PARIS — France on Monday began less than a fortnight of frenetic election campaigning for snap polls called by President Emmanuel Macron to combat the far right, with star footballer Kylian Mbappe warning the country was at a historic crossroads. Candidates had until Sunday evening to register for the 577 seats in the lower house National …
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The world’s nine nuclear-armed states continue to modernize their nuclear weapons as the countries deepened their reliance on such deterrence in 2023, a Swedish think tank said Monday. “We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War,” said Wilfred Wan, director of the Stockholm …
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WASHINGTON/PRAGUE — An Indian man suspected by the U.S. of involvement in an unsuccessful plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil has been extradited to the United States from the Czech Republic, the Czech justice minister said on Monday. Nikhil Gupta has been accused by U.S. federal prosecutors of plotting with an Indian government …
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MOSCOW — Russia will hold the espionage trial of detained U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich behind closed doors later this month, a court in the city of Yekaterinburg said on Monday. Gershkovich, 32, was detained by the Federal Security Service on March 29, 2023, in a steak house in Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage that carry up …
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NEW YORK — Winners at the 2024 Tony Awards, announced Sunday. Best Musical: “The Outsiders” Best Play: “Stereophonic” Best Revival of a Musical: “Merrily We Roll Along” Best Revival of a Play: “Appropriate” Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Maleah Joi Moon, “Hell’s Kitchen” Best Performance by an Actor in …
NEW YORK — “Stereophonic,” the play about a Fleetwood Mac-like band recording an album over a turbulent and life-changing year, got a lighters-in-the-air cheer at the Tony Awards on Sunday, winning best new play while theater history was made for women as Broadway directors and score writers. “Stereophonic,” the most-nominated play in Tony Awards history, is …
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New York — The 28 Broadway shows that earned at least one Tony Award nomination are hoping Sunday is the day the sealed envelopes break in their favor. The three-hour main telecast from New York City’s Lincoln Center will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ starting at 8 p.m. Eastern, with a free pre-show on …
Read more “Broadway celebrates packed and varied theater season with 2024 Tony Awards”
Dubai, UAE — Iran called upon the Group of Seven leaders Sunday to distance itself from “destructive policies of the past,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said, referring to a G7 statement condemning Iran’s recent nuclear program escalation. On Friday, the G7 warned Iran against advancing its nuclear enrichment program and said it would …
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Athens, Greece — A missing American tourist has been found dead on a beach on a small Greek island west of Corfu, local media reported. The body of the man was found Sunday on a rocky, fairly remote beach on the island of Mathraki by another tourist. He had been reported missing Thursday by his host, …
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Nicosia, Cyprus — A Cyprus health official said a second elderly person has died from heatstroke after a weeklong heatwave that baked the east Mediterranean island nation with reportedly record temperatures for the month of June. An 84-year-old woman died a day after her admission to a hospital on Friday, said State Health Services Organization spokesman …
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Stockholm — A Swede freed in a prisoner swap with Iran, 33-year-old EU diplomat Johan Floderus, said in his first words since his release that he was “in seventh heaven”, in a video published Sunday. In the video obtained by AFP from the Swedish government, Floderus can be heard speaking to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson by …
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Berlin — German police said Sunday they shot and wounded a man who was threatening them with an axe and a firebomb in the northern city of Hamburg, hours before it hosted a match in the Euro 2024 soccer tournament. Police officers opened fire after the man refused to lay down the ax, hitting him in …
London — The UK general election is being watched closely after stark warnings that rapid advancements in cyber-tech, particularly AI, and increasing friction between major nations threaten the integrity of 2024’s landmark votes. “These rogue and unregulated technological advances pose an enormous threat to us all. They can be weaponized to discriminate, disinform and divide,” the …
Read more “UK ‘guinea pig’ for election security before landmark votes”
Paris — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Sunday that President Emmanuel Macron’s unexpected decision to dissolve the National Assembly and call for snap legislative elections could backfire and plunge the country into chaos. Macron called the snap vote, to be held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7, after his centrist alliance …
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MOSCOW — Security forces stormed a detention center in southern Russia on Sunday, killing inmates who had taken two members of staff hostage, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported Sunday. The hostages at the pretrial detention center in Rostov-on-Don were uninjured, said RIA Novosti, citing Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service. It said that the hostage-takers had …
Read more “Russian forces storm facility to rescue staff taken hostage, killing hostage-takers”
PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kansas — David Titterington had a sense of what his childhood friend would ask him when she led him into a photo booth at a mutual friend’s wedding roughly a decade ago. As the countdown for the second photo ticked, Jen Wilson popped the question: Will you be my sperm donor? “Of course I …
Read more “On Father’s Day, LGBTQ+ couple celebrates their sperm donor”
ALGIERS, Algeria — France has twice rejected visa applications from Nabil Tabarout, a 29-year-old web developer from Algeria who hopes this year to visit his sister there. He’s among the many people navigating the often-arduous visa process throughout Africa, which faces higher visa rejection rates than anywhere else in the world when it comes to visiting …
Read more “Even legal African visitors to Europe face hurdles”
chicago, illinois — Vacationing in Chicago this week from Europe, Jelle den Burger and Nirusa Naguleswaran grabbed a bite at the Dog House Grill: a classic Italian beef sandwich for him, grilled cheese for her. Both think the way their genders lined up with their food choices was no coincidence. Women, said Naguleswaran, are simply more …
Read more “Study: Men all over world tend to eat more meat than women”
PARIS — As athletes rev up their training and organizers finalize everything from ceremonies to podiums before the Paris Olympics, more than 120 faith leaders are preparing for a different challenge — spiritually supporting some 10,000 Olympic athletes from around the world, especially those whose medal dreams will inevitably get crushed. “We’ll need to bring them …
Read more “In secular France, chaplains prepare to give Olympians spiritual support”
athens, greece — A missing Dutch tourist was found dead early Saturday on the eastern Greek island of Samos, local media reported, the latest in a string of recent cases in which tourists in the Greek islands have died or gone missing. Some, if not all, had set out on hikes in blistering hot temperatures. Dr. …
Read more “Dutch visitor dies on Greek island, 4 foreign missing”