His sentence remained to be pronounced.

Even having been barred from traveling to Washington on January 6 due to an earlier court injunction, Tarrio played a central role in planning the Capitol riot, which aimed to prevent Congress from certifying Trump's victory. Joe Biden for president. Approximately 200 members of the Proud Boys participated in this attack on the headquarters of the United States Congress, which tragically took the lives of five people, including a police officer, and left more than 140 police officers injured.

Prosecutors described Enrique Tarrio, 39, as a "naturally charismatic leader" and a "clever propagandist" who used his influence over hundreds of the far-right group's supporters to coordinate the attack. At Tuesday's hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe said:

“This defendant and his accomplices targeted our entire system of government” because they wanted to contest the result of the presidential election which gave victory to Joe Biden. He warned that clear consequences must be established to deter any discontent with the results of future elections, whether 2024, 2028, 2032 or beyond.

Equipped with a strategic plan against government buildings

The investigation showed that the former petty criminal, who resold stolen diabetic test strips, became a police informer and then the director of the association of "Latinos of the State of Florida for Trump", had organized the rallies of the small group in Washington before January 6 in an effort to stop the peaceful transition of power, that he monitored their movements and encouraged them during the assault, brimming with their actions in the days following the insurrection. A nine-page strategic plan to “storm” government buildings in Washington on January 6 was found in his possession after the riot.

Enrique Tarrio's lawyers argued that his only goal was to rally his supporters to confront demonstrators from the far-left Antifa movement. They insisted he was in Baltimore, in the neighboring state of Maryland, on January 6, 2021, and had no way of controlling his friends who had turned violent.

"My client is not a terrorist. My client is a misguided patriot. He was trying to protect this country, as misguided as it was," argued Sabino Jauregui, one of his lawyers.

The magistrate seemed little sensitive to the remorse expressed at the bar to the accused, a 39-year-old son of Cuban immigrants, originally from Florida, his voice at times strangled by sobs. Enrique Tarrio described January 6, 2021 as a “horrible day ", imploring his "clemency".

Wasted effort.

JOE BIDEN ELECTION

ALREADY LOST ?

This strategic reserve, which has intensified since the start of the summer season, not only reflects Joe Biden's usual reluctance to media interactions, but also reflects careful deliberation illustrating his acute perception of the stakes in the approach of the imminent presidential election.

Staying true to his presidential attitude, Joe Biden is focusing his attention on carefully crafted speeches around his major legislative initiatives, including the much-noticed "Inflation Reduction Act" (IRA), which he signed with conviction on August 16, 2022.

At the dawn of his 80th birthday, Joe Biden harbors the aspiration of a second term, an undertaking that requires skillful management given the crucial importance of each statement.

Guided by an acute conscience, Joe Biden exercises caution against any intervention likely to be interpreted as an attempt to politicize justice against his charismatic rival, Donald Trump.

The strategy of restraint adopted by the Democratic president since the first of four indictments against his opponent, which occurred in the spring in New York in the context of a case involving an actress of films for adults, perfectly illustrates the subtlety of modern politics.

Although appearances may suggest a calculated distance, careful analysis invites us to wonder whether the myriad disputes surrounding Donald Trump are really just an elaborate edifice by the Democrats to influence the 2024 election.

These seemingly independent cases could reveal a larger plot aimed at altering the prospects of success in the upcoming ballot, which does not appear to be in favor of Joe Biden.

Joe Biden faces a major challenge in terms of public trust.

His approval rating is currently singularly low, reflecting a divided and wary American public opinion.

Voters, in particular, remain unconvinced by Joe Biden's economic agenda and openly express reservations about his age, knowing that he would reach the age of 86 at the end of a hypothetical second term.

Nevertheless, the president masterfully sidesteps the political turbulence surrounding the recent appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate his youngest son, Hunter Biden.

The criticisms emanating from the Republicans, who evoke dubious transactions abroad, do not seem to shake the presidential cool.

In a context where communication and perception play a major role, Joe Biden faced a meeting with Democratic donors with resilience last week.

Although some signs of uncertainty were perceptible, even a slight palpable tension, he remains aware that the investigations into his son's affairs have only just begun.

In sum, the strategic silence observed by Joe Biden regarding his competitor's legal troubles, as well as his continued focus on key initiatives, reveal a calculated and considered approach.

This approach, while cautiously executed, does not fail to draw attention to the underlying political issues and raises intriguing questions as to the true intentions of these judicial inquiries.

In the political arena where every word and every gesture is scrutinized, Joe Biden navigates on sight, while Democratic donors seem to face significant wavering, even deep unease. This is all the more significant as it seems that we are only at the beginning of the multiple cases involving the son of Joe Biden.

HUNTER BIDEN CASE COULD COST

THE RE-ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY OF JOE BIDEN

Would the Department of Justice take the investigation seriously and believe in a strong possibility of filing criminal charges?

“This appointment confirms my commitment to provide David Weiss with all the resources he requires.

It also reaffirms that he has the authority he needs to conduct a thorough investigation and to independently continue to move forward in the manner he deems appropriate, based solely on the facts and the law. US Attorney General Merrick Garland.

David Weiss, federal prosecutor in Delaware, had been investigating Hunter Biden for several years already.

The president's 53-year-old son is accused of tax evasion and acquiring a firearm while a drug addict.

With his new title, David Weiss will have broader powers. He was appointed to Delaware by ex-President Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden and aims to make a comeback to the White House.

This is a major blow for Hunter Biden but also for his father. The resounding and unexpected announcement comes as Joe Biden is campaigning for a second term.

The bad past of son Biden

In his book "Les Belles Choses" (2021), Hunter Biden recounts drinking vodka, night wanderings in search of crack around seedy convenience stores, failed attempts at detoxification, fleeting love with his brother's widow. ..

Of his father, he writes: "He never abandoned me, never ignored me, never judged me". "At times his perseverance drove me mad."

The Hunter Biden investigation also raises serious ethical questions. The right regularly accuses Hunter Biden of having used his father's reputation and influence, when the latter was Barack Obama's vice-president (2009-2017), with his business relations, particularly in Ukraine. I haven't done anything unethical," Hunter Biden said afterwards, adding, however:

"I wouldn't do it again."

Hunter Biden used his family's name and connections to land lucrative business deals in Ukraine and China. He also did not report these business transactions on his tax return. This raises questions about whether Hunter Biden used his father's position to enrich himself.

The attorney general's aim is to avoid any perception of political interference in the investigation, given the "exceptional circumstances" involving the son of the incumbent president. However, the appointment of a special adviser reinforces the perception of scandal and possible wrongdoing, even if the legal aspects of the case have not changed.

The 50-year-old claims to be now "clean". Remarried and father of a little boy named Beau like his late brother, he converted to painting.

Moreover, since the beginning of the year, Joe Biden had even given more visibility to his younger brother. Hunter Biden was omnipresent during an official trip by his father to Ireland in April, and he was seen, in a tuxedo, mingling with guests at the state dinner given in June in honor of the Indian Prime Minister.

But his past regularly catches up with him, and Joe Biden with it.

Recently, the Democratic president admitted that he has not six, but seven grandchildren, acknowledging the existence of a little girl born from an affair of Hunter Biden. The Republican opposition immediately denounced the contrast between Joe Biden's silence in the face of the small Navy and his public image as an affectionate patriarch.

Many challenges

How far will his son's past behavior harm the image of his father as president?

Republicans are using the Hunter Biden investigation to attack President Biden accusing him of using his position as vice president to enrich his son.

But the White House's concern is that special advisers and independent prosecutors from the Clinton to Trump administrations have often expanded their investigations beyond their original areas, and no one knows exactly how or when their investigations could end.

Joe Biden who is already facing several challenges, including the ongoing war in Ukraine, the rising cost of living and the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, must now manage this new twist in the Hunter Biden case.

In a likely close election, even against former President Donald Trump at the many. charges, this new twist in the Hunter Biden case could cost him his re-election.

The nomination of David Weiss did not silence Hunter Biden's critics, however.

"David Weiss can't be trusted and it's just another way to stifle corruption in the Biden family," said Russell Dye, spokesman for Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

DAYNEWSWORLD ANNIVERSARY

A national holiday like no other on this day of 2023 !

Indeed, our newspaper celebrates today an exceptional event:

its 150th anniversary since its creation on July 4, 1873.

This date marks an important milestone in our history, because it is on this precise day that your newspaper was born, distributed in the streets in the form of paper in order to mark its first step and seduce its future readers.

Over the decades, our journal has remained vibrant and dynamic, embracing the challenges of modernity while maintaining its integrity and commitment to quality.

It is more than ever full of vigor, carried by a passionate and talented team, determined to provide our readers with high-level information.

Since its inception, our newspaper has demonstrated an avant-garde spirit, adapting to technological developments and changing readership expectations.

Always in search of novelty, we have been able to integrate digital advances to offer our readers a modern and interactive experience.

The current web version has expanded our audience and reached new horizons.

But beyond its form, it is above all the content of our newspaper that makes it an exceptional medium.

For 150 years, we've been committed to delivering high-quality, relevant news, backed by a team of seasoned and passionate journalists.

We have always sought to present a diversity of subjects, ranging from national and international news to the fields of science, culture, economy, and many more.

Dear readers, you are our reason for being and we would like to express our gratitude to you.

We are proud of this great adventure that we share with you, and we thank you for being by our side for so many years.

Thanks to your support and loyalty, we have been able to grow and improve continuously.

Thus, we would like to address a huge thank you to the 250 million readers who, every day, do us the honor of reading us.

Your trust is our driving force, and we will continue to invest fully in informing, entertaining and enlightening you.

Our commitment to quality and relevance will remain intact, as we view each article, each edition as an opportunity to bring you the very best.

So today, on this day of celebration, we raise our glass to celebrate 150 years of journalistic excellence.

May our journal continue to illuminate your days, to provoke your reflection and to nourish your curiosity for many years to come.

Thank you for being part of this story, thank you for being part of our journal.

Daynewsworld is your newspaper ! 

UNITED STATES THE END OF POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION IN UNIVERSITIES AND COMPANIES  ?

She ended affirmative action programs at the university, after a year ago removing federal abortion protection. Its six conservative magistrates judged, against the opinion of the three progressives, contrary to the Constitution the admission procedures on campuses taking into account the ethnic origin of the candidates.

In 2014, an NGO attacked the universities of North Carolina and Harvard, accusing them of discriminating against Asian students, to the benefit of minorities. The association denounced, among other things, the practices of "affirmative action", aimed at promoting diversity in admissions. Nine years later, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, deciding to banish this positive discrimination, reports the New York Times.

Established in 1961 by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, "affirmative action" had led several selective universities to introduce ethnic criteria into their admissions procedure. Policies of "positive discrimination", the avowed objective of which was to increase the share of black, Hispanic or Native American students in American universities.

Equality and merit

In a press release, the organization for the defense of the rights of black Americans castigated this decision. "In a society still scarred by the wounds of racial disparity, the Supreme Court displayed a willful ignorance of our reality," NAACP said. Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy welcomed the ruling. "Now students will be able to compete based on equal criteria and individual merit," he tweeted, adding that it "will uphold equality before the law."

The Biden administration had however pleaded for maintaining the status quo, declaring that “the future [of the United States] depends on [their] capacity to have leaders with varied profiles, able to lead an increasingly diverse society” .

A decision that is binding on all universities

This decision will be imposed on all the universities which practice this positive discrimination set up in the 1960s in reaction to the exclusion from which black Americans had suffered. This is not the first time that the Supreme Court has had to rule on its legality. In previous decisions, it had notably prohibited quotas as well as automatic additional point systems according to race.

The court had explained, in 2013 and then in 2016, that universities should seek other means of diversifying their promotions, that is to say racially neutral. But as long as race is not the only criterion of choice, the Supreme Court has until now accepted positive discrimination.

The example of Harvard is in this respect crucial for understanding the limits of the policies implemented so far, as analyzed by Jean-François Amadieu, university professor, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, in an article.de TheConversation . Harvard not being an isolated case.

The biases of subjective personality assessments

The Bias Inherent in Subjective Personality Assessments
In an attempt to defend itself, Harvard was forced to reveal unpublished data about its recruitment processes. Never before had there been so much detail about the reality of student selection.

This information reveals that not only students of Asian origin could be victims of discrimination (which Harvard refutes), but above all that the recruitment procedure favors children from wealthy backgrounds to the detriment of others.
Alongside the policy of affirmative action in favor of blacks and Hispanics, which Harvard recognizes, persists a subtle and widespread discrimination based on social origin. This is underlined by Peter Arcidiacono, an economist at Duke University, who has exploited a considerable amount of information on the recruitments carried out by Harvard over the course of several years.

Unofficial quotas

On the one hand, it appears that, at Harvard as in other universities, applicants of Asian origin are at a disadvantage, despite clearly superior academic results . To explain this phenomenon, Harvard mentions that the selection of students is based on other criteria, more personal or extracurricular. Letters of recommendation, involvement in associative activities, and above all the "personal note" play a determining role. This rating is given based on an essay written by the candidate, an interview with a former student, the opinion of a member of staff, as well as reports from their teachers.

Harvard does not provide a precise definition of this criterion. What is certain, however, is that this "personal mark" is decisive for admission (80% of those admitted obtain a mark of 1 or 2 on a scale of 5). Curiously, students of Asian origin are poorly evaluated according to this criterion. The hypothesis is that recruiters would have a biased judgment towards Asian candidates due to stereotypes.

As the Justice Department points out, Harvard appears to be practicing quotas informally, including using subjective personality ratings. The Department of Justice demonstrates this by asking a question that Harvard cannot easily answer: Why is the "Personal Rating" of Asian students lower each year than that of white students, while the percentages by ethnic group remain stable?

Students favored by inheritance

This is not the first time that Harvard has been accused of using supposed personality assessments to drastically reduce the number of quality students deemed too numerous. In the 1920s and 1930s, it was the Jewish candidates who were the victims; they then lacked the required "morality and conformity" characteristics.

In 1920, Jewish students made up 20% of Harvard's workforce, down from 28% in 1925. After the introduction of the admissions process taking into account the character of applicants, their attendance fell to 15%. Several major universities have adopted these personality assessments to exclude Jewish applicants, as described by a Berkeley sociology professor in his book, "The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton." .

Children "heirs"

Other criteria play a role when selecting students, such as being a child of a graduate. This positive discrimination in favor of the families of former students, perfectly assumed and official, is explained by the feeling of community that it would develop and the financial support provided by the former students, aspects beneficial for all, including the least favored. . These "heirs" represent 14% of the student population and are almost 6 times more likely to be admitted.

Harvard is not an isolated case. It is estimated that in the large universities, in particular the most selective and those which are private, the rate of children of alumni is between 10 and 25%.
Then there are the students who are lucky enough to be the children of major donors. They are listed on the "Dean's List" at the discretion of management and represent 9.5% of admissions in 2019. Finally, children of Harvard staff (teachers, administrators) represent 1.3% of students.

Additionally, Harvard also affirmatively discriminates in favor of athletes, arguing that they help develop a sense of community on campus and provide diversity that benefits all students.
These advantaged groups represent 29% of the total workforce.

In fact, 43% of white students at Harvard belong to one of these privileged groups (compared to only 16% of black, Hispanic or Asian students). Worse still, 75% of these students (children of donors, children of staff, athletes and children of former students) would never have joined Harvard University without these large boosts, given their skills.

A significant change in admissions

If Harvard no longer considered race or ethnicity for its admissions, it would cause a significant shift in admissions rates, to the detriment of black and Hispanic students. However, this result, observed in other universities that have abandoned affirmative action, does not take into account other changes that could be made to the recruitment process.

Other student selection criteria could be considered, such as place of residence, parental income, social category or level of education.
Moreover, if the university stopped giving a bonus to the children of alumni, big donors and athletes, the proportion of white students would decrease and the proportion of students from wealthy families would drop significantly.

Correcting the effects of social origin by abandoning privileges and networks would contribute to equal access, including ethnically and racially.

"This important decision will also impact the practices in use in companies. The challenge is to turn the page on positive discrimination policies which have a negative impact on certain ethno-racial minorities. This is only possible if attacking discrimination on the basis of social origin with racially neutral policies."

A DISTITUTION AGAINST JOE BIDEN ON THE HORIZON ?

That's what some Republicans say.

The prospect of President Joe Biden's impeachment took a major step forward this week, as Republicans in Congress cautiously embarked on a potential impeachment inquiry. Conservative Republicans seem determined to see this through.

During the session of Congress on June 22, a "privileged" resolution aimed at forcing a vote of impeachment was rejected, by 219 votes in favor against 208 votes against. This resolution, referred to the committees of the House of Representatives, therefore gave rise to the opening of an impeachment inquiry led by the Committee on Homeland Security and the Committee on Justice. According to House rules, a "privileged" resolution must be put to a vote within two legislative days. This type of resolution makes it possible to circumvent procedural obstacles and can be dealt with more quickly than traditional resolutions, being placed directly on the agenda.

The vote, "inevitable in the months to come"

If Democrats were simply hoping to defeat the measure, Republicans redirected Lauren Boebert's attempt to force an impeachment vote against President Joe Biden to the two previously mentioned committees.

Representative Lauren Boebert justifies the move by arguing that President Biden has endangered the security of the United States and the health of the American people, a charge she defends in the articles of impeachment she has submitted. Indeed, according to her, Joe Biden would have "violated" his oath by not enforcing immigration laws and by not ensuring the security of the border with Mexico to prevent the introduction of a synthetic drug, fentanyl, on American soil. These elected officials accuse the Democratic president of being responsible for an "invasion" on the border between the United States and Mexico because of his immigration policy.

According to the US Constitution, Congress can impeach the president for "treason, corruption, or other major crimes and misdemeanors." The Colorado Republican therefore believes that the tenant of the White House deserves to be dismissed for this reason. Another Republican representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene, also considered very conservative, has also announced her intention to present other privileged resolutions soon to remove not only the president from the White House, but also two members of his cabinet: the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, and the American prosecutor Merrick Garland, in charge of the prosecutions against the participants in the storming of the Capitol in January 2021.

Reluctance among some Republicans

However, the rest of the Republican opposition refuses for the moment to go down this path, fearing to transform the procedure into a purely partisan exercise. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, opposed the moves, preferring to wait for the conclusions of the investigations currently being conducted by James Comer, chairman of the oversight committee, and Jim Jordan, chairman of the judiciary committee, on Biden, his family and his administration. “I think approaching [an impeachment] prematurely, without having experience in this area, would undermine our efforts,” he said.
The Republican opposition therefore does not wish to venture into this terrain for fear of transforming the procedure into a purely partisan exercise, given that some of its members want to indict the President of the United States out of pure revenge.

However, some observers say last Thursday's vote only delays an inevitable impeachment for months to come. Some party lawmakers have already filed articles of impeachment against Biden, but the use of such resolutions raises concerns.

United Front. of Democrats against this impeachment inquiry

Faced with this impeachment inquiry, the Democrats formed a united front. The Biden administration reacted on Monday, June 26, 2023 to the launch of this inquiry, criticizing its opponents for having "desperately deviated" from their economic program. Ian Sams, White House Spokesman for Oversight and Investigations, said, "President McCarthy and House Republicans are proving they have no positive agenda to actually help the American people on the issues that matter most. most important to them and their families." Karine Jean-Pierre said: "It is unfortunate that Republicans in Congress want to continue to focus on an issue that is not the priority of American families."
If an impeachment were to take place, Joe Biden, whose candidacy for a second term is criticized because of his age, would be the first president in American history to be the subject of such a procedure. So far, no US president has been impeached. Three presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021. However, all were eventually acquitted.

In 1974, Richard Nixon preferred to resign to avoid certain impeachment by Congress, due to the Watergate scandal.

WHY IS THE VICE TIGHTENING AROUND JOE BIDEN'S SON BUT ALSO THE FATHER ?

He pleaded guilty on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 to willful non-payment of tax and offenses related to the possession of firearms.

The son of the President of the United States is at the heart of investigations opened in 2018 on his work, in particular abroad, suggesting the existence of tax evasion. Investigating officers also established that he lied when buying a gun in 2018.

And in order to avoid prison, the son of Joe Biden, 53, pleads guilty to several offenses.

The Biden son pleads guilty to two federal misdemeanor charges and has reached an agreement on the illegal acquisition of a weapon.

On Tuesday, June 20, 2023, the Delaware prosecutor announced that Hunter Biden had reached an agreement with the office, admitting his guilt in the two federal cases concerning him.

"My understanding is that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved," said Chris Clark, attorney for Hunter Biden.

“I know Hunter feels it's important to take responsibility for the mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life. He intends to continue his healing and move on.” Hunter Biden, who has long battled alcohol and drug addictions, has regularly hit the headlines in recent years, to the point of being sometimes considered a potential weight for his father's political career.

Hunter Biden will therefore appear in federal court in Delaware on July 26, 2023 to answer two counts of willful non-payment of taxes and misdemeanors related to the possession of firearms. But we no longer seem to be investigating other cases concerning him.

Joe Biden: 'My son did nothing wrong'

Faced with the surge that falls against his son, Joe Biden continues to publicly support the latter, while rejecting the accusations of the Republicans who accuse Hunter Biden of having done questionable business in Ukraine and China while his father was vice -president. “My son has done nothing wrong. I trust him,” Joe Biden assured in an interview on the MSNBC channel last May.

Among the Republicans, we denounce an agreement deemed complacent and privileged. Donald Trump, who has made Hunter Biden one of his favorite targets, lamented a “broken” judicial system.

This affair will certainly not fix the popularity of Joe Biden at 32% in the polls despite a slowdown in inflation. Joe Biden will have to drag this file like a ball and chain until the 2024 election.

Joe Biden's repeated blunders

But worse still, it is above all the repeated political gaffes of the president which only tarnish his image as a presidential candidate a little more. At the start of the week, his secretary of state indeed managed to relaunch discussions with China, an improvement noted by Xi Xinping himself. But yesterday Joe Biden ridiculed him during a financing operation, calling him a dictator.

Joe Biden was speaking at a reception in California with Democratic Party donors, in the presence of journalists and he had these sensitive remarks: "It's very embarrassing for dictators when they don't know what happened. past," he continued, adding, "When (the balloon) was shot down (Xi Jinping) was very embarrassed and he even denied that (the aircraft) was there." Within minutes, Anthony Blinken's valiant efforts were up in smoke.

No wonder nasty tongues call Joe Biden “walkin dead”. More seriously it is up to him to bow out at the end of his term !

DESPITE A NEW CHARGE

DONALD TRUMP STAY IN HEAD

FOR REPUBLICAN PRIMARY

After a first charge, last March, by the Manhattan prosecutor in the Stormy Daniels case, Donald Trump has just been charged again, this time at the federal level, for much more serious reasons: he is accused of having violated the Espionage Act and endangered the security of the United States by illegally retaining, after his departure from the White House, classified documents.

A hearing at which he should plead not guilty

Donald Trump, who flees the humidity of Florida and has made his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, his summer headquarters, arrived in the "Sunshine state" on Monday evening. His "arraignment" (the reading of the indictment) is scheduled for 3 p.m. in federal court in Miami. He should go to justice just before, probably via an entrance at the level of the underground car park.

Donald Trump will then be under arrest, but as in New York, he will probably escape handcuffs and a photo, the famous "mugshot". The hearing is expected to be short and the former president has announced his intention to plead not guilty.

The sentence could also be pronounced on another date, and not immediately. Joe Biden's predecessor could therefore return to court a few days later, which would give his lawyers time to negotiate an agreement with the prosecution.

One of his legal team members told Fox News that Trump isn't considering brokering a deal, "especially when he's done nothing wrong," she said. “He would never admit his guilt.”

For former former Trump administration Justice Secretary Bill Barr on Fox News on Sunday: "This all happened because of the President's reckless conduct."

Donald Trump has called for support from his supporters and the authorities fear excesses. Questioned on a radio, the former president thus declared: "Our country must protest [...] we have lost everything". He then clarified that it had to be done peacefully.

Is this a new blow for his 2024 presidential candidacy?

"A political attack by the Democrats"

Unsurprisingly, in the face of this federal indictment, Trump maintains his innocence, accusing the Biden administration of "election interference at the highest level" and "instrumentalization of the Department of Justice and the FBI". This defense, taken up by Fox News, is also that adopted by tenors of the Republican Party, including Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Even his primary opponents, starting with his main rival, Ron DeSantis, find themselves forced to buy into this narrative: an indictment that would be a political attack by Joe Biden against one of the main candidates for the Party's presidential nomination. republican.

If the most prominent Republicans defend the former president or remain silent, it is because Donald Trump remains very popular with their voters. He is leading the polls in the primaries with more than 50% of the voting intentions. Above all, he distances his main opponent DeSantis by 30 points, a gap which continues to widen, including in the state of Florida where DeSantis was however re-elected governor by a very large majority in 2022.

The ex-president indeed benefits from the multiplication of candidacies in the primaries and the scattering of votes that it generates. They are already a dozen to have officially declared themselves, but none seem to emerge yet. Indeed, the first-past-the-post system applied to the primaries and the fact that, in most states, the candidate who obtained the greatest number of votes wins all the delegates benefits the former tenant of the White House. On the strength of his solid electoral base, the latter should all the more easily get ahead of his pursuers as they will be numerous and will tear each other apart.

Moreover, only a very small minority of voters vote in the primaries. There was less than 15% turnout among Republicans in 2016, the highest rate in more than 30 years. It is commonly accepted that it is the most radicalized fringe that votes for this election.

This new indictment, like previous cases and scandals, is therefore unlikely to undermine the support of Republican voters for the former president. It could even strengthen it, especially since, if found guilty, Trump would remain eligible anyway. Indeed, according to the Constitution and the 14ᵉ amendment, only a conviction for insurrection or rebellion could disqualify him...

Let's not forget either, that Joe Biden also kept secret defense documents in his garage !

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.

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.

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.

DONALD TRUMP IN HEAD

JOE BIDEN'S AGE A DISABILITY

FOR HIS RE-ELECTION AS PRESIDENTIAL

For his first campaign rally since his indictment in New York, Donald Trump strongly attacked President Joe Biden, who has just announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.

“We are going to crush Joe Biden”. This is what Donald Trump assured, this Thursday, April 27, during a meeting in New Hampshire, two days after the current American president announced that he was running for the 2024 ballot.

In his speech, the former Republican president had very harsh words to sum up the record of his successor. “On Tuesday, Joe Biden officially declared that he wanted four more disastrous years in office,” he criticized. "We are now in a country steeped in violence and crime, crushed by inflation, where banks are collapsing," he added.

Donald Trump leads the polls

Donald Trump is currently surfing well above the fray of Republican candidates. New Hampshire, where he is in a meeting, is among the first states to organize their Republican primaries in early 2024. A victory in this state would guarantee the 76-year-old Republican candidate a precious momentum, and necessary for the future.

Currently, the 45th American president thus dominates by 4 points the 46th, with 46% of the projections against 42%. The remaining 12% are divided between the choice of another candidate (7%) and those who remain undecided (5%).

“I am a candidate for my re-election”

Joe Biden announced Tuesday, April 25, 2023 to run for a second term as head of the United States. "I'm running for re-election," the 80-year-old US president said in a video message posted on Twitter.

"When I ran for president four years ago, I said this was going to be a fight for the soul of America and we're still there," Biden said. "This is not the time for complacency, that's why I'm running for re-election. [...] Let's get the job done. I know we can do it."

Tuesday's date was far from trivial. It marks the fourth anniversary, to the day, of Joe Biden's last entry into the campaign, when the Democrat launched a battle for "the soul of America", and deprived Donald Trump of a second mandate.

But the president was to speak on what will likely be one of his leitmotifs as a candidate: how to bring "manufacturing jobs" back to the United States and "rebuild the middle class". Since the beginning of the year, Joe Biden has hammered home his desire to restore his "dignity" to popular America "forgotten", disturbed by globalization, which Donald Trump has been able to seduce in part.

Joe Biden's age a matter of debate

The tenant of the White House may think he has the statistics with him: American presidents generally run again, and they are most often re-elected.

But Joe Biden, by his age, defies historical precedent. If re-elected, he would complete his second term at the age of 86. In November 2021 and then in February 2023, the manager underwent check-ups which concluded that he was in "good health".

But he, who is already prone to blunders and whose appearance is unmistakably marked by the years, exposes himself to an upsurge of attacks from the Republicans on his mental acuity. His repeated falls, his diction problems and his frequent slips had long been highlighted by the Republican media to present Joe Biden as a senile old man who had become a toy in the hands of his advisers.

But the subject of the age of the American president is now openly broached by the Democratic media, where it has until now been taboo. His own camp is wondering about a second term for the oldest American president. 70% of Americans did not want to see him candidate again, according to a recent poll. Even in New York, a traditionally Democratic city, his candidacy is making a lot of noise.

Joe Biden's failures

Also, the Democrat failed to reunite the country. Three emblematic subjects of both America's deepest divisions and Joe Biden's failures can be invoked, partly explained by his limited institutional room for maneuver. The President started his first mandate without clear parliamentary domination, he finished it with a divided Congress: a Democratic Senate, a Republican House of Representatives.

He also has against him many states governed by Republicans and a conservative Supreme Court.

Joe Biden did not ban assault rifles as promised, despite several killings. He could not or knew how to do nothing when the Supreme Court put an end to the constitutional right to abortion. Nor has he passed major legislation to protect African Americans' access to the vote or to respond to police brutality.

The American President has put an end to the construction of the wall that Donald Trump wanted on the border with Mexico, but the arrivals of migrants continue without his having succeeded in reforming the immigration system.

Joe Biden has also not stemmed a wave of overdoses due to synthetic opiates.

A future Trump-Biden duel?

If Donald Trump is targeting Joe Biden, it is in particular because he anticipates a duel with the Democratic candidate, who will be his main opponent to gain the presidency once again. In 2024, America will have the choice between “success and failure”, “security or anarchy”, “prosperity or disaster”, he estimated, the tone serious.

Donald Trump embarked on a Joe Biden imitation implying that the octogenarian leader was senile, a recurring claim among Republicans.

However, before being officially invested by his party, Donald Trump will have to face the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, his biggest rival, who also took for his rank. “It is collapsing” in the polls, he hammered.

With 36% satisfaction in the polls, Joe Biden is more unpopular than Donald Trump has ever been. Currently, the 45th American president thus dominates by 4 points the 46th, with 46% of the projections against 42%.

THE MAIN SUSPECT OF LEAKS OF CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS IS A YOUNG US MILITARY RECRUIT

New to the army

The National Guard said Jack Teixeira enlisted in September 2019, worked as a computer and communications specialist and achieved the rank of Airman First Class, the third lowest in the hierarchy. Coming from a military family, his stepfather retired after 34 years of service at the military base where he himself worked, according to the Cape Cod Times, while his stepbrother also currently works there.

Jack Teixeira's mother has worked in NGOs supporting veterans, as well as the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services, according to US media. She posted photos of the family every year on Veterans Day.

"Inform and Impress"

Under the pseudonym "OG", the suspect would have published for months documents from the military base where he works on a private online group of the social network Discord.

“OG” had asked other members of the Discord group not to distribute the documents, assuring that he had no intention of being a whistleblower, according to the Washington Post. He was critical of the state - whose "abuse of power" he denounced -, the police and the intelligence community." According to one of these friends contacted by a newspaper, the young man, fervent Catholic and libertarian was extremely pessimistic about the future of his country.

The group, made up of around 24 people, some of whom are from Russia and Ukraine, was formed in 2020 around their mutual passion for firearms, military equipment and religion.

According to testimonies collected by the American daily, the young man simply wanted to teach the young members of the group "what real war was".

Its goal, according to members of the group, which formed in the midst of a pandemic, “was to both inform and impress.” According to a minor member of the group, interviewed by the Wahington Post with the consent of his mother, "OG" would have started by sending them messages in which he reproduced the verbatim of confidential notes, which required him hours of work, adding to it annotations to explain certain acronyms or technical points. Then, tired of this restrictive method, he would have chosen in a more risky way to send them copies of the documents, several per week, from the end of 2022.

Thus, from at least October, Jack Teixeira began sharing descriptions of classified information "before eventually posting hundreds of pages of documents online, including detailed maps of the frontline in Ukraine and confidential assessments of the Russian war machine

"Everyone respected OG," Vahki, a member of the band, was quoted by The New York Times as saying. "He was the guy, the myth. And he was the legend. Everyone respected him." And to add: "This guy was Christian, anti-war, and just wanted to inform his friends of what was going on".

Espionage Act

In an article this Friday devoted to the personality of the suspect, the Washington Post points out that despite his inexperience, Jack Teixeira already had access to numerous highly sensitive classified documents via the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System network, which allowed him to read these files.

In Washington, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced that Jack Teixeira, arrested for "unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified information relating to national defense", in reference to the Espionage Act , will be arraigned in the Federal District Court of Massachusetts.

Justice, following the example of the American authorities, will have to clarify in particular the circumstances which allowed a young first-class airman to have access to such sensitive information on the war in Ukraine, and to daily intelligence reports emanating in particular from the CIA and the National Security Agency.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE LEAK OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES

The leak of classified American documents, particularly related to Ukraine, poses a "very serious" risk to the national security of the United States, the Pentagon said on Monday.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation, which appears to be of growing concern to his administration, "late last week," his spokesman John Kirby said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin himself was not made aware of the problem until the morning of April 6 – the day the leak was revealed later that day by The New York Times – the report said. Pentagon spokesman.

Among these documents, which were leaked online by the New York Times1 on Thursday, one takes stock of the state of the conflict in Ukraine at the beginning of March, others refer to the situation on specific fronts, such as Bakhmout , or the crucial anti-aircraft defenses of Kyiv.

Some also seem to point to US intelligence gathering targeting some of its allies.

If he did not want to comment on the authenticity of these documents, John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council attached to Joe Biden, spoke of the concern of the American authorities.

"We don't know who is responsible for this. And we don't know if they have more [documents] to publish" online, he said, before adding:

"Is this a concern for us?

Absolutely !."

How such a leak?

The specialized media Bellingcat explains that these "Top Secret" documents were published on various social networks, first on Discord, on a channel initially created to talk about the Minecraft video game. They then spread to 4chan, then Twitter, and Telegram.

The origin of the leak has not yet been identified. The posts on Discord are photos of the "Top Secret" documents "surrounded by objects", the outlet explains. Many of them are no longer available on the sites where they originally appeared. The United States would work to have them removed.

We continue to investigate how this happened, as well as the extent of the problem. Steps have been taken to analyze [...] how this type of information was distributed and to whom.

The Justice Department has opened a separate criminal investigation.

CNN, which was able to consult 53 of the leaked documents, explains that most of them seem to have been produced between mid-February and March 2023. They contain classified information, of different levels of confidentiality.

Many also relate to the war in Ukraine. One, for example, takes stock of the state of the conflict at the beginning of March, including the amount of Russian and Ukrainian losses, while others evoke the situation on specific fronts, such as Bakhmout.

With the Guardian, a spokesman for the French Ministry of Defense denied the presence of French soldiers in Ukraine, when it would have been revealed in the documents which have leaked, explains the British media.

According to CNN, some documents also show how the United States managed to obtain information within the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Wagner organization.

Several documents seem to indicate that Washington is spying on its own allies, including Israel and South Korea. And even directly the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky.?

Ten years after the revelations about spying by the NSA on several European countries, including France, does the United States continue to spy on its allies?

Defense Department spokesman Meagher said a team was working to determine if the documents were genuine, and noted that in any event, the released photos appeared to contain sensitive information.

Are they genuine?

"Photos appear to show documents in a format similar to that used to provide daily updates to our senior Ukraine and Russia-related operations, as well as other intelligence updates," he said. he said, but some "seem to have been modified".

Several media, including CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times, report that US officials claim, on condition of anonymity, that most of the documents are authentic. They correspond to CIA reports circulating at the White House, the Pentagon or even the State Department, says the same source.

However, at least one of the documents appears to have been altered to suggest that Ukraine suffered greater losses than Russia, when the supposed original said otherwise.

The leaks could endanger US intelligence sources, as well as provide Russia with valuable information on the state of Ukrainian troops. The documents evoking the partner countries of the United States could embarrass Washington, in particular about a possible espionage of close allies.

“The release of classified and sensitive information can not only have enormous consequences for our national security, but also lead to death,” warned Chris Meagher.

DONALD TRUMP "THE CASE WILL COLLAPSE" !

STORM DANIELS CASE

DONALD TRUMP'S CRIMINAL CHARGE

SPRINGBOARD OR STIGMA FOR 2024 ?

The former tenant of the White House, who dreams of winning it back in 2024, is officially charged by Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, dependent on the justice of the State of New York, for a payment case, just before the presidential election. in 2016, $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

A spokesperson for the local prosecutor's office had previously indicated that he had organized with the defense of Donald Trump "his surrender before the Manhattan District Attorney for a arraignment hearing before a Supreme Court", a court, according to a statement released after the vote. of a grand jury – a panel of citizens with investigative powers that works in concert with prosecutors – in favor of this indictment. This act and the lawsuits remain "under seal" for the time being.

CNN mentions around thirty charges revolving around fraud to conceal the circulation and accounting at the end of 2016 of the 130,000 dollars.

According to New York State criminal procedure, Prosecutor Bragg had to comply with the grand jury's vote of indictment, the proceedings of which are confidential. In the coming days, former President Trump will therefore have to "go" to the Manhattan court to be served with his indictment by a judge, to be briefly and symbolically placed "under arrest", photographed and his fingerprints taken. . He will then have to plead guilty or not guilty.

A legally complex matter

The case of pornographic actress Stormy Daniels is legally complex. New York justice is seeking to determine whether Donald Trump is guilty of misrepresentation, an offense, or breach of campaign finance laws, a criminal offense, by having paid money to this woman, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, just before the 2016 presidential election, which the Republican won.

The key man in the file is called Michael Cohen: former lawyer and now enemy of Donald Trump, he had paid Stormy Daniels. He testified before the grand jury, and the actress also cooperated with the law.

In the sights of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Michael Cohen ended up collaborating with the justice system. He pleaded guilty in August 2018 to tax and bank fraud and violation of campaign finance laws.

In doing so, "the pit bull" turned against Donald Trump, claiming to have always acted on his orders. However, the federal prosecutor's office considered that the payments made by the lawyer to buy the silence of the actress were intended to "influence the presidential election of 2016". Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018.

The investigation showed that the Trump Organization reimbursed Michael Cohen for the sums paid to Stormy Daniels. This is where the shoe pinches: American justice considers that it is a hidden donation to the president's campaign, in violation of electoral financing laws.

The fact of having paid Stormy Daniels to buy his silence is not criminal in itself. But, as John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor and financial crime expert, explains, "What's illegal is falsifying a company's business records."

The reimbursements paid to Michael Cohen by the Trump Organization were indeed "declared to be intended to cover legal fees". What the American justice considers as false declarations.

Faced with local justice in New York State, this single offense constitutes a misdemeanor. But “if prosecutors can convince a jury that the tampering took place for the purpose of hiding another crime,” such as an illegal donation to the candidate's 2016 campaign, “it becomes a felony, which can be punished up to four years in prison,” says John Coffee.

Even if he is sentenced in New York justice, Donald Trump will not be legally prevented from maintaining his candidacy for the presidency of the United States for 2024. The Republican will do everything to delay a trial, in order to avoid the effect potentially "stigmatising" a conviction.

Defense of Donald Trump

Indicted, Donald Trump risks being tried under the aegis of the New York State Attorney's Office for Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat.

His lawyers say he is the victim of "extortion" from Stormy Daniels and question the reliability of Michael Cohen, who has become the key witness for the prosecution and therefore Donald Trump's sworn enemy. To weaken his testimony, the defense insists on the fact that the former lawyer, now disbarred, had been convicted of having lied to Congress in the investigation into Russian interference.

“A radical New York prosecutor trying to bring down Trump before 2024? It was to be expected, ”said Laura Ingraham in the first minutes of her show on Monday March 20. The star Fox News journalist then inducted the prosecutor in question, Alvin Bragg, into the “ Hall of Detractors of Trump”, believing that the latter considers this story of bribes a higher priority than “violent criminals” .

The 45th President of the United States (2017-2021) derided in a press release a "political persecution and interference in the presidential election" of November 2024. He denounced a "witch hunt" which "will backfire (Joe ) Biden", the Democratic president elected in November 2020 and whom Donald Trump has accused for more than two years of having "stolen" the victory

"Contrary to the values ​​of America"

One of his sons, Eric Trump, thundered on Twitter against "an opportunistic act targeting a political opponent in the middle of an election campaign". One of Trump's 2024 Republican rivals, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, called the indictment "contrary to American values" and assured that his state, where the former president resides, would not respond favorably "to an extradition request" from the State of New York.

Same unwavering support from the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, for whom "the American people will not tolerate this injustice" and an "unprecedented abuse of power" on the part of Prosecutor Bragg, from the Democratic Party.

Host Jesse Watters claimed as early as March 20 on FoxNews that Alvin Bragg was trying to "trigger a new January 6", the date of the assault on the United States Capitol, by attacking Donald Trump:

"They better not put my president in jail. He represents 74 million Americans. That's as many votes as you want to lock up. Anyway, that's how I see it".

THE GHOST OF A CRIMINAL CHARGE FOR

 DONALD TRUMP WILL FIDE

Last Saturday, the former head of state and presidential candidate of 2024 predicted his own arrest, scheduled according to him for this Tuesday, March 21. He is worried for having bought the silence of Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford), a pornographic film actress with whom he would have had an affair.

“The Republican Party candidate” for the 2024 presidential primary “and former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week,” Donald Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform on Saturday. Calling for demonstrations, he encouraged his supporters to "take back [the] nation", while he is in the sights of justice in the State of New York. If he was not arrested on Tuesday, he could be in the next few days.

Afraid that "Melania will dump him".

The 76-year-old Republican billionaire, who dreams of "returning" to the White House in November 2024, must answer in court in New York State for a case of payment of 130,000 dollars, just before his presidential victory of November 2016, to an actress of X movies, Stormy Daniels, with whom he would have had an affair.

According to the Daily Mail, Donald Trump paid Stormy Daniels to prevent his wife from finding out the details of his infidelity accusations.

Incidentally, a furious Melania Trump spent several nights in an upscale Washington hotel to stay away from the White House when news broke that the then-president had paid the porn star to she is keeping quiet about their one-night stand, the Wall Street Journal reported in January 2018. It was exactly what Donald Trump feared. He was afraid that “Melania would dump him”.

Donald Trump therefore denies any wrongdoing and any affair with Ms Daniels, 44, and called the case politically motivated. He described the payment to Ms Daniels as a 'nuisance payment' that wealthy people sometimes pay to make a problem go away.

After the article, a gossip magazine published a 2011 interview with Daniels, in which she discussed the 2006 sexual encounter with the future president in a hotel room at a Lake Tahoe, Nevada, casino. the aftermath of a celebrity charity golf tournament. The magazine had kept the interview for seven years before publishing it.

The case dates back to the 2016 presidential campaign.

At the time, those close to Donald Trump were trying to prevent any embarrassing revelation about the Republican candidate, even if it meant paying the price. One of his friends, boss of the tabloid The National Enquirer, for example bought for $ 150,000 the rights to the story of model Karen McDougal, who claims to have had a relationship with the billionaire.

At the same time, Stephanie Clifford, better known by her actress pseudonym Stormy Daniels, also tried to monetize her supposed adventure with Donald Trump. Claiming to have had a relationship with him in 2006, when he was already married to his wife Melania, she was put in touch with Michael Cohen, the Republican candidate's personal lawyer.

At the end of October 2016, the man nicknamed “the pit bull” made the actress sign a confidentiality agreement, in exchange for 130,000 dollars. This payment was revealed in January 2018 by the Wall Street Journal but Michael Cohen and Donald Trump denied, the latter even ensuring that he never had a relationship with Stormy Daniels.

Alvin Bragg in the spotlight

After years of investigation by the Manhattan prosecutor's office, his prosecutor Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, seemed on March 13 to announce a criminal indictment - which would be historic - of the 45th American president (2017-2021).

On Wednesday morning, US media besieging the Manhattan courthouse speculated that a grand jury — a citizens' panel with broad investigative powers that works with prosecutor Bragg — would vote on an indictment in the afternoon. Michael Cohen, former lawyer and now enemy of Trump who paid Stormy Daniels, had testified before the grand jury. The actress has also cooperated with prosecutors and this same panel.

Asked a spokeswoman for the prosecutor refused to "confirm or comment on matters related to the grand jury".

And even charged, Donald Trump would not be “arrested” immediately. It would take several days for him to appear in Manhattan. In this case, after having voluntarily "surrendered" to justice, he would be notified of the proceedings and would, possibly and symbolically, be placed under arrest for a few minutes.

The former president, who has upset the balance of power in the United States since 2016, would then be photographed, his fingerprints taken and he could even be briefly handcuffed.

A legally complex matter

The case of pornographic actress Stormy Daniels is legally complex. New York justice is seeking to determine whether Donald Trump is guilty of misrepresentation, an offense, or breach of campaign finance laws, a criminal offense, by having paid money to this woman, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, just before the 2016 presidential election, which the Republican won.

In the sights of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Michael Cohen ended up collaborating with the justice system. He pleaded guilty in August 2018 to tax and bank fraud and violation of campaign finance laws.

In doing so, "the pit bull" turned against Donald Trump, claiming to have always acted on his orders. However, the federal prosecutor's office considered that the payments made by the lawyer to buy the silence of the actress were intended to "influence the presidential election of 2016". Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018.

The investigation showed that the Trump Organization reimbursed Michael Cohen for the sums paid to Stormy Daniels. This is where the shoe pinches: American justice considers that it is a hidden donation to the president's campaign, in violation of electoral financing laws.

The fact of having paid Stormy Daniels to buy his silence is not criminal in itself. But, as John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor and financial crime expert, explains, "What's illegal is falsifying a company's business records."

The reimbursements paid to Michael Cohen by the Trump Organization were indeed "declared to be intended to cover legal fees". What the American justice considers as false declarations.

Faced with local justice in New York State, this single offense constitutes a misdemeanor. But “if prosecutors can convince a jury that the tampering took place for the purpose of hiding another crime,” such as an illegal donation to the candidate's 2016 campaign, “it becomes a felony, which can be punished up to four years in prison,” says John Coffee.

Even if he is sentenced in New York justice, Donald Trump will not be legally prevented from maintaining his candidacy for the presidency of the United States for 2024. The Republican will do everything to delay a trial, in order to avoid the effect potentially "stigmatising" a conviction.

Defense of Donald Trump

If he is indicted, Donald Trump risks being tried under the aegis of the New York State Attorney's Office for Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat. However, in each of the cases that target him, the Republican denounces a political "witch hunt" led by Democratic magistrates.

His lawyers say he is the victim of "extortion" from Stormy Daniels and question the reliability of Michael Cohen, who has become the key witness for the prosecution and therefore Donald Trump's sworn enemy. To weaken his testimony, the defense insists on the fact that the former lawyer, now disbarred , had been convicted of having lied to Congress in the investigation into Russian interference.

“A radical New York prosecutor trying to bring down Trump before 2024? It was to be expected, ”said Laura Ingraham in the first minutes of her show on Monday March 20. The star Fox News reporter then inducted the prosecutor in question, Alvin Bragg, into the "Hall of Detractors of Trump", believing that the latter considers this story of bribes a higher priority than "violent criminals". .

Host Jesse Watters claimed that Alvin Bragg was trying to "trigger a new January 6th" storming of the United States Capitol by going after Donald Trump:

"They have no interest in putting my president in jail. He represents 74 million Americans.

That's as many votes as you want to lock up. Anyway, that's how I see it."

PRESIDENTIAL

DONALD TRUMP THE TIRELESS ATTACKER

The former US president warned on Saturday that he was the only candidate capable of saving the United States from the Democrats

"warmongers" as well as "fanatics and fools" of the Republican Party, during the annual high mass of American conservatives gathered in Washington.

He was not only very critical of his camp:

"We had a Republican Party led by monsters, neo-conservatives, globalists, (...) and imbeciles".

"American voters," Trump said, "are tired of entrenched bipartisan political dynasties, rotten special interests, China-loving politicians" and supporters of "endless foreign wars."

“I will prevent World War III”

But he also assured that he was the only credible candidate to prevent "the third world war". "We're going to have a third world war if something doesn't happen soon," he warned after openly disapproving of US aid to Ukraine.

"I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent the Third World War," assured the former president.

A poll conducted by the institute associated with Emerson University in Boston, and published last Tuesday, gives the former president the winner in the event of a duel with Joe Biden. He would collect 46% of the votes against 42% for the current holder of the post. 5% of respondents did not yet know who they would vote for, and 7% would choose another candidate.

The former president may be the favorite for the Republican nomination, but he is no longer his party's sole leader.

Two rising stars among the Republicans

Among Donald Trump's rivals is former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. She is the first to declare herself a candidate for the Republican nomination after Trump.

Since the end of Trump's term, his two-year former spokesperson's attacks have become more frontal, openly criticizing the president's post-election crusade over alleged unproven fraud.

"It's time to appoint a Republican who can govern and win a national election," she told Fox News recently.

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

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

But for Nikki Haley as for Donald Trump, the threat could also come from Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and rising star of the party. Notably, Ron DeSantis — who is expected to run but has yet to declare his intentions — did not attend CPAC. He instead embarked on a multi-state tour to promote his new book about his governance of Florida as a model for the nation. On Sunday, DeSantis gave a speech about his vision for the party at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

Both men have planned trips to Davenport, Iowa, over the next two weeks – visiting the state where the Republican nomination process begins.

Early commercials against DeSantis

Besides, Donald Trump made no mistake about it by targeting certain members of his own party "We had a Republican Party which was led by monsters, neoconservatives (...) declared Trump. But we will never return to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove and Jeb Bush".

Paul Ryan, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, recently spoke out against Trump.

He sits on the board of Fox News, a network whose recent coverage choices have frustrated the Trump team.

Jeb Bush, former Florida governor and 2016 Trump rival, spoke favorably of Ron DeSantis.

Publicly and privately, Trump has already begun to lash out at DeSantis, though he didn't mention it on Saturday. Trump's campaign spent a small amount this week running its first Facebook ads aimed at DeSantis, including one with a photo of the two men and the caption. Pictured is an apprentice learning from the master."

President Trump is still the leading candidate for the Republican nomination. But it's a much more open race than it has been in the past.

UNITED STATES HISTORICAL SNOWFALLS

CALIFORNIA EMERGING DROUGHT STATE

The American authorities have decided to partially or completely close several national parks in California including Yosemite, Death Valley, Redwood as well as Sequoia and Kings Canyon due to the winter storm that is raging in the American state. California also had to close some of its major highways due to freezing weather, with no immediate prospect of reopening.

The letters of the famous Hollywood sign have been hidden in the storm, but experts say what was first presented as "snow" is just hailstones.

“Wondering what is this frozen precipitation falling from the sky in your area (if you are in the mountains)?” tweeted the NWS of Los Angeles, associating with its message a graphic to differentiate snow pellets from hail.

100.00 homes without electricity

In the mountains, where the wind could blow with force, the snowflakes should be legion. Snow and wind have already destroyed power lines, knocking out power to 100,000 California homes. According to the NWS, even valleys "that are not used to receiving snow" could become covered in a white coat.

While not everyone will find themselves under the snow, Californians living at low elevations could receive downpours, which pose a risk of flooding and mudslides.

Out of the drought

For the first time in years, more than half the state is out of drought. Only 49% of the state remains in drought conditions. The accumulated amount is 177% of the normal amount for this time of year in the California Sierra. At the state level, this accumulation reaches 190%.

"This snowfall rivals that of 1982-83, which is the largest on record," Sean de Guzman, snow survey manager for the state Department of Water Resources, told CNN.

THE POPULIST SPEECH OF JOE BIDEN

ON THE STATE OF THE UNION

"WHAT TRUMP PROMISED, I DO IT"?

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

" What Trump promised, I do."

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

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

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

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

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

A Union Divided

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Economic nationalism and left populism

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

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

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

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

A campaign speech ?

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

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

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

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

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

A taste of 2024 ?

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

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

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

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

WITH HIS CANDIDACY FOR THE PRESIDENCY

NIKKI HALEY CHALLENGES DONALD TRUMP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A “change of generation”

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

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

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

Challenge Donald Trump

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

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

Many Republicans plan to launch themselves in the coming weeks.

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

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

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

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

SINO-AMERICAN STRUGGLE

AROUND THE "SPY" BALL AT THE WORST TIME

Joe Biden congratulated the pilots who carried out "successfully" this delicate operation. He said he had given the order on Wednesday to shoot down the balloon "as soon as possible", but that the Pentagon wanted to wait "for the safest place to do so" in order to avoid any damage to the ground when the balloon fell. any debris.

"China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and protests against the use of force by the United States," the Chinese foreign ministry said, adding that it "reserved the right" to retaliate. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called the operation a "deliberate and lawful action" in response to an "unacceptable violation of our sovereignty" by China.

A "spy" balloon

On Thursday, US officials first revealed that they were tracking an imposing Chinese "surveillance balloon" over the United States.

According to Pentagon officials, the balloon first entered US airspace on January 28 over Alaska, before entering Canada on January 30, then returning to US skies at of Idaho, in the northwest of the country, Tuesday, January 31.

He notably flew over the state of Montana (West), which is home to nuclear missile silos, a senior American official told reporters on Thursday. The balloon, relatively imposing, is the size of “three buses”, specified the staff of the US Air Force.

According to the Pentagon spokesman, the aircraft was flying above commercial flights.

This air zone located in the middle of the stratosphere, below space, is today not governed by any international rules. There is still a legal void around this space, which is not regulated.

After hesitating, Beijing admitted that the "aircraft" was Chinese, but assured that it was a balloon intended to collect meteorological data. It would have "deviated from its trajectory", added a spokesman for Chinese diplomacy, expressing his country's "regrets" for this "involuntary" violation of American airspace. The Chinese Foreign Ministry also said on Sunday that it had “clearly requested the United States to handle the situation properly, in a calm, professional and restrained manner”. "Beijing will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the companies involved" in the incident, the ministry added.

Operations to recover the remains of the craft, which could involve divers, are now underway, in order to analyze more precisely the technology used.

Cancellation of Anthony Blinken's visit to Beijing

As a result, the head of American diplomacy Anthony Blinken on Friday canceled a rare visit to Beijing, which was to help calm relations with China.

This ball affair falls to the worst for the United States and China. In recent weeks, Beijing and Washington had expressed their desire to appease their volcanic relations. The main purpose of Blinken's visit was and remains to put in place a Sino-American mechanism intended to avoid any military escalation in the event of an error of judgment or a military incident between the two countries in the Taiwan area.

The Taiwan Question

Will 2025 be the year of a great explosion in the Taiwan Strait? The Americans are alarmed by an unbalanced military balance of power between Taiwan and China, and by Beijing's more offensive posture. And by assuring last September that the United States would come to the rescue of Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, Joe Biden moved away from “strategic ambiguity”. Despite this change in the form of a warning to Beijing, the exact intensity of American military support in Taiwan remains unspecified. The ambiguity therefore persists at the tactical level. The Americans are debating the best strategy to adopt to most effectively counter the rise in power of the Chinese army.

Strengthened by its economic growth, China continues to prepare the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for this mission. While Taipei announced in August 2022 a sharp increase in its defense budget, that of Beijing, the second in the world after that of the United States, remains twenty times higher. China is also building amphibious assault ships, adapting its ferries to armor transport and landing missions, and expanding its air transport fleet and bases in Fujian (the coastal province across from Taiwan).

In addition, Beijing has reached a new level with the August 2022 maneuvers after Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei, resorting to missile fire in six areas around Taiwan. The PLA seemed to want to convince of its ability to deploy without being deterred as close as possible to Taiwan, encircle the island and deter the intervention of “external forces” “American” during a conflict. The crossing of the unspoken "middle line" of the strait by PLA planes has become routine.

In fact, the distressing question of a major armed conflict in Taiwan remains more relevant than ever. US military officials believe the Chinese may soon seize the opportunity to act by unleashing a war on the island, which China considers part of its territory. In any case, this is what an American general foresees. In an internal memo sent Friday, January 27 to his troops, General Michael Minihan warns of the high risk of a war between the United States and China in 2025, most likely around Taiwan.

"I hope I'm wrong. My instinct tells me that we will fight in 2025," wrote the Air Force general in this internal note published by the American press. A macabre forecast based on the political calendar of the United States and Taiwan. President Xi Jinping "has both a team, a motive and an opportunity for 2025", believes this senior American officer, assuring that the Taiwanese presidential elections in January 2024 would give the Chinese leader a "reason" to act.

The race for the White House, scheduled for the same year, will offer a "distracted America", he further argues.

SCANDAL AMONG DEMOCRATS

AFTER THE DISCOVERY OF NEW CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS AT JOE BIDEN

Five additional pages of confidential documents were indeed found in Joe Biden's family home, the White House said on Saturday, in the room adjacent to the garage. They would a priori concern Ukraine (before the war) and Iran according to the American media. These new discoveries, which date from the vice-presidency of Joe Biden under Barack Obama, were made after the visit to the Thursday evening, from presidential counsel Richard Sauber. The representatives of the Ministry of Justice accompanying him “immediately” took possession of these finds.

Before this week, several documents were discovered in November in an office in Washington, then at the end of December in his private residence in Wilmington, while for 45 years, American presidents and vice-presidents have been obliged to transmit, at the end of their mandate, all of their emails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives.

A special prosecutor for the investigation

In a solemn declaration to the press, the Attorney General (Minister of Justice), Merrick Garland, announced the appointment of a special adviser to investigate the case. This is Robert Hur, former prosecutor of Maryland and ex-executive of the ministry, also passed through the private sector.

The White House, for its part, communicated without delay about these new documents, recalling however that former President Donald Trump, too, was in the sights of justice for having brought confidential papers into his residence. in Florida.

Presidential counsel Richard Sauber reported on the update in a statement released Saturday. He indicates that he went to Donald Trump's successor to supervise the transmission to justice of a first set of confidential documents, found there on Wednesday. With authorization, additional excavations were thus carried out in this other room of the house, leading to these new finds, the same day that the United States Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland, appointed an independent prosecutor to investigate previous discoveries made at the house. the current president.

A lack of transparency?

Last November, other documents were discovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, in one of Joe Biden's former offices, and immediately entrusted to justice. However, the information was only revealed to the public on Monday, January 9, 2023, which is already worth criticizing the White House for its lack of transparency.

In addition to this criticism, the discovery of these additional documents could well compromise the political future of the American president.

In the Democratic ranks, where there is a united front around the president, this situation causes some embarrassment. “Any breach of security protocols regarding the storage and processing of classified information is obviously a serious matter,” said elected official Jamie Raskin, in a press release.

"Irresponsible"

The case hurts all the more as his predecessor is also in the sights of justice for having taken boxes of documents when leaving the White House. An attitude described as “irresponsible” by Joe Biden in the fall.

And it could also indirectly discredit Democratic criticism of Donald Trump, who targeted him for the hundreds of secret documents taken to his home in Mar-a-Lago.

Blessed bread for Republicans, who do not hesitate to recall that Biden had theatrically deemed "unacceptable" the retention of classified documents by Donald Trump in the program 60 Minutes.

A politically explosive file

The Republican opposition has been quick to denounce the Democratic leader's actions, picking up on a question thrown at Joe Biden by a journalist from the popular conservative network Fox News, suggesting that he could have left these documents next to his favorite car, a Corvette. "President Biden protects his Corvette better than confidential documents", criticized Republican elected official Buddy Carter on Friday, just before his colleagues announced the opening of an investigation in Congress on this file. They also denounce a justice at double speed.

With their new majority in the House of Representatives, the Republicans intend to exploit any potential Democratic flaw, with the 2024 presidential election in their sights. The opposition is already planning to launch an investigation in the House of Representatives.

There is no doubt that this affair is tarnishing the image of the president, who promised to remove the mystery about a possible candidacy at the start of the year.

Even if the White House pleads “inadvertence”, it is its silence in this affair which makes things delicate for Joe Biden who had nevertheless gained seven points of popularity in seven months.

SCANDAL AROUND JOE BIDEN

DISCOVERY OF CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS

AT HIS HOME

Following the discovery of a dozen documents of this type in a "small locked cupboard" of the Penn Biden Center, the lawyers of the American president reviewed all his files and found "a small number of documents additional documents dating from the Obama-Biden administration and classified as confidential,” which were in the garage of his Delaware residence and an adjoining room, according to a White House statement.

It is not wrong that the opposition denounces a “two-speed justice”, compared to the investigation against Donald Trump. In the United States, does not a 1978 law oblige American presidents and vice-presidents to transmit all their e-mails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives?

The most embarrassing revelations for the Democratic president, the authorities have been investigating for months the management by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump of his own presidential archives. The FBI had indeed seized thousands of documents, including a hundred classified defense secrets, in the private club of Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where the ex-president retired.

A very embarrassing affair, while the Democratic president boasts of his integrity in the face of the investigation which targets Donald Trump, also under investigation for having refused to return thousands of confidential documents.

The embarrassment was also palpable on Thursday among the Democrats and this did not escape the opposition, which hastened to denounce a two-speed justice. "This is a new misstep by the Biden administration which (…) treats President Trump one way and President Biden another," said Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, for whom "Congress must investigate this matter."

"Classified documents next to your Corvette, but what did you have in mind?" a journalist from the popular conservative channel Fox News asked Joe Biden defiantly. The president replied that he would speak “soon, God willing” on the subject. “Besides, my Corvette is in a locked garage. (…) It's not like she's on the street, ”added the 80-year-old Democrat, referring to his favorite car, a bottle green convertible from the 1960s.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed an independent prosecutor to investigate the documents. “I have signed a document appointing Robert Hur as a special prosecutor” which “authorizes him to investigate any person or entity who may have violated the law” in this case, he said during a short speech.

Joe Biden claimed to "cooperate fully" with American justice. For his part, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, immediately called on Congress to investigate.

RISK OF CONGRESSIONAL PARALYSIS WITH 

KEVIN MCCARTHY FINALLY ELECTED "SPEAKER"

The process lasted several days, it took fifteen rounds due to the blocking of elected Trumpists.

Kevin McCarthy was elected by 216 votes against 212 for the Democratic representative of New York Hakeem Jeffries.

"I'm glad it's over," the new Speaker of the House said after the 15th vote.

At the age of 57, this man with an impeccable gray lock reached the prestigious position of "speaker" which he had been aiming for for years. But the interminable duration of his election, a real epic which required 15 laps, weakens him. in Congress for the next two years

A “speaker” challenged by pro-trumps

It took no less than fifteen ballots and four days of unprecedented chaos for Republican Kevin McCarthy to be elected, Saturday, "speaker" of the House of Representatives.

The fault of around twenty elected Trumpists, members of the ultra-conservative group “Freedom Caucus”, who took advantage of the very thin Republican majority won in the mid-term elections of November 8 to come and play spoilsports. Judging Kevin McCarthy too moderate and too close to the "establishment" of Washington, they blocked his election until obtaining important concessions.

These Republicans would thus have obtained a simplified procedure for ejecting the “speaker” from the Chamber and negotiating important positions in the various parliamentary committees. Concessions that risk reducing his power as Speaker of the House to almost nothing and strengthening the influence of the same radicals who humiliated him.

So what should we expect from this House, whose Republican majority is divided, facing a Senate with a majority, he, a Democrat?

A Republican with fluctuating positions

Leader of the Republican group in the House since 2014, Kevin McCarthy started from a classic Republican position, focused on the defense of the market and individual success, to finally endorse the shift to the right of his political training on immigration, crime or against the rights of LBGT people.

After the election of Joe Biden, contested by the Trump camp, he distinguished himself by his opportunism. A supporter of the Republican billionaire in the 2015 primaries, Kevin McCarthy initially espoused the thesis of a “stolen” election. But after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, he quickly declared that Donald Trump "bears responsibility" for the violence committed by his supporters. Barely a week later, he was photographed all smiles alongside the former president in the gilded salons of Mar-a-Lago, the real estate mogul's Florida residence, praising the virtues of a "movement United Conservative”.

It is in the name of this unity that Kevin McCarthy has made a rapprochement with the faithful lieutenants of Donald Trump in Congress. But other supporters of the former president were unconvinced, persisting in challenging him even after Donald Trump called on them to vote for him. He “sold out to everyone for decades”, thus justified the rebellious Matt Gaetz, one of the six Republicans who remained opposed to Kevin McCarthy until the end.

The blockage orchestrated by a group of Trumpists is "humiliating", ultimately judges political scientist Larry Sabatoque Mr. McCarthy is the weakest speaker ever elected since the Civil War.

The beginning of his ordeal?

For many analysts, his election is perhaps only the beginning of his ordeal.

“To assume the position of Speaker of the House with the current culture of the Republican Party is almost political suicide,” commented Mark Martinez, political scientist at California State University in Bakersfield, this agricultural and oil city which saw the birth of Kevin McCarthy 57 years ago.

Professor Martinez's judgment of the rebels of the Republican group is no harsher than that of some of Kevin McCarthy's allies.

"We can't let the terrorists win," Texas Republican Representative Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy Seal who lost an eye in Afghanistan, said earlier this week.

His Republican colleague from Nebraska Don Bacon, another veteran, had for his part qualified as “Taliban” the recalcitrant Republicans, whose number rose to 20 after the second ballot.

Sword of Damocles with concessions and threat of paralysis

“Clearly he gifted the sun, moon and stars to each of these individuals,” said Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based conservative think tank. “And I suspect he has assured some of the holdouts that they will not face serious ethical investigation for trying to overthrow the government in 2020.”

Under Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan will chair the important House Judiciary Committee. In particular, he intends to investigate the FBI and the Department of Justice.

Another major concession by Kevin McCarthy will secure more seats for the Freedom Caucus on the House Rules Committee. As its name suggests, this committee dictates the rules by which bills are introduced in the House.

“We will have the weakest Speaker of the House in modern history,” argued Norm Ornstein. Even without McCarthy's extremely important concessions, the most radical of its members would have had all the power because of the narrowness of the Republican majority. And they are ready to exercise these powers. »

We're going to have a chaotic House and real threats of state paralysis and default, says Norm Ornstein, congressional scholar with the American Enterprise Institute

“Unless the Republicans – not the most moderate, but the least radical – manage to agree with the Democrats on a certain number of texts of common sense measures, for example on the debt ceiling.

And that, it can have the function, finally, all things considered, of depolarizing the Chamber, ”concludes Lauric Henneton.

THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF JOE BIDEN

IN ALL DISCRETION AND FOR GOOD REASON

A Joe Biden, whose age is debated as he plans to run for re-election

No public event was planned for Sunday, while on Saturday, the president had celebrated another important family milestone at the White House: the wedding of his granddaughter Naomi, closed to the press. 

On Instagram, moreover, the Democrat appears in top form, notably by posting his encouragement to American footballers for the World Cup On Instagram, the Democrat appears in top form, especially when he posts his encouragement to American footballers for the World Cup. "Let me play, I'm ready," he laughs in a video. A wink to make people forget that he is the oldest president to have taken office in the history of the United States.

It took until mid-afternoon for his wife Jill Biden to post an affectionate message, with two photos of the couple dancing in tuxedos and gala attire. “I wouldn't want to dance with anyone else. Happy birthday Joe! I love you,” the First Lady tweeted.

Start of generational change among Democrats

If Joe Biden is not an exception in the American political landscape, where it is not uncommon to come across influential personalities who have blithely passed 70 or even 75 years of age, the mid-term elections have however brought about the beginning of a change of generation. in his party. The very influential Nancy Pelosi, 82, for example, gave up Thursday to run for a new term as Speaker of the House of Representatives. The US president, meanwhile, underwent a detailed medical checkup about a year ago, concluding that he was "vigorous" and "in good health".

It is also with the family that the Democrat intends to discuss his possible candidacy for the presidency of 2024. So far, he repeats that he "intends" to start, and has promised to make his decision public at the beginning of the year. next. According to various polls, a majority of Americans reject the idea of ​​a new candidacy.

And yet Joe Biden bears, like the other presidents before him, the marks of an exhausting function. It is now difficult to forget his age, betrayed by his stiffer gait and certain moments of confusion. Joe Biden's age is a matter of concern for many Americans. The question comes up after each of the blunders he regularly commits, such as the day he looked around the room for a recently deceased parliamentarian, or the day he seemed to forget the name of his Australian counterpart.

Points on which his critics in the Republican camp, including Donald Trump, rely in particular.

WHAT FUTURE FOR DONALD TRUMP 

AFTER THE MIDTERMS ?

"It's definitely not a Republican wave, that's for sure," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told NBC. “We expected a Republican wave and it's a very slight wavelet. Neither side really won.

What seems pretty clear to me is that the United States has entered the 2024 campaign. We do not know if Joe Biden will be a candidate, a priori no, or if Donald Trump will be, a priori yes, but the Will Republicans let him do it?” Comments specialist André Kaspi on the results of the midterms.

The Republicans won control of the House of Representatives. This is extremely important because it allows them to block the Biden agenda. In the senate, it is possible that they will lose a seat - maybe more - when they hoped to win two and maybe more. For them it is a disappointment.

The victories of the Republican camp are indeed fewer than expected. Donald Trump intended to place his MAGA foals in key positions for the next presidential election, and triumphantly announce his candidacy next Tuesday. Instead, Republicans performed somewhat poorly, with swing states rejecting the most extreme conspiratorial candidates.

Positive attitude

Silent all morning, and "angry" according to the gossip, Donald Trump reacted on his network, Truth Social. A rare occurrence for this die-hard “positive thinking” borrowed from Pastor Norman Vincent Peale, the former president admitted that the results of this election were “somewhat disappointing”. For the others. "From a personal point of view, it was a great victory," he says.

Maths in support, he says that the candidates to whom he has given his support have won 219 victories for 16 defeats. An exaggerated flattering ratio. Keeping only the statewide polls (governor, senator, secretary of state), and not just a district, Donald Trump's score is 21 wins for 24 defeats. And much less if we only look at the "swing states", where you have to seduce a more centrist electorate.

The most striking successes of the Republicans come above all from the local elections, which are held at the same time as the midterms, and first of all from the large states of Texas and Florida which are anchored resolutely to the right, champions of a new revolution. conservative that we had detailed in a previous column

Those who campaigned on the negation of the 2020 results, on the other hand, are all beaten. It's that the Americans want prospects for getting out of the crisis, waiting for dynamic people for that.

In the United States, today, everyone is talking about only one man, Ron DeSantis, who did very well in Florida, not only personally but more broadly by electing people around him. The DeSantis system works in Florida. He proposed another way, which remains despite everything that of a strong conservatism. He is young, 44, and that may be attractive to Republican voters who are looking for a new leader today.

Moreover, last summer, Mitch McConnell had he not criticized the “quality” of the Republican candidates chosen during the primaries, most often novices in politics having pledged allegiance to the “Don”. “You cannot nominate candidates who are unable to appeal to the electorate beyond a narrow base,” moderate Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, Pat Toomey, attacked on Wednesday. “The more the candidates were MAGA, the more they underperformed in their state”, he continues, denouncing a “debacle for which Donald Trump is responsible”.

Ron DeSantis, a potential rival

To make matters worse Ron DeSantis, whom Donald Trump had helped a lot in 2018, won a resounding victory by nearly 20 points in Florida. To the point of conquering Miami-Dade, a county however predominantly Hispanic that Trump had lost by 7 points against Biden and 29 against Clinton.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, surrounded by his wife and their three children, was easily re-elected on November 8, 2022. According to the polls at the polls, DeSantis won 57% of the Latino vote, managing to seduce not only the Cuban immigrants, traditionally conservative, but also the Puerto Rican electorate. Unheard of for a candidate ideologically close to Donald Trump but with the discipline of a former Navy lawyer who went to Harvard, who seems less repulsive to independents. His triumphant re-election in Florida makes Republican Ron DeSantis a strong rival to Donald Trump, whose foals are getting mixed results.

Several lessons emerge from the results of this election

First of all, these results highlight a phenomenon of an outgoing bonus. A striking example is that of Wisconsin, which voted again for its outgoing governor and senator even though they were Democrats and Republicans. The fact of being in a period of crisis leads voters no longer to make a choice guided solely by the question of ideological positioning, but to favor the experience of outgoing candidates.

This brings us back to an American tradition which is that if the incumbents do the job, the voters say to themselves: “why take another one? ".

Some find themselves elected ad vitam eternam or almost, like Nancy Pelosi who has just obtained her 19th term and was re-elected with 82% of the vote.

According to CNN polls, the defining issues in these elections were inflation, followed by abortion.

And it appears that from June 24, the question of the right to abortion emerged in the battle of the midterms following the decision of the Supreme Court to put an end to the constitutional right to abortion by reversing the Roe judgment. v. Wade.

Democrats have used this divisive campaign theme to outvote Republicans. During this period, an increase in registrations on the electoral lists could also be recorded. On election day, in order to finally witness a rise in the question of the right to abortion in the reasons for the choices of the vote (from 4th to the second position

The Democrats were therefore able to benefit from the return of a favorable subject for them on the day of the vote but also were able to use the flexibility of the postal vote to vote at times when they had the wind in their sails.

Furthermore Biden flipped what was supposed to be a referendum against him into a referendum against Trump running a campaign that talked about democracy and the threat to it. In addition, it allowed him not to have to discuss his balance sheet, when that's what midterms are normally for.

The socio-demographic divisions of the country

The midterms reveal clear political divides that reflect American society today. Quite traditionally, we find the town-country divide but also federalism versus local power. Added to this is a certain traditionalism in the vote, as shown by the outgoing bonus. This vote is very similar to what was done in the past.

Joe Biden left for a second term?

According to Emeric Guisset and William Thay, "the first consequence of this ballot is that Joe Biden should have the ability to run again in 2024 despite his age and his faults if he wishes. Indeed, despite his reasons which lead him to be with less than 40% popularity in public opinion, he has once again demonstrated that he is the best barrier to Donald Trump in the Democratic camp. He manages to seduce part of the white working classes and thus cut Donald Trump of what made him successful in 2016: the Rust Belt."

However, the Republicans in the House, who should be able to choose Californian Representative Kevin McCarthy as speaker, have already promised to carry out numerous parliamentary investigations, on the model of those suffered, according to them wrongly, by Donald Trump. The future Republican Chamber would thus endeavor to launch an in-depth investigation into Hunter Biden, the President's son, and his dubious business, or even on the Ministry of Justice, which dares to question the faulty management of the presidential archives by Donald Trump.

The case of Hunter Biden could indeed seriously destabilize his father. In addition to an incredible computer case recovered by an almost blind and totally Trumpist repairman in which salacious photos and compromising emails were found, Hunter Biden, in turn a lawyer, lobbyist and financier, is regularly accused of corruption in connection with his business in the oil and gas, especially in Ukraine, without proof for the moment. He is, however, under federal investigation for tax evasion. Each time, he is suspected of having taken advantage of his father's position, as vice-president then president of the United States, to set up dubious businesses...

A mini-crisis among the Republicans

The Republicans, for their part, risk seeing a mini-crisis open up. The absence of a large victory for the Republicans does not allow Donald Trump to establish himself as an indisputable candidate for 2024. He could be challenged by the governor of Florida, Ron DeSentis. Ron DeSantis, still little known to the general public a few years ago, has become one of the heavyweights of the Republican Party: can he dethrone Donald Trump at the head of the Republican Party?

Rising star of the hard right, this 40-year-old won without surprise or difficulty against ex-governor Charlie Crist, a former Republican who had changed parties. “We not only won re-election, we redefined the political map,” rejoiced Ron DeSantis after the announcement of the results.

“For me, the fight has only just begun,” added the man to whom presidential ambitions are attributed, which he has not yet confirmed. Donald Trump's leadership over the conservatives therefore risks being undermined by his rival Ron DeSantis, triumphantly re-elected as governor of Florida, and presented by the Miami Herald as the possible new "sheriff" of the Republican Party.

Ron DeFuture?

No wonder Donald Trump recently nicknamed him “Ron-la-Morale”. A slick ex-military family man, he offers a stark contrast to former President Donald Trump's stormy style. The real estate magnate had however given him a major boost in the race for the seat of governor in 2018, by giving him his support; The rivalry between the two Republicans recently escalated. The New York Post, which is also owned by the Murdoch family, ran its front page on "Ron DeFuture."

Feeling the threat rising like a hurricane strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico, Donald Trump, who ruled out postponing his announcement, made a veiled threat: “I don't know if he's going to be a candidate. But if he does, I'll reveal unflattering things about him. I know more about him than anyone, maybe except his wife.

If Ron DeSantis chose to run for the nomination, "I think he would make a mistake," Donald Trump said on Monday. “I don't think the base would appreciate it. I don't think it would be good for the party," he added.

Because if Ron DeSentis achieved a very good score in Florida, does that make him a good presidential candidate?

Does he have the ability to reach out to Rust Belt voters with his Southern Republican profile?

For his part, Donald Trump has already demonstrated his ability to win the presidential election and to make the synthesis between the traditional Republican electorate of the "SunBelt" and the working class electorate of the "Rust Belt". . However, the MAGAs are still there with a desire to win and Trump does not necessarily seem to be the one able to bring victory. In the United States, traditionally, when you have lost, you let the others pass. And this is what is catching up with Donald Trump today.

At the end of these midterms, the Republicans must therefore face more doubts than certainties.

MIDTERMS REPUBLICANS LEAD

In the day after the midterm elections, the Republicans lead in the House. In the Senate, a new vote will take place in December in the State of Georgia. The hypothesis of a “red wave” which would ensure that the Republicans have a majority in both chambers does not seem to have been fully acquired. In Georgia, neither of the two candidates obtained 50% of the votes and a new vote will be organised, as required by state legislation, in December.

After a fierce campaign focused on inflation, Republicans were confident in their chances of stripping anemic President Joe Biden of his congressional majorities on Tuesday. Organized two years after the presidential election, the mid-term elections almost systematically act as a vote-sanction for the power in place. A sign of the optimism that reigned in the Republican camp, the "Grand Old Party" even aimed for seats in constituencies that were supposed to be firmly won by the Democrats.

However, the Republican “wave” did not obtain the expected results, while the final composition of the Senate remains unknown.

The House of Representatives leans Republican

“It is clear that we are going to take over the House of Representatives,” enthused the Republican tenor Kevin McCarthy on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, when the results continued to flow. According to the latest results, the Democrats won 183 seats, while the Republicans currently dominate with 206 representatives.

The Republicans, however, won a series of important victories: by campaigning hard on inflation, JD Vance, one of the colts of Donald Trump, landed the coveted job of senator in Ohio, one of the industrial and agricultural strongholds of America. The very Trumpian Marjorie Taylor Greene, who rose to prominence during her first term for her racist and anti-Semitic remarks, was re-elected in Georgia. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, two future Republican contenders for the presidency, easily defeated their Democratic rival.

The Republicans should therefore regain the majority in the House of Representatives, which would allow them to block certain projects of the Biden administration for the next two years, before the next presidential election.

The Republican Party, which was credited with a breakthrough of 25 or even 30 seats, has certainly been forced to revise its ambitions downwards. "It's certainly not a Republican wave, that's for sure," admitted influential Senator Lindsey Graham, a close friend of Donald Trump, on NBC. Donald Trump also spoke this evening on the results of the midterm elections "While in some respects yesterday's election was somewhat disappointing, from a personal point of view it is a very big win,” former President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social tonight. But the former president, still beating, intends to launch his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, with an announcement scheduled for November 15.

Democratic successes and defeats.

If the Democrats are relatively disappointed not to have created the surprise in Ohio, with the victory of the colt Trumpist JD Vance, they can console themselves by looking at the side of Pennsylvania where the colossus in hoodie John Fetterman beat Mehmet Oz, star doctor television dubbed by Donald Trump, for a seat in the Senate previously held by a Republican. The Biden camp won a symbolic victory there. The Democrats also snatched two governorships from the Republicans: in Maryland and in Massachusetts. They also saved themselves a big scare by retaining control of New York State, where Republicans thought they could unseat Governor Kathy Hochul. In Georgia, however, Democrat Stacey Abrams failed to become governor against Brian Kemp.

Georgia is again decisive state for the Senate

Neither Democrat Raphael Warnock nor his Republican opponent Herschel Walker managed to win and collect more than 50% of the votes required to win in this state. At the end of the day, the Democratic candidate is slightly ahead with 49.4% of the vote against 48.5% for his opponent. The candidate of the libertarian party Chase Olivier collects him, 2.1% of the votes.

According to state election rules, a new election must be held between the two candidates with the most votes if neither has reached the required 50 percent. The State of Georgia must first certify the results of yesterday's vote and verify that a new election is indeed necessary.

An election to which all eyes of America will turn, because it may well define the majority in the Senate, and therefore the political agenda in the United States for the next two years.

MIDTERMS BIDEN AND TRUMP PLAY THEIR FUTURE

“We need everyone on deck to elect Democrats,” Joe Biden tweeted at midday, calling on his camp to mobilize in the most contested states.

Handicapped by record inflation, the 79-year-old president risks losing control of Congress during these midterm elections traditionally unfavorable to the ruling party, and seeing his action paralyzed for the next two years.

Until the end, Joe Biden sought to defend his economic record, presenting himself as "the president of the middle class" who canceled student debt and invested in infrastructure. But his efforts do not seem to have borne fruit.

His predecessor Donald Trump, who vigorously supported a large number of Republican candidates, is banking on their success to launch himself under the best possible auspices in the presidential race.

At his last rally, he promised to make "a very big announcement" on November 15. "It's going to be a very exciting day for a lot of people," he promised Tuesday as he exited a polling station in Florida.

In the meantime, "I think we're going to have a really good night," the 76-year-old billionaire added confidently.

Shortly after, however, he replayed the score that has been his since his defeat in 2020, stoking doubts about the regularity of voting operations. Noting that voting machines malfunctioned in a crowded Arizona precinct, he posted on his Truth Social platform: “Here we go again? People are not going to accept it”.

“Proxy voting in Detroit is not going well at all. People show up to vote and hear themselves answer: “sorry, you have already voted”, he still affirmed on his network.

Local authorities have acknowledged the problem, but assured that voters have other options to vote in this ballot which covers the entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, many local elected positions and many referendums .

Each camp dramatized the stakes of the ballot: the Democrats posed as defenders of democracy and the right to abortion against Republicans deemed “extremist”; the conservatives acted as guarantors of order in the face of a so-called “lax and radical” left in matters of security and immigration.

According to opinion polls, the Republican opposition should take at least 10 to 25 seats in the lower house – more than enough to be in the majority there. Pollsters are more mixed about the fate of the Senate, with nevertheless an advantage for the Republicans.

Deprived of his majority, the president would above all have veto power, and the Republicans have made it known that they will not spare it. In particular, they plan to launch investigations in the House into the affairs of his son Hunter and some of his ministers.

Breathtaking duels

Concretely, the midterm elections are being played out in a handful of key states – the same ones that were already at the heart of the 2020 presidential election.

All the spotlights are thus on Pennsylvania, a former bastion of the steel industry, where the Republican multimillionaire surgeon Mehmet Oz, dubbed by Donald Trump, faces the Democratic colossus John Fetterman for the most disputed post in the Senate.

Georgia is another object of desire. Democrat Raphael Warnock, the first black senator ever elected in this southern state with a heavy segregationist past, is trying to be re-elected against Herschel Walker, a former African-American sportsman, also supported by the former president.

Arizona, Ohio, Nevada, Wisconsin and North Carolina are also the scene of intense struggles, where Democrats everywhere are opposed to candidates supported by Donald Trump, who swear absolute loyalty to the former president.

These breathless duels were all fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars, making this election the most expensive midterm elections in US history.

The first results are expected from 7 p.m., but the outcome of the tightest duels could take several days.

MIDTERMS 2022 IN PENNSYLVANIA DONALD TRUMP CALLS FOR A RED WAVE