Les autoroutes vont financer le ferroviaire: Loi-cadre sur les transports attendue le 4 février

Le gouvernement prévoit de présenter le 4 février son projet de loi-cadre sur les transports, destiné à améliorer notamment le financement de la rénovation du réseau ferré vieillissant, a annoncé le ministère des Transports lundi.”Il y a un mois de consultation autour du texte” et “on vise [à ce jour] une présentation en conseil des ministres le 4 février”, a indiqué le cabinet du ministre à la presse.Le texte, déjà transmis au Conseil d’État, doit aussi être présenté au Conseil national d’évaluation des normes et au Conseil économique, social et environnemental (CESE), a détaillé le cabinet lors d’un point presse téléphonique.Ces précisions de calendrier font suite au dévoilement samedi par la lettre spécialisée sur les transports Mobily-Cités du texte du projet de loi-cadre.La loi, que le ministère envisage de doubler d’une loi de programmation, va traiter du financement des autoroutes, du ferroviaire, des transports collectifs et des autorités organisatrices de transports, ainsi que du transport de marchandises.Elle reprend ainsi les quatre thèmes principaux abordés en juin lors de la conférence de financement des transports Ambition France Transports, réunie par le gouvernement Bayrou.Dans le transport ferroviaire, de plus en plus plébiscité par le public depuis l’épidémie de Covid-19, la moyenne d’âge des infrastructures en Europe, en Allemagne ou en Suisse, “est autour de 15 ans” pour le réseau, souligne le ministère.Or, en France, “on est autour de 25-30 ans”, relève le cabinet qui cherche à “dégager des ressources supplémentaires de manière pérenne” pour financer les énormes travaux de rénovation nécessaires sur le réseau. Des besoins estimés à 4 milliards d’euros par an par la Conférence Ambition transports.L’État prévoit ainsi de recourir à une partie des recettes des concessions autoroutières.Il compte s’y prendre en encadrant “de façon plus importante la rentabilité des autoroutes”, afin qu’une partie des 13 milliards de recettes de péages perçus chaque année par les sociétés d’autoroute soit fléchée vers le financement d’autres moyens de transport.A l’issue des contrats de concession autoroutière actuels — dont 90% arrivent à terme entre 2031 et 2036 — les recettes des péages seront “fléchées vers tous les modes de transport, a précisé le ministère. Le montant des recettes ainsi “fléchées” est estimé à environ 2,5 ou 3 milliards d’euros par an.Quelque 90% du réseau autoroutier national est actuellement concédé à des entreprises privées et 90% de ces concessions “arrivent à échéance entre 2031 et 2036”, a précisé le ministère. Actuellement, sur les 13 milliards d’euros par an engrangés par les sociétés concessionnaires, un tiers sert à financer l’entretien et l’exploitation du réseau autoroutier, un tiers remonte au budget de l’État sous forme d’impôts et le troisième tiers visait à rembourser les capitaux initialement investis pour construire les autoroutes ou rembourser leurs dettes, a détaillé le ministère.C’est une grosse partie de ce dernier tiers (2,5 à 3 milliards d’euros sur environ 4 milliards) qui pourra revenir au budget de l’État, puis être affecté aux transports, puisqu’une large part des coûts de construction ont été amortis. “On va donc récupérer 2,5 milliards d’euros supplémentaires chaque année au budget de l’État pour les transports”, a ajouté le ministère.Pour préparer la loi pluri-annuelle qui devrait suivre, le gouvernement a confié un travail d’actualisation au Conseil d’orientation pour les infrastructures présidé par David Valance “qui doit rendre ses propositions à la fin du premier trimestre”.La loi-cadre devrait aussi veiller à “systématiser” ou encourager pour toutes les collectivités ou autorités organisatrices de transport, l’indexation des tarifs de transport sur l’inflation.

15,000 NY nurses stage largest-ever strike over conditions

Some 15,000 nurses went on strike Monday in New York city at three large private hospital groups over pay and conditions.Officials declared a state of emergency over the work stoppage which the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) said on its website came after months of bargaining for a new contract reached a deadlock.The association says it is the largest strike by nurses in the city’s history.Picket lines were set up at several private hospitals across New York including facilities of New York-Presbyterian, Montefiore Bronx, and Mount Sinai.”Unfortunately, greedy hospital executives have decided to put profits above safe patient care and force nurses out on strike when we would rather be at the bedsides of our patients,” Nancy Hagans, NYSNA’s president, said. “Hospital management refuses to address our most important issues — patient and nurse safety.”New York’s Democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani rallied in support of the nurses Monday, saying “we know that during 9/11 it was nurses that tended to the wounded.” “We know that during the global pandemic, it was nurses that came into work, even at the expense of their own health,” he said, wearing a red NYSNA scarf.Mamdani called on all sides to “return immediately to the negotiating table and not leave. They must bargain in good faith.”The hospital groups involved discharged or transferred a number patients, canceled some surgeries and drafted in temporary staff.A Mount Sinai spokesperson told CBS News that “unfortunately, NYSNA decided to move forward with its strike while refusing to move on from its extreme economic demands, which we cannot agree to, but we are ready with 1,400 qualified and specialized nurses — and prepared to continue to provide safe patient care for as long as this strike lasts.”

Reza Pahlavi: Iran’s ex-crown prince dreaming of homecoming

Reza Pahlavi, who as a boy was groomed to be the next shah of imperial Iran but has spent nearly five decades in exile, has emerged as a rallying figure in the protests shaking the Islamic republic.The chant of “Pahlavi will come back!” has become a mantra for many of the protesters, while the US-based 65-year-old has urged nightly actions in video messages.Pahlavi’s prominence in the protest movement has surprised some observers.Pahlavi has during the latest protest wave shown an “ability to turn out Iranians in the streets,” said Jason Brodsky, policy director at the US-based group United Against Nuclear Iran.”There have been clear pro-Pahlavi chants at the protests. Does that mean every Iranian protesting wants a return of the monarchy? No, but there is a nostalgia for the Pahlavi era that has been building for some time,” he added.In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Pahlavi said he was “prepared to return to Iran at the first possible opportunity”.He has not set foot in his home country since before the Islamic revolution that ousted his father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979 and ended thousands of years of monarchy dating back to Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid empire, and beyond.- ‘Seems a nice person’ -Reza Pahlavi was outside Iran at the time of the revolution, after leaving in the summer of 1978, aged 17, for military pilot training in the United States. His father died in Egypt in 1980, although his mother — former empress and the shah’s third wife Farah, now 87 — is still alive.Clement Therme, a non-resident fellow at the International Institute for Iranian Studies, said Pahlavi had not been tainted by the excesses of the imperial rule because he left in his late teens.”He is a symbol. His name is well-known,” Therme said, describing Pahlavi as the “main popular opposition figure” within and outside of Iran.Pahlavi has always insisted he does not intend to be crowned king of Iran but is ready to lead a transition towards a free and democratic country.But he remains a polarising figure — even within Iran’s divided opposition. While swift to condemn the repression that has marked the history of the Islamic republic, he has never distanced himself from his father’s autocratic rule, which was harshly enforced by the dreaded SAVAK secret police.An attempt to unify the fractious opposition during previous protests in 2023 immediately triggered tensions and ended in acrimony when Pahlavi made a highly publicised visit to Israel that wasn’t coordinated with allied groups.Pro-Pahlavi accounts on social media have for years energetically attacked other opposition figures, with monarchists sparring with supporters of Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, who is currently in prison in Iran.Pahlavi has long called for a secular Iran that offers greater social freedoms, especially for women, as well as space for supporters of the Islamic republic, but his own approach contrasts with that of some around him who have advocated retribution against opponents. “Pahlavi has many supporters in Iran and his popularity has increased in recent days as he is seen as the only nationally known opposition leader with something of a plan to confront the regime,” said Arash Azizi, a lecturer at Yale University.”But his supporters are still a minority in a highly divided country and a highly divided opposition scene. Instead of working to unify the opposition, most of his camp in recent years have helped alienate others and actively oppose them.”He has also yet to win international recognition as an alternative leader for Iran — even in the current situation.”I’ve watched him, and he seems like a nice person, but I’m not sure it would be appropriate at this point to do that (meet him) as president,” US President Donald Trump said last week.- ‘Galvanise a nation’ -As well as witnessing the downfall of his father, Reza Pahlavi has endured family tragedy. In June 2001, his younger sister Leila was found dead in a London hotel room. An inquest later found that the former princess, who for years had reportedly suffered from depression and an eating disorder, had taken a fatal cocktail of prescription drugs and cocaine.And in January 2011, his younger brother Ali Reza shot himself dead at his home in Boston in a suicide the family said came after he had “struggled for years to overcome his sorrow” over the loss of his homeland, father and sister.He has one surviving full sibling, his sister Farahnaz, who also lives in the United States but keeps a far lower profile, as does his half-sister Shahnaz whose mother was the shah’s first wife Fawzia.”The end of the regime is near… this is our Berlin Wall moment,” he told AFP in June while on a visit to Paris.”I am stepping in to lead this transition. I don’t believe I need a title to play that role. The important thing is to be someone who can galvanise a nation.”

Kenya’s NY marathon champ Albert Korir gets drug suspensionMon, 12 Jan 2026 15:28:56 GMT

Kenya’s former New York marathon champion Albert Korir was provisionally suspended on Monday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug in the latest hit to the reputation of the country’s running programme. Korir, 31, tested positive for the synthetic form of erythropoietin (EPO) that stimulates red blood cell production, the World Athletics Integrity Unit said. He won …

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US prosecutors open probe of Fed chief, escalating Trump-Powell clash

US prosecutors have opened an inquiry into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, prompting a rare rebuke from the central bank chief against escalating pressure from Donald Trump’s administration as the president pushes for lower interest rates.In an extraordinary statement released in text and video on Sunday, Powell took aim at the “unprecedented action” from the Trump administration, saying the Fed received grand jury subpoenas and threats of a criminal indictment relating to his Senate testimony in June.The issue at hand was a $2.5 billion renovation project at the Fed’s headquarters, which Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell over. Last year, the president floated the possibility of firing Powell over cost overruns relating to the historic buildings’ facelift.Powell dismissed the latest moves as “pretexts,” saying: “This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings.””The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,” he added.Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell, calling him a “numbskull” and “moron” for the Fed’s policy decisions and not cutting borrowing costs more sharply.Powell warned: “This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions — or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”Investors reacted warily Monday as financial markets opened, with the dollar falling against major currencies while safe-haven assets like gold surged. Major US indexes pulled back as trading started.The independent Fed has a dual mandate to keep prices stable and unemployment low. Its main tool is setting a benchmark interest rate that influences the price of US Treasury bonds and borrowing costs.The Fed’s independence from political influence is considered vital for investors.”If the Fed acts on politics rather than data, foreign investors could pull back on financing the US debt and seek new safe havens,” said economist Atakan Bakiskan at German investment bank Berenberg.- Serious consequences -Powell was nominated Fed chairman by Trump during his first presidency, but has come under growing pressure from the US leader to slash rates aggressively.Trump maintained Sunday that he had no knowledge of the Justice Department’s investigation.”I don’t know anything about it, but he’s certainly not very good at the Fed and he’s not very good at building buildings,” NBC quoted Trump as saying.The consequences of the Fed coming under Trump’s control would be “pretty serious,” said David Wessel, a senior fellow at Brookings.Elected politicians could be inclined to set interest rates low to boost the economy ahead of elections, whereas an independent Fed is seen as shaping policy in the best interests of managing inflation and maximizing employment.If Trump succeeds in influencing the Fed, the US economy could see “more inflation, and the willingness of global investors to lend money to the Treasury will diminish somewhat,” Wessel told AFP.While Powell’s term as chair ends in May, he could stay on the Fed’s board until 2028. The Trump administration’s move could be seen as an effort to oust Powell before then, he noted.It remains to be seen if the criminal investigation will trigger enough backlash — from lawmakers and the markets — for the Trump administration to back off.For now, it has drawn criticism from senators on both sides of the aisle. “It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question,” Republican Senator Thom Tillis said.He vowed to oppose the confirmation of any Fed nominee, including for the next Fed chief, until the legal matter is “fully resolved.”Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer called the probe an assault on the Fed’s independence.