Emmanuel Macron is France's youngest leader since Napoleon

May 8, 2017

Paris, May 8: Three years ago, hardly anyone knew his name.

But in a once-unimaginable scenario, Emmanuel Macron - at 39, the boy wonder of an aging political establishment - won the French presidency Sunday with a tidal wave of popular support. He will soon be France's youngest head of state since Napoleon Bonaparte as well as its first modern president not to belong to either of the center-left or center-right parties that have run this country for 60 years.

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After the success of the Brexit campaign in Britain and the upset victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, Macron's win has been billed as having curbed the global tide of anti-establishment populism. In the vote's second and final round, he defeated Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, a strongly anti-immigrant party tainted by the perception that it is tolerant of anti-Semitism and Nazi nostalgia.

"I will fight with all my strength against the division that is undermining and defeating us," Macron said, just after the results were announced. "For the next five years, I will serve on your behalf with humility, devotion and determination."

Macron's story is one of a highly improbable ascent in a system that typically rewards entrenched political dynasties.

"It's entirely unprecedented in the Fifth Republic," said Francois Heisbourg, a well-known French defense expert who has advised Macron on security and terrorism issues. "It's extraordinarily unusual, the way he has broken through the system - coming from nowhere."

Macron, who has never held elected office, has now been elected to one of the most powerful executive offices in the Western world, holding the top job of the second-largest economy in a troubled Europe. How he did it, analysts say, rests on a combination of luck and a campaign message attuned to a new political moment.

In France, 2017 proved an ideal year to run as an independent candidate. A rare political vacuum emerged, and Macron - a former Socialist economy minister who stepped down from his post in July - was able to take full advantage of it.

With the public frightened by a slew of terrorist attacks by Islamist extremists, and with employment at double digits, France's Socialist Party, under incumbent President Francois Hollande, sank to historic levels of unpopularity. Largely for the sake of the party, Hollande promised in December not to seek re-election, but his Socialist stand-in, Benoit Hamon, was eliminated in the election's first round, winning just a meager 6.35 percent of the vote.

France's mainstream conservative party, Les Republicains (the Republicans), were undermined by a spending scandal involving Francois Fillon, its contender. Once the undisputed favorite, Fillon suffered a fatal blow after Le Canard Enchaine, a French satirical newspaper, accused him of funneling about 900,000 euros ($990,000) of public funds to his wife and children for work they never did.

Macron perceived that the "new divide" among French voters was not the historic cleavage between left and right but rather one between an open and closed society, Heisbourg said. This was the line Le Pen and the National Front had embraced for years, but few in the established parties ever responded directly.

Defending an open, multicultural society was a central component of En Marche (Onward), the movement Macron launched in 2016. "Globalization can be a great opportunity," he said at one point on the campaign trail. "There is no such thing as French culture," he said at another. "There is culture in France, and it is diverse."

The great French novels are often stories of ambitious young men from the provinces who come to Paris to seek their fortunes. For many, Macron is no exception. The literary son of doctors from provincial Amiens, he graduated from France's elite Ecole Normale d'Administration, the traditional breeding ground of presidents.

Some in the French press have placed the first sign of Macron's formidable ambitions in, of all places, his love life - namely, in his dogged pursuit of his wife, Brigitte, his former high school teacher and a woman 24 years his senior. As Brigitte Macron told a French documentary maker last year: "Bit by bit, he defeated all my resistance, in an amazing way, with patience." The candidate showed the same persistence in capturing the Elysee Palace.

"I have known failures, sometimes bitter, but I have never allowed myself to turn away," Macron wrote in his 2016 book, "Revolution."

That doggedness - along with a calculating eye for useful associations, critics say - brought him into contact with many prominent French thinkers and government officials, who then helped him advance.

In the late 1990s, while still a graduate student, Macron worked as an assistant to Paul Ricoeur, a prominent French intellectual and writer; by the mid-2000s, he was working for the Finance Ministry, on a commission dedicated to stimulating economic growth. It was there that he met Jacques Attali, a prominent economist and Parisian power broker who many say later ushered Macron along a speedy path to the highest echelons of the Hollande administration.

In an interview, Attali, who has also served as an adviser to the Macron campaign, rejected out of hand the idea that the candidate was mainly a gifted networker. "He would be where he is today with or without my help," Attali said.

If Macron's ambition has led him to considerable success, it has also earned him enemies - including, some say, Hollande, whom he served as economy minister but then abandoned to launch his party. "Emmanuel Macron betrayed me methodically," Hollande said last year, according to Le Monde newspaper.

Jean Pisani-Ferry, another Macron adviser and the author of much of the candidate's platform, brushed off the comment.

"He launched another politics, created a new movement. Political life wouldn't exist otherwise," Pisani-Ferry said in an interview.

Despite the improbable nature of Macron's victory, France's new president will face a considerable challenge as he attempts to form a government. Given that he has no party structure behind him, he will be deeply affected by the results of parliamentary elections, slated for June.

"There is huge uncertainty regarding the parliamentary elections to come, because France's main political forces were largely absent in the second round - the traditional right wing, the Socialists and the far left," said Patrick Weil, a leading French legal scholar and historian. "Now they are frustrated, and they are ready to take their revenge in the legislative elections."

In the past, when the National Front made it to the final round of the presidential election, the rest of the political spectrum united in opposition to the extreme right. But this year, certain politicians hesitated to back Macron in the final round, notably the far-leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon. Many voters also opted to abstain or to cast blank ballots.

"You might have higher mobilization for the parliamentary elections than usual, which, given turnout in the presidential election, could mean a higher legitimacy for the parliament than for the presidency," Weil said.

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News Network
February 19,2020

Washington, Feb 19: US President Donald Trump has said he is "saving the big deal" with India for later and he "does not know" if it will be done before the presidential election in November, clearly indicating that a major bilateral trade deal during his visit to Delhi next week might not be on the cards.

"We can have a trade deal with India. But I'm really saving the big deal for later," he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews Tuesday afternoon (local time).

The US and India could sign a "trade package" during the visit, according to media reports.

Asked whether he expects a trade deal with India before the visit, Trump said, "We're doing a very big trade deal with India. We'll have it. I don't know if it'll be done before the election, but we'll have a very big deal with India."

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the point-person for trade negotiations with India, is likely to not accompany Trump to India, sources said. However, officials have not ruled it out altogether.

In an apparent dissatisfaction over US-India trade ties, Trump said, "We're not treated very well by India." But he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said he is looking forward to his visit to India.

"I happen to like Prime Minister Modi a lot," Trump said.

"He told me we'll have seven million people between the airport and the event. And the stadium, I understand, is sort of semi under construction, but it's going to be the largest stadium in the world. So it's going to be very exciting... I hope you all enjoy it," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) in a report said the latest quarterly data depict continuation of overall positive bilateral trade trends. The third quarter data reflects some downslide in growth rates.

"It may be due to several reasons, including the unexpected economic slowdown in India's economic growth, impact of US-China trade war, GSP withdrawal from the US side and retaliatory tariffs on specific US goods from the Indian side," USISPF said.

According to the report, the data available for the first three quarters of 2019 (January-September) pulled the overall growth rate in cumulative bilateral trade down to 4.5 percent from 8.4 percent registered for the first two quarters.

Goods and services trade performance in third quarter was dismal at -2.3 percent, in contrast with the impressive 9.6 percent growth witnessed for the first two quarters of the year; while trade in services was up two percent goods trade dropped five percent, the report said.

The cumulative US-India trade in goods and services (USD 110.9 billion) for the first three quarters of 2019 increased 4.5 percent with US exports and imports growing at four percent and five percent respectively.

The US exported USD 45.3 billion worth of goods and services to India in the first three quarters 2019, up 4 percent from the corresponding period in the previous year; and the US imported USD 65.6 billion worth of goods and services from India, up five percent from the previous year's USD 62.5 billion level for the same period, it said.

The USISPF has projected that the total bilateral trade can touch USD 238 billion by 2025 if the current 7.5 percent average annual rate of growth sustains; however, higher growth rates can result in bilateral trade in the range of USD 283 billion and USD 327 billion.

The US remains the top trading partner for India in terms of trade in goods and services, followed by China. While the bilateral trade between US and India is approximately 62 percent in goods and 38 percent in services, the bilateral trade between India and China is dominated by goods.

China had a huge trade surplus of USD 58 billion with India, indicating Beijing's strength in the Indian market, especially in sectors, such as electronics, machinery, organic chemicals, plastics and medical devices.

The US goods exports to India, in comparison, were mainly concentrated in mineral fuels, precious stones, and aircraft. The US faces tough competition with China in the Indian market in areas such as electronics, machinery, organic chemicals and medical devices.

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News Network
March 18,2020

Melbourne, Mar 18: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday warned its citizens not to travel abroad and banned "non-essential" gatherings of 100 people or more as the government declared the deadly coronavirus, that has infected over 450 people in the country, a "human biosecurity emergency".

Prime Minister Morrison on Wednesday said Australians should abandon all overseas travel because of the coronavirus epidemic. There have been 40 new cases since Tuesday.

Of the 454 confirmed cases in Australia, 43 have recovered and 5 have died from the COVID-19, according to the official figures.

Morrison declared a national "human biosecurity emergency" and ordered a halt to "non-essential" indoor gatherings of more than 100 people, on top of an existing ban on outdoor events of more than 500.

He said, "We haven't seen this sort of thing in Australia since the end of the First World War. This is a once-in-a-100-year-type event," Morrison said.

"Life is changing in Australia, as it is changing all around the world. Life is going to continue to change. The travel advice to every Australian is do not travel abroad. Do not go overseas."

However, schools across the country were still to remain open.

Morrison said Australia should prepare for "at least six months" of disruption as health authorities attempt to get on top of the coronavirus.

"For those of you thinking about going overseas for the school holidays, don’t. Don't go overseas," he said.

Morrison said there would be no short-term, quick fix to deal with the COVID-19 crisis in Australia, and warned that "tens of thousands of jobs" could be lost.

Responding to the panic buying, the prime minister urged the public to "Stop hoarding."

"I can't be more blunt about it. Stop it. It is not sensible, it is not helpful and it has been one of the most disappointing things I have seen in Australian behaviour in response to this crisis," he said.

On Wednesday, the New South Wales recorded a massive jump in new 59 cases as travellers returned from overseas. The cases jumped from 210 to 269 in the past 24 hours, according to the media reports here.

Queensland's total number of confirmed cases stood at 94.

State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it is now "a different world" from just last week.

For Victoria, the Premier Daniel Andrew said the government could also ban gatherings of fewer than 100 people, noting he could not rule out further changes.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the spike in cases has been due to people who have travelled overseas.

Sutton said that the transmission in Victoria was not because of community transition like Italy.

Sutton has continued to urge people to wash their hands, socially distance and stay home if they are unwell.

"These are critical measures to be applied regardless of the 100 and 500 threshold,” he said.

In Western Australia, Health Minister Roger Cook said four new coronavirus cases have been confirmed overnight, taking the State's total to 35.

McGowan also condemned panic buyers in supermarkets as "jerks, drongos and bloody idiots."

He said there was "plenty of food to go round" and no need for people to buy in excessive quantities.

The outbreak, which first emerged in China's Wuhan city last year, has marched across the globe, infecting 198,006 people and killing 7,948, according to a tracker maintained by the Johns Hopkins University.

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News Network
March 6,2020

New York, Mar 6: A 23-year-old Indian with a student visa in the US has pleaded guilty to sexual enticement of a minor girl, prosecutors have said.

Sachin Aji Bhaskar faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

He pleaded guilty before Senior US District Judge William M Skretny to sexual enticement of a minor.

The charge carries a minimum penalty of 10 years in prison, a maximum penalty of life in prison, a fine of USD 250,000 or both, US Attorney James P Kennedy said.

Prosecutors alleged that Bhaskar communicated by text and email with an 11-year-old girl for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity.

Through those communications, Bhaskar enticed the victim to engage in a sexual activity with him in August, 2018, they said.

The sentencing in the case is scheduled for June 17.

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