France has a new government - Back to the future?
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office announced a new government Monday, after the previous Cabinet collapsed in a historic vote prompted by fighting over the country’s budget. Coming up with a 2025 budget will be the most urgent order of business. The new government enters office after months of political deadlock and crisis and pressure from financial markets to reduce France’s colossal debt. The government, put together by newly named Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, includes members of the outgoing conservative-dominated team and new figures from centrist or left-leaning backgrounds. Among them: two former Prime minister - Manuel Walls and Elizabeth Borne. Both failed. Back to the future?
BREAKING: Donald Trump and his team are reportedly debating “how much” to invade Mexico once he takes office, per the Independent.
Trump and his transition team staff are discussing a “soft invasion” of the country, Rolling Stone reported. Source: Win Smart, CFA,@WinfieldSmart
In Germany, too few business leaders are involved in politics, which has made the bureaucracy stronger.
In the current legislative period, only 51 of the 735 Bundestag members are entrepreneurs —the lowest number in years (the yellow seats below). Between 2017 and 2021, there were still 76. Top executives or major entrepreneurs have rarely held ministerial positions in the history of the Federal Republic. A notable exception was Werner Müller, the late former head of Ruhrkohle AG, who served as Economics Minister under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2002. Source: Statista, HolgerZ
It seems that Trump invitation wasn't that well received...
Source: BRICS News
✔️ The move is an early sign that the US president-elect intends to resume the high-level engagement with China's leader that marked his first term.
US president-elect Donald Trump has invited President Xi Jinping to his inauguration in January, in an early sign that he intends to resume the high-level engagement with the Chinese leader that marked his first term. Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary, told Fox News on Thursday that Trump wanted to create an “open dialogue” with countries that were American adversaries, not just with allies and partners. “We saw this in his first term. He got a lot of criticism for it, but it led to peace around this world. He is willing to talk to anyone, and he will always put America’s interests first,” said Leavitt. Leavitt said it was “to be determined” if Xi would accept the invitation. The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The invitation comes as Beijing is bracing for an escalation in the trade war that Trump launched against China in 2018. The US president-elect has already threatened to impose a 60 per cent tariff on imports from China, which would be a big increase from the levies he imposed on the country’s goods in his first term. Trump will enter office as US-China relations remain close to their worst state since the countries established diplomatic relations in 1979. Source: Financial Times, https://on.ft.com/4ir5yzY
#france
Source: The Economist
French President Emmanuel Macron came out fighting against opposition parties who he said “chose chaos”
by bringing down his premier in a historic no-confidence vote, vowing not to step aside before the end of his term. “The mandate that you have entrusted to me democratically is a five-year mandate, and I will exercise it fully until its end,” Macron said on Thursday. Macron’s term runs until 2027, but he is facing rising pressure from opposition groups to step down early. The president said he would name a new prime minister “in the coming days”, as he hit out at the far-right Rassemblement National and the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire alliance. Source: FT >>> https://on.ft.com/4ikxkhz
In "Major Policy Shift" Biden Authorizes Ukraine's Use Of US Missiles To Hit Targets Inside Russia.
Why is he doing this 2 months before leaving the White house? President Joe Biden’s administration will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, three sources familiar with the matter said, in a significant change to Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, the sources said, without revealing details due to operational security concerns. The move by the United States two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20 follows months of requests by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to allow Ukraine’s military to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border. Source: CNBC
