C1: l’Inter et le Barça prêts pour une nouvelle éruption

Six jours après la spectaculaire éruption de buts et de beau jeu de l’aller (3-3), l’Inter Milan et le FC Barcelone sont sur des charbons ardents pour décrocher mardi (21h00) leur billet pour la finale de la Ligue des champions.La dernière fois que le Barça a disputé une demi-finale de C1 à San Siro, en 2010, le géant catalan, porté alors par Lionel Messi et Zlatan Ibrahimovic, avait mis deux jours en car pour rallier Milan.Cette fois, le Barça n’a rien à redouter des caprices de l’Eyjafjöll, ce volcan islandais dont les cendres avaient paralysé il y a quinze ans le trafic aérien.Mais après une première manche enflammée par l’ouverture du score de Marcus Thuram d’une improbable talonnade et les coups de génie du phénomène Lamine Yamal, San Siro, rempli de 70.000 spectateurs, se prépare à vivre un choc qui pourrait envoyer de nouvelles répliques sismiques à travers tout le football européen.”C’est une très grande opportunité de marquer l’histoire” du club, a admis l’international espagnol Dani Olmo.Son entraîneur Hansi Flick, qui enregistre le retour de Robert Lewandowski sur le banc, deux semaines après une blessure à la cuisse gauche, a lui invité ses joueurs à “profiter” sur le terrain, sans se mettre la pression et à “démontrer à quel point ils sont forts”.- Six jours décisifs -Le technicien allemand a déjà remporté deux trophées, la Supercoupe d’Espagne et la Coupe du Roi, mais les six prochains jours seront décisifs pour déterminer si sa première saison catalane est un succès.Il peut en effet offrir au Barça mardi une première finale de Ligue des champions depuis 2015, une éternité pour le club catalan et ses supporters, et quasiment assurer un 28e titre de champion en remportant à domicile le Clasico dimanche. Pour aborder cette semaine capitale, Flick a fait tourner son effectif samedi contre la lanterne rouge Valladolid que le Barça a eu toutes les peines du monde à renverser (2-1).Il a fallu les entrées de Yamal, dès la 38e minute, puis de Raphinha et de Frenkie de Jong à la pause pour que son équipe décroche sa 13e victoire lors des 14 dernières journées de Liga.Son homologue de l’Inter, Simone Inzaghi, a adopté exactement la même stratégie et l’a même poussée à l’extrême avec pas moins de dix changements par rapport à l’équipe alignée la semaine dernière au stade Montjuic.L’Inter, dont le troisième et dernier sacre dans la compétition-reine remonte à cette volcanique année 2010 où il avait éliminé le Barça, est difficilement venu à bout du mal classé Vérone (1-0).- Avec Lautaro ? -Mais le champion d’Italie en titre, devancé de trois points par Naples, n’a plus son destin en mains en Serie A et semble vouloir se concentrer sur la Ligue des champions.”On n’est plus qu’à deux matches d’un titre, malgré toutes les difficultés qu’on a rencontrées. On a porté l’Inter au sommet du classement UEFA alors qu’on était 16e ou 17e il y a quatre ans, on a déjà fait quelque chose de très grand, mais on veut aller plus loin”, a prévenu Inzaghi en conférence de presse.S’il refuse de parler d’un plan anti-Yamal qui du haut de ses 17 ans avait relancé à l’aller son équipe menée 2-0 avec une prestation qualifiée de “Messiesque”, le technicien italien a laissé entendre que museler la pépite catalane sera la clef.”C’est très difficile de le priver de ballon, on va essayer. On va lui porter une attention particulière, il y aura un double marquage sur lui, mais comme il l’a montré à l’aller, c’est un talent exceptionnel, très dangereux quand il a le ballon, qui m’a impressionné par la rapidité de ses prises de décisions”, a-t-il poursuivi.”Mais, a-t-il prévenu, dans cette équipe, il y beaucoup de joueurs spéciaux”.Pour rallier le 31 mai à Munich leur deuxième finale sur les trois dernières éditions de la C1, après celle perdue contre Manchester City en 2023 (1-0), les Nerazzurri pourraient enregistrer le retour quasiment inespéré de Lautaro Martinez. Sorti à l’aller à cause d’une blessure à la cuisse gauche, le capitaine et buteur argentin pourrait finalement tenir sa place, tout comme Benjamin Pavard.”Une décision sera prise (mardi matin)”, a prévenu Inzaghi.

Hamas says no point in further Gaza truce talks

A senior Hamas official said Tuesday the group was no longer interested in truce talks with Israel and urged the international community to halt Israel’s “hunger war” against Gaza.”There is no sense in engaging in talks or considering new ceasefire proposals as long as the hunger war and extermination war continue in the Gaza Strip,” Basem Naim told AFP.He said the world must pressure the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the “crimes of hunger, thirst, and killings” in Gaza.The comments by Naim, a Hamas political bureau member and former Gaza health minister, came a day after Israel’s military said expanded operations in Gaza would include displacing “most” of its population.They come a day after Israel said its security cabinet approved the military’s plan for expanded operations, which an Israeli official said would entail “the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories”.Nearly all of the territory’s inhabitants have been displaced, often multiple times, since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Gaza has been under total Israeli blockade since March 2 and faces a severe humanitarian crisis.Israel’s military resumed its offensive on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month truce.The spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said Tuesday that three Palestinians including a little girl were killed in Israeli dawn attacks on different areas of Gaza.A UN spokesman said Monday Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “alarmed” by the Israeli plan that “will inevitably lead to countless more civilians killed and the further destruction of Gaza”.- ‘Large-scale evacuation’ -“Gaza is, and must remain, an integral part of a future Palestinian state,” Farhan Haq said.The Israeli decision comes as the UN and aid organisations have repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming.On Monday, a senior Israeli security official said that “a central component of the plan is a large-scale evacuation of the entire Gazan population from the fighting zones… to areas in southern Gaza”.Military spokesman Effie Defrin said the planned offensive will include “moving most of the population of the Gaza Strip… to protect them”.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in a radio interview on Tuesday called Israel’s plan for a Gaza offensive “unacceptable”, and said its government was “in violation of humanitarian law”.For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement in the war that led to Israel’s creation in 1948.On Monday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 2,459 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign on March 18, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,567.Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Out of the 251 people abducted by militants that day, 58 are still held in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

‘Aussiewood’ courts Hollywood as Trump film tariffs loom

Australia still wants to make “great films” with the United States, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Tuesday, as new tariffs threaten the home of Hollywood hits like The Matrix, Elvis and Crocodile Dundee.US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced 100 percent tariffs for all films produced in “foreign lands”, saying struggling Tinsel Town would be better served by “movies made in America”. So-called “Aussiewood” has for years used generous tax breaks and other cash incentives to lure foreign filmmakers Down Under, producing a string of hits for major Hollywood studios. Although little is known about how the tariffs might work, Australia’s top diplomat Wong said they risk ultimately proving a flop with filmgoers. “Our message is we make great films together,” she told national broadcaster ABC. “We have films, American films, which are filmed here in Australia. The collaboration is a good thing. So, let’s not get in the way of that.” “Crocodile Dundee”, a 1986 comedy about an Australian bushman transplanted to New York City, helped put Australia’s fledgling film industry on the map in America. Since then, some of Hollywood’s hottest directors have used Australia to film Marvel blockbusters, Mission Impossible instalments, and box office winners like Elvis. The tariffs could also trouble neighbouring New Zealand, which famously lent its spectacular scenery to the beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy. New Zealand Film Commission boss Annie Murray said they were still trying to untangle how the tariffs might work.”We’re mindful, however, this is an evolving situation and it’s too early to speculate on what this could mean,” she told AFP. The tariffs appear to target a business model favoured by American studios who obtain tax breaks to film in countries such as Britain, Canada, Ireland and Australia. A recent survey of studio executives found that their top five favoured production locations were all outside the United States. At the start of this year, Trump appointed veteran stars Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight to bring Hollywood back “bigger, better and stronger than ever before”.

How a privately owned city in Kenya took on corrupt officialsTue, 06 May 2025 06:45:57 GMT

To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success.The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with some 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for around two-thirdsof all foreign investment in Kenya.Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, …

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US President Trump and Canada’s Carney set for high-stakes meeting

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meets Donald Trump on Tuesday for the first time since he won reelection on a pledge to stand up to the US president’s tariffs and threats to annex the United States’ northern neighbor.The 60-year-old Liberal Party leader has said that things cannot be the same with the United States under Trump, and warned not to expect any immediate agreements from the meeting at the White House.Trump has sparked a major trade war with Canada, which counts the United States as its main ally and trading partner, while repeatedly making extraordinary calls for Canada to become the 51st US state.Republican Trump called Carney a “very nice gentleman” after they spoke last week but said on Monday that he was “not sure” what Carney wanted to talk about.”He’s coming to see me. I’m not sure what he wants to see me about, but I guess he wants to make a deal. Everybody does,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.Trump is set to welcome Carney at 11:30 am (1530 GMT), followed by lunch and then a meeting in the Oval Office.Trump slapped general tariffs of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico and sector-specific levies on autos, some of which have been suspended pending negotiations. He has also imposed similar duties on steel and aluminum.Carney has vowed to remake Canada’s ties with the United States in perhaps its biggest political and economic shift since World War II.”Our old relationship based on steadily increasing integration is over. The questions now are how our nations will cooperate in the future,” Carney said on Friday.The Canadian leader said he would also “fight to get the best deal” on the tariffs.But Trump’s ultra-loyal Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said it would be “really complex” to reach a deal.”They have their socialist regime and it’s basically feeding off of America,” he told Fox Business on Monday. “I just don’t see how it works out perfectly.”- ‘Important moment’ -The US president inserted himself into Canada’s election early on with a social media post saying Canada would face “ZERO TARIFFS” if it “becomes the cherished 51st state.”Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote but Trump’s attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular former premier Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister in March, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.The political newcomer previously served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and in the latter post he played a key role reassuring markets after the 2016 Brexit vote.Carney is known for weighing his words carefully but he will face a challenge dealing with the confrontational Trump on the US president’s home turf.”This is a very important moment for him, since he insisted during the campaign that he could take on Mr Trump,” Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, told AFP.The Canadian premier would also have to avoid the fate of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who walked into a brutal tongue-lashing from Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February.”Everyone obviously remembers the altercation with Zelensky,” said Tellier.One point in Carney’s favor is that he is not Trudeau, the slick former prime minister whom Trump famously loathed and belittled as “governor” of Canada, she added.The world will also be watching, with Carney’s victory one of two by left-leaning leaders in the past week in elections that Trump’s stance may have swayed.Carney’s victory came just days before Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also won reelection in a vote that was overshadowed by Trump’s tariff threats.On arrival in the US capital, the Canadian PM struck a confident tone.”Canada and the United States are strongest when we work together — and that work starts now,” he said on social media.

Gabon’s new president faces tough economic challengesTue, 06 May 2025 06:29:09 GMT

Big challenges await Gabon’s new president Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema as he takes the reins of a country rich in oil but struggling with debt.The general was sworn in on Saturday after winning 94.85 percent in the April 12 vote in which international observers signalled no major irregularities.His victory followed a 19-month transition after he …

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