EU parliament roiled by graft probe linked to China’s Huawei

A new graft scandal rocked the European Parliament after police carried out raids Thursday in Belgium and Portugal, detaining multiple suspects in a probe into suspicions of corruption under the guise of lobbying for the benefit of Chinese tech giant Huawei.The new investigation comes more than two years after the “Qatargate” scandal, in which a number of EU lawmakers were accused of being paid to promote the interests of Qatar and Morocco — something both countries have firmly denied.None of those held for questioning on Thursday were EU lawmakers, a police source told AFP. But Belgian media reported more than a dozen parliamentarians were on the detectives’ radar.Transparency campaigners, who have accused EU lawmakers of resisting reform, called on the parliament to immediately investigate the latest claims.”The alleged bribery is said to have benefitted Huawei,” the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said after local media reported the probe focused on the company.Huawei said it took the allegations “seriously” and would “urgently communicate with the investigation to further understand the situation”.”Huawei has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times,” the firm said in a statement Friday.The Belgian prosecutor’s office earlier said several people were taken in for questioning over their “alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries”.The investigating judge ordered seals on the European Parliament offices of two parliamentary assistants and a suspect had been arrested in France, it added in a second statement Thursday afternoon.The EU parliament said it had received a request for cooperation from the Belgian authorities and would “swiftly and fully honour” it.Prosecutors said the alleged corruption by a “criminal organisation” was “practised regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day” and took “various forms”.These included “remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches” as part of a bid to promote “purely private commercial interests” in political decisions.The alleged kickbacks were concealed as conference expenses and paid to various intermediaries, the office said, adding it was looking at whether money laundering had also been involved.About 100 police officers took part in the operation which included a total of 21 searches conducted across Belgium and in Portugal, it added.Belgium’s Le Soir daily said the Portuguese search focused on a company through which transfers had allegedly been made to one or more EU lawmakers.Portugal’s prosecutor general confirmed the raids were conducted “at the request of the Belgian authorities” but did not provide more details.- ‘Mockery of democracy’ -At the heart of the alleged corruption is a former parliamentary assistant who was employed as Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Belgian media said.Huawei has been in the EU’s crosshairs in recent years.Brussels in 2023 described the telecoms giant as a higher risk to the bloc than other 5G suppliers and called on EU states to exclude its equipment from their mobile networks.Le Soir said police had taken “several lobbyists” into custody and they were due to appear in front of a judge for questioning.Transparency defenders were scathing in their criticism of the parliament’s lack of wide-ranging reforms after the 2022 scandal.”These new allegations are as sweeping and serious as Qatargate and make a mockery of democracy at the European Parliament. For too long, MEPs have taken a carefree approach to ethics and continue to exist in a culture of impunity,” said Nicholas Aiossa, director at Transparency International EU.He urged swift and deep reform in the parliament, a call echoed by former transparency campaigner and current Green EU lawmaker, Daniel Freund.”This painfully shows that following Qatargate the EU remains vulnerable to corruption. Some reforms are still being blocked,” Freund told AFP, adding: “We finally need independent oversight for ethics violations.”Huawei has found itself at the centre of an intense tech rivalry between Beijing and Washington, with US officials warning its equipment could be used to spy on behalf of Chinese authorities — allegations they deny.Since 2019, US sanctions have cut Huawei off from global supply chains for technology and US-made components, a move that initially hammered its production of smartphones.burs-oho/sco

Renowned US health research hub Johns Hopkins to slash 2,000 jobs

Prestigious US university Johns Hopkins said Thursday it will lay off more than 2,000 employees around the world in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s massive reduction in foreign aid funds.”This is a difficult day for our entire community. The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work,” the leading scientific institution said.The university is based in Baltimore, Maryland’s largest city an hour’s drive north of the US capital, but is eliminating at least 1,975 jobs in projects across 44 countries and 247 jobs in the United States.New US President Donald Trump and his senior advisor, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, have embarked on a campaign to slash federal spending, targeting in particular support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for foreign aid, research and development.Johns Hopkins University is one of the institutions hardest hit by these drastic reductions. In early March, its president Ronald Daniels explained in a message to students and professors that federal money accounted for nearly half of the backing it funds received last year.Referring to a “historical relationship” between the “first American research university” and the government, he warned that students, researchers and professors would see damage to programs designed to improve health, hygiene and medicine across the world.- Drinking water -Thursday’s announcement confirmed that the cuts hit the university’s medical school and school of public health as well as Jhpiego, a global non-profit organization founded more than 50 years ago and which works to improve health in countries worldwide.”Johns Hopkins is immensely proud of the work done by our colleagues in Jhpiego, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the School of Medicine to care for mothers and infants, fight disease, provide clean drinking water, and advance countless other critical, life-saving efforts around the world,” the university said.The university receives roughly $1 billion annually in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is currently running 600 clinical trials, according to The New York Times, which added that Hopkins is one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging such cuts.USAID, the largest funding agency for Jhpiego, distributes humanitarian aid around the world, with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries.Trump, whose appointees are dismantling the humanitarian agency, signed an executive order in January demanding a freeze on all US foreign aid to allow time to assess expenses. Critics warn that slashing USAID work will endanger millions of lives.

Undocumented migrants in terror on frontline of Trump sweep

Construction worker Maoro has lived happily in Colorado for almost four decades, but for the last month he has hardly left his house, afraid that US immigration officials will swoop and deport him.”It’s worse than a prison,” the undocumented migrant tells AFP at his home in the city of Aurora, a major focus of Donald Trump’s heated anti-immigrant rhetoric in the presidential election campaign.”I already feel sick from not going to work,” said Maoro, 59. Unable to pay his rent and dependent on his daughter — an American citizen — Maoro has never been so afraid as he is now, living under a Republican administration that has promised mass deportations of anyone without the right paperwork.When three men in uniform knocked on his door recently, the middle-aged Mexican, who, like other undocumented migrants in this story insisted on using a pseudonym, followed the advice of well-wishers and rights activists in his neighborhood and didn’t answer.His terror is widely shared in Aurora, a suburb of Denver that is home to around 100 nationalities according to local non-profit groups.Churches and mosques are emptying, the intersection where day laborers wait for casual work is sparsely populated, and a shopping center filled with Latin-American food outlets says it got 10,000 fewer visitors than usual in February. On February 5, heavily-armed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers carried out raids in Denver and Aurora, using battering rams and armored vehicles and making a number of arrests.- ‘Operation Aurora’ – The city of Aurora was propelled into the national immigration debate last year when viral video circulated showing armed Latin American men bursting into an apartment.Then-candidate Trump seized on the footage as proof that Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had “taken control” of Aurora.The city’s Republican mayor rejected the claim, insisting the video showed an isolated incident peculiar to that particular building and a neglectful landlord, and pointing to a drop in the city’s crime rate over the previous two years.Trump pressed on, claiming Aurora was a symbol of an America under attack from dangerous migrant criminals, and pledging he would deport millions of people when he got back to the White House.The city’s immigrant population say they are being used as scapegoats for wider societal problems.”Everything that’s going wrong in the United States now is because of Tren de Aragua,” quips Alexander Jimenez, a Venezuelan who fled Nicolas Maduro’s regime a year ago. “That’s not possible.”Jimenez, a grandfather, limits his travel and is hiding with ten members of his family, waiting for their asylum applications to be processed. Since the raids, his grandchildren have refused to go to school, for fear that the police will be waiting for their parents outside. “They see on television what is happening, that they are taking away Venezuelans and all those who are not from here, from this country,” he sighs, pointing out that last month’s ICE raids netted people with no criminal record.A social media posting at the time insisted “100+ members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were targeted for arrest and detention in Aurora, Colo., today by ICE.”According to a report by Fox News, around thirty people were arrested, of whom only one was a gang member.Officials contacted by AFP refused to give details about those who had been taken into custody.- Separated from children -“This targeting of criminals by ICE is being used as a pretext to pick up other people that are innocent, that don’t have criminal records,” said Nayda Benitez, a member of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. Her association offers legal advice classes in Spanish, Arabic and English, educating all-comers on their rights.Attendees at classes learn that they do not have to open their door if the police do not have a judicial warrant, that they can remain silent, and that they do not have to sign any papers. This simple advice was balm for Susana an undocumented Mexican who was deported in 2017, at the beginning of Donald Trump’s first term, and spent five years separated from her children before finally getting back to Colorado.”When you discover that you have rights, it’s a powerful thing, because you say to yourself: ‘if only I had known’,” the 47-year-old said.Susana says she now regrets having spoken too much during her interactions with the authorities last time around. “I knew there was a constitution,” she sighs. “But I didn’t know that this constitution protected me as a migrant.” 

All eyes on Democrats as US barrels toward shutdown deadline

The US government, already shaken by Donald Trump’s radical reforms, could begin shutting down entirely this weekend as Democrats grapple with the politically risky option of opposing the president’s federal funding plans.With a Friday night deadline to fund the government or allow it to start winding down, the Senate is set for a crunch vote ahead of the midnight cut-off on a Trump-backed bill passed by the House of Representatives.The package would keep the lights on through September, but Democrats are under immense pressure from their own grassroots to defy Trump and reject a text they say is full of harmful spending cuts.”If there’s a shutdown, even the Democrats admit it will be their fault,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer — who has long insisted that it is bad politics to shut down the government — indicated he would vote for the bill, raising hopes for its success.Others in the minority party — worried that they would be blamed over a stoppage with no obvious exit ramp — also appear ready to incur the wrath of their support base by backing down.But Schumer has not explicitly told his troops which way to jump, telling reporters “each is making his or her own decision” and the vote remains on a knife edge.- ‘Do the right thing’ -Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who voted against a bill to avert a shutdown as recently as 18 months ago, urged the minority party to “put partisan politics aside and do the right thing.” “When the government shuts down, you have government employees who are no longer paid, you have services that begin to lag. It brings great harm on the economy and the people,” he told Fox News.The funding fight is focused on opposition to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by tech mega-billionaire Elon Musk, which is working to dramatically downsize the government.DOGE aims to cut federal spending by $1 trillion this year and claims to have made savings so far of more than $100 billion through lease terminations, contract cancellations and firing federal workers.Its online “wall of receipts” accounts for less than a fraction of that total, however, and US media outlets have found its website to be riddled with errors, misleading math and exaggerations.Grassroots Democrats, infuriated by what they see as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s lawless rampage through the federal bureaucracy, want their leaders to stand up to DOGE and Trump.The funding bill is likely to need support from at least eight Democrats, but Republicans ignored the opposition’s demands to protect congressional control over the government’s purse strings and rein in Musk.- ‘Carte blanche’ -Washington progressive representative Pramila Jayapal told CNN there would be a “huge backlash” against Senate Democrats supporting the bill.Several top Democrats have warned, however, that a shutdown could play into Musk’s hands, distracting from DOGE’s most unpopular actions, which just this week has included firing half the Education Department’s workforce.”It’s not really a decision, it’s a Hobson’s choice: Either proceed with the bill before us, or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.The Democratic leader claimed that Musk and Trump were hoping for the government to grind to a halt.”A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now… with nobody left at the agencies to check them,” he said.Republicans control 53 seats in the 100-member Senate.Legislation in the upper chamber requires a preliminary ballot with a 60-vote threshold — designed to encourage bipartisanship — before final passage, which only needs a simple majority.Schumer and Pennsylvania Senator Fetterman are so far the only Democrats committed to allowing the bill to move forward, as no other Democrats have indicated publicly they would be willing to cross the aisle.

Trump menace de taxer à 200% le champagne et les vins français et européens

Donald Trump a menacé jeudi la France et l’Union européenne (UE) d’imposer des droits de douane de 200% sur leurs champagnes, vins et autres alcools si les tarifs douaniers de 50% annoncés par Bruxelles sur le whisky américain n’étaient pas abandonnés.Depuis son retour au pouvoir en janvier, le président américain a lancé toute une série d’offensives commerciales contre ses alliés comme ses concurrents, affirmant que les Etats-Unis étaient injustement traités dans les échanges internationaux.L’UE a annoncé mercredi des droits de douane sur plusieurs produits américains, dont le bourbon, les motos ou les bateaux, en représailles aux surtaxes américaines de 25% entrées en vigueur le même jour sur l’acier et l’aluminium.Ils devraient devenir effectifs le 1er avril, une journée avant les droits de douane dits “réciproques” voulus par Donald Trump.L’UE “a tout juste imposé 50% de droits de douane sur le whisky. Si ces droits de douane ne sont pas retirés immédiatement, les Etats-Unis vont rapidement imposer des droits de douane de 200% sur tous les “, a écrit le président républicain sur son réseau Truth Social.Les Etats-Unis imposent depuis mercredi une surtaxe de 25% sur l’acier et l’aluminium entrant dans le pays, provoquant des représailles de la part de plusieurs pays et de l’UE.Le Canada a annoncé jeudi avoir déposé plainte devant l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC), estimant que cette taxe va “à l’encontre des obligations des Etats-Unis” en matière de commerce international.A l’issue d’une rencontre avec le ministre du Commerce Howard Lutnick, son homologue canadien aux Finances, Dominic LeBlanc, a rappelé qu’il estimait ces taxes “injustifiées” et que le gouvernement défendra “les intérêts économiques du Canada.Son collègue à l’Industrie, François-Philippe Champagne a qualifié la rencontre de “longue, bonne et constructive” estimant que l’arrive de Marc Carney à la tête du gouvernement vendredi devrait permettre de “relancer potentiellement” les discussions.Dans la journée, Bruxelles a annoncé que le commissaire européen au Commerce Valdis Dombrovskis a eu un échange vidéo avec le ministre américain de l’Economie Scott Bessent, durant lequel il a “exprimé son inquiétude de voir les droits de douane américains avoir un impact économique négatif de part et d’autre” de l’Atlantique.Les exportateurs français de vins et spiritueux ont vivement réagi, disant en avoir “assez d’être sacrifiés systématiquement pour des sujets sans rapport avec les nôtres” et souhaitant que “la Commission européenne fasse preuve de réalisme”.- “Clé sous la porte” -Cette réplique américaine inquiète également des restaurateurs locaux, à l’image de Francis Schott, qui tient un établissement dans le New Jersey, pour qui “cela va simplement représenter du chiffre d’affaires qui va disparaître, c’est épouvantable. Si je perds la moitié du profit que je fais sur l’alcool, je mets la clé sous la porte.”Selon le Centre du commerce international (ITC), l’UE a exporté en 2024 10,7 milliards de dollars de vins et spiritueux vers les Etats-Unis, dont 4,8 milliards uniquement pour la France. Près de 10% de la production de l’Hexagone a traversé l’Atlantique l’année écoulée.L’immense majorité des produits alcoolisés provenant d’Europe entrent aux Etats-Unis sans droits de douane, seuls 2% étant appliqués sur les vins pétillants, selon les données de l’OMC.Depuis son retour à la Maison Blanche, le président américain a multiplié le recours aux droits de douane, servant à la fois de moyen de pression sur les Etats tiers pour obtenir un accord, de moyen de protection de certains secteurs industriels américains, et de source de revenus fiscaux pour l’Etat fédéral.Jusqu’ici, Donald Trump ciblait ses trois principaux partenaires commerciaux: le Canada, le Mexique et la Chine.Le républicain a imposé 25% sur les produits canadiens et mexicains, avec des exemptions temporaires. Les produits chinois sont eux visés par 20 points de pourcentage de taxes supplémentaires, au-delà de celles déjà existantes.S’il a menacé à plusieurs reprises l’UE d’être la prochaine cible, il comptait en particulier sur la mise en place de droits de douane dits “réciproques” à compter du 2 avril pour taxer les produits européens.Ce type de droits visent à taxer les produits provenant d’un pays lorsqu’ils entrent aux Etats-Unis au même niveau que le sont les produits américains arrivant dans ce pays.

Trump threatens huge tariffs on European wine, spirits

US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to impose 200 percent tariffs on wine, champagne and other alcoholic beverages from European Union countries, in retaliation against the bloc’s planned levies on American-made whiskey.Trump has launched trade wars against competitors and partners alike since taking office, wielding tariffs as a tool to pressure countries on commerce and other policy issues.His latest salvo was a response to the European Union’s unveiling of tariffs on $28 billion in US goods, to be imposed in stages starting in April.The EU measures — including a 50 percent tariff on American whiskey — were a tit-for-tat measure against Trump’s levies on steel and aluminum imports that took effect Wednesday.”If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.Global markets tumbled on the news, with Wall Street down sharply, and criticism of the move was swift from European spirit makers.French wine and champagne company Taittinger said a 200 percent tariff could bring the cost of some bottles from about $60 to more than $180.France’s federation of wine and spirit exporters, known by the acronym FEVS, put the blame on the European Commission for placing its members “directly into the crosshairs of the US president.””We are fed up with being systematically sacrificed for issues unrelated to our own,” said the group’s director general Nicolas Ozanam.- ‘Hostile and abusive’ -Trump called the EU’s planned levy on US whiskey “nasty” and dubbed the bloc “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.”The Republican billionaire president has also said the European Union — which for decades has been at the heart of a US-led Western alliance — was formed to take advantage of the United States.He told reporters he would not bend on his aggressive tariffs policy, while European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc is ready to negotiate over escalating duties, though she insisted that tariffs are “bad for business.”French Foreign Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said his country would “not give in to threats” and was “determined to retaliate,’ while Spain’s agriculture minister said he hopes to negotiate.US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg Television he had plans to speak with his European counterparts, while an EU spokesperson said its trade chief has reached out to Washington.EU economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis meanwhile held an introductory call with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in which he expressed concern over US tariffs and their negative economic impact on both sides.- ‘Devastating’ -The European spirits trade group, Spirits Europe, called on both sides to stop using the sector as a “bargaining chip” in their tariffs fight.US wine merchants and restaurant owners also eyed Trump’s threats with trepidation.A 200 percent tariff would send business costs “through the roof,” said Francis Schott, a restaurant owner based in New Jersey who serves European and American wines.”It’s just business that will go away. It’s devastating,” he told AFP. “If I lose half of the profit I make on alcoholic beverages, my business is no longer viable.”Europe exported nearly $5.2 billion worth of wine and champagne to the United States in 2023, according to the World Trade Organization.- EU levy ‘disappointing’ -US distillers have called the EU’s levy on American whiskey “deeply disappointing.”A 2018 imposition of similar tariffs led to a 20 percent drop in American whiskey exports to the European Union.Trump’s tariff wars have taken aim at Canada, Mexico and China over allegations they are not doing enough to curtail fentanyl smuggling or illegal immigration into the United States — even if in the case of Canada, the border sees negligible smuggling.He has also taken aim at commodities including steel, aluminum and copper.Some countries like China and Canada have already imposed retaliatory tariffs, while uncertainty over Trump’s trade plans and worries that they could trigger a recession have roiled financial markets.After talks in Washington on Thursday with Lutnick, Canadian science and industry minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said he saw “potential for a reset” in cross-border relations when new prime minister Mark Carney takes office Friday.

Top US university says ending 2,000 positions due to Trump cuts

The prestigious Johns Hopkins University said Thursday it is being forced to lay off more than 2,000 employees in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s massive reduction in foreign aid funding.”This is a difficult day for our entire community. The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally,” the school, a leading institution of scientific research, said in a statement.Hopkins, in Maryland’s largest city an hour’s drive north of the US capital, is eliminating more than 2,000 positions — 1,975 in projects across 44 countries and 247 jobs in the United States.The cuts impact several key programs, including the university’s medical school and school of public health, and Jhpiego, a global health non-profit organization founded at the university more than 50 years ago and which works to improve health in countries worldwide.”Johns Hopkins is immensely proud of the work done by our colleagues in Jhpiego, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the School of Medicine to care for mothers and infants, fight disease, provide clean drinking water, and advance countless other critical, life-saving efforts around the world,” the university said.The cuts make Johns Hopkins one of the universities most deeply impacted by the slash of federal funding for research. The university receives roughly $1 billion annually in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is currently running 600 clinical trials, according to The New York Times, adding that Hopkins is one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging such cuts.The US Agency for International Development (USAID), the largest funding agency for Jhpiego, distributes humanitarian aid around the world, with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries.US President Donald Trump, who is dismantling the humanitarian agency, signed an executive order in January demanding a freeze on all US foreign aid to allow time to assess overseas expenses. Critics warn that slashing USAID work will affect millions of people.

A la veille d’une paralysie budgétaire aux Etats-Unis, des démocrates partagés

Les Etats-Unis font face jeudi à la perspective d’une paralysie de l’administration fédérale, déjà ébranlée par le limogeage massif de fonctionnaires entrepris par Donald Trump, avec une opposition partagée sur la marche à suivre.Alors que la date limite de vendredi soir minuit (04H00 GMT) approche à grands pas, les démocrates au Sénat doivent décider s’ils souhaitent apporter leurs voix à un texte des républicains, qui comprend d’importantes coupes budgétaires voulues par Donald Trump, ou s’y opposer et voir les Etats-Unis plonger dans ce fameux “shutdown”.Le chef des démocrates au Sénat, Chuck Schumer, qui avait affirmé la veille que son camp était uni contre le texte, a annoncé jeudi depuis l’hémicycle qu’il voterait finalement en faveur à titre personnel, en raison de son inquiétude des conséquences d’un “shutdown”, notamment sur l’économie.Une paralysie budgétaire “donnerait à Donald Trump et Elon Musk carte blanche pour détruire des services essentiels de l’Etat à un rythme bien plus élevé qu’actuellement”, a-t-il déclaré depuis l’hémicycle.”Ainsi je voterai pour garder (les services de) l’Etat ouvert, et ne pas le paralyser”, a-t-il annoncé.Un revirement qui a fait baisser la probabilité d’un “shutdown”, car le ténor démocrate pourrait emporter dans son sillage plusieurs autres sénateurs de son camp.- Chômage technique -Malgré leur majorité de 53 sénateurs sur 100, les républicains auront en effet besoin de l’appui de plusieurs démocrates pour passer la barre des 60 voix nécessaires, en vertu des règles de la chambre haute américaine.Le sénateur démocrate John Fetterman avait déjà annoncé qu’il voterait aussi à contrecoeur pour le texte.”Voter pour paralyser le gouvernement punira des millions de gens”, a-t-il déclaré, tout en notant son “désaccord avec de nombreux points” de la proposition républicaine.La paralysie de l’Etat fédéral représenterait un véritable coup dur pour ses fonctionnaires, déjà décimés par les coupes claires d’Elon Musk dans leurs effectifs. Des centaines de milliers d’entre eux seraient en effet mis au chômage technique, tandis que d’autres devraient continuer de travailler. Dans tous les cas, aucun ne recevrait de paie jusqu’à la résolution de cette paralysie. Depuis qu’il a été placé à la tête d’une commission à l’efficacité gouvernementale (Doge) par Donald Trump, le patron de SpaceX et Tesla s’attache à démanteler certaines agences fédérales, qu’il accuse de fraude ou de gestion dispendieuse.La proposition des républicains, déjà adoptée à la Chambre des représentants mardi, financerait l’Etat fédéral jusqu’en septembre. Une mesure temporaire qui donnerait une plus grande marge de manoeuvre en vue de l’adoption d’un budget plus conséquent dans les mois à venir — avec notamment des fonds pour certaines des mesures phares de Donald Trump, comme son programme d’expulsions de migrants.- “Retour de bâton” -Le dilemme est donc cornélien pour les sénateurs démocrates: s’ils s’opposent sur le fond au texte en raison des importantes coupes prévues dans certaines dépenses publiques, ils ne souhaitent pas voir une paralysie de l’Etat fédéral.Le sénateur Mark Warner, réputé pour ses positions modérées, a affirmé qu’il voterait “non”, se disant contre cette “idée de donner les clés à Trump et Musk sans contrainte”.L’aile gauche du Parti démocrate fait de son côté pression depuis plusieurs jours sur les sénateurs et les appelle à voter contre, pour s’opposer clairement à Donald Trump.L’élue progressiste Pramila Jayapal a ainsi prévenu sur la chaîne CNN que les sénateurs démocrates qui voteraient en faveur feraient face à un “énorme retour de bâton”.Donald Trump, qui a usé de son influence ces derniers jours pour convaincre les élus républicains réfractaires de voter en faveur du texte, a rejeté jeudi la responsabilité de la situation actuelle sur les démocrates, affirmant que si paralysie il y avait vendredi soir, ce serait “de leur faute”.Avec des indices boursiers en chute et des craintes grandissantes de récession, le milliardaire républicain fait face aux premiers vents contraires de son second mandat en matière économique. Et il sait qu’une paralysie de l’Etat fédéral n’arrangerait rien.