Ultraconservative Raïssi sets a winning edge in Iran

On Friday, Iranians are nominating a new president in an election that should mark the victory of the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raïssi. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei opened the polls by voting next to his offices a few minutes after 7:00am (02:30 GMT). The official aim is to allow as many people as possible, among the 60 million Iranians of voting age, to go to the polls calmly while the country is being hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. The final results of the vote are expected by Saturday at midday. According to the few polls available, abstention could reach an unprecedented level and exceed 57%. Ebrahim Raïssi, the 60-year-old head of the Judicial Authority, is an arch-favorite, due to the lack of competitors to match him after the disqualification of his

Macron commemorates the June 18 appeal

President Emmanuel Macron commemorates on Friday the 81st anniversary of General de Gaulle's appeal of June 18, 1940, in the presence of the last Liberation companion, Hubert Germain, and the only survivor of the Kieffer commando, Léon Gautier, who will be decorated. In the morning, the Head of State will attend the traditional military ceremony at the Mont Valérien Memorial near Paris, the main place where resistance fighters and hostages were executed in France by the German army during the Second World War. He will later fly to Berlin for a working dinner with German Chancellor Angela Merkel

The Merkel/Macron couple meet in Berlin to talk about Europe

A few months before her departure, Angela Merkel is welcoming Emmanuel Macron for a dinner dedicated to Europe on Friday, one of their last one-on-one meetings on issues that have long divided them, before a spectacular rapprochement thanks to the pandemic. On this occasion, EU heads of state and government should discuss the pandemic, economic recovery, migration and external relations, including tensions with Turkey and Russia. It will be a special meeting, as the Chancellor is preparing to hand over the baton after sixteen years at the helm of Europe's largest economy, following the parliamentary elections on 26 September

Airstrikes in Gaza, after incendiary balloons to Israel

For the second time since the end of the blitzkrieg in Gaza, the Israeli air force bombed targets of the Islamist movement Hamas in this Palestinian territory during the night of Thursday to Friday, in retaliation for the throwing of incendiary balloons at Israel. Shortly before midnight, the Israeli army said that its warplanes had targeted Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for incendiary balloon fire that had set off a dozen fires in southern Israel. After the Israeli strikes, activists from the al-Qassam Brigade, the armed wing of Hamas, “fired machine guns” at Israeli villages surrounding the Gaza Strip and drones patrolling the sky, a movement official told AFP. The sirens sounded in a number of Israeli villages bordering the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli army later specified that their outbreak was not linked to rocket fire from the

Supreme Court validates Obama's landmark health law

The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Thursday to invalidate Barack Obama's landmark health insurance law, leaving health coverage for millions of Americans in place. His decision, taken by a majority of seven judges out of nine, represents a retrospective slap in the face for former President Donald Trump, who tried by all means to abolish his predecessor's iconic law. This is the third time that the Court has validated this law since its adoption in 2010. This time, her ruling is based on a procedural argument: according to her, Texas and the other republican states that filed the appeal were not justified in doing so. During the proceedings, Joe Biden considered this final attempt to cancel a device that proved particularly useful during the Covid-19 pandemic, in a country where care is very expensive, “cruel”

AT A GLANCE

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un believed that his country should prepare as much “for dialogue as for confrontation” with the United States under the presidency of Joe Biden, the official KCNA news agency reported on Friday.

Eight people have been arrested in China after a gas pipe exploded in a residential neighborhood that killed at least 25 people last weekend, local authorities said on Friday.

With a very active Neymar and a new goalscorer, Brazil crushed Peru 4-0 on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, scoring his second victory in two Copa America matches.

One person was killed and twelve others were injured in a series of shootings committed by a man driving in Arizona (United States), police said Thursday after apprehending the suspected gunman.