France working with US, Israeli entity on roadmap to defuse escalation in Southern Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Friday the formation of a trilateral group with the United States and the Israeli entity to push forward a roadmap presented by Paris earlier this year to defuse the escalation in southern Lebanon.'With the United States we agreed on the principle of a trilateral contact group, Israel, the United States and France to advance on the roadmap that we proposed and we will do the same with the Lebanese authorities,' Macron tells reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Rome.France has been trying since January to ease the tensions in southern Lebanon

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684808/international/france-working-with-us-israeli-entity-on-roadmap-to-defuse-escalation-in-southern-lebanon

Greece closes more ancient tourist attractions as heatwave persists

The Athens Acropolis, Greece’s most visited tourist attraction, was closed to the public during the hottest hours yesterday for the second day running, as tourists sweltered under the country’s earliest-ever heatwave.Tourists were unable to visit the Parthenon and other ancient masterpieces atop the Unesco-listed archaeological site between noon and 5pm local time (0900 to 1400 GMT).Many primary schools and nurseries across the country were closed to protect students from the heat, which was expected to recede tomorrow.In Athens, tourists stopped at drinking fountains to cool their heads and necks. Locals sat in air conditioned rooms set up by the city, using handheld fans to create a breeze.Firefighters who put out several wildfires on Wednesday remained on high alert as strong winds were expected to hit several parts of the country.Meteorologists have noted it is the earliest heatwave – which for Greece means temperatures exceeding 38° Celsius (100° Fahrenheit) for at least three days – on record.In central Athens, the mercury climbed to 42C, with the forecast heat prompting health warnings and school closures.Still hotter temperatures were recorded on the island of Crete – 44.5C – and on the Peloponnese peninsula – 43.9C – according to the meteo.gr website of the Athens National Observatory.Several other Greek archaeological sites in Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades and the Peloponnese were also shut as a precaution against the heat.Greece’s climate crisis and civil protection minister, Vassilis Kikilias, warned of the risk of fire due to strong winds that could blow across the country. Civil protection was on “high alert”, he added.The risk of fire will be “very high” today in ten regions, including in Attica, which surrounds Athens, his ministry also warned.Temperatures are expected to ease from today.The Acropolis was forced to close in July last year during a two-week heatwave that was unprecedented in its duration.It was followed by fires that, according to the National Observatory of Athens, consumed nearly 175,000 hectares (432,000 acres) of forest and farmland.A record number of almost 4mn visitors flocked to the Acropolis in 2023, its popularity boosted in part due to tourists arriving on cruise ships calling in at the nearby port of Piraeus.Greece is one of the most hard-hit countries by global warming in Europe, with rising temperatures fuelling deadly fires and erratic rains in recent years.Athens, a city of 5mn people which sits in a coastal bowl jammed with apartment blocks and flanked by mountains, is one of the hottest cities in Europe.Scientists warn that summer temperatures there could rise by an average of 2C by 2050.Athens mayor Haris Doukas has tried to create more shade by planting 2,000 trees.“Our first goal shall be to lower the median temperature, the felt-air temperature,” he told Reuters. “There are areas where the temperature is 15 or 20 times higher on cement or a city road, compared to a shady area.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684789/international/greece-closes-more-ancient-tourist-attractions-as-heatwave-persists

Incensed Conservatives oust leader over RN alliance bid

French conservatives on Wednesday said they had removed their leader Eric Ciotti for trying to strike an electoral alliance with the far-right National Rally (RN), although he insisted he was still in the post. The Republicans’ political committee had voted unanimously to oust Ciotti, MP Annie Genevard said, adding that the party “will present candidates to the French public with clarity and independence” at snap polls called by President Emmanuel Macron for June 30 and July 7. “I am and remain the president” of the party, Ciotti retorted in a post on X, calling the committee’s decision “a flagrant violation of our statutes” that was illegal and void. A mass revolt broke out among Republican heavyweights after Ciotti announced his deal with the RN on TV on Tuesday. He closed the party headquarters near the National Assembly lower house for the day after the political committee called an emergency meeting, saying there had “never been any meeting planned at the HQ this afternoon”. Ciotti claimed the move was for staff safety “after receiving threats”. The politician from Nice in southeast France “was no longer president from the second he made this insane decision” to announce an alliance with the RN, senior lawmaker Aurelien Pradie had earlier told broadcaster France 2. Long a “party of government” bringing presidents like Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac to power, the Republicans have been squeezed between President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists and the far right since 2017. Leaders have struggled to chart an independent course, at times allying with Macron’s minority government to pass key laws and at others threatening censure motions. After Macron on Sunday announced snap elections in the wake of his own European vote battering, Ciotti on Tuesday declared he had made an electoral deal with the RN — taking much of his own party by surprise. “In politics, the answer isn’t coalition deals, little pacts made behind closed doors to secure constituencies,” said Laurent Wauquiez, Republican president of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region. “We try to convince people, we may fail to convince people. But we do it clearly and with a spine,” he added. “The Republicans have to communicate their ideas simply but clearly in this legislative battle.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684740/international/incensed-conservatives-oust-leader-over-rn-alliance-bid

Athens Acropolis shut after earliest heatwave

The Athens Acropolis, Greece’s most visited tourist site, was closed to the public during the hottest hours of on Wednesday as the season’s earliest-ever heatwave swept the country, prompting school closures and health warnings.The Unesco-listed archaeological site closed from midday to 5pm, with temperatures topping 43 degrees Celsius in central Greece. Temperatures of up to 44 degrees Celsius are expected today as the phenomenon peaks, with up to 43 degrees Celsius forecast in the capital. Meteorologists have noted this is the earliest heatwave — which for Greece is temperatures exceeding 38 degrees Celsius for at least three days — on record. “This heatwave will go down in history,” meteorologist Panos Giannopoulos said on state TV ERT. “In the 20th century we never had a heatwave before June 19. We have had several in the 21st century, but none before June 15,” he said. The climate crisis and civil protection ministry has warned of a very high risk of fires in the Attica region around Athens. Schools stayed closed in several regions of the country on Wednesday and will do so again on Thursday, including in the capital, while the labour ministry has advised public-sector employees to work from home.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684738/international/athens-acropolis-shut-after-earliest-heatwave

Biden’s son convicted on all charges in gun case

A jury found Hunter Biden guilty on Tuesday of federal gun charges in a historic first criminal prosecution of the child of a sitting US president.The 54-year-old son of President Joe Biden was convicted on all three of the felony counts stemming from his 2018 purchase of a handgun while addicted to drugs.The verdict comes as his father is seeking re-election and on a day when the Democratic president is scheduled to give a speech in Washington about gun violence.The president expressed his “love and support” for his son in a statement released by the White House following the conclusion of the trial held in the Biden hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.“I am the President, but I am also a Dad,” Biden said. “Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today.”“So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery,” he said.“I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal,” Biden added.The 12-member jury deliberated for about three hours over two days before reaching a verdict. Hunter Biden did not take the stand during the one-week trial. First Lady Jill Biden attended several days.Hunter Biden could face up to 25 years in prison, although as a first-time offender jail time is unlikely.The verdict comes less than two weeks after the conviction on business fraud charges of Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s likely Republican opponent in the November presidential election. The proceedings, along with another case in which Hunter Biden faces tax evasion charges in California, have complicated Democrats’ efforts to keep the election focus on Trump, the first former president ever to be convicted of a crime.In addition to being a political distraction, Hunter Biden’s legal woes have reopened painful emotional wounds for the family from his time as a drug addict.His brother Beau died from cancer in 2015, and his sister Naomi died as an infant in a 1972 car crash that also killed their mother, Neilia, Joe Biden’s first wife.The Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist was charged with falsely stating when buying a .38 calibre revolver in 2018 that he was not using drugs illegally.He was also charged with illegal possession of the firearm, which he had for just 11 days in October of that year.The president’s son, who has written unsparingly about his addiction, claimed that at the time he bought the revolver he did not consider himself to be an addict.He has long been the target of hard-right Republicans, and Trump allies have investigated him at length in Congress on allegations of corruption and influence-peddling. No charges have ever been brought.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684651/international/bidens-son-convicted-on-all-charges-in-gun-case

Macron poll gamble: Blindsided PM offered to become ‘fall guy’

When French President Emmanuel Macron told his young prime minister of his decision to call a snap election just hours before announcing it on television, Gabriel Attal tried to dissuade his boss, asking him to accept his resignation instead, two sources told Reuters.“I can be the fall guy,” Attal implored Macron, after his efforts at dissuasion went nowhere, according to a minister and another government source who spoke on condition of anonymity.Macron declined Attal’s offer, and a few hours later, as exit polls showed Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) trouncing his ticket, he dissolved parliament.The resignation bid by Attal, initially reported by Le Monde newspaper and other French media, underlines how Macron’s shock decision to bet the house on snap elections was not universally applauded by his camp and threatened to prematurely curtail their political project. Attal’s office did not respond to a request for comment.The 34-year-old Attal, France’s youngest ever prime minister when he took office in January, has been mooted as a potential Macron successor in 2027, but now risks losing his job to the RN’s 28-year-old party president Jordan Bardella.Attal was unaware of Macron’s plans, which he had kept from all but a tiny circle of advisors, the sources said.Among them was Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, another potential successor and snap vote advocate, and Bruno Roger-Petit, an ex-journalist-turned-strategist who has masterminded Macron’s rightward shift over the last few years.Macron’s calculation, which he had arrived at with close advisors over several weeks before Sunday’s announcement, was that it was better to blindside his opponents with an immediate election than wait for inevitable conservative no-confidence motions later in the year when he would be weaker.At a hastily convened cabinet meeting on Sunday night, shortly after announcing the snap vote, stunned ministers listened in silence as Macron said he wanted to give the French people a chance to “take back control” of their parliament, and reinstate order in an increasingly chaotic chamber, sources said.“There was surprise, a bit of perplexity, some combativeness from those who were favourable to the option, such as Gerald,” one source present at the Elysee palace meeting said.Attal, meanwhile, has been tasked by Macron with leading his ticket in the lightening, three-week campaign, the two sources said. Attal has yet to make any public comment since tendering his resignation, although he told lawmakers behind closed doors on Tuesday that the “die was not cast” and that he would do everything to “avoid the worst.”There was also wide concern across Europe.“The problem is what his decision will mean for the rest of us,” one EU diplomat said.Macron has long been frustrated by the fractious lower house that resulted from the previous parliamentary elections in 2022, when he lost his governing majority, with hard-left lawmakers in particular often using spectacular filibustering tactics.His entourage said the president made his decision after last week’s 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, when he met people out and about who said they were tired of endless political infighting in parliament. But the plan came into sharper focus as it became clear Le Pen would inflict a humiliating defeat in Sunday’s vote.One source with knowledge of Macron’s battle plan said he is convinced he can win, betting that the short campaign — the minimum allowed by the constitution — will wrong-foot his foes.The source said Macron also expects the left to fail to unite this time round, unlike in 2022 when Greens, Socialists and the radical left France Unbowed agreed on a common platform that did well in the two-round voting system.Another source close to Macron said the possibility of giving the RN a platform to display incompetence ahead of the 2027 presidential election for which Le Pen is the frontrunner was also on his mind.“He has no certainty, but he looks at probabilities,” the source said. “The top one is that the RN doesn’t win. And there is also the possibility the RN wins a simple majority, in which case yes...a show of incompetence.”However, among the Macronistas in the empty corridors of the now-dissolved National Assembly, there was little excitement.“It’s never pleasant to campaign,” said Emmanuel Pellerin, a lawmaker in Macron’s camp. “The times are tough. I can’t say we’re having fun.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684653/international/macron-poll-gamble-blindsided-pm-offered-to-become-fall-guy

S. Korea: warning shots fired after N. Korean soldiers crossed border

The South Korean army announced Tuesday that its soldiers fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border between the two Koreas.In a statement broadcast by Yonhap news agency, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said that a group of North Korean forces crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas in the central section of the border on Sunday.'The South Korean army conducted a warning broadcast and fired warning shots, prompting the North Koreans to return to their side of the border. There was no unusual activity after the warning shots', the statement added.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684580/international/s-korea-warning-shots-fired-after-n-korean-soldiers-crossed-border

Scholz coalition defies calls for elections after EU rout

Germany will not hold a snap election despite calls for Olaf Scholz to step aside after his governing coalition’s dismal performance in the EU Parliament election, a spokesman for the chancellor said yesterday.“The regular election date is next autumn (2025). And that’s what we plan to do,” Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said at a press conference.The coalition suffered a stinging defeat at the European elections, with all three parties in Scholz’s government trailing the conservatives and the far-right, preliminary results showed.His Social Democrats (SPD) scored their worst result ever, coming in third at 14% behind the far-right AfD at around 16% and well behind the conservative CDU-CSU bloc’s 30%.The Greens recorded 12% while the liberal FDP took 5%.In the former East Germany, where three key regional elections are to be held later this year, the AfD was the biggest party, with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper branding Scholz and his government a “coalition of losers”.The result sparked calls from opposition parties for Scholz to follow the lead of French President Emmanuel Macron and call a snap election. Speaking later yesterday, Scholz would not be drawn on the possibility of an election but acknowledged the result was “bad for all three governing parties”, adding that no-one should “simply go back to business as usual”.He also expressed concerns about the growing support for right-wing parties across the European Union.“We must never get used to this and it must always be our task to push them back, and to ensure that there are clear majorities in favour of parties with a clear commitment to our democracy,” he said. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel was among those calling for Scholz to go.“There is now only one task left for Scholz: clear the way for new elections — instead of governing for another year against a large majority of the population,” Weidel wrote on X.Markus Soeder, leader of the conservatives in the southern state of Bavaria, also called for new elections as soon as possible.The three-way coalition “no longer has the support of the population”, Soeder told the RTL broadcaster, calling for Germany to follow in the footsteps of France. Der Spiegel weekly said the EU election drubbing was a personal defeat for Scholz, whose face appeared on many campaign posters alongside his party’s top candidate.“Scholz put a lot of himself into the campaign, and it’s been to no avail. On the contrary, his strong presence may even have reinforced the downward trend,” the magazine said.Der Spiegel called on Scholz to make a strong statement about his intentions for the future.“After this personal defeat, he must say how he wants to continue to lead... Otherwise the country risks paralysis,” the magazine said. Even voices from within Scholz’s SPD were calling his future into question.“With 14% nobody has an uncontested claim to lead the SPD,” said Sigmar Gabriel, a former leader of the Social Democrats.The most obvious replacement for Scholz would be Boris Pistorius, Germany’s popular defence minister.For the Greens, the EU election result represented a significant dip from the 20.5% they scored in 2019.Scholz’s fragile coalition will face its next test when it presents its budget for 2025 at the beginning of July.The SPD and the Greens have often clashed with the liberals on budget issues, with liberal Finance Minister Christian Lindner taking a hard line on spending.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684566/international/scholz-coalition-defies-calls-for-elections-after-eu-rout

Far-right forecast to win French snap election

The far-right National Rally was forecast Monday to win a snap election in France but fall short of an absolute majority in the first opinion poll published after President Emmanuel Macron's shock decision to dissolve parliament.Following a massive loss for his Renaissance party in Sunday's European Parliament election, Macron announced snap elections for the lower house of parliament, with the first round scheduled for June 30, less than three weeks away, and the run-off on July 7.Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration, eurosceptic National Rally party, known as RN, would win 235 to 265 seats in the National Assembly, a huge jump from its current 88 but short of the 289 needed for an absolute majority, according to the survey by Toluna Harris Interactive for Challenges, M6 and RTL.Macron's centrist alliance would see its number of lawmakers possibly halve, from 250 to 125-155, the poll showed Monday. Leftwing parties could together control 115 to 145 seats, though each party could run on its own.There is no certainty the RN would run the government, with or without an alliance with others. Other scenarios include a wide-ranging coalition of mainstream parties, or a completely hung parliament.RN won 31.4% of the European Parliament vote while the Renaissance party coalition had 14.6%.Even if RN does score a majority in the French parliament, Macron would remain president for three more years and still be in charge of defence and foreign policy.But he would lose control over the domestic agenda including economic policy, security, immigration and finances, which would in turn impact other policies, such as aid to Ukraine, as he would need parliament's backing to finance any support as part of France's budget.'We're still in shock,' Emmanuel Pellerin, a lawmaker from Macron's Renaissance party, said.'Everything points to the RN winning a relative or absolute majority. But that forces the French to think about what is at stake.'

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684556/international/ukeurope/far-right-forecast-to-win-french-snap-election

Macron calls snap polls after rout by Le Pen

French President Emmanuel Macron set off a political earthquake on Sunday when he called shock legislative elections for later this month after he was trounced in the European Union vote by Marine Le Pen’s far-right party.Macron’s surprise decision represents a major roll of the dice on his political future, three years before his presidency ends. If Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) party wins a parliamentary majority, Macron would be left without a say in domestic affairs.Macron said the EU results were grim for his government, and one he could not pretend to ignore. In an address to the nation, less than two months before Paris hosts the Olympics, he said lower house elections would be called for June 30, with a second-round vote on July 7.“This is an essential time for clarification,” Macron said. “I have heard your message, your concerns and I will not leave them unanswered...France needs a clear majority to act in serenity and harmony.”Led by telegenic 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, the RN won about 32% of the vote in Sunday’s vote, more than double the Macron ticket’s 15%, according to the first exit polls. The Socialists came within a whisker of Macron, with 14%.Le Pen, the frontrunner for the 2027 election in which Macron is unable to stand, welcomed the president’s decision.“We are ready to take over power if the French give us their trust in the upcoming national elections,” she said at a rally.Macron’s advisers said the president made his decision after this week’s 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, when he met people out and about who said they were tired of endless political infighting in parliament.Le Pen and Bardella sought to frame the EU election as a mid-term referendum on Macron’s mandate, tapping into discontent with immigration, crime and a two-year inflation crisis.Le Pen’s strong showing, notching a 10-point increase on the last EU election in 2019, will weaken Macron’s hold on power three years before the end of his final term. It could also prompt high-level defections from his centrist camp as the succession battle to replace him heats up.In a victory speech to a rapturous audience at party headquarters, Bardella urged Macron to call for a new legislative election, although the president is under no obligation to follow suit.“Emmanuel Macron is this evening a weakened president,” he said.“The president cannot remain deaf to the message sent by the French tonight.”With widespread expectations of a bruising loss, interestingly government officials sought to downplay the importance of the European poll, pledging to maintain policy focus and arguing that EU elections are a poor predictor of presidential voting.But the symbolism of the loss is significant, and could have real implications.Le Pen may be able to lure conservative rebels to a party with a clear sense of momentum that looks increasingly well-placed for the 2027 election, albeit three years out.Macron’s defeat also fires the starting gun on his succession battle.Several big names, such as former prime minister Edouard Philippe, the current one, Gabriel Attal, and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire are all eager to take the top job, political sources say. However, an April poll by Le Figaro showed Le Pen beating both Attal and Philippe in the 2027 vote.“The results also prompt a more existential question about the future of Macron’s party once he leaves office,” Eurointelligence analysts wrote in a note. “Will it fragment or find a new leader to unite behind?”Philippe’s fledgling new party, Horizons, which is currently sitting with Macron’s Renaissance in parliament, will hold a meeting of its political bureau today, an aide told Reuters, to plot its next moves.Sunday’s results also saw the resurgence of the French centre-left, with Socialist candidate Raphael Glucksmann, a pro-Ukraine moderate, who won some 14%. His strong showing will embolden the Socialists, who had faced electoral oblivion after Macron’s 2017 election win.On the European front, Macron’s score, coupled with the collapse of his Spanish and Dutch allies, means his mainstream liberal Renew grouping was amongst the biggest losers in the European parliament, reducing his influence in Brussels.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684511/international/macron-calls-snap-polls-after-rout-by-le-pen

Tusk’s Civic Coalition seen ahead in exit poll

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) was set to win European elections on Sunday, an exit poll showed, taking a step towards establishing itself as the dominant force in the country after a campaign dominated by security concerns.With war raging in Ukraine and a migrant crisis on the Belarus border, Tusk framed the vote in Poland as a choice between a safe future in a country at the heart of the European Union or a more perilous one if the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, known for its conflicts with Brussels, won.“We have shown that our choices, our efforts, have a much broader dimension than just our national issues...we have shown that we are a beacon of hope for Europe,” he told supporters after the exit poll results were announced. According to the IPSOS exit poll, KO won 38.2% of votes, ahead of PiS who had 33.9%. KO’s partners in the pro-European coalition government which took power in December, the centre-right Third Way and the Left, got 8.2% and 6.6% respectively. The far-right Confederation party scored 11.9%. If confirmed, the result would mark the end of a decade-long run of first-place election finishes for PiS.PiS says Tusk, a former European Council president, is subservient to Poland’s larger neighbour Germany and accuses him of hypocrisy for criticising tough PiS policies towards migrants on the Belarus border while in opposition before implementing similar measures in government.Final results are likely to be announced today.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684510/international/tusks-civic-coalition-seen-ahead-in-exit-poll