Author: France 24

Iran announced Saturday it will hold a runoff presidential election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi after an initial vote saw the top candidates not securing an outright win in the lowest turnout poll ever held in the Islamic Republic. The election this coming Friday will pit reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian against the hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. FRANCE 24’s Andrew Hilliar reports. Source link

The pier built by the US military to bring aid to Gaza has been removed due to weather to protect it, and the US is considering not re-installing it unless the aid begins flowing out into the population again, US officials said Friday. While the military has helped deliver desperately needed food through the pier, the vast majority of it is still sitting in the adjacent storage yard and that area is almost full.  Source link

Days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “intense phase” of the military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza was ending, enabling the redeployment of troops in the north, Israeli warplanes on Friday struck the Shujaiya district of Gaza City in northern Gaza.  Source link

Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and ultraconservative Saeed Jalili are leading in Iran’s presidential election, according to early results published by the Interior Ministry on Saturday. Source link

The European Council on Friday included six individuals, including a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps official and a money changer transferring funds from Iran, on its new list of sanctions targeting the financial assets of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Three businesses were also added to the list, including front companies based in Spain and Sudan. Source link

Even before the Gaza war broke out, the Taybeh brewery’s pale ales and lagers had to jump through many hoops to get their produce out of the occupied West Bank. Now, 30 years after making its mark, the Palestinian territory’s oldest microbrewery, Taybeh, which is named after the village of Taybeh – “it’s delicious” in Arabic – faces an array of obstacles, from literal roadblocks to standards testing and bureaucratic hurdles from Israeli authorities. Source link

In the run-up to the UK’s general election on July 4, the state of the country’s National Health Service (NHS) is a key campaign theme. Satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest in 40 years and the same is true of social care. Both the ruling Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party are promising to increase funding for the NHS. One business-led social organisation in the UK, Business for Health, advocates for stronger investments in preventative health, especially in the workplace. This could end up reducing the stress on the NHS. Charles Pellegrin speaks to its founder and CEO, Tina Woods. Source link

Haute Couture week has just wrapped up in the French capital and the major fashion houses have taken inspiration from the upcoming Olympic Games to bring sporting details to their runway shows. Dubbed “Athcouture”, some of the collections featured clear nods to the Games, past and present. FRANCE 24’s Jennifer Ben Brahim takes us through the highlights. We also take a look at the first exhibition dedicated to a supermodel, as Naomi Campbell’s career is displayed in all its glory at London’s V&A museum. Source link

Annette Young talks to Lebanese journalist and author, Dalal Mawad, whose book ‘All She Lost’ focuses on the horrific explosion in Beirut four years ago, and its impact on women. They speak about the myth of resilience among the Lebanese population as the country faces the risk of yet another war due to escalating tensions between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Also the Philippines, the only nation other than the Vatican where divorce is banned, takes its first step towards legalising the procedure. Source link

Images showing crowds of people at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport have been shared out of context online, with internet users claiming it shows a mass exodus of Israelis who fear war with Hezbollah as tensions escalate. Vedika Bahl gives us more insight in this edition of Truth or Fake. Source link