Polls open in French snap parliamentary elections

Voters wait in queue to cast their ballot at a polling station in Saint-Pierre, in the French northern Atlantic archipelago of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, on June 29, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 30 June 2024
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Polls open in French snap parliamentary elections

  • Support for anti-immigration and euroskeptic National Rally party surges despite President Emmanuel Macron’s pledges to prevent its ascent

PARIS: Polls opened in France on Sunday for the first round of snap parliamentary elections which could see the far-right party of Marine Le Pen take power in a historic first.

With Russia’s war against Ukraine in its third year and energy and food prices much higher, support for the anti-immigration and euroskeptic National Rally (RN) party has surged despite President Emmanuel Macron’s pledges to prevent its ascent.

Polling stations opened across mainland France at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) and will close 12 hours later, immediately followed by projections that usually predict the result with a degree of accuracy.

Voters in France’s overseas territories that span the globe cast ballots earlier in the weekend. Some 49 million people are eligible to vote.

Cassandre Cazaux, a nurse who voted in France’s Pacific territory of New Caledonia, where tensions remain high following last month’s deadly riots, said the elections were “decisive.”

“It should be well attended, but I don’t know if everyone will play along and come out to vote,” she said.

Elections for the 577 seats in the National Assembly are a two-round process. The shape of the new parliament will become clear after the second round on July 7.

Most polls show the RN on course to win the largest number of seats in the National Assembly, parliament’s lower house, although it remains unclear if the party will secure an outright majority.

A high turnout is predicted and final opinion polls have given the RN between 35 percent and 37 percent of the vote, against 27.5-29 percent for the left-wing New Popular Front alliance and 20-21 percent for Macron’s centrist camp.

If the RN obtains an absolute majority, party chief Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 28-year-old protege with no governing experience, could become prime minister in a tense “cohabitation” with Macron.

On Monday, Macron plans to convene a government meeting to decide the further course of action, government sources said.

France is heading for a year of political chaos and confusion with a hung Assembly, said Mujtaba Rahman, Europe head at Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy.

“There is no precedent in recent French politics for such an impasse,” Rahman said.

Macron’s decision to call the snap vote after the RN’s strong showing in European Parliament elections this month stunned friends and foes and sparked uncertainty in Europe’s second-biggest economy.

The Paris stock exchange suffered its biggest monthly decline in two years in June, dropping by 6.4 percent, according to figures released on Friday.

In an editorial, French daily Le Monde said it was time to mobilize against the far right.

“Yielding any power to it means nothing less than taking the risk of seeing everything that has been built and conquered over more than two and a half centuries gradually being undone,” it said.

Wielding mops and buckets, several activists of the Femen feminist collective dressed as cleaners on Saturday demonstrated bare-breasted at the Trocadero in Paris, chanting slogans against the extreme right.

Separately, tens of thousands of people joined an LGBTQ Pride march in Paris, with some carrying placards targeting the far right.

“I think it’s even more important right now to fight against hatred in general, in all its forms,” said 19-year-old student Themis Hallin-Mallet.

Many have pointed to a spike in hate speech, intolerance and racism during the charged campaign. A video of two RN supporters verbally assaulting a black woman has gone viral in recent days.

Macron has deplored “racism or anti-Semitism.”

He apparently hoped to catch political opponents off guard by presenting voters with a crucial choice about France’s future, but observers say he might have lost his gamble.

Support for Macron’s centrist camp has collapsed, while left-wing parties put their bickering aside to form the New Popular Front, in a nod to an alliance founded in 1936 to combat fascism.

Analysts say Le Pen’s years-long efforts to clean up the image of a party co-founded by a former Waffen SS member have been paying off.

The party has promised to bolster purchasing power, curb immigration and boost law and order.

A defiant Macron has stood by his decision to call the elections, while warning voters that a win by the far right or hard left could spark a “civil war.”

He has insisted he will serve out the remainder of his second term until 2027, no matter which party wins.


Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters occupy Columbia University library

Updated 13 sec ago
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Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters occupy Columbia University library

  • Student protesters at Columbia, Jewish organizers among them, say the government is unfairly conflating pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitism

NEW YORK: Dozens of protesters stood on tables, beat drums and unfurled pro-Palestinian banners in the main reading room of a Columbia University library on Wednesday in one of the biggest demonstrations at the school since its New York City campus was roiled by a student protest movement last year.
Videos and photographs on social media showed the protesters, most wearing masks, with banners saying “Strike For Gaza” and “Liberated Zone” beneath the Lawrence A. Wein Reading Room’s chandeliers in the Butler Library. Columbia’s public affairs office said in a statement that its public safety staff were asking protesters to show identification, and that if protesters do not comply with orders to disperse, they will be disciplined for breaking school rules and face “possible arrest.”
At one point, more people were seen trying to enter the library, according to a Reuters witness. Public safety staff locked a door and shoving and pushing ensued.
The protest comes as Columbia’s board of trustees continues its negotiations with US President Donald Trump’s administration, which announced in March it had canceled hundreds of millions of dollars of grants to the university for scientific research.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in an interview with the NBC 4 news channel that Columbia officials had asked for help and that the New York Police Department was sending officers to the campus.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a collection of student groups, recirculated on social media on Wednesday their long-standing demand that the university end investments of its $14.8 billion endowment in weapons makers and other companies that support Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories.
Trump, a Republican, has called the pro-Palestinian student protests across college campuses last year antisemitic and anti-American. Student protesters at Columbia, Jewish organizers among them, say the government is unfairly conflating pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitism.
Trump is also trying to deport some pro-Palestinian international students at US schools, saying their presence could harm US foreign policy interests.
The protesters in the library also demanded the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate student who remains in a Louisiana immigrants jail after he was among the first to be arrested.


Putin’s order for three-day truce with Ukraine enters force

Updated 08 May 2025
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Putin’s order for three-day truce with Ukraine enters force

  • Putin announced the truce last month as a “humanitarian” gesture, following pressure from Trump
  • Ukraine never agreed to the truce and has dismissed it as theatrics, calling instead for a 30-day ceasefire

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

Updated 07 May 2025
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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

Updated 07 May 2025
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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

Updated 07 May 2025
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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.