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Budget: François Bayrou va dégainer le 49.3 pour la première fois

Le Premier ministre François Bayrou fera usage pour la première fois lundi de l’article 49 alinéa 3 de la Constitution pour faire adopter le budget, ouvrant la porte à une motion de censure de gauche à l’issue incertaine.Les députés doivent examiner à partir de 16H00 le texte de compromis dont a accouché vendredi une commission mixte paritaire réunissant à huis clos 14 parlementaires des deux chambres.L’ensemble des députés d’opposition ont voté contre le texte en CMP, ne laissant guère d’autre choix au Premier ministre que d’engager la responsabilité du gouvernement, en l’absence de majorité à l’Assemblée.”Maintenant, il faut passer sans tarder à l’adoption. Un pays comme le nôtre ne peut pas rester sans budget. Le seul moyen, c’est d’engager la responsabilité du gouvernement. Ce sera fait ce lundi”, a annoncé M. Bayrou à La Tribune Dimanche.Le Premier ministre devrait enchaîner rapidement, peut-être dès lundi soir, un deuxième 49.3, sur la première partie du budget de la Sécurité sociale, qui arrive en nouvelle lecture à l’Assemblée. Trois 49.3 au total devront être déclenchés sur ce texte avant sa transmission au Sénat, un pour chaque partie.- “Comptes à rendre” -La France insoumise a annoncé de longue date une motion de censure pour faire chuter M. Bayrou, que devraient voter mercredi communistes et écologistes.La position du Rassemblement national et du PS, sans les voix desquels cette motion ne peut passer, n’est pas encore connue. Les regards sont plus particulièrement braqués sur les socialistes, avec qui le gouvernement négocie depuis plusieurs semaines.Dans une interview à Ouest-France dimanche, le président du groupe PS Boris Vallaud a affirmé que la question n’était “pas encore tranchée”.Si le PS a “arraché des concessions”, elles “restent largement insuffisantes pour faire de ce budget un bon budget”, affirme-t-il. “Mais nous savons aussi que ce pays a besoin d’un budget et nous entendons les inquiétudes, les craintes des entreprises, des collectivités ou des associations”, dit-il.M. Vallaud, qui s’est élevé avec force mardi contre les propos du Premier ministre sur une supposée “submersion migratoire”, craint aussi de voir arriver en France “un moment trumpiste”, dont les signaux seraient la remise en cause du droit du sol à Mayotte, la circulaire du ministre de l’Intérieur durcissant les critères de régularisation des sans-papiers, la remise en cause du Pacte vert, la “révolte” de certains grands patrons.”Ceux qui se compromettent là-dedans, auront des comptes à rendre au regard de l’histoire”, assure-t-il.- Jospin contre la censure -L’ancien Premier ministre Lionel Jospin est intervenu dans ce débat samedi, en appelant les socialistes et la gauche de manière générale “à ne pas voter la censure”, ce qui laisserait sinon le pays sans gouvernement et sans budget.Argumentaire vivement contesté par les leaders Insoumis dimanche. Le coordinateur de LFI Manuel Bompard s’est dit “en désaccord radical” avec M. Jospin, au nom de la fidélité aux promesses faites aux électeurs. Le président Insoumis de la commission des finances à l’Assemblée, Eric Coquerel, a lui souligné la faiblesse des concessions obtenues par le PS, avec au total un budget “pire” que celui proposé par Michel Barnier, prévoyant 6,2 milliards d’euros de recettes en moins et 6,4 milliards d’économies en plus.Il a aussi relativisé l’urgence pour le pays de se doter d’un budget, alors que la loi spéciale votée fin 2024 permet de gérer les affaires courantes et qu’un projet de loi pourrait permettre de voter rapidement des dispositions urgentes et consensuelles.Le RN, plus en retrait, François Bayrou négociant en premier lieu avec le PS, a lui aussi déclaré qu’il ferait connaître sa position en début de semaine. Le député Jean-Philippe Tanguy a estimé dimanche sur France 3 que le budget proposé était “pire que l’absence de budget”, et que lui-même souhaitait la censure.Mais il appartiendra à Marine Le Pen, présidente du groupe, et à Jordan Bardella, président du parti, de trancher, a-t-il souligné.

Budget: François Bayrou va dégainer le 49.3 pour la première fois

Chappell Roan wins Grammy for Best New Artist

Pop superstar Chappell Roan on Sunday won the Grammy for Best New Artist, besting stiff competition including from fellow artists of the moment Sabrina Carpenter and Shaboozey.The honor caps a year in which Roan went from struggling artist to music’s It girl.The 26-year-old used her acceptance speech to put the recording industry on notice to treat struggling artists with more respect and offer better social protections.”I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here before the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists,” she said to applause.She recounted how difficult it was to be dropped by her label with “zero job experience,” and then to find a job as the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation.”It was devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and dehumanized,” she said.”Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees,” she said. “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”- Festival breakthrough -Born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz on February 19, 1998 in small-town Missouri, the artist took to singing and piano at a young age, and began gaining attention for videos she uploaded to YouTube in her teens.She moved to Los Angeles and back home again to support herself as a barista before finally coming into her own with singles like “Pink Pony Club” and “Naked in Manhattan,” which found renewed fame upon release of her debut studio album.That record, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” came out to widespread acclaim, with a number of publications including it in their lists of the year’s top releasesThe bold, vulnerable album explores themes of sexuality, heartbreak and yearning with a pop-forward, dance-heavy beat, while also showcasing her impressive vocals that one critic characterized as “singing in cursive.”The album lived mostly underground for several months after its release, before exuberant performances from Roan including at major festivals saw her burst to the forefront of pop.Her artistic persona is part of the appeal: Her aesthetics frequently draw from the world of drag, coupling heavy makeup with camp costumery.Songs like “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Hot to Go!” went viral, with the former becoming her first Top 10 hit.Roan has been outspoken about her support of queer and trans rights as well as her public support of the Palestinian people, and has also spoken out about the psychological toll of her massive fame.

Tunisia sets sights on becoming world’s top seawater therapy spotMon, 03 Feb 2025 02:55:31 GMT

Tunisia sets sights on becoming world’s top seawater therapy spotMon, 03 Feb 2025 02:55:31 GMT Read More »

Tunisia sets sights on becoming world’s top seawater therapy spot

With a Mediterranean coastline, natural thermal springs, clement weather and affordability, Tunisia has become the world’s second-largest destination for seawater-based treatments known as thalassotherapy.Now, it is setting its sights on overtaking France to claim the top spot.”The main advantage of Tunisia is its coast and thalassotherapy,” compared with neighbouring countries, said Mario Paolo, an Italian, at the Korbous thermal spa, perched on a hill an hour’s drive from the capital, Tunis.A 78-year-old retiree who has lived in Tunisia for the past five years, Paolo said he frequently visits Tunisian thalassotherapy centres “to get back in shape”.”Enjoying sea water and natural springs is not just leisure but also a therapy,” Paolo said after a thyme and rosemary oil massage.Korbous, a coastal town on the Cap Bon peninsula, has historically been one of Tunisia’s hot spots for the therapy, which uses sea water and other marine resources.Thalassotherapy is an “ancestral heritage” for Tunisians, “since hydrotherapy has existed in Tunisia since antiquity, at the time of the Carthaginians and the Romans,” Shahnez Guizani, the head of the National Office of Thermalism (ONTH), told AFP.Other popular thalassotherapy destinations in the country include Sousse, Hammamet, Monastir, and Djerba, which Tunisian news agency TAP said was named the Mediterranean thalassotherapy capital in 2014 by the World Federation of Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy.Rouaa Machat, 22, said she travelled from France to Korbous for a three-day wellness retreat.”I’m here to enjoy the types of water this beautiful town offers,” she said, referring to the use of seawater, spring water, and desalinated water for therapy. “But I am also here for this,” she added, grinning and pointing to the Korbous sea and mountains.Customers mainly come for the quality of spring water, said Raja Haddad, a doctor who heads the thalassotherapy centre at the Royal Tulip Korbous Bay hotel.Today, Tunisia boasts 60 thalassotherapy centres and 390 spas, 84 percent of which are located in hotels, according to the ONTH.Tourism accounts for seven percent of the country’s GDP and provides nearly half a million jobs, according to official figures.The sector has seen a decade of setbacks due to terrorist attacks and later the COVID-19 pandemic.But it has been recovering again as the number of foreign visitors exceeded 10 million last year — a record for the country of 12 million people.- ‘Palm trees and the sun’ -Guizani said thalassotherapy on its own draws about 1.2 million foreign visitors a year, with “70 percent coming from Europe, including 40 percent from France”.The industry generates approximately 200 million dinars ($63 million, 60 million euros) per year, she added.That compares with a French thalassotherapy market valued at around 100 million euros last year, according to market research firm Businesscoot.At a luxury hotel near Monastir, a thalassotherapy centre buzzes with customers despite the cold winter season.Visitors have come from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, among other countries.”As soon as you arrive, you find palm trees and the sun,” said Monique Dicrocco, a 65-year-old French tourist. “It’s pure happiness, and it’s also worth your money.””Here the therapy is much cheaper than in France, with 1,000 euros a week all inclusive instead of 3,000,” she added.Jean-Pierre Ferrante, 64, from Cannes, said he found “the quality of the water and the facilities just as good as in France”.Kaouther Meddeb, head of the thalassotherapy and spa centre at the Royal Elyssa Hotel in Monastir, said the number of clients has been growing lately.Yet despite meeting international standards, the sector remains underappreciated in Tunisia, she said.”There’s a lack of communication and promotion,” she added.Experts say more investment is needed in infrastructure. This includes road improvements and air services, they say, as there are few low-cost flights.But plans are already underway to develop eco-friendly thermal resorts in regions like Beni M’tir, a mountainous village in the northwest, and near Lake Ichkeul south of Bizerte, said Guizani.”With all the advantages it has, Tunisia is poised to become the world leader in thalassotherapy,” she added.

Chappell Roan élue révélation de l’année aux Grammy Awards

Rising floodwaters force evacuations in eastern Australian

Asian stocks dive, dollar rallies as Year of the Snake starts with bite

Asian stocks tanked and the dollar surged Monday after Donald Trump signed off huge tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, and warned the European Union would be hit “pretty soon”.Less than two weeks after moving back into the White House the US president on Saturday made good on warnings that he would resume his hardball tactics, sparked fears of trade wars that could hammer the global economy.The move will see 25 percent levies on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent duties on Chinese goods. Analysts at Oxford Economics said the tariffs could see Mexican inflation surge to six percent annually, from 4.2 percent in December, while the peso sank seven percent.Chief EY economist Gregory Daco said Canada’s economy could shrink 2.7 percent this year and 4.3 percent next year.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said tariffs were “promises made and promises kept by the president”.Canada said it will file a World Trade Organization claim against the United States, while Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that retaliatory tariffs would be imposed on US products. China’s trade ministry said Beijing would take “corresponding countermeasures”.While the decision had been well-flagged, equity markets took a hefty hit, with all three main indexes on Wall Street turning negative at the end of Friday trade after Trump reaffirmed he would impose the tariffs.In Asia, the Year of the Snake started with a nasty bite.Tokyo and Seoul each shed more than two percent while Hong Kong shed more than one percent with Sydney and Wellington. Singapore was also in the red.- Investors ‘feel jolt’ -Taipei plunged more than three percent, with chip titan and market-heavyweight TSMC diving 5.3 percent on the first day of trade since China’s DeepSeek unveiled a cheaper artificial intelligence model rivalling those of American tech giants.”This wasn’t a shock — it’s been telegraphed for weeks — but investors will still feel the jolt as markets adjust to a move almost universally seen as damaging to global growth and financial stability,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.On currency markets the dollar soared 2.3 percent against the Mexican peso and more than one percent against the Canadian dollar.It was also sharply higher against the South Korean won, Australian dollar and South African rand”We suspect the path of least resistance for now is for Asian currencies and risk assets to weaken, together with a greater risk premia to account for future meaningful tariff moves beyond what we have seen,” said Michael Wan at MUFG.Gold slipped, having hit a fresh record above $2,800 last week, as the stronger dollar made it more expensive to buy the metal for holders of other currencies.Trump’s latest salvo came at the end of a volatile week for markets following news of DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot, which saw some investors re-evaluate their surge into tech giants in recent years as they bet big on the AI revolution.It also overshadowed healthy earnings results from Apple, which soothed some worries about the tech sector, and data showing that the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation met forecasts.Oil prices jumped as Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico include the commodity.- Key figures around 0200 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.1 percent at 38,727.99Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.8 percent at 19,868.82Shanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0237 from $1.0363 on FridayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2285 from $1.2392Dollar/yen: UP at 155.80 yen from 155.18 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.32 pence from 83.59 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.8 percent at $73.82 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.8 percent at $76.24 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.8 percent at 44,544.66 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 8,673.96 (close)

‘Breaks a little part of you every day’: Texas man on Death Row

Steven Nelson has spent more than a dozen years on Death Row in Texas and is to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday for the murder of a pastor that he insists he did not commit.”It’s hard at times,” the 37-year-old Nelson said in an interview with AFP at the maximum-security prison in Livingston, a town 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Houston, where he is awaiting his execution.”You’re waiting to be put to death,” he said. “So that kind of breaks a little part of you every day… You just don’t want to do nothing.”Nelson, who was wearing a white prison jumpsuit, spoke to AFP from a cubicle behind a glass partition and arrived for the interview in handcuffs, which were removed by prison guards and put back on when he departed.Nelson was convicted of the 2011 murder of Clint Dobson, a 28-year-old pastor, during a robbery of the NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington, near Dallas.Dobson was beaten and suffocated. Judy Elliott, the church secretary, was also badly beaten but survived.Nelson’s appeals against his conviction and death sentence have been repeatedly rejected by Texas courts and the US Supreme Court has declined to hear his case.Nelson acknowledges that he served as a lookout during the robbery and that he entered the church after the murder to steal some items.But he says it was his two accomplices, who were never brought to trial, who were the ones who committed the murder.”I didn’t know what was going on on the inside,” he said, and his friends “blamed everything on me.””So they’re free and I’m locked up,” he said. “I’m here on Death Row because of what somebody else did.””I’m an innocent man,” Nelson said. “I’m being executed for a crime, a murder, that I did not commit when all the DNA and legal proofs have proved that I didn’t kill anybody.”- ‘Pumped full of drugs’ -Nelson married a French woman, Helene Noa Dubois, while in prison who he said has had a “major impact” on his life.”We started first as friends and as the years progressed the love and the feelings progressed more and we got married on December 4,” he said.”I’ve never had human contact with her, it’s always been behind glass,” he said.”When someone can love you behind glass and not touch you, or see what your scent smells like, none of that, and still love you deeply, unconditionally, that is something wonderful.”Nelson said he is afraid to leave his wife alone and it is up to her to decide whether she wants to witness his execution.”I really don’t want her to see that, me getting pumped full of drugs and being overdosed with drugs to kill me, to make my heart stop,” he said.”I think that would leave a bad impression. That would override the good memories we’ve had over the years, to always close her eyes and see that,” he said. “But if she makes that choice to be there then that’s her choice.”- ‘No human contact’ -Nelson has asked for his spiritual advisor, Jeff Hood, a death penalty opponent, to be in the execution chamber with him “to pray over me and give me last rites.””That’ll be the first human contact that I’ve had in 13 years,” he said. “Because back here, we have no human contact with any other inmates.”Nelson said he has spent the past dozen years in an 8-by-10-foot (2.5-by-3-meter) cell for 22 to 24 hours a day. As his execution date approaches, he is now under constant video surveillance.Death Row inmates protest executions at the prison by refusing to speak on a day that someone is being put to death.”We don’t speak, period, that whole day,” Nelson said. “We don’t talk to officers. We don’t talk to each other.”We’re mostly in our thoughts, we’re like praying, trying to have some form of connection with that person getting executed.”There were 25 executions in the United States last year.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.Three states — Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee — that had paused executions have recently announced plans to resume them. President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in the White House he called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”