France’s far-right National Rally (RN) look to have failed in their bid to win their first ever region, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, which was a target for Marine Le Pen’s party.
Exit polls suggest their candidate, Thierry Mariani, took only 43% of the vote and lost to the centre-right Republicans.
The election which saw a record low turnout of less than 30%, also brought disappointment for President Emmanuel Macron.
His centrist party, La République En Marche (LREM), also failed to win control of any region after performing badly in the first round, which was held last week.
It is the first time President Macron’s party is taking part in regional elections, as it did not exist the last time they were held in 2015.
Other early results from the second round suggest wins for traditional centre-right parties, and for the left.
The Hauts-de-France region around Calais in the north had also been earmarked as a potential gain for Le Pen’s RN, but was won by conservative Xavier Bertrand.
Bertrand told his supporters after the polls closed that the far-right ” has been stopped in its tracks and we have pushed it back sharply.”
Meanwhile Le Pen has accused her rivals of forming “unnatural alliances” to block her and her party from power.
Polls Show Marine Le Pen’s National Rally Party Loses Key Battleground States
Report – Classified UK Defense Papers Found At Bus Stop
Sensitive defense documents containing details about the British military have been found at a bus stop in England, according to a BBC report released Sunday.
The papers reportedly included plans for a possible U.K. military presence in Afghanistan, as well as discussion about the potential Russian reaction to the British warship HMS Defender’s travel through waters off the Crimean coast last week.
The broadcaster said a member of the public who wanted to remain unnamed contacted it when they found the pile of documents in a soggy heap Tuesday behind a bus stop in Kent, southeast of London.
The Ministry of Defense said an employee had reported the loss of the documents last week.
It said in a statement that the department takes the security of information extremely seriously and an investigation has been launched.
Retired Israeli S’Court chief to head inquiry on stampede
A former president of Israel’s Supreme Court was on Sunday appointed to head its state commission of inquiry into a stampede at a Jewish pilgrimage site in April that killed 45 people, among them U.S. and Canadian citizens.
Retired Chief Justice Miriam Naor will be joined on the panel by Rabbi Mordechai Karelitz, a former mayor of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish city of Bnai Brak, and retired Israeli army general Shlomo Yanai, a courts spokesman said in a statement.
Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews thronged to the Galilee hillside tomb of 2nd-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on April 30 for the annual Lag B’Omer festival that includes all-night prayer.
During the ceremony, part of the crowd surged into a narrow tunnel and 45 men and boys were asphyxiated or trampled to death. Israeli media said at least six of the fatalities had U.S. citizenship and two had Canadian citizenship.
Ordering the inquiry last week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said it would help safeguard other mass-attendance events in Israel, which has sites sacred to Christianity and Islam as well as to Judaism.
Iran Refuses To Give Nuclear Site Images To IAEA|
The speaker of Iran’s parliament said on Sunday Tehran will never hand over images from inside of some Iranian nuclear sites to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
A spokesman, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said any of the information recorded will never be given to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the data and images will remain in the possession of Iran
The announcement could likely complicate talks between Iran and six major powers on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal.
Three years ago then U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran; Iran reacted by violating many of the deal’s restrictions on its nuclear programme.
According to the state-run Tehran Times, a spokesman for parliament’s National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee warned that “Iran will also turn off the IAEA cameras if the United States fails to remove all sanctions.
The IAEA and Tehran struck the three-month monitoring agreement in February to cushion the blow of Iran reducing its cooperation with the agency, and it allowed monitoring of some activities that would otherwise have been axed to continue.
Under that agreement, which on May 24 was extended by a month, data continues to be collected in a black-box-type arrangement, with the IAEA only able to access it at a later date.
On Friday, the IAEA demanded an immediate reply from Iran on whether it would extend the monitoring agreement, prompting an Iranian envoy to respond that Tehran was under no obligation to provide an answer.
Iran said on Wednesday the country’s Supreme National Security Council would decide whether to renew the monitoring agreement only after it expires.
Fighting Between Government Forces and Taliban Fighters Continue
About 5,000 Afghan families have fled their homes in the northern city of Kunduz after days of fighting between Taliban fighters and government forces, officials said on Saturday, as the deadline looms for US-led troops to withdraw.
Heavy fighting has also been reported in the provinces of Kandahar and Baghlan, where the Afghan forces claimed to have retaken areas from Taliban control but the armed group still held on to parts of Pul-e-Khumri area in central Baghlan, according to local media.
The Afghan group, which has been waging an armed rebellion since it was toppled from power in a 2001 US-led invasion, continues to surround Kunduz city.
The Taliban briefly seized the city twice in recent years but has now captured the surrounding districts and a nearby border crossing with Tajikistan.
Rahmatullah Hamnawa, a journalist based in Kunduz, said he was forced to move his family from one area of the city to another amid the conflict.
“We hear gunfire and fighting all night,” he said, adding that it has been at least a week since the fighting flared in parts of the city and the nearby areas.
“People fleeing Kunduz have been forced to take a circuitous route through Samangan province to Mazar-e-Sharif, about 110km (68 miles) away to the southwest. The shorter road is unsafe and dotted with checkpoints and mines,” Hamnawa said.
“But even the Samangan province, which used to be one of the safest in the country, is no longer free from violence. Hence a three-hour journey via Samangan can take up to seven now, if not more.”
Many people took refuge in a school in the city and had been provided with food and other relief items, Kunduz provincial council member Ghulam Rabbani said.
Another 8,000 families have been displaced across the Kunduz province following a month of sporadic clashes between the Taliban and government forces, Rasouli said.
He said authorities were unable to provide relief items to all the displaced families across the province.
Russia Launches Largest Submarine Built In 30 Years
Russia has tested a giant new nuclear submarine in open waters for the first time, just days after a tense standoff in the Black Sea with Britain involving a Royal Navy destroyer.
According to the ‘Belgorod’, believed to be the largest submarine developed anywhere in the world in 30 years, was trialled in the White Sea over the weekend.
Once approved for use, the vessel will be capable of launching nuclear strikes with six intercontinental ‘Poseidon’ torpedoes.
It will also act as a mothership for smaller, deep-diving submarines with robotic arms that can tamper with or even cut vital cables that lie on the seafloor.
The Royal Navy announced earlier this year that it would deploy a ‘spy ship’ specifically to stop such submarines sabotaging Britain’s internet through such tactics.
The Belgorod, the exact specifications of which are not known, is currently undergoing manufacturer’s tests and is set to be handed over to the Russian state towards the end of 2021.
It is set to serve in the country’s Pacific Fleet, sources close to the Russian Defense Ministry told state media.
But there are concerns in the West that it will be deployed to the Arctic and North Atlantic, where Moscow has significantly increased its submarine activity in recent years.
Last month, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the Telegraph that Moscow was the UK’s “number one adversary threat” and that Britain’s waters were “regularly visited” by Russian ships.
Russian naval assets have been detected by the UK more than 150 times since 2013.
War On Terrorism: Somalia’s Puntland Region Executes 21 al-Shabab Fighters
Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland has executed twenty-one men after they were convicted of being members of the Islamist militant group al-Shabab. They were sentenced by a military court in Galkayo and shot by a firing squad.
State radio said 18 of the men had carried out assassinations and bombings over more than a decade.
Similar death sentences have been handed down by courts in other parts of Somalia before but this is reported to be the largest number of executions of al-Shabab members ever in Puntland.
The authorities in Puntland had vowed to bring to justice any members of al-Shabab or people found assisting the group in its attacks.
As the executions were being carried out on Sunday, al-Shabab fighters stormed the town of Wisil in the Mudug region. There are some reports that some soldiers were killed when an army base was attacked.
Louisiana Governor Vetoes Bill Allowing Concealed Carry Without Permit
Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards (D.) has vetoed a bill that would allow state residents to carry concealed handguns without a permit.
Under the new bill, all residents age 21 or older would be allowed to carry a concealed gun without a permit provided that a resident is not prohibited from obtaining a handgun under any other state or federal law.
Edwards, however, said he believes current law allows for “reasonable” permit practices.
Edwards said in a statement on Friday following the veto that he cannot support carrying a concealed-carry firearm without proper education and safety training.
He said it is not too much to ask that a person who wishes to carry a concealed weapon in public be required to attend basic marksmanship and safety training so they understand the regulations associated with such an action.
State Senator Jay Morris, the Republican sponsor of the bill, indicated that he hoped the Louisiana legislature would override Edwards’s veto.
Mississippi has allowed permit-less carry since 2016, while Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a law last week allowing permit-less carry in his state.
Belarus Dictator Floods EU With Migrants In Retaliation
The embattled Belarusian dictator has made good on his threat to flood the European Union with migrants by sending hundreds of Iraqis on ‘package holidays’ to neighbouring Lithuania in retaliation for sanctions.
Lithuania, an EU nation which shares a 700-kilometre border with Belarus, felt the pain days after Alexander Lukashenko issued the threat in late May.
Local border guards, who used to catch a few dozen trespassers a year, started to stumble upon groups of several dozen people every day, who would surrender and say they were looking for refuge in the European Union.
Lithuania this year received over 507 migrants, mostly Iraqi men, from Belarus, six times higher than last year’s number. Most of them arrived over the last three weeks.
Mantas Adomenas, Lithuania’s deputy foreign minister said they see that this flow of migrants is regulated by Belarusian authorities as a tool of political pressure, a means of hostile hybrid warfare.
Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, he said they are dealing with a dictator who is increasingly on the edge of madness and is prepared to do absolutely unspeakable and unpredictable things.”
Mr Lukashenko was re-elected last year in a rigged vote that triggered months of unprecedented protests in the former Soviet country.
His crackdown on the opposition reached a new low at the end of May when Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair flight to land in Minsk, arresting a dissident journalist who was on board.
Europe responded with tough sanctions, including banning Belarusian flights from EU airspace. Lukashenko said he would have his revenge.
Authorities in Lithuania had to pitch dozens of heated tents in a makeshift migrant processing centre to accommodate the asylum seekers and are now considering building a wall with Belarus which will cost about €15 million.
Florida Building Collapse: Search Operations Continue, Survivors Say It’s A Miracle
More bodies pulled from rubble of collapsed Florida building.
Confirmed death toll rises to nine as search continues at site of a partially collapsed 12-storey building near Miami.
Search and rescue personnel with a rescue dog continue searching for victims days after a residential building partially collapsed in Surfside near Miami Beach, Florida.
More bodies have been pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed 12-storey building near Miami, Florida, as the death toll from the incident increased to at least nine on Sunday and more than 150 people remain unaccounted for.
Emergency crews continue to search for potential survivors since the condominium collapsed in the early hours of Thursday in Surfside, a community near Miami.
Expert teams from Israel and Mexico also have joined the search.
“We were able to recover four additional bodies in the rubble as well as additional human remains. As of today, one victim passed away in the hospital, and we’ve recovered eight … victims on site,” she said during a news conference.
“So, I am confirming today that the death toll is at nine. We’ve identified four of the victims and notified the next of kin.”
As emergency responders continue to sift through the rubble – a process that was hampered on Saturday by a fire burning amid the debris – questions continue to swirl over what caused the collapse of the condominium.
On Saturday, US media reported that a 2018 engineering report had warned the building was resting on a concrete slab that had “major structural damage” and needed to be extensively repaired.
That same report also found “abundant cracking and spalling” of concrete columns, beams and walls in the parking garage.
But it remains unclear what caused the collapse.
Meanwhile, families and loved ones of the building’s missing residents continue to anxiously await news.
Some families of those missing have provided DNA samples to officials while others recounted narrow escapes.
Police released the names of four victims who ranged in age from 54 to 83.
Building resident Erick de Moura was supposed to be home when the tower collapsed, but his girlfriend persuaded him to spend the night at her place less than 3km (2 miles) away in Miami Beach, likely saving his life.
“Only by God. To me this is a miracle,” the 40-year-old Brazil native said.
