France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has said more than 50 candidates and activists nationwide have faced violent attacks in the run-up to Sunday’s tense final round of legislative elections.

He announced the amount following the horrific assault of government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot, her deputy Virginie Lanlo, and a party worker while putting up election posters in Meudon, southwest of Paris.

The cause for the attack is unknown, but Ms Thevenot returned to Meudon on Thursday with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who condemned “attacks of intolerable cowardice”.

The recent rash of assaults around France mirrors the combustible environment on the penultimate day of campaigning in an election that the right-wing National Rally is expected to win.

Although National Rally leads in the polls, 217 candidates have dropped out of local run-off races, giving another candidate a better chance of preventing them from gaining an outright majority in the National Assembly.

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen says there is still a chance of outright victory on Sunday.

Mr Darmanin has declared that 30,000 police officers will be deployed across France for Sunday’s vote in an effort to keep “the ultra-left or ultra-right” from causing trouble.

The National Rally party, which gained 33.2% of the vote in the first round of President Macron’s unexpected snap election, is now aiming for an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly.

However according to Reuters, the progressive left’s opponents have promised to do everything they can to prevent the extreme right from getting enough seats to establish a government.

In the first round, candidates who received more than half of the local vote in their constituency, including 39 National Rally candidates and their supporters, won all 76 seats.

The remaining 501 seats will be decided in runoff elections, and 217 third-place candidates have dropped out of the contest, giving a challenger a stronger chance of defeating National Rally. Of the 217 withdrawals, 130 were from the left-wing New Popular Front and 81 from the Macron alliance.

Marine Le Pen has complained bitterly about the operation to ensure “mass withdrawals” and criticized those who sought to “stay in power against the will of the people”.

She did, however, believe that if voters turned out in large numbers, National Rally could still gain an absolute majority.

BBC reports the most recent Ifop poll predicts that National Rally will receive 210-240 seats, falling short of the 289 required to establish a government. This is down from the expected 240-270 seats won in the first round.

Nonetheless, certain minorities in France are concerned about what National Rally will do if elected.

The National Rally intends to give French people “national preference” over immigrants for jobs and housing, as well as to repeal the right to automatic French citizenship for children of foreign parents who have spent five years in France between the ages of 11 and 18.

Law and order is one of the National Rally’s top goals, along with immigration and tax cuts to address the cost-of-living crisis.

Source: BBC, Reuters

France’s Right-Wing National Rally Party Poised to Win in France

BUCHAREST, Romania — A court in Romania’s capital ruled Friday that social media celebrity Andrew Tate may leave Romania but must remain in the European Union while awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, rape, and creating a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

Mateea Petrescu, Tate’s spokesman, described the Bucharest Tribunal’s decision to allow the 37-year-old to leave the country as a “significant victory and a major step forward” in the case. It’s unclear whether prosecutors can or will appeal the court’s judgment.

Tate, a former professional kickboxer and dual British-American citizen, was detained in December 2022 near Bucharest with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women. Romanian authorities formally accused all four in June of last year, and they have all disputed the claims.

Andrew Tate | AP News Image

Court Says Social Media Influencer Andrew Tate Can Leave Romania But Remain In EU As He Awaits Trial

Following Friday’s decision, Tate tweeted on the social networking platform X, “I AM FREE. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 3 YEARS, I WILL BE ABLE TO LEAVE ROMANIA. THE SCAM CASE IS FALLING APART.”

“We embrace and applaud the court’s decision today, I consider it a reflection of the exemplary behavior and assistance of my clients,” said Eugen Vidineac, one of Tate’s lawyers, adding that the Tates are “still determined to clear their name and reputation.”

On April 26, the Bucharest Tribunal determined that the prosecutors’ case file against Tate met the legal conditions and that a trial could commence, but no date was established. That decision came after the legal matter had been argued for months in the preliminary chamber stages, which allow defendants to contest prosecutors’ evidence and case files.

Following their arrest, the Tate brothers were detained in police custody for three months before being released to house arrest. They were then restricted to Bucharest municipality, the neighboring Ilfov county, and then to Romania.

Vidineac stated that the option to travel inside the 27-nation EU bloc will enable the Tates to “pursue professional opportunities without restriction.”

Andrew Tate, who has 9.5 million followers on the social networking platform X, has consistently stated that authorities have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He has already been banned from several social media networks for allegedly expressing misogynistic views and engaging in hate speech.

In a separate matter, Andrew Tate was served with a civil complaint filed by four British women after a claim was issued by the High Court in London, according to a May statement from McCue Jury & Partners, the law firm representing the four women.

Andrew Tate | AP News Image

Court Says Social Media Influencer Andrew Tate Can Leave Romania But Remain In EU As He Awaits Trial

Tate allegedly sexually and physically assaulted the four, and they denounced him to British police in 2014 and 2015. Following a four-year inquiry, the Crown Prosecution Service declined prosecuting him in 2019. The alleged victims then used crowdfunding to file a civil action against him.

In a separate third case, the Tate brothers appeared in March at the Bucharest Court of Appeal after British authorities issued arrest warrants for alleged sexual aggression in a 2012-2015 U.K. case.

The appeals court granted the British request to extradite the Tates to the United Kingdom, but only after the legal proceedings in Romania were completed.

SOURCE – (AP)

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Hurricane Beryl roared toward Jamaica on Wednesday, leaving islanders rushing to prepare after the devastating Category 4 storm killed at least six people and inflicted substantial damage in the southeast Caribbean.

People in Kingston boarded up their windows, fishermen withdrew their boats from the sea, and workers demolished roadside advertising boards to safeguard them from the fierce winds.

Pauline Lynch, a Kingston resident, said she had prepared for the storm by stockpiling food and water. With the wind already whipping up a light rain, Lynch stated, “I have no control over what is coming, so all I can do is pray that all Jamaicans are safe and that there are no deaths or losses.”

Beryl | AP News Image

Hurricane Beryl Roars Toward Jamaica After Killing At Least 6 People In The Southeast Caribbean

A hurricane warning was issued for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac. Beryl was expected to decrease slightly over the next day or two but remain at or near major hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica on Wednesday, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday, and into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that the disaster zone declaration will stay in effect for seven days. He also declared an island-wide curfew from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Security personnel “will be fully mobilized to maintain public order and aid in disaster relief.” As soon as the cyclone passed, the security forces devised strategic preparations to prevent any potential threat of looting or other opportunistic crimes,” Holness stated.

An evacuation order was also issued for Jamaica villages vulnerable to flooding and landslides. Holness warned Jamaicans to avoid low-lying regions.

A hurricane watch was issued for Haiti’s southern and Yucatan east coast. Belize issued a tropical storm watch extending south from its Mexico border to Belize City.

Late Monday, Beryl became the Atlantic’s first Category 5 hurricane, reaching 165 mph (270 kph) on Tuesday before falling to a still-destructive Category 4. On Wednesday, the storm was approximately 75 miles (125 kilometers) southeast of Kingston. It had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph) and was traveling west-northwest at 18 mph (30 kph).

Michael Brennan, Director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, stated that Jamaica appears in Beryl’s direct path. He asked citizens to locate a secure shelter and stay there until Wednesday.

“We are most concerned about Jamaica, where we are expecting the core of a major hurricane to pass near or over the island,” according to a briefing he gave online.

Jamaica is expected to see a storm surge of 6-9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 meters) over normal tidal levels and severe rains.

On Wednesday, Mexico’s Caribbean coast prepared for Beryl. The government has issued a hurricane warning for the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun.

The head of Mexico’s civil defense agency stated that Beryl is expected to launch a rare twin blow on the country. According to Laura Velázquez, the hurricane is forecast to land between late Thursday and early Friday on a rather unpopulated stretch of the Caribbean coast between Tulum and the inland town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Because the coast is primarily made up of lagoons and mangroves, there are few resorts or hotels south of Tulum.

As it traverses the Yucatan peninsula, the hurricane is anticipated to diminish to a tropical storm before reemerging as a storm in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend. According to Velázquez, Beryl is likely to impact Mexican territory again, this time on the Gulf Coast states of Veracruz or Tamaulipas, close to the Texas border.

As Beryl plowed into the Caribbean Sea, rescue personnel in the southeastern islands spread out to assess the extent of the hurricane’s destruction to Carriacou, Grenada.

Officials confirmed three deaths in Grenada and Carriacou, as well as one in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Two further deaths were confirmed in northern Venezuela, while five people are missing, officials said. Beryl’s torrential downpour also affected approximately 25,000 people in the area.

Beryl | AP News Image

Hurricane Beryl Roars Toward Jamaica After Killing At Least 6 People In The Southeast Caribbean

The environment minister, Kerryne James, told The Associated Press that a tree fell on a house in Grenada, killing one. She claimed that Carriacou and Petit Martinique suffered the worst damage, with Carriacou losing hundreds of homes and businesses.

Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell stated on Tuesday that there is no power, roads are impassable, and the possibility of an increase in the death toll “remains a grim reality.”

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has pledged to reconstruct the archipelago. He stated that 90% of homes on Union Island had been demolished and that “similar levels of devastation” were expected on the islands of Myreau and Canouan.

The most recent powerful hurricane to reach the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan, which killed scores of people in Grenada 20 years ago.

Grenada nicknamed the “spice isle,” is a major supplier of nutmeg. Mitchell stated that most of the spices are planted in the northern portion of the island, which Beryl most damaged.

SOURCE – (AP)