NICE, France: With just three days to go until France’s landmark legislative election, the county’s far-right leader on Thursday raised the question of who would be in charge of the military if her party takes over the government after the two-round balloting.
The early elections are plunging France into uncharted territory, and political scientists are scrambling to interpret how exactly President Emmanuel Macron and a prime minister who is hostile to most of his policies will share power if Marine Le Pen’s National Rally wins the majority in the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament.
Le Pen has repeatedly said that Jordan Bardella, her protegee and her party’s star leader, will lead France’s next government if their party wins. She suggested in an interview that Bardella, 28, will also take over at least some decisions on France’s defense and its armed forces. Macron has three years to serve out his final term as president.
Serving as a commander-in-chief of the armed forces “is an honorary title for the president since it’s the prime minister who actually pulls the strings,” Le Pen said in an interview with Le Télégramme newspaper published Thursday.
The French Constitution states that “the President of the Republic is the head of the armed forces” and that the head of state also “chairs the councils and higher committees of national defense.” However, the Constitution also states that “the prime minister is responsible for national defense.”
Constitutional experts say the exact role of prime minister in foreign policy and defense appears to be subject to interpretation.
France has nuclear weapons and its troops and military personnel have been deployed in many conflict zones around the world.
The last time France had a prime minister and a president from different parties, they broadly agreed on strategic matters of defense and foreign policy. But this time the power sharing concept known in France as “cohabitation” could be very different given the animosity between the far-right and the far-left politicians. Both blocs appear to deeply resent the business-friendly, centrist president.
On the issue of the country’s military command, political historian Jean Garrigues said that “the president is the head of the armed forces, (but) it’s the prime minister who has the armed forces at his disposal.”
In practice, he said this means that “if the president decided to send troops on the ground to Ukraine ... the prime minister would be able to block this decision.”
In March, Macron warned Western powers against showing any signs of weakness to Russia and said Ukraine’s allies shouldn’t rule out sending Western troops into Ukraine to help the country against Russia’s aggression.
Le Pen is confident that her party, which has a history of racism and xenophobia, will be able to translate its stunning triumph at the elections for the European Parliament earlier this month into a victory at the upcoming legislative two-round vote in France.
The first round will take place on Sunday. The decisive second round is scheduled a week later, on July 7.
Polls show that the outcome of the early election remains uncertain amid a complex voting system and potential alliances. Macron is aligned against both the National Rally and the New Popular Front, a coalition of far- to center-left parties that includes France Unbowed of Jean Luc Melenchon.
If the National Rally gets the mandate from a majority of voters to form a new government, Le Pen said Bardella, who has no experience in governance, will aim to be firm but not hostile to the serving president.
“Jordan has no intention of picking a fight with (Macron), but he has set red lines,” Le Pen said. She added: “On Ukraine, the president will not be able to send troops.”
French far-right leader Le Pen questions president’s role as army chief ahead of parliament election
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French far-right leader Le Pen questions president’s role as army chief ahead of parliament election
- Le Pen has repeatedly said that Jordan Bardella, her protegee and her party’s star leader, will lead France’s next government if their party wins
- She suggested in an interview that Bardella, 28, will also take over at least some decisions on France’s defense and its armed forces
Putin’s order for three-day truce with Ukraine enters force
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for a three-day truce with Ukraine to coincide with Moscow’s World War II Victory Day commemorations has taken effect, Russian state media reported.
Ukraine never agreed to the truce and has dismissed it as theatrics, calling instead for a 30-day ceasefire.
The three-day order began at midnight Thursday (2100 GMT on Wednesday) and is scheduled to last until the end of Saturday, according to the Kremlin.
“The ceasefire ... on the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory has begun,” Russia’s state RIA news agency reported.
Hours before Putin’s order was scheduled to enter force, Moscow and Kyiv traded a slew of aerial attacks, prompting airport closures in Russia and leaving at least two dead in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has said Russian forces will honor Putin’s order to cease fire, but will respond “immediately” if Ukraine launches any attacks.
Putin announced the truce last month as a “humanitarian” gesture, following pressure from the United States to halt his three-year assault on Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump has been trying to broker a lasting ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv since his inauguration, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin.
Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional ceasefire in March, and has since offered only slim contributions to Trump’s peace efforts.
Ukraine has said it does not believe Russia will adhere to this truce and accused Moscow of hundreds of violations during a previous, 30-hour ceasefire ordered by Putin over Easter.
Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University
- "Police have detained a man who entered the University of Warsaw campus," Warsaw Police said
- Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student
WARSAW: Police said on Wednesday they had detained a 22-year-old Polish man after he killed one person with an axe at Warsaw University, in an attack the institution described as a "huge tragedy".
"Police have detained a man who entered the University of Warsaw campus. One person died, another was taken to hospital with injuries," Warsaw Police said in a statement on X.
They said the incident occurred at around 6:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), when the man attacked people on the campus with an axe, adding that the detainee was a 22-year-old Polish citizen.
Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student.
Private broadcaster Polsat News reported that a woman's severed head and an axe had been found at the university.
A spokesperson for the district prosecutor's office declined to comment on whether a severed head had been found.
The spokesperson said that a female administrative employee of the university had been killed at the scene and a security guard was injured and was taken to hospital in critical condition.
He said that the attacker had entered an auditorium at the university.
Reuters reporters at the scene saw police vans and a cordon around the auditorium where the attack took place.
The Rector of the University of Warsaw said in a statement that May 8 would be a day of mourning at the institution, calling the attack a "huge tragedy".
"We express our great sorrow and sympathy to the family and loved ones," the statement read.
Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence
- Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species
NAIROBI: Two Belgian teenagers found with 5,000 ants in Kenya were given a choice of paying a fine of $7,700 or serving 12 months in prison — the maximum penalty for the offense — for violating wildlife conservation laws.
Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species.
Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house in Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. They were charged on April 15.
Magistrate Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya’s main airport on Wednesday, said in her ruling that despite the teenagers telling the court they were naïve and collecting the ants as a hobby, the particular species of ants they collected is valuable and they had thousands of them — not just a few.
The Kenya Wildlife Service had said the teenagers were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.
“This is beyond a hobby. Indeed, there is a biting shortage of messor cepholates online,” Thuku said in her ruling.
The illegal export of the ants “not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits,” KWS said in a statement.
Duh Hung Nguyen, a Vietnamese national, told the court that he was sent to pick up the ants and arrived at Kenya’s main airport where he met his contact person, Dennis Ng’ang’a, and together they traveled to meet the locals who sell the ants.
Ng’ang’a, who is from Kenya, had said he didn’t know it was illegal because ants are sold and eaten locally.
Bill Gates meets Indonesian leader to discuss development initiatives
- Gates’ foundation is developing a tuberculosis vaccine that’s planned to be tested in Indonesia
JAKARTA: Bill Gates was in Indonesia on Wednesday to discuss health and sustainable development initiatives with the leader of the world’s fourth most populous country.
Gates met President Prabowo Subianto at the colonial-style Merdeka palace in Jakarta to discuss global health, nutrition, financial inclusion and public digital infrastructure, Indonesia’s presidential office said in a statement ahead of the meeting.
The co-founder of Microsoft and Gates Foundation praised Indonesia’s adoption of vaccines against Rotavirus for diarrhea and Pneumococcus for pneumonia and the country’s efforts in reducing child mortality.
He said 10 million children under the age of five worldwide died when his foundation launched in 2000, with 90 percent of the deaths due to diarrhea, pneumonia or malaria. That number has now been cut in half to below 5 million, Gates said.
“It’s been an amazing time period. And there’s many new tools coming,” he told the meeting, which was also attended by prominent Indonesian businesspeople and philanthropists.
Gates’ foundation is currently developing a tuberculosis vaccine that’s planned to be tested in Indonesia, Subianto said.
“This is crucial because TB is still a deadly disease in the country,” he said.
Gates said that because rich countries don’t have tuberculosis, “it just doesn’t get hardly any money for diagnostics or drugs or vaccines.”
Gates has granted more than $159 million to Indonesia since 2009.
Much of it was allocated to the health sector, especially for vaccine procurement, Subianto said.
Thanks to the funds, Subianto said Biofarma, a state-run pharmaceutical company, now can produce 2 billion doses of its polio vaccine every year, benefiting more than 900 million people in 42 countries.
France says Algeria has issued arrest warrants for writer Daoud
PARIS: Algeria has issued two arrest warrants for acclaimed French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, the French Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, as tensions surge between the two countries.
The Algerian judiciary informed France of the move, the Foreign Ministry said.
“We are monitoring and will continue to monitor developments in this situation closely,” he said, stressing that Daoud was “a renowned and respected author” and that France was committed to freedom of expression.
In 2024, Daoud won France’s top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his novel “Houris,” centered on Algeria’s civil war between the government and radicals in the 1990s.
The novel, banned in Algeria, tells the story of a young woman who loses her voice when a hard-liner cuts her throat as she witnesses her family being massacred during the war.
In November, the woman, Saada Arbane, told Algerian television, using a speech aid, that the main character in the book is based on her experiences. Daoud, 54, has denied his novel is based on Arbane’s life.
Arbane says she told her story during a course of treatment with a psychotherapist who became Daoud’s wife in 2016.
She has accused Daoud of using the details narrated during their therapy sessions in his book.
