United News of Bangladesh

Voting is underway 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 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 Macron for the remaining three years of his presidency. The first round on June 30 saw the largest gains ever for the anti-immigration, nationalist National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen. A bit over 49 million people are registered to vote in the elections, which will determine which party controls the 577-member National Assembly, France's influential lower house of parliament, and who will be prime minister. If support is further eroded for Macron’s weak centrist majority, he will be forced to share power with parties opposed to most of his pro-business, pro-European Union policies. Voters at a Paris polling station were acutely aware of the the far-reaching consequences for France and beyond. “The individual freedoms, tolerance and respect for others is what at stake today,” said Thomas Bertrand, a 45-year-old voter who works in advertising. Racism and antisemitism have marred the electoral campaign, along with Russian cybercampaigns, and more than 50 candidates reported being physically attacked — highly unusual for France. The government is deploying 30,000 police on voting day. The heightened tensions come while France is celebrating a very special summer: Paris is about to host exceptionally ambitious Olympic Games, the national soccer team reached the semifinal of the Euro 2024 championship, and the Tour de France is racing around the country alongside the Olympic torch. As of noon local time, turnout was at 26.63%, according to France's Interior Ministry, slightly higher than the 25.90% reported at the same time during the first round last Sunday. During the first round, the nearly 67% turnout was the highest since 1997, ending nearly three decades of deepening voter apathy for legislative elections and, for a growing number of French people, politics in general. Macron cast his ballot in the seaside resort town of La Touquet, along with his wife Brigitte. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal voted earlier in the Paris suburb of Vanves. Le Pen is not voting, because her district in northern France is not holding a second round after she won the seat outright last week. Across France, 76 other candidates secured seats in the first round, including 39 from her National Rally and 32 from the leftist New Popular Front alliance. Two candidates from Macron’s centrists list also won their seats in the first round. The elections wrap up Sunday at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) in mainland France and on the island of Corsica. Initial polling projections are expected Sunday night, with early official results expected late Sunday and early Monday. Voters residing in the Americas and in France’s overseas territories of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and French Polynesia voted on Saturday. The elections could leave France with its first far-right government since the Nazi occupation in World War II if the National Rally wins an absolute majority and its 28-year-old leader Jordan Bardella becomes prime minister. The party came out on top in the previous week's first-round voting, followed by a coalition of center-left, hard-left and Green parties, and Macron’s centrist alliance. Pierre Lubin, a 45-year-old business manager, was worried about whether the elections would produce an effective government. “This is a concern for us,” Lubin said. “Will it be a technical government or a coalition government made up of (various) political forces?” The outcome remains highly uncertain. Polls between the two rounds suggest that the National Rally may win the most seats in the 577-seat National Assembly but fall short of the 289 seats needed for a majority. That would still make history, if a party with historic links to xenophobia and downplaying the Holocaust, and long seen as a pariah, becomes France’s biggest political force. If it wins the majority, Macron would be forced to share power with a prime minister who deeply disagrees with the president's domestic and foreign policies, in an awkward arrangement known in France as “cohabitation." Another possibility is that no party has a majority, resulting in a hung parliament. That could prompt Macron to pursue coalition negotiations with the center-left or name a technocratic government with no political affiliations. No matter what happens, Macron’s centrist camp will be forced to share power. Many of his alliances' candidates lost in the first round or withdrew, meaning it doesn’t have enough people running to come anywhere close to the majority he had in 2017 when he was was first elected president, or the plurality he got in the 2022 legislative vote. Both would be unprecedented for modern France, and make it more difficult for the European Union’s No. 2 economy to make bold decisions on arming Ukraine, reforming labor laws or reducing its huge deficit. Financial markets have been jittery since Macron surprised even his closest allies in June by announcing snap elections after the National Rally won the most seats for France in European Parliament elections. Regardless of what happens, Macron said he won’t step down and will stay president until his term ends in 2027. Many French voters, especially in small towns and rural areas, are frustrated with low incomes and a Paris political leadership seen as elitist and unconcerned with workers' day-to-day struggles. National Rally has connected with those voters, often by blaming immigration for France's problems, and has built up broad and deep support over the past decade. Le Pen has softened many of the party's positions — she no longer calls for quitting NATO and the EU — to make it more electable. But the party’s core far-right values remain. It wants a referendum on whether being born in France is enough to merit citizenship, to curb rights of dual citizens, and give police more freedom to use weapons. With the uncertain outcome looming over the high-stakes elections, Valerie Dodeman, 55-year-old legal expert said she is pessimistic about the future of France. “No matter what happens, I think this election will leave people disgruntled on all sides," Dodeman said.

Russian strikes overnight left over 100,000 households without power in northern Ukraine and cut off the water supply to a regional capital, Ukrainian authorities reported Saturday, while civilian casualties rose sharply in the country's embattled east. The northern Sumy region, which borders Russia, was plunged into darkness after Russian strikes late Friday damaged energy infrastructure, the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said. Hours later, the Ukrainian public broadcaster reported that Russian drones hit the provincial capital, also called Sumy, cutting off water by hitting power lines that feed its system of pumps. Russian state agency RIA cited a local pro-Kremlin “underground” leader as saying that Moscow’s forces overnight hit a plant producing rocket ammunition in the city, which had a pre-war population of over 256,000. The report didn’t specify what weapon was used, and the claim could not be independently verified. Explosions rocked the city during an air raid warning early Saturday, according to Ukrainian media reports. Russia is continually targeting Ukraine’s badly damaged energy infrastructure, resulting in hours of rolling blackouts across the country. Ukrainian officials have warned that the situation may worsen as winter approaches. In the Donetsk region in the east, Russian shelling on Friday and overnight killed 11 civilians and wounded 43, local Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on Saturday. Five people died in the town of Selydove southeast of Pokrovsk, the eastern city that has emerged as a front-line hotspot. The Ukrainian General Staff on Saturday morning said that Ukrainian and Russian forces clashed 45 times near Pokrovsk over the previous day. Hours later, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced its troops had captured a village some 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of the city. According to Filashkin, three more civilians died in Chasiv Yar, the strategically located town in Donetsk that has been reduced to rubble under a monthlong Russian assault. Russian forces have for months tried to grind out gains in Ukraine's industrial east, in an apparent attempt to lock its defenders into a war of attrition, after Kyiv's forces thwarted a cross-border push further north that briefly threatened Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv. A Ukrainian military spokesperson on Thursday told the AP that Ukrainian forces had retreated from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar. The town's elevated location gives it strategic importance, and military analysts say its fall would put nearby cities in jeopardy. It could also compromise critical Ukrainian supply routes and bring Russia closer to its stated aim of seizing the entire Donetsk region. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian forces on Friday and overnight launched six rocket strikes and 55 airstrikes across Ukraine, and used more than 70 “glide bombs” — retrofitted Soviet-era weapons that have wrought devastation in the country in recent weeks. In Kyiv, Ukrainian service members gathered Saturday to pay last respects to a British combat medic who set up a charity delivering essential supplies to front-line fighters. Peter Fouché died at the front line last Thursday as his unit clashed with Russian troops, according to a statement by Project Konstantin, a volunteer group that since 2022 has ferried drones, vehicles, uniforms and food to Ukrainian soldiers in the east. According to its website, it has also helped evacuate 219 Ukrainian soldiers from combat zones. At the farewell ceremony, Ukrainian soldiers carried Fouché's coffin through Kyiv’s landmark Independence Square, the site of mass protests in 2014 that forced out a pro-Russian president, towards a memorial for the country's fallen defenders. Fouché's comrades held back tears as they lined up to say goodbye. Mourners read prayers as they held up Ukrainian flags and military banners. Fouché's partner, wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt, knelt to embrace the coffin. Halyna Zhuk, who co-founded Project Konstantin and has a daughter with the medic, called him a “true hero.” “Every time he went into battle, I would see him off with the words, ‘Thank you, my protector.’ And today, I can only repeat it: thank you, my protector,” she said. Fouché, a native of west London who turned 49 this year, helped build a field hospital in Kyiv before he started Project Konstantin, according to the group’s website, and later enlisted in the Ukrainian army. At least five other Britons have been killed while volunteering in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. In Russia, two civilians were wounded after Ukrainian forces overnight shelled a border town in the southern Belgorod region, its Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported. The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops overnight shot down a total of eight drones over the Kursk and Belgorod regions in the south. In Krasnodar province next to Russia-annexed Crimea, local authorities reported damage caused during the night by falling drone debris. Debris sparked a fire at an oil depot, set fuel tanks ablaze in a separate location and damaged a cellphone tower, the reports said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer doesn’t get to take a breather. After a draining six-week election campaign, the center-left politician must get straight to work assembling his government, tackling a mountain of domestic problems and putting his stamp on the U.K.’s relations with the rest of the world. It’s a daunting list for a new leader who has never served in, much less led, a government. But Starmer insisted that he is up to the challenge of heading the U.K. in a world that is “a more volatile place” than it has been for many years. Appoint a government Like someone moving into a new home with their IKEA furniture, Starmer’s first task was to assemble a Cabinet. Starmer began putting together his government soon after he walked through the door of 10 Downing St. on Friday afternoon following his landslide election victory. He has a plethora of lawmakers to choose from – his Labour Party won more than 400 seats in Thursday's election, almost two-thirds of the 650 in the House of Commons. Key players in the new administration include Treasury chief Rachel Reeves – a former Bank of England economist and the first woman to hold that job – who will liaise with international financial institutions. The new foreign secretary, Britain’s top diplomat, is David Lammy, a Harvard Law School graduate who vowed to “reconnect Britain for our security and prosperity at home.” Make friends on the world stage Starmer has said his message to the world from the U.K. is: “We’re back.” He wants Britain to take a larger role on the global stage after years of soured relations with Europe over Brexit and the inward-looking U.K. political soap opera that followed. In the hours after taking office, the new prime minister held a string of calls with world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, European Union leader Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He also dispatched Lammy on a weekend trip to Germany, Poland and Sweden. Starmer takes office at a time of multiple crises — including the war in Ukraine and the Middle East, a surging far right, and a muscle-flexing China — that will test the cool head he honed in his former job as Britain’s chief prosecutor. Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general of the Royal United Services Institute, a military think-tank, said that with France facing a far-right surge in legislative elections and the U.S. embroiled in a polarizing, high-stakes presidential election, Britain “has the most stable government of all the major Western democracies.” “It therefore has the opportunity, and responsibility, to help steady the ship of Western unity at a time of exceptional political fluidity,” he said. Starmer is set to make a high-profile international debut by flying to Washington Tuesday for NATO’s 75th-anniversary summit. The gathering is overshadowed by questions about Biden’s fitness and the uncertain outcome of the November U.S. presidential election. Starmer has said there will be no change to Britain’s staunch support for Ukraine, and has pledged to increase U.K. military spending to 2.5% of GDP — though he hasn't put a date on it. “The decision for Starmer is how much to try to persuade the U.S. –- as well as other wavering members of NATO — to remain a defender of Ukraine, on the grounds not just of sovereignty but European security,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of international affairs think-tank Chatham House. Starmer also faces divisions within his party over Israel’s war against Hamas. Several Labour lawmakers were defeated in the election by challenges from pro-Palestinian independents angered by the party’s initial refusal to call unambiguously for a cease-fire in the Gaza conflict. Patch things up with the neighbors On July 18, Starmer will host leaders from across Europe at England’s Blenheim Palace for a meeting of the 47-nation European Political Community. It’s a chance to begin to mend ties with the U.K.’s neighbors in Europe, which have frayed and soured since the U.K. left the European Union in 2020. Starmer says he wants to reduce some of the post-Brexit barriers for people and goods that have hobbled relations between Britain and the bloc. He insists, though that he won’t reverse Brexit, or rejoin the EU’s single market and customs union. Critics say that shows a lack of principle, but supporters say it respects Britons’ desire not to reopen the divisive Brexit debate. Tackle a long to-do list Starmer also faces a daunting range of domestic challenges, underlaid by the widespread sense that many facets of Britain’s public life have broken down during 14 years of Conservative rule Stagnant growth and low productivity restrain the economy while millions of people struggle with the cost of living. The country’s aging infrastructure is creaking and the state-funded National Health Service is at breaking point, with long waiting lists for treatment, a situation that has been worsened by a long-running series of doctors’ strikes. Ending that dispute will be a priority, but Starmer has vowed to keep a tight lid on spending and won’t want to agree to the big salary increases the doctors are seeking. Starmer promises to take control of migration and stop people making dangerous journeys across the English Channel in small boats, but he is scrapping the Conservative government’s controversial plan to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda — declaring Saturday that the Rwanda deal was “dead and buried.” The U.K. has paid Rwanda hundreds of millions of pounds (dollars) as part of the deal without a single flight taking off. He’s also expected to emphasize Britain’s commitment to fighting climate change after a series of backward steps under the Conservatives. The new government’s legislative plans for the next year will be set out on July 17 in a speech delivered by King Charles III at the ceremonial State Opening of Parliament. “A lot of people are feeling a sense of potential transformation,” said Lise Butler, senior lecturer in modern history at City University of London. “I think that there’s going to be elevated expectations for Starmer, which are going to be difficult to meet.”

French President Emmanuel Macron’s expected political failure in decisive parliamentary elections Sunday could paralyze the country, weaken him abroad and overshadow his legacy, just as France prepares to step into the global spotlight as host of the Paris Olympics. France’s youngest-ever president is known on the international stage for his tireless diplomatic efforts and pro-European initiatives. Now, many wonder how he will manage to keep the reins of the country with likely no majority in parliament and a confrontational government. Constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term in 2027, Macron, 46, is facing a struggle not to become a lame duck. Whatever the outcome of Sunday’s runoff, it’s not expected to be good news for Macron. French media have recently described an “end of reign” atmosphere at the Elysee presidential palace. Polls suggest Macron's centrist alliance is headed for defeat in Sunday’s runoff, after coming in third in the first round. “It looks as if on the first ballot, the French wanted to punish their president,” Paris-based political analyst Dominique Moïsi told the Associated Press. Governing with a rival party will likely weaken Macron If the far-right National Rally and its allies win a majority in parliament, it would place the centrist president in the awkward situation of having to work with an anti-immigration, nationalist prime minister. Otherwise, Macron may have to seek a way to form a functioning government, possibly by offering a deal to his left-wing rivals. In any case, he would no longer be able to implement his own plans, which have been based on pro-business policies meant to boost France’s economy. “We are in the unknown. The unknown unknown," Moïsi said. “Because coalition governments are not a French tradition.” Election outcomes won't change its Ukraine support, says the UN General Assembly's president Abroad, Macron used to appear as a key world player known for his non-stop diplomatic activism. He has been deeply involved in Western steps taken to support Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. In the Middle East, France has been pushing for diplomatic efforts with its Arab partners. Earlier this year, Macron also outlined his vision for the European Union, urging the bloc of 27 nations to build its own robust defense and undertake major trade and economic reforms in order to compete with China and the U.S. The French Constitution gives the president some powers over foreign policy, European affairs and defense. But the division of power with a prime minister from a rival party remains unclear, and without the backing of a government, Macron’s role may end up being limited. His pro-business policies lowered unemployment but were still controversial The job of president is Macron’s first elected office. In his 30s, Macron quit his job as a banker at Rothschild to become Socialist President Francois Hollande’s economic adviser, working for two years by Hollande’s side at the presidential palace. Then, as economy minister in Hollande’s government from 2014 to 2016, he promoted a package of measures, notably allowing more stores to open on Sundays and evenings and opening up regulated sectors of the economy. First elected president in 2017 after leaving the Socialists, Macron was then a successful 39-year-old political newbie. He sought to make the labor market more flexible and passed new rules to make it more difficult for the unemployed to claim benefits. His government also cut taxes for businesses to boost hiring. The yellow vest anti-government protests soon erupted against perceived social injustice, leading to Macron being dubbed the “president of the rich.” He is still perceived by many as arrogant and out of touch with ordinary people. Opponents on the left accused him of destroying workers’ protections. Macron argued that unemployment has fallen from over 10% to 7.5% now and France has been ranked the most attractive European country for foreign investment in recent years. Macron was reelected in 2022, defeating for the second consecutive time his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the runoff of the presidential election. But he lost his parliamentary majority, even though his centrist alliance took the largest share of seats in the National Assembly. He then struggled to pass an unpopular plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, prompting months of mass protests that damaged his leadership. Last year, riots swept hundreds of cities, towns and villages after the fatal police shooting of a teenager. France's exceptionally high-stakes election has begun. The far right dominated preelection polls The election may weaken the political center and leave him a lame duck  Politically, the centrist leader launched his own party on a promise to do better than the mainstream right and left. But that, also, now appears as bound to fail. His call for snap elections actually pushed forward two major forces: the far-right National Rally and a broad leftist coalition including the Socialists, the greens and hard-left France Unbowed. Macron's own camp questioned the president's political skills after he announced the surprise decision to dissolve the National Assembly last month. Bruno Le Maire, his finance minister for seven years, told France Inter radio that “this decision has created — in our country, in the French people, everywhere — concern, incomprehension, sometimes anger.” Macron’s former prime minister, Edouard Philippe, accused him of having “killed” his centrist majority. Macron's fate may become a topic for discussion next week at a NATO summit in Washington that will be the occasion for world leaders to meet with the new U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “The paradox of the present situation is that as a result of the last two elections in Great Britain and in France, there will be more Great Britain and less France at the NATO summit," Moïsi said. “The strongest personality will be the new prime minister of Great Britain. And the weak personality will be the president of France.”

Global food prices remained stable in June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported on Friday. The FAO also forecasted that global cereal output would reach an all-time high in 2024. The broad FAO Food Price Index averaged 120.6 points last month, virtually unchanged from May. This marks the fourth consecutive month without a decline, following a steady decrease over nearly two years. High risk of famine looms over Gaza, warns FAO Compared to June 2023, however, the index was 2.1 percent lower. It also remained significantly lower, at 24.8 percent below its all-time high in March 2022, which occurred amid global price spikes following the onset of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The prices of grains and cereals, the largest component in the index, fell by 3 percent compared to May, due to robust wheat harvests and favorable growing conditions in the Northern Hemisphere, according to the FAO. During the same period, rice and corn prices edged lower due to decreased demand. Prices for vegetable oils increased by 3.1 percent compared to May due to higher demand for palm oil. Increased demand from the biofuel sector also contributed to pressure on soy and sunflower oil prices. We will continue our efforts in promoting jackfruit: FAO Dairy prices rose in June, up 1.2 percent compared to May and 6.6 percent higher than their level from a year earlier. Butter prices reached their highest level in two years due to growing global demand. However, production declines in Western Europe and low inventories in Oceania contributed to the upward pressure on prices. Sugar prices rose by 1.9 percent from the previous month, rebounding after three consecutive months of declines. The increase is primarily driven by concerns over the harvest in Brazil, the world's leading sugar producer. The FAO revised its forecast for global cereal production in 2024 to a record high of 2,854 million tonnes, according to its "Cereal Supply and Demand Brief" released on Friday.

New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer doesn’t get to take a breather. After a draining six-week election campaign, the center-left politician must get straight to work assembling his government, tackling a mountain of domestic problems and putting his stamp on the U.K.’s relations with the rest of the world. It’s a daunting list for a new leader who has never served in, much less led, a government. But Starmer, who was officially appointed prime minister Friday, insisted that he is up to the challenge of heading the U.K. in a world that is “a more volatile place” than it has been for many years. Appoint a government Like someone moving into a new home with their IKEA furniture, Starmer’s first task was to assemble a Cabinet. Starmer began putting together his government soon after he walked through the door of 10 Downing St. on Friday afternoon following his landslide election victory. He has a plethora of lawmakers to choose from – his Labour Party won more than 400 seats in Thursday's election, almost two-thirds of the 650 in the House of Commons. Key players in the new administration include Treasury chief Rachel Reeves – a former Bank of England economist and the first woman to hold that job – who will liaise with international financial institutions. The new foreign secretary, Britain’s top diplomat, is David Lammy, a Harvard Law School graduate who vowed to “reconnect Britain for our security and prosperity at home.” Make friends on the world stage Starmer has said his message to the world from the U.K. is: “We’re back.” He wants Britain to take a larger role on the global stage after years of soured relations with Europe over Brexit and the inward-looking U.K. political soap opera that followed. He takes office at a time of multiple crises — including the war in Ukraine and the Middle East, a surging far right, a muscle-flexing China — that will test the cool head he honed in his former job as Britain’s chief prosecutor. Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general of the Royal United Services Institute, a military think-tank, said that with France facing a far-right surge in legislative elections and the U.S. embroiled in a polarizing, high-stakes presidential election, Britain “has the most stable government of all the major Western democracies.” “It therefore has the opportunity, and responsibility, to help steady the ship of Western unity at a time of exceptional political fluidity,” he said. Starmer is set to make a high-profile international debut next week, when he is expected to attend NATO’s 75th-anniversary summit in Washington. The gathering is overshadowed by questions about President Joe Biden’s fitness and the uncertain outcome of the November U.S. presidential election. Starmer has said there will be no change to Britain’s staunch support for Ukraine, and has pledged to increase U.K. military spending to 2.5% of GDP — though he hasn't put a date on it. “The decision for Starmer is how much to try to persuade the U.S. –- as well as other wavering members of NATO — to remain a defender of Ukraine, on the grounds not just of sovereignty but European security,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of international affairs think-tank Chatham House. Starmer also faces divisions within his party over Israel’s war against Hamas. Several Labour lawmakers were defeated in the election by challenges from pro-Palestinian independents angered by the party’s initial refusal to call unambiguously for a cease-fire in the Gaza conflict. Patch things up with the neighbors On July 18, Starmer will host leaders from across Europe at England’s Blenheim Palace for a meeting of the 47-nation European Political Community. It’s a chance to begin to mend ties with the U.K.’s neighbors in Europe, which have frayed and soured since the U.K. left the European Union in 2020. Starmer says he wants to reduce some of the post-Brexit barriers for people and goods that have hobbled relations between Britain and the bloc. He insists, though that he won’t reverse Brexit, or rejoin the EU’s single market and customs union. Critics say that shows a lack of principle, but supporters say it respects Britons’ desire not to reopen the divisive Brexit debate. Tackle a long to-do list Starmer also faces a daunting range of domestic challenges, underlaid by the widespread sense that many facets of Britain’s public life have broken down during 14 years of Conservative rule. Stagnant growth and low productivity restrain the economy while millions of people struggle with the cost of living. The country’s aging infrastructure is creaking and the state-funded National Health Service is at breaking point, with long waiting lists for treatment, a situation has been worsened by a long-running series of doctors’ strikes. Ending that dispute will be a priority, but Starmer has vowed to keep a tight lid on spending and won’t want to agree to the big salary increases the doctors are seeking. Starmer promises to take control of migration and stop people making dangerous journeys across the English Channel in small boats, but he will cancel the Conservative government’s controversial plan to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda. The U.K. has paid Rwanda hundreds of millions of pounds (dollars) as part of the deal without a single flight taking off. He’s also expected to emphasize Britain’s commitment to fighting climate change after a series of backwards steps under the Conservatives. The new government’s legislative plans for the next year will be set out July 17 in a speech delivered by King Charles III at the ceremonial State Opening of Parliament. “A lot of people are feeling a sense of potential transformation,” said Lise Butler, senior lecturer in modern history at City University of London. “I think that there’s going to be elevated expectations for Starmer, which are going to be difficult to meet.”

Candidates in France's pivotal and polarizing legislative elections were making their last pushes on Friday for the second and decisive round of voting after a three-week campaign marked by hate speech, verbal abuse and physical attacks. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said his ministry has registered 51 verbal and physical attacks against candidates, their deputies or their supporters during campaigning for the high-stakes parliamentary elections that end with the second round of voting on Sunday. Several attacks were “extremely serious,” Darmanin said in an interview with French broadcaster BFM on Friday. At least 30 suspects “with extremely varied backgrounds” have been arrested, the interior minister said, adding that candidates and their supporters across France’s political spectrum have been targets of verbal and physical abuse. “National Rally’s candidates were violently attacked … (as were) left-wing candidates,” Darmanin said. Tensions are high as left-wing and moderate groups try to prevent the anti-immigration, nationalist National Rally from winning an absolute legislative majority, which would be a first and a major historical shift for France. The National Rally, under party president Jordan Bardella, secured the most votes in the first round of the legislative elections on June 30 but not enough to claim an overall victory that would allow the formation of France’s first far-right government since World War II. Darmanin said 30,000 police officers will be deployed on Sunday, including 5,000 in the Paris region, to ensure that the results of the election “are respected whatever they may be.” He said gatherings outside of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, have been banned. A group called the Antifascist Action Paris-Suburbs called for a protest outside the National Assembly on Sunday night as results come in. Many people have voiced concerns that the surge in voter support for the anti-immigrant National Rally has made people feel more comfortable using racist, xenophobic and antisemitic language in public. The government agency tallying racist acts did not have recent data since the brief campaign began. Candidates have complained of both hate speech and physical violence during the campaign. Government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot, who is a candidate for the centrist Ensemble alliance led by President Emmanuel Macron, said she and a deputy and a party activist were putting up election posters in Meudon near Paris on Wednesday night when a group attacked them. Thevenot’s deputy and the party activist were taken to a hospital. Macron called the surprise legislative election on June 9 after his alliance suffered a punishing defeat at the hands of the National Rally in French voting for the European Parliament, plunging the country into a sudden legislative campaign.

Britain’s Labour Party swept to power Friday after more than a decade in opposition, official results showed, as a jaded electorate appeared to hand the party a landslide victory but also a mammoth task of reinvigorating a stagnant economy and dispirited nation. Labour leader Keir Starmer will officially become prime minister later in the day, leading his party back to government less than five years after it suffered its worst defeat in almost a century. In the brutal choreography of British politics, he will take charge in 10 Downing St. hours after the votes are counted – as Conservative leader Rishi Sunak is hustled out. “A mandate like this comes with a great responsibility,” Starmer acknowledged in a speech to supporters, saying that the fight to regain people’s trust “is the battle that defines our age." Speaking as drawn broke in London, he said Labour would offer “the sunlight of hope, pale at first but getting stronger though the day.” Sunak conceded defeat, saying the voters had delivered a “sobering verdict.” Labour's triumph and challenges For Starmer, it's a massive triumph that will bring huge challenges, as he faces a jaded electorate impatient for change against a gloomy backdrop of economic malaise, mounting distrust in institutions and a fraying social fabric. Race to lead UK's main opposition Labour Party narrows to 3 “Nothing has gone well in the last 14 years,” said London voter James Erskine, who was optimistic for change in the hours before polls closed. “I just see this as the potential for a seismic shift, and that’s what I’m hoping for.” Anand Menon, professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College London, said British voters were about to see a marked change in political atmosphere from the tumultuous “politics as pantomime” of the last few years. “I think we’re going to have to get used again to relatively stable government, with ministers staying in power for quite a long time, and with government being able to think beyond the very short term to medium-term objectives,” he said. Britain has experienced a run of turbulent years — some of it of the Conservatives’ own making and some of it not — that has left many voters pessimistic about their country’s future. The U.K.’s exit from the European Union followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine battered the economy, while lockdown-breaching parties held by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff caused widespread anger. Johnson’s successor, Liz Truss, rocked the economy further with a package of drastic tax cuts and lasted just 49 days in office. Rising poverty and cuts to state services have led to gripes about “Broken Britain.” While the result appears to buck recent rightward electoral shifts in Europe, including in France and Italy, many of those same populist undercurrents flow in Britain. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has roiled the race with his party’s anti-immigrant “take our country back” sentiment and undercut support for the Conservatives, who already faced dismal prospects. Corbyn calamity: Labour Party implodes, will seek new leader The exit poll suggested Labour was on course to win about 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons and the Conservatives 131. With a majority of results in, the broad picture of a Labour landslide was borne out, though estimates of the final tally varied. The BBC projected that Labour would end up with 410 seats and the Conservatives with 144. Conservative vote collapses as smaller parties surge Even that higher tally for the Tories would leave the party with the fewest seats in its nearly two-century history and cause disarray. The result is a catastrophe for the Conservatives as voters punished them for 14 years of presiding over austerity, Brexit, a pandemic, political scandals and internecine Tory conflict. The historic defeat leaves the party depleted and in disarray and will likely spark an immediate contest to replace Sunak as leader. In a sign of the volatile public mood and anger at the system, some smaller parties picked up millions of votes, including the centrist Liberal Democrats and Farage’s Reform UK. Farage won his race in the seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, securing a seat in Parliament on his eighth attempt, and Reform has won four seats so far. UK vote a disaster for left-wing Labour Party The Liberal Democrats won many more than that on a slightly lower share of the vote because its votes were more efficiently distributed. In Britain's first-past-the-post system, the candidate with the most votes in each constituency wins. Labour was cautious but reliable Hundreds of seats changed hands in tight contests in which traditional party loyalties come second to more immediate concerns about the economy, crumbling infrastructure and the National Health Service. Labour did not set pulses racing with its pledges to get the sluggish economy growing, invest in infrastructure and make Britain a “clean energy superpower.” But the party's cautious, safety-first campaign delivered the desired result. The party won the support of large chunks of the business community and endorsements from traditionally conservative newspapers, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun tabloid, which praised Starmer for “dragging his party back to the center ground of British politics.” Conservative missteps The Conservative campaign, meanwhile, was plagued by gaffes. The campaign got off to an inauspicious start when rain drenched Sunak as he made the announcement outside 10 Downing St. Then, Sunak went home early from commemorations in France marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Several Conservatives close to Sunak are being investigated over suspicions they used inside information to place bets on the date of the election before it was announced. Sunak has struggled to shake off the taint of political chaos and mismanagement that’s gathered around the Conservatives. In Henley-on-Thames, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of London, voters like Patricia Mulcahy, who is retired, sensed the nation was looking for something different. The community, which normally votes Conservative, may change its stripes this time. “The younger generation are far more interested in change,’’ Mulcahy said. “But whoever gets in, they’ve got a heck of a job ahead of them. It’s not going to be easy.”

The U.N. General Assembly will keep standing up for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty whatever the outcome of national elections across the globe this year, the body's president said Wednesday, adding that “no country has the right to invade another country.” That stance “cannot change because this is a matter of law,” General Assembly President Dennis Francis told The Associated Press during his first visit to Ukraine as Kyiv's forces battle Russia's invasion for a third year. The U.N.'s main policy-making body has given broad support for efforts to uphold Ukraine's sovereignty, Francis said. But elections this year in the U.S. and in a handful of key European Union countries have raised concerns about a potential shift in policies among Western nations whose military and financial support has been crucial for Ukraine to thwart the Kremlin's ambitions. “It will be for us to witness over time what the implications of the results of those elections are for the entire international system and in particular for the state of Ukraine,” Francis said. “I am convinced that the people of Ukraine will not give up,” he said, whatever the election outcomes. “They will not accept it and they will not allow foreign domination of their homeland.” Speaking in Kyiv at the end of a two-day visit, Francis called on Russia “to withdraw immediately all its military forces from the territory of Ukraine” — a reference to a General Assembly resolution that was approved shortly after the outbreak of the war. More than two years later, Moscow’s army is slowly seizing new land in eastern Ukraine. Francis met with Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to discuss peace and international security. He pledged support for Zelenskyy's peace plan, which was discussed at a recent international gathering in Switzerland attended by scores of countries and bodies, including the U.N. “I think there are many important elements in (Zelenskyy's plan) that can provide a foundation for dialog when that time is appropriate," he said. "Let us see where it takes us.”

At least seven people have been arrested in Germany and Sweden on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria in 2012-2014, authorities in the two countries said Wednesday. In a coordinated effort that also involved the European Union judicial cooperation agency Eurojust, the EU police agency Europol, and several other unnamed European countries, four were arrested in Germany and three in Sweden. The German federal prosecutor said that those arrested in Germany were “strongly suspected of killing and attempting to kill civilians.” Some of those arrested also were suspected of torture. The four arrested in Germany are known only as Jihad A., Mahmoud A., Sameer S. and Wael S. and had been affiliated with the Free Palestine Movement, an armed militia in Syria, since early 2011. German prosecutors did not give their last names in line with privacy rules. Sweden did not identify the three it arrested. At the time, the militia exercised control over Damascus’ mostly Palestinian district of al-Yarmouk on behalf of the Syrian regime, Germany’s federal prosecutor said. Since July 2013, the Syrian regime had cordoned off the area completely, resulting in a shortage of food, water, and medical supplies. Among other crimes, all suspects allegedly participated in the violent crackdown of a peaceful anti-government protest in al-Yarmouk on July 13, 2012, specifically targeting civilian protesters by shooting at them. Six individuals died while others were seriously injured, the German statement said. Germany’s federal prosecutor alleged that some of them also abused civilians from al-Yarmouk severely and repeatedly. The events occurred between mid-2012 and 2014. In one case, an individual was handed over to the Syrian Military Intelligence Service, which reportedly incarcerated and tortured him. In another case, a woman was allegedly forced to pay with her family jewels for the release of her minor son, and was threatened with rape. Three of those arrested — Jihad A., Sameer S. and Wael S. — are stateless Syrian Palestinians, while Mazhar J. is a Syrian national. The four were arrested in Berlin, in Frankenthal and near Boizenburg, in southwestern and northeast Germany, respectively. The home of another suspect, whose name was not given and who was not arrested, was searched in the western city of Essen. They are due to be brought before an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice, who will read out their arrest warrants and decide on pre-trial detention. The arraignment will take place Monday and Tuesday, the prosecutor’s statement said. In Sweden, the Prosecution Authority gave no details regarding those arrested. The prosecution authority said it must be decided before noon Saturday whether they should be detained or released.