- Senegal set to announce breakaway development agenda: PM
- UN says 2 peacekeepers wounded in south Lebanon explosions
- Injury-hit Australia thrash 'embarrassing' Pakistan at Women's T20 World Cup
- Internal TikTok documents show prioritization of traffic over well-being
- Israel says fired at 'immediate threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- New US coach Pochettino hails Pulisic but worries over workload
- Brazil orders closure of 2,000 betting sites
- UK govt urged to raise pro-democracy tycoon's case with China
- Sculptor Lalanne's animal creations sell for $59 mn
- From Tesla to Trump: Behind Musk's giant leap into politics
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- Supercharged hurricanes trigger 'perfect storm' for disinformation
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Djokovic proves staying power as he progresses to Shanghai semi-finals
- Sheffield Utd boss Wilder 'numb' after Baldock death
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- Fans immerse themselves in Marina Abramovic's first China exhibition
- Israel says conducting review after UN peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Djokovic 'overwhelmed' after 'greatest rival' Nadal's retirement
- Zelensky in Berlin says hopes war with Russia will end next year
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Djokovic proves staying power as progresses to Shanghai semi-finals
- Hurricane Milton leaves at least 16 dead as Florida cleans up
- Britain face 'ultimate challenge' in America's Cup duel with New Zealand
- Lebanon calls for 'immediate' ceasefire in Israel-Hezbollah war
- Nihon Hidankyo: Japan's A-bomb survivors awarded Nobel
- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
- Boat captain rescued clinging to cooler in Gulf of Mexico after storm Milton
- Tears, warnings after Japan atomic survivors group win Nobel
- 'Unspeakable horror': the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Stock markets diverge before China weekend briefing
- Christian villagers 'trapped' in south Lebanon crossfire
- Sabalenka sets up Gauff showdown in Wuhan semis
- EU questions shopping app Temu over illegal products risk
- Kim Sei-young holds lead with late birdies at LPGA Shanghai
- Toulouse welcome Dupont 'boost' as Olympic star returns to Top 14
- Japanese atomic bomb survivor group Nihon Hidankyo wins Nobel Peace Prize
- Deadly Israeli strike on Beirut likely targeted Hezbollah security chief
- Bangladesh Islamist chief backs crimes against humanity trial for ex-PM
- Everest climber's remains believed found after 100 years
- 20 Pakistan coal miners shot dead in attack
- Clashes on South China Sea, Ukraine dominate Asia summit
- Han Kang's books sell out in South Korea after Nobel win
- Zelensky meets Pope, Scholz as whirlwind Europe tour ends
- Hello Hallyu: why is South Korean culture sweeping the globe?
- UK economy rebounds in August in boost to new govt
- Voice of Japan's beloved robot cat 'Doraemon' dies
RIO | 0.67% | 67.293 | $ | |
BTI | 0.21% | 35.185 | $ | |
BP | -0.48% | 32.185 | $ | |
GSK | -1.15% | 38.765 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.32% | 24.67 | $ | |
RBGPF | -1.03% | 59.49 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.6% | 24.919 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.71% | 7 | $ | |
AZN | 0.43% | 77.205 | $ | |
NGG | 0.88% | 66.26 | $ | |
SCS | 2.06% | 12.865 | $ | |
RELX | 1.04% | 46.845 | $ | |
VOD | -1.03% | 9.641 | $ | |
JRI | 0.3% | 13.26 | $ | |
BCC | 1.77% | 141.459 | $ | |
BCE | 0.56% | 33.045 | $ |
French feminists march against far right with days before vote
Thousands of people turned out in France on Sunday for feminist demonstrations against the far right, which is expected to come out on top in June 30 snap elections, as parties sought to shore up support with days to go.
With the far-right National Rally (RN) polling at around 35 percent, "we have to remind people that they're the ones who talked about 'comfort abortions', who are always attacking family planning services," said Morgane Legras, a nuclear engineer and feminist activist taking part in the thousands-strong march in Paris.
Protesters wearing violet marched from the Place de la Republique square in central Paris to Place de la Nation in the east, bearing signs with messages such as "Push back the far right, not our rights".
Other rallies took place in around 50 other cities such as Toulouse.
France's two-round election system makes it difficult to predict which party could ultimately claim a majority in the lower house of parliament, handing them the prime minister's post which is second in power to President Emmanuel Macron.
Since Macron dissolved parliament after a European Parliament election battering, his centrists are badly lagging the RN as well as a reforged left-wing alliance called the New Popular Front (NFP) in surveys of voting intentions.
The RN has garnered unprecedented levels of support after a decades-long "de-demonisation" push to distance its image from its roots, including a co-founder who was a member of the Nazi Waffen-SS paramilitary.
But the core of its message remains hostility to immigration, Islam and the European Union.
Senior RN lawmaker Sebastien Chenu gestured towards Muslim and Jewish voters Sunday by vowing not to ban the ritual slaughter of livestock to produce halal or kosher meat.
"Everyone will be able to keep eating kosher meat if they want," Chenu told Jewish broadcaster Radio J.
He added that a historic far-right policy of barring the kippa in public spaces -- in the footsteps of an existing law forbidding the full-body burka worn by some Muslim women -- was not top of the RN's agenda, saying its priority was to fight "the Islamist threat".
- 'Do better '-
In Macron's camp, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal acknowledged that the European Parliament result -- where they scored just 14 percent -- was "a message to us that we have to do better with our methods, with our governance" of the country.
If his party defies the odds to come top in the legislative polls, he vowed "change", including a turn to "seeking out coalitions with the French public, with civil society" in an interview with broadcaster RTL.
Macron's alliance would open up to "all who want to come, from the conservative right to the social-democratic left", Macron's former prime minister Edouard Philippe told broadcaster France 3.
Attal also hammered the centrists' mantra about the threats from "extremes" on the left and right, saying both promised a "tax bludgeoning... a shredder for the middle classes".
The RN especially is "not ready to govern... it's a party of opposition, not a party of government", Attal said.
In a sign of the disquiet abroad over Macron's snap poll gamble, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told public broadcaster ARD on Sunday that he was "concerned about the elections in France", though "it's up to the French people to decide".
- 'Shut up' -
The left-wing NFP alliance continued to show strains Sunday, after parties hastily re-knitted ties sundered over differing responses to Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel and the ongoing retaliation by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Divisions are particularly stark over whether their candidate for prime minister should be Jean-Luc Melenchon, head of France Unbowed (LFI) -- the largest party in the grouping, some of whose members have been accused of anti-Semitism.
Melenchon should "shut up", former Socialist president Francois Hollande said Sunday, as "people reject him more strongly" than the RN's leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.
"Do we want the left to win, or do we want to be stoking conflict?" he said.
Melenchon said on Saturday that he aimed "to govern the country".
"I will never give up the honour of being a target" for attacks, Melenchon told a rally in the southern city of Montpellier on Sunday.
burs/tgb/
J.Williams--AMWN