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Emmanuel Macron touts France as ‘reliable’ partner for south-east Asia

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Emmanuel Macron touts France as ‘reliable’ partner for south-east Asia

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French President Emmanuel Macron has begun a six-day visit to Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore in which he will tout France and Europe as trade and security partners of choice for a region buffeted by tensions between China and the US.

The push for closer trade and security co-operation from Macron, who arrived in Vietnam late on Sunday, is intended to contrast with an increasingly militarily assertive China and the imposition of tariffs by US President Donald Trump on export-reliant countries in the region.

“France, along with the European Union, represents a partner that is both reliable, committed to issues of sovereignty, and respectful of their independence,” an official in the Elysée palace said ahead of the trip.

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Trump last month hit Vietnam, Indonesia and other south-east Asian countries with some of his highest “reciprocal” tariff rates after China. While the US president has temporarily paused those levies, the region’s search for new trade opportunities could strengthen ties with the EU.

The French official said Macron would emphasise that the EU still backs international trade rules, unlike the current US administration. “We do not want a jungle where the law of the strongest prevails,” the official said.

Emmanuel Macron with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in December 2023 © Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

Security concerns will also be high on the agenda, given China’s increasingly assertive naval presence in the South China Sea and tensions with Taiwan.

Macron has in the past focused diplomatic efforts on countries including China — where he made a state visit in 2023 — India and Japan, as part of his strategy of positioning France as an Indo-Pacific power.

France has several overseas territories in the Indo-Pacific, including la Reunion and Mayotte, which are home to about 1.7mn people. Its naval frigates conduct patrols in the South China Sea and the country has several military bases in the vast region.

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Vietnam and Singapore already have free trade agreements with the EU, while Indonesia has been in talks to establish one.

The French official said Macron would emphasise that the EU still backs international trade rules, unlike the current US administration. “We do not want a jungle where the law of the strongest prevails,” the official said.

Vietnam, which has emerged as a manufacturing powerhouse amid a global production shift from China, in October upgraded relations with France to the status of “comprehensive strategic partnership” — the highest level of diplomatic ties offered by Hanoi.

Rattled by Trump’s threatened 46 per cent tariff, Vietnam is stepping up efforts to diversify trade from the US, which accounts for a third of its exports, and to sign free trade agreements with countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Vietnam is also hoping its independent foreign policy — described as “bamboo diplomacy” for its “strong roots” and “flexible branches” — combined with an ability to balance its ties with superpowers, will help secure trade deals.

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In Hanoi, Macron is expected to discuss co-operation on economy, defence, security, and energy, according to Vietnamese state media. An agreement on a power transmission line is among one of the deals expected to be signed.

After Vietnam, Macron will head to resource-rich Indonesia, where President Prabowo Subianto is seeking foreign investments to spur a slowing economy. Indonesia has previously bought French defence equipment, including Rafale fighter jets and Scorpène submarines, as it seeks to reduce historic reliance on Russian weapons.

“There may be other contracts announced during the trip,” said Céline Pajon, who heads Japan and Indo-Pacific research at the French Institute of International Relations think-tank. “France and Indonesia intend to raise the defence partnership into something long-term and structural.”

The Indonesian government said in a statement this month that Macron’s visit reflected “the commitment of both countries to enhance co-operation in facing global challenges”.

Macron plans to discuss diversification of France’s access to materials critical for production of smartphones and semiconductors while in Indonesia, a major producer of such minerals, the French official said.

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During his final stop of the trip in Singapore, Macron will give a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s largest defence forum.

“It is the first time a European leader has been invited to give this speech, and it is in recognition of how Macron has developed a real Indo-Pacific strategy. He also encouraged the EU to adopt one as well,” Pajon said.

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Supreme Court financial disclosures reveal how their books add to their income

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Supreme Court financial disclosures reveal how their books add to their income

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett speaks at the Reagan Library on Sept. 9, 2025, in Simi Valley, Calif. Barrett discussed and signed copies of her new book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution.

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Even as the Supreme Court was handing down one legal thunderbolt after another last week, the justices were quietly releasing their annual financial reports. Justice Samuel Alito was the only sitting justice to request an extension, which he has done for 15 years. The disclosures do not give a complete account of the justices’ total income and wealth, but they give insights into their concertgoing, guest professorships and even their involvement in youth sports.

In addition to their salaries, much of the justices’ reported income came from their book deals. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson led the pack earning more than $1.1 million last year for a total of roughly $4 million since her memoir, Lovely One, was published in 2024.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy also reported income from published books. Earnings from their books ranged from $849,000 for Barrett, to $300,000 for Gorsuch and $88,000 for Sotomayor, whose books include her 2013 autobiography and five children’s books. Justice Clarence Thomas, who previously earned $1.5 million for his 2007 memoir, listed no publisher payments last year, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of 13 co-authors of a 2016 legal treatise, also received no payments last year. Kavanaugh is said to be working on a memoir but he listed no payments for the anticipated book. Alito does have a book coming out in the fall, but with his financial report still outstanding, there is no data on how much he was paid for the work in 2025.

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The only two sitting justices who have not written books are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan.

Many justices also earned income from teaching at law schools. Roberts reported income from New England Law, located in Boston, and Gorsuch reported teaching income from George Mason University in Virginia. Thomas taught classes at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and Barrett and Kavanaugh taught at Notre Dame Law School. Barrett graduated from the school and began teaching there 23 years ago; Kavanaugh has family connections to Notre Dame.

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Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show

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Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show

At least two structural columns buckled and failed in a 37-story office tower in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, prompting evacuations of nearby streets and buildings. While city officials asserted that the tower was in no danger of collapsing completely, outside engineers said further failures in the structure could not be ruled out.

A pair of columns that failed completely were part of the tower’s existing structure. A New York Times review of images and videos from inside the building has found that several floors were added atop these columns.

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City officials said in a news conference on Tuesday that the building was continuing to move, while they simultaneously assured the city that the building would not suffer “total collapse.” “The way this building is constructed, it’s a steel-frame building,” John Esposito, a chief in the Fire Department in New York, said at the afternoon news conference. “So, it would not be a total collapse. It would be more of a localized collapse.” Still, he said, “that remains our concern, that it’s moved.”

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Engineers said that the movement itself was cause for concern. In a properly designed steel building, they said, loads should redistribute quickly to surviving structural supports if columns failed.

Joe DiPompeo, a former president of the Structural Engineering Institute at the American Society of Civil Engineers, said that if the structure had been overloaded, he would expect any movement “to happen very quickly,” rather than gradually.

“Generally when a column buckles, it’s a sudden failure,” Mr. DiPompeo said. He said that a full collapse remained unlikely given the redundancies built into the building codes.

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Engineers often refer to the most dangerous possibility as a progressive collapse, a process in which structures near the initial failure become overstressed and also fail, potentially bringing down the building if the sequence continues. While unlikely, it cannot be ruled out, Mr. DiPompeo said.

Footage recorded from inside the building shows at least two structural columns appear to have failed completely, Mr. DiPompeo said. Other nonstructural, interior walls — or at least the metal “studs” that were in place to hold them up — also appear to have deformed.

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“The only way that really happens is if the floor above them dropped. It looks like the floor above could have dropped a foot or two, which is obviously not a good situation,” Mr. DiPompeo said.

@fernando40tiktok.commarc via Storyful

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Image from @fernando40tiktok.commarc via Storyful

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Image from @Bogs4NY via X

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The 37-story building is in the process of being converted from office space into residential units. Four new floors and a large vertical portion were added onto the existing building in recent months. The vertical portion consists of a stack of over a dozen new floors cantilevered out over the existing building below.

Engineers said that there was nothing inherently wrong with adding residential floors or the cantilevered section above the columns that failed, as long as the original structure and the modifications had properly accounted for the added weight and wind loads.

“The cantilever alone doesn’t change anything,” Mr. DiPompeo said, but it does put additional load on the columns underneath — a factor that should have been reflected in the design.

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Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, the developer overseeing the conversion, said on Tuesday that “this incident is nothing more than a typical construction mishap.”

He said two columns near the northwest corner of the tower had bent under the weight of additions to the building above, most likely because those columns had not been properly reinforced, though he said an investigation would determine the cause. The rest of the columns, he said, “picked up the weight.” He estimated the affected floors above the failed columns had sagged by a maximum of four inches.

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Mr. Berman said that he expected the problems to be fixed and the project to be completed with, at most, a slight delay.

On Tuesday evening, installation of temporary shoring was set to begin shortly, in order to help stabilize the 20th and 21st floors of the building.

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DOJ warns of criminal charges for state election officials if noncitizens vote

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DOJ warns of criminal charges for state election officials if noncitizens vote

The Justice Department sent letters warning election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that they could face criminal prosecution over noncitizen voting, a spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday.

The letters, signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads up the department’s Civil Rights Division, give states five days to explain how they will comply with federal voter eligibility laws and how they will maintain “clean voter lists.”

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“The Department sent these letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.

Noncitizen voting in federal elections is extremely rare, but Trump and his administration have falsely portrayed it as a widespread issue.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar and Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson are among those who said they received the letters from the Justice Department.

The letters say state election officers “could be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting” noncitizen voting. They further specify that any election officer who knowingly retains noncitizens on a statewide voting registration list or who facilitates noncitizens’ receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability.

“An intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens could also constitute a violation” of federal law, the letters said.

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Henderson wrote on social media that the threats constitute “truly bizarre behavior.”

“Got another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution,” she wrote. “I’m sure I’m not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ’s demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts.”

The letters are the latest move in the Justice Department’s campaign to assert more federal control over state elections.

While some states have complied with the administration’s demands that they hand over voter roll data, the Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for resisting. So far, 11 different federal courts have dismissed the Justice Department’s efforts to seize voter rolls.

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