Dîner entre Macron et Merz à Berlin, les droits de douane de Trump au menu

Face au compte-à-rebours pour les exportations européennes menacées de surtaxes américaines massives, les consultations s’accélèrent : Emmanuel Macron retrouve Friedrich Merz mercredi à Berlin pour un dîner de travail auquel s’inviteront également les questions de défense.La France et l’Allemagne ont beau rappeler que c’est la Commission européenne qui mène au nom des Vingt-sept les négociations commerciales avec le gouvernement de Donald Trump, le président français et le chancelier allemand entendent peser sur la stratégie de l’UE.Après des “échanges” sur le sujet le week-end dernier, les dirigeants des deux premières économies européennes en reparleront mercredi soir, un rendez-vous qui illustre, selon l’Elysée, “la relance de la relation franco-allemande” liée à l’arrivée du conservateur Friedrich Merz à la chancellerie.- Coopération renforcée -C’est le premier déplacement du chef de l’Etat français à Berlin depuis l’investiture de M. Merz, qui s’était quant à lui rendu à Paris début mai, dès le lendemain du jour où il avait pris ses fonctions.Cette rencontre, organisée dans le cadre bucolique d’une villa du nord de Berlin, doit permettre de finaliser les préparatifs du Conseil des ministres franco-allemand prévu pour fin août en France, une nouvelle démonstration de la coopération renforcée entre les deux pays.Ce dialogue bilatéral nourri n’a cependant pas effacé par miracle toutes les dissonances.Face à l’intransigeance de Washington qui menace l’UE de surtaxes douanières de 30% au 1er août, Paris prône “une position de fermeté” de la part de Bruxelles. Une posture réaffirmée par le ministre français de l’Industrie Marc Ferracci, allé lundi rencontrer son homologue allemande à Berlin.L’Allemagne a régulièrement plaidé pour une approche “pragmatique”, offrant des concessions pour sauver des secteurs-clés de son industrie exportatrice, dont les Etats-Unis sont le premier client.Pour autant, les gouvernements français et allemand disent soutenir les mesures de représailles préparées par la Commission en cas d’absence d’accord avec Washington.- Avion de combat et nucléaire -Paris et Berlin n’ont pas non plus aplani toutes leurs divergences sur la politique énergétique, un sujet qui les divise de longue date, même si des rapprochements sont esquissés.La France insiste particulièrement sur le concept de “neutralité technologique” pour que le nucléaire fasse l’objet d’un traitement similaire à celui des énergies renouvelables dans la législation européenne. Le classement du nucléaire en énergie “verte” au niveau de l’UE a été par le passé un point de désaccord majeur entre Français et Allemands.Sur ce sujet, le parti conservateur de Friedrich Merz, traditionnellement favorable à l’atome, doit composer avec les réserves de son allié social-démocrate dans la coalition au pouvoir.Et alors que Paris et Berlin veulent être les moteurs du réarmement de l’Europe, pour affronter le désengagement américain et la menace russe, le développement commun de l’avion de combat du futur (Scaf), un projet phare pour la défense du continent, patine.Le groupe aéronautique Dassault, qui représente la France dans ce projet, a clairement mis en doute son avenir et sa viabilité alors qu’il est encore loin de toute phase de prototype. Côté allemand, le projet est porté par Airbus via sa branche Defense and Space.Objet de difficultés récurrentes sur la répartition des tâches entre chaque pays, le Scaf a besoin d’un “vrai leader” industriel et non de “trois +co-co-co+” partenaires, a déclaré mardi Eric Trappier, le PDG de Dassault.Friedrich Merz insiste sur la nécessité de “respecter les accord conclus”, tout en se montrant optimiste sur la possibilité de rapidement éliminer les “divergences” avec la France. Les ministres de la Défense des deux pays se rencontreront en Allemagne jeudi.En difficulté sur le plan intérieur, où sa coalition est confrontée à ses premières turbulences, le chancelier allemand continue de vouloir renforcer le poids de l’Allemagne sur la scène internationale.Très critique d’une Union européenne freinée par ses règles et ses querelles internes, il mise sur le renforcement d’un axe avec Paris et Londres, où il s’est rendu en juillet – comme Emmanuel Macron – pour faire avancer des initiatives communes sur la sécurité ou l’immigration.

Dîner entre Macron et Merz à Berlin, les droits de douane de Trump au menu

Face au compte-à-rebours pour les exportations européennes menacées de surtaxes américaines massives, les consultations s’accélèrent : Emmanuel Macron retrouve Friedrich Merz mercredi à Berlin pour un dîner de travail auquel s’inviteront également les questions de défense.La France et l’Allemagne ont beau rappeler que c’est la Commission européenne qui mène au nom des Vingt-sept les négociations commerciales avec le gouvernement de Donald Trump, le président français et le chancelier allemand entendent peser sur la stratégie de l’UE.Après des “échanges” sur le sujet le week-end dernier, les dirigeants des deux premières économies européennes en reparleront mercredi soir, un rendez-vous qui illustre, selon l’Elysée, “la relance de la relation franco-allemande” liée à l’arrivée du conservateur Friedrich Merz à la chancellerie.- Coopération renforcée -C’est le premier déplacement du chef de l’Etat français à Berlin depuis l’investiture de M. Merz, qui s’était quant à lui rendu à Paris début mai, dès le lendemain du jour où il avait pris ses fonctions.Cette rencontre, organisée dans le cadre bucolique d’une villa du nord de Berlin, doit permettre de finaliser les préparatifs du Conseil des ministres franco-allemand prévu pour fin août en France, une nouvelle démonstration de la coopération renforcée entre les deux pays.Ce dialogue bilatéral nourri n’a cependant pas effacé par miracle toutes les dissonances.Face à l’intransigeance de Washington qui menace l’UE de surtaxes douanières de 30% au 1er août, Paris prône “une position de fermeté” de la part de Bruxelles. Une posture réaffirmée par le ministre français de l’Industrie Marc Ferracci, allé lundi rencontrer son homologue allemande à Berlin.L’Allemagne a régulièrement plaidé pour une approche “pragmatique”, offrant des concessions pour sauver des secteurs-clés de son industrie exportatrice, dont les Etats-Unis sont le premier client.Pour autant, les gouvernements français et allemand disent soutenir les mesures de représailles préparées par la Commission en cas d’absence d’accord avec Washington.- Avion de combat et nucléaire -Paris et Berlin n’ont pas non plus aplani toutes leurs divergences sur la politique énergétique, un sujet qui les divise de longue date, même si des rapprochements sont esquissés.La France insiste particulièrement sur le concept de “neutralité technologique” pour que le nucléaire fasse l’objet d’un traitement similaire à celui des énergies renouvelables dans la législation européenne. Le classement du nucléaire en énergie “verte” au niveau de l’UE a été par le passé un point de désaccord majeur entre Français et Allemands.Sur ce sujet, le parti conservateur de Friedrich Merz, traditionnellement favorable à l’atome, doit composer avec les réserves de son allié social-démocrate dans la coalition au pouvoir.Et alors que Paris et Berlin veulent être les moteurs du réarmement de l’Europe, pour affronter le désengagement américain et la menace russe, le développement commun de l’avion de combat du futur (Scaf), un projet phare pour la défense du continent, patine.Le groupe aéronautique Dassault, qui représente la France dans ce projet, a clairement mis en doute son avenir et sa viabilité alors qu’il est encore loin de toute phase de prototype. Côté allemand, le projet est porté par Airbus via sa branche Defense and Space.Objet de difficultés récurrentes sur la répartition des tâches entre chaque pays, le Scaf a besoin d’un “vrai leader” industriel et non de “trois +co-co-co+” partenaires, a déclaré mardi Eric Trappier, le PDG de Dassault.Friedrich Merz insiste sur la nécessité de “respecter les accord conclus”, tout en se montrant optimiste sur la possibilité de rapidement éliminer les “divergences” avec la France. Les ministres de la Défense des deux pays se rencontreront en Allemagne jeudi.En difficulté sur le plan intérieur, où sa coalition est confrontée à ses premières turbulences, le chancelier allemand continue de vouloir renforcer le poids de l’Allemagne sur la scène internationale.Très critique d’une Union européenne freinée par ses règles et ses querelles internes, il mise sur le renforcement d’un axe avec Paris et Londres, où il s’est rendu en juillet – comme Emmanuel Macron – pour faire avancer des initiatives communes sur la sécurité ou l’immigration.

US court to decide if climate collapse is ‘unconstitutional’

Is “drill, baby, drill” compatible with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”?That’s the question a federal judge in Montana will weigh this September, as a group of young Americans sues the Trump administration — arguing its aggressive fossil fuel agenda is not only accelerating climate change but violating their constitutional rights.Courts worldwide are emerging as tools for driving climate action against political inertia, with the International Court of Justice set to deliver a landmark ruling Wednesday.”It’s very intimidating to think about my future,” lead plaintiff Eva Lighthiser told AFP during a recent protest outside Congress, where she and other youth plaintiffs were joined by Democratic lawmakers.”The climate is very unreliable, it’s destabilized, and it’s going to get worse — and that is a lot to reconcile with as somebody who’s just entering adulthood,” said the 19-year-old from Livingston, Montana.Their case, Lighthiser v. Trump, is among the most high-profile in a new wave of US climate litigation. It hinges on the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which prohibits the government from depriving people of fundamental rights without due process of law.Twenty-two young plaintiffs — including several minors — are represented by the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust. They are aiming to build on two recent state-level wins.In 2023, a Montana judge sided with youth plaintiffs who argued the state’s failure to consider climate impacts when issuing oil and gas permits violated their right to a clean environment. A year later in Hawaii, young activists reached a settlement to accelerate decarbonization of the transport sector.- Wildfires, floods, anxiety -Now, they’re targeting President Donald Trump’s second-term executive orders, which declared a “National Energy Emergency.” Trump directed agencies to “unleash” fossil fuel production while stalling clean energy projects. The suit also alleges the administration unlawfully suppressed public access to federal climate science.Mat Dos Santos, general counsel for Our Children’s Trust, told AFP the conservative-dominated Supreme Court has shown willingness to hear “right to life” cases. “We’re trying to make sure that the right to life really extends to living children,” they said, “and that it means you have the right to enjoy your planetary existence.”In an unusual move, 19 state attorneys general led by Montana have filed to intervene on behalf of the Trump administration — a sign of how seriously the case is being taken, said Dos Santos.”Growing up in rural Montana, there’s a lot of emphasis on our natural surroundings,” said Lighthiser. Smoke-choked skies, relentless floods, and her family’s climate-forced relocation have shaped her short life. She plans to study environmental science and says she struggles with anxiety and depression — common among the plaintiffs AFP interviewed.Joseph Lee, a 19-year-old student at UC San Diego, said the threat of climate disaster has made him question whether he should start a family. Raised near an oil refinery in California, he suffered severe asthma as a child. His family briefly moved to North Carolina to escape the pollution, only to face worsening flash floods.Patrick Parenteau, an emeritus environmental law professor at Vermont Law School, said the case draws on the same constitutional logic as rulings on interracial marriage, desegregation, and — until recently — abortion rights.But while he supports it in principle, he doubts it will succeed.- Long shot -Judge Dana Christensen, who will hear the case September 16–17, has issued environmentally friendly rulings before. But even if he sides with the plaintiffs, the case is likely to be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.”I think the plaintiffs understand that’s an uphill battle, certainly with the Supreme Court we have,” Parenteau said. “But the point is, they need to try.”Other scholars are less sympathetic. Jonathan Adler, a law professor at William & Mary, dismisses such efforts as more geared toward public opinion than legal victory.Lighthiser v. Trump is “based on a very expansive and unmoored theory of what the power of federal courts is,” Adler told AFP, calling it ungrounded in legal doctrine.He said more viable strategies include suing agencies over specific regulations or filing tort claims against polluters — not sweeping constitutional challenges.”Climate change is a serious problem, and we should be doing more about it,” Adler said.”But the sorts of legal strategies in court that are most viable aren’t the sorts of things that are tailored for attention.”

Gaza hospital says 21 children dead from malnutrition and starvation

The head of Gaza’s largest hospital on Tuesday said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, while Israel pressed a devastating assault.Gaza’s population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points.”Twenty-one children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in various areas across the Gaza Strip,” Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, told reporters.Abu Salmiya said new cases of malnutrition and starvation were arriving at Gaza’s remaining functioning hospitals “every moment”, warning there could be “alarming numbers” of deaths due to starvation.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Gaza a “horror show” in a speech on Tuesday, with “a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times”.After talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on March 2 this year, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted to enter at a trickle in late May.However, stocks accumulated during the ceasefire have gradually depleted, leaving the territory’s inhabitants experiencing the worst shortages since the start of the war in October 2023.Chaotic scenes have become frequent at aid distribution areas since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation effectively sidelined a vast UN aid delivery network in Gaza. The UN on Tuesday said Israeli forces had killed over 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the GHF began its operations in late May, with most near the foundation’s sites.Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani posted a video online on Tuesday evening, showing what he said was “950 trucks worth of aid currently waiting in Gaza for international organisations to pick up and distribute”.”This is after Israel facilitated the aid entry into Gaza,” he wrote on X.The US State Department said later that President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff was heading to the Middle East for talks aimed at finalising a “corridor” for aid to Gaza, without giving further details. – Latest attacks -Earlier Tuesday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes had killed 15 people, after the World Health Organization said Israel attacked its facilities amid its expanding ground operations.Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes on the Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City had killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50.Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once during the conflict and the Al-Shati camp — on the Mediterranean coast — hosts thousands of people displaced from the north in tents and makeshift shelters.Raed Bakr, 30, lives with his three children and said he heard “a massive explosion” at about 1:40 am on Tuesday (2240 GMT Monday), which blew their tent away.”I felt like I was in a nightmare. Fire, dust, smoke and body parts flying through the air, dirt everywhere. The children were screaming,” Bakr, whose wife was killed last year, told AFP.Reports of the latest death toll came as the Roman Catholic church’s most senior cleric in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “morally unacceptable”.Pizzaballa spent three days in Gaza after an Israeli strike on the territory’s only Catholic church last Thursday which killed three people.- New ground operations -WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused Israeli troops of entering its staff residence, and forcing women and children to evacuate, as they handcuffed, stripped and interrogated male staff at gunpoint.Israeli forces meanwhile expanded ground operations in Deir el-Balah following intense shelling of the area in central Gaza on Monday.The civil defence agency’s Bassal said two people were killed in Deir el-Balah.The Israeli military said later its troops “identified shots being fired toward them in the Deir al-Balah area, and responded toward the area from which the shooting originated”.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were living in the area, which until now had been considered relatively safe.Some 30,000 were living in displacement sites.OCHA said nearly 88 percent of the entire Gaza Strip was now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones, forcing the population of 2.4 million into an ever-shrinking space.Despite what Guterres described as “devastation… upon devastation”, Israeli far-right leaders met in Jerusalem to discuss plans for redeveloping Gaza as a tourist-friendly “riviera”, with a permanent Jewish presence.Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Hamas’s 2023 attack, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Hungry and exhausted, AFP journalists document Gaza war

AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip said Tuesday that chronic food shortages are affecting their ability to cover Israel’s conflict with Hamas militants.Palestinian text, photo and video journalists working for the international news agency said desperate hunger and lack of clean water is making them ill and exhausted.Some have even had to cut back on their coverage of the war, now in its 22nd month, with one journalist saying “we have no energy left due to hunger”.The United Nations in June condemned what it claimed was Israel’s “weaponisation of food” in Gaza and called it a war crime, as aid agencies urge action and warnings about malnutrition multiply.Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.Witnesses and Gaza’s civil defence agency, however, have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing on aid seekers, with the UN saying the military had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since late May.- ‘We have no energy’ -Bashar Taleb, 35, is one of four AFP photographers in Gaza who were shortlisted for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize earlier this year. He lives in the bombed-out ruins of his home in Jabalia al-Nazla, in northern Gaza.”I’ve had to stop working multiple times just to search for food for my family and loved ones,” he said. “I feel for the first time utterly defeated emotionally.”I’ve tried so much, knocked on many doors to save my family from starvation, constant displacement and persistent fear but so far to no avail.”Another Pulitzer nominee, Omar al-Qattaa, 35, is staying in the remains of his wife’s family’s home after his own apartment was destroyed.”I’m exhausted from carrying heavy cameras on my shoulders and walking long distances,” he said. “We can’t even reach coverage sites because we have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food.”Qattaa relies on painkillers for a back complaint, but said basic medicines were not available in pharmacies, and the lack of vitamins and nutritious food have added to his difficulties.The constant headaches and dizziness he has suffered due to lack of food and water have also afflicted AFP contributor Khadr Al-Zanoun, 45, in Gaza City, who said he has even collapsed because of it.”Since the war began, I’ve lost about 30 kilos (66 pounds) and become skeletal compared to how I looked before the war,” he said.  “I used to finish news reports and stories quickly. Now I barely manage to complete one report per day due to extreme physical and mental fatigue and near-delirium.”Worse, though, was the effect on his family, he said.”They’re barely hanging on,” he added.- ‘Hunger has shaken my resolve’ -Eyad Baba, another photojournalist, was displaced from his home in Rafah, in the south, to a tent in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, where the Israeli military this week began ground operations for the first time.But he could not bear life in the sprawling camp, so he instead rented an apartment at an inflated price to try to at least provide his family some comfort.Baba, 47, has worked non-stop for 14 months, away from his family and friends, documenting the bloody aftermath of bullets and bombs, and the grief that comes with it.Hardest to deal with, though, is the lack of food, he said.”I can no longer bear the hunger. Hunger has reached my children and has shaken my resolve,” he added. “We’ve psychologically endured every kind of death during our press coverage. Fear and the sense of looming death accompany us wherever we work or live.”Working as a journalist in Gaza is to work “under the barrel of a gun”, he explained, but added: “The pain of hunger is sharper than the fear of bombing.”Hunger robs you of focus, of the ability to think amid the horrors of war.”- ‘Living the catastrophe’ -The director of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, warned on Tuesday that Gaza was heading towards “alarming numbers of deaths” due to lack of food, revealing that 21 children had died from malnutrition and starvation in the last three days.AFP text journalist Ahlam Afana, 30, said an exhausting “cash crisis” — from exorbitant bank charges and sky-high prices for what food is available — was adding to the issue.Cash withdrawals carry fees of up to 45 percent, said Zanoun, with high prices for fuel — where it is available — making getting around by car impossible, even if the streets were not blocked by rubble.”Prices are outrageous,” said Afana. “A kilo of flour sells for 100–150 shekels ($30-45), beyond our ability to buy even one kilo a day. “Rice is 100 shekels, sugar is over 300 shekels, pasta is 80 shekels, a litre of oil is 85–100 shekels, tomatoes 70–100 shekels. Even seasonal fruits now — grapes, figs — cost 100 shekels per kilo. “We can’t afford them. I don’t even remember how they taste.”Afana said she keeps working from a worn-out tent in intense heat that can reach more than 30C, but going days without food and only some water makes it a struggle.”I move slowly, unlike before,” she said. “The danger isn’t just the bombing. Hunger is slowly killing our bodies and threatening our ability to carry on.”Now, I’m not just reporting the news. I’m living the catastrophe and documenting it at the same time.”- ‘I prefer death over this life’ -Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on July 8 that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war.Video journalist Youssef Hassouna, 48, said the loss of colleagues, friends and family had tested him as a human being “in every possible way”.But despite “a heavy emptiness”, he said he carries on. “Every frame I capture might be the last trace of a life buried beneath the earth,” he added.”In this war, life as we know it has become impossible.”Zuheir Abu Atileh, 60, worked at AFP’s Gaza office, and shared the experience of his journalist colleagues, calling the situation “catastrophic”.”I prefer death over this life,” he said. “We have no strength left; we’re exhausted and collapsing. Enough is enough.”bur-strs-az-phz/acc/smw

Republicans seek to rename opera house after Melania Trump

Republicans in the US House of Representatives sought Tuesday to rename the opera house in Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after First Lady Melania Trump.The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted to advance language that would condition funding for Washington’s premier cultural institution on the name change as it debated the 2026 budget.Idaho congressman Mike Simpson, who introduced an amendment to call the venue the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House,” said it was an “excellent way to recognize her support and commitment to promoting the arts.”The move marked the latest front in President Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center, after he fired board members in February and appointed himself chairman, and replaced its longtime president with ally Richard Grenell.Trump, who accused the institution of being too “woke,” also picked White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Second Lady Usha Vance to serve as trustees.The president was met with cheers and boos at the center in June as he attended an opening night performance of hit musical “Les Miserables.”Republicans have been keen to flatter Trump and help the president cement his legacy in his second term, including by introducing legislation to rename the capital region’s Dulles International Airport after him.There have also been efforts in Congress to replace Benjamin Franklin with Trump on the $100 bill, to carve Trump’s likeness on the iconic Mount Rushmore, to name a national holiday after him and to reimagine Washington’s Metro train service as the Trump Train.The Kennedy Center change was added to legislation principally providing 2026 funding for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.But the 2,364-seat theater — the second-largest at the Kennedy Center complex — would only get its new designation if the change was approved by both chambers of Congress.Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate and spending bills require 60 votes to pass, meaning Democrats may be able to strip the name change out of the text before any final vote.