The French president Emmanuel Macron’s new centrist movement has won a large majority in the French parliament, according to the first official results on Sunday night. Macron’s fledgling “neither right nor left” political movement, La République en Marche (LREM), and its smaller centrist ally Democratic Movement (MoDem) needed 289 seats to have an absolute majority in parliament; according to initial exit polls they were on track to take around 355 seats in the 577-seat national assembly.

The clear majority will hand the new president a relatively free rein to implement his plans to change French labour law, and overhaul unemployment benefits and pensions. But the results were tempered by a record low turnout of around 43%. Abstention was particularly high in low-income areas, reopening the debate about France’s social divide. The traditional right and left parties that had dominated parliament and government for decades saw their presence in the assembly shrink significantly, confirming the redrawing of the French political landscape that began when the Socialists and the rightwing Républicains were knocked out in the first round of spring’s presidential election.(guardian)…[+]

The Russian military has said it may have killed the leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in an airstrike in Syria in late May. Though acknowledging it was still checking its own claim, Moscow said it had information that Baghdadi was among a gathering of up to 30 Isis leaders in the north-eastern city of Raqqa that was struck by its fighter jets just after midnight on 28 May. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the claim remained unproved. “So far, I have no 100% confirmation of the information that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed,” he said.

There has been no suggestion since then from within the ranks of the terror group that its fugitive leader had been killed or wounded. The US-led military coalition fighting Isis in Iraq and Syria said it could not confirm the report. The loss of such a figure would be difficult to hide, even among an organisation renowned for securing sensitive information. Claims of Baghdadi being hit by airstrikes have been made frequently over the past three years – the most recent came from the Syrian military this week. Both governments view psychological warfare as an essential component of the war against the group, and efforts to cripple morale are likely to intensify as it continues to suffer losses.(guardian)…[+]

An Israeli police officer has been seriously injured in what initial reports suggest was a coordinated attack by three Palestinians at two locations just outside Jerusalem’s Old City.

Initial reports suggested that three attackers armed with knives and a home-made automatic weapon launched the assaults near the Old City’s Damascus gate on Friday evening, before being shot dead. According to Israeli media, the seriously injured officer was a woman in her 20s who was attacked by two individuals, one with a knife and the second with a “Carlos” homemade submachine gun, which jammed without firing. At the same time a third attacker armed with a knife reportedly wounded two Israelis nearby before also being shot. Photographs and video footage from the aftermath of the attack showed the body of an alleged assailant as well as a knife and submachine gun. Israel police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed a female officer in her 20s was critically wounded in the attack. According to the police, four other people were wounded – two moderately and two lightly.(guardian)…[+]

Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who presided over both German reunification and the creation of the eurozone, has died aged 87. Kohl was a towering figure of European politics in the second half of the 20th century, serving as Germany’s chancellor for a record 16 years from from 1982 to 1998. Angela Merkel said her former mentor was “the right man at the right time”, who seized a “historic chance” to overcome the divide running through Europe. The foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said he was grieving for a “great German and above all a great European”. Former US president George W Bush described the ex-chancellor as “a true friend of freedom and the man I consider one of the greatest leaders in post-war Europe”. European Council president Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted: “Helmut’s death hurts me deeply. My mentor, my friend, the very essence of Europe, he will be greatly, greatly missed”(Guardian)…[+]

New Zealand has hauled in its biggest stars in an effort to crack down on rising levels of racism in the famously peaceful South Pacific nation. The country’s human rights commission reports a third of all complaints now concern racist discrimination, though the vast majority of racial abuse still goes unreported. Race relations commissioner Dame Susan Devoy said New Zealanders were being influenced by increasing levels of xenophobia and racism overseas, and she personally wrote to New Zealand’s most recognisable faces asking them to help put a stop to it. “Hatred and extremism is becoming normal in some places and we want to avoid that future for Aotearoa,” said Devoy.

“Racial prejudice and intolerance starts small, in quiet places, in our everyday lives. When it becomes normalised it turns into overt racism and extremism.”

Hollywood director and New Zealander of the year Taika Waititi, who is of Maori descent, fronts the campaign, and took a day off from shooting blockbuster Thor to appear in the video, which uses his affable blend of Kiwi irony to get the point across.(guardian)…[+]

The US has signed a $12bn deal to supply dozens of F-15 jets to Qatar, despite recent high-profile claims by President Donald Trump alleging Qatar’s “high-level funding” of terrorism. The signing of the deal on Wednesday is the latest twist in the highly contradictory US diplomacy over the crisis around Qatar – now in its second week – with the emirate targeted by a Saudi-led embargo. Hailed by Qatar, the deal underlines the reigning confusion inside the Trump administration as it handles one of its first big foreign policy crises, which was in large part triggered by Trump.  Qatar is facing a severe economic and diplomatic boycott by Saudi Arabia and its regional allies, who cut ties last week accusing it of funding terrorist groups, a charge Doha denies.(guardian)…[+]

Fox News has dropped its “fair and balanced”, a slogan that for many appeared at odds with a rightwing roster of current and former hosts that included Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck, a spokesman has confirmed. The tagline was introduced by the US channel’s founder, Roger Ailes, when he set it up in 1996. It was frequently mocked by critics because many of the channel’s most successful shows had hosts with a clear rightwing agenda. Its replacement is “Most watched. Most Trusted.”.

The switch, which was decided on in August 2016, was reported by New York magazine, which said it followed Ailes’s removal as chairman the previous month over allegations that he sexually harassed numerous subordinates, including the former host Gretchen Carlson and star anchor Megyn Kelly. It said executives believed the slogan was too closely associated with Ailes. Ailes, who reportedly received a $40m payout for his departure, died last month aged 77.(guardian)…[+]

The Australian government and its offshore detention contractors will pay more than $70m in compensation to nearly 2,000 refugees and asylum seekers for illegally detaining them in dangerous and damaging conditions on Manus Island. The government on Wednesday settled a class action brought by Slater and Gordon on behalf of 1,905 refugees and asylum seekers detained on the island, rather than proceed with a six-month trial that would have involved evidence before the court from detainees of murder inside the detention centre, systemic sexual and physical abuse, and inadequate medical treatment leading to injury and death.

The detention centre was ruled “illegal and unconstitutional” by the PNG Supreme Court in April 2016. It remains operational, housing nearly 900 men, but is slated for closure in October this year.(guardian)…[+]

Two teenagers were rescued from the catacombs beneath Paris on Wednesday after being lost for three days in the pitch-black tunnels of the underground burial ground. The two, aged 16 and 17, were taken to hospital and were treated for hypothermia after being found by search teams and rescue dogs in the early hours of Wednesday morning.“It was thanks to the dogs that we found them,” a spokesman for the Paris fire service said.

A network of about 150 miles (250km) of underground tunnels forms a maze beneath Paris, with only a small section open to the public at an official visitors’ site in southern Paris. Entering the other galleries has been against the law since 1955, but schoolchildren and partygoers have been known to access them through secret entrance points.The transfer of human remains from Parisian cemeteries to the tunnels began towards the end of the 18th century for public health reasons, with the bones of approximately 6 million people found there.(guardian)…[+]

The younger siblings of Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, have launched a scathing personal and political attack on him, saying they have lost confidence in him as a leader and accusing their “big brother omnipresent” of abusing his power.

Lee Wei Ling and her brother Lee Hsien Yang said in a public statement released in the early hours of Wednesday that they were “disturbed by the character, conduct, motives and leadership” of the premier and his wife. Their criticism appeared to focus on a dispute over the fate of the family home, the influence of the first lady on government, and allegations that the prime minister had unannounced political ambitions for his son. “We feel extremely sad that we are pushed to this position,” they wrote. “We have seen a completely different face to our brother, one that deeply troubles us.”Lee Hsien Loong later said he was “deeply saddened by the unfortunate allegations”.(guardian)…[+]