How Rupert Murdoch Is Influencing Australia’s Bushfire Debate Le milliardaire climato-sceptique.
Et vous trouviez le Brexit complexe...
Bénéficiant d’un mandat renforcé pour mener à bien sa feuille de route, plus rien ne semble entraver Boris Johnson dans la poursuite du Brexit. Mais est-ce réellement aussi simple ? Ursula von der Leyen, la nouvelle présidente de la commission européenne, semble émettre quelques réserves.
LONDON — Like ex-spouses who have just signed divorce papers but not yet begun the ugly business of dividing their possessions, Britain and the European Union are tiptoeing around each other as the year begins, desperate to keep their dealings civil even as they gird for the unpleasantness to come.
1. spouse époux(se), conjoint(e) / to tiptoe around sth/sb tourner autour du pot, tergiverser / dealings négociations / to gird, girded or girt, girded or girt se préparer (à) / unpleasantness frictions, désaccords. 2. A cordial Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the new president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to 10 Downing St. but offered no hint of flexibility on his campaign to negotiate a trade deal by the end of 2020. 2. 10 Downing St. résidence londonienne du premier ministre (10 Downing Street) / hint pointe, soupçon / trade deal accord commercial. 3. Von der Leyen spoke warmly of a new beginning for “old friends,” but she made it clear she thought Johnson’s timetable for negotiating a comprehensive agreement was utterly unrealistic. She warned Britain that “the more divergence there is” between Brit
3. warmly chaleureusement, avec enthousiasme / timetable calendrier / comprehensive global / agreement accord / utterly absolument, tout à fait / to warn avertir, mettre en garde /
ain’s rules and the bloc’s, “the more distant the partnership has to be.”
4. “The truth is that our partnership cannot and will not be the same as before,” von der Leyen, a former German defense minister, said in a speech at the London School of Economics. “It cannot and will not be as close as before, because with every choice comes a consequence.”
5. “With every decision,” she added, “comes a trade-off.” Those trade-offs are going to come thick and fast after Britain leaves the European Union on Jan. 31. Negotiators will then have 11 months to agree on terms for trading in goods and services, as well as on regulations covering health, safety, fishing, farming, banking, aviation and transportation — replacing the latticework of rules that entwined Britain and Europe over their four decades together.
6. If the two sides fail to strike a deal by Dec. 31 of this year, it could theoretically trigger something like the “no-deal Brexit” that Johnson threatened last fall before Parliament thwarted his efforts to withdraw from the European Union by the end of October. The more likely scenario, experts said, is a “bare bones” trade deal that will leave many of the issues to be hashed out in 2021 and beyond.
7. Either way, for British voters who believed that Johnson’s landslide election victory last
rule ici, loi, législation / bloc ici, l'Union européenne / partnership partenariat, collaboration.
4. truth vérité / former ancien / speech discours.
5. to add ajouter / trade-off compromis / to come, came, come thick and fast se succéder, s'enchaîner / terms conditions / goods biens, marchandises / regulations réglementation, lois / health santé / safety sécurité / latticework maillage / to entwine unir, lier / decade décennie.
6. side côté; ici, partie / to fail to do ne pas parvenir à / to strike, struck, struck a deal conclure un accord / to trigger déclencher, donner lieu à / deal accord (ici, no-deal retrait sans accord du R.-U. de l'UE) / to threaten menacer / to thwart contrecarrer, déjouer / to withdraw, drew, drawn from se retirer de / likely probable / bare bones réduit à sa plus simple expression, brut / issue problème, question / to hash out régler.
7. either way quoi qu'il en soit / landslide victory victoire écrasante / month would end the 3 1/2-year debate over Brexit, the drama of the coming year may prove to be a rude shock.
8. Mujtaba Rahman, a former European Commission official who works for the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said an ally of Johnson told him that one of the British government’s goals was to push the Brexit story from the front page to the business pages of newspapers in 2020.
IT'S NOT OVER
9. “That’s not going to happen,” he said. Part of the reason for that, Rahman said, is that Johnson has ruled out any extension of the transition, setting up yet another cliffhanging drama at the end of the year if there is no deal.
10. Moreover, his advisers appear determined to shun close alignment with the European Union in favor of an agile, less-regulated economic model that some have dubbed Singapore-on-Thames.
11. “Instinctively, reflexively, intellectually, the people in power believe in the value of divergence,” he said. “They all think the EU is a bureaucratic over-regulator. This is about sovereignty and taking back democratic control.”
AN UNSETTLING SITUATION
12. In Brussels, officials are preoccupied by the complexity of the looming trade talks and are pushing the British to be pragmatic. They seem baffled by Johnson’s insistence on a compressed, time-limited negotiation,
drama ici, répercussions, difficultés / to prove s'avérer/ se révéler (être).
8. official fonctionnaire / consultancy (cabinet, société) de conseil / ally allié / goal objectif / front page une (journal).
9. to rule out exclure / extension prolongation / to set, set, set up mettre en place, instaurer / cliffhanging plein de suspense.
10. moreover de plus, par ailleurs / adviser conseiller / to shun éviter / alignment rapprochement, accord / to dub surnommer / Thames Tamise.
11. reflexively automatiquement, par réflexe / sovereignty souveraineté.
12. official ici, élu / looming qui se profile / talks négociations / baffled déconcerté, perplexe / which they say could inflict needless damage on Britain’s economy.
13. Yet, in London, the Brexit project has always been driven by politics rather than economics. After his big election victory, Johnson is determined not to repeat the experience of his predecessor, Theresa May, whose leadership was destroyed by the crippling debate over withdrawal from the European Union.
14. Government officials have been told to avoid using the word “Brexit” to underscore the idea that the Jan. 31 departure will settle the issue once and for all. Johnson wants to resolve future trade ties quickly, so he can shift his government’s focus to less toxic domestic issues like health care.
15. Based on the track record of previous negotiations, most experts have concluded it will be all but impossible to negotiate and sign a comprehensive trade agreement by the end of the year.
16. Still, the optimists hope for an agreement on the most basic issue: a tariff-free trade deal. Other areas, like aviation, could be postponed until later, using contingency plans developed to keep planes flying had Britain withdrawn without any agreement at all last year. And the government could simply allow some major industries, like car manufacturing, to sign up to European regulations.
Oto inflict infliger, causer, provoquer / needless inutile, vain / damage (inv.) dommages, préjudice.
13. yet pourtant / to drive, drove, driven motiver / crippling catastrophique, désastreux.
14. to avoid éviter / to underscore souligner, mettre l'accent sur / to settle régler / tie relation / to shift orienter / focus attention / domestic intérieur / health care système de santé.
15. track record bilan / previous précédent.
16. still pourtant / tariff droit de douane; ici, tariff-free de libre échange / area domaine, secteur / to postpone remettre (à plus tard) / manufacturing industrie (ici, automobile).