Politics

  Bloomberg French voters were heading to the polls on Sunday to select two candidates for the presidential runoff, an election that will determine how far the populist wave can go in Europe. After a campaign that has remade the nation’s political landscape, four candidates with radically different visions are in a position to qualify for the next round. They ...

  Bloomberg Israeli airstrikes killed an unknown number of Syrian soldiers at a weapons depot in rural Quneitra province, Al Jazeera TV reported. An Israeli army spokeswoman declined to comment. Sunday’s strike came after several projectiles from Syria hit the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Friday and the army returned fired at areas where the launching originated. Since violence in Syria ...

  Bloomberg Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said he fears that a wider majority for Theresa May’s Conservatives in the June 8 general election will give her “a blank check for Brexit at any cost.” Voters should elect candidates of any party who will “keep an open mind” on the shape of the trade deal the U.K. reaches with ...

  Bloomberg The UK’s Liberal Democrats won’t be part of any coalition after June’s general election and plans to become the main opposition by attracting voters who want to stay in the European Union, its leader Tim Farron told The Observer. Farron said while Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour will push for a hard Brexit ...

  Bloomberg US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tore into a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, saying it only delayed the country’s ambition to gain weapons of mass destruction and didn’t take into account its role in sponsoring terrorism and destabilizing other countries. “This deal represents the same failed approach of the past,” Tillerson said at a hastily arranged press ...

  Bloomberg Egyptian aircraft struck IS hideouts in the Sinai peninsula, killing 19 militants, the military said, part of a stepped-up campaign against the group’s local affiliate since it bombed two Coptic churches on Palm Sunday. At least one senior member of the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis movement died in the strikes in north and central Sinai, according to a statement ...

  BEIRUT / AP Aid agencies have not been able to reach as many besieged Syrians this year as they did over the same period last year, the UN’s chief humanitarian adviser for Syria said on Thursday. Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Jan Egeland said the front lines have shifted but civilian suffering has “remained the same” in 2017. Of ...

  ISTANBUL / AP Turkey’s electoral board on Wednesday rejected petitions by opposition parties to annul the outcome of a recent referendum on expanding presidential powers because of voting irregularities. The High Electoral Board announced in a written statement its decision to reject three requests by the opposition following a 10-1 vote. Mehmet Hadimi Yakupoglu, the main opposition Republican People’s ...

  RIYADH / AP US officials say Washington is looking for ways to boost military support to a Saudi-led campaign against Shiite rebel forces in Yemen. The goal is to help the Saudis put enough pressure on the Iran-backed rebels known as the Houthis (HOO’-theez) so that they’re compelled to enter peace negotiations. The Saudis are partnered in their Yemen ...

  KABUL / AP At least 14 Taliban fighters, including the shadow governor of the northern Baghlan province, have been killed in heavy fighting with Afghan forces, officials said on Wednesday. Amir Gul Hussainkhil, the deputy provincial police chief, said Afghan security forces launched a large-scale attack on the insurgents the night before in the western part of the province, ...