Month: July 2024

NICE, France — At just 28 years old, Jordan Bardella has helped make the far-right National Rally the strongest political force in France. And now he could become the country’s youngest prime minister. After voters propelled Marine Le Pen’s National Rally to a strong lead in the first round of snap legislative elections on June 30, Bardella turned to rallying supporters to hand their party an absolute majority in the decisive round on Sunday. That would allow the anti-immigration, nationalist party to run the government, with Bardella at the helm. Who is the National Rally president? When Bardella replaced his mentor, …

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PARIS — Voting has begun in mainland France on Sunday in pivotal runoff elections that could hand a historic victory to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and its inward-looking, anti-immigrant vision — or produce a hung parliament and years of political deadlock. French President Emmanuel Macron took a huge gamble in dissolving parliament and calling for the elections after his centrists were trounced in European elections on June 9. The snap elections in this nuclear-armed nation will influence the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe’s economic stability, and they’re almost certain to undercut President Emmanuel Macron for the remaining …

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PARIS — French voters face a decisive choice Sunday in the runoff of snap parliamentary elections that could produce the country’s first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation — or no majority emerging at all.  Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, nationalist party National Rally stands a chance of winning a legislative majority for the first time, but the outcome remains uncertain because of a complex voting system and tactical maneuvers by political parties.  What’s happening Sunday?  Voters across France and overseas territories can cast ballots for 501 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, the lower and most …

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Berlin — The German army will end operations at its air base in Niger by August 31 following the breakdown of talks with the Sahel country’s ruling junta, Germany’s defense ministry said Saturday.  All Bundeswehr soldiers stationed at the base will be withdrawn by August 31 and German military cooperation with Niger will end, the ministry added.  The breakdown in negotiations marks Niger’s latest diplomatic shift away from the West since a coup d’etat in July 2023 ousted President Mohamed Bazoum and brought the current military leadership to power.  Since then, Niger has turned toward Russia and Iran and away from …

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HAMBURG, Germany — He has a broken nose that requires him to wear a vision-limiting face mask. He is managing fitness issues stemming from the end of the club season. He has scored only one goal — from the penalty spot.  The European Championship is hardly going as planned for Kylian Mbappé, and he knows it.  “These are the vagaries of the footballer,” the France captain said after his latest below-par par performance at Euro 2024.  He doesn’t really care, though, as long as he is lifting the Henri Delaunay Cup in Berlin on July 14.  Mbappé was so fatigued, so …

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LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that he is scrapping a controversial Conservative policy to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda as he vowed to deliver on voters’ mandate for change, though he warned it will not happen quickly. “The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started,” Starmer said in his first news conference. “It’s never acted as a deterrent. Almost the opposite.” Starmer told reporters in a wood-paneled room at 10 Downing St. that he was “restless for change,” but would not commit to how soon Britons would feel improvements in their standards of living or public …

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KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched an overnight drone attack across Ukraine on Saturday, hitting an energy facility in the Sumy region in the northeast of the country, officials said. Ukrainian mobile drone hunter groups and air defense units shot down 24 of the 27 Russian drones fired on 12 regions, the air force said. National grid operator Ukrenergo said the energy facility in the Sumy region was damaged, forcing emergency electricity shut-offs for industrial consumers in the city of Sumy. Repair teams were working to restore supplies, it said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or other damage details from …

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LONDON — Newly elected British prime minister Keir Starmer on Saturday began his first full day in charge with a meeting of his Cabinet after his Labour party’s landslide election win ended 14 years of Conservative rule. Starmer held his first Cabinet meeting at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT), with Britain’s first woman finance minister Rachel Reeves and new foreign minister David Lammy in attendance. The Labour leader spent his first hours in Downing Street on Friday appointing his ministerial team, hours after securing his center-left party’s return to power with a whopping 174-seat majority in the UK parliament. “The work of …

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