While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, July 8
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The New Popular Front could win 180-215 seats in parliament in the second voting round.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Left leads French election in blow to Le Pen’s far right and Macron
French political parties faced a daunting task to put together a government on July 7 after the second round of elections threw up a hung parliament, with a leftist alliance unexpectedly taking the top spot ahead of the far right.
The results, based on pollsters’ projections, were a setback for Marine Le Pen’s nationalist, eurosceptic National Rally (RN), which opinion polls had predicted would be the largest party, but which placed only third.
They were also a blow for centrist President Emmanuel Macron, who called the ballot after his ticket was trounced in a European Parliament election last month.
Gaza rescuers say Israeli strike on school kills four
REUTERS
The civil defence agency in Hamas-run Gaza said a strike July 7 on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least four people, the second such Israeli attack in two days.
The Israeli military, which has long accused Palestinian militants of using schools and other civilian infrastructure, confirmed the strike “in the area of the school” in Gaza City.
It said in a statement the school complex was used as a militant hideout and housed “a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility”.
Napoleon’s pistols sold in France for 1.7m euros: Auctioneers
AFP
Two pistols that Napoleon Bonaparte once intended to use to kill himself were sold in France on July 7 for 1.69 million euros (S$2.47 million), the auction house said, with the government insisting that they stay in the country as national treasures.
The identity of the buyer at the auction in Fontainebleau south of Paris of the finely adorned objects was not made public but the final sale price, with fees, was above the estimates of 1.2-1.5 million euros.
Ahead of the sale of the weapons, the national treasures commission of the French culture ministry had classified the objects as national treasures and placed a ban on their export, in a decision published in the government’s official journal on July 6.
Tourists are latest conquest of Viking fortress in Denmark
AFP
A millennium-old Danish Viking fortress is wowing tourists by offering visitors a broader view of Scandinavia’s famed marauders.
Along with Denmark’s four other known ring fortresses, Trelleborg in the country’s east was recognised as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2023 – putting it in the same category as Egypt’s pyramids or the Great Wall of China.
The fort, experts say, is evidence that the seafaring Norsemen were fine architects capable of elaborate constructions belying their fearsome yet unrefined reputation.
Dimitrov injury sends Medvedev through to Wimbledon quarter-finals
REUTERS
Tenth-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov pulled out injured in the first set of his fourth round tie against Daniil Medvedev at Wimbledon on July 7 after a lengthy treatment break.
Medvedev, seeded fifth, will now meet top seed Jannick Sinner in the quarter-finals. The Russian has a 6-5 head-to-head lead over the Italian world No.1 but has lost their last five matches.
Dimitrov looked in good form, racing to a 3-0 lead in the match, before Medvedev broke back. The Bulgarian then slipped on Court One, carrying on for a couple of games that Medvedev won before taking a medical time out after the seventh.
