Emmanuel Macron has rejected calls to stand down and says he will name a new prime minister – the fourth of his seven years as president – in the coming days. If France was in his biggest political crisis in a generation, Macron wasn’t feeling it. In the wake of his government’s collapse, he says it’s still in the national interest that he sees out his five-year presidential mandate, which ends in 2027. A bar shows the telecast of French President Emmanuel Macron’s address to the nation. Credit: AP The collapse of France’s centre-right coalition government has thrust Macron back into the spotlight and a growing chorus is questioning whether the divisive and at times impetuous leader is suited to resolve the country’s political crisis. The turmoil comes amid a rough patch in the French economy , as various factors take a toll on growth, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, high interest rates and economic slowdowns in Germany and China, two of France’s trading partners. In a televised address, Macron said France could not constitutionally have new parliamentary elections for 10 months, following his decision to call a snap poll back in July. The result, he promised at the time, would offer the country some “clarification”. It led to the current chaos. But for the first time, he conceded he was partly to blame for the situation the nation now faced. “Many have blamed me for it and I know, many continue to blame me. It’s a fact and it’s my responsibility,” he said. “The dissolution was not understood, that’s my responsibility, [but] I will never accept the irresponsibility of others.” He then went on to attack his political opponents on the “extreme right” and “extreme left”, accusing them of collaborating in an “anti-republican front”. “Some political groups have chosen chaos,” he said, referring to the no-confidence vote which led to Michel Barnier standing down just three months after he was appointed by Macron. “They don’t want to build, they want to dismantle.” Barnier’s government the shortest-tenured in modern French history, following the first successful no-confidence vote in France in more than 60 years. Sparking his downfall was his proposed financing bill, which included €60 billion ($98.4 billion) worth of tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at bringing the country’s budget deficit down to 5 per cent next year. Michel Barnier has resigned as France’s prime minister following a no-confidence vote. Credit: Bloomberg Macron must now appoint a new prime minister and task them with either passing a law that extends this year’s budget into the early months of 2025 or pushing a complete budget through parliament by the end of the year to avoid a government shutdown. Macron said the next prime minister would be charged with forming a “government of general interest” with a priority of passing a budget. Addressing voters directly, he said some of his political opponents were not thinking “about you, the voters”, suggesting that their interest was in the next presidential election. “Let’s be honest, they think about one thing: the presidential election,” Macron said of the party of his long-term, hard-right National Rally rival Marine Le Pen. He said the rival party’s “cynical” approach had brought “a sense of chaos” to the country. After Macron’s address, Le Pen wrote a “Gentle reminder to President Macron” in a post on X that no-confidence votes are “not anti-Republican, but provided for in our constitution”. National Rally leader Marine Le Pen says Macron will continue to feel the pressure. Credit: AP Le Pen, whose party holds the most seats in the French parliament, stopped short of calling for Macron’s resignation but warned that “the pressure on the president of the republic will get stronger and stronger”. The one thing to never forget is that Macron is hated in France with a vicious passion . The people of France see him as arrogant, elitist and unrelatable. Alain Minc, a political essayist and long-term informal adviser to French presidents, said on Thursday: “Macron is a victim of his own narcissism ... He was in denial of reality.” Barnier will stay on in a caretaker role for now, but Macron is under pressure to quickly name a new prime minister who might offer the country some stability. Candidates include Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and centrist former presidential candidate François Bayrou. Whoever is chosen, few believe a new government will manage to navigate the minefield of a bitterly divided parliament. France could be back in this position again soon enough. Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here .
NoneSofia Vergara is having the time of her life with her friends and family. The Colombian icon is celebrating Thanksgiving with a tropical getaway. She is known for being surrounded by her loved ones , and this time, she decided to spend the holidays at her home in the Caribbean, Casachipi Chipi. Bianca Censori, Demi Lovato, Sofia Vergara and more obsessed with this risqué fashion trend Sofia Vergara enjoys fall in NYC in lace corset, diamond jewelry, and the perfect leather jacket Sofia Vergara and her son Manolo talk about their close relationship and their dating preferences The actress used to spend a lot of time on the property with her ex-husband, Joe Manganiello . She documented the trip to the island and shared some photos on social media, arriving with the new addition to her family and the latest guest of Casa Chipichipi, her furry friend Amore. "Amore's first vacay," Sofia wrote on Instagram and shared a photo from her private plane joined by her adorable chihuahua. "Back in Casa Chipichipi," she added, sharing a photo of herself in a colorful dress paired with gold jewelry. The actress posed with her family, including her son Manolo Gonzalez Vergara , after they arrived at the property in Colombia. She welcomed her loved ones, wearing a stunning green dress and cheering with cocktails after they landed. Sofia was all smiles, driving them in a golf cart to her home and sharing a video of the fun moment on Instagram. Sofia's niece Claudia Vergara wore a sheer yellow dress, while the actress wore a strapless black dress during their time on the island. Her sister, Veronica Vergara , also posed for a photo in a white dress with a red print, and their mom, Margarita Vergara , smiled for the camera in a black-and-white look. The star showed off her incredible figure in a black-and-brown swimsuit paired with a gold necklace, and showed her fans and followers the delicious food she enjoyed, including empanadas, fried fish, coleslaw, and fried plantains. Sofia has been exploring the island and working on her tan, making the most of her time with her family and friends.None
Tafara Gapare scored a season-high 19 points off the bench and Derik Queen added 15 points and eight rebounds, lifting Maryland to a 91-67 victory over Bucknell on Wednesday in College Park, Md. Gapare made 7 of 9 shots from the floor -- including 3 of 4 from 3-point range. He highlighted his performance by unleashing a personal 10-point run in the second half to help send the Terrapins (6-1) to their third straight win. Gapare, who made one 3-pointer prior to Wednesday's game, was limited to just three minutes and was held without a point in Maryland's 76-75 victory versus Villanova on Sunday. Julian Reese scored 14 points for the Terrapins, who shot a robust 50.0 percent from the floor and scored 22 points off 20 turnovers. Selton Miguel drained three 3-pointers to score all 13 of his points in the first half. That effort came three days after being held without a point versus Villanova. Bucknell's Ruot Bijiek sank four 3-pointers to highlight his 20-point performance. Josh Bascoe scored 10 points and Brandon McCreesh added nine off the bench for the Bison (4-4), who lost two in a row for the second time this season. Maryland answered Bijiek's layup by scoring 12 straight points to take a 15-2 lead. Miguel keyed the spurt by draining two 3-pointers and a jumper. Bucknell tried to keep pace and trailed 25-12 after McCreesh's layup, but the Terrapins kept their foot on the gas to steadily build a 25-point lead late in the first half. The Bison made a modest charge to begin the second half, trimming the deficit to 16 at 58-42 on Bijiek's fourth 3-pointer of the game. Gapare singlehandedly halted the momentum by sandwiching 3-pointers around a layup and an emphatic dunk over the next five possessions. Reese sank a pair of free throws to cap the 12-0 run, extending Maryland's lead to 70-42 with 11:39 to play. The Terrapins were not threatened the rest of the way. --Field Level Media
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It's been a long road back to the highest levels of motorsport for Canadian driver Robert Wickens. Six years after he was paralyzed in a violent wreck, Wickens will again be behind the wheel against some of the best drivers in North America. Wickens, from Guelph, Ont., was named the newest driver for DXDT Racing earlier this week, moving the 35-year-old up to IMSA GTD competition for 2025, the highest class on the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series. His promotion was made possible by a new hand control braking system created by Bosch Electronics, with help from GM Motorsports and Corvette Racing/Pratt Miller. "It's not going to be easy but I wanted to get to the highest levels of motorsport again because, frankly, that's where I was when I was injured," said Wickens, who crashed at Pocono Raceway in 2018 during IndyCar's ABC Supply 500. "But not only that, I want to prove to myself and other generations of people with disabilities that you can really do anything. "Maybe you're having a hard time getting back to your place of work after a life-altering accident and — whatever your discipline, it doesn't even have to be athletics — but I know it's possible as long as you align yourself with a strong support system." For Wickens, that's been his wife Karli Wickens, his family and, in his professional life, organizations like Bosch and GM. Wickens's crash left him with a thoracic spinal fracture, a neck fracture, tibia and fibula fractures to both legs, fractures in both hands, a fractured right forearm, a fractured elbow, four fractured ribs, a pulmonary contusion, and an indeterminate spinal injury that combined to make him a paraplegic. As he has slowly recovered some movement in his legs, Wickens has eased back into motor racing. He drove the parade lap of the 2019 Honda Indy Toronto, competed in the IndyCar iRacing Challenge during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then in January 2022 it was announced he would drive in the Michelin Pilot Challenge for Bryan Herta Autosport. He and co-driver Mark Wilkins won twice in the Michelin Pilot Challenge's TCR category with three podiums in 2022. In 2023 the pairing didn't win, but they reached the podium seven times to earn the TCR championship. All of Wickens's post-accident cars have been fitted with hand controls. Those conventional systems rely on paddles around the steering wheel that activate pneumatics that then press the foot pedals. Hand controls like that are acceptable for regular road vehicles and even lower levels of motorsports but in the highest classes, like IMSA GTD where cars top out at more than 280 kilometres, the lag between the driver toggling the paddle and the car responding is unacceptably slow. That's where the Bosch electronic system comes in, with the controls linked directly to the car's braking system, removing the pneumatics as an intermediary. "When you hit the brakes to slow the car down for each corner that was always a big challenge for me where (with) the Bosch electronic system, the latency is milliseconds not tenths of a second," said Wickens. "It's basically as accurate as I would be if I was an able-bodied driver wanting to apply the brake. "Honestly, it's just better in every facet imaginable. It's just been a true blessing." Advances in physical rehabilitation from spinal cord injuries as well as the ongoing development of vehicle technology has made Wickens's return to competitive motorsport possible. "I'm very fortunate in the timing of my paralysis and my career," Wickens said Wednesday from Tampa, Fla. "If this was even a decade ago we'd be having a very different conversation today." The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has four classes of vehicles: two sports prototype categories and two grand tourer classes. GTD is considered the highest of the four classes because each team must have at least a silver or bronze driver and more than one platinum-rated driver on a team is prohibited. "I want to win," said Wickens. "I think the big thing for me on this journey back was I wanted to race again because I truly felt like I could still win. "I want to raise awareness for spinal cord injury and disability, not by just being a participant, but by being the guy. I want to win races, fight for podiums, win championships, every time I'm sitting in the car." Wickens said he won't just be a role model for people living with paralysis or other mobility disabilities, but the technology his car will employ in 2025 will likely become commercially available for use in road vehicles. "Motorsports and the automotive racing industry were founded to be a proving ground for everyday automotive vehicles," he said. "From there you make road cars and road safety better. "Hopefully we can provide the technology and have regularly available components that can make any race car accessible for anyone that needs hand controls or any other form of disability." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2024. Follow jchidleyhill.bsky.social on Bluesky. John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press
There will be no public hearings on the controversial bill to in Ontario as Premier Doug Ford’s government moves to pass it into law soon. Critics accused the Progressive Conservatives of quelling discussion on the by using their majority in the legislature to approve a time allocation motion that nixes public hearings. Government House Leader Steve Clark defended the measure, saying Health Minister Sylvia Jones signalled in August that “we were prioritizing this” so that a new treatment model called HART hubs can be in place for next spring. Short for “Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment,” 19 such hubs across the province will share $378 million in funding and offer 375 supportive housing units and addiction recovery and treatment beds. “This is one of the bills that the government needs to get passed,” Clark said. The government has been taking applications for the HART hubs while proponents of safe consumption sites have been vocal in warning the plan to close 10 of them across the province — including five in Toronto — by March 31 will lead to more overdose deaths and an extra burden on busy paramedics. don’t want to hear from the people who actually are on the front line.” Liberal MPP Adil Shamji (Don Valley East), an emergency room physician, told reporters the government is missing a chance to improve the legislation. “It will lead to thousands more ER visits, it will lead to thousands more deaths, so we owe it to the democratic process, to the people of Ontario ... to look at this legislation carefully and get as much feedback as we can.” The legislation also introduces new penalties for fraudulent charging of and prohibits convicted sex offenders on Ontario’s sex offender registry from while they are required to check in with police.FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Looking for hard-to-find bottles of Kentucky bourbon to toast the holidays or add to a collection? Get your bids ready as the Bluegrass State launches its first online auction of confiscated alcohol. Whiskeys up for sale include two bottles of Old Rip Van Winkle, a Blanton’s Single Barrel Gold in box with Japanese markings and a bottle of Four Roses Small Batch Barrel Strength 2011. The sale is the result of a new Kentucky law, which allows alcohol confiscated from closed criminal investigations by the state's alcoholic beverage control agency to be auctioned. Online bidding opens Wednesday and closes at midnight on Dec. 11. Proceeds will support programs promoting responsible alcohol use by adults and awareness programs for youths. “This is a really good auction,” Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, said by phone Tuesday. “There are some hard-to-find and rare bottles on there.” No estimate has been given on how much the auction might raise. “We look forward to seeing the response to this auction and have started planning additional auctions for 2025,” said Allyson Taylor, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The auction features 32 bottles of alcohol and includes a “stock the bar” bundle with bottles of wine, vodka, rum and whiskey, the agency said. But the stars are the hard-to-find and rare bourbons up for sale. “It’s not every day you go to a liquor store and find a bottle of Blanton’s Gold," Gregory said. “You never go to a liquor store and find a bottle of Four Roses 2011.” The lineup includes bottles of E.H. Taylor bourbon, Blanton’s Single Barrel, Eagle Rare 10 yr., Weller Antique 107, Willett Family Estate Single Barrel Rye, Michter’s, an Old Forester gift set and more. A link to the online auction is available at ABC.ky.gov . Auction items cannot be shipped, so winning bidders must pick up items in Frankfort, the state said. The auctions will become a “can't miss opportunity” for bourbon connoisseurs, Gregory said. Until this year's change in the law, Kentucky regulators were required to destroy confiscated alcohol once a case was closed, the agency said. “We don't like to see good bourbon poured down the drain,” Gregory said. Kentucky distillers produce 95% of the global bourbon supply, the Kentucky distillers’ group says.
Published 4:03 pm Wednesday, November 27, 2024 By Jim Gazzolo The clock is ticking. With recruiting in full swing and the transfer portal set to open very soon, this is not a good time to be looking for a new head coach. The clock is ticking on McNeese State Athletic Director Heath Schroyer, who said he wants to make his choice “as soon as possible.” Sooner is better than later, but what matters more is that he gets this right. Schroyer is clearly under the gun on this one. After firing Gary Goff on Monday just hours after a six-game improvement from the previous season, all eyes are on the AD now. That’s why he gets the big bucks. One can debate whether Schroyer pulled the trigger on Goff, who had a year remaining on his contract, one year too early or one year too late. Well, that no longer matters. You can’t put the bullet back in the chamber. All that matters is what (or better yet: who) comes next. Schroyer said he wants somebody who gets the McNeese culture and is willing to embrace the community. That would surely please some of the old guard who still believe the area is brimming with football talent. Those folks are ready to head to Cowboy Stadium on Saturday nights in the fall. That is a very romantic idea, but it’s far from today’s reality. Sure, it would be great to get one of the McNeese blue bloods to come back home and make everything right. Good stories are always fun, but they only last for so long. If you want to bring back the good times, you have to win. Schroyer needs to find a football guy–one who understands more than Xs and Os. The next coach must understand the transfer portal, the business of NIL money and he must excite the fans in a way that they rally around a team built with a revolving roster door. The new guy must understand all of that. He must also have both the willingness and the ability to recruit and retain talent. Oh, yes, while raising funds in the process. Yikes. Fans need to realize the good ole days are long gone. It’s been 22 years (that’s more than two decades) since the Cowboys won a playoff game. It’s been nine seasons since they made the playoffs and five since they had a winning record. It should also be noted that this time, unlike a year ago, there’s much more talent already on campus. After the 2023 season that saw the Cowboys finish 0-10, a complete overhaul of the program was warranted. Now, after this 6-6 campaign, the changes needed are much more subtle. You can’t carpet-bomb a program that’s already halfway rebuilt. A more surgical strike is needed this offseason. The first thing that needs to be done is identifying the talent on hand, both in the players and the coaches. Keeping talent on both levels would be helpful to maintain some semblance of continuity within the program. The next step is figuring out what areas need change and attacking those. It may be hard to believe but this team really doesn’t have that far to go in order to find their way to the playoffs. Schroyer must find the guy that’ll get the Cowboys over the hump. He needs to make the right choice and he needs to do it quickly. The clock is ticking and all are watching. Jim Gazzolo is a freelance sports writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. He can be reached at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com
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Philippine police on Wednesday filed a criminal complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte and her security staff for assaulting security officers and disobeying their orders during an altercation at the House of Representatives on Saturday. Duterte had a busy day on Saturday, having publicly claimed that she hired an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., along with his wife and his cousin Martin Romualdez, who is House speaker, if she herself dies. She did this not in heated private conversation but at a news conference, in which she claimed Marcos was planning to have her killed and her hitman was standing by to take him and his wife out in retaliation. The Philippine police and military immediately raised the alert level around President Marcos and increased his security, while the National Security Council declared Duterte a threat to national security and the justice system announced it would summon her for an investigation. Duterte sought to walk back her threat, sort of, by assuring the public she would only kill the president if he killed her first. “Why would I kill him if not for revenge from the grave? There is no reason for me to kill him. What’s the benefit for me?” she said at her damage-control press conference. None of this had any direct bearing on why the police decided to file charges against the vice president. That happened because her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, had been placed under detention last week for demonstrating contempt of the House during a corruption inquiry, and when the House voted to extend her detention on Saturday, Duterte and her security detail got rowdy. Lopez and Duterte are both under investigation for misusing funds from the office of the vice presidency. Lopez was cited for contempt and sent into detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) last Wednesday. Her offense was skipping a hearing on November 5, ostensibly to visit her sick aunt in the United States. Lopez angered House investigators by giving evasive answers about the abuse of funds, often claiming she had no idea where any of the money went. Lopez was at least calm and polite during her testimony, unlike the volatile Duterte, but she reportedly suffered from panic attacks after she was sent into detention. Lopez had another panic attack on Saturday, when the House ordered her to be transferred from the relatively comfortable VMMC to a women’s prison, at which point Duterte raised both verbal and physical objections. The police said it was necessary to file charges against her to preserve the rule of law. On Tuesday, Duterte was served a subpoena to answer questions about her threats against the president’s life. Marcos said he intends to prosecute her for participating in a “criminal plot” to have him assassinated. Duterte’s father, the equally outspoken former president Rodrigo Duterte, waded into the controversy on Monday by suggesting the military should consider overthrowing Marcos. “There is a fractured governance in the Philippines today. In the face of so many errors there... it is only the military who can correct it,” he said. The elder Duterte demonstrated where his daughter learned her damage-control skills by adding that he was not calling for a coup, but was rather calling for the military to commit mass insubordination, or perhaps go on strike to protest Marcos’ leadership. “They can just say we no longer want to play your game, we’re out,” he explained, calling on military officers to reject the commands of the “drug addict” Marcos. Marcos and his predecessor have taken to accusing each other of drug abuse on a regular basis. In August, a video that purportedly showed Marcos snorting cocaine began circulating on social media. Marcos and his officials dismissed the video as a deepfake, while Rodrigo Duterte insisted it was authentic and said Marcos could only answer the allegations of substance abuse by taking a drug test. These events make it difficult to remember that Marcos, Jr., chose Sara Duterte as his running mate in 2022 in an effort to build “unity” following the end of Rodrigo Duterte’s tempestuous administration. Both Marcos and the younger Duterte won landslide victories for their positions, which are voted on separately in the Philippines. Their relationship soon went sour for various reasons, including angry disagreements about how to handle China. Duterte resigned from her position as education secretary in the Marcos cabinet in June, about six months after her father began referring to President Marcos Jr. as a drug addict. She remains vice president, and Marcos cannot fire her, since it is an elected position.
NoneNoneBlack Ops 6, the latest entry in the Call of Duty series, contains some really bizarre and wacky cosmetics . And while some players hate them, it doesn’t seem like the developers behind the game are going to stop making them any time soon. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is one of the best entries in the franchise in years, with an action-packed campaign, an awesome zombies mode, and a huge amount of multiplayer content. But the game, which launched in October, also contains a lot of wacky character skins, and these skins have become a controversial topic among players. Some love the wacky skins, like a shark man and assorted celebrities , while others despise these cosmetics and think they are ruining the Call of Duty experience. So why are all these wacky outfits in the game? (Well, besides money, that is.) In a new interview with Dexerto , Miles Leslie, the associate creative director at Black Ops 6 studio Treyarch, was asked about all the silly cosmetics and explained that ultimately, it comes down to letting people have fun. “Fun always comes first for us,” explained Leslie. “Of course, we want to stay grounded in the DNA that makes a Black Ops game unique when it comes to core gameplay, but we also like to break the rules if it’s going to maximize fun for players.” Leslie further suggested that the Black Ops series “naturally lends itself” to more outlandish items and skins, as the COD sub-series has always been more willing to do weird storylines and include more outlandish moments. Call of Duty ’s campaigns will stay grounded However, Leslie explained that when it comes to developing the campaign, the focus is always on realism and accuracy. “[ Black Ops 6' s] campaign has a tightly defined cast of characters with an era-specific look to them that fits the story that we and our friends at Raven Software are telling,” said Leslie. “The cool thing is, because the story then continues directly from the Campaign into our Multiplayer experience throughout our post-launch seasons, we now get to develop new looks and lore for those characters while simultaneously building out the cast for both the Rogue Black Ops and Crimson One factions.” Leslie says the studio takes this stuff “very seriously” and wants to continue telling post-launch stories with these characters, but admitted, “That doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun with cosmetics along the way!” Nowhere in Leslie’s answer did the creative director also add the other reason Activision and Treyarch keep adding more silly skins that you have to buy to use. So, I’ll add it below: .
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