French far right ahead in 1st round of snap elections
By: Sylvie Corbet
PARIS (AP) — French voters face a decisive choice on July 7 in the runoff of snap parliamentary elections that could see the country’s first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation — or no majority emerging at all.
Official results suggest Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, nationalist party National Rally stands a good chance of winning a majority in the lower house of parliament for the first time, but the outcome remains uncertain amid the complex voting system and political tactics.
In Sunday’s first round, the National Rally and its allies arrived ahead with around one-third of the votes. The New Popular Front coalition that includes centre-left, greens and hard-left forces came in second position, ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance.
Dozens of candidates who won at least 50 per cent of Sunday’s vote were elected outright. All the other races head to a second round June 7 involving two or three top candidates.
Polling projections suggest the National Rally will have the most seats in the next National Assembly, but it is unclear whether it will get an absolute majority of 289 of the 577 seats.
The French voting system is not proportionate to nationwide support for a party. Legislators are elected by district.
The National Rally’s rivals are scrambling to keep it from getting an absolute majority.
The left-wing coalition said it would withdraw its candidates in districts where they finished in third position in order to support other candidates opposed to the far right. Macron’s centrist alliance also said some of its candidates would step down before the runoff to try to block the National Rally.
Israel orders Palestinians to flee Khan Younis, signalling likely new assault on southern Gaza city
By: Mohammad Jahjouh, Samy Magdy And Julia Frankel
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli army ordered a mass evacuation of Palestinians from much of Khan Younis on Monday, a sign that troops are likely to launch a new ground assault in the Gaza Strip’s second largest city.
The order suggested Khan Younis will be the target in the latest of Israel’s repeated raids into parts of Gaza it had previously invaded during the past merely nine months, pursuing Hamas militants as they regroup. Much of Khan Younis was already destroyed in a long assault earlier this year, but large numbers of Palestinians have since moved back in to escape another Israeli offensive in Gaza’s southern-most city, Rafah.
Ultra-Orthodox protest against order to enlist in Israeli military turns violent in Jerusalem
By: Ohad Zwigenberg
JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Jewish ultra-Orthodox men clashed with Israeli police in central Jerusalem on Sunday during a protest against a Supreme Court order for them to begin enlisting for military service.
The landmark decision last week ordering the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel wages war in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of men rallied in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood to protest the order. But after nightfall, the crowd made its way toward central Jerusalem and turned violent.
Israeli police said protesters threw rocks and attacked the car of an ultra-Orthodox Cabinet minister, pelting it with stones. Water cannons filled with skunk-scented water and police mounted on horses were used to disperse the crowd. But the demonstration was still not under control late Sunday.
Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel. But politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have won exemptions for their followers to skip military service and instead study in religious seminaries.
Supreme Court rules ex-presidents have broad immunity, dimming chance of a pre-election Trump trial
By: Mark Sherman
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for the first time that former presidents have some immunity from prosecution, extending the delay in the Washington criminal case against Donald Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and all but ending prospects the former president could be tried before the November election.
In a historic 6-3 ruling, the justices returned Trump’s case to the trial court to determine what is left of special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment. The outcome means additional delay before Trump could face trial.
The court’s decision in a second major Trump case this term, along with its ruling rejecting efforts to bar him from the ballot because of his actions following the 2020 election, underscores the direct and possibly uncomfortable role the justices are playing in the November election.
“Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of presidential power entitles a former president to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. “And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”
Roberts was joined by the other five conservative justices. The three liberal justices dissented.
Trump ally Steve Bannon surrenders to federal prison to serve four-month sentence on contempt charges
By: Susan Haigh And Lindsay Whitehurst
DANBURY, Conn. (AP) — Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon was taken into custody Monday after surrendering at a federal prison to begin a four-month sentence on contempt charges for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack.
Bannon arrived at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, around noon and was formally taken into federal custody, the Bureau of Prisons said.
Speaking to reporters, Bannon called himself a “political prisoner,” said former President Donald Trump was “very supportive” of him and slammed Democrats, including Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“I am proud of going to prison,” Bannon said, adding he was “standing up to the Garland corrupt DOJ.”
Shortly before he arrived to surrender, a small group of supporters gathered on the side of the road outside the prison. They cheered as Bannon and GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia spoke during a news conference, holding up flags and signs supporting Bannon as a small group of protesters shouted, “Lock him up!” and “traitor!”
Jurors in Karen Read trial again say they are deadlocked. Judge tells them to continue deliberating
By: Michael Casey
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — A judge ordered the jury in the Karen Read murder trial to continue deliberating Monday after they said for a second time that they were deadlocked.
Jurors had told Judge Beverly Cannone on Friday that they were deadlocked, only for her to ask them to continue deliberating. They returned after the weekend in just over an hour Monday to say little had changed. She asked them again to continue deliberating.
“I think this is an extraordinary jury,” Cannone said of the jury note that came back Monday. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The jury is being asked to decide whether prosecutors have proven that Read drunkenly and intentionally slammed into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her Lexus SUV and left him to die. The defence challenged the evidence and suggested that one or more law enforcement colleagues killed John O’Keefe, dumped his body outside in a panic, and then framed Read to cover it up.
Jurors are deliberating events that unfolded at the Canton home of Brian Albert, a Boston police detective, after a night of barhopping in January 2022. Brian Higgins, a federal agent who was among those gathered inside, had exchanged flirtatious texts with Read earlier that month. The lead investigator was State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was friends with several witnesses and sent offensive texts about Read to friends, family and fellow troopers during the investigation.
3 civilians killed in a bomb explosion in Pakistan and 2 security personnel die in a rocket attack
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A roadside bomb exploded in Pakistan’s volatile Baluchistan province on Monday, killing a woman and two children, officials said.
Four people were walking through an area in Baluchistan’s Turbat district when the bomb planted by “terrorists” went off, said local police chief Dad Bakhsh said.
No one claimed responsibility but Baluch separatists often target security forces in the southwestern province, which has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad.
Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.
Meanwhile, two security personnel were killed in an overnight rocket attack on their post in Jamrud, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Salim Khan said.
No one claimed responsibility but such previous attacks have been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, who are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
3 killed and 2 injured in shooting near University of Cincinnati campus, police say
CINCINNATI (AP) — Five people were shot, including three fatally, near the University of Cincinnati campus early Monday, police said. Two people were taken into custody, including one of the wounded.
“There were multiple firearms recovered at the crime scene and two subjects (one of which was also shot) are being detained at this time,” Cincinnati police Capt. Mark Burns told The Associated Press in an email. He said he had no further information.
Earlier, the university’s public safety department posted on the social platform X that police were responding to an emergency shortly before 3 a.m. The department later posted it was a shooting and said: “Be observant/take action as needed.”
About an hour later, the department issued an “all clear” message and said “police will maintain heavy presence.”
Local news stations reported that officers patrolling in the area had heard multiple gunshots and arrived to find several people suffering from gunshot wounds. They said all five shot were men.
Beryl makes landfall as Category 4 hurricane on Grenadine island
By: Dánica Coto
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Beryl made landfall Monday in the Caribbean island of Carriacou after becoming the earliest storm of that strength to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters.
Carriacou is one of the islands of Grenada, where officials have reported damage including roofs blown off with the storm’s maximum winds increasing to top winds of 150 mph (240 kph).
“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the National Hurricane Center said.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, Grenada, Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as thousands of people hunkered down in homes and shelters. The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for St. Lucia, Martinique and Trinidad. A tropical storm watch was issued for Haiti’s entire southern coast, and from Punta Palenque in the Dominican Republic west to the border with Haiti. A hurricane watch was issued for Jamaica.
