Ligue 1: à Nice, Haise hausse le ton et les tauliers doivent réagir

“Est-ce qu’ils sont suffisamment mes relais? S’ils l’étaient, on n’en serait pas là”: avant le déplacement de Nice à Strasbourg samedi, l’entraîneur Franck Haise n’épargne personne, à commencer par ses leaders, censés prolonger son discours sur le terrain.La dernière victoire niçoise remonte au 1er mars, à Saint-Étienne (3-1). Après un point pris sur douze, “Strasbourg est un défi magnifique, où on est vraiment outsider”, indique Franck Haise. “Vu les dynamiques, on doit logiquement perdre, observe-t-il. Mais si cette série négative devait perdurer un match de plus, ça serait plus compliqué (pour l’Europe, Ndlr).”Malgré cette urgence, le technicien se trouve devant un défi plus important: “Retrouver un état d’esprit collectif”. “C’est au moment où on a le plus de monde, qu’on a perdu notre force collective, analyse-t-il. Ce n’est jamais anodin. Ce sont les attitudes, les comportements.”Et d’asséner: “S’il nous manque des choses ces dernières semaines, c’est parce que tous ne mettent pas toute leur énergie positive au service de l’équipe. Si vous voulez avoir des résultats, cinq ou six joueurs ne suffisent pas.”En début de saison, Haise avait instauré un conseil des sages au sein du vestiaire. Autour du capitaine Dante, il comptait sur Marcin Bulka, Pablo Rosario, Morgan Sanson, Gaëtan Laborde et Jérémie Boga.Les trois derniers ont longtemps été blessés, mais sont désormais opérationnels. Or, comme dans toute construction humaine, les statuts ont évolué. Si les “historiques” demeurent essentiels, certains comme Youssouf Ndayishimiye, Evann Guessand et Jonathan Clauss ont pris du poids.-“On se dit les vérités”-“Les leaders ont leur importance”, souligne Haise. Mais il y a “un manque”. “Tous les messages, ceux des leaders, mais d’abord le mien, ne passent pas suffisamment bien, dit-il. Sinon, on aurait pris plus de points.”Leader technique, Boga assume sa “responsabilité”. “A un moment, on doit plus échanger avec le groupe, faire parler notre expérience, convient-il. On se parle de plus en plus, on se dit les vérités les uns, les autres. Elles sont parfois difficiles mais on est professionnels. C’est pour le bien collectif. Il faut de prendre ses responsabilités individuellement, et assumer son rôle de leader.”Haise ne jette toutefois pas uniquement la pierre à ses hommes d’expérience. Il compte sur chacun pour “une prise de conscience, sinon à la fin, on aura beaucoup de regrets”, prévient-il.Et puis, “il faut avoir envie d’écouter les leaders, une capacité d’écoute, d’acceptation, poursuit l’entraîneur. C’est ça, la dynamique d’équipe, la cohésion. C’est le plus difficile, parce que ça dépend de chacun. Il ne faut pas que les mecs se disent: +Il n’y a que nos leaders+. C’est trop facile de dire: +Nos leaders faillent+. Ou alors: “C’est le coach+. Chacun doit être en capacité de se regarder, de demander ce qu’il fait pour l’équipe.”A six journées du terme du championnat, ce discours a fait grincer quelques dents en interne. Mais il a pour but de faire réagir. “Ce qui me fait le plus peur, c’est que je ne retrouve pas un groupe qui a envie de +performer+ ensemble, poursuit Haise. C’est ma crainte. Si je retrouve ça, il n’y aura pas de regrets.”Après avoir changé quelques routines cette semaine à l’entraînement, il a encore distillé le même discours. Et il compte aussi sur la réaction de ses cadres, tel Boga.”On n’a plus de joker, conclut le champion d’Afrique. Ceux qui ont raté beaucoup de matches, eu une saison compliquée en raison des blessures, comme moi, ont envie de finir fort pour aider le club à atteindre ses objectifs. C’est très excitant.”

Search called off for two Nepalis caught in Annapurna avalanche

The search for two missing Nepali climbers has been called off, the expedition organiser said Saturday, five days after they were swept away by a powerful avalanche on Annapurna, the world’s 10th highest mountain.The 8,091-metre (26,545-foot) Annapurna is a dangerous and difficult climb, and the avalanche-prone Himalayan peak has a higher death rate than Everest.Two experienced mountain guides, Ngima Tashi Sherpa and Rima Rinje Sherpa, were ferrying oxygen cylinders for a later summit push when a huge avalanche swept down on Monday.”The search has been called off. We tried to search for them from the ground and through aerial searches but could not find them,” Mingma Sherpa, chairman of the Seven Summit Treks expedition company, told AFP.Two helicopters and five climbers were deployed in the operation. “It is no longer possible for anyone to survive under such snow and ice, and continuing the search would endanger more lives,” Seven Summit Treks posted on Instagram late Friday, announcing the suspension.”We have lost two of our finest guides.”Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds are typically calm.Nearly 500 climbers have been issued permits for the season, including 66 for Annapurna.Avalanches and landslides are common in the upper reaches of the Himalayas, especially during the winter season. Scientists have said that climate change spurred by humans burning fossil fuels is making weather events more severe, super-charged by warmer oceans.

Trump tells Russia to ‘get moving’ on Ukraine as Witkoff meets Putin

US envoy Steve Witkoff wrapped up his latest talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Friday, after President Donald Trump urged his Russian counterpart to move quicker to end what he said was the country’s “senseless war” with Ukraine.Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree a ceasefire deal but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between Russian and US officials.The US leader told NBC News last month he was “pissed off” with his Russian counterpart, while top US diplomat Marco Rubio warned last week that Washington would not tolerate “endless negotiations” with Russia over the conflict.”Russia has to get moving,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that the conflict, which began in February 2022 when Moscow sent troops into Ukraine, was “senseless” and “should have never happened”.Kyiv and several of its Western allies suspect Russia of stalling the talks on purpose. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of dragging Beijing into the conflict and on Friday claimed that hundreds of Chinese nationals were fighting at the Ukraine front line alongside Russian troops.Trump’s post came just before Witkoff’s meeting with Putin at the presidential library in Saint Petersburg, which state news agencies said lasted four and a half hours.The Kremlin said afterwards only that the meeting had taken place and “focused on various aspects of the Ukrainian settlement”, without elaborating.Spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said earlier that he expected no diplomatic “breakthroughs” from the talks — Witkoff’s third with Putin since February.He also said “maybe” to a question about whether a possible meeting between Putin and Trump would be discussed.- Kellogg’s ‘zones of responsibility’ -After their last meeting, Witkoff — a long-time Trump ally who worked with the US president in real estate — said Putin was a “great leader” and “not a bad guy”.The envoy’s praise of a president long seen by the United States as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic turn in Washington’s approach to dealings with the Kremlin since Trump took office for a second term.Despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a ceasefire.Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, suggested British and French troops could adopt zones of control in the country, in an interview with The Times published Saturday.Kellogg suggested they could have areas of responsibility west of the Dnipro river, as part of a “reassurance force”, with a demilitarised zone separating them from Russian-occupied areas in the east.”You could almost make it look like what happened with Berlin after World War II,” he told the British newspaper.”I was speaking of a post-ceasefire resiliency force in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty. In discussions of partitioning, I was referencing areas or zones of responsibility for an allied force (without US troops),” he said later on X.- ‘Using Chinese lives’ – Kyiv said this week that its forces had captured two Chinese nationals in the eastern Donetsk region fighting for Moscow.The Kremlin denied the claim, while Beijing warned parties to the conflict against making “irresponsible remarks”.”As of now, we have information that at least several hundred Chinese nationals are fighting as part of Russia’s occupation forces,” Zelensky told military chiefs from allied countries in Brussels.”This means Russia is clearly trying to prolong the war — even by using Chinese lives.”The Ukrainian leader also called out Russia for having refused a complete ceasefire proposed by the United States with Ukrainian approval a month ago.Putin last month rejected a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.- Question of trust -Trump has pushed for a broad rapprochement with Moscow, which has yielded some results.On Thursday, Russia freed dual US-Russian ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina from prison in exchange for suspected tech smuggler Arthur Petrov, the second exchange between Moscow and Washington in less than two months.Karelina, arrested last January while visiting Russia to see family, was serving a 12-year sentence on “treason” charges after she donated the equivalent of around $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity.The head of Moscow’s foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, said Friday that Russia would discuss more prisoner swaps in the future.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the swaps helped build confidence between the two sides, which deteriorated under former US president Joe Biden’s administration. “It helps build trust, which is much needed, but it will take a long time to finally restore it,” he told reporters.

Scorching Coachella kicks off as Lady Gaga set to helm main stage

The California desert was buzzing Friday as the premier music festival Coachella got underway, with Lady Gaga and Missy Elliott set to helm day one’s main stage.Thousands of music fans traversed the sprawling grounds whipping paper fans and wielding parasols, as temperatures cracked the 100-degree Fahrenheit mark (37.8 degrees Celsius).That made sunscreen dispensers and water refill stations some of the hottest destinations on the poorly shaded grounds as the afternoon sun blazed and camping attendees popped their tents.The desert weekend marks the unofficial start of music festival season, which Lady Gaga is priming to kick off with a bang. Fresh off the release of her latest album “Mayhem,” the pop superstar has vowed “a massive night of chaos.””Can’t wait to hear you all singalong and dance dance DANCE till we drop,” she posted when the lineup was announced.Other Friday features include Australian electropop band Parcels, and a rare stateside appearance from British punk ravers The Prodigy.South African star Tyla brought out a massive crowd as she gyrated alongside her troupe of dancers and a giant Tiger statue on Friday, one year after an injury forced her to pull out of the 2024 festival.And Blackpink’s Lisa — fresh off a role in HBO’s hit show “White Lotus” — took the stage solo Friday night, having twice performed at Coachella with her bandmates.Later in the weekend Charli XCX is expected to turn the grounds her signature “brat” green, after a blockbuster year that saw her latest album propel her to new echelons of fame.Travis Scott will play a special guest slot following Green Day’s Saturday set, years after the hip-hop performer was slated to headline the 2020 festival, which was ultimately scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic.- Rock revival -Legendary all-women rock band The Go-Gos donned glittering, metallic get-ups as they reunited at Coachella, bringing rock back to the desert as they performed their hits including “Vacation” and “We Got The Beat.”They also invited Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong onstage for a rendition of “Head Over Heels.”And pop star of the moment Benson Boone took the main stage ahead of the much-touted performances by Elliott and Gaga.The exuberant costumed dancers of the kids’ television musical show Yo Gabba Gabba! made starring appearances on the grounds Friday afternoon, delighting revelers young and old who scrambled to take selfies with the characters.The show first released in 2007 has a cult following and is slated to perform a full set on Saturday, a performance that promises to feature a number of celebrity guest stars.”So many ‘kids’ attending the festival, grew up watching the show,” said show co-creator Christian Jacobs in a backstage interview with AFP. “That’s exciting.”Fresh off a Grammy win, Venezuelan band Rawayana is also primed to play a top slot on Saturday.And celebrity conductor Gustavo Dudamel notably will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a sunset concert. There have been orchestral performances at Coachella before — film composers Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer were showcased over the past decade — but Saturday’s performance will be the first time a major professional orchestra has played there.Hip-hop superstar Megan Thee Stallion will helm the main stage Sunday ahead of Post Malone’s headlining performance, with Ty Dolla $ign also set to perform.Also on Sunday, French duo Polo & Pan will bring their tropicalia-infused electro set back to the Coachella Valley.German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk are another top-billed draw.And while Coachella has leaned decidedly pop over the past decade, the 2025 edition is getting back to the festival’s rock roots. Along with The Go-Gos and Green Day, rock acts including the original Misfits, Jimmy Eat World, and cult punk legends the Circle Jerks are slated to play.”In this world gone sideways we know one thing for certain — rock ‘n’ roll is forever, and its spirit is needed now more than ever,” said Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong earlier this year in Billboard.Coachella 2025 takes place on April 11-13 and 18-20.