Agrégateur de flux

The Spanish government could face instability after the Catalonian pro-independence ERC party warned that it could block the national budget for 2025 if Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez fails to clarify provisions for a Catalan tax agency in a recently signed pact.

Au début du mois d’août, les Alliés sont toujours sur le front normand, la résistance intérieure n’attend pas, elle lance l’appel à l’insurrection nationale. Récit de cette semaine cruciale, durant laquelle le peuple dresse les barricades et mène d’intenses combats pour libérer la capitale.

INFOGRAPHIE - Comme René Coty et Vincent Auriol avant lui, Emmanuel Macron prolonge artificiellement la durée de vie du gouvernement. Le précédent le plus long, en 1953, n’avait pas excédé 38 jours.

DÉCRYPTAGE - Alors que son parti est sorti très affaibli des européennes (5,5 %), la secrétaire nationale des Écologistes a réussi à s’imposer comme une des incarnations du Nouveau Front populaire. Et a fait taire la contestation interne.

Court, moyen, long terme… Pour accéder au pouvoir, le Nouveau Front populaire a de nombreux et vastes chantiers devant lui. À l’occasion de la rentrée politique de ses différentes formations, ce week-end, l’Humanité en a sélectionné 12.

Summary and Key Points: The United States and the United Kingdom continue to invest heavily in advanced military technologies, such as the sixth-generation warplane programs NGAD and FCAS.

However, the staggering costs and practical challenges of these "wonder weapons" have led to growing concerns about their viability.

U.S. Air Force leaders are now considering a more adaptable and affordable approach, possibly introducing a "Light Fighter" concept.

NGAD: U.S. Air Force Reassesses Costly Sixth-Gen Warplane Plans

As Western defense industries face budget constraints and inefficiencies, there is a pressing need to focus on more practical, cost-effective systems that address immediate threats rather than long-term, high-cost projects.

The United States and its Western allies, notably the United Kingdom, remain deeply ensconced in the cult of the wonder weapon. Western militaries will splurge on highly complex systems that promise to do it all but are so expensive they rarely deliver what they advertise. 

As the West enters what can only be described as a protracted debt crisis, even the insulated defense chiefs of Washington and London are starting to realize they may have run up against the law of diminishing returns. 

The System of Systems and Light Fighter

A recent meeting of British and American defense chiefs at the UK Air and Space Power Association in late July shows Western leaders running up against the limits of what their governments can do in terms of funding the two countries’ sixth-generation warplane programs.

In the United States, the Pentagon refers to their program as the lofty sounding Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD. It is billed as a family of systems, and the Brits have something similar known as the Future Combat Air System.

The costs are obscene. The American sixth-generation bird is going to cost an astonishing $300 million per plane, and the Pentagon wants hundreds of them. Each of the manned sixth-generation warplanes will be augmented by a fleet of next-generation drones, as well as the most advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, cloud computing, and other next-generation technologies. 

Again, the problem is cost and practicality. One can put anything down on paper. Bringing it to life is quite a different matter. 

To overcome practicality and cost concerns, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, along with other defense leaders involved in the NGAD program, admitted that they were kicking around the concept of a sixth-generation “Light Fighter.”

According to The Aviationist, U.S. officials at the UK’s Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference in July were “hoping for more ‘adaptable’ platforms that can be easily modified and upgraded.” Describing their new idea as a “notional” concept, Air Force leadership spoke about the need to move away from the “built to last philosophy to [the] built to adapt” model.

Affordability and other constraints on the defense-industrial base are forcing the Air Force to reassess its procurement model for new warplanes – however slowly that reassessment is happening. 

Just a few weeks ago, the Air Force did place their sixth-generation warplane acquisition plans on hold as they sought out a contractor who could meet the frankly insane requirements of these obscenely expensive experimental warplanes. 

What Decadence 

In today’s age, what’s needed is less a warplane that can do it all – and remain in service for decades – and more a system relevant to the threat environment of the next 10-15 years.  

Given the crisis in Western defense-industrial capabilities, the preference for more complex, expensive systems is misplaced. America needs cheaper, more adaptable, and disposable systems. Ditto for the British, whose defense industry is an even messier swamp of inefficiency, corruption, and decadence.

Author Experience and Expertise: Brandon J. Weichert

Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is due October 22 from Encounter Books. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

All images are Creative Commons or Shutterstock.

From the Vault

Russia Freaked Out: Why the U.S. Navy 'Unretired' the Iowa-Class Battleships

Battleship vs. Battlecruiser: Iowa-Class vs. Russia's Kirov-Class (Who Wins?)

A totalitárius rezsimek bűneire és áldozataira való emlékezés fontosságára hívta fel a figyelmet Didier Reynders, az Európai Bizottság igazságügyekért, Vera Jourová, az értékekért és átláthatóságért, illetve Helena Dalli egyenlőségért felelős tagja csütörtökön, egy nappal a totalitárius diktatúrák áldozatainak európai emléknapja előtt.

Outgoing Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela has the right CV be the EU’s next Energy Commissioner, but he also has a few important political cards up his sleeve.

Outre le cuivre, le cobalt, le nickel et le lithium, le passage du moteur thermique au moteur électrique sera gourmand en métaux et autres matières issues de ce que l’on nomme les « terres rares ». Elles entrent notamment dans la production des aimants et leurs noms sont peu connus. En font partie le lanthane, le cérium, le néodyme, le samarium, le dysprosium et quelques autres.

For over seventy-five years, American leadership has brought an unprecedented era of peace, prosperity, and stability across the globe. When looking back on these decades, many point to our military strength, our great economic dynamism, and our technological innovations as the sources of America’s national power. These observations are true, but they miss what underpins these pillars.

Military, economic, and technological prowess are not generated out of nothing. They come from something deeper, something that we are at risk of losing: our industrial capacity. U.S. industrialization in the twentieth century is what enabled such a colossal rise in the military, economic, and technological spheres. Just after World War II, the United States made up half of the global GDP, and over a quarter of the U.S. GDP was from the manufacturing sector at the time.

Much has changed since our post-war industrial boom. China has surpassed the United States as the world’s manufacturing superpower, accounting for almost 29 percent of global manufacturing output, while the United States lags at just under 17 percent. America’s manufacturing decline is a consequence of decades of outsourcing our capacity. We naively believed that if we ceded our industrial capabilities to China, that nation would democratize and become more like us. American politicians from both parties were wrong to assume this outcome.

China’s manufacturing rise is not just about cheap toys and clothing and clothing to fill our big-box stores. It includes critical technologies that impact our economic, national, and personal security, like electric vehicles (EVs), robotics, artificial intelligence, solar technology, pharmaceuticals, drones, batteries, and ships.

In some of these industries, such as EVs and shipbuilding, China has not only surpassed America’s industrial capacity but has also left us behind.

China is the largest producer of EVs, making up 57 percent of the world’s production. China is the world’s largest shipbuilder, with a capacity that exceeds that of the United States by over 230 times. Allowing these situations to occur was a strategic blunder that will degrade America’s national power over time.

A robust manufacturing industry fit for the twenty-first century requires more than forging and engineering. Our industries need critical components, like engines, computers, microchips, complex alloys, and countless other critical technologies with fragile supply chains. China has, in fact, managed to insert itself into dominant positions in many of these supply chains. For example, in the steel sector, China now produces about half the world’s output, with a commanding position in the global market. China’s supply chain dominance renders our economic security more vulnerable in the event of a conflict between our nations.

A U.S. manufacturing revival requires an environment that supports thousands of small and medium enterprises as the backbone of the industry. This is critical to prevent over-consolidation of smaller businesses—which are important drivers of innovation and employment. We need a strategy that integrates all of our capacity from big factories to small machine shops into a rebuilt industrial base.

Overregulation is stifling our manufacturing companies. Government mandates must be utilized surgically to foster economic growth, not hamstring the economy unnecessarily. High corporate taxes are closely connected to overregulation and will, with certainty, drive our best entrepreneurs to seek less burdensome taxation abroad.

Public-private partnerships that combine the resources and capital of the government and private sector can also, in targeted settings, help facilitate our industrial transition and let us catch up in industries essential to our future. The CHIPS Act needs some retooling but may prove to be a useful precedent in this area.

New factories will need skilled blue-collar workers to weld, install HVAC systems, fit pipes, and fulfill scores of high-paying jobs in the trades. The federal government has been far too silent on the importance of strengthening the industrial manufacturing workforce as well as expanding vocational schools and apprentice programs. We need young people who want to work on factory floors. Young foreign scientists and engineers who graduate from our universities and who share our values should be allowed to stay rather than be pushed out to apply their U.S. education to the benefit of our competitors.

We must also harden America’s industrial infrastructure and our power grids to make them more resilient in the face of increased cyberattacks. The thousands of daily cyber intrusions, hacks, and probes we see now are but a mere foreshadowing of what we can expect from thousands of Chinese hackers if war ever comes.

Private sector R&D investment ensures that America remains at the cutting edge of technological advancements. It is our companies that will keep us ahead in the tech race with China in the key areas of AI and Quantum computing. The government must stop beating up our tech companies with outdated anti-trust lawsuits and consumer investigations and allowing our allies, especially the EU, to do the same. 

The United States holds a key position in the manufacturing sector, which no other industrial country, especially China, has—abundant North American energy. Factories require energy, and the high-tech plants of the future will require lots of it. The United States already produces over 12 million barrels of oil a day. That number could go millions of barrels a day higher with more energy-friendly policies. Finishing the last few miles of the Keystone XL pipeline would bring an additional 900,000 barrels of Canadian crude to our refineries in Texas. Oil and gas are just the start.

An “all of the above” energy policy that would entice manufacturers to make long-term bets on America will also focus on alternative sources. Wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and hydropower all have their places in diverse regions of this country. America should regain its leadership in these green energy fields from China. The energy sources of the future—nuclear (ready today) and fusion—will also play significant roles in powering industry.

America’s strength has always come from our ability to outproduce the world. Our industrial might is what sustains our military superiority, economic might, and technological prowess. This country has all the ingredients, from its people to its bountiful natural resources, to get back on top of manufacturing. To do so, the United States must reindustrialize decisively and with dispatch. Maintaining our peace and prosperity depends on such action.

About the Authors:

Robert C. O’Brien (ret.) is Chairman of American Global Strategies. He served as the twenty-seventh United States National Security Advisor from 2019–2021. 

Henrietta Fore is Chairman of Holsman International. She served as the fifteenth Administrator of USAID from 2007–2009. O’Brien and Fore are Carnegie Distinguished Fellows at Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics.

Image Credit: Creative Commons and/or Shutterstock. 

Over the past two weeks, Ukraine has taken its fight with the Kremlin onto Russian soil. Kyiv’s offensive consisted of a daring raid into Russia’s Kursk region designed to bring the fight to Russian forces and draw the Kremlin’s combat troops away from its own territory. 

Aside from a few headlines, though, Ukraine’s bold strategic gamble has gone largely unnoticed. That’s a shame because Kyiv’s initiative—and Moscow’s response to it—has made clear that persistent Western fears of Russian brinkmanship are overblown. 

Up until now, both U.S. and European policies have been defined by caution and fear of Russian risk-taking. While President Biden has pledged to back Kyiv’s fight for “as long as it takes,” in practice, his administration has been slow to provide Ukraine with the weaponry it needs to win the fight decisively. And even when it has, that aid has been accompanied by onerous restrictions that have had the effect of limiting Ukraine’s fighting potential. European nations, meanwhile, have taken their cues from Washington and settled in for a long campaign of incremental assistance to Ukraine. The result has been a situation that—at least until recently—had settled into a strategic stalemate and positional warfare. 

That’s the equation Ukraine’s push into Russia is attempting to alter. In the process, however, it has also laid bare the hollowness of Moscow’s threats of strategic escalation in response to battlefield setbacks.

Ever since the current conflict broke out in February 2022, the West has been concerned that “poking the bear” could prompt Russia to use nuclear weapons and escalate the war into a full-blown showdown with NATO. But Ukraine’s push north, through which it has managed to seize over 480 square miles of Russia’s Kursk Oblast, hasn’t elicited much of a response from Russia. To be sure, the Kremlin has mobilized in response, declaring a federal emergency in the region and redeploying troops, tanks, and artillery from the Ukraine front to (so far unsuccessfully) beat back the invaders. However, what Russia has not done is retaliate against Ukraine or its partners with any significant escalatory measures.

President Vladimir Putin has not ramped up the conflict in conventional terms. Nor has he used nuclear weapons against Russia’s western neighbor, as Russian officials have threatened in the past. Indeed, even with Ukrainian troops now entrenched in Russian territory, the Kremlin hasn’t made any maneuvers that could threaten to escalate the conflict further.

Part of the reason for Russia’s restraint is no doubt practical. Simply put, Moscow is already using pretty much all the military resources at its disposal in its attempts to subjugate Ukraine. As such, Russia is unlikely to make moves so provocative that they might prompt the direct involvement of NATO. Indeed, there does not seem to be much that Russia might be able to do to turn the tables on Kyiv without risking the alliance entering the conflict.

The lesson is worth heeding. As dominant as Russia’s strongman wants to appear, his government is in a far more precarious position than the West originally believed. Putin’s bluff has always been that he would be more willing to turn up the heat if the war doesn’t go his way. But the reality is that he cannot. All of Russia’s tanks, artillery, aircraft, missiles, and ships are as committed as they can be without exposing Russia to other attacks. And because they are, there are real-world limits to what Russia can realistically do to punish the West. 

Ukraine’s daring offensive, in other words, has laid bare a couple of critical truths. The first is that Russia is weak and constrained by the same sort of real-world limitations that afflict other powers. The second is that Ukraine, though embattled, can still find ways to break the stalemate and win this war. 

About the Author: 

Elliot Petroff is a researcher at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC.

Image: Shutterstock.com.

Il s'agit de démontrer les possibilités de ce qui était alors un nouveau champ en médecine... mais qui était une locomotive scientifique.

Mia le Roux is the first deaf woman to be crowned Miss South Africa.

Désormais talonnée par le PS à l’Assemblée, la FI n'entend pas perdre la main, ni adoucir le programme du NFP. Elle compte continuer à accentuer la pression pour envoyer Lucie Castets à Matignon, afin qu’elle applique le projet commun.

Après deux échéances électorales, les Verts se tournent vers le scrutin municipal en mettant en avant leurs réalisations dans les villes. Mais la rentrée politique tourmentée de la gauche accaparera une grande partie de leurs universités d’été, qui ont débuté le 22 août.

Partir étudier et vivre en France représente une préoccupation majeure pour les étudiants algériens désireux de poursuivre leurs cursus à l’étranger. Cependant, le financement des […]

L’article Rentrée 2024/2025 : voici comment financer ses études en France est apparu en premier sur .

Summary and Key Points: The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, has arrived in the Middle East earlier than expected to support U.S. interests and deter potential threats from Iran, following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

-The carrier joins USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and brings advanced fighter capabilities with it, including F-35C and F/A-18 Block III jets.

-Additionally, the Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Georgia (SSGN-729) has been deployed to the region, signaling to Tehran the U.S.'s readiness to respond to any aggressive actions.

Aircraft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln Has Arrived in the Middle East

A second United States Navy Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier arrived in the Middle East on Wednesday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced. The arrival was a bit earlier than expected.

It came after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) and her strike group to "accelerate" its transit to the region, to deter Iran and its proxies from launching an attack on Israel and U.S. interests in the region.

Tehran has vowed to retaliate for Israel's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital last month.

CVN-72 is set to relieve USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), which was deployed to the Middle East to support the ongoing Prosperity Guardian mission to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since June.

"USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), equipped with F-35C and F/A-18 Block III fighters, entered the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility," CENTCOM announced on Wednesday via X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. "The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 3, is accompanied by Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 21 and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 9."

It remains unclear how long the two carriers may operate together, and the deployment of CVN-71 left a "gap" in the Indo-Pacific. Another Nimitz-class carrier, USS George Washington (CVN-73) has been completing a "hull swap" with USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) and will soon head to her new homeport in Yokosuka, Japan. On August 1, CVN-73 became the U.S. Navy's forward-deployed carrier taking over from CVN-76.

Guided Missile Sub Also on the Way

The U.S. Navy also announced that it had deployed the Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Georgia (SSGN-729) to the region – a rare public admission of the whereabouts of submarines that are designed to silently and secretly patrol the world's oceans.

The very point of the United States Navy's submarine fleet is that an adversary isn't supposed to know where the boats are at any given time. The nuclear-power vessels have unlimited range and can stay submerged for weeks, even months at a time if necessary. Yet, in this case, the Pentagon absolutely wanted Tehran to know that such a capable vessel was in the region and that it may want to think twice before carrying out any kind of strike that would result in retaliation from Washington.

SSGN-729 was reportedly operating in the Mediterranean when the order came for her deployment to the Red Sea or Persian Gulf, According to USNI News the nuclear-powered boat was still in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. From there it could certainly target Hamas or Hezbollah positions if the need were to arise.

"The department's recent adjustment to the U.S. military posture in the region have enabled us to bolster U.S. force protection, increase support for the defense of Israel and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies," Pentagon spokesperson Mag. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters.

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

Image Credit: Creative Commons. 

En recul électoral aux législatives, le Parti communiste conserve une influence forte sur la vie politique, laquelle se trouve agitée par le refus d’Emmanuel Macron de confirmer la victoire de la gauche. C’est dans ce contexte qu’il tient son université d’été à Montpellier du 23 au 25 août.

The Romanian government has nominated Socialist MEP Victor Negrescu, currently vice-president of the European Parliament, for the post of European Commissioner, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced on Thursday.

L’Agence Nationale de l’Amélioration et du Développement du Logement (AADL) lance un appel à tous les intéressés par l’acquisition d’un local commercial ou de services. […]

L’article L’AADL lance une vaste opération de vente de ce type de biens : voici les wilayas concernées  est apparu en premier sur .