France's left-wing forces and allies of centrist President Emmanuel Macron exchanged bitter accusations Thursday ahead of the final round of tightly-contested parliamentary elections, where the French leader risks losing his overall majority.Losing a majority in the 577-seat National Assembly lower house in Sunday's vote could be a heavy blow to Macron's hopes of reform, just two months after he triumphed against far-right leader Marine Le Pen in presidential elections.Macron h

As the results rolled in for the first round of France's parliamentary elections, the leader of France's new left-wing alliance sounded both hopeful and triumphant.Speaking from a trendy bar in northeast Paris serving as his election night headquarters, Jean-Luc Melenchon said the so-called NUPES – or New Ecological and Social Popular Union – alliance he heads had passed its first test in "magnificent fashion.""Everyone should be thanked who made this alliance possibl

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to begin efforts to unite a deeply divided nation after winning re-election on Sunday in a battle against rival Marine Le Pen that saw the far right come its closest yet to taking power.Centrist Macron won around 58.6 percent of the vote in the second-round run-off compared with Le Pen's 41.4 percent, according to official results from the Interior Ministry.Macron is the first French president in two decades to win a second term, but his latest vic

In open societies, there is a close relationship between a responsible and uncensored media on the one hand and democracy and the rule of law on the other.

Indonesia – an archipelago of 17,000 islands – is modernising its military amid increasing maritime and regional challenges. Indonesia is moving to upgrade its ageing air force fleet with multi-billion-dollar orders for advanced fighter jets from France and the United States (US), amid increasing tensions in the Asia Pacific region.The agreement for 42 French Rafale fighters was announced as Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto met his French counterpart Florence Parly in Jakarta.

Five global nuclear powers pledged Monday to prevent atomic weapons spreading and to avoid nuclear conflict, in a rare joint statement setting aside rising West-East tensions to reaffirm a goal of a nuke-free world."We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented," said permanent UN Security Council members China, France, Russia, the UK and the United States, adding: "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought."The statement was issu

A large-scale French study suggesting symptoms of so-called long COVID may be more due to psychological factors than to infection with the virus has sparked debate among patients and scientists.The report that appeared earlier this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association focused on nearly 27,000 participants across France who took antibody tests to screen for COVID infection. After the subjects had received the antibody test results, researchers asked them whether the

Just recently, Australia signed a new security pact with the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) called AUKUS and for the first time, the US will provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

The basic text making the case for an international-relations rulebook was provided by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides in his account of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta in the fifth century BCE.

France on Saturday accused Australia and the United States (US) of lying in a crisis over a security pact that saw Canberra scrap a contract to buy French submarines in favour of American vessels."There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France 2 television.