söndag 22 mars 2026
Divided electorate – they can take over in Paris
Published 09.06
A right-wing minister who has moved towards the center hopes to break the left's power in Paris.
The French municipal elections indicate a rare divided electorate.
Rachida Dati has been a minister under both Nicolas Sarkozy and Emmanuel Macron and now hopes to break 25 years of left-wing rule in the French capital. But then she will have to turn around an unexpectedly large deficit against Social Democrat Emmanuel Grégoire in Sunday's decisive election round.
Several uncertain decisions await around the country, with the electorate pulling in different directions, in different parts of the country.
With just over a year left until the next presidential election, this year's local elections have been seen as an important gauge of which movement has the wind in its favor.
However, the results from last weekend's first round mostly point to a stormy sea, with divided support for both the left and the right, the center and the outer edges.
Slovenia: Trump friend favourite in heated election
Published 06.42
Janez Jansa has been prime minister in Slovenia three times. Now the Trump friend can make a comeback again, after an unusually dirty election campaign.
Jansa, from the conservative SDS, has been just ahead of incumbent Prime Minister Robert Golob's center-left coalition in opinion polls ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections.
The fight is hot. Golob has accused Jansa of hiring the notorious Israeli security company Black Cube to obtain compromising material through wiretapping. SDS, in turn, has singled out EU Commissioner Marta Kos from Golob's alliance as a former police agent in the former Yugoslavia.
Well-known women's rights activist Nika Kovac worries about a return for Jansa.
"We have to decide whether we want to live in a democracy or an authoritarian state," Kovac told the AFP news agency earlier in March.
Latest news
The political situation in France
Cute dogs could decide the mayoral election in Paris
Ahead of today's mayoral election in the French capital, Paris, politicians have targeted an unexpected target group – namely the city's four-legged residents.
Both left-wing candidate Emmanuel Grégoire and former conservative culture minister Rachida Dati have invested heavily in animal-friendly reforms, writes The Guardian. During the election campaign, they have also been frequently seen in photos with dogs. Grégoire's staff has even started an entire Instagram account dedicated to dog pictures.
Organizations note that it is not surprising that politicians want to attract dog owners. Paris is one of the world's most dog-dense cities, while the majority of parks and natural areas have a ban on pets.
- It is about 170,000 votes, says Loïc Amiot, chairman of a pet association.
If Grégoire comes to power, he promises subsidized veterinary visits and that dogs are allowed on public transport. Dati wants man's best friend to have more accessible spaces and for leashing to be abolished in several places.
Middle East Crisis Iran War
Injury toll rises in Israel after Iranian attack
At
least 200 people have been injured in southern Israel after attacks
carried out by Iran and the terrorist organization Hezbollah on
Saturday. Among them are several children who are reported to be in
critical condition.
The majority were injured in the attacks on
the cities of Arad and Dimona, where several buildings were completely
destroyed. On Saturday, there were reports that a total of 100 people
were injured, but on Sunday the number was written up, reports The
Guardian.
At the same time, at least 15 people were also injured in Tel Aviv on Sunday after attacks with cluster munitions.
Israel's
air defenses failed to shoot down many of Iran's projectiles on
Saturday and the incident is being investigated, Israeli media reports.
The war in Sudan
WHO: At least 64 killed in hospital attack in Sudan
A hospital attack in western Darfur in Sudan on Friday killed at least 64 people, including 13 children. This was stated by WHO director Tedros Ghebreyesus on X.
More than 2,000 people have now been killed or injured just as a result of attacks on health facilities during the three-year war. In addition to the many casualties that the attacks claim, communities are greatly affected when healthcare is disrupted, writes Ghebreyesus.
"Healthcare should never be a target. Peace is the best medicine."
The region is controlled by the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the RSF accuses the Sudanese military of the attack. The army denies this, but two anonymous representatives of the army tell the AP that the attack was carried out but was actually aimed at a nearby police station.
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