live U.S. set to block Iran's ports, Tehran warns of harsh response - Monday 13 April
Maritime traffic in and out of Iran will be controlled by the U.S. military Washington said. Iran warns of harsh response to the blockade. A two-we...
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu survived two no-confidence votes in parliament on Thursday, winning crucial backing from the Socialist Party.
The two no-confidence motions, presented by the hard-left France Unbowed and the far-right National Rally (RN), secured only 271 and 144 votes respectively — well short of the 289 votes needed to topple Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s days-old government.
Lecornu’s pledge to delay the controversial pension reform until after the 2027 presidential election helped win crucial backing from the Socialist Party, providing the government with a lifeline in the deeply fragmented National Assembly.
Despite surviving the votes, the motions highlighted the fragility of President Emmanuel Macron’s administration midway through his final term.
RN party president Jordan Bardella criticised the outcome on X, writing: “A majority cobbled together through horse-trading managed today to save their positions, at the expense of the national interest.”
The French bond market remained steady following the back-to-back votes, with the government’s victory widely expected by investors.
Looking ahead, Lecornu faces challenging negotiations over a slimmed-down 2026 budget in a legislature divided among three ideological blocs.
The government remains vulnerable, with the risk of further no-confidence motions or setbacks in budget approval.
In November, Lecornu intends to propose an amendment to suspend the pension reform. However, some left-wing lawmakers have warned that the move could act as a legislative trap, potentially forcing the Socialists to accept measures they oppose.
Hungarians vote in elections on Sunday that could see the end of hard right nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s more than 15 year rule. Opinion polls show Orbán’s Fidesz party trailing 45-year-old Péter Magyar’s centre-right opposition Tisza party.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators held their highest-level talks in half a century in Pakistan on Saturday in an effort to end their six-week war, as President Donald Trump said the U.S. military had begun the process of clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
At least 30 people were killed on Saturday in a stampede at Haiti’s Laferrière Citadel World Heritage Site, with authorities warning that the death toll could rise.
Israel has reprimanded Spain’s most senior diplomat in Tel Aviv after a giant effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was blown up in a Spanish town.
Nine suspects were arrested on Saturday (11 April) in connection with a terror attack targeting a police post in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district.
U.S. President Donald Trump forcefully criticised Pope Leo XIV late on Sunday in an unusually direct attack on the leader of the global Catholic Church, triggering a backlash from religious leaders and believers worldwide.
Hungary’s veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orbán has lost power to the centre-right Tisza party in Sunday’s national election after 16 years in office, marking a major political shift that has drawn reactions across Europe and the United States.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk agreed on Monday to upgrade bilateral relations to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, placing defence cooperation at its core.
Pope Leo XIV is set to make history this April, becoming the first pontiff ever to visit Algeria. The trip forms part of a wider African tour, taking him to Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon from 13–23 April, and marks his first major overseas trip of 2026.
Péter Magyar has defeated long-time Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Hungary’s 2026 parliamentary election, ending more than a decade of Fidesz rule and marking a dramatic shift in the country’s political landscape. But what do we know about the man set to become the country's new PM?
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