France election: Voting to begin as far right bids for power

DW

Voting to begin in runoff round of the 2024 French legislative election. The far-right is made significant gains in the first round. Centrist and leftist parties are forming an anti-RN coalition against the far-right.

What you need to know

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally scored historic gains in the first-round vote on June 30

Le Pen is confident her RN could win an absolute majority in parliament

In the first round  76 lawmakers, mostly from the far-right and left, were elected outright

President Emmanuel Macron had called the snap elections three years ahead of time

What happened in the first round?

In the first round of the French parliamentary election, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) achieved historic gains, raising the possibility of France’s first far-right government since World War II.

The RN and its allies garnered some 33% of the vote, the leftist New Popular Front got 28%, and the centrist Ensemble bloc led by President Emmanuel Macron secured some 20%.

While the RN is projected to become the dominant force in the National Assembly, it is expected to fall short of the 289 seats out of 577 needed for a majority.

Le Pen urged voters to give her RN an “absolute majority” in parliament “for (RN’s) Jordan Bardella to be appointed prime minister by Emmanuel Macron.”

4 dead after shooting at residence in Kentucky, U.S.

CGTN

Five people, including the suspect, were killed and three others injured in a shooting at a residence in U.S. state of Kentucky early Saturday, policy said.

Four people are dead and three others were hospitalized after a mass shooting overnight at a home in northern Kentucky.

The suspected shooter also died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car afterwards, bringing the total death toll in connection with the incident to five. The suspected shooter has since been identified by police as Chase Garvey, 21, from Florence.

NATO turns 75 with Ukraine and future on line

Japan Times

Outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg addresses a meeting in Brussels last month.

NATO’s 75th anniversary summit was meant to showcase the triumph of a larger, stronger alliance. Instead, leaders are coming together in Washington in the shadow of setbacks in Ukraine and electoral headwinds on both sides of the Atlantic.

U.S. President Joe Biden, fighting for his political life after a disastrous debate against NATO skeptic Donald Trump, will turn his attention away from campaigning to welcome leaders of the 32-nation trans-Atlantic alliance for three days from Tuesday.

July 7 Memorial: Recalling The Source of Myanmar’s Revolutionary Spirit

The Irrawaddy 

On the evening of July 7 in 1962, soldiers led by Lieutenant-Colonel Sein Lwin of the then General Ne Win’s military regime carried out a bloody crackdown on student protests on the Rangoon University campus in Yangon.

The government announced that 16 students were killed and 86 injured. Eyewitnesses, however, said that more than 100 were killed. The July 7 crackdown also led to the dynamiting of the Student Union building on the campus – a historic building that had played an important part in Myanmar’s independence struggle – the next day, as Gen. Ne Win said he had suspected it was a hotbed of rebel associates, referring to communists.