(BBC News) Nobody expected this. High drama, for sure, but this was a shock.
When the graphics flashed up on all the big French channels, it was not the far right of Marine Le Pen and her young prime-minister-in-waiting Jordan Bardella who were on course for victory.
It was the left who had clinched it, and Emmanuel Macron's centrists had staged an unexpected comeback, pushing the far-right National Rally (RN) into third.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the veteran left-wing...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Iran’s president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian has promised to serve all Iranians in his first public address being declared the winner of an election run-off against his hardline rival Saeed Jalili.
Speaking in his first public address on Saturday, Pezeshkian, who is seen as a centrist and reform-minded candidate, said he will “usher in a new chapter.”
“We are ahead of a big trial, a trial of hardships and challenges, simply to provide a prosperous life...
(BBC News) An Italian archbishop and staunch critic of Pope Francis has been excommunicated by the Vatican, its doctrinal office has said.
Carlo Maria Vigano was found guilty of schism — meaning he has split from the Catholic Church — after years of fierce disagreement with the pontiff.
The 83-year-old ultra-conservative has previously called on the Pope to resign, accusing him of heresy and criticizing his stances on immigration, climate change, and same-sex couples.
Archbishop Vigano was...
(The Washington Post) Keir Starmer and his renewed Labour Party won a landslide election in Britain on Thursday, according to the exit poll, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule and moving toward a new government dominated by the center-left.
This was an election that was more about mood than policy, and voters conveyed their frustration with the incumbent Tories and a willingness to take a chance on a “changed Labour Party,” as Starmer calls it, purged...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Hezbollah says a top commander has been killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon, at least the third high-ranking official in the group to be killed in almost nine months of cross-border fighting that has sparked fears of wider regional escalation.
The Lebanese armed group on Wednesday said that Muhammad Nimah Nasser, also known as “Hajj Abu Naameh”, had been killed. The Iran-aligned group later said it had launched 100 katyusha rockets...
(Bloomberg) The US Supreme Court’s ruling Monday that Donald Trump has some immunity from criminal charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results dealt a near fatal blow to the push by prosecutors to go to trial before the November election.
The justices, voting 6-3 along ideological lines, ruled for the first time that former presidents are shielded from prosecution for some official acts taken while in office, saying that a federal appeals court was wrong to reject...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Dozens of bodies discovered in a truck in Mexico have been linked to a violent turf war between rival gangs, according to authorities.
At least 19 bodies were discovered in or around a dump truck in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, officials said on Tuesday. A recent surge in gang violence related to drug and migrant trafficking has been plaguing the region.
The Ministry of Public Security said the male bodies were...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Hamas said its political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in “a treat Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran.”
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says three people, including two children, have been killed and 74 wounded in a strike the Israeli military described as a “targeted assassination operation” against a Hezbollah commander in southern Beirut.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/7/31/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-hits-beirut-in-assassination-operation
(Al Jazeera Media Network) US President Joe Biden sought to project an image of confidence during a rally in North Carolina after a woeful performance in a debate with Donald Trump exacerbated concerns about his age and mental acuity.
In remarks on Friday, Biden seemed to brush aside suggestions he should step down to make room for a younger candidate to take on Trump in the high-stakes November election.
“I intend to win this election. When you get...
(The Washington Post) Federal prosecutors improperly charged a Jan. 6 defendant with obstruction, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday, a decision that will likely upend many cases against rioters who disrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election and which Donald Trump’s legal team may use to try to whittle down one of his criminal cases.
After the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, federal prosecutors charged more than 350 participants in the pro-Trump mob with obstructing...
