French government: a draft budget in a minefield

In Paris, the government unveiled its draft budget for 2025 on Thursday, a high-risk exercise as the planned effort to reduce the vertiginous French deficit is massive and the fragmented National Assembly is hostile to it.

Revalorization of pensions postponed, civil service positions abolished, exemptions from employer contributions lowered... The executive will detail how it intends to find 60 billion euros in the draft finance bill (PLF) and social security financing bill (PLFSS) to redress drifting public finances

Despite an outcry from within him over the savings and planned tax increases, he aims for a shared effort to ward off the threat of a “financial crisis” and maintain French credibility with the financial markets and the EU, which has singled out Paris for its d... excessive deficits

Climate: Florida hit by the powerful Hurricane Milton

On the west coast of Florida, time gradually stopped on Wednesday in preparation for the arrival of the powerful Hurricane Milton, which made landfall in the evening. Two weeks after a first passage in the same area of Hurricane Hélène, which then went on to wreak devastation in the south-east of the United States, Milton “is going to be a deadly and catastrophic storm” according to Deanne Criswell, director of the Federal Natural Disaster Response Agency

Downgraded at the end of the day to category 3 (out of 5) but still considered “major” by the American Hurricane Center (NHC), Milton is expected to be “one of the most destructive hurricanes in more than a century in Florida”, warned President Joe Biden.

Ukraine: Zelensky starts an express European tour in search of support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky begins an express European tour of his main allies on Thursday, starting with the United Kingdom, France and Italy, in search of signs of support, in search of signs of support, while an important meeting of Kiev's military partners scheduled for Saturday in Germany has been postponed.

These brief consecutive trips come at a time when the Russian army is continuing to advance in eastern Ukraine and less than a month before the presidential election in the United States, whose uncertain outcome raises concerns in Kiev for the sustainability of vital American support.

In detail, Volodymyr Zelensky is expected on Thursday in London to discuss with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, according to Downing Street, and in Paris to meet in the afternoon with the French Head of State Emmanuel Macron, according to Downing Street, and in Paris to meet in the afternoon with the French Head of State Emmanuel Macron, according to the Elysée.

New Gaza in Lebanon: Washington warns Israel

The United States warned Israel on Wednesday against any offensive in Lebanon that “resembles” what happened in the Gaza Strip, when the Israeli army promised to fight “relentlessly” Hezbollah.

The day before, Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the country could suffer the same “destruction and suffering” as Gaza, and called on the Lebanese to “liberate their country” from Hezbollah, an Islamist movement allied with Iran.

IN A NUTSHELL

Migration issues are back on the European agenda. EU interior ministers are meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday to discuss, in particular, an inflammable proposal to transfer migrants to reception centers in third countries

The Paris Criminal Court must announce its decision early Thursday afternoon at the trial of the TGV Est accident which caused the death of 11 people and caused 42 injuries during a test session on November 14, 2015 in Eckwersheim (Bas-Rhin).

Donald Trump on Wednesday definitively ruled out facing Kamala Harris during a new debate and redoubled his attacks on his Democratic rival during meetings in Pennsylvania one month before the presidential election in the United States.

A final tribute to the “anguished clown”: the funeral of the actor Michel Blanc, who died suddenly at the age of 72, will be celebrated on Thursday in Paris in the presence of numerous movie and theater personalities.

The French tennis player Richard Gasquet, aged 38, will retire after the Roland-Garros tournament in May or June 2025, he announced in an interview published in the newspaper L'Equipe on Thursday.