Page 63 - Estaing News Today

In a rare joint statement in late March, China and Russia doubled down on earlier pledges to upend the global reliance on the U.S. dollar, and the long-standing global financial system that enables the U.S. to strong-arm them. Will the Sino-Russian strategy succeed? My research suggests “dollar hegemony” is stable for many reasons, primarily due to the United States’ financial centrality and ability to secure investments. The measures announced so far, such as de-dollarization, renminbi d...

PHOTO: Trtworld Field Marshal Idriss Deby Itno created semblance of peace in Chad for over 30 years after proving more acceptable to the Chadians in the midst of their warlords – Felix Malloum, Goukouni Wadei, Hissène Habré, Wadel Kamougoué and the Pro-Libyan Chadian forces who are still alive operating from the north and, especially, clinging to the Aouzou strip. Now the regrouped rebels, or, for others, the Chadian Solidarity and Alternative Front – Front Pour l’Alternance et la Conc...

Twenty years ago, the EU thought that a patrician, former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, was best placed to chair discussions on its reform. For good measure, Giscard’s two vice-chairs were both former prime ministers. After that it was also going to be hard to convince the public that the first Convention on the Future of Europe was not just an exercise in political elitism. The observation that the EU is a top-down bureaucracy has followed European integration like a bad smell...

3, 2, 1… Thomas Pesquet blasts off, back to the ISS Its T-minus zero for French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The 43-year-old space veteran lifts off on Friday, bound for the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule. The six-month mission, named Alpha, is a historic first as Pesquet will become the first French commander of a space station. Thomas Pesquet: "Practising our scales to work our way to the moon" On Monday, four days before lifting off for the In...

© Corbis Paris is known today as the City of Lights. Thousands of years ago it was called Midwater-Dwelling—which is how its Latin name, Lutetia, can be translated. This list covers just a few of the most notable structures built in Paris over all of these years. Earlier versions of the descriptions of these buildings first appeared in 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die , edited by Mark Irving (2016). Writers’ names appear in parentheses. Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris has...

The European Union has launched a multilingual platform to help citizens participate directly in the Conference on the Future of Europe, a year-long series of debates and discussions that aims to reshape the bloc. "We are inviting Europeans to speak up, to address their concerns and tell us what Europe they want to live in," said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in a statement. The digital platform will allow participants to exchange ideas and engage in discussions wi...

As next year’s presidential elections in France approach, the two front-runners are trying on each other’s clothes.  Marine Le Pen, traditionally a candidate of the extreme right, is seeking more moderate voters by steering her party, the National Rally, toward the middle ground of French politics. More surprisingly, perhaps, President Emmanuel Macron is veering sharply rightward, shocking many of his supporters and raising questions about the boundaries of acceptable political discourse. ...

Follow RT on China is the only major economy to introduce a blockchain-enabled, digital version of its currency, the yuan, which may someday change the entire landscape of global trade. Unsurprisingly, the US is taking a hard look at what exactly this might mean for the future. As RT reported this week, top US officials see the digital yuan as a potential threat to the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency and think it could help China and other countries bypass US sanct...

France’s Far Right Is Setting the Agenda Because the Mainstream Allows It To Ahead of the 2022 election, French media are presenting an inevitable duel between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and the "populist" Marine Le Pen. Yet for decades weve seen how this liberal framing fuels far-right talking points. Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2022 presidential election. Photo: Reuters World6 hours ago A year ahead of France’s 2022 presid...

Frances Macron announces end of elite ENA college Updated: Updated: April 09, 2021 04:02 IST The Ecole Nationale dAdministration, known as ENA, is today a small Strasbourg-based finishing school for top civil servants that has become a symbol of elitism in France. Share Article French President Emmanuel Macron   | Photo Credit: AP The Ecole Nationale dAdministration, known as ENA, is today a small Strasbourg-based finishing school for top civil servants that has become a symbol of elitism in ...