Budget: Vallaud s’attend au recours au 49.3 du fait de la non-censure du PS

Le chef des députés socialistes Boris Vallaud s’attend à ce que Sébastien Lecornu décide de recourir au 49.3 pour faire adopter le budget 2026 maintenant que son parti a annoncé qu’il ne devrait pas censurer le gouvernement.”Je crois que c’est ce vers quoi on s’oriente”, a déclaré M. Vallaud lundi sur RTL.L’autre hypothèse, celle d’une ordonnance prise par l’exécutif, est désormais “sans objet dès lors qu’on s’achemine vers la possibilité d’une non-censure” et serait même “hasardeuse”, a-t-il jugé.Sébastien Lecornu doit faire savoir lundi après-midi, lors d’un Conseil des ministres, s’il a recours à l’article 49.3 de la Constitution pour faire adopter le budget 2026.Si le 49.3 est choisi, il pourrait être activé dès mardi à l’Assemblée nationale sur le volet “recettes” du projet de loi de finances, puis une deuxième fois quelques jours plus tard sur le volet “dépenses”. Le texte ira ensuite au Sénat, puis reviendra à l’Assemblée pour un dernier 49.3. Un budget définitif pourrait alors être promulgué autour de la mi-février à condition que Sébastien Lecornu résiste aux motions de censure qui seront déposées tout au long du processus par LFI ou le RN.Cela semble bien parti, car le Parti socialiste, qui détient une bonne partie des clés de la censure, s’est montré satisfait des annonces gouvernementales vendredi soir. Celles-ci permettent “d’envisager une non-censure”, a confirmé lundi Boris Vallaud.Les vœux du PS ont en effet été exaucés sur le pouvoir d’achat, avec une hausse de la prime d’activité, mais également sur la jeunesse, avec les repas à un euro pour les étudiants. “Nous avons fait reculer le gouvernement sur un certain nombre de points qui étaient une politique injuste pour les Français pour lesquels les fins de mois étaient difficiles”, a souligné M. Vallaud. C’est également la proposition PS de surtaxe sur les bénéfices de 300 grandes entreprises qui a été retenue in fine, pour un rendement de huit milliards d’euros en 2026, comme en 2025.

Risking death, Indians mess with the bull at annual festival

A construction worker by trade, Saravanan B waited all year to celebrate his true passion — daring bare-hands bullfighting that has never gone out of fashion in India’s south.Known as jallikattu, the centuries-old tradition is kept alive at annual harvest festivals in India’s Tamil Nadu state, despite regular injuries and even deaths as a result of the often dangerous sport.To Saravanan, 31, running and wrestling with the bulls is simply a way of life.”I grew up watching it” and developed “an interest in becoming a jallikattu fighter from a very young age”, he said.That fascination has never faded, and at age 18 he joined the ranks of the muscular men he grew up idolising, tackling raging bulls head-on.At the Pongal harvest festival held last week in his village near Tamil Nadu’s Madurai city, Saravanan said he was fighting bulls “purely for my enjoyment” — and not for the prize money.”Usually, whatever prize I get, I give it to others,” he said.The event has remained popular even after dozens of people have been killed and hundreds injured over the years, and despite persistent allegations of animal cruelty and repeated legal challenges.Critics claim organisers feed bulls alcohol, throw chilli powder into their eyes to provoke panic, or sharpen their horns with glass.There have also been reports of animals being seriously injured or dying during these contests.Organisers strongly deny these accusations, saying strict rules govern the events and insisting jallikattu is an essential part of Tamil culture.Saravanan rejects the claims that it is cruel.”People who don’t understand jallikattu may feel it is hurting the bull” but “I always see the bull as my friend. I never hurt the bull,” he said.He bears more than one scar, but to him the risks are worth the joy and pride of taking part.”I got several injuries during bullfighting,” he said. “I have many marks on my body.”Saravanan follows a strict exercise routine and avoids smoking or drinking to stay fit, training with bulls at least twice a week.Others share his passion, too — including his fiancee who “likes jallikattu fighters”, he said.”This is one of the main reasons for our marriage.”Compared to some other sports, jallikattu prize pots are quite modest.”But for a bullfighter, winning… is a matter of pride,” said Saravanan.

Ghana’s mentally ill trapped between prayer and careMon, 19 Jan 2026 06:23:18 GMT

On a recent Friday morning, worshippers made their way in droves into the Achimota Forest, a stretch of green in Ghana’s capital that doubles as an unlikely sanctuary for the desperate.From the outside, the park and adjacent Accra Zoo appeared calm as branches swayed gently with the dry breeze. Inside, voices rose in tongues as …

Ghana’s mentally ill trapped between prayer and careMon, 19 Jan 2026 06:23:18 GMT Read More »

Le président du Guatemala déclare l’état de siège après des meurtres de policiers par des gangs

Le président du Guatemala a déclaré dimanche l’état de siège dans le pays pour renforcer les pouvoirs des autorités face aux gangs, qui ont pris ces derniers jours le contrôle de plusieurs prisons du pays et tué huit policiers.Ces attaques, des mutineries et prises d’otages dans trois établissements pénitentiaires, ont eu lieu en représailles à …

Le président du Guatemala déclare l’état de siège après des meurtres de policiers par des gangs Read More »

China’s Buddha artisans carve out a living from dying trade

In a dimly lit workshop in eastern China, craftsman Zhang measured and shaped a block of wood into a foot as dozens of half-completed life-sized Buddha statues looked on silently.Zhang is one of a dwindling number of master woodcarvers in the village of Chongshan near the city of Suzhou, where generations of residents have made a living creating Buddhist and Taoist sculptures for display in temples across China.Carving the intricate statues, which are often adorned with bright paint and gold leaf, was an art he learned from his father as a teenager.”My grandpa and my grandpa’s grandpa were also craftspeople,” Zhang told AFP in his dusty studio.But “once our generation retires, there will be no one left to carry on the tradition”.He blamed a combination of unattractive pay and youngsters’ unwillingness to dedicate time and energy to mastering the craft.”You need to do this for at least five or six years before you can set up shop on your own.”Zhang said the village had received a boom in orders starting in the late 20th century, after a loosening of tight government restrictions on worship led to a resurgence of interest in religion across the country.But now, fewer people are commissioning new pieces with the market already “saturated” and most temples around the country already furnished with statues, Zhang told AFP.Gu, a 71-year-old artisan at another workshop in Chongshan, said she remembered producing secular handicrafts during the Cultural Revolution, when religion was considered an archaic relic to be eliminated from society by leader Mao Zedong’s followers.”At the time, the temples were all closed,” Gu told AFP.Gu, who specialises in carving the heads of Buddha sculptures, proudly showed off the subtle expressions on the faces of a row of gilded figures in her storeroom.”Every face has an expression, smiling or crying,” Gu said.She grinned as she explained that some sculptures of famed Buddhist monk Ji Gong even showed him smiling on one side of his face and frowning on the other.In comparison, wood carver Zhang took a more practical view of his craft.”People look at us like we’re artists,” he said. “But to us, we’re just creating a product.” 

Thousands march in US to back Iranian anti-government protesters

Thousands in the United States staged large demonstrations Sunday denouncing the Iranian government’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters in the Islamic Republic.Several thousand people marched in Los Angeles, home to the world’s largest Iranian diaspora, while several hundred others gathered in New York, AFP journalists in both cities reported. US protesters could be seen carrying signs condemning a “New Holocaust,” a “genocide in the making,” and the “terror” of the Iranian government.”My heart is heavy and my soul is crushed, I’m at loss for words to describe how angry I am,” said Perry Faraz at the demonstration in Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the US.The 62-year-old payroll manager, who fled Iran in 2006, learned this week that one of her young cousins had been killed during the overseas rallies held in her native country.”He wasn’t even 10 years old, that’s horrible,” she said.Demonstrations sparked by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests late December in what has been widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in recent years.The rallies subsided after a government crackdown in Iran that rights groups have called a “massacre” carried out by security forces under the cover of a communications blackout that started on January 8.Norway-based Iran Human Rights says it has verified the deaths of 3,428 protesters killed by security forces, confirming cases through sources within the Islamic Republic’s health and medical system, witnesses and independent sources.The NGO warned that the true toll is likely to be far higher. Media cannot independently confirm the figure and Iranian officials have not given an exact death toll.- Calls for US intervention -“This mass murdering of the population is terribly upsetting,” Ali Parvaneh, a 65-year-old lawyer protesting in LA said. Like many protesters, Parvaneh carried a “Make Iran Great Again” sign and said he wanted US President Donald Trump to intervene by targeting the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).Some in the crowd in LA went as far as to call for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has been in power for more than 25 years. After having attacked Iranian nuclear sites in June, Trump sent mixed signals on possible US intervention this week. The Republican first threatened to intervene if Iranian protesters were killed, but then said he was satisfied by Iranian assurances that demonstrators would not be executed.”I really hope that Trump will go one step beyond just voicing support,” Parvaneh said.Many protesting in the Californian city chanted slogans in support of the US president and Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran who was deposed by the popular uprising in 1979.- ‘Don’t need a puppet’ – Parvaneh echoed Pahlavi’s popularity among some segments of Iran’s exiled and expatriate population.”Had the monarchy stayed in place, it would be much different and Iran would be in a much better situation,” he said.Pahlavi’s support base is concentrated abroad while his political sway within Iran is limited.The former Shah’s son, who lives in exile near Washington, said this week he would be ready to return to Iran — but it is unclear if most Iranians want this.The Iranian opposition remains divided, and memories of the Shah’s brutal repression of his left-wing opponents remain vivid. Last week, a man caused minor injuries when he drove a truck into a demonstration held by Iranians in Los Angeles, carrying a sign that read: “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah.” The sign was referring to the 1953 coup that saw Iran’s government overthrown in a US- and UK-backed operation that had seen Pahlavi installed as the country’s leader.In Los Angeles’s Westwood neighborhood, nicknamed “Tehrangeles,” Roozbeh Farahanipour believes the diaspora must support Iranians without infringing on their “right to decide their own future.””They don’t need a puppet implanted by the West,” said the 54-year-old restaurant owner.Others in California also share that view.”Trump is playing the Iranian people,” said poet Karim Farsis, a resident of the San Francisco Bay area. Farsis, an academic, stresses that it is US sanctions — including those imposed by Trump — and the Republican’s ripping up of a nuclear deal that have contributed in large part to the suffering of the Iranian people.She also criticized the almost complete ban on Iranians entering the US since June.”We’re living in a really twisted moment,” she said. “Trump is saying to Iranians: ‘Keep protesting, take over your institutions.'”But if they find themselves in danger, they can’t even find refuge in the United States.”

Thousands march in US to back Iranian anti-government protesters

Thousands in the United States staged large demonstrations Sunday denouncing the Iranian government’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters in the Islamic Republic.Several thousand people marched in Los Angeles, home to the world’s largest Iranian diaspora, while several hundred others gathered in New York, AFP journalists in both cities reported. US protesters could be seen carrying signs condemning a “New Holocaust,” a “genocide in the making,” and the “terror” of the Iranian government.”My heart is heavy and my soul is crushed, I’m at loss for words to describe how angry I am,” said Perry Faraz at the demonstration in Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the US.The 62-year-old payroll manager, who fled Iran in 2006, learned this week that one of her young cousins had been killed during the overseas rallies held in her native country.”He wasn’t even 10 years old, that’s horrible,” she said.Demonstrations sparked by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests late December in what has been widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in recent years.The rallies subsided after a government crackdown in Iran that rights groups have called a “massacre” carried out by security forces under the cover of a communications blackout that started on January 8.Norway-based Iran Human Rights says it has verified the deaths of 3,428 protesters killed by security forces, confirming cases through sources within the Islamic Republic’s health and medical system, witnesses and independent sources.The NGO warned that the true toll is likely to be far higher. Media cannot independently confirm the figure and Iranian officials have not given an exact death toll.- Calls for US intervention -“This mass murdering of the population is terribly upsetting,” Ali Parvaneh, a 65-year-old lawyer protesting in LA said. Like many protesters, Parvaneh carried a “Make Iran Great Again” sign and said he wanted US President Donald Trump to intervene by targeting the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).Some in the crowd in LA went as far as to call for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has been in power for more than 25 years. After having attacked Iranian nuclear sites in June, Trump sent mixed signals on possible US intervention this week. The Republican first threatened to intervene if Iranian protesters were killed, but then said he was satisfied by Iranian assurances that demonstrators would not be executed.”I really hope that Trump will go one step beyond just voicing support,” Parvaneh said.Many protesting in the Californian city chanted slogans in support of the US president and Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran who was deposed by the popular uprising in 1979.- ‘Don’t need a puppet’ – Parvaneh echoed Pahlavi’s popularity among some segments of Iran’s exiled and expatriate population.”Had the monarchy stayed in place, it would be much different and Iran would be in a much better situation,” he said.Pahlavi’s support base is concentrated abroad while his political sway within Iran is limited.The former Shah’s son, who lives in exile near Washington, said this week he would be ready to return to Iran — but it is unclear if most Iranians want this.The Iranian opposition remains divided, and memories of the Shah’s brutal repression of his left-wing opponents remain vivid. Last week, a man caused minor injuries when he drove a truck into a demonstration held by Iranians in Los Angeles, carrying a sign that read: “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah.” The sign was referring to the 1953 coup that saw Iran’s government overthrown in a US- and UK-backed operation that had seen Pahlavi installed as the country’s leader.In Los Angeles’s Westwood neighborhood, nicknamed “Tehrangeles,” Roozbeh Farahanipour believes the diaspora must support Iranians without infringing on their “right to decide their own future.””They don’t need a puppet implanted by the West,” said the 54-year-old restaurant owner.Others in California also share that view.”Trump is playing the Iranian people,” said poet Karim Farsis, a resident of the San Francisco Bay area. Farsis, an academic, stresses that it is US sanctions — including those imposed by Trump — and the Republican’s ripping up of a nuclear deal that have contributed in large part to the suffering of the Iranian people.She also criticized the almost complete ban on Iranians entering the US since June.”We’re living in a really twisted moment,” she said. “Trump is saying to Iranians: ‘Keep protesting, take over your institutions.'”But if they find themselves in danger, they can’t even find refuge in the United States.”