Rain Rosimannus and Tõnis Arro recall some of the key nuances of the 2001 presidential election.

The number of appeals against work ability assessment decisions has steadily declined over the years, Minister of Economic Affairs Erkki Keldo (Reform) wrote in a letter to an MP.

Rain Rosimannus and Tõnis Arro recall some of the key nuances of the 2001 presidential election.

Isamaa MP Helir-Valdor Seeder said he deliberately withheld his signature supporting Ülle Madise's recent presidential nomination, rejecting claims it was a technical error.

The number of appeals against work ability assessment decisions has steadily declined over the years, Minister of Economic Affairs Erkki Keldo (Reform) wrote in a letter to an MP.

The glass and timber Nature House complex is nearing completion in Põhja-Tallinn, the future home of the Estonian Museum of Natural History and state environmental agencies.

Tehisarutööstuse üheks olulisemaks indikaatoriks on kujunenud mikrokiipide ja -protsessorite tootja Nvidia majandustulemused. Ettevõtte eile avaldatud tulemused ja prognoosid näitavad, et buumil mingeid vaibumismärke näha veel ei ole ega tule ka ilmselt lähiaastatel.

Tammsaare kodukanti Järva-Madisele kerkinud monument oli rahva siiras tänuavaldus, kuid selles nähti ka võimude provokatsiooni, vaigistamaks kirjaniku võimukriitilisi sõnavõtte.

He was jailed for life in 2017 for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the wars in the ex-Yugoslavia in 1992-95.

The Bosnian Serb commander led a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian conflict.

In a letter, the entrepreneur accuses the prime minister of "jumping on 'everyday fixes' or bandwagons" with his latest cost of living and retail policies.

About 8.7 million customers had their data accessed and a ransom was demanded.

If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up free here. ESSENTIALS Nepal tragedy deepens Bush Summit now regional Australia’s Davos Memo to Albo: Tech companies want nuclear DRIVING THE DAY NEPAL-TIBET FLOODS: The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will work through the day to trace at least 35 missing Australians after flash floods struck the Nepal-Tibet border, killing more than 350 people. The department has deployed a crisis support team to the region and added surge capacity to respond to consular requests at home. More here about affected Australians, who include a tour group of 15 from the Indian Australian community on a Hindu pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet “We are also thinking of the people of Nepal and of China, and the diaspora communities in Australia,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong said. Australia has a fast-growing Nepalese community of around 150,000; around half live in New South Wales. ONE NATION IN NSW: Pauline Hanson will be in the Hunter Valley today to reveal One Nation’s top candidate for the March 2027 NSW state election. Lachlan Leeming reports that Mike Newman, the state’s former trade and investment commissioner, is Hanson’s pick for NSW leader and set to challenge for a seat in the Hunter. Hanson teased her news on Facebook Thursday, alongside a dig at Labor over migration, after a burst of confusion over its refugee intake (more on that below). Geoff Chambers points out the government can’t keep pointing the migration spotlight onto One Nation. WEEKEND PREVIEW Queensland Labor conference, held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, and ACT Labor conference is Saturday at QT Hotel. WA holds the Secret Harbour by-election, Saturday. THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW DAVID MCELREA – ONE NATION VOTERS ARE INTERESTED IN SOLAR PANELS The Smart Energy Council chief executive officer spoke to Miriam Webber from Aussie’s cafe in Parliament House. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. The prime minister seems to have shifted to a more flexible approach for Queensland and Northern Territory on powering data centers. Is it a mistake? Yes. I also see it as a reversal of the policy. He gave a speech at the Labor conference where he said that data centers would drive renewables; he didn’t mention not in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Do you see data centers as an opportunity for renewable energy? They could be an opportunity for renewable energy and for the country, but they’ve just got to be done in the right way. You see in the U.S. at the moment that when they’re done in the wrong way, they are a hot political issue. I’m really worried that what was announced yesterday, on the face of it, looks to be a backwards step. When it comes to solar panels, what do you see as the next steps for making them more affordable for low-income households and renters? Solar panels generally are just actually going down in price, and that’s because of innovation and, frankly, Chinese investment. I think maybe the future is plug-in batteries for renters. But the other thing is because of the way solar and batteries work, it is starting to drop power prices for everyone, so even if you don’t have it, you are getting a benefit. Australia has a national goal to source 82 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030. Are we on track? Yep. We are going to have to do more work, I’m still confident we can meet that goal. You can’t do things like use coal-fired power plants to fund new data centers. The way to do it is not the traditional idea, which had been lots of big wind farms and [large-scale energy projects]. Yes, we do need them, we need more of everything. But we’ve seen [that] you’ve got to build transmission lines, there are some social license issues, there’s some labor force issues. So they are slower than the country would like, and the industry would like. The solution is to build more distributed energy: solar panels on roofs, solar panels on businesses, on warehouses, batteries in those. In Australia, we are literally leading the world [on that]. It wasn’t what was planned, but it’s how it’s working out. What else should our readers watch out for? The conservative parties — Liberal/National and One Nation — are missing something here. Which is: People [install solar] because they want control over something. There’s a sense [from] a lot of people that they don’t control much. They are able to get solar and a battery, and all of a sudden they say, “I can take control over something.” I suspect that is reasonably prevalent among people who also might be attracted to One Nation. So this ideological opposition to solar panels and batteries from those parties runs counter to what their own bases are feeling. REALITY CHECK Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was challenged by Adelaide Advertiser editor Gemma Jones on nuclear energy at the Bush Summit in Dubbo and replied: “It doesn’t stack up. Find me an investor who’s prepared to invest in it and then we’ll take it more seriously.” ALBO ASKED, WE DELIVERED: Tech companies are falling over themselves to support nuclear plant construction, restarts, relicensing and upgrades across the U.S. Here’s how it’s going: Microsoft signed a 20-year power purchase agreement to restart a Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania. Google and Alphabet are backing NextEra Energy to restart a plant in Iowa that closed in 2020, and Google is supporting Elementl Power’s development of three new nuclear sites. Amazon invested in advanced modular reactor developer X-energy through its Climate Pledge Fund. Nvidia is supporting TerraPower’s first Natrium plant in Wyoming. Meta signed agreements to keep plants open in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania that were slated to close, and for the building of two new Natrium reactors. Given all that, and Anthropic’s interest in developing 5 gigawatts of data centers in NSW (triple the whole country’s current data center capacity), it would be a shock if those same tech companies turned out to have no interest in investing in nuclear power in Australia. DIRTY SECRET: Labor operatives and elected officials admit to Playbook that the days of Australia’s nuclear moratorium are numbered. That is very different from suggesting that Labor will support or subsidize nuclear power, but it’s a recognition of several things: Tech companies are rich enough to invest in nuclear, if they feel the need. Solar energy is now cheap and plentiful. It can thrive without artificial protection against competition from nuclear power. In the context of coal, the science suggests nuclear power is relatively safe and clean. Newer nuclear tech, and the possibility of small, modular plants for remote locations, changes the economics. BY THE NUMBERS WHINE TIME $8: The amount NSW Premier Chris Minns and Victoria Premier Ben Carroll each spent on a croissant from A.P. Bakery and Lune (in a NSW vs. Victoria taste competition photo op) 1: The number of senators angry about this — Sen. Jane Hume. She’s forgetting that people treat Lune as an experience rather than a food purchase, which helps everyone wrap their head around the price tag. $200: The price of a bottle of Hume’s preferred Four Pillars gin, h/t Labor MP Julian Hill. PRICELESS: The value of Hill’s 75-centimeter statue of himself. On the subject of relatability, Hume is considering another enduring foray into the genre. (See this video of her 2022 effort.) Hume’s 2026 version is set to be a podcast. Senator: Please don’t call it the “Jane Hume Show,” let’s do “Mummy Needs a Cocktail.” STATE OF THE NATION BUSH SUMMIT DAVOS FOR REGIONAL AUSTRALIA: Our Bush Summit vibe check from Playbook’s spies on the ground. The event has reached an institutional tipping point; it’s now a habit and a place to reconvene with friends from the last summit and old friends seen once a year. Pauline Hanson’s new chief of staff Chris Taylor was wandering around friendless much of time (because few know him by sight). Hanson, the One Nation leader, and Nationals Leader Matt Canavan were locking horns, just as Albo would have hoped. “I’m trying to work with you, Pauline. But anyway, alright,” sighed Canavan, after repeated interruptions at one point. Part of Canavan’s frustration is well-sourced: Hanson received tribal cheers and mob reactions while taking very similar positions to Canavan. Albo was jeered over renewables (shock! horror!) and accepted that the government needs to better build a social license. CAN MORE TREASURY OFFICIALS ACHIEVE LESS DEFICIT? An ACT parliamentary inquiry which found the Territory’s fiscal position unsustainable has some “counterintuitive” findings. Reality check — Forgetting the AI in sustainability: More and better officials could possibly garner more federal grants and rein in local spending. But there’s one obvious set of tools that will help achieve both those things: AI. We checked the inquiry report (131 pages), and an associated report by economist Saul Eslake (81 pages), and neither mentions AI. Given that AI is built to identify patterns and opportunities in data, its widespread effective use will be essential to lifting public sector productivity. The biggest challenge facing the public sector and its unions in coming years is finding acceptable ways to embrace AI. WHAT TO DO ABOUT KPMG? Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chair Graeme Samuel says firms that complete audit work for government departments and agencies should have to wait up to two years before beginning consultancy contracts. Samuel, now professor at Monash Business School, said artificial walls between audit functions and non-audit are a dud (in his words “an inherently dubious mechanism for ensuring integrity”). But he opposes forcibly splitting up the consultancy firms as “draconian overreach.” So how do you untangle this impossible knot? Samuel’s suggestion is that ASIC, which registers auditors, should introduce a condition that they do not make money from non-audit contracts with firms they audit. (Read Samuel’s parliamentary inquiry submission here.) Watt next? Former top public servant Ian Watt is reviewing KPMG’s “future suitability” for government work, with his report due by the end of September. PARTY ROOM LABOR — CULL ME MAYBE: The PM was forced to intervene after a report from The AFR’s Phil Coorey suggested Labor would slash Australia’s refugee intake by one-third. In 2022, Labor increased Australia’s humanitarian intake to 20,000 for four years — up from the baseline of 13,750. The increase was set to expire in July. Caucus heat: Several Labor MPs have demanded the 20,000 cohort be maintained. The party platform, signed off last month, aspires to 27,000 annually. And three Labor MPs confirmed to Playbook that the Labor parliamentary caucus had not been consulted on any changes. By mid-afternoon, a prime ministerial spokesperson was confirming the 20,000 figure “remains government policy and will be continued in future years.” Distract and conquer: Playbook notes that the press gallery could have passed Thursday talking about how much Labor is disliked, or even hated, in parts of regional Australia. Instead we debated a relatively small slice of the immigration program. GREENS — PERV GLASSES: The Greens want a 12-month ban on importing glasses that can secretly record footage — and to ban filming, storing or sharing footage they film without consent. Attorney-General Michelle Rowland wants the Privacy Commissioner to prioritize the issue but won’t say whether a ban is being considered. Playbook Feedback KEVASION: Of course, Kevin Rudd has more public appearances scheduled during this trip back home than we caught on the first sweep. The confirmed number of public speeches or panels is now eight. Key additions to our original list being AFR Asia Summit, Sept. 15 at 8:35 a.m., and an event with the American Chamber of Commerce. As to the collective noun for an omnipotent Rudd, the best suggestions we received (and we can’t imagine why so many of you wanted to remain anonymous) were: “Bacon of Kevins,” from Liz Buchanan “Cortex of Kevins,” and “Saturation of Kevins” ILLICIT TOBACCO COMMISSIONER FOUND ALIVE! We just knew she would turn up somewhere. When Playbook was still in the womb, Amber Shuhyta, Australia’s illicit tobacco and e-cigarette commissioner, told a conference that the criminal trade could still make a profit selling illegal cigarettes at $5 a pack (which compares to the legal shop price of $46), so it would be a mistake to cut tobacco excise. REQUIRED READING HEGSETH’S PURGE LEAVES U.S. ARMY RUDDERLESS: It’s the Army’s busiest period since the war on terror, but it has no chief of staff, and several other top officials have been forced out, The New York Times reports. ICYMI: Some of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s most controversial powers were extended last week. Tom Lowrey examines the unusual coalitions that formed around the vote and notes that we’ll be debating it all again in three years. PERKINS, ABBOTT, REYNOLDS ON FRONTIER WARS: Documentarian Rachel Perkins, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and historian Henry Reynolds are podcasting on whether Australia’s frontier conflicts can be considered warfare and how the story should be represented at the Australian War Memorial. War culture war: Abbott says it’s “not quite right” to compare the frontier conflicts to other wars Australia was involved in. He wants them remembered in the National Museum, not the War Memorial. AWM Council Chair Kim Beazley is hosting a conference to figure out just how to navigate this political minefield in the Memorial’s own galleries. Listen to the podcast | Conference tickets TIME TO BUILD: Mark Bouris talks to Charlie Gearside, co-founder of Eucalyptus and Build Australia, on his Straight Talk podcast. Build is a “movement designed to shake this country out of stagnation and reignite Australian industry, creativity and ambition.” BEST OF POLITICO THIS WEEK CIA chief’s warning in Moscow visit: John Ratcliffe warned Russian officials in Moscow this week not to escalate conflict with America’s Baltic NATO allies. Ukraine faces a €23B defense funding hole: Ukraine needs tens of billions more to keep fighting, while European financing is delayed. Zelenskyy: Elections would “tear Ukraine apart” State-backed hackers targeted EU officials on WhatsApp: A terrific POLITICO scoop about the EU’s internal cyber-defense apparatus warning foreign governments are attempting to take over the messaging accounts of senior officials. AWARDS WHEN IN NEED, FLATTER: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded his country’s Order of Freedom to Elon Musk, amid efforts to persuade the billionaire to expand access to his Starlink network, reports POLITICO’s Daria Zakharova. LOCAL CANBERRA WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS: The season has ended early at Selwyn, after an all-round disappointing ski season. But if you want to switch lanes and grab some island time, you better be quick: Fiji Airways is pulling out of direct flights from Canberra after January. COMMUNITY CORNER TILLIES IN TOWN: The Matildas will play Colombia at Canberra’s GIO Stadium on Nov. 28. Half-price platinum tickets will be available (for three days only) from Aug. 31. THE FULL STACK: You won’t catch Andrew Hastie in lycra anytime soon, he told 2BG’s Mark Levy: “Now I’m trying to get stacked and I’m in the gym.” Playbook can confirm he’s been punching it out on the rowing machine with metronomic efficiency. SPOTTED: Peter Lewis — dubbed by his peers as “the mad scientist of the Left” — is passing the baton to a new generation of strategists at Essential Media: Alana Mew, Alissa Clement, Alys Gagnon and Natalie Dubois. Bill Shorten gave the virtual toast. Also in the crowd: Tim Ayres, Rae Cooper, Paul Howes, John Robertson, Tim Brunero, Peter Stahel, Paul Karp and Joe Hildebrand. (Lewis gave him his first scoop — headlined “Unions name the problem: It’s Labor.”) Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb military commander and architect of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, died in prison in The Hague, aged 84, according to Serbian state media. MOVES AND APPOINTMENTS Dan Creasey is now head of purpose at Deloitte HIRING: The Federal Court of Australia is looking for a chief executive officer. The Australian Associated Press is looking for a federal politics reporter. Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb military commander and architect of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre died in The Hague in prison, aged 84, according to Serbian state media. BIRTHDAYS TODAY: Verity Firth, former NSW Minister and current UNSW professor; Connor McGoverne, Nine News federal political reporter; Dave Layzell, NSW Nationals MP; Paul Martin, former Canadian prime minister; Christina Dickinson, chief of staff to the CEO of Bupa APAC. SATURDAY: Julian Simmonds, former Liberal National MP; Gary Johns, former minister in the Keating government. SUNDAY: Sen. Varun Ghosh (ALP); Elizabeth Lee, member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and former territory Liberal leader; Shane Love, WA Nationals MP.

PARIS — L’orage qui a grondé jeudi sur Roland-Garros n’a pas eu raison du débat, qui a duré trois heures, entre sept des candidats à l’élection présidentielle. Interrogés par cinq chefs d’entreprise à l’occasion de la rentrée du Medef, Gabriel Attal, Raphaël Glucksmann, Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Edouard Philippe, Bruno Retailleau et Marine Tondelier ont pu dérouler tour à tour leur argumentaire, non sans se donner quelques coups de griffe au passage. Qu’ont-ils dit de neuf ? Que préparent-ils dans les prochaines semaines ? Qui a gagné à l’applaudimètre ? POLITICO, qui s’est bien sûr glissé dans les gradins, revient sur les moments les plus marquants d’une première rencontre pour le moins sportive. 1. Baisser l’âge de départ à la retraite, le “choix de société” de Marine Le Pen Pas question pour Marine Le Pen de courber l’échine devant les patrons, notoirement défavorables à sa proposition de réforme des retraites. Alors que le doute planait encore avant le départ en vacances de la candidate du RN sur la réforme qu’elle défendrait — Jordan Bardella, lui, avait fait miroiter une proposition de réforme sans âge légal de départ, dans le cas où il aurait porté les couleurs du parti —, la quadruple candidate à l’élection suprême a répété qu’elle défendrait le principe d’un retour à un âge légal de 60 à 62 ans suivant l’âge de l’entrée sur le marché du travail. Elle a dit “assumer” le coût supposé d’une telle réforme — 9 milliards d’euros par an, selon elle —, qu’elle a qualifiée de “choix de société”. Hasard de l’actualité (ou pas) : au moment même où Marine Le Pen s’exprimait, Le Figaro annonçait que François Durvye, ancien collaborateur de Pierre-Edouard Stérin devenu conseiller économique de Jordan Bardella, polytechnicien et libéral assumé, avait décidé de ne pas participer à la campagne présidentielle de la championne du RN, en raison de ses divergences avec la candidate sur sa ligne économique. On savait que le parti à la flamme préparait un contre-budget pour 2027, on connaît désormais l’ampleur affichée de son volet économies : “125 milliards d’euros”. Cette trajectoire “de rétablissement des finances publiques” sera présentée “avant les débats budgétaires”, soit début octobre, a promis la candidate. Sans s’avancer sur des postes de dépenses particuliers, Marine Le Pen a cité pêle-mêle “l’Union européenne, l’immigration, de nombreux instituts obscurs”. Par ailleurs, elle s’est dite favorable à “l’inscription d’une règle d’or dans la Constitution”. 2. Jean-Luc Mélenchon persiste et signe sur l’annulation de la dette Pour sa première venue à la rentrée du Medef, le leader de La France insoumise a choisi son registre : l’interpellation des patrons — et ses concurrents qualifiés “d’assemblée des magiciens” qui ne “[veulent] plus rien payer” et discréditent sa proposition d’annuler les 18% de la dette française détenue par la Banque centrale européenne. Lui a décidé d’enfoncer le clou : “C’est une dette à nous-mêmes […]. Les Américains font ça, ils viennent de se racheter leur propre dette, et nous, on serait les seuls de l’univers à renoncer à cette possibilité ?” Autre appel, cette fois, à destination de l’audience : “Je vous mets en alerte : le budget Lecornu, plus l’inflation alimentaire, si vous n’augmentez pas les salaires, la France va tomber en récession”, avant de défendre ensuite l’augmentation du Smic. Le candidat Insoumis a fermé la porte à la TVA sociale défendue par Patrick Martin. Idem pour la retraite par capitalisation : il faudrait “cotiser deux fois plus”. Pour rétablir les comptes publics, Jean-Luc Mélenchon a titillé son auditoire en imaginant, de manière “très provocante”, la suppression de toutes les aides publiques aux entreprises. 3. Gabriel Attal provoque Le Pen en duel A Marine Le Pen, Gabriel Attal a opposé son calendrier de candidat — ramener le déficit public sous les 3% du PIB en 2032 et à l’équilibre en 2037 — et son bilan d’ancien Premier ministre. “L’Insee a établi que sur l’année 2024, pour la première fois depuis quinze ans, l’Etat a dépensé moins que l’année précédente”, a vanté le candidat de Renaissance, qui a imputé l’augmentation du déficit cette année-là aux dépenses sociales. Et d’en profiter pour cibler la favorite des sondages : “Vous avez voté contre les conditions face au RSA, contre la réforme de l’assurance chômage, contre la réforme des retraites… Dans les AG de copropriété, vous êtes celle […] qui vote contre toutes les provisions, toutes les économies, mais qui se plaint que l’ascenseur soit en panne”, a-t-il taclé. Le député des Hauts-de-Seine a aussi décoché une flèche contre la réforme des retraites voulue par la candidate d’extrême droite, pour rappeler sa défense d’une part de capitalisation. 4. Bruno Retailleau pilonne “l’Etat bureaucratique” Déjà invité l’année dernière par le Medef, Bruno Retailleau avait été de loin le plus applaudi des politiques sur scène. Pour tenter de réitérer la performance, le candidat de LR a énoncé le “premier problème des entreprises”, c’est “l’Etat bureaucratique”. Pour marquer sa différence, il a rappelé sa proposition de supprimer par ordonnances “une centaine de normes les plus stupides”, citant l’objectif de zéro artificialisation nette. L’abrogation du principe de précaution de la Constitution est aussi dans son viseur. L’ancien ministre de l’Intérieur de Michel Barnier (qui fut le premier à introduire dans le droit français la notion de principe de précaution, en 1995), puis de François Bayrou a aussi tenté de se détacher nettement de l’héritage du président de la République : il a cinglé “l’échec” du “double quinquennat d’Emmanuel Macron”, affirmant en “[avoir] marre du ‘en même temps’”. 5. Edouard Philippe ressort des cartons son deal avec les patrons Près d’un an après avoir mis sur la table sa proposition de “troc fiscal”, qu’il n’avait guère évoquée depuis, Edouard Philippe a tenté de se mettre dans la poche les entrepreneurs assis dans les gradins en réexpliquant sa mesure. Celle-ci consiste à supprimer 50 milliards d’euros d’impôts de production contre une baisse équivalente d’aides aux entreprises. Pourquoi ? Car les impôts de production sont, selon lui, assis sur une “très mauvaise assiette”, “soit sur la masse salariale, soit sur le chiffre d’affaires”, a-t-il détaillé dans un second temps. Autre coup de pommade : outre la non-modification du Pacte Dutreil, le maire du Havre a promis la fin de la surtaxe de l’impôt sur les sociétés (près de 8 milliards d’euros par an), qui s’apprête à être reconduite pour une troisième année, au moins partiellement, par le gouvernement dans le prochain budget. 6. Raphaël Glucksmann croise le fer sur la taxation de l’héritage Le candidat de Place publique a redéfendu l’une de ses premières mesures phares pour “une société de travailleurs et non de rentiers ou d’héritiers” : une baisse de la CSG compensée par une taxation des “mégahéritages”, censée rapporter 15 milliards d’euros, sans toucher à “99% des héritages”. “Le travail ne paie plus assez et c’est une menace pour la démocratie”, a avancé Raphaël Glucksmann, qui estime qu’“on est en train de recréer une héritocratie”, au risque d’une “société injuste et économiquement non dynamique”. “Y en a marre de cet Etat vorace qui taxe tout ce qui bouge”, lui a répondu Bruno Retailleau, qui a dénoncé des “folies fiscales” et défendu, à l’inverse, une hausse du seuil d’exonération des donations à 150 000 euros. Le candidat de LR a aussi proposé une réduction de 40 milliards d’euros des cotisations, et l’exonération complète de charges au-delà de 35 heures. 7. Pour Marine Tondelier, pas de “liberté” sans lutte contre le changement climatique Pas vraiment en terrain conquis, la candidate a lié dès sa première intervention l’activité économique à l’environnement. “La liberté, c’est maîtriser son écosystème”, a-t-elle plaidé après un été historiquement chaud, car “l’activité économique dépend aussi de la température qu’il fait”. La secrétaire nationale des Ecologistes a usé d’une comparaison pour bien se faire comprendre : “Une journée de canicule coûte la même chose qu’une demi-journée de grève.” Par ailleurs, Marine Tondelier, Jean-Luc Mélenchon et Raphaël Glucksmann ont été les seuls à mettre en avant la question du climat, absente des autres interventions lors d’un débat de fait très axé sur l’économie et la vie des entreprises. 8. A l’applaudimètre : Le Pen boudée, Mélenchon (presque) épargné Depuis les tribunes, une chose était saisissante : l’hyperfavorite de l’élection présidentielle, Marine Le Pen, a reçu un accueil frisquet. Pas d’applaudissements quand elle a taclé les sortants macronistes qui ont “plein de bonnes idées” maintenant qu’ils ont quitté le pouvoir, tonnerre de claps en revanche quand Gabriel Attal l’a caricaturée en Madame Casse-pieds en AG d’immeuble (voir plus haut). Est-il pris moins au sérieux ? Jean-Luc Mélenchon, qui, en cette rentrée, paraît capable de se qualifier pour le second tour, n’a pas fait l’objet de la moindre huée. Voire, il a fait rire l’assistance de bon cœur quand il a fait mine d’avoir du mal à suivre “le cours rationnel des discussions”, d’un air grognon. Parfois chahutée par l’assistance, Marine Tondelier a eu droit, quant à elle, à quelques vivats quand elle a cité un rapport du Medef, qui dit que “l’économie française ne pourrait pas tourner en 2050 sans 3,6 millions de travailleurs étrangers, c’est ça la réalité”. Les mêmes bravos ont accueilli Raphaël Glucksmann, qui a lui aussi défendu l’immigration de travail contre Marine Le Pen. En bonus : les meilleures punchlines des candidats Jean-Luc Mélenchon sur l’annulation de la dette : “Je ne suis pas en train de mettre en cause les créanciers privés… en tout cas à cette étape !” Puis, devant les exclamations du public : “C’était pour vérifier si vous suiviez.” Edouard Philippe : “C’est le déluge et François Hollande n’est même pas là.” Edouard Philippe à Marine Le Pen : “Merci de faire la promotion de mes écrits, mais je vous invite à les lire.” Raphaël Glucksmann : “Etonnant de se prendre des leçons pour la dette de la part de deux ex-Premiers ministres d’Emmanuel Macron. C’est bien qu’il soit deux, il faut bien être deux pour défendre le bilan.” Raphaël Glucksmann, encore : “La norme, c’est comme le cholestérol : y a de la bonne norme et de la mauvaise norme.” Gabriel Attal à Marine Le Pen : “L’écran de fumée Jordan Bardella est définitivement tombé, on en revient aux classiques de Marine Le Pen, c’est sujet-verbe-immigration et, pour le reste, tout ce qui est économique, l’intendance suivra.” Gabriel Attal, sur les salaires : “Je veux aller droit au brut.” Marine Tondelier à Amélie Carrouër de LCI, qui essayait de l’interrompre : “Je parle pour deux, j’ai plus de temps” [la candidate Ecologiste est enceinte, NDLR]. Plus tard dans le fil des échanges, quand la journaliste lui souligne qu’elle est en avance sur son temps de parole : “Mais on a du retard sur l’écologie en France, ça compense.” Bruno Retailleau : “C’est plus une politique fiscale, c’est une punition fiscale.” Marine Le Pen, après avoir écouté Bruno Retailleau : “Je sais qu’il y en a qui savent qu’ils ne seront pas candidats très longtemps, mais de là à développer leur programme… ils pourraient répondre aux questions.”

US trade officials downplay French language dispute, calling claims fabricated.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America.

Moscow threatens retaliation after Andy Burnham says UK will help Ukraine start producing long-range missilesRussia has said it could retaliate against the UK for its support of Kyiv by striking military targets inside and outside Ukraine, amid reports that the director of the CIA warned the Kremlin against attacking Nato during a secretive visit this week.Andy Burnham, Britain’s prime minister, said on Monday the UK would allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start ⁠its own production of Storm Shadow ​long-range ​cruise missiles. France has also agreed to supply missile technology. Maria ⁠Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Thursday Britain and France were “playing ⁠with ​fire”. Continue reading...

Father Dionysios Tabakis says his views are those of Orthodox church, ‘nothing more, nothing less’A Greek Orthodox priest whose home-recorded album of drone metal and religious dubstep has made him a cult figure in experimental music circles has issued a statement in which he has clarified his stance on homosexuality and the Greek radical right.“As can be seen from my musical expression, I am in favour of unity, love, empathy and help for every needy, wronged and suffering person in life,” Father Dionysios Tabakis said in a public statement shared with the Guardian. “Whoever they are, whatever they believe, whether they are a saint or a sinner.” Continue reading...

Group’s Google business was accused of overcharging developers who made software for the Google Play app store

‘We hope to see more from countries like the United Kingdom,’ says Pentagon policy chief