Ukraine at the heart of a decisive summit for the future of NATO in Madrid
The war in Ukraine will be at the heart of the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday, where more than 40 heads of state and government are meeting to discuss the future of the Alliance, which Sweden and Finland will be able to join after the lifting of Turkey's veto. “The Madrid summit will be a pivotal summit” for the future of NATO, said the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday, at the opening of this long-planned meeting, whose stakes have been increased by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Invited to participate in the discussions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will speak twice by videoconference, while Kiev keeps calling for more arms deliveries from its partners. NATO countries, which have already provided billions of dollars in aid to Kiev, will agree in Madrid “a comprehensive assistance program to Ukraine to help it enforce its right to self-defense,” Jens Stoltenberg promised on Tuesday.

After the election of Yaël-Braun Pivet to head the Assembly, the major maneuvers continue
After the first election of a woman in Le Perchoir, the LREM Yaël Braun-Pivet, the new National Assembly continued to be organized on Wednesday with the distribution of a few key positions, while Elisabeth Borne consulted the two main oppositions, LFI and the RN, in Matignon. The Assembly “has the face of France” and “the French urge us to work together, to debate rather than to fight”, while the Macronists have only a relative majority, pressed the new president immediately after her election, in front of her husband and five children on the podium. It only took two rounds on Tuesday to elect Ms Braun Pivet by an absolute majority, after the RN candidate Sébastien Chenu withdrew his candidacy and the Lepénist deputies then decided to abstain.

EU/climate: EU27 agree to reform carbon market without burdening households
During the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, the 27 approved five key texts of the EU climate plan, agreeing in particular on the amount of a fund to cushion consumers the impact of a carbon market extended to cars and housing. Meeting in Luxembourg, the European Union's environment ministers agreed on their common position on the objective of zero-emission new cars by 2035, the distribution of climate efforts between states and the imposition of targets for natural “carbon sinks” (forests, etc.), before talks with MEPs to finalize these texts. But the proposal for a “social climate fund”, another key part of the plan presented by the European Commission in July 2021, was the subject of tough negotiations until late at night, threatening to block agreement on the other texts in the package.

American singer R. Kelly, guilty of sexual crimes, faces 25 years in prison
The fallen American R&B star R. Kelly, convicted in September 2021 in New York of running a “system” for the sexual exploitation of young people, including minors, for years, faces a 25-year prison sentence on Wednesday. Nine months ago, the trial of the singer world famous for his hit “I Believe I Can Fly” was analyzed, four years after the start of the #MeToo era in the United States, as indicative of sexual crimes in the African American community. In their latest indictment, prosecutors in the federal court in Brooklyn are calling for at least 25 years of criminal imprisonment because of the “danger” that R. Kelly, whose real name is Robert Kelly, would represent for his victims and for public opinion.

IN SHORT
Donald Trump knew that some of his supporters were armed when he called on them to march on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and then sought to get behind the wheel of a car to join them, according to overwhelming testimony delivered to Congress on Tuesday.
“It's better than last year... “: Serena Williams had a hard time putting into words her defeat Tuesday in the first round of Wimbledon, where she came back a year after retiring due to injury a few games after she started playing.