French vote gives leftists most seats over far right, but leaves hung parliament and deadlock
By: John Leicester, Lori Hinnant And Sylvie Corbet
PARIS (AP) — A coalition of the French left won the most seats in high-stakes legislative elections Sunday, beating back a far-right surge but failing to win a majority. The outcome left France, a pillar of the European Union and Olympic host country, facing the stunning prospect of a hung parliament and political paralysis.
The political turmoil could rattle markets and the French economy, the EU’s second-largest, and have far-ranging implications for the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe’s economic stability.
In calling the election on June 9, after the far right surged in French voting for the European Parliament, President Emmanuel Macron said turning to voters again would provide “clarification.”
Monday, all three main blocs fell far short of the 289 seats needed to control the 577-seat National Assembly, the more powerful of France’s two legislative chambers.
The results showed just over 180 seats for the New Popular Front leftist coalition, which placed first, ahead of Macron’s centrist alliance, with more than 160 seats. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and its allies were restricted to third place, although their more than 140 seats were still way ahead of the party’s previous best showing — 89 seats in 2022.
A hung parliament is unknown territory for modern France.
Dozens are killed as Russia bombards Ukraine. Among the buildings hit was a Kyiv children’s hospital
By: Hanna Arhirova And Illia Novikov
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A major Russian missile attack across Ukraine on Monday killed at least 31 people and injured 154, officials said, with one striking a large children’s hospital in the capital of Kyiv, where emergency crews searched the rubble for victims.
The daytime barrage targeted five Ukrainian cities with more than 40 missiles of different types hitting apartment buildings and public infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media. Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 30 missiles.
Strikes in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s birthplace in central Ukraine, killed 10 people and injured 47 in what the head of city administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said was a massive missile attack. Seven people were killed in Kyiv, authorities said.
Violent holiday weekend sees mass shootings in Michigan, Illinois and Kentucky
By: Sophia Tareen And Rick Callahan
CHICAGO (AP) — A shooting at a block party in Detroit left two people dead and more than a dozen wounded, capping a violent holiday weekend in the U.S. that also saw mass shootings in Kentucky and Chicago.
More than 100 people were shot in Chicago, 19 of them fatally, over the long Independence Day weekend, when there is often a spike in violence. One mass shooting Thursday in a neighbourhood on Chicago’s South Side, left two women and an 8-year-old boy dead. Two other children were also critically injured.
In Detroit, two people were fatally shot and at least 19 were injured at a block party on the city’s east side early Sunday, according to authorities. Detroit police planned a news conference Monday to announce new safety strategies for block parties.
Shootings during the holiday weekend also took place in California and Kentucky, where police say four people were killed and three others wounded in an early morning shooting during a party at a home.
Boeing accepts a plea deal to avoid a criminal trial over 737 Max crashes, Justice Department says
By: David Koenig And Alanna Durkin Richer
(AP) – Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two crashes of 737 Max jetliners that killed 346 people, the Justice Department said late Sunday, after the government determined the company violated an agreement that had protected it from prosecution for more than three years.
Federal prosecutors gave Boeing the choice last week of entering a guilty plea and paying a fine as part of its sentence or facing a trial on the felony criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The plea deal, which still must receive the approval of a federal judge to take effect, calls for Boeing to pay an additional $243.6 million fine. That was the same amount it paid under the 2021 settlement that the Justice Department said the company breached. The deal also requires Boeing to invest at least $455 million in its compliance and safety programs.
The plea deal covers only wrongdoing by Boeing before the crashes in Indonesia and in Ethiopia, which killed all 346 passengers and crew members aboard two new Max jets.
Beryl unleashes high winds and heavy rains, stranding Texas residents and leaving 2M without power
By: Mark Vancleave And Juan A. Lozano
MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — Tropical Storm Beryl unleashed heavy rains and powerful winds along the Texas coast on Monday, knocking out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses and flooding streets with fast-rising waters as first responders raced to rescue stranded residents.
Beryl had already cut a deadly path through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean before making a turn and later sweeping ashore as a Category 1 hurricane in Texas early Monday. At least two people were killed. The National Hurricane Center said damaging winds and flash flooding will continue as Beryl continues pushing inland.
More than 2 million homes and businesses in the Houston area were without power, CenterPoint Energy officials said.
Searing heat wave grips large parts of the U.S. and causes deaths in the West
By: Ty O’neil And Christopher Weber
DEATH VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — After causing deaths and shattering records in the West over the weekend, a long-running heat wave will again grip the U.S. on Monday, with hot temperatures also predicted for large parts of the East Coast and the South.
The dangerous temperatures caused the death of a motorcyclist in Death Valley.
The U.S. heat wave came as the global temperature in June was record warm for the 13th straight month and it marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said.
An excessive heat warning, the National Weather Service’s highest alert, was in effect Monday for portions of states including California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, while parts of the East Coast as well as states including Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi were under heat advisories.
Indonesian landslide triggered by heavy rain leaves 12 dead and dozens missing at illegal gold mine
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A landslide triggered by torrential rains crashed onto an unauthorized gold mining operation on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 12 people, officials said Monday. Dozens others were reported missing.
More than 100 villagers were digging for grains of gold on Sunday in the remote Bone Bolango district in Gorontalo province when tons of mud plunged down the surrounding hills and buried their makeshift camps, said Heriyanto, head of the Search and Rescue Office.
He said 44 people managed to escape from the landslide, some of them pulled out alive by rescuers, including six injured, and recovered 12 bodies, including three women and a 4-year-old boy. Some 48 others are missing, he said.
Nearly 1,000 homes in Cape Town destroyed by storms as city braces for a week of bad weather
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Nearly 1,000 homes in informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa, have been destroyed by gale-force winds, displacing around 4,000 people, authorities and an aid organization said as the city braces for a week of damaging storms.
South African weather authorities said Monday that Cape Town and surrounding areas are expected to be hit by multiple cold fronts until at least Friday, bringing torrential rain, strong winds, flooding and possible mudslides. City authorities also warned of storm surges and high waves along the coastline and asked people to stay away from the beachfront.
