Russia has promised to discharge Indian nationals who were “misled” into joining its army to fight in Ukraine, India’s foreign secretary said Tuesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “strongly raised the issue of early discharge” to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his two-day trip to Moscow this week, stressing the need to bring all Indians home “as early as possible,” Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra told reporters in a news briefing.

“The Russian side promised the early discharge of all Indian nationals from the service of the Russian army,” he said.

By some estimates, Russia has been sending thousands of foreign men to fight in Ukraine since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of its southwestern neighbor in February 2022.

Many of them are young men from South Asia, enticed by the prospect of steady employment and higher salaries in Russia. In Nepal, prominent opposition lawmaker and former foreign minister Bimala Rai Paudyal told parliament earlier this year that between 14,000 and 15,000 Nepalis were fighting on the front lines, citing testimony from men returning from Ukraine.

The Russian government last year announced a lucrative package for foreign fighters to join the country’s military, including a monthly salary of at least $2,000 and a fast track to Russian citizenship – but the Kremlin has not said how many foreigners it has recruited under the plan.

In early March, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it had busted major human trafficking networks that were duping men into Russian military jobs, with 35 such cases identified.

“The trafficked Indian Nationals were trained in combat roles and deployed at front bases in Russia-Ukraine War Zone against their wishes,” the CBI statement said.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kwatra said he does know the precise number of Indians recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine, but anticipates it is between 35 and 50 people.

Of those, 10 Indian nationals have already returned to India, he said.

“Now, the two sides will work on it and see how expeditiously we can get them back into the country,” Kwatra said.

India has no law preventing its citizens from serving in a foreign state’s military.

Imran Mohammad said an employment agency had enticed his brother Asfan Mohammed with an offer for helper and security jobs in the Russian army, saying he could get a Russian passport and national card within a year.

Instead, Asfan was sent to the battlefield in Ukraine and was killed in combat.

“These brokers duped the boys and put their lives in danger,” Imran said, referring to Asfan and other Indians sent to war.

In neighboring Nepal, lawmakers have called on the Russian authorities to provide figures for its nationals fighting in Ukraine.

“It’s the Nepalis and other foreign fighters that are actually fighting in the front of war zones. The Russians position themselves a few hundred meters back as support,” said Suman Tamang, after he returned from Russia.

The Nepalis who fought for Russia said they had received only brief training before being sent into combat.

“I didn’t join the Russian military for pleasure. I didn’t have any job opportunities in Nepal. But in hindsight, it wasn’t the right decision,” Khadka said. “We didn’t realize we would be sent to the front lines that quickly and how horrible the situation would be.”

Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital likely took a direct hit from a Russian missile on Monday, a United Nations assessment has found, as NATO agreed to strengthen Kyiv’s air defenses in the wake of the attack.

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting the hospital in Kyiv and alleged, without evidence, that a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile caused the blast. But a UN human rights official said evidence suggested Moscow’s forces were responsible for the deadly strike.

“Analysis of the video footage and assessment made at the incident site indicates a high likelihood that the children’s hospital suffered a direct hit rather than receiving damages due to an intercepted weapons system,” Danielle Bell, head of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told reporters Tuesday.

Bell said the attack damaged the intensive care, surgical and oncology wards at Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt hospital, which has been vital in the care of some of the sickest children from across the country, adding that Ukrainian officials have since transferred 600 children to other hospitals.

“This terrible attack shows that nowhere is safe in Ukraine,” Bell added.

Two adults were killed in the strike and 16 others – including seven children – were injured, according to Ukrainian officials, as Russia launched a brazen daytime aerial assault on targets in cities across Ukraine during morning rush hour, killing at least 43 people in total.

The strikes across Ukraine were “strongly” condemned by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, while the UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk called for “prompt, thorough and independent investigations” into the attacks.

The Russian attacks came as NATO leaders gathered in Washington, where the United States and NATO allies agreed to give Ukraine more Patriot batteries and additional systems to strengthen Kyiv’s air defenses, members of the defense alliance said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

US President Joe Biden also announced plans to supply new air defenses to Ukraine in a speech opening the NATO summit – providing much-needed support for the country at a critical juncture in its defense against Russia’s invasion.

During his speech on Tuesday, Biden vowed that “the United States will make sure that when we export critical air defense interceptors, Ukraine goes to the front of the line.”

‘Targeted attack by Russia’

Images and video from the aftermath of the strike on the Kyiv hospital show children with cancer being treated outside the facility and an injured toddler with blood on his face and arms.

The UN’s monitoring mission said it was likely that a KH-101 cruise missile launched by Russia struck the children’s hospital. It made the determination “based on video footage, which shows the technical specification of the type of weapon that was used” and that such footage “shows the weapon directly impacting the hospital rather than being intercepted in the air,” Bell said.

A military expert who visited the site following the blast said the damage is “consistent with a direct hit,” according to Bell.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Washington on Tuesday that “Russia always knows where its missiles hit. Always.”

On Tuesday, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia reiterated Moscow’s denial that it had targeted the children’s hospital.

“We have not bombed the children’s hospital,” Nebenzia said at a special meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) convened following the attack. “If this had been a Russian strike, there would have been nothing left of the building at all. All the children and most of the adults would have been killed, not wounded.”

But the US also blamed Russia for the hospital strike. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UNSC meeting that the Russian “attack makes abundantly clear: Putin is not interested in peace.”

Kyiv described the strike as a “targeted attack by Russia,” with the Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) saying a Russian long-range cruise missile struck the facility.

“Relevant evidence has already been found at the scene of the tragedy: in particular, fragments of the rear part of the Kh-101 missile with a serial number and part of the steering wheel of the same missile,” the SBU said.

SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk vowed the agency would respond to what he said were Russian war crimes.

“This retribution will be both legal and moral,” he said.

Listening to music, smoking hookah, and getting a Western-style haircut are all punishable acts under the suffocating rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a new UN report.

The Taliban’s so-called morality police have curtailed human rights – disproportionately targeting women and girls – creating a “climate of fear and intimidation,” said the report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) published Tuesday.

The Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (MPVPV), established by the Taliban when it seized power in 2021, is charged with legislating and enforcing the Taliban’s strict interpretations of Islamic law.

Those interpretations include a ban on activities deemed to be “un-Islamic” including displaying images of humans and animals and celebrating Valentine’s Day. Moreover, the report said, the Taliban’s instructions are issued in a variety of formats – often only verbally – and are inconsistently and unpredictably enforced.

When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 in a lightning takeover following the chaotic withdrawal of US-led troops after two decades of war, the radical Islamist group appeared keen to distance itself from its earlier period of rule in the 1990s, presenting itself as more moderate.

However, this report found many of the same rules of that era have been revived, despite the Taliban’s earlier pledge to honor women’s rights within the norms of “Islamic law.”

Between August 15, 2021, and March 31, 2024, the UN documented at least 1,033 instances where Taliban officers had used violence to enforce their rules.

“The de facto MPVPV reportedly has a broad mandate and various enforcement methods have been used, including verbal intimidation, arrests and detentions, ill treatment and public lashing,” said the report, which was compiled using public announcements and documented reports of human rights violations.

The Taliban’s violations against women and girls are so severe that one senior UN official recently said they could amount to “crimes against humanity.” This report details how the MPVPV is enforcing rules on the way women dress and access public places.

The Taliban has arbitrarily shuttered women-owned businesses, made it illegal for women to appear in movies, closed women’s beauty salons and restricted access to birth control, the UN report said.

Women in Afghanistan are not allowed to access parks, gyms and public baths – sometimes the only way to get hot water in the winter – and must be accompanied by a male guardian (a mahram) when traveling more than 78 kilometers (48.5 miles) from their homes, according to the report.

While women must wear a hijab, men must also follow rules about beard length and hairstyles.

In December 2023, the morality police closed 20 barbershops for one night after barbers allegedly shaved and trimmed beards, as well as Western-style haircuts, the report said. The Taliban denied claims two barbers were detained for two nights. The report said they were only released after promising not to give those haircuts again.

UN says Taliban is legally obligated to protect human rights

Afghanistan is party to seven international human rights instruments and as a result is legally obliged to protect and promote the human rights of its citizens, the UN report pointed out.

These rules violate a slew of human rights, from the right to work and attain a living, to the rights of freedom of movement and expression, to sexual and reproductive rights, the report added.

In a statement, the Taliban called the UN’s criticism “unfounded” and said the report’s authors were “attempting to evaluate Afghanistan from a Western perspective, which is incorrect.”

“Afghanistan should be assessed as a Muslim society, where the vast majority of the population are Muslims who have made significant sacrifices for the establishment of a Sharia system,” the statement said.

However, reports from Afghanistan suggest the Taliban’s repressive control over women has led to a sharp rise in suicide attempts.

Among the Taliban’s list of prohibitions, according to the report, is the public display of human and animal images, which it deems “un-Islamic.”

This law has resulted in the removal of advertising signage and the covering of shop mannequins, the report said. The UN reported some cases where NGOs were told to remove human images from materials meant to alert children or other people with limited literacy about the risk of unexploded artillery and other public health issues.

Media is heavily restricted, and residents live in a surveillance state, the report added.

“People’s right to privacy is violated through searches for prohibited items in their phone or cars, having their attendance at mosques recorded, or being required to show proof of family relationship in public places.”

The Taliban met with top UN officials and global envoys in Qatar in June in a two-day conference that excluded Afghan women, sparking outcry from human rights groups.

In a press conference after the meeting, Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN’s under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, called the discussions “frank” and “useful,” and said that the “concerns and views of Afghan women and civil society were front and center.”

This was the third UN meeting about Afghanistan in Doha, but the first the Taliban has attended.

The Rwandan government has hinted that it won’t reimburse more than $300 million it has received from the United Kingdom since 2022 for a deal to deport asylum seekers deemed to have arrived illegally in the UK to the East African nation.

A Rwandan government spokesperson said on Tuesday that its migrant deal with the UK did not include any “clause regarding reimbursement” after the newly-elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he would scrap the controversial agreement.

“Within the agreement there was no clause regarding reimbursement… it never stated that the money would be refunded,” spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda said in a video posted by state-owned Rwanda Broadcasting Agency.

“We had an agreement. Both parties signed, it became an international agreement, we start implementing it, then after that you want out … best of luck,” Mukuralinda said.

The UK has given Rwanda £240 million (around $307 million) so far as part of the deal, according to a fact sheet published by the British government in April this year.

Speaking at his first press conference as prime minister on Saturday, Starmer said he was “not prepared to continue” with the controversial deal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, calling the scheme a “gimmick” and denying that the bill acted as a deterrent.

The controversial plan was first announced in April 2022 by the Conservative government at the time under Prime Minister Boris Johnson but faced a series of political and legal challenges as lawmakers and activists sought to scupper the legislation on human rights grounds.

After the bill was passed in April this year, former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed the plan was introduced “to deter vulnerable migrants from making perilous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs who exploit them.”

The bill was condemned at the time by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi who said the arrangement sought to “shift responsibility for refugee protection, undermining international cooperation and setting a worrying global precedent.”

Amnesty International UK also called the plan “a stain on this country’s moral reputation” that “takes a hatchet to international legal protections for some of the most vulnerable people in the world.”

Luke McGee and Rob Picheta in London contributed to this report

For nearly two decades, the Israeli nonprofit Road to Recovery has transported sick Palestinians roundtrip from checkpoints in Gaza and the West Bank to Israel for medical treatment.

On October 7, during Hamas’ brutal attacks on Israel, several of the group’s volunteers were killed. Others were taken hostage.

Today, Road to Recovery’s work continues, and Roth feels that it is as crucial as ever.

“We … believe that patient transportation has far greater value than just humanitarian assistance,” Roth said. “It is an opportunity for us to show our Palestinian neighbors a different face than what they know in their reality. It is a chance for encounters that break down barriers and stigmas.”

On October 8, volunteers were waiting at checkpoints at the West Bank to pick up Palestinian patients and their families. The organization currently transports between 40 to 50 patients a day between the checkpoints and Israeli hospitals and medical providers.

Roth started this work in 2006 as a way to cope with personal tragedy. In 1993, his brother Udi was kidnapped and killed by members of Hamas. After his loss, Roth channeled his anger into peace.

The organization says it has since provided transportation to more than 50,000 sick Palestinians.

“Each trip is an opportunity to make a ‘small hour of peace.’” Roth said. “Especially now, just to show compassion and love. … This is the medicine for the hostility and for the hateness.”

Sometimes, the Israeli volunteer drivers and Palestinian passengers are able to communicate in Arabic, Hebrew, or English. When there’s no shared spoken language, they communicate through gestures, which Roth finds to be more powerful than words.

“If we really want one day normal life for us and for the Palestinians, we should make effort to achieve it,” Roth said. “It’s not just that you sit and you wait that something will happen. You have to do something. In the Bible, there is a phrase … that you ask for peace, and you have to run after the peace in order that it will happen. This is our mission.”

The body of an American mountaineer has been discovered by a pair of fellow US climbers 22 years after he went missing following an avalanche in the Peruvian Andes.

American brothers Ryan Cooper and Wesley Waren found the body of Bill Stampfl on June 27 on Mount Huascaran, according to Joseph Stampfl, Bill’s son.

The climbers had been descending the mountain in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca after an unsuccessful attempt to reach its 22,000 ft summit when they found the body, at about 16,500 ft.

He said the ice had preserved the body and its belongings and Stampfl’s wedding ring, helmet, mountain climbing boots, and jacket were all intact.

The brothers managed to identify Stampfl by finding a bag attached to his body, inside which they found his identification card, a camera, passport, wallet, and glasses – all of which were also intact, Cooper explained.

“Someone loved him and someone wanted him to come home,” Cooper said. “As soon as I found out he was an American climber I knew we had a responsibility to track down the family and give them the news,” Cooper said.

His body was retrieved and brought down the mountain on July 5 by the Peruvian Mountain Rescue Association and Peruvian National Police after coordination with Cooper and Stampfl’s family.

His body was taken to a morgue in the town of Yungay for an autopsy, Peru’s National Police posted on X on Tuesday.

Finding Bill’s family

Cooper, a native of Las Vegas, Nevada, called his wife and informed her of his discovery the same day he came across Stampfl’s body. He asked her for help in finding Stampfl’s family, as he was still on Mount Huascaran with limited cellular service.

After much online research, Cooper’s wife was able to locate Joseph and called him on June 29.

“I told him I know the location of his dad. I told him about the ring and personal items,” Cooper said.

His motive was to help the family find closure, Cooper explained.

With “no body, there’s no way to find peace with that,” Cooper said.

Cooper also spoke to Jennifer and Stampfl’s wife Janet on the phone before sending photos of Stampfl’s ID and other belongings to the family.

‘My heart just sank’

After so many years, the news came as an emotional shock to Stampfl’s family.

“There is no preparation for having your husband killed instantaneously,” Janet said, adding that she never thought her husband’s body would be discovered. “It’s an answer to so many prayers by so many people.”

Janet said her husband loved climbing mountains. “He enjoyed it so much. He said he always felt closest to God when he got to the top of the mountain,” Janet said.

“After 22 years…I was a little shocked, it took me a while to process everything,” Joseph said, adding “now it’s time to bring him home hopefully.”

Following an autopsy in Yungay, Stampfl’s body was transferred to the city of Juarez, Joseph explained. Stampfl will be taken to a funeral home in Lima where he will be cremated, and the ashes will be sent to the family in the United States.

‘A dangerous landscape’

While Cooper is grateful to have finally been able to bring closure to the Stampfl family, the discovery was also tinged with sadness.

He had hoped that Richardson’s body might have been attached to Stampfl by a rope, but that was not the case and “he’s still missing as of today.”

He also fears that global warming may have played a role in his discovery, by thawing the ice on what is considered the world’s highest tropical mountain range.

“He was fully exposed and not in ice anymore. The thawing process happened,” Cooper said.

Since the 1950s, almost all of the world’s glaciers have been retreating, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. On average, the glaciers in the Andean region – Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru – have lost over 50 per cent of their coverage since the 1960s.

“The Andes is deteriorating more than any other mountain range in the region,” Cooper said, adding that the changing conditions were part of what had prevented him from summiting Mount Huascaran.

“Glaciers are melting away, the landscape has changed. It poses a dangerous landscape now,” he said.

At least two people have been killed after dozens of projectiles were fired from Lebanon at the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Tuesday evening, according to Israeli authorities.

A woman and man were “killed on the spot” when a projectile directly hit their vehicle, according to Israeli police.

“Several projectiles were identified falling in the area,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) added in a statement following sirens in the Golan Heights.

Magen David Adom paramedics described responding to a “difficult” scene.

“We saw a vehicle that suffered a direct hit, and in its front were an unconscious man and woman who were critically injured. During the medical treatment, additional sirens were activated,” the medics said in a statement.

“We ran to protect ourselves and handled the incident as sirens went off. Military personnel assisted on the scene.”

Firefighters said they were responding to at least eight fires following the projectile hits.

Hezbollah has not yet publicly commented on the strikes.

Cross-border fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has been an almost daily occurrence since the war in Gaza began. But it has been gradually intensifying, raising fears it could escalate into a full-blown conflict.

Hezbollah is one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East, boasting of tens of thousands of fighters and a vast missile arsenal.

The group has said its current round of fighting with Israel is to support Palestinians in Gaza.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A Russian missile strike partially destroyed a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday, causing terrified patients and their families to flee for their lives, as officials fear more people could be trapped beneath the rubble.

Moscow launched a brazen daytime aerial assault on targets in cities across Ukraine during morning rush hour, killing at least 31 people and injuring 125 others, according to Ukraine’s emergency service.

In an update on Telegram, the emergency service said the latest figure included the number of dead and injured in the capital, which now stands at 20 people dead and 61 others hurt. Two people were killed and at least 10 were injured in the strike on Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt hospital.

The facility is Ukraine’s largest children’s medical center and has been vital in the care of some the sickest children from across the country. Every year, around 7,000 surgeries – including treatments for cancer and hematological diseases – are conducted at the hospital, according to Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.

Videos from the scene showed volunteers working with police and security services to sift through the rubble as smoke billowed from the hospital, as staff described how they tried to rush children to safety in the wake of the attack. Ukraine’s health minister Viktor Liashko said intensive care units, oncology departments and surgery units had been damaged.

“The key task here is to get people out of the rubble and provide assistance to those we can reach, as we have already taken out all the first ones,” he said in a Telegram post.

The attacks were part of a rare daylight bombardment on Ukrainian cities, some of which are heavily populated areas far from the front lines. It came a day before US President Joe Biden hosts a crucial NATO Summit in Washington, where new announcements over the alliance’s military, political and financial support for Kyiv are expected.

Russia’s defense ministry on Monday claimed that Moscow had struck “military industrial facilities of Ukraine and air bases of the Ukrainian armed forces” using long-range, high-precision weapons.

Eyewitnesses recount hospital strike

Natalia Sardudinova, a senior nurse, described the moment the strike hit the hospital saying that “it was scary, but we survived.”

She said two children had been in the operating theaters at the time of the blast, and both were relocated to the basement shelter once their procedures were completed.

“Everything was in smoke, there was no air to breathe. The doctor was cut by shrapnel. The windows and doors were blown out. One nurse in the hospital was heavily injured,” Sardudinova added. “My hands are still shaking. They don’t let anyone in now, they are afraid it will collapse.”

Yulia Vasylenko, the mother of an 11-year-old cancer patient at the hospital, said her son Denys was evacuated outside following the strike.

“My son is on painkillers. He has cancer. He has been without medication for half a day. He was brought down the stairs from the third floor. There was smoke (and) heavy dust,” she said.

“The lights went out, everything went out. We pulled out the instruments, shining flashlights. Everything was sewn up quickly,” Filimonova said. “The baby was brought down (to the shelter). I immediately ran to help clear the rubble. Some of my nursing colleagues who worked in the operating theaters and some doctors were cut by glass fragments. Our department was destroyed.”

Another operating theater nurse, Oksana Mosiychuk, said they sheltered in the emergency room when the explosion rocked the building. After that, she added, the medical team had to extinguish a blaze that broke out in their department, including an operating table which had caught fire.

“Fortunately, everyone is alive. One of our colleagues was heavily injured, he had numerous cuts and shrapnel wounds, and was taken away by an ambulance. I also have minor shrapnel wounds, but I’m fine. It was very scary. I was scared for the children,” she said.

Zelensky calls for UN action

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy said in a post on X that the exact number of casualties at the hospital was not yet known and that “there are people under the rubble” but that everyone from doctors to local residents are helping clear debris in the strike’s aftermath.

“Apartment buildings, infrastructure, and a children’s hospital have been damaged. All services are engaged to rescue as many people as possible,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X.

The bombardment struck targets in the capital Kyiv as well as in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.

Zelensky later called for a United Nations Security Council meeting, while vowing retaliation over Monday’s strikes.

Ukraine shot down 30 out of 38 missiles launched by Russia during its attack on Monday, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement.

Russian forces used ballistic, cruise, guided and air-launched ballistic missiles in the strikes, Mykola Oleshchuk also said.

The Ukrainian security service said a cruise missile was used to attack Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt hospital.

In reaction to Monday’s bombardment, Ukraine’s defense minister Rustem Umerov said the country’s infrastructure was targeted by four dozen Kalibr cruise missiles and Kinzhal aero ballistic missiles, launched from Russia’s Volgograd region.

In a statement, Umerov continued to appeal for more air defense systems to support the war-torn country. Zelensky has repeatedly called on the West to provide it with more air defense systems to better protect its cities. Last month, he praised Biden for prioritizing the delivery of air defense systems after the two presidents signed a security agreement between their nations on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy.

Umerov said Monday that Kyiv was continuing “to work to ensure that the systems promised by our partners arrive in Ukraine as soon as possible.”

Scores of volunteers later dropped off much-needed supplies and donations – including water, food, medicine and diapers – to the hospital.

Several European nations denounced the attacks with France calling it “barbaric” while the United Kingdom’s new prime minister Keir Starmer said attacking innocent children was “the most depraved of actions.”

The French foreign ministry said in a statement that the strikes were “barbaric acts, aimed directly and deliberately at a children’s hospital, should be added to the list of war crimes for which Russia will be held to account.”

According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 1,600 instances of heavy weapons attacks impacting medical facilities in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, with 141 people killed in these attacks.

Last December, 12 pregnant women and four newborn babies had a lucky escape from a maternity hospital in Dnipro that had been extensively damaged in an airstrike. Previously, the bombing of a maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol less than a month after Russian troops flooded across the border sparked international condemnation.

This story has been updated with additional information.

On Sunday night, joy: French voters had, once again, kept the far right out of power. On Monday morning, uncertainty: A hung parliament, shaky alliances and the threat of turbulent years ahead.

President Emmanuel Macron called France’s snap parliamentary election to “clarify” the political situation. But after the shock second-round results, the waters are more muddied than they have been in decades.

While a surge in support for the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition foiled Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party, French politics is now more disordered than it was before the vote.

So, what did we learn last night, who might be France’s next prime minister, and has Macron’s gamble “paid off?”

A shock victory, but not a decisive one

After leading the first round of voting last Sunday, the RN was closer to the gates of power than ever before, and was on the cusp of forming France’s first far-right government since the collaborationist Vichy regime of World War II.

But after a week of political bargaining, in which more than 200 left-wing and centrist candidates withdrew from the second round in a bid to avoid splitting the vote, the NFP – a cluster of several parties from the extreme left to the more moderate – emerged with the most seats in the decisive second round.

The NFP won 182 seats in the National Assembly, making it the largest group in the 577-seat parliament. Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance, which trailed in a distant third in the first round, mounted a strong recovery to win 163 seats. And the RN and its allies, despite leading the first round, won 143 seats.

Does that mean the NFP “won” the election? Not quite. Although the coalition has the most seats, it fell well short of the 289 seats required for an absolute majority, meaning France now has a hung parliament. If this was a victory for anything, it was the “cordon sanitaire,” the principle that mainstream parties must unite to prevent the extreme right from taking office.

The far right kept at bay, but more potent than ever

It was meant to be a coronation. Crowds of supporters had crammed into election night events at the RN party HQ in Paris and at outposts all over the country, to watch the moment many felt had been decades in the making: Confirmation that their party, and its long-taboo brand of anti-immigrant politics, had won the most seats in the French parliament.

That wasn’t to be. The fervent atmosphere soured as supporters saw the RN had slumped to third place. Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old leader handpicked by Le Pen to freshen the party’s image and purge it of its racist and antisemitic roots, was dyspeptic. He railed against the “dangerous electoral deals” made between the NFP and Ensemble which had “deprived the French people” of an RN-led government.

“By deciding to deliberately paralyze our institutions, Emmanuel Macron has now pushed the country towards uncertainty and instability,” Bardella said, dismissing the NFP as an “alliance of dishonor.”

Still, the RN’s success should not be underestimated. In the 2017 elections, when Macron swept to power, the RN won just eight seats. In 2022, it surged to 89 seats. In Sunday’s vote, it won 125 – making it the largest individual party. That unity means it will likely remain a potent force in the next parliament, while the solidity of the leftist coalition remains untested.

Will the left remain united?

A month ago, the NFP did not exist. Now, it is the largest bloc in the French parliament and could provide France with its next prime minister. It chose its name in an attempt to resurrect the original Popular Front that blocked the far right from gaining power in 1936. Sunday’s results mean it has done so again.

But while it achieved its founding purpose, it is unclear whether this capacious – and potential fractious – coalition will hold. The hastily assembled bloc comprises several parties: the far-left France Unbowed party; the Socialists; the green Ecologists; the center-left Place Publique and others.

This many-headed hydra does not speak with a single voice. Each party celebrated the results at their own campaign events, rather than together. Two of its most prominent figures – Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the populist France Unbowed leader, and Raphael Glucksmann, the more moderate leader of Place Publique – are barely on speaking terms.

Disagreements over economic and foreign policies could spill over, as the NFP’s expansive spending plans – which include raising the minimum wage, capping the price of certain foods and energy and scrapping Macron’s pension reforms – collide with the European Union’s restrictive fiscal rules and France’s need to rein in its ballooning deficit.

A better night for Macron than expected, but he emerges weakened

Macron once said his thoughts are “too complex” for journalists. Still, his decision to call a snap election – three years earlier than necessary, and with his party way behind in the polls – baffled the sharpest of political analysts, caught even his closest allies off guard and left many French voters confused.

He called the vote minutes after his party was trounced by the RN in last month’s European Parliament elections. Although European results need have no bearing on domestic politics, Macron said he could not ignore the message sent to him by voters and wanted to clarify the situation.

But Sunday’s results suggest he has achieved the opposite. Éduoard Philippe, France’s former prime minister and an ally of Macron, said what was “intended as a clarification has instead led to great vagueness.” Although Macron’s party recovered from the first round, it lost around 100 seats compared to the 2022 election.

Where does France go from here?

Macron’s first decision is to appoint a new prime minister. He has already delayed this process by declining Gabriel Attal’s resignation, asking him to stay in office for now.

Typically, the French president appoints a prime minister from the largest bloc in parliament. But it is unclear from which party within the NFP this will be. Mélenchon’s party won the most seats within the NFP, but Macron’s allies have repeatedly refused to work with France Unbowed, saying it is just as extreme – and therefore as unfit to govern – as the RN.

In order to reach the majority needed to pass laws, the NFP will likely have to enter into alliances with Ensemble – as two coalitions enter an even larger coalition, straddling vast ideological ground. Finding common ground will be a fraught task, meaning gridlock is likely. Without a clear majority, a minority government faces the risk of no-confidence votes as soon as this month, which could lead to several governments replacing each other.

One way out could be a “technocratic” government, which would involve Macron appointing ministers with no party affiliation to manage day-to-day matters. But these can come to seem undemocratic and can further fan the flames of populism. Just look at Italy: after the premiership of Mario Draghi, the technocrat par excellence, the country elected its most far-right government since Benito Mussolini. While France avoided a far-right government for now, the RN threat is likely to remain strong.

Israeli and US officials showed optimism last week around a ceasefire-hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, as the Palestinian militant group expressed willingness to compromise on a key sticking point. But an agreement may still be elusive despite the new momentum.

A statement by the Israeli prime minister’s office on Sunday, however, cast doubt on whether the deal would progress, laying out several “principles” Israel is not prepared to abandon, including resumed fighting in Gaza “until all of objectives of the war have been achieved.”

Israel launched its war on Gaza nine months ago, in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The war has left swathes of the enclave unrecognizable, displaced almost the entire population and killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry there. Israel had said it wouldn’t end the war until all hostages are freed and Hamas is eliminated.

Some experts say Netanyahu’s statement on Sunday suggests the deal may face new hurdles.

“I don’t think that Hamas will give in to additional Israeli demands,” such as staying on the Philadelphi Corridor, Baskin said, referring to the 14-kilometer (about 8.7-mile) buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border. Hamas is also unlikely to agree to an Israeli demand of “a veto on the selection of Palestinian prisoners to be released.”

Here’s what we know about where the talks stand.

What is the deal that is on the table?

US President Joe Biden in May laid out a three-phase proposal that he said Israel had submitted, as he declared “it’s time for this war to end.”

The first phase of the potential agreement would last six weeks and include the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza” as well as the “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.” Phase 2 would allow for the “exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers.” In Phase 3, the president said, a “major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence and any final remains of hostages who’ve been killed will be returned to their families.”

What is Hamas’ position?

Hamas has long demanded that Israel agree to a permanent ceasefire before signing any deal, which Israel has so far refused.

This means, in the first phase, mediators would guarantee a temporary truce, the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. Indirect talks would continue towards implementing the second phase of the agreement.

The demand for a prior commitment to a permanent ceasefire had been a key sticking point for Israel, as Netanyahu insisted his country would not end the war until Hamas is defeated – a goal critics deem too ambitious to achieve.

What is Netanyahu’s position?

Netanyahu on Thursday authorized his negotiators to enter into detailed talks in a bid to broker a deal, an Israeli official and a source familiar with the negotiations said, signaling progress after weeks of deadlock.

In a statement Sunday, however, Netanyahu’s office published a list of principles that it said will not be infringed upon by the plan agreed to by Israel and Biden. The prime minister’s “steadfast position” against calls to halt Israeli military action in the southern Gaza city of Rafah is what brought Hamas to the negotiating table, the statement said.

The principles include a resumption of the war until “all of objectives of the war have been achieved” and the prevention of “smuggling of weapons to Hamas from Egypt to the Gaza border.”

Israel began a ground operation in Rafah on May 7, crossing the Philadelphi Corridor and seizing the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt. Israel has long accused Hamas of using the Philadelphi corridor to smuggle weapons from Egypt.

Netanyahu also said there will be “no return of thousands of armed terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip,” the statement said.

What is the White House saying?

Asked if the administration believes that Netanyahu is playing politics and could try to sabotage the deal, the official said the deal is structured in a way that “fully protects Israel’s interests.”

The developments came after the US proposed new language to help bridge gaps in discussions for a deal, and as Biden scrambled for political survival after floundering in a presidential debate against his predecessor Donald Trump. Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict has been a key issue for voters.

Are the two sides closer to a deal?

Optimism that a deal may be reached has possibly been dampened by Netanyahu’s demands on Sunday.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized the prime minister, calling his statement “provocative.”

“What is it good for? We are at a critical moment in the negotiations, the lives of the abductees depend on it,” Lapid wrote Sunday on X. “Why issue such provocative messages? How does it contribute to the process?”

Baskin, the former negotiator, said that added US pressure is unlikely to sway the Israeli prime minister, who is battling for political survival amid anti-government protests demanding his resignation. Netanyahu is also bound by the demands of right-wing ministers in his coalition who are opposed to any compromise with Hamas.

US pressure is “strongly diminished now” after Biden’s debate against Trump, Baskin said. Biden’s weak debate performance only led more Democrats to express doubts that he can beat his opponent in the upcoming election.