Politics
Back to the future as France’s Macron reappoints Lecornu as PM
- Macron reappoints last PM to resolve political crisis
- Hard left and far right angered by Macron’s choice.
- Crisis denting economic growth, central bank chief warns.
French President Emmanuel Macron reappointed Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister on Friday just days after he quit the job, a move that enraged some of the president’s fiercest political opponents who pledged to vote out the new government.
Macron, 47, will hope loyalist Lecornu can draw enough support from a deeply divided parliament to pass a 2026 budget. Faced with France’s worst political crisis in decades, many of Macron’s rivals have demanded he either call fresh parliamentary elections or resign.
The immediate reaction to Lecornu’s appointment from the far right and hard left was scathing, suggesting his second stint as prime minister will be no easier than his first, which ended on Monday when he resigned after just 27 days in office.
“The Lecornu II government, appointed by Emmanuel Macron who is more isolated and out of touch than ever at the Elysee Palace, is a bad joke, a democratic disgrace and a humiliation for the French people,” National Rally party president Jordan Bardella posted on X.
Lecornu’s priority is to pass a budget for 2026
There was no immediate reaction from the leadership of the Socialists and the conservative Republicans, both of whom will be crucial to Lecornu’s survival.
Lecornu’s most pressing task will be to deliver a budget to parliament by the end of Monday.
“I accept – out of duty – the mission entrusted to me by the President of the Republic to do everything possible to provide France with a budget by the end of the year and to address the daily life issues of our fellow citizens,” he wrote on X.
“We must put an end to this political crisis that exasperates the French people and to this instability that is harmful to France’s image and its interests.”
Lecornu added that whoever joined his government would have to renounce their personal ambitions to succeed Macron in 2027, a contest that has injected instability into France’s weak minority governments and fractious legislature. He pledged his cabinet would “embody renewal and diversity.”
Macron’s entourage said Lecornu had “carte blanche”, in a sign the president was leaving his prime minister plenty of wiggle room to negotiate a cabinet and budget.
Leftist parties upset with Macron
Macron earlier convened a meeting of mainstream party leaders to rally support around his choice, but angered leftist parties when they found out one of their own would not be named as prime minister.
Another collapsed government would raise the likelihood of Macron calling a snap election, a scenario seen benefiting the far right the most.
France’s political turmoil, which has dented growth and spooked financial markets, was in large part triggered by Macron’s decision last year to hold a legislative election, a gamble that delivered a hung parliament split between three ideologically opposed blocs.
The country’s push to get its finances in order, requiring budget cuts or tax hikes that no party can agree on, has only deepened the malaise.
If the National Assembly cannot find common ground on a budget in the time given, emergency legislation may be needed to keep the country running next year on a roll-over budget.
Fate of pension reforms is key issue
The country’s central bank chief, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, forecast on Friday that the current political uncertainty would cost the economy 0.2 percentage points of gross domestic product. Business sentiment was suffering but the economy was broadly fine, he said.
“Uncertainty is … the number one enemy of growth,” Villeroy told RTL radio.
Fraught budget negotiations have cost Macron three prime ministers in less than 12 months.
Central to the most recent budget negotiations have been the left’s desire to repeal Macron’s 2023 pension reforms that lifted the retirement age, and tax the wealthy more heavily. Those demands have been hard to square with the conservatives, whose support Macron also needs to pass a budget.
In Friday’s meeting, Macron offered to delay raising the retirement age as far as 64 by one year to 2028. Green leader Marine Tondelier described the concession as insufficient.
The deficit is forecast to hit 5.4% this year, nearly double the European Union’s cap. Lecornu recently said he envisaged a 2026 deficit between 4.7% – 5%.
- Air force facility in Idaho to house F-15 fighter jets and pilots.
- Signing just another example of US-Qatar partnership: Hegseth.
- Hegseth thanks Qatar for its “substantial role” in Hamas-Israel deal
WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that Qatar will be allowed to build an air force facility at Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho that will house F-15 fighter jets and pilots.
The announcement comes soon after President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to defend the Gulf Arab state against attacks, following Israeli air strikes targeting Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital Doha.
“We’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon, with Qatari Defence Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at his side.
“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training” as well as “increase lethality, interoperability,” he said.
“It’s just another example of our partnership. And I hope you know, your excellency, that you can count on us.”
The Idaho base currently also hosts a fighter jet squadron from Singapore, according to its website.
Hegseth also thanked Qatar for its “substantial role” as a mediator in the talks that led to a truce and hostage-prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, and its assistance in securing the release of a US citizen from Afghanistan.
The Qatari minister hailed the “strong, enduring partnership” and “deep defence relationship” shared by the two countries.
The Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is Washington´s largest military facility in the Middle East.
Trump’s close relationship with the leaders of Qatar has raised eyebrows, especially over its gift to the US president of a Boeing 747 to be used as Air Force One.
Though the Idaho facility for Qatar had apparently been in the works since the last administration of Democrat Joe Biden, the deal prompted some hand-wringing on social media, including from far-right activist Laura Loomer, usually a Trump ally.
“Never thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on US soil so they can murder Americans,” Loomer wrote on X.
Hegseth, who never said it was a base, later wrote on the platform: “Qatar will not have their own base in the United States — nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”
Donald Trump is in “excellent overall health,” his physician said Friday after the 79-year-old — the oldest elected president in US history — underwent his second medical checkup of the year.
Trump saw physicians at Walter Reed military hospital on the outskirts of the capital, Washington, earlier in the day.
He gave reporters the thumbs-up on his return to the White House when they asked how the checkup had gone.
“President Trump continues to demonstrate excellent overall health,” his doctor, Navy Captain Sean Barbabella, wrote in a letter released by the White House.
“His cardiac age — a validated measure of cardiovascular vitality via ECG — was found to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age. He continues to maintain a demanding daily schedule without restriction.”
A battery of routine tests was conducted, and Trump received an updated Covid booster shot and his annual flu shot, Barbabella said.
The checkup comes three months after the White House announced that Trump had been diagnosed with a vein condition following speculation about frequent bruising on his hand and his swollen legs.
The White House had said earlier this week that Friday’s checkup would be an “annual” one, despite the fact that Trump had already undergone one of those in April.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he was “going to do a sort of semi-annual physical.”
“I’m in great shape, but I’ll let you know. But no, I have no difficulty thus far… Physically, I feel very good. Mentally, I feel very good.”
The Republican billionaire then embarked on one of his trademark tirades comparing his health with that of former presidents, particularly his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.
Trump said that during his last checkup, “I also did a cognitive exam, which is always very risky, because if I didn´t do well, you’d be the first to be blaring it, and I had a perfect score.”
Trump then added: “Did Obama do it? No. Did Bush do it? No. Did Biden do it? I definitely did. Biden wouldn´t have gotten the first three questions right.”
Bruised hand
Trump has repeatedly been accused of a lack of transparency about his health despite a huge interest in the well-being of the US commander-in-chief.
In September, he dismissed social media rumours swirling about his health 1 including false posts that he had died.
In July, the White House said Trump was diagnosed with a chronic but benign vein condition — chronic venous insufficiency — following speculation about his bruised hand and swollen legs.
The hand issue, it said, was linked to the aspirin he takes as part of a “standard” cardiovascular health program.
Trump is regularly seen at public events with heavy makeup on the back of his right hand to conceal the bruising.
At his last checkup, the White House said Trump was in good health, saying he had a “normal cardiac structure and function, no signs of heart failure, renal impairment or systemic illness.”
- Agencies, including FBI, ATF, probing cause of explosion.
- Aerial footage shows debris and ashes across site.
- Company makes military, demolition explosives.
Multiple people are dead and several others are unaccounted for after a blast in Tennessee at a military explosives company, CNN and other media outlets reported on Friday, citing local officials.
The explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Nashville, occurred at 7:45am local time (1245 GMT), Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told a press conference.
Davis said there were multiple fatalities, but it was still too early to know precisely how many people had perished, saying it was still possible there were some survivors.
When asked to describe the building where the blast occurred, Davis said, “There’s nothing to describe. It’s gone.”
Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the scene working to determine the cause of the explosion, Davis said.
Aerial video on CNN showed what appeared to be the footprint of where a building once stood.
In an adjacent parking lot, debris and what appeared to be ashes were scattered among a few parked vehicles.
Efforts to contact the company were unsuccessful.
Accurate Energetic Systems develops, manufactures and stores explosives for “military, aerospace, and commercial demolition markets,” according to the company’s website.
The 1,300-acre headquarters in Bucksnort, Tennessee, includes eight production buildings and a quality lab.
Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates told CNN that the plant did not have a history of safety problems, although a small ammunition explosion occurred there in 2014.
That incident killed one person and injured three, according to The Tennessean newspaper.
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