US Congress approves $9 bn in Trump cuts to foreign aid, public media
US Republicans early Friday approved President Donald Trump’s plan to cancel $9 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, vowing it was just the start of broader efforts by Congress to slash the federal budget.The cuts achieve only a tiny fraction of the $1 trillion in annual savings that tech billionaire and estranged Trump donor Elon Musk vowed to find before his acrimonious exit in May from a role spearheading federal cost-cutting.But Republicans — who recently passed a domestic policy bill expected to add more than $3 trillion to US debt — said the vote honored Trump’s election campaign pledge to rein in runaway spending.”President Trump and House Republicans promised fiscal responsibility and government efficiency,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement just after the vote.”Today, we’re once again delivering on that promise.”Both chambers of Congress are Republican-controlled, meaning a mostly party-line House of Representatives vote of 216 to 213, moments after midnight, was sufficient to approve the Senate-passed measure.The bill now heads to the White House to be signed by Trump, who praised his backers in the House. “REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED… BUT NO MORE. THIS IS BIG!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.Most of the cuts target programs for countries hit by disease, war and natural disasters. But the move also scraps $1.1 billion that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was due to receive over the next two years.Conservatives say the funding — which goes mostly to more than 1,500 local public radio and TV stations, as well as to public broadcasters NPR and PBS — is unnecessary and has funded biased coverage.The bill originally included $400 million in cuts to a global AIDS program that is credited with saving 26 million lives, but that funding was saved by a rebellion by moderate Republicans. – ‘Dark day’ -The vote was a win for Trump and fiscal hawks seeking to support the mission of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), launched by Musk as Trump was swept to power, for radical savings.Congress had already approved the cash that was clawed back, and Democrats framed the bill as a betrayal of the bipartisan government funding process.They fear Trump’s victory clears the way for more “rescissions packages” canceling agreed spending.”Instead of protecting the health, safety and well-being of the American people, House Republicans have once again rubber stamped Donald Trump’s extreme, reckless rescissions legislation,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement with fellow top Democrats.Republicans need some Democratic votes to keep the government funded past September, and the minority party had threatened to abandon any plans for cooperation if the DOGE cuts went ahead.Jeffries and fellow Democrats seemed to suggest as much on Friday.”Tonight’s vote… makes it clear that House Republicans are determined to march this country toward a painful government shutdown later this year,” they said in the statement.Although they are in the minority, Democrats have leverage in funding fights because a budget deal would need at least 60 votes in the 100-member Senate and Republicans only have 53 seats.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it “a dark day for any American who relies on public broadcasting during floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other disasters.”White House budget chief Russell Vought told an event hosted Thursday by the Christian Science Monitor that the administration was likely to send another rescissions package to Congress.
Indian state blames cricket team for deadly stampede
State authorities blamed the management of India’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricket team for last month’s deadly stampede during celebrations for their first IPL title.Eleven fans were crushed to death and more than 50 wounded in a stampede near the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium after hundreds of thousands packed the streets in the southern city of Bengaluru on June 4, to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB cricket team.Karnataka state authorities singled out the RCB, its partners and the state cricket association for their mismanagement of the event in a report made public on Thursday.It said organisers had not submitted a “formal request” or provided enough detail for permission to be granted for the celebrations. “Consequently, the permission was not granted,” it said.The team went ahead with its victory parade despite police rejecting RCB’s request, according to the report.AFP has been unable to contact RCB for comment.Four people, including a senior executive at RCB, representatives of event organisers DNA and Karnataka State Cricket Association, were detained by police in the days following the stampede.Players were parading the trophy near the stadium a day after their win over Punjab Kings in the final in Ahmedabad when the stampede occurred.The dead were aged between 14 and 29.Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it “absolutely heartrending” and Kohli, who top-scored in the final, was “at a loss for words” after it unfolded.India coach Gautam Gambhir said he was never a fan of roadshows, and the authorities should not have allowed the mass celebrations if they weren’t prepared.
China mulls economy-boosting measures to counter ‘severe situation’
China has a “plentiful” toolbox to avoid an economic slump in the second half of the year, its commerce minister said Friday as he admitted it faced a “very severe and complex situation”.Growth hit 5.2 percent in the second quarter, official data showed Tuesday, but analysts have warned that more must be done to boost sluggish domestic consumption as exports face the knock-on effects of global trade turmoil.Retail sales rose far less than expected last month and were much weaker than May, suggesting efforts to kickstart consumption have fallen flat.”We are still facing a very severe and complex situation. Global changes are unstable and uncertain. Some of our policies will provide some new responses according to the times and circumstances,” Wang Wentao told journalists at a news briefing.”Our toolbox is plentiful, and we will be fully prepared.”Asked specifically about China’s reliance on exports, Wang suggested the government was preparing policies to “further stimulate the momentum of our consumption development”.”China’s economy is improving, and the long-term fundamentals have not changed, the consumption market’s characteristics of great potential, strong resilience and vitality have not changed,” he said.Wang also namechecked Beijing-based toymaker Pop Mart, whose Labubu monster dolls have become a must-have item internationally, adorning the handbags of celebrities such as Rihanna and Dua Lipa.”We are also promoting new forms of consumption… for example Pop Mart, these kinds of new trends, new fashions and styles… the Labubu phenomenon has swept the world,” he said. – US decoupling ‘impossible’ -Beijing is battling to shift towards a growth model propelled more by domestic demand than the traditional key drivers of infrastructure investment, manufacturing and exports.That desired transformation has become more urgent since Donald Trump came to office. The US president has imposed tolls on China and most other major trading partners, upending trade norms and endangering Beijing’s exports at a time it needs them more than ever to stimulate economic activity. The two superpowers have sought to de-escalate their row after reaching a framework for a deal at talks in London last month, but observers warn of lingering uncertainty.Wang said Friday that despite “storms and rain”, Washington remained an important trading partner.Even though China-US trade has declined proportionally for each country, overall bilateral trade has remained stable, Wang said.In a sign of progress, US tech giant Nvidia said this week that it would resume sales of its H20 artificial intelligence chips to China after Washington pledged to remove licensing restrictions that had halted exports.China’s commerce ministry acknowledged the US decision in a statement Friday afternoon, even as it called for Washington to “abandon its zero-sum mentality”.”China believes that the United States should… continue to cancel a series of unreasonable economic and trade restrictive measures,” the statement read.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has met with Chinese leaders this week in Beijing, telling journalists Wednesday that his firm was “doing our best” to serve the country’s vast semiconductor market.Wang praised recent visits by Huang and other US executives on Friday, noting that the solid economic and popular basis for US-China cooperation “makes artificial decoupling and severing supply chains impossible”, he said.Yet an inconsistent tune has “severely impacted and disrupted normal trade cooperation between China and the United States”, said Wang.Since Trump’s first term, “the trend of the trade frictions provoked by the United States has had ups and downs”, he said.
Les conséquences en cascade des coupes de l’aide internationale américaine
La destruction par les Etats-Unis de centaines de tonnes de nourriture d’urgence périmée, qui a choqué, témoigne des difficultés engendrées par les coupes budgétaires drastiques menées par le gouvernement de Donald Trump dans l’aide internationale.Près de 500 tonnes de biscuits à haute teneur énergétique, entreposés à Dubaï et destinés à l’alimentation d’urgence de jeunes enfants souffrant de malnutrition en Afghanistan et au Pakistan, ont été incinérés car la date de péremption a été dépassée en juillet, ont confirmé des responsables américains.Cette affaire, qui a provoqué l’indignation de l’opposition démocrate et placé le gouvernement américain dans l’embarras, surgit au moment où le Congrès a définitivement approuvé vendredi un texte supprimant quelque 9 milliards de dollars de fonds publics déjà alloués, principalement destinés à l’aide internationale.Pepfar, le programme mondial de lutte contre le sida visé au départ par une coupe de 400 millions de dollars, a été préservé in extremis par des sénateurs républicains modérés.L’aide internationale représente 1% environ du budget fédéral des Etats-Unis, qui sont le principal donateur dans le monde.Cela permettra de supprimer le financement de “9 milliards de dollars de conneries”, s’est réjouie la porte-parole de la Maison Blanche, Karoline Leavitt.L’essentiel de ces fonds était attribué à l’Agence américaine pour le développement international (USAID), aux portes désormais closes.Pressé de questions à ce sujet lors d’une audition parlementaire mercredi, le secrétaire adjoint du département d’Etat chargé des ressources humaines, Michael Rigas, avait lâché que cela avait pu résulter “de la fermeture de l’USAID”.Il s’est dit “affligé”, mais ses propos ont sonné comme un désaveu pour une administration Trump qui affiche sa détermination à lutter contre la gabegie, l’un des arguments avancés pour démanteler l’USAID.La porte-parole du département d’Etat, Tammy Bruce, a expliqué devant la presse jeudi qu’il était d’usage de détruire toute aide alimentaire périmée mais rejeté toute négligence de la part du gouvernement.”Nous ne recevrons pas de leçons sur la question de l’aide alimentaire ou sur ce que nous faisons pour le reste du monde, en tant que premier donateur mondial d’aide alimentaire et d’autres formes d’aide”, a-t-elle dit.- Face au “vide” -Après plus de six décennies d’existence, l’USAID a officiellement fermé ses portes le 1er juillet, l’administration Trump ayant jugé qu’elle ne servait pas les intérêts des Etats-Unis. L’organisme a été fusionné avec le département d’Etat.Sa fermeture a provoqué un séisme dans les milieux humanitaires.Depuis son retour au pouvoir en janvier, le président Trump et son gouvernement ont supprimé 83% des financements des programmes à l’étranger de l’agence américaine de développement, et le texte discuté au Congrès taille aussi dans les budgets dédiés à de multiples programmes allant de l’assistance aux réfugiés à la promotion de la démocratie.Parmi les organisations internationales touchées, plusieurs fonds de l’ONU, pour l’enfance (Unicef), le développement (PNUD) ou pour la population (FNUAP), voient la contribution américaine rabotée ou supprimée.Une récente étude publiée dans la prestigieuse revue médicale The Lancet a révélé que l’effondrement des financements américains dédiés à l’aide internationale pourrait entraîner plus de 14 millions de morts supplémentaires d’ici 2030 parmi les plus vulnérables, dont un tiers d’enfants.”Ce qui se passe n’est pas seulement un revers temporaire ; c’est un démantèlement du système d’aide mondial à un moment où le monde en a le plus besoin”, déplore Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice-présidente du Mercy Corps, un groupe spécialisé dans l’aide humanitaire.Parlant du “vide” ainsi créé par les Etats-Unis, elle note par exemple que Washington est “le principal donateur dans des pays comme le Soudan, le Nigeria et la Somalie”, y finançant plus de 50% de l’aide humanitaire.Au-delà, ce sont nombre de projets à plus long terme qui sont aussi menacés.”Les projets d’infrastructure ne sont pas des choses pour lesquelles 75% sont acceptables. Soit c’est fait, soit ce n’est pas fait”, affirme-t-elle en citant en exemple un programme à Goma, en République démocratique du Congo, pour améliorer l’eau potable, qui a été brusquement interrompu.Ces coupes budgétaires interviennent quelques jours après l’annonce du licenciement de plus de 1.300 employés du département d’Etat, ainsi que la suppression de multiples missions, dans le cadre d’une refonte majeure menée par le secrétaire d’Etat Marco Rubio pour ajuster la diplomatie américaine aux objectifs idéologiques du président Trump.
Trump threatens to sue WSJ, Murdoch over story on alleged 2003 letter to Epstein
US President Donald Trump threatened to sue The Wall Street Journal and owner Rupert Murdoch Thursday over a story about an alleged off-color letter he wrote to Jeffrey Epstein, amid lingering political fallout over his administration’s handling of the late financier’s sex trafficking case.The article in the Journal says the letter featuring a sketch of a naked woman and Trump’s signature was part of a collection of notes for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.The newspaper says it reviewed the letter but did not print an image.”I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.”But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”In an earlier post, Trump said Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker “was told directly by (White House press secretary) Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE”.The Republican president called the story “false, malicious, and defamatory”.”President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. (Rupert) Murdoch, shortly. The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist,” the post added.Trump was already facing a firestorm over his past relationship with Epstein, and claims that his administration is covering up lurid details of Epstein’s crimes to protect rich and powerful figures.Epstein died by suicide in a New York prison in 2019 — during Trump’s first term — after being charged with federal sex trafficking in a scheme where he allegedly groomed young and underage women for sexual abuse by his wealthy contacts.He was previously required to register as a sex offender in Florida after pleading guilty to two felony prostitution-related charges.On Thursday, Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to release transcripts of grand jury testimony in the Epstein case, “subject to court approval.”- ‘Another wonderful secret’ -The alleged letter — which Trump denies writing — is raunchy, as were others in the collection, the Journal reported. It contains several lines of typewritten text, contained in an outline of a naked woman drawn with a marker.”The future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair,” the Journal reported.”The letter concludes: ‘Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.'”Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the figure, telling the Journal: “This is not me. This is a fake thing.””I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”Murdoch, who controls the NewsCorp global media company, was in Trump’s suite Sunday at MetLife Stadium outside New York City for the FIFA Club World Cup final.The media mogul also owns conservative Americans’ preferred TV news channel, Fox News, which scored the first TV interview with Trump upon his return to the White House in January.The president has regularly praised Fox and its presenters over the years — and even hired some to his administration.- Epstein row -The Trump-supporting far-right has long latched onto the Epstein scandal, claiming the existence of a still-secret client list and that he was murdered in his cell as part of a cover-up.Trump supporters expected the Republican to answer their questions on his return to office in January but now find themselves being told the conspiracy theories are false.The Justice Department and FBI said in a memo made public this month that there is no evidence that Epstein kept a “client list” or was blackmailing powerful people.They also dismissed the claim that Epstein was murdered in jail, confirming his suicide, and said they would not be releasing any more information on the probe.That could change if grand jury testimony or evidence are released.On Thursday, US media reported that a federal prosecutor who handled Epstein’s case, who is the daughter of a prominent Trump critic, was abruptly fired.Maurene Comey, whose father is former FBI director James Comey, was dismissed Wednesday from her position as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan, the reports said.Comey also prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate who has been criminally charged in connection with his activities.Maxwell is the person who compiled the leather-bound book of letters for Epstein in 2003, The Journal reported.”The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it. Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it?” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X.Meanwhile, Democratic lawmaker Pat Ryan wrote: “I think we now know EXACTLY why Donald Trump refuses to release the Epstein files.”
L’incendie de Martigues toujours pas maîtrisé, près de 1.000 pompiers pour le combattre
L’incendie qui a débuté jeudi en fin d’après-midi sur la commune de Martigues, au nord-ouest de Marseille, n’était toujours pas “maîtrisé” vendredi au lever du jour, après avoir parcouru 240 hectares, et près de 1.000 sapeurs-pompiers étaient déployés pour l’affronter, a annoncé la préfecture.”Néanmoins, la situation est en nette amélioration, en raison notamment du taux d’humidité s’élevant à 40% et de l’inflexion du vent”, précisait la préfecture dans son dernier point de situation, à 06h30.Le sinistre, débuté vers 19h00 jeudi soir, dans cette commune à une quarantaine de kilomètres au nord-ouest de Marseille, entre l’étang de Berre et la Méditerranée, mobilisait 973 sapeurs-pompiers au total vendredi matin, appuyés par 320 engins terrestres, et des moyens aériens étaient attendus pour les soutenir. De même 30 effectifs des forces de sécurité intérieure assurent la sécurité de la population sur la zone.Jeudi, avant la tombée de la nuit, neuf avions –sept Canadair et deux Dash– et deux hélicoptères bombardiers d’eau avaient été déployés pour lutter contre les flammes. “Jamais un feu n’avait mobilisé autant de moyens” cette année dans le département, avait assuré jeudi soir le sous-préfet de l’arrondissement d’Aix-en-Provence, Bruno Cassette, lors d’un point presse sur place à Martigues.Si aucune victime n’est à regretter, exceptés deux pompiers légèrement blessés, 104 personnes ont été évacuées et accueillies dans des sites ouverts à cet effet à Martigues et sur la commune voisine de Sausset-les-Pins.Quant aux mesures de confinement, notamment prises jeudi soir pour deux hameaux de Martigues, Saint-Julien et Les Ventrons, elles restaient “actives et impératives” vendredi matin, a insisté la préfecture.Au total, “120 habitations ont été menacées” par les flammes, toujours selon la préfecture. Mais il était encore impossible vendredi matin “d’identifier d’éventuelles dégradations ou impacts sur les maisons”, insistait le communiqué des autorités, qui précise que “les évaluations sont en cours par les sapeurs-pompiers”.La commune de Martigues avait déjà été frappée par un violent incendie, le 4 août 2020, qui avait parcouru 1.000 hectares et complètement ravagé deux villages-vacances. Des évacuations avaient alors été effectuées par la mer, par bateaux.Ce nouvel incendie de Martigues est le second d’importance en quelques jours autour de Marseille, après le sinistre du 8 juillet, parti d’une voiture en feu sur le bord de l’autoroute, qui avait parcouru 750 hectares entre les Pennes-Mirabeau et Marseille. Il avait touché 91 bâtiments, dont 60 ont été détruits ou sont désormais inhabitables, principalement dans le quartier marseillais de L’Estaque.