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* France faces Monday deadline for budget bill * Lawmakers likely to heavily amend the bill * Stopgap law may be needed to keep government running By Leigh Thomas PARIS, Oct 10 (Reuters) – French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, freshly reappointed late on Friday days after resigning, faces an immediate test to deliver a 2026 budget bill by Monday to give it any chance of passing through a divided parliament by year-end. Here is a look at what's at stake: WHY LECORNU FACES A RACE AGAINST THE CLOCK October 13 is the hard deadline for Lecornu to present a draft budget bill – first to cabinet, and then on the same day to parliament. That means, at a minimum, the ministers responsible for finance, budget, and social security must be appointed by then. Missing the deadline would leave lawmakers without the 70 days the constitution grants to debate and pass the budget before year-end. The Constitutional Court also requires eight days to review the legislation. Before he had resigned, Lecornu had already sent a draft to the Haut Conseil des Finances Publiques, France's independent fiscal watchdog, for review as required by law. WHAT'S IN THE DRAFT BUDGET? Lecornu has not disclosed any details about what is in the draft, but he did say after he resigned that the budget deficit must be reduced to between 4.7% and 5% of economic output next year, a bigger gap than the 4.6% targetted by his predecessor. The deficit is forecast at 5.4% this year. He has ruled out a 2% tax on wealth over 100 million euros as demanded by the left, but has promised to raise taxes on the wealthy by reducing room for tax optimismation strategies. WHAT HAPPENS IN PARLIAMENT? If Lecornu is not brought down by a no-confidence vote, his bill will almost certainly be heavily amended in the National Assembly, where no party holds a clear majority. Before his re-appointment, Lecornu had pledged to not invoke special constitutional powers to bypass parliament and pass the budget, which would have likely triggered a no-confidence vote against him. Some left-wing lawmakers have feared the new government is banking on parliament failing to pass a budget within the 70-day window — which could allow it to adopt the bill by decree. WHAT HAPPENS IF LECORNU FALLS? If Lecornu is brought down by a no-confidence vote, as some opponents are already promising, parliament would need to pass emergency stopgap legislation to authorize spending, taxation, and borrowing from January 1 until a full budget is adopted. France resorted to such emergency measures last December after then-Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government was ousted, invalidating his proposed 2025 budget. While a stopgap law would avoid a U.S.-style government shutdown, it would impose strict limits on public finances until a new government could pass a full budget next year. (Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Richard Lough and Toby Chopra)

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PTWC: LIFTS TSUNAMI WARNING AFTER EARTHQUAKE AT DRAKE PASSAGE

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* MIT president: research funds should be for 'scientific merit' * Trump wants universities to protect conservative ideas * White House targets foreign students, diverse hiring policies By Julia Harte Oct 10 (Reuters) – Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth on Friday said she "cannot support" a memo that the White House sent to nine elite U.S. universities last week detailing policies they should follow to get preferential consideration for federal funding. In an open letter to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Kornbluth said some of the policies would restrict MIT's independence and freedom of expression. "The premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone," Kornbluth said in her letter, which was posted to an MIT website. Some of the policies included in the memo were capping international undergraduate enrollment at 15%, banning the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions and defining genders based on biology. Schools that pursue "models and values" beyond those outlined in the memo could "forgo federal benefits," the memo reads, while institutions that comply could be rewarded. MIT was the first university to refuse to support the White House memo, which followed Republican President Donald Trump's efforts to use financial pressure to force some of the country's top institutions of higher learning to submit to unprecedented control over who and what they teach. Other universities said they were studying the administration's demands and drafting responses. Brown University was one of the universities that received the memo even though it reached a deal with the federal government in July, agreeing to pay $50 million over 10 years to support workforce development in Rhode Island in exchange for the government unfreezing $510 million in funding for medical and health sciences research. In an open letter on Friday, Brown President Christina Paxson said she was working with her university community to draft a response to the memo. On Monday, the University of Virginia's rector and interim president announced the formation of a working group to advise the university how to respond, but said that "it would be difficult for the University to agree to certain provisions" in the memo. Dartmouth University, the University of Arizona, the University of Southern California and Vanderbilt also sent statements saying they were deciding how to respond. The University of Texas had said earlier this month that it was "enthusiastically" looking forward to working with the administration. The White House's 10-point memo called for "transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas," but did not include similar measures to protect liberal ideas. It also proposed that the Classic Learning Test, embraced by some conservatives and already authorized for use by Florida's public university system, be among the college entrance exams considered alongside the SAT and ACT. Since Trump took office in January, his White House has targeted what it deems liberal-leaning institutions in various fields and tried to withhold funding from colleges and universities over issues such as pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel's war in Gaza, transgender policies, climate initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The administration's threats to cut off federal funding to schools such as Harvard University for allegedly favoring "radical left" policies have hit legal roadblocks. (Reporting by Julia Harte; editing by Donna Bryson and David Gregorio)

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(Adds Bardella in paragraph 4, details from the Elysee Palace) * Macron reappoints last PM to resolve political crisis * Hard left and far right angered by choice * Crisis denting economic growth, central bank chief warns By Elizabeth Pineau PARIS, Oct 10 (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron reappointed Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister on Friday just days after he quit the job, a move that enraged some of the president's fiercest political opponents who pledged to vote out the new government. Macron, 47, will hope loyalist Lecornu can draw enough support from a deeply divided parliament to pass a 2026 budget. Faced with France's worst political crisis in decades, many of Macron's rivals have demanded he either call fresh parliamentary elections or resign. The immediate reaction to Lecornu's appointment from the far right and hard left was scathing, suggesting his second stint as prime minister will be no easier than his first, which ended on Monday when he resigned after just 27 days in office. "The Lecornu II government, appointed by Emmanuel Macron who is more isolated and out of touch than ever at the Elysee Palace, is a bad joke, a democratic disgrace and a humiliation for the French people," National Rally party president Jordan Bardella posted on X. LECORNU'S PRIORITY IS TO PASS A BUDGET FOR 2026 There was no immediate reaction from the leadership of the Socialists and the conservative Republicans, both of whom will be crucial to Lecornu's survival. Lecornu's most pressing task will be to deliver a budget to parliament by the end of Monday. "I accept – out of duty – the mission entrusted to me by the President of the Republic to do everything possible to provide France with a budget by the end of the year and to address the daily life issues of our fellow citizens," he wrote on X. "We must put an end to this political crisis that exasperates the French people and to this instability that is harmful to France's image and its interests." Lecornu added that whoever joined his government would have to renounce their personal ambitions to succeed Macron in 2027, a contest that has injected instability into France's weak minority governments and fractious legislature. He pledged his cabinet would "embody renewal and diversity." Macron's entourage said Lecornu had "carte blanche", in a sign the president was leaving his prime minister plenty of wiggle room to negotiate a cabinet and budget. LEFTIST PARTIES UPSET WITH MACRON Macron earlier convened a meeting of mainstream party leaders to rally support around his choice, but angered leftist parties when they found out one of their own would not be named as prime minister. Another collapsed government would raise the likelihood of Macron calling a snap election, a scenario seen benefiting the far right the most. France's political turmoil, which has dented growth and spooked financial markets, was in large part triggered by Macron's decision last year to hold a legislative election, a gamble that delivered a hung parliament split between three ideologically opposed blocs. The country's push to get its finances in order, requiring budget cuts or tax hikes that no party can agree on, has only deepened the malaise. If the National Assembly cannot find common ground on a budget in the time given, emergency legislation may be needed to keep the country running next year on a roll-over budget. FATE OF PENSION REFORM IS KEY ISSUE The country's central bank chief, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, forecast on Friday that the current political uncertainty would cost the economy 0.2 percentage points of gross domestic product. Business sentiment was suffering but the economy was broadly fine, he said. "Uncertainty is … the number one enemy of growth," Villeroy told RTL radio. Fraught budget negotiations have cost Macron three prime ministers in less than 12 months. Central to the most recent budget negotiations have been the left's desire to repeal Macron's 2023 pension reforms that lifted the retirement age, and tax the wealthy more heavily. Those demands have been hard to square with the conservatives, whose support Macron also needs to pass a budget. In Friday's meeting, Macron offered to delay raising the retirement age as far as 64 by one year to 2028. Green leader Marine Tondelier described the concession as insufficient. The deficit is forecast to hit 5.4% this year, nearly double the European Union's cap. Lecornu recently said he envisaged a 2026 deficit between 4.7% – 5%. (Reporting by Paris Newsroom Writing by Gabriel Stargardter and Richard Lough Editing by Alison Williams, Frances Kerry and Toby Chopra)

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