Agrégateur de flux

Imane Khelif reaches the quarter-finals of the women's 66kg at the Olympics as Angela Carini abandons their bout after 46 seconds.

Les bassins oriental et méridional de la mer de Chine sont le théâtre d’une lutte d’influence entre les deux superpuissances que sont Pékin et Washington. Les craintes qu’ont l’une et l’autre mènent cependant à une escalade militaire dans la région.

Az orosz hadsereg a Donyeck megyei Pokrovszk közelében húzódó frontvonalra összpontosítja erőit – közölte csütörtökön Olekszandr Szirszkij, az ukrán fegyveres erők főparancsnoka Facebook-bejegyzésében, amelyet az Ukrajinszka Pravda hírportál idézett.

Szirszkij, miután helyzetfelmérés céljából látogatást tett az utóbbi napokban a frontvonalakon, megjegyezte, hogy különböző intenzitással, de az arcvonal minden pontján zajlanak összecsapások. Elismerte, hogy egyes térségekben jelentős veszteségek árán, de az orosz erőknek sikerült – mint fogalmazott – kisebb sikereket elérniük.

Szavai szerint az orosz hadsereg legtapasztaltabb rohamegységeit veti be Pokrovszk térségében, hogy áttörje Zselanne, Novohrodivka és Pokrovszk vonalán az ukrán védelmet.

Beszámolt arról is, hogy heves harcok dúlnak a kupjanszki frontszakaszon is Piscsane, Sztyelmahivka és Makiivka települések mellett. Szirszkij szerint az ukrán erők „tartják állásaikat”.

Az ukrán főparancsnok mindemellett bonyolultnak nevezte a Sziverszk melletti frontszakaszon kialakult helyzetet, mondván az orosz erők folyamatosan tüzérségi csapásokat és rohamokat hajtanak végre, de – mint mondta – sikertelenül. Szintén heves összecsapásokról számolt be a donyecki Csasziv Jar és Nyu Jork falu, valamint a harkivi Hluboke és Vovcsanszk térségéből.

Forrás: MTI

Nyitókép: MTI/EPA/Vitalij Noszacs

The post Szirszkij: az orosz hadsereg a pokrovszki frontvonalra összpontosítja erőit appeared first on Kárpátalja.ma.

Russia and Iran aim to sow discord in the 2024 presidential race, officials warn.

Detaining UN and NGO workers, intensifying attacks on global shipping, and earning the ire of regional and global powers. Are these the behaviors of a state acting out of desperation or the machinations of non-state actors consolidating power and flexing unchecked local military prowess? This is precisely the question being debated by analysts regarding the actions of the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen.

Over the past month, militias affiliated with the Houthis have increased attacks on Red Sea shipping, launched increasingly deadly drone attacks toward Israel, and detained more than fifty Yemenis working with foreign organizations. These were the immediate reactions to a recent financial crisis precipitated by the closure of the Central Bank in Sana’a, which has placed additional obstacles to currency transfers and civil servant salaries in Houthi-held territory in northern Yemen. The liquidity of the bifurcated Central Bank, with its other branch in Aden, had been maintained by Saudi financing since the onset of the conflict in 2015, affording the kingdom a degree of leverage over the Sana’a-based Houthi government. Irregular payments to public sector salaries in Sana’a, a consequence of periodic economic sanctions and continued restrictions, have long contributed to the decline of healthcare, sanitation, and other services across the country.

The decision to escalate the Red Sea crisis might be an act of revenge against the United States and Saudi Arabia for targeting Houthi military and financial capabilities. However, the Houthis might instead be perceiving the closure of the Sana’a Central Bank as Saudi Arabia abandoning the last form of leverage over the Houthi territory. After initially hedging their bets, the Houthis appear to have shifted almost entirely toward the Iranian camp, assuming that Iran and its allies can guarantee future state finances. Rather than pursue reconciliation with the internationally recognized government in Aden, the Houthi leadership has sought to isolate itself from the region further.

The Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the southern gate to the Red Sea, has historically been a source of global commerce and prosperity for states in South Arabia. Not only have the Houthis neglected this territorial treasure, but they have transformed it into Bab al-Mawt, or the gates of death, for shipping companies daring to cross the waters approximate to Yemeni territory. On June 12, the Houthis claimed their first successful drone boat attack against a Greek-owned carrier on the coast of Yemen. This has only encouraged a precipitous increase in the number of attacks, further threatening commercial shipping in the Red Sea region.

The proverbial gates were also closed to international organizations previously operating in Sana’a and its environs. Yemeni staff affiliated with the World Food Program, the National Democratic Institute, and others were spuriously charged with espionage and arrested, effectively closing one of the world’s last remaining windows into an increasingly isolated society. The innocuous gathering of population statistics and the coordination of foreign humanitarian aid were depicted by Houthi media as malicious intelligence gathering and as attempts to subvert government control.

These policy directions are typical of other Iranian proxies around the region, especially Hezbollah and Hamas, who have prioritized self-interested short-term destruction of society rather than focus on long-term development. In a country often dubbed as the greatest manmade humanitarian crisis, the Houthis have consolidated their political power at the expense of exacerbating the suffering of the country’s population. They have done so by drawing Yemen into a regional conflict with Israel and moving the country closer to Iran, making it difficult for Saudi Arabia and Yemeni opposition parties to reconvene the negotiations that appeared on the verge of ending the conflict as late as September 2023.

Rather than weaken the Houthi government, aerial bombing of Houthi military targets by American and British aircraft has only inflated the Houthi sense of self-prominence in regional affairs. What was once an empty slogan of “Death to American! Death to Israel!” has become an actionable policy. Furthermore, allied forces can’t hope to win a war from the air, especially against an enemy terrain well-known for its mountainous caverns that traverse the northern highlands of the country. 

This same terrain withstood centuries of Ottoman imperial wars, five years of intensive Egyptian bombing raids during the 1960s, and, most recently, a 2015 Saudi bombing campaign and blockade. The Houthi militias that fought the Saudis to a standstill and descended from the same tribes that clashed with the Ottomans and the Egyptians know well the futility of aerial campaigns. Accordingly, they are prepared to wait out the conflict in perpetuity. If the Biden administration is hoping to outlast the Houthis in a war of attrition, then they have already lost. While the Houthis have the luxury of time, the Biden administration is under pressure to “solve” the Yemen crisis before November.

After nearly a decade of civil war, a conflict that international interests have overrun is no closer to being solved than it was in 2014. If anything, the opposing sides have become even more entrenched, with the Houthis isolating themselves and their population from the outside world. The war in Yemen will not be solved by external actors forcing a particular model on the country but ultimately by Yemeni groups themselves. 

Unfortunately for the region and the Yemeni people, it looks as if the Houthis have garnered sufficient legitimacy and internal support to declare sole political control over the northern regions of the country. It remains, however, unlikely that Houthi governance could spread to the southern regions surrounding Aden or the eastern regions of Hadramawt. A potential outcome for Yemen remains a federalist state with at least three distinct regions, ultimately granting the Houthis a degree of autonomy in the north while dividing power up in the rest of the country. The international community must work to sever Iranian support for the group and force the Houthi leadership to assume responsibility for its own citizens and abandon extremist ideology in exchange for non-Iranian international support.

Asher Orkaby is a research fellow in Near Eastern Studies at Harvard University and the author of Beyond the Arab Cold War: The International History of the Yemen Civil War, 1962–68, published by Oxford University Press. Follow him on X: @AsherOrkaby.

Image: MhmdArt / Shutterstock.com.

On vous explique le « cupping », ces ronds rouge qu'on voit sur la peau des nageurs, on revient sur un record totalement stupéfiant et la belle action de la délégation britannique, bref, ce qu'il ne fallait pas rater le 1er oaût aux Jeux olympiques.

Orabank Burkina a lancé ce 1er août 2024, un nouveau produit dénommé KEAZ. C'est une plateforme numérique, qui permet aux clients d'accéder aux services de la banque à distance. Ils peuvent, grâce à cet outil digital, effectuer de nombreuses opérations telles que les virements, les ordres de virement, le règlement des factures et même disposer du solde de leur compte ou de leur relevé d'identité bancaire. L'application My KEAZ est disponible sur Playstore et App store.

Orabank Burkina veut être plus proche de sa clientèle, à travers la digitalisation de ses services. La plateforme numérique KEAZ vient ainsi répondre à cet objectif, en donnant l'occasion aux clients de pouvoir faire différentes transactions à partir du téléphone portable ou de l'ordinateur, peu importe le lieu et le moment. Selon le directeur général d'Orabank Burkina, Etienne Konan, KEAZ incarne l'engagement de la banque à innover constamment, pour mieux servir les clients et leur offrir une expérience bancaire moderne, pratique et adaptée à leurs besoins. C'est pourquoi il invite les clients à s'approprier le produit, pour vivre l'expérience de « la banque dans la main, la banque partout ».

Etienne Konan, directeur général de Orabank Burkina invite les clients à s'approprier la plateforme KEAZ

KEAZ est une plateforme digitale comprenant plusieurs solutions agrégées acquises. Il s'adresse aux clients particuliers (KEAZ particuliers), aux entreprises (KEAZ Pro) et aux partenaires sous-traitant (KEAZ Spot). A en croire Narcisse Ouédraogo, responsable banque digitale à Orabank Burkina, plusieurs types d'opérations peuvent être menées sur la plateforme. « Le client peut avoir accès à son solde, demander des RIB, payer ses factures d'électricité via la plateforme, initier des transactions interbancaires aussi bien au plan national que régional, il peut demander un chéquier, faire une opposition sur sa carte, entrer en contact avec son gestionnaire de compte pour échanger et même faire des simulations de crédit », explique-t-il. Ce qui permet au client, d'avoir la banque à portée de main, partout et à tout moment.

Narcisse Ouédraogo, responsable banque digitale à Orabank

Pour bénéficier des services de KEAZ, il faut, avant tout, être client à Orabank, et ensuite s'enrôler en téléchargeant l'application My KEAZ sur Play store ou App store. Le client renseigne ensuite les différentes informations (numéro de compte, mot de passe, code d'identification) et peut dès cet instant, utiliser l'application pour ses opérations. Mis à part les transferts internationaux, tous les autres services offerts par KEAZ sont sécurisés et entièrement gratuits.

Idrissa Sedego, client d'Orabank n'a pas hésité à télécharger et tester la plateforme

Avant la phase d'utilisation à l'échelle de la plateforme, une phase pilote a permis de réajuster les différents paramètres afin de mieux répondre aux attentes des clients. Le responsable de la banque digitale rassure qu'à ce jour, la plateforme est à 99% performante et peut être utilisée en toute confiance et sécurité. Les équipes de la banque restent disponibles, pour accompagner les clients en cas de besoin ou de difficultés rencontrées.
A peine l'application lancée, les clients ne se sont pas fait prier pour la tester. Idrissa Sedego, responsable de Rafiq vision et client d'Orabank depuis sept ans, n'a pas hésité à télécharger KEAZ et à l'installer sur son smartphone. Il confie que la plateforme est très facile d'accès et apprécie les différentes possibilités qu'elle offre et qui répondent aux besoins actuels des clients. Au regard des facilités qu'offre l'application, Idrissa Sedego compte l'utiliser désormais pour ses différentes transactions et invite tous les clients d'Orabank à en faire autant.

En rappel, Orabank est un groupe panafricain présent dans douze pays d'Afrique. La banque compte au Burkina douze agences.

Armelle Ouédraogo
Crédit photo : Bonaventure Paré
Lefaso.net

La cohabitation entre les morts et les vivants est devenue possible au cimetière de Kinsuka dans la commune de Mont-Ngafula, ont constaté mercredi 31 juillet des reporters de Radio Okapi.

Les vivants gagnent du terrain chaque jour au cimetière de Kinsuka, au point que ce site héberge aujourd’hui plusieurs familles. L’une des habitants explique comment elle y est arrivée:

A SZITAKÖTŐ gyerekfolyóirat alkotói pályázatot hirdet ÁLDÁS – ÁTOK címmel.

A szó erejét kutatjuk a téli Szitakötőben, hogy miként válik a jó vagy rossz gondolat sorsfordító mozzanattá. Mitől lesz az apai áldás vagy a boszorkány átka súlyosabb, mint a többi szó? Lehet-e ugyanaz áldás az egyiknek, átok a másiknak? Mikor válik teherré az áldás? Fordíthatjuk-e az átkot a magunk javára? Miért kötődik az áldás az éghez, az átok a földalatti világhoz? Hogyan jelenik meg a természet az áldások és átkok világában?

Várjuk a didaktikus stílust nagy ívben kerülő, a 8 éven felüli olvasókat megszólító verseket, meséket, prózákat és ismeretterjesztő cikkeket. Az ismeretterjesztő cikkek a természettudomány vagy a társadalomtudomány szempontjából is tárgyalhatják a témát.

Terjedelmi határok:

• VERS | 16 soros
• MESE | 2800 leütés szóközzel együtt
• CIKK | 3200 leütés szóközzel együtt

Egy pályázó több művet is beküldhet, de kérjük, hogy még publikálatlan művekkel pályázzanak. Az online megjelenést is publikációnak tekintjük. Várjuk határon túli pályázók műveit is.

Javasoljuk, hogy a pályázók előzetesen tájékozódjanak a Szitakötőt jellemző hangvételről és nyelvi színvonalról. https://ligetmuhely.com/szitakoto-folyoirat/

Bár a folyóirat gyerekeknek szól, a pályázatra felnőtt alkotók munkáit várjuk.

A műveket elektronikus úton lehet feltölteni: https://palyazat.ligetmuhely.com/

Kérjük, e-mailben ne küldjenek pályázatot!

A beérkező műveket folyamatosan olvassuk, minden pályázónak elektronikus úton válaszolunk.

A szerkesztőség által kiválasztott művek megjelennek a Szitakötő folyóiratban.

A sikeres pályázók szerzői honoráriumot és további publikálási lehetőséget kapnak.

Beküldési határidő: 2024. szeptember 2.

További információ | Horgas Judit palyazat@ligetmuhely.com <http://ligetmuhely.com/>
https://ligetmuhely.com/liget/uj-alkotoi-palyazat-aldas-atok/

Forrás: pafi.hu

The post Áldás-átok appeared first on Kárpátalja.ma.

Crystal Palace sign winger Ismaila Sarr from Marseille for a fee in the region of £12.5m.

Közzétette a Zakarpattyaoblenerho megyei áramszolgáltató az augusztus másodikai óránkénti áramkimaradások ütemtervét.

A menetrend szerint egyik sávban sem lesz kimaradás.

Az utóbbi napokban Kárpátalján nincsenek áramkimaradások, az óránkénti ütemtervet viszont nem törölték el.

Kárpátalja.ma

The post Holnap sem lesz áramszünet Kárpátalján appeared first on Kárpátalja.ma.

Le jubilé d'or de la présence des Jésuites au Burkina Faso s'est tenu le mardi 31 juillet 2024 au centre spirituel Pamyôdo du quartier Sandogo. Cette célébration se tenait aussi à l'occasion de la fête de saint Ignace de Loyola, fondateur de la société des Jésuites.

A la messe de ce jubilé d'or, sont venus de nombreux fidèles. Ils ont, dans l'union, rendu grâce au Seigneur pour tous les bienfaits qu'il a réalisés à travers cette présence des Jésuites au Burkina Faso. Cette eucharistie a été présidée par Laurent Birfuoré Dabiré, évêque de Dori, président de la conférence épiscopale Burkina-Niger. « Nous demandons aux nouvelles générations de suivre les œuvres de nos pionniers. C'est lorsque l'on s'engage pour le bien commun que l'on peut avancer. Ils sont des figures de prêtres Jésuites, de prêtres africains, de prêtres burkinabè et de prêtres catholiques », a exprimé l'évêque de Dori aux Père Jean Ilboudo et au Père Martin Birba qui célèbrent également leur jubilé d'or dans la compagnie de Jésus.

L'évêque de Dori, président de la conférence épiscopale Burkina-Niger a salué tout le travail abbatu par les Jésuites pendant ces 50 années

Selon le Père Martin Birba, malgré toutes ces années, il faut continuer à servir Dieu sans réserve. « On n'est jamais assez satisfait de sa vie. Ce que l'on peut retenir, c'est que Dieu, voyant tout cela, nous permet de continuer à nous mettre au service de l'église. Personnellement, il y a encore beaucoup de choses à faire et tant qu'il y a la vie, on ne peut pas se satisfaire. Il faut toujours se tourner vers le Seigneur », a-t-il dit. Cet homme de Dieu est le premier Jésuite de la Haute Volta, actuel Burkina, et a passé les huit dernières années à coordonner la mission Jésuite au Burkina Faso et au Mali. Il a d'ailleurs passé le témoin de la gestion de la compagnie dans ces deux pays au Père François Pazisnewendé Kaboré.

Père Martin Birba, premier Jésuite de la Haute Volta (actuel Burkina)

« Martin et moi nous sommes les tout premiers candidats Jésuites en Haute Volta. Lui a rejoint la compagnie en 1973 et moi je l'ai suivi une année après, en 1974. Ce qui est important de souligner, c'est que nous sommes entrés dans la compagnie sans avoir déjà vu un Jésuite. Il y a donc une œuvre, qui ne dépendait pas uniquement des connaissances humaines, qui a été faite », a confié le Père Jean Ilboudo. Pour lui, quand Dieu est avec nous, nous ne devons pas avoir peur car chaque fois que l'on agit avec lui, tout se passe bien.

De nombreux fidèles étaient présents à cette célébration

Un message d'action de grâce

« Ce que nous avons voulu passer comme message à travers ce jubilé d'or, c'est le message d'action de grâce. Action de grâce parce que 50 ans ce n'est pas 50 jours. Cela signifie que le Seigneur a béni le chemin de ceux qui ont été les premiers Jésuites ici au Burkina Faso. Sachant que la formation d'un Jésuite prend au minimum 15 à 16 ans, on peut dire que nous avons suffisamment de raisons de rendre grâce à Dieu », a fait savoir le Père François Pazisnewendé Kaboré.

Actuellement, le Burkina compte plus de 50 Jésuites dont une vingtaine de prêtres. Selon lui, la présence de la compagnie au Burkina a été très fructueuse à travers des institutions d'éducation comme le Centre d'études, de réflexion pour les collégiens et les anciens étudiants (CERCLE) mais aussi à travers le centre spirituel Pamyôdo qui soutient l'accompagnement spirituel des chrétiens et la Kosyam Jésuit University of Science (KoJUS) qui forme des entrepreneurs. « Souvent, les gens comparent la compagnie à un ordre militaire. Nous sommes très disciplinés et nous pensons que la discipline est très importante pour l'apostolat et la mission que nous avons reçu », a-t-il ajouté.

Le Père François Pazisnewendé Kaboré remplace le Père Martin Birba dans la mission Jésuite au Burkina Faso et au Mali

Les prêtres Jésuites sont des prêtres de l'Église catholique. En général, leur spécialité, c'est l'éducation secondaire et universitaire mais aussi la recherche. Ils sont plus de 20 000 Jésuites répartis dans tous les continents du monde. Au Burkina Faso, ils ont plusieurs communautés à la paroisse saint Pierre de Gounghin, à la résidence de Pamyôdo à Sandogo et un nouvel établissement (KoJUS) à Ouaga 2000. La compagnie de Jésus, plus connue sous le nom de Jésuite, est arrivée au Burkina Faso en 1974. Cette compagnie a été fondée par Saint Ignace de Loyola, né en 1491 à Guipuzcoa, en Espagne.

Farida Thiombiano
Lefaso.net

Former President Donald Trump has said little about what he might do on nuclear weapons policy if he gets back into the White House. This is surprising for someone who spent so much time talking about the bomb when he was in office. But if we look at his past policies and what he and his allies are saying, we can get a pretty good idea about what he might do. And it is not a pretty picture.

While in office, Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea and then tried (and failed) to get a nuclear deal with its leader, Kim Jong Un. Trump walked away from a successful deal with Iran, only to see Tehran then accelerate its nuclear program. He withdrew from one arms control treaty with Russia and then refused to extend another. He considered resuming US nuclear testing, which would have violated yet another global pact. In short, Trump did on nuclear policy what he did on so much else: create chaos and undermine the rule of law.

With four more years, Trump could do even more damage, wreaking havoc on an already weakened network of treaties and agreements that have reduced the risk of nuclear proliferation and war.

Reagan’s “Star Wars” Dream

In his speech at the GOP convention, Trump had just one clear proposal related to nuclear policy: “We will replenish our military and build an Iron Dome missile defense system to ensure that no enemy can strike our homeland.” Short on details, this looks like a throwback to former President Ronald Reagan’s 1983 proposal—called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and derided as “Star Wars”—to build a system of space- and ground-based interceptors to make nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete.” It made for great slogans, but after forty years and some $400 billion, the technology is still not up to the challenge. Israel’s Iron Dome system has had success because it has a limited mission: defend a small country (the size of New Jersey) from short-range missiles. But if you try to scale that up and cover a country the size of the United States against hundreds of Russian and Chinese long-range missiles, it just won’t work.

But it could set off a new nuclear arms race. If Moscow and Beijing take Trump’s plans seriously, their likely response would be to build hundreds of additional nuclear-armed missiles to overwhelm the new defense.

New Arms Race

Trump might provoke a new arms competition even without his Iron Dome on steroids. Robert O’Brien, Trump’s last national security advisor (2019-2021), wrote a recent article in Foreign Affairs calling for the United States, “to maintain technical and numerical superiority to the combined Chinese and Russian nuclear stockpiles.” The idea here, popular among conservatives at the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025, including Christopher Miller, Trump’s last defense secretary, is that Washington needs to have more nuclear weapons than Moscow and Beijing combined.

This is a terrible idea. Firstly, there is every reason to believe that Russia and China are already deterred from attacking the United States based on the current arsenal we have, which is about 3,748 nuclear weapons. Building more than we need is a waste of money. Second, guess what Moscow and Beijing will do if Washington suddenly builds more bombs? They will do the same, and we will be worse off since we will now be in the middle of a race for ever more deadly nuclear arms. Third, a US buildup would doom any chances of saving the US-Russian arms reduction process. The last remaining treaty, New START, expires in 2026 and unless we replace it there will be no legal limits on US and Russian warheads for the first time in fifty years.

Nuclear Testing

In the same article, former national security advisor O’Brien also writes that “Washington must test new nuclear weapons for reliability and safety in the real world for the first time since 1992—not just by using computer models.” The United States ended nuclear testing three decades ago (under President George H.W. Bush) and then signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996, banning all nuclear tests. Washington has conducted more nuclear tests (1,030) than all other nations combined. As long as the United States does not develop new types of nuclear weapons it has no need to test. But if we resume testing other nations would too, like Russia and China, and Beijing has only conducted forty-five tests. Imagine how much China could learn if Trump gives it an excuse to resume testing? The only state in the world today that is still conducting nuclear tests in North Korea (six tests); we should be pressuring Pyongyang to stop, not reopening this Pandora’s box.

Whoever wins in November, the next president will make decisions that could reshape US and global nuclear policy for decades to come. Under Trump, we could see billions spent on ineffective long-range missile defenses, the end of arms control the start of a new nuclear arms race, and new nuclear testing. All of this would make the world a more dangerous place and increase the risk of nuclear conflict. If Trump wins, get ready for a wild ride.

About the Author: Tom Z. Collina 

Tom Z. Collina is a national security expert and award-winning author. He is the former Director of Policy at Ploughshares Fund and an author, with former Defense Secretary William Perry, of “The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump.”

Image Credit: Creative Commons and/or Shutterstock. 

Alors que les moyens ont été mis sur la table pour répondre aux besoins sanitaires lors des Jeux olympiques de Paris 2024, les fermetures de services d’urgence se multiplient partout dans le pays cet été. En cause : le sous-effectif et le manque de lits encore accentué par l’afflux de touristes.

Cet article La République tchèque va recevoir 14 chars Leopard 2A4 de plus de la part de l’Allemagne est apparu en premier sur Zone Militaire.

Július utolsó napján Kárpátalján 13 tűzesetet regisztráltak, mindegyik esetben a természetben csaptak fel a lángok – közölte a Rendkívüli Helyzetek Állami Szolgálatának (DSZNSZ) kárpátaljai kirendeltsége.

Az Ungvári járásban öt, a Munkácsi járásban négy, a Beregszászi és a Técsői járásban pedig két-két tűzeset történt.

Szerdán a tűzesetek következtében több mint 6,5 hektárnyi terület égett le.

Kárpátalja.ma

Nyitókép: tmr.gov.ua

The post Tűzesetek Kárpátalján: negatív rekorddal zárult július appeared first on Kárpátalja.ma.

Au Cameroun, elle était une voix forte du paysage médiatique. L'éditorialiste Suzanne Kala Lobè s'est éteinte dans la nuit de mercredi à ce jeudi 1ᵉʳ août à l'âge de 71 ans. Militante de gauche, elle rejoint aux débuts de la décennie 1990 La Nouvelle Expression, où elle se fera connaître, puis animera de longues années des émissions de débat comme Polémos, ou culturelles comme Livres Noirs et Musique d'Afrique sur la radio Équinoxe avant d'être nommée au Conseil national de la communication.

Washington has switched from economic offense to defense.

As a matter of practice, military contractors have overcharged the Pentagon for years—at the expense of both taxpayers and the military.

However, several members of Congress are working to end the practice. Last year, Senators Warren (D-MA), Braun (R-IN), and Grassley (R-IA) teamed up with Reps. Garamendi (D-CA) and Deluzio (D-PA) to introduce legislation that will address the legal loopholes that enable military price gouging.

Acquisition experts understand these loopholes well, but unfortunately, most lawmakers are still unaware of how common it is for contractors to overcharge the military. Without a better understanding of the true scale of military price gouging, Congress is unlikely to pass legislation to prevent it.

That’s why Congress should include in the final FY 2025 defense policy bill Rep. Doggett’s (D-TX) provision to investigate potential overcharging by sole-source suppliers of military products and services. Due to unchallenged market power, sole-source contractors are well positioned to profiteer. Doggett’s provision would establish a panel to review sole-source military contracts and “determine whether the Department of Defense paid fair and reasonable prices.” By focusing on sole-source contracts, the panel would shine much-needed light on the issue of military price gouging writ large, the scale of which is near impossible to discern because so much of it is legal.

Over the course of decades, military contractors have consolidated and harnessed market power to slowly obscure military price gouging. Industry consolidation began when the Cold War ended, and the Clinton administration slashed defense spending. However, as Richard Loeb—former Executive Secretary and Counsel of the Cost Accounting Standards Board in the Office of Management and Budget—has pointed out, the administration simultaneously catalyzed an era of “acquisition reform” to protect contractor profits even as defense spending plummeted and the number of prime military contractors shrank from over fifty to just five. Merger mania has continued, further concentrating market power among the few. Military contractors wield that power on Capitol Hill, lobbying Congress to gradually chip away at acquisition laws designed to protect the government from unfair pricing schemes on military contracts. In so doing, lawmakers have left the Pentagon in the dark about contract negotiations with the defense industry.

Acquisition reform and industry consolidation have helped contractors overbill the military in pursuit of excess profits. As a result, military contractors have overcharged the Pentagon to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars on a single program, generating nearly 40 percent in excess profits. Indeed, a CBS investigation last year revealed that the Pentagon saved $550 million on the Patriot PAC-3 missile after conducting a 2015 cost review of Lockheed Martin and Boeing’s previous work on the program. Both contractors are repeat offenders, and they have long been among the top five prime contractors dominating the defense industry. The Pentagon’s internal watchdog exposed Boeing for inflating prices on spare parts in 2013 and 2011. In one case, the company charged over 177,000 percent above the fair and reasonable price for a helicopter spare part—$71.01 for a tiny metal pin worth 4 cents at the time. The trend continues. Just last month, two Lockheed subsidiaries agreed to a $70 million settlement with the Navy for doing the same thing—inflating prices on spare parts.

The Pentagon can’t negotiate reasonable prices with military contractors because it doesn’t have sufficient bargaining power. Contractors are often exempt from providing the Pentagon with “certified cost or pricing data.” Without this information, the Pentagon has little idea what companies’ costs are and, thus, what their profit margins might look like. Contracts may be valued below the mandatory disclosure threshold. Contractors may also produce a product that’s considered commercial—and theoretically, price competitive. However, the statutory definition of “commercial” is overly broad, encompassing products that aren’t sold to the public and sometimes never have been. Lawmakers expanded the commercial definition and raised the mandatory disclosure threshold for certified data at the behest of industry and under the guise of cutting red tape.

Without legal requirements for certified data, the Pentagon may ask contractors for historic or uncertified cost and pricing data. Yet, the Pentagon has few tools to ensure that this data meets requisite standards; among them, that they include “the minimum information necessary to permit a determination that the proposed price is fair and reasonable.” According to the Pentagon, current statutory and regulatory requirements discourage officials from requesting uncertified data. Instead, contracting officers often rely on historical cost and pricing data. Still, according to the Pentagon Inspector General, the department cannot evaluate price reasonableness “based solely on historical price comparison.” This is particularly concerning given the watchdog’s extensive analysis of contract pricing in recent years, which shows that price analysis methods like historical cost comparison enable “sole source contractors to earn excess profits without detection by contracting officers.” Effectively, military contractors can provide the Pentagon with any cost figures without consequence—even if they give zero indication of how reasonable current prices are. In other words, contractors can price gouge the military legally, likely under the government’s radar.

Still, the defense industry appears to resist almost any attempt by the Pentagon to evaluate contract price reasonableness. “Sweeping” is a process through which contractors overwhelm the Pentagon with cost and pricing data that was “reasonably available at the time of price agreement” but submitted after the fact. According to Senator Warren, contractors often sweep the Pentagon after price agreements and before contract awards to absolve themselves of the liabilities associated with breaking acquisition law and potentially “to hide data that might give the [Pentagon] a better price.” In other cases, contractors outright refuse to provide the Pentagon cost and pricing data, claim they can’t share it, or delay the provision of such data to the extent that the Pentagon may blindly agree to a contract price due to time sensitivity. So, the Pentagon doesn’t just struggle to obtain certified cost and pricing data. It’s a challenge to get any cost and pricing data—even from sole-source contractors, which are relatively uninhibited by the forces driving price competition.

The Pentagon has admitted that data denials “may be more prevalent [than reported], particularly with respect to sole source commercial items.” This is especially nefarious in a market that looks like a monopsony but operates like a monopoly, where sole-source contractors reign as kings. They have a documented history of refusing to provide even uncertified cost and pricing information. Since 1998, the Pentagon’s Inspector General has published several reports detailing data denials by sole-source contractors. TransDigm, Inc. is the most recent example and perhaps the most notorious. According to the Pentagon, the company “accounted for all Defense Logistics Agency cost and pricing data denials” in FY 2022. The company failed to respond to 401 requests for cost and pricing data from the agency, and that was after the Pentagon Inspector General exposed TransDigm for twice price gouging the Pentagon. The contractor generated a total of nearly $40 million in excess profits.

Ultimately, withholding cost and pricing data bolsters a contractor’s ability to increase profits by charging the Pentagon unfair and unreasonable prices. However, the defense industry already significantly outperforms other industries financially, and this is not just because the United States spends over a trillion dollars annually on national security. In many cases, the Pentagon reimburses contractors for research and development costs. It will even cover some capital costs, including those associated with the depreciation of assets like machinery and equipment. As a result, military contractors enjoy returns on assets and invested capital that are difficult to achieve in other industries where companies make those investments themselves. Still, military contractors leverage special treatment from the government to increase executive compensation and cash paid to shareholders, even at the expense of capital investment and internal research and development.

If the defense industry continues to consolidate, it will only get harder for the Pentagon to negotiate fair prices with military contractors. The department will have to rely on more and more sole-source contractors, which not only increases the risk of overcharging but also presents national security risks,  like supply chain vulnerability and reduced availability of certain resources. The entire nuclear triad is already dependent on one company, Northrop Grumman. As far as U.S. contractors go, General Dynamics manufactures a significant portion of tracked combat vehicles. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman produce the military’s fixed-wing aircraft. The distillation of the defense industry to a handful of companies bodes poorly for both the military and taxpayer because it produces waste, not to mention a strong profit incentive for war.

As the defense industry’s primary customer and a steward of taxpayer dollars, the Pentagon needs to be a stronger buyer. However, never-ending acquisition reform continues to prevent that. Current laws are insufficient even to document price gouging by military contractors, much less prevent or remedy it. If retained in the final defense policy bill, Rep. Doggett’s provision would help the Pentagon better understand the scope of overcharging by sole source contractors—and ultimately, give lawmakers the information they need to hold industry accountable for overcharging the government at the expense of the taxpayer.

Julia Gledhill is a Research Associate for the National Security Reform Program at The Stimson Center. She focuses her research and writing on Pentagon spending, military contracting, and acquisition. In previous roles at the Project On Government Oversight and the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Julia worked on various national security issues related to Pentagon accountability, war powers, civilian protection, drone policy, the torture program, and U.S. lethal strikes.

Image: Mehmet Ali Poyraz / Shutterstock.com.

Le parquet près le tribunal de grande instance de Kinshasa-Gombe a libéré, mercredi 31 juillet, le journaliste Joël-Cadet Ndanga, après un jour d’interpellation sur l’affaire du concert du musicien gospel Mike Kalambayi.

Le parquet a constaté que son rôle ne s'est limité qu'à la communication et la publicité.

Et que seule la société Maajabu était l'organisatrice dudit concert ayant produit Mike Kalambayi.