Trump returns to UN podium and Zelensky talks
Donald Trump makes his big comeback to the UN General Assembly podium on Tuesday, where the US president intends to denounce “globalist institutions” and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as patience with Russia wears thin.Trump will address the United Nations for the first time since he returned to office and quickly took to slashing the US role in international organizations.It will be Trump’s second time seeing Zelensky since the US leader invited Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 to Alaska, a meeting that broke Moscow’s isolation in the West but yielded no breakthrough on Ukraine.Russia has not only kept up its barrage of attacks on Ukraine in the past month but has increasingly raised fears in the West, with drone or air incursions in NATO members Poland, Estonia and Romania.Mike Waltz, newly installed as the US ambassador to the United Nations, voiced solidarity over the airspace violations.”The United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory,” said Waltz, who was earlier Trump’s national security advisor.Trump took office vowing that he could end within one day the Ukraine war, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, and boasted of his personal chemistry with Putin.But Trump acknowledged last week that Putin had “really let me down.”A UN report released Tuesday found that Russian authorities have tortured civilian detainees in Ukrainian areas Moscow occupies, including sexual violence, in a “widespread and systematic manner.”The report cautioned that Russia’s frequent disregard of legal safeguards, combined with a dire lack of accountability had “placed many Ukrainian civilians outside the effective protection of the law during their detention.”Zelensky is expected to press Trump to take a harder line and impose long-threatened new sanctions on Russia.But Secretary of State Marco Rubio, last week previewing the talks with Zelensky, said Trump was not ready to pressure Putin, saying that without him, “there’s no one left in the world that could possibly mediate” on Ukraine.Zelensky will again need to tread carefully with Trump, who — along with Vice President JD Vance — berated the wartime leader in an explosive February 28 meeting at the White House, calling him ungrateful for billions of dollars in US military assistance.- Attacking ‘globalist’ institutions -Trump, who hails from New York, is spending barely a day in town for the weeklong summit. One of his few other one-on-one meetings will be with Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei, an ideological ally to whose government the United States is considering offering an economic lifeline.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would discuss the “renewal of American strength around the world.””The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” she told reporters in Washington.Trump in his second term has moved more aggressively in his nationalist “America First” vision of curbing cooperation with the rest of the world.He has moved to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization and the UN climate body, severely curtailed US development assistance and wielded sanctions against foreign judges over rulings he sees as violating sovereignty.”Instead of inflaming global crises and fueling chaos and inequality, he should use his power and influence to work with the global community to provide meaningful solutions,” said Abby Maxman, president and CEO of Oxfam America.Trump’s appearance comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron led a group of Western allies of the United States in recognizing a Palestinian state, a historic but largely symbolic step strongly opposed by Israel.The United States and Israel both shunned the special session.
Ballon d’Or: du dribbleur chambreur à l’attaquant modèle, la mue spectaculaire de Dembélé
Longtemps freiné par les blessures et moqué pour ses imprécisions récurrentes, Ousmane Dembélé s’est transformé en attaquant modèle, premier à défendre et à marquer, pour mieux hisser le PSG sur le toit de l’Europe et devenir lundi le sixième Français lauréat du Ballon d’Or.Cette récompense individuelle couronne l’incroyable saison 2024-2025 de “Dembouz”, ponctuée des trophées de meilleur joueur de Ligue 1 et de la Ligue des champions.On connaissait de l’attaquant parisien sa capacité à déséquilibrer l’adversaire avec ses dribbles déroutants, son altruisme naturel (16 passes décisives toutes compétitions confondues, dont deux en finale de la Ligue des champions) aussi. A son arc, il a ajouté la corde du buteur, en témoignent ses 35 buts en 53 matches (L1, C1, Coupe de France, Mondial des clubs, Trophée des champions).Une ligne statistique bien au-dessus des 14 buts qui constituaient son précédent record en 2018-2019 avec le FC Barcelone… Dire que Dembélé, actuellement blessé à une cuisse, a signé de loin la meilleure saison de sa carrière à 28 ans est un euphémisme.Au coeur de l’hiver dernier, l’ambidextre a notamment réussi à enchaîner deux triplés consécutifs contre Stuttgart en Ligue des champions, puis contre Brest en championnat, le début d’un sprint vers le Ballon d’Or.”Il a fait une saison hors norme, efficace devant le but, mais quand on regarde son apport sur le terrain pour construire les actions, tout ce qu’il fait en efforts défensifs, c’est juste extraordinaire”, détaille Désiré Doué, son acolyte au PSG.- Sacré “Graal” -Au-delà des chiffres, son influence sur le jeu a marqué les esprits dans ce rôle de faux 9, mélange de meneur de jeu et d’avant-centre, que lui a confié l’entraîneur Luis Enrique.”Moi je donnerais le Ballon d’Or à Ousmane Dembélé, simplement pour sa manière de défendre”, avait plaidé le coach après le sacre à Munich contre l’Inter Milan (5-0), saluant ses efforts pour déclencher le pressing.Dembélé, qui a emmené le club de la capitale vers son premier titre en Ligue des champions, succède à Karim Benzema (2022), Zinédine Zidane (1998), Jean-Pierre Papin (1991), Michel Platini (1983, 1984, 1985) et Raymond Kopa (1958) dans le club fermé des Français distingués. Une performance dont il mesure la valeur, puisqu’il a comparé le Ballon d’Or au “Graal” dans un entretien au journal Le Monde fin août.Après son arrivée à Paris à l’été 2023, Dembélé a changé de statut au fil des mois sur le terrain et en dehors.D’abord considéré par Luis Enrique comme le “joueur le plus déséquilibrant” du monde, il est devenu le leader offensif de l’équipe à la demande de son coach à l’été 2024, après le départ de son copain Kylian Mbappé au Real Madrid.Il aura cependant fallu que Luis Enrique le mette à l’écart face à Arsenal en Ligue des champions début octobre 2024, en raison de son manque d'”engagement” envers l’équipe, et le repositionne à la pointe de l’attaque pour que le déclic se produise.”J’ai fait une petite bêtise (…) il a pris la bonne décision. J’ai fait un des meilleurs débuts de saison de ma carrière, et en 2025 j’ai complètement explosé”, a-t-il reconnu lundi.Mais cette mue en joueur décisif n’est pas due uniquement à Luis Enrique. Le natif de Vernon (Eure), qui a grandi avec sa mère dans le quartier populaire de la Madeleine, à Evreux, au coeur d’une fratrie de cinq, est aujourd’hui entouré par un staff complet.- “Un clown” -Un préparateur physique, un nutritionniste, un analyste vidéo, son agent Moussa Sissoko et son fidèle ami avec qui il a grandi, Moustapha Diatta, lui ont permis de franchir un cap, en adoptant une meilleure hygiène de vie. Ce qui a eu pour effet de raréfier les blessures. L’ex-Rennais au physique peu imposant, qui a toujours eu une intelligence du placement pour sortir de la densité, a changé aussi sa façon de jouer.Moins de longues courses et de dribbles, davantage de passes ont favorisé un meilleur positionnement devant le but, avec pour effet de mieux cadrer en position de frappe. Mais le sourire, lui, reste de rigueur chez cet espiègle. Dans les vestiaires, “je suis un clown avec tout le monde”, aime raconter Dembélé, d’un naturel parfois déconcertant dans un milieu de plus en plus aseptisé.Celui qui aime s’habiller chic – chose vérifiée lors de la cérémonie – aime aussi chambrer depuis l’enfance, témoignent ses formateurs dont le recruteur du Stade Rennais Armand Djire, qui l’a repéré à neuf ans.Volontiers “tête en l’air”, fan de variété française, en particulier de Charles Aznavour, mais aussi de documentaires animaliers ou historiques, ce père d’une petite fille est du genre “casanier”. Surtout, le voilà désormais tout en haut de l’affiche.
Singapore firm rejects paying $1bn Sri Lankan pollution damages
A Singapore shipping company told AFP on Tuesday it will refuse to pay Sri Lankan court-ordered damages of US$1 billion for causing that country’s worst case of environmental pollution.In an exclusive interview, X-Press Feeders chief executive Shmuel Yoskovitz said he believed paying would have wide-ranging implications on global shipping and “set a dangerous precedent”.The company operated the MV X-Press Pearl that sank off Colombo Port in June 2021 after a fire — believed caused by a nitric acid leak — that raged for nearly two weeks.Its cargo included 81 containers of hazardous goods, including acids and lead ingots, and hundreds of tonnes of plastic pellets.The ship was refused permission by ports in Qatar and India to offload the leaking nitric acid before it arrived in Sri Lankan waters. Tonnes of microplastic granules from the ship inundated an 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch of beach along Sri Lanka’s western coast. Fishing was prohibited for months.Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court in July ordered the company to pay Colombo an “initial” US$1 billion in damages within a year, with the first tranche of US$250 million to be paid by Tuesday.It also ordered the company “to make such other and further payments” in the future as the court may direct.- ‘Hanging guillotine’ -Yoskovitz rejected the open-ended nature of the penalty. “We are not paying because the whole base of maritime trade is based on the limitation of liability. This judgment undermines this limitation of liability,” he told AFP.”Any payment towards the judgment could set a dangerous precedent for how maritime incidents will be resolved in the future,” he said.Sri Lanka’s government said it would ask its chief prosecutor what action it could take.”We will be guided by the advice of the attorney general on what further steps to take,” government spokesman and media minister Nalinda Jayatissa told reporters in Colombo.The United Nations office in Colombo noted that the “polluter pays” principle was enshrined in global agreements, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”The Supreme Court’s ruling is a vital step toward justice and accountability,” the UN in Sri Lanka said on X.Yoskovitz said the absence of limitations could lead to higher insurance premiums, which would be ultimately passed on to consumers.The chief executive again apologised for the incident, saying the company recognised the disaster and was trying to make amends. He said X-Press Feeders had already spent $170 million to remove the wreck, clean up the seabed and beaches, and compensate affected fishermen.”We are not trying to hide… We are willing to pay more, but it has to be under certain marine conventions and an amount that is full and final and then it can be settled, and we can move on,” he said.”But to live under this hanging guillotine — it is simply impossible to operate like this.”- Long-term effects -In Colombo, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on Thursday about the implementation of its decision.One of the petitioners who sought compensation for the pollution has called for further research to determine the full extent of the damage to the island’s marine ecosystems.”If you visit the coastlines today, there is nothing visible in terms of plastic pollution. A major clean-up took place soon after the X-Press Pearl incident, but the effects of the pollution will be felt for a long time,” said Hemantha Withanage from the Centre for Environmental Justice.It remains unclear how Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court could enforce its decision. However, in its 361-page decision in July, the court ordered the police and the state prosecutor to initiate criminal proceedings for non-compliance if the parties were present in Sri Lanka.Yoskovitz expressed concern over the ship’s Russian captain, Vitaly Tyutkalo, who has been banned from leaving Sri Lanka for more than four years, as well as the company’s third-party agents there. The firm had offered to pay a fine for the skipper’s release, but this was refused, according to Yoskovitz. X-Press Feeders obtained an order from London’s Admiralty Court in July 2023, limiting its liability to a maximum of 19 million pounds (US$25 million), but Sri Lanka has challenged that.The Sri Lankan government also filed a lawsuit against the ship’s owners in the Singapore International Commercial Court. But that has been stayed pending the result of the case in London, with a pre-trial hearing expected in May 2026.