AFP - Squid Business

Canada candidates promise less reliance on US a month before vote

A month before Canadians vote in an election dominated by threats from US President Donald Trump, leading candidates pledged Monday to build an economy that can thrive without depending on its southern neighbor.Prime Minister Mark Carney, who replaced Justin Trudeau this month, appears to have revitalized his Liberal Party, which just months ago looked headed towards a crushing electoral defeat.Most polls ahead of the April 28 election show Carney’s Liberals slightly ahead of the Conservatives, whose leader Pierre Poilievre has struggled, experts say, to adjust his message in response to Trump.The US president has repeatedly spoken about annexing Canada while pushing an array of tariffs that could force America’s northern neighbor and largest trading partner into recession. Campaigning outside Toronto on Monday, Carney said “Trump is trying to fundamentally restructure the US economy,” which will force Canada to “reimagine” its own.”We need to build a new Canadian economy, a more resilient economy that can succeed in what will be a drastically different world,” Carney said.Canada needs to be able to thrive “without any regard to what goes on in the United States,” he added.Poilievre built momentum over the past year by attacking an increasingly unpopular Trudeau and by promising to address core issues like affordability, notably soaring housing costs.His campaign has maintained a focus on rising costs but with added emphasis on Trump.”It is time to turn Canada into an economic fortress that puts our country first for a change,” he said Monday in the eastern province of New Brunswick.”With Donald Trump threatening our country with tariffs, we need big projects that link our regions, east to west. We need to be able to get our resources across Canada, bypassing America, so we can trade more with each other and sell our resources to the world.”- Cost of living -Julie Grignon, an account manager in the town of Magog in Quebec province, said Carney — who has never held elected office — was an unknown. “We don’t know his personality,” she told AFP on Sunday.But she said her top concern was how Canada’s economy can become more independent from the United States.”If anyone knows economics, it’s Carney,” the 55-year-old said. The prime minister has argued his experience has prepared him to lead Canada through economic turmoil.He is a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and later governor of the Bank of Canada during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.He also led the Bank of England through the Brexit vote and its aftermath. But Poilievre maintains Carney is offering a continuation of Trudeau, whom the Conservatives accuse of poor economic management. “President Trump has said he wants the Liberals back in power. We know why, because they will keep Canada weak and keep our investment flowing out of this country,” he said at a campaign stop on Sunday.In the border town of Sarnia on Monday, where concern is building ahead of further Trump tariff announcements expected this week, Conservative voter Paul Sonier said the Liberals have failed to control costs since Trudeau was first elected in 2015. “Look at what we have now as far as the price of everything. Who’s been in power for the last, I don’t know, 10 years?””It’s time for a change,” he told AFP. – ‘Looking for a savior’ -Ottawa University politics professor Genevieve Tellier said the election comes at a “truly exceptional time for Canada.”The country is “looking for a savior,” she told AFP. After Trump announced his planned auto tariffs last week, Carney declared that the era of deep economic, security and military ties between Canada and the United States “is over.”Tellier said Carney’s “firm tone” and explanation that “relations with the United States would never be the same again” seem to be resonating with voters. Those remarks have “captured the current mood in Canada,” she said.

Des Gazaouis fuient Rafah après de nouveaux appels à évacuer

L’armée israélienne a appelé lundi à évacuer les habitants de plusieurs quartiers de Rafah, dans le sud de la bande de Gaza, laissant présager de nouveaux combats dans cette zone près de deux semaines après la reprise de son offensive contre le Hamas.Le porte-parole de l’armée en langue arabe, Avichay Adree, s’est adressé sur X aux habitants de vastes zones de Rafah et de la ville proche de Khan Younès.”L’armée israélienne revient pour combattre avec force afin d’éliminer les capacités des organisations terroristes dans ces zones. Pour votre sécurité, vous devez vous rendre immédiatement aux abris à Al-Mawasi”, au nord-ouest de Rafah, a-t-il déclaré.Des images tournées par l’AFP montrent de longues colonnes d’habitants fuyant à pied, à vélo ou dans des charrettes tirées par des ânes.”Une carte tout en rouge a été publiée aujourd’hui appelant à évacuer tout Rafah, et me voilà en train de marcher. Il n’y a pas de transport et je n’ai pas d’argent pour une voiture. Nous n’avons rien pris avec nous, nous avons tout laissé derrière”, a témoigné Ali Mansour, un habitant de la ville.Najah Dhahir, elle aussi de Rafah, fuyait à pied, son bébé de neuf mois dans les bras.”Nous avons pris nos enfants, nous avons laissé nos affaires, notre literie, notre nourriture, notre argent”, dit-elle.”Les gens sont brinquebalés au gré des ordres militaires incessants qui jouent avec leur destin et leur vie”, a déclaré lundi le chef de l’Unrwa, l’agence de l’ONU pour les réfugiés palestiniens, Philippe Lazzarini. “Comme si la mort, les maladies, les destructions et la faim ne suffisaient pas pour les Palestiniens de Gaza”, a-t-il écrit sur X.Rafah, une ville frontalière de l’Egypte où s’étaient réfugiés des centaines de milliers d’habitants de Gaza, avait déjà été la cible d’une offensive israélienne majeure il y a environ un an.Les troupes israéliennes sont repassées à l’offensive le 20 mars dans cette ville, deux jours après avoir rompu la trêve avec le Hamas, entrée en vigueur le 19 janvier, pour contraindre le mouvement islamiste palestinien à libérer ses derniers otages.- “Passer à l’action” -Lundi, un responsable du Hamas a appelé “quiconque peut porter des armes” à combattre n’importe où le projet du président américain, Donald Trump, de déplacer les habitants de Gaza et prendre le contrôle du territoire.”Face à ce plan diabolique, qui combine massacres et famine, toute personne capable de porter une arme où que ce soit dans le monde doit passer à l’action”, a déclaré ce responsable, Sami Abou Zouhri. La veille, le Premier ministre israélien, Benjamin Netanyahu, avait proposé de laisser les dirigeants du Hamas quitter Gaza à condition que le mouvement dépose les armes. Une telle hypothèse constitue une “ligne rouge” pour le Hamas, au pouvoir à Gaza depuis 2007.M. Netanyahu a aussi indiqué qu’après la guerre Israël assurerait la sécurité à Gaza et “permettrait la mise en oeuvre du projet Trump”.Donald Trump avait soulevé un tollé international cet hiver en proposant que les 2,4 millions d’habitants de Gaza soient expulsés vers l’Egypte ou la Jordanie. Il a ensuite semblé faire marche arrière, déclarant qu’il “n’imposerait pas” ce projet.Les autorités israéliennes semblent cependant prendre au sérieux ce plan et “cela inquiète le Hamas, car son existence même repose sur le contrôle de Gaza”, selon Alan Mendoza, directeur exécutif de la Henry Jackson Society, un cercle de réflexion britannique. “Sans ce contrôle, le mouvement ne peut plus exister”, a-t-il expliqué à l’AFP. Depuis la reprise de l’offensive, 1.001 personnes ont été tuées à Gaza, selon le ministère de la Santé du Hamas, portant le bilan total à 50.357 morts depuis le début de la guerre déclenchée par l’attaque du mouvement islamiste contre Israël le 7 octobre 2023.”Ces massacres sont commis sous les yeux du monde, contre des civils non armés et des déplacés sous leurs tentes”, a affirmé lundi le Hamas, condamnant “une politique d’extermination et de déplacement forcé”.Du côté israélien, l’attaque du Hamas a entraîné la mort de 1.218 personnes, en majorité des civils, selon un décompte de l’AFP basé sur des données officielles.

Des Gazaouis fuient Rafah après de nouveaux appels à évacuer

Recherché par la justice, le chef des Serbes de Bosnie Milorad Dodik dit être à Moscou

Hamas issues call to arms against displacement as Israel orders new evacuations

A senior Hamas official urged supporters worldwide on Monday to take up weapons and fight plans to displace Gaza’s people, as Israel issued a sweeping evacuation order in the territory’s south, stepping up its renewed offensive.The idea of forcing Gazans to leave the devastated territory for neighbouring countries such as Egypt and Jordan was first floated by US President Donald Trump, and has since been seized on by right-wing Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed on Sunday to implement it.”In the face of this sinister plan — one that combines massacres with starvation — anyone who can bear arms, anywhere in the world, must take action,” Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement Monday.”Do not withhold an explosive, a bullet, a knife, or a stone. Let everyone break their silence.”AFPTV images showed residents of southern Gaza leaving the area on Monday following the Israeli military’s evacuation order warning of renewed operations.Some rode in cars piled high with belongings, while others pushed heavy carts and others carried nothing at all.The order, posted to X by army spokesman Avichay Adraee, included a map showing a swath of southern Gaza in red, including the city of Rafah.It said the military was “returning to fight with great force to eliminate the capabilities of terrorist organisations in these areas”, urging residents to head to the Al Mawasi area, northwest of Rafah.”I am currently on foot, there is no transportation, and I do not have the fare for a car ride. As you can see, we have no luggage with us — we left all our belongings behind,” said Ali Mansour, a resident of the city. Fellow Rafah resident Najah Dhahir, fleeing with her nine-month-old baby, said “they told us we had two hours to evacuate” before the Israeli army arrived.The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said “people are treated like pinballs with constant military orders playing with their fate & lives”.”As if death, diseases, destruction and hunger were not enough for the Palestinians in Gaza,” Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.- Trump plan -Hamas’s call to arms came a day after Netanyahu offered to let the group’s leaders leave Gaza while demanding it disarm.The group has previously expressed a willingness to relinquish administration of Gaza, but has warned its weapons are a “red line”.Netanyahu said Sunday that after the war, Israel would ensure overall security in Gaza and “enable the implementation of the Trump plan” — which had initially called for the mass displacement of all 2.4 million people living in the Palestinian territory — calling it a “voluntary migration plan”.UK-based Alan Mendoza, founder of the Henry Jackson Society think tank, said it appeared that Israeli authorities were taking Trump’s plan seriously.”This alarms Hamas because their very existence depends on controlling Gaza,” Mendoza told AFP.Hamas had also been “shocked” by last week’s protests in Gaza against the group.”It is a two-pronged pressure (that Hamas is facing), both externally and internally,” Mendoza said.”Internally, Hamas led their own people to disaster and so if they make (the external pressure) a national cause then they can get people to rally around the flag.”Days after taking office in January, Trump floated a proposal to move Gaza’s population out of the war-battered territory, suggesting that Egypt or Jordan could take them in.Both countries, along with other Arab allies, governments around the world and the Palestinians themselves, have flatly rejected the notion.Trump later appeared to backtrack on the proposal, saying he was “not forcing” his widely condemned plan.- ‘Forced displacement’ -Arab nations have since come up with an alternative plan for rebuilding the Gaza Strip without relocating its people, which would take place under the future administration of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in February that a special agency would be established for the “voluntary departure” of Gazans.Israel resumed intense bombing of Gaza on March 18 and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war with Hamas after negotiations to extend it hit an impasse.Since the fighting restarted, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says that at least 1,001 people have been killed.Decrying attacks “against unarmed civilians” living in tents, Hamas in a statement Monday condemned a “policy of extermination and forced displacement”.The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 50,357 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

L’Iran “n’aura d’autre choix” que de se doter de l’arme nucléaire en cas d’attaque (conseiller du guide suprême)

Could Trump serve a third term? Probably not

President Donald Trump may be publicly musing about serving a third term in the White House but the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution makes such a scenario highly unlikely.Trump, 78, said Sunday he was “not joking” about serving a third term as president and told NBC News there are “methods” that would allow it to happen.Most constitutional scholars disagree. And any serious effort to amend the founding document — which as currently written bars a president from serving a third term — would send the country into uncharted territory.- Presidential history -America’s first president, George Washington, set a precedent by stepping down after serving two terms in office but the two-term presidential limit was only formally codified more than 150 years later.Only one US president — Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt — has served more than two terms in the White House.Roosevelt was elected president four times — in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944. His fourth term ended prematurely with his April 12, 1945 death at age 63.Other former commanders in chief, notably Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt, have sought a third term in office but failed to win the nomination or re-election.Trump is only the second president to win a nonconsecutive term in office, having won in 2016, lost in 2020, and won again in 2024.The first was Grover Cleveland, who won in 1884, lost in 1888, and won in 1892.- 22nd Amendment -The 22nd Amendment limiting a president to two terms in office was passed in 1947 — two years after Roosevelt’s death — by two-thirds of the House of Representatives and two-thirds of the Senate.It was ratified by three-quarters of the 50 US state legislatures in 1951.The text states: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”It also bars a president who has served more than two years “of a term to which some other person was elected President” from being elected again more than once.- Longshot resolution -During his presidential campaign and since taking office, Trump has jokingly speculated on several occasions about serving a third term.But his remarks over the weekend were his most detailed yet about the possibility and were punctuated by the phrase “I’m not joking.””A lot of people want me to do it,” the Republican president said.Trump was asked by NBC of a scenario whereby Vice President JD Vance would run for president in 2028 and then “pass the baton” to Trump as his running mate.”Well, that’s one. But there are others too,” Trump said, without elaborating.The 12th Amendment would seem to bar the door on that, however.”No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States,” it states.In January, Republican lawmaker Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a long shot resolution in the House tailored to Trump that would allow a president who served nonconsecutive terms to serve a third term.A constitutional convention could also be convened to amend the US Constitution, but that is considered equally unlikely.At 82 years and seven months old, Trump will already be the oldest president ever at the end of his second term in January 2029.Democrat Joe Biden was 82 years and two months old when he left office in January.Despite the apparent difficulties of overcoming the constitutional two-term limit, punters have taken note of Trump’s comments, and his odds of winning the 2028 presidential race have jumped.According to offshore bookmaker BetOnline.ag, the odds of Trump securing a third term improved to six to one, up from 10 to one earlier, ranking him in second place behind current Vice President JD Vance among those who could win the election.

Michelin: le retour en grâce de Christopher Coutanceau, le sacre de Hugo Roellinger

Toujours plus de nouveaux talents et un retour en grâce: le guide Michelin a décerné lundi 68 nouvelles étoiles, dont une troisième à Hugo Roellinger et à Christopher Coutanceau, deux ans après la lui avoir retirée.”Il m’avait dit droit dans les yeux +Je reviendrai dans le Top 14+ et il avait raison!”, a lancé le directeur du guide rouge, Gwendal Poullennec, avant d’annoncer le nom de Christopher Coutanceau, qui avait obtenu son troisième macaron pour la première fois juste avant le premier confinement, en 2020, avant de le perdre en 2023.”Bien sûr, c’est le Graal. C’est comme un joueur de rugby qui gagne une Coupe du monde ou une Coupe d’Europe. C’est des moments qui restent gravés dans notre tête, dans notre coeur et dans notre histoire”, a expliqué à l’AFP le chef de 46 ans, connu pour son engagement en faveur d’une pêche durable et artisanale.”Et puis, c’est vrai qu’à La Rochelle, il n’y avait jamais eu de trois étoiles. Mais ça fait deux fois qu’on les ramène à la maison. Et j’en suis très fier, et très fier de l’offrir aussi à mes équipes”, a-t-il ajouté.”Je suis très honoré de recevoir cette distinction”, a pour sa part réagi auprès de l’AFP Hugo Roellinger, à la tête de l’établissement Le Coquillage en Bretagne, rendant hommage à sa femme Marine, ses équipes et sa soeur Mathilde, “qui mélange les plus belles épices”. “Bien sûr, ces trois étoiles, ça me fait plaisir de le faire pour mes parents”, a poursuivi le chef de 37 ans, fils d’Olivier Roellinger, monument de la gastronomie française. “C’est un grand bonheur, comme pour tout papa ou toute maman, de voir un garçon s’épanouir dans la même passion que la vôtre et, aujourd’hui, d’être reconnu par ses pairs”, a déclaré à l’AFP ce dernier, qui avait rendu en 2008 ses trois étoiles pour raisons de santé.- Chefs japonais à l’honneur -Ces deux promotions portent à 31 le nombre d’adresses triplement étoilées en France, après la rétrogradation il y a dix jours de la maison Georges Blanc, à Vonnas, dans l’Ain.Hugo Roellinger et Christopher Coutanceau succèdent à Jérôme Banctel, chef du Gabriel à Paris, et Fabien Ferré, qui avait obtenu l’an dernier trois étoiles d’un coup pour la réouverture de La Table du Castellet, dans le Var, un fait rarissime.Le millésime 2025, dévoilé à Metz, compte également neuf nouveaux restaurants deux étoiles, dont Maison Nouvelle de Philippe Etchebest à Bordeaux, et trois tenus par des chefs japonais. Blanc de Shinichi Sato et Sushi Yoshinaga de Tomoyuki Yoshinaga à Paris remportent un deuxième macaron seulement un an après avoir décroché une première étoile, tandis que L’Abysse Monte-Carlo, à Monaco, de Yasunari Okazaki est distingué dès son ouverture. Si, l’an dernier, aucune femme ne faisait partie du haut du palmarès, cette année le Michelin a récompensé d’une deuxième étoile la cheffe Fanny Rey et son compagnon pâtissier Jonathan Wahid pour leur restaurant L’Auberge de Saint-Rémy, à Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), ainsi que l’établissement Rozó à Marcq-en-Baroeul (Nord), tenu par le chef Diego Delbecq et sa compagne pâtissière Camille Pailleau. – “Effervescence” -Un nombre record de 57 restaurants obtiennent par ailleurs un premier macaron, dont 28 qui n’étaient auparavant pas recommandés par le guide rouge.”Près de la moitié des nouveaux restaurants étoilés ont ouvert très récemment”, a précisé M. Poullennec. “C’est dire l’énergie du paysage culinaire français. La France reste une mosaïque unique, pleine d’effervescence et de conviction”, a-t-il insisté.Au total, la sélection du Michelin recommande désormais 654 tables étoilées (31 trois étoiles, 81 deux étoiles et 542 une étoile) réparties à travers toute la France. Pour ne pas gâcher les festivités, les rétrogradations avaient été annoncées en amont. Cette année, pas de tempête médiatique à la Marc Veyrat en 2019 ou à la Guy Savoy en 2023 mais la perte de la troisième étoile pour la maison Georges Blanc, après 44 ans au sommet. Créé en 1900 par les frères André et Edouard Michelin à destination des automobilistes, le guide Michelin est aujourd’hui présent en Europe, en Asie, en Amérique du Nord et du Sud, et se décline dans plus de 50 destinations.

Argentine: fort recul de la pauvreté au deuxième semestre 2024, à 38,1% de la population (Institut statistique)

Israel’s Netanyahu picks new security chief, defying legal challenge

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu picked former navy commander Eli Sharvit to head the country’s domestic security agency, his office said Monday, despite the supreme court freezing the incumbent’s dismissal.Sharvit is not expected to assume office until April 8, the date when the supreme court is scheduled to rule on the dismissal of the current Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar.Netanyahu moved to sack Bar on March 21, citing an “ongoing lack of trust” in him.But after petitions filed by Israel’s opposition and a non-governmental organisation, the supreme court suspended the dismissal of Bar, whose relationship with the government became strained after he blamed the executive for the security fiasco of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Legal experts and Israeli opposition leaders warned that if the top court overturns Bar’s dismissal, the country could face a constitutional crisis.”After conducting in-depth interviews with seven worthy candidates, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to appoint former Israel navy commander, Vice-Admiral Eli Sharvit as the next director of the ISA (Shin Bet),” his office said in a statement.Netanyahu’s office said Sharvit had served in the military for 36 years, including five as navy commander.”In that position, he led the force building of the maritime defence of the territorial waters and conducted complex operations against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,” the statement said.- ‘Playing with fire’ -Legal experts AFP spoke to said that Netanyahu had so far not violated any law in choosing Sharvit.”Things are proceeding in parallel as the supreme court allowed him to interview candidates for the post while legal proceedings are still on in the court,” an expert on the issue told AFP on condition of anonymity, for fear of appearing to criticise the government.”The question of how legal is the dismissal (of Bar) is still pending in the supreme court and it could still be cancelled by the court.”The expert said Netanyahu, by choosing the next Shin Bet chief, was “establishing facts on the ground”.”It might be an attempt to influence the court.”Opposition leader and former defence minister Benny Gantz praised Sharvit but cautioned that the country could be on the brink of a crisis by pitting the judiciary against the executive.”What is clear is that the prime minister decided this morning to continue his campaign against the judicial system and lead the state of Israel toward a dangerous constitutional crisis,” Gantz said in a statement.Gantz emphasised that “the appointment of the head of the Shin Bet must take place only after the supreme court’s ruling”.Israel’s main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, lashed out against the way the government picked Sharvit.”It’s about the hasty, fearful, and irresponsible process by which the selection for the next head of Shin Bet was conducted,” Lapid said on X.US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican ally of President Donald Trump, also criticised the appointment as “beyond problematic”, citing unspecified past statements by Sharvit about Trump.- Protests, criticism -Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara had said immediately after the March 21 ruling that Netanyahu was “prohibited” from appointing a new Shin Bet chief.Baharav-Miara also said she suspected Netanyahu of having a conflict of interest.But he insisted it was up to his government to decide who heads the domestic security agency.Bar’s relationship with the Netanyahu government soured after he blamed the executive for Hamas’s October 2023 attack, and following a Shin Bet probe into alleged covert payments from Qatar to a Netanyahu aide.On Monday, Netanyahu testified in the investigation, locally dubbed “Qatargate”, denouncing it as a “political witch hunt” aimed at “preventing the dismissal” of Bar.He also condemned the arrests of his two aides, Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, calling their detention an act of “hostage” taking.Baharav-Miara was also previously critical of the government’s plans to overhaul the judiciary, which she said threatened to make Israel a “democracy in name but not in spirit”.The proposed changes sparked months of mass protests across Israel, deeply dividing society, but the government suspended them following the start of the Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s attack.They have since been revived, however.Thousands of Israelis protested last week to condemn Bar’s dismissal, and to call for the return of the hostages being held in Gaza.They also protested against the Israeli parliament’s decision to pass a law expanding elected officials’ power to appoint judges pushed by Netanyahu’s government.