France’s Left-Wing New Popular Front Scored Big in Sunday’s Vote. Who Are They?
The night President Emmanuel Macron announced a snap election for France’s National Assembly last month, two words began to buzz around the internet and the media: Popular Front.
It was a reference to the left-wing alliance formed in the 1930s to resist rising fascism in Europe and at home. Now, a group of France’s main left-wing parties have banded together to fight what they see as a new danger: Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party, which is closer to taking power than ever before.
That left-wing alliance called itself the New Popular Front.
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Labour Won a U.K. Landslide. Why Doesn’t It Feel Like That?
Britain’s voters handed the Labour Party a landslide election victory this week, but one laden with asterisks.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer took office on Friday with a commanding majority in the British Parliament, yet in terms of the total number of ballots cast, his party won only a third of the vote, less than what it got in 2017 when it lost to the Conservatives. Labour made inroads across Britain, yet its wins were often eclipsed by the Tory losses, including that of Liz Truss, the unpopular former prime minister who was evicted from her seat.
The thundering mutiny of the voters may have been the single biggest message of Britain’s election. It has ushered in a new era of Labour government, left the Conservatives to nurse the worst defeat in their history, and stands as a warning to incumbents everywhere of the hazards of failing to deliver on your promises.
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Vatican Excommunicates Its Former Ambassador to the U.S.
The Vatican said on Friday that it had excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the church’s former ambassador to the United States, after finding him guilty of schism for refusing to recognize the authority of Pope Francis and the liberal reforms enacted after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
Archbishop Viganò has emerged as one of the most unbridled conservative critics of Francis, calling him in public statements a “false prophet” and a “servant of Satan,” while embracing right-wing conspiracy theories and lauding former President Donald J. Trump.
In 2018, he wrote a 7,000-word letter calling for the pope to resign, accusing him of covering up sexual abuse by an American cardinal. Earlier, in 2015, he invited a critic of gay rights to greet the pope in Washington, challenging Francis’ message of inclusivity.
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Five Takeaways From the U.K. General Election
A landslide victory for Britain’s center-left Labour Party is a seismic moment in the country’s politics, returning to power a party that just five years ago suffered its most crushing defeat since the 1930s.
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, becomes prime minister with a majority of about 170 seats, almost as large as the majority Tony Blair achieved in 1997.
While Labour surged to victory, the Conservative Party crashed to the worst loss in its history, claiming only around 120 seats, lower than its previous worst result in 1906, when it won 156 seats. A new populist, anti-immigration party, Reform, burst onto the scene, winning a significant vote share though only a handful of seats. And there were striking gains for the centrist Liberal Democrats.
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Kazakh Journalist’s Killing Sends Chill Through Exiles in Ukraine
A small crowd of mourners gathered on Friday for the funeral of the Kazakh opposition activist and YouTuber Aidos Sadykov, who was assassinated in Kyiv, Ukraine — a killing that colleagues said had cast a chill over journalists and exiles in Ukraine and the wider region.
A former opposition politician and trade unionist, Mr. Sadykov, 55, lived in Ukraine after fleeing Kazakhstan, his homeland, with his family 10 years ago. He was granted political asylum in Ukraine and, with his wife, ran a widely followed YouTube Channel covering events in Kazakhstan.
He was shot last month outside their home, and died of his injuries earlier this week. Natalia Sadykova, his widow and a journalist, has laid the blame for her husband’s death on President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan.
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