Thousands of Afrikaners, descendants of the first European settlers in South Africa, celebrated on Tuesday the “Day of the Vow” — a founding myth with values shared by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has offered the group protection.On a hill overlooking the capital Pretoria, an announcer boasted that some 37,000 Afrikaners had gathered at …
With a stroke of his favorite black pen, Donald Trump has signed what should become his 221st executive order since January — a figure that exceeds the number in his entire first term, as he forges ahead with one of the biggest displays of US presidential power in modern history.To promote artificial intelligence, fight “woke” culture and even increase the water flow of showers, Trump has churned out executive orders at a rate unprecedented since World War II, according to an AFP analysis.The latest, signed Monday, classifies fentanyl as “a weapon of mass destruction”.Previously, 220 texts — which are legally binding and do not need Congressional approval — have been published in the Federal Register, according to its update on Tuesday. The total is more than he had signed during his first stint at the White House between 2017 and 2021 — and far more than his predecessors Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, who only signed an average of 30 to 40 per year.Only Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt — who over four terms signed nearly 4,000 executive orders between 1933 and 1945 — produced at Trump’s rate, although that occurred in the context of the Great Depression and World War II.Trump, who returned to the White House on January 20, has relied on executive orders despite having a congressional majority.”These orders are a part of a communications strategy,” John Woolley, professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told AFP.”It’s a way of signalling to important constituent groups that he is advancing ‘the cause’,” said Woolley who is also co-director of the American Presidency Project website, the main independent source of archives and analysis on the US presidency.- Domestic, social agenda -An AFP analysis of official government data shows that the majority — nearly 60 percent — deal with domestic issues, while fewer than 10 percent concern pure foreign policy. The rest cover miscellaneous matters.Social issues dominate, ranging from culture and civil rights to education and health. These account for roughly 30 percent of all orders, surpassing trade, economy and investment (around 20 percent) and government reform (around 18 percent).Immigration and security — his main campaign theme in 2024 — rank fourth at around 10 percent.The orders classified within the social issues category include some that explicitly reference an “ideology” or value judgments.For example, a July 23 order calls for AI systems to ban models that give attention to diversity and inclusion concerns, reflecting the Trump administration’s anti-“woke” agenda.Another order from August 28 decrees that “classical and traditional architecture” is the preferred style for federal buildings.- But are they efficient? -Questions have been raised over whether governing by executive orders is efficient, given the number of texts disputed in court.According to the independent legal website Just Security, which is linked to New York University School of Law, just over one fifth of Trump’s orders have been challenged in court.More than 20 of them have already been blocked at least provisionally or partially by the courts.In late August a federal appeals court ruled a large part of the texts on the new customs duties illegal.The Supreme Court, whose conservative majority was bolstered by Trump during his first term and has been called to rule on the matter, appeared sceptical of the legality behind a swath of Trump’s tariffs in a November 5 hearing.But Trump is not “afraid of being attacked about the substance of the orders,” Woolley said.”He is deliberately testing the limits of the law”. “His bet is that on most of the big issues, the Supreme Court will agree with a lot of his view of executive power.”- Settling of scores -An AFP analysis of the language and vocabulary used in Trump’s executive orders shows a characteristically direct style.He uses, for example, the verb “impose” five times more than his three predecessors.His language also appears more patriotic: he speaks of the “nation” two to three times more often than Biden, Obama and Bush and the “American people” two times more.In another difference, he attacks the previous administration frequently, accusing it, for example, of having let in millions of illegal immigrants. More than 15 percent of the orders can be listed as “settling of scores”.”No prior president issued orders explicitly attacking his critics and prior opponents,” said Woolley.In November Trump said that all executive orders and documents signed by autopen, which replicates signatures, under Biden were “terminated” on the basis of allegations that Biden has rejected.
Iranian authorities are refusing to allow an independent medical examination of Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi after she was beaten during her arrest last week, her family said on Tuesday.Her brother Hamid Reza Mohammadi, who lives in Norway, told reporters in Paris via video link that she had informed her other brother in Iran in a brief telephone call late on Sunday that police had beaten her with truncheons on her face, head and neck.Mohammadi, who won the Nobel prize in 2023, was detained along with dozens of activists on Friday after addressing a memorial ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad for the lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead earlier this month.”She has bruises on her neck and face,” Hamid Reza Mohammadi said. “She was in a very bad condition physically.””My brother (inside Iran) has tried to convince them to agree for an independent doctor to examine her to make sure she has no internal bleeding in the head or any other organ.””But they have not agreed to it. We are very worried about how she is being held, where she is being held and how she is treated,” he added.Her husband Taghi Rahmani, who lives in Paris, added: “My brother-in-law asked for an independent doctor to examine her but they refused. Now we are very worried about what will happen to her.”Her supporters had said on Monday that prison authorities twice took Mohammadi to hospital after her arrest. In a separate statement on Tuesday, Amnesty International accused Iranian security forces of carrying out “torture and other ill-treatment” during the arrest, including by “violently beating” Narges Mohammadi and her fellow activist Alieh Motalbzadeh.- ‘Massive repression’ -Iranian authorities have said 39 people were detained at the memorial ceremony, including Alikordi’s brother Javad.But the Mohammadi family’s Paris-based lawyer Chirinne Ardakani said “at least 50 were arbitrarily detained” at the ceremony, which she said was attended by some 1,500 people and was addressed by Narges Mohammadi amid a heavy presence by security forces mounted on motorbikes.She said Mohammadi along with the other activists had been detained after she gave a defiant speech facing the security forces at the memorial for Alikordi, a 45-year-old lawyer who had defended clients arrested at protests.Rights groups, including Mohammadi’s foundation, regard his death as suspicious although the authorities insist he died of a heart attack.Ardakani said Mohammadi had told the gathering that “we stand tall, as brothers and sisters, we will stand tall until victory. Long live the fighters for freedom!””Immediately after saying this she (Mohammadi) was surrounded” and arrested, said Ardakani.Images from the scene posted on social media showed Mohammadi, who was not wearing the Islamic headscarf obligatory for women in Iran, standing on top of a car as the crowd chanted slogans against the authorities.Activists say Iran remains in the throes of a deep crackdown more than five months after the end of the 12-day war against Israel, with 1,400 executed so far this year.A UN fact-finding mission in October reported more than 21,000 arrests during the war, as well as 1,200 executions in the year to that point, well above usual levels.Ardakani said the team of rights groups and lawyers supporting Mohammadi were also planning to file “in the next days” a communication with the office of the prosecutor of the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) alleging “crimes against humanity” are being committed by the Islamic republic.She acknowledged that Iran was not a party to the court and has not signed up to its Rome statue but said an investigation could be opened under its article 15 due to the “massive and generalised character of the repression”.
China will impose anti-dumping duties on European Union pork imports for five years, but at lower rates than temporary levies in place since September, Beijing announced Tuesday.The two economic powerhouses have been locked in a trade spat fuelled by what many European countries view as an unbalanced economic relationship with China.The levies come after a probe launched by China last year concluded that European pork imports “were being dumped, and the domestic industry suffered substantial damages” as a result, the commerce ministry said in a statement Tuesday.The duties will range from 4.9 percent to 19.8 percent — down from temporary levies of 15.6 to 62.4 percent — and will be applied from December 17, it said.”At present, the domestic industry is facing difficulties, and there are strong calls for protection,” a commerce ministry spokesperson said.They added that the investigation’s conclusions were “objective, fair, and impartial”.The agriculture minister of Spain — Europe’s top producer of pork and its derivatives — said Spanish exporters faced an average duty of 9.8 percent, below an overall average of 19 percent.The measures were therefore “acceptable” for Spain and the result “minimised”, Luis Planas told reporters in Madrid.China, the world’s leading consumer of pork, imported 4.3 billion yuan ($600 million) in pork products from Spain alone last year, according to official Chinese customs data.France, meanwhile, exported 115,000 tonnes of pork to China in 2024, according to industry association Inaporc.The French pork industry welcomed Beijing’s decision, with Inaporc describing it as “a relief” for domestic producers.French companies were previously subjected to a provisional duty rate up to 62.4 percent for some products and an average 20 percent for others, Inaporc said.According to the new measures, Groupe Bigard, a major French pork producer, will be charged 9.8 percent, while Danish Crown will be hit with an 18.6 percent levy.- ‘Bargaining chip’ -The current trade spat erupted last summer when the EU moved towards imposing hefty tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, arguing that Beijing’s subsidies were unfairly undercutting European competitors.Beijing denied that claim and announced what were widely seen as retaliatory probes into imported European pork, brandy and dairy products.Giuseppe Aloisio, general director of the Spanish meat industry association Anice, told AFP the measure was “unfair” and “punishes an exemplary industry for no reason”.It was “unacceptable that our sector is used as a bargaining chip in a trade dispute — that of electric vehicles — that has absolutely nothing to do with us,” said Aloisio.European producers criticised the imposition of temporary duties on pork in September, denying the dumping allegations.They argued that Chinese consumers pay more than Europeans for products that the latter often ignore, such as pigs’ trotters or ears.The EU ran a trade deficit of more than $350 billion with China in 2024.French President Emmanuel Macron said this month that Europe would consider adopting strong measures against China, including tariffs, if the trade imbalance was not addressed.Alongside trade frictions, China and the EU are at odds on issues such as Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.The EU has urged China to exert pressure on Moscow to end the war, but Beijing has shown no sign of acceding.
L’Agence nationale de l’habitat (Anah), qui distribue les aides pour la rénovation des logements, s’est fixé comme objectif mardi, lors de son conseil d’administration, de financer des travaux de rénovation énergétique d’ampleur dans 120.000 logements en 2026, sous réserve de vote du budget de l’Etat. Cet objectif se répartit entre 68.000 rénovations de logements en copropriété et 52.000 logements individuels. Conformément à ce qu’a annoncé le ministre du Logement Vincent Jeanbrun samedi, le guichet de demandes d’aides pour des rénovations globales sera de nouveau ouvert à tous les ménages au 1er janvier.Sans approbation du projet de loi de finances (PLF) pour 2026, tout le dispositif sera cependant suspendu. Cet objectif de 120.000 rénovations est cependant déjà amputé par les 83.000 dossiers encore en stock en cette fin d’année. “Il va y avoir un bouchon total !”, alerte Jacques Baudrier, adjoint PCF chargé du logement à la Ville de Paris, qui appelle à doubler le budget de l’Anah pour répondre à la demande en créant des recettes dédiées.MaPrimeRénov’ pour les rénovations globales a connu un fort afflux de demandes à partir de fin 2024, ce qui a poussé le gouvernement à mettre en pause le dispositif de juin à septembre 2025 et à restreindre ses règles d’octroi de subvention. Pour 2026, l’Anah “a ajusté les paramètres pour garantir la continuité”, notamment en abaissant le montant maximal de subvention par dossier, et assure à l’AFP disposer de “moyens conséquents pour répondre à la demande”.”Chaque territoire aura des objectifs et des moyens et il y aura un dialogue pour surveiller la dynamique tout au long de l’année”, ajoute l’Anah.L’Anah prévoit aussi d’aider 150.000 rénovations par geste -lorsqu’un seul type de travaux est réalisé à la fois – “avec un accent mis sur la décarbonation des modes de chauffage” en cohérence avec la nouvelle Stratégie nationale bas carbone de l’Etat. Au total, le budget d’aides aux particuliers de l’Anah est de 4,4 milliards d’euros, dont 3,4 milliards d’euros pour la rénovation énergétique.La baisse de 555 millions d’euros de l’enveloppe allouée par l’Etat est compensée par un recours accru aux certificats d’économie d’énergie, qui devraient abonder de plus d’un milliard d’euros l’Anah.Pour Maxime Ledez, chercheur à l’Institut de l’économie pour le climat (I4CE), les crédits versés à l’Anah par l’Etat en 2025 “n’ont pas suffi à satisfaire toutes les demandes” et le montant réduit en 2026 “ne suffira probablement pas davantage” malgré les changements de paramètres, selon un billet publié jeudi.Un renforcement de la lutte contre les tentatives de fraude a aussi été acté mardi, avec par exemple la possibilité de réaliser des contrôles physiques à distance.
L’Agence nationale de l’habitat (Anah), qui distribue les aides pour la rénovation des logements, s’est fixé comme objectif mardi, lors de son conseil d’administration, de financer des travaux de rénovation énergétique d’ampleur dans 120.000 logements en 2026, sous réserve de vote du budget de l’Etat. Cet objectif se répartit entre 68.000 rénovations de logements en copropriété et 52.000 logements individuels. Conformément à ce qu’a annoncé le ministre du Logement Vincent Jeanbrun samedi, le guichet de demandes d’aides pour des rénovations globales sera de nouveau ouvert à tous les ménages au 1er janvier.Sans approbation du projet de loi de finances (PLF) pour 2026, tout le dispositif sera cependant suspendu. Cet objectif de 120.000 rénovations est cependant déjà amputé par les 83.000 dossiers encore en stock en cette fin d’année. “Il va y avoir un bouchon total !”, alerte Jacques Baudrier, adjoint PCF chargé du logement à la Ville de Paris, qui appelle à doubler le budget de l’Anah pour répondre à la demande en créant des recettes dédiées.MaPrimeRénov’ pour les rénovations globales a connu un fort afflux de demandes à partir de fin 2024, ce qui a poussé le gouvernement à mettre en pause le dispositif de juin à septembre 2025 et à restreindre ses règles d’octroi de subvention. Pour 2026, l’Anah “a ajusté les paramètres pour garantir la continuité”, notamment en abaissant le montant maximal de subvention par dossier, et assure à l’AFP disposer de “moyens conséquents pour répondre à la demande”.”Chaque territoire aura des objectifs et des moyens et il y aura un dialogue pour surveiller la dynamique tout au long de l’année”, ajoute l’Anah.L’Anah prévoit aussi d’aider 150.000 rénovations par geste -lorsqu’un seul type de travaux est réalisé à la fois – “avec un accent mis sur la décarbonation des modes de chauffage” en cohérence avec la nouvelle Stratégie nationale bas carbone de l’Etat. Au total, le budget d’aides aux particuliers de l’Anah est de 4,4 milliards d’euros, dont 3,4 milliards d’euros pour la rénovation énergétique.La baisse de 555 millions d’euros de l’enveloppe allouée par l’Etat est compensée par un recours accru aux certificats d’économie d’énergie, qui devraient abonder de plus d’un milliard d’euros l’Anah.Pour Maxime Ledez, chercheur à l’Institut de l’économie pour le climat (I4CE), les crédits versés à l’Anah par l’Etat en 2025 “n’ont pas suffi à satisfaire toutes les demandes” et le montant réduit en 2026 “ne suffira probablement pas davantage” malgré les changements de paramètres, selon un billet publié jeudi.Un renforcement de la lutte contre les tentatives de fraude a aussi été acté mardi, avec par exemple la possibilité de réaliser des contrôles physiques à distance.
Sao Paulo, ville la plus peuplée d’Amérique Latine et poumon économique du Brésil, est frappée par la pire sécheresse en une décennie, qui menace l’approvisionnement en eau des 22 millions d’habitants de cette mégalopole.Les mesures de rationnement déjà mises en place par les autorités pourraient s’intensifier, alors que les précipitations sont depuis trois années consécutives en dessous de la moyenne calculée par l’Institut national de météorologie (Inmet).Le réservoir Jaguari-Jacarei, le plus grand de la région, situé au nord-est de Sao Paulo, est rempli mardi à seulement 18% de sa capacité, selon l’Agence nationale des Eaux.Ce niveau critique s’approche de celui de la sécheresse de 2014, qui avait plongé Sao Paulo dans une des pires crises hydriques de son histoire.Des journalistes de l’AFP ont constaté que le niveau avait tellement baissé qu’une grande partie du réservoir était à sec, l’eau s’écoulant dans de maigres ruisseaux. De vastes zones de terre craquelée s’étendent dans les alentours.”Depuis le mois d’août, le niveau de l’eau n’a cessé de baisser. Ça fait vraiment peur”, dit à l’AFP Daniel Bacci, propriétaire d’une auberge proche du barrage.”La semaine dernière il a plu un peu, mais pas assez pour faire remonter le niveau”, déplore-t-il.Les prévisions météorologiques indiquent toutefois une augmentation du volume de précipitations lors des premiers mois de 2026, ce qui pourrait atténuer la situation.Dès le mois d’octobre, les autorités locales ont mis en place un plan de rationnement de l’eau, réduisant la pression dans les canalisations sur des durées pouvant aller jusqu’à 16 heures par jour.Si la situation se détériore au point d’atteindre des niveaux d’eau proches de zéro dans les barrages, des mesures plus drastiques pourraient être prises, comme des coupures tournantes de l’approvisionnement.Le régime des précipitations a changé à Sao Paulo au cours des dernières décennies, ce que les experts attribuent entre autres au changement climatique. Les pluies sont moins abondantes que la moyenne annuelle, mais plus violentes durant la saison humide.La semaine dernière, des orages accompagnés de violentes rafales de vent ont semé le chaos à Sao Paulo, privant des centaines de milliers de personnes d’électricité durant plusieurs jours et provoquant l’annulation de centaines de vols.
