Vue lecture

Au Venezuela, gouvernement et opposition esquissent un accord sur une réforme de la justice

Par : FRANCE 24
Le pouvoir et l'opposition vénézuéliens ont conclu, mercredi, leur premier cycle de dialogue, s'accordant sur un processus de réforme judiciaire et la récupération d'actifs gelés au Royaume-Uni. Même si les États-Unis ne sont pas à la table des négociations, ils sont très présents dans les discussions et ont été sollicités à plusieurs reprises comme "médiateurs" lors de points d'achoppement.

  •  

Surrogate mother who fled to Texas gives birth to baby with severe heart defect

McKenna West initially agreed to an abortion after diagnosis, but then fled to state where abortion is illegal and broke contact with biological parents, attorney alleges

A surrogate mother who traveled to Texas, where abortion is illegal, claiming she was pressured to end the pregnancy after the discovery of a severe heart defect, gave birth on Wednesday to a baby boy.

The child’s biological parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed of California, confirmed the birth through their lawyer, while denying they forced McKenna West, who is from Alaska, to undergo an abortion, the Texas Tribune reported.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Alamy/PA

© Photograph: Alamy/PA

© Photograph: Alamy/PA

  •  

David Eby visits Okanagan after 'horrific' fire

Premier David Eby says a wildfire in B.C.’s South Okanagan region that forced about 20,000 residents to evacuate on Friday moved at an unprecedented speed. He says during a briefing in Penticton that the wildfire’s rapid movement is a new normal.

  •  

Arrest of ebike rider attempting to evade police after driving recklessly – video

Recent data compiled by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission shows 19 pedestrians were killed across the US in crashes with ebike riders from 2017 to 2024. That’s roughly the average number of pedestrians killed by motorists every day of 2024

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Upland Police Department

© Photograph: Upland Police Department

© Photograph: Upland Police Department

  •  

En Colombie, la fenêtre de tir pour retrouver des survivants du séisme se referme

Par : FRANCE 24
Les recherches de survivants en Colombie entrent dans leur phase critique, jeudi, à l'approche du délai de 72 heures après le séisme de magnitude 7,4, qui a fait au moins 265 morts et des centaines de disparus, selon un dernier bilan. Le président a décrété trois jours de deuil national et l'urgence économique.

  •  

Hong’s Defeat in Wisconsin Sparks New Disagreements Within Democratic Party

Some Democrats said the outcome showed that the moderate wing of the party carried more electoral weight, while Ms. Hong’s strong showing gave some progressives hope.

© Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

Francesca Hong speaking after losing the Wisconsin primary election. While democratic socialists planned to study Ms. Hong’s loss to improve their electoral fortunes, several said they viewed Tuesday’s result as strong proof of the movement’s rise.
  •  

Montréal reste l’une des meilleures villes universitaires au monde

Montréal arrive au 20e rang de la plus récente édition du QS Best Student Cities, un classement mondial de 150 grandes villes universitaires réalisé par une firme britannique spécialisée dans l’analyse de l’enseignement supérieur. 

La métropole a descendu:

  • de 2 places par rapport au classement de l’an dernier; 
  • de 10 places par rapport à il y a deux ans. 

Montréal demeure cependant la première ville universitaire du Canada.

Elle se classe deuxième en Amérique du Nord, derrière Boston.

[L'article Montréal reste l’une des meilleures villes universitaires au monde a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

  •  

Le Parti québécois a dévoilé son plan pour l’environnement 

Les péquistes s’engagent à réduire, avant 2034, les émissions de gaz à effet de serre de 42,5% par rapport aux niveaux de 1990. 

  • L’engagement actuel du gouvernement est de les réduire de 37,5% d’ici 2035.

Pour atteindre son objectif, le PQ compte miser sur des incitatifs financiers, notamment pour l’achat de véhicules électriques et de thermopompes. 

Il s’engage à instaurer une passe universelle de transport collectif à 95 $ par mois. 

  • Elle pourrait être utilisée dans toutes les sociétés de transport au Québec. 

En 2022, le PQ avait proposé une passe de transport collectif à environ 30 $ par mois.

[L'article Le Parti québécois a dévoilé son plan pour l’environnement  a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

  •  

A Fight Over Abortion and Surrogacy Ends With a Baby Born in Texas

The baby, who was born Wednesday with a severe heart defect, drew the attention of anti-abortion activists and the Texas attorney general after the intended parents wanted the surrogate mother to have an abortion.

© McKenna West

A pregnant McKenna West, who has been the face of a surrogate dispute spanning three states.
  •  

Québec multiplie par dix les amendes minimales des industries à risque environnemental élevé

À compter d’aujourd’hui, les entreprises qui exercent des activités industrielles présentant de grands risques pour l’environnement, comme les raffineries de pétrole ou les fonderies, devront payer des amendes plus élevées lorsqu’elles contreviennent à la Loi sur la qualité de l’environnement. 

Par exemple, si une entreprise rejette un contaminant, elle sera désormais passible d’une amende minimale de 300 000 $, contre 30 000 $ jusqu’ici.  

Le gouvernement Fréchette soutient que ces hausses substantielles visent à encourager les entreprises à investir dans:

  • la prévention des risques
  • la conformité environnementale 
  • la réduction de leurs impacts sur l’environnement

[L'article Québec multiplie par dix les amendes minimales des industries à risque environnemental élevé a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

  •  

ICE Agent Who Pushed Activist to the Ground Near Chicago Pleads Guilty

The agent, Adam Saracco, was charged with misdemeanor after the altercation at a gas station near Chicago last year during the Trump administration’s crackdown there.

© Jim Vondruska/Reuters

Federal agents outside the immigrant detention center in Broadview, Ill., last year amid protests over President Trump’s enforcement actions near Chicago.
  •  

Russia’s biggest weapons maker has been under EU sanctions since 2022. Its 482 subsidiaries are the loophole.

Vladimir Putin tours the Uralvagonzavod tank plant in Nizhny Tagil, part of Russia’s state-owned Rostec defense conglomerate, on 15 February 2024. Credit: Ramil Sitdikov/RIA Novosti via Kremlin.ru

At the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, in June, the leaders of the world's most powerful states again declared their intent to help Ukraine and to pressure Russia economically: "We commit to increase the pressure on the Russian war economy. In this context, we will strengthen our sanctions." But while G7 governments negotiate another round of political statements, the assembly lines of Russia's military-industrial complex keep turning out missiles and drones—from Western components and electronics.

A new analysis of Rostec—the giant of Russia's military-industrial complex—by the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO) shows that the strategy of targeted strikes has reached a dead end. To make restrictive measures more effective, allies should consider wider use of export-control mechanisms against structures tied to Russia's defense-industrial complex. In many cases, export control can be a faster and more flexible instrument than full sanctions regimes.

Sanctions against Rostec

Workers assemble a T-72B3-series tank at Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, part of Russia’s state-owned Rostec defense conglomerate, on 15 February 2024. Credit: Ramil Sitdikov/RIA Novosti via Kremlin.ru
Workers assemble a T-72B3-series tank at Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, part of Russia’s state-owned Rostec defense conglomerate, on 15 February 2024. Credit: Ramil Sitdikov/RIA Novosti via Kremlin.ru
What is Rostec?
  • Russia's largest defense and industrial holding, 100% state-owned
  • Its enterprises produce 80% of military equipment Russia uses in its war on Ukraine, Russian officials say
  • Accounts for about half of Russia's defense procurement
  • Employs 500,000–700,000 people at roughly 700–800 enterprises

Hitting the tip of the iceberg is not enough. Sanctions have been placed on Rostec itself, on its best-known holdings, and on individual plants caught manufacturing weapons. But this giant has many branches, visible and hidden, and the sanctioning process itself takes years. The result is that sanctions policy often looks ineffective—and it is easy to see why.


NAKO's analysts traced and identified 482 key legal entities within Rostec's structure. This is the most complete map of the conglomerate that currently exists, and even it covers only part of the concern. A vast network of subsidiaries operates in total secrecy: they hide financial reporting, classify tenders, and mask beneficial owners behind chains of fictitious founders.

Rostec subsidiaries identified by NAKO
Rostec subsidiaries identified by NAKO. Screenshot from NAKO report

And while the West spends months assembling evidence against a single plant, Rostec quickly spins up new "clean" shell firms or brings new enterprises and factories under its control.

Ukraine has imposed sanctions on 72% of the identified Rostec enterprises. The United States covers 45%. And here it gets interesting: the European Union has managed to sanction only 23% of the conglomerate's companies. The United Kingdom takes an even more "selective" approach.

The EU has sanctioned only 23% of Rostec's companies.

The analysis also found a huge asymmetry between jurisdictions. The US, the EU, the UK, Switzerland, and Asian states apply entirely different approaches. What is blocked in the EU can operate freely under British or Japanese law. And while sanctions from even one jurisdiction are a significant red flag for banks, manufacturers, and regulators, the legal gap itself lets Russia keep access to technology.

How Russia gets around the sanctions

This lack of coordination among allies, combined with a complex, multi-layered corporate structure, keeps feeding Russian weapons with Western microelectronics. A vivid example is KRET (Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern), which produces the electronic-warfare systems Russia uses to jam Ukrainian drones at the front. London has sanctioned not a single enterprise in this holding—and there are at least 40 of them.

The result? Legally, these smaller companies fall under restrictions purely by belonging to Rostec. In practice? British manufacturers or distributors are unlikely to spend time tracing the link between Rostec and one of its hundred-odd enterprises buried in corporate layers; seeing no risk, they simply sign the deal with an unremarkable plant.

Another example is the Shvabe holding, whose sights and thermal imagers sit on Russian equipment. It ships its products to international exhibitions in the UAE without difficulty.

Small-arms sights on display at the booth of Russia’s Shvabe Holding, part of state-owned Rostec, at the MILEX-2025 arms exhibition in Minsk, Belarus. Credit: Mikhail Voskresensky/RIA Novosti
Small-arms sights on display at the booth of Russia’s Shvabe Holding, part of state-owned Rostec, at the MILEX-2025 arms exhibition in Minsk, Belarus. Credit: Mikhail Voskresensky/RIA Novosti

Other enterprises and whole holdings are frequent guests at exhibitions in China and India—steadily present and visible to a range of countries that could be subject to secondary sanctions. With those same countries Russia signs deals to sell another batch of helicopters, or shows off upgraded drones that have "proven their effectiveness on the battlefield against Ukraine." And it is through such countries that Western components keep reaching Russia.

This matters because Russia's import-substitution program—including in microelectronics—has never worked. Not yet, at least. Ukrainian military institutes examining captured missiles and downed drones report that Russian high-tech electronics simply are not there, sources that study the missiles have told NAKO. What they find are chips from American, European, and Japanese giants.

What is more, even these foreign components are usually nothing remarkable technologically. Yet as of today Russia still cannot produce even these—certainly not at scale—so it works the gaps in sanctions, export control, and "business as usual" with great finesse.

The next step: strengthening export control

The direction is already shifting. On 23 July 2026, the European Union adopted its 21st sanctions package—its largest batch of individual listings in four years. Fifty-six of them target Russia's military-industrial complex, 37 tied directly to long-range drones, and 51 more entities, many in China, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates, were placed under tighter export controls for feeding Russia the microelectronics and CNC machine tools its weapons depend on. It is the right target. The limit is that it still proceeds one entity at a time—and Rostec is built to outrun exactly that.

Banning the supply of certain critical goods to Kyrgyzstan—where such exports suddenly grew by more than 800%—or issuing regular financial warnings to intermediaries in the UAE and China are the right steps, and they force Russia to pay more. More than that: over four years, sanctions policy has repeatedly caused delays in the production and delivery of weapons and military equipment. But it has not stopped that production—as Ukraine keeps seeing with its own eyes during every mass strike.

The main conclusion that follows from our map of 482 key Rostec entities is the need to change the very logic of restrictive measures against Russia's defense-industrial complex.

Sanctions remain an important instrument, but they often prove slow, selective, and politically difficult to implement. A far wider use of export-control mechanisms, by contrast, could cut off access to international technology, equipment, and components faster and more effectively.

There should no longer be any need to prove separately the role of every nominal LLC somewhere near Chelyabinsk in Russian military production.

If an enterprise is part of Rostec's production, procurement, or technological chains—or those of other structures in Russia's defense-industrial complex—it should automatically become a candidate for export-restriction lists.

This approach would make it substantially harder for Russian defense enterprises to reach Western technology and would narrow the room to evade restrictions through subsidiaries, intermediaries, or formally civilian structures. Western banks, exporters, and compliance teams should not have to identify each new shell firm on their own. Instead, they should get a clear signal: involvement in the production or supply chains of Russia's military-industrial complex means elevated regulatory risk and the need to apply restrictive measures.

Economic pressure on Russia's defense sector must stop being fragmentary and reactive. It has to become systematic, predictable, and capable of outpacing the adaptive mechanisms of Russia's war economy.

Viktoriia Vyshnivska
Viktoriia Vyshnivska is a Senior Researcher at the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO). Her work mainly focuses on supply chains delivering critical components to Russia, the use of foreign technologies in weapons production, and the impact of sanctions regimes on the defence capabilities of aggressor states. Her additional focus also includes Ukraine’s state-owned defense industry and democratic resilience.
Kateryna Biesiedina
Kateryna Biesiedina is Communications Manager at the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO), specialising in strategic communications and media with a professional background in journalism and television production.

  •  

En Zambie, des élections à valeur de test pour le bilan économique du président sortant "HH"

Par : FRANCE 24
Près de 8,7 millions de Zambiens sont appelés aux urnes, jeudi, pour choisir leur président. Le chef d'État sortant Hakainde Hichilema, salué pour son redressement économique, affronte l'opposant Brian Mundubile, qui accuse le gouvernement d'avoir entravé sa campagne.

  •  

San Francisco-area estate sells for $70m in sign of AI-fueled wealth explosion

New owner is said to be involved in AI industry, as new class of multimillionaires is entering the real estate race

A luxury Lake Como-inspired estate in the San Francisco Bay Area has sold to a buyer “in the AI world” for a record $70m, in the latest sign of a new tech wealth boom that’s pushing home prices to extraordinary heights in the region

The property south of San Francisco not only becomes the most expensive sale in its affluent town of Hillsborough, doubling a previous record, but is also the most expensive sale in northern California this year, according to listing agent Jennifer Gilson of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Courtesy of Nxt Gen Media

© Photograph: Courtesy of Nxt Gen Media

© Photograph: Courtesy of Nxt Gen Media

  •  
❌