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.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Russia on Monday for his first visit to the country since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a sign that the two nations remain close despite the Kremlin’s deepening dependence on China.

During his two-day visit, Modi is expected to attend a private dinner hosted by Vladimir Putin and hold talks with the Russian president, according to India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

The summit will “provide an opportunity to the two leaders to review the whole range of bilateral issues,” Jaiswal told reporters in New Delhi last week, adding that Modi and Putin will “also share perspectives on regional and global developments of mutual interest.”

India remains heavily reliant on the Kremlin for its military equipment and has ramped up purchases of discounted Russian crude oil, giving Putin’s nation a major financial lifeline as it faces isolation from the West.

Trade between the two countries was worth nearly $65 billion in 2023-24, primarily due to strong energy cooperation, but most of that total flowed toward Russia, Jaiswal said.

Reducing the trade imbalance would be a “matter of priority” in Modi’s discussions with Putin, he added.

Modi last met with Putin on the sidelines of the 2022 SCO meeting in Uzbekistan, when he told the Russian leader: “Now is not the time for war.”

But while India has called for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine and restoration of peace, it has also abstained from all resolutions on Ukraine at the United Nations and stopped short of condemning Russia’s invasion.

“I look forward to reviewing all aspects of bilateral cooperation with my friend President Vladimir Putin and sharing perspectives on various regional and global issues,” Modi said in a statement from his office before departing for Russia. “We seek to play a supportive role for a peaceful and stable region.”

Monday’s trip will be Modi’s first bilateral visit since winning a third consecutive term in a massive general election last month and is seen as a rare break in convention for an Indian leader who typically travels to neighboring countries such as Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

The visit also comes as Russia draws ever closer to China, potentially making New Delhi uncomfortable due to its longstanding Himalayan border dispute with Beijing, which has simmered in recent years.

Modi’s trip follows Putin’s return from Kazakhstan, where the Russian leader last week attended the annual leaders’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a bloc of Eurasian countries spearheaded by China and Russia, at which he claimed Moscow-Beijing relations were experiencing “the best period in their history.”

For India, that burgeoning relationship is “a matter of deep concern,” said Nandan Unnikrishnan, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

“That is one of the reasons that Mr. Modi is undertaking this trip because traditionally, the Soviet Union and then subsequently Russia, has been a balancer in our relationship with China, which has been not the best since the late ’50s of the last century,” he said.

Despite India being an SCO member, Modi was visibly absent from the meeting in Kazakhstan, indicating to some analysts that the leader of the world’s largest democracy does not view the bloc as an effective channel through which New Delhi can pursue its interests.

Modi’s visit to Russia is also widely seen as the latest dent in efforts by Western leaders to cast Putin aside.

Despite undermining Western sanctions by purchasing large quantities of Russian oil, New Delhi has remained close with the United States, a key partner as both countries share concerns over China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.

Modi met with US President Joe Biden during a state visit to Washington in June last year, in a trip further cementing their defense, trade and technology partnership. The Indian leader also addressed Congress during that trip, an honor typically reserved for close US allies and partners, and attended a lavish state dinner. India is a member of the Quad security grouping with the US, Japan and Australia.

Later that year, Putin did not attend the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi, during which leaders delivered a consensus statement criticizing his invasion of Ukraine.

Following his Russia trip, Modi will visit Austria in the Indian leader’s first visit to the European nation, according to his office.

The condition of an American citizen injured Sunday after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired missiles toward northern Israel is “worsening,” according to the medical center treating him.

The 31-year-old man suffered shrapnel injuries to his upper body and was admitted to the operating room Sunday evening local time, the Galilee Medical Center said in a statement.

Two other people injured by the missile fire – a soldier and a civilian – have also been hospitalized in a surgical department, the center added.

Hezbollah fired dozens of projectiles and anti-tank missiles toward northern Israel on Sunday, according to the Israeli military. It said the soldier had been lightly injured and evacuated to receive treatment.

The two civilians were both hit by shrapnel, according to the medical center.

“(He) was admitted to the shock room, where the medical teams had to anesthetize him and put him on a ventilator,” the center added.

The Israeli military said it had responded with strikes on Hezbollah military structures.

Hezbollah said in multiple statements on Sunday that it had fired rockets toward several Israeli military sites.

That comes after the Israeli military conducted an airstrike in northern Lebanon on Saturday that it said killed a senior Hezbollah operative.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Moscow has vowed to respond to Ukrainian attacks within its borders after a drone set on fire a warehouse allegedly storing munitions, prompting a state of emergency in Russia’s south-western Voronezh region.

The drone attack took place in a settlement in the Podgorensky district, Voronezh governor Aleksandr Gusev said Sunday. Ukrainian sources said the warehouse was targeted because it was being used to supply ammunition to Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

“Several UAVs were detected and destroyed by on-duty air defense forces over the territory of the Voronezh region last night. A fire broke out at a warehouse due to the fall of their wreckage. Detonation of explosive items began in the Podgorensky district,” Gusev said.

He did not identify the settlement where the attack took place, but said a state of emergency had been declared there. No one was injured in the attack, but two elderly women were taken to hospital for checks, he said.

“Operational services, military and officials are working on the site to eliminate the emergency,” he said, adding arrangements have been made for the evacuation of residents from nearby villages as well.

“So far, some 50 people from three settlements have been transported to temporary accommodation centers. We are providing them with all the necessary assistance,” he said.

A Ukrainian source familiar with the matter said drones of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) targeted the warehouse because it was being used to supply ammunition to Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a state broadcaster following the attack that “the president has said that we would respond – and I am convinced that you will see it in the foreseeable future.”

“They – the United States and NATO – keep on saying that they are not at war with Russia. This is not a brave face on a bad situation, that’s what I’ll say, and they understand it perfectly well,” Lavrov said, according to state news agency TASS.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian drone attacks had also been intercepted Saturday night in the border region of Belgorod.

Meanwhile, Russian attacks in Ukraine also continued on Sunday, injuring at least two people in the Kharkiv region, according to local authorities.

Further south in Kherson region, rescuers put out 14 fires due to Russian shelling that damaged residential buildings and cars, according to authorities.

China anchored one of its two “monster” coast guard ships inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) last week in what a Philippine official called an act of “intimidation” in the ongoing territorial dispute between Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the China Coast Guard vessel CCG-5901 anchored near Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of the Philippine island of Palawan on July 3, well within Manila’s 230-mile EEZ.

Displacing 12,000 tons and with a length of 541 feet, CCG-5901 is three times the size of the United States Coast Guard’s main patrol vessels, the National Security Cutters – leading many observers to refer to the Chinese vessel as “The Monster.”

While at Sabina Shoal, the Chinese ship anchored within 800 yards of one of the Philippine Coast Guard’s newest and biggest ships previously deployed to the area, Tarriela said in a post on X.

CCG-5901 is more than five times the size of the Philippine ship, the BRP Teresa Magbanua.

“It’s an intimidation on the part of the China Coast Guard,” Tarriela said during a forum on Saturday, according to a Reuters report.

But he said the Philippines would not back down on its South China Sea claims.

“We’re not going to pull out, and we’re not going to be intimidated,” Tarriela added.

When asked the Philippine claims during a regular press briefing Monday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the area in question was part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

“China’s military and police ships patrolling and enforcing the law in the waters near Xianbin Jiao are in compliance with China’s domestic law and international law,” spokesperson Lin Jian said, using the Chinese term for the Sabina Shoal.

China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all of the South China Sea, and most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles from mainland China. Multiple governments, including Manila, hold competing claims.

In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a landmark dispute, which concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.

But Beijing has ignored the ruling. Instead it has increasingly pushed its maritime territorial claims, with China Coast Guard ships – reinforced by militia boats – involved in multiple clashes over the past year that have damaged Philippine ships and seen Filipino sailors injured by water cannon.

A clash near Second Thomas Shoal in June saw Chinese coast guard officers brandishing an axe and other bladed or pointed tools at Filipino soldiers and slashing their rubber boat. A Filipino soldier lost a thumb during the confrontation.

CCG-5901 wasn’t involved in that incident but has been prowling areas of the Philippines’ EEZ since, according to Ray Powell, a South China Sea expert and director of SeaLight at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University.

“Immediately following the dramatic standoff at Second Thomas Shoal … The Monster toured nearly every Philippine outpost and key feature in the South China Sea,” Powell said.

Powell and other analysts say intimidation is one of the main jobs of the CCG-5901, which is larger than any regular coast guard ship in the world (a specialty US Coast Guard icebreaker is bigger) and even outsizes US Navy destroyers.

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyers displace 9,700 tons or less and are about 35 feet shorter than CCG-5901.

The US Coast Guard’s National Security Cutters, displace 4,500 tons, a third of the size of CCG-5901.

In a firepower comparison, CCG-5901 also betters the US cutters, with two main 76.2-millimeters guns compared to one main 57-millimeter gun on the US ships.

“Its massive size enables it to intimidate its neighbors while avoiding the escalatory implications of sending a gray-hulled military vessel,” Powell said, referring to navy ships.

Coast guards, known as white-hulled vessels because of their color, are usually assigned to law enforcement and search-and-rescue operations. In most countries, they are not normally expected to participate in military operations.

The US Coast Guard, for instance, is part of the US Department of Homeland Security, not the Defense Department, although US Coast Guard vessels can come under US Navy control in certain scenarios.

The China Coast Guard is part of the country’s People’s Armed Police, which is under the command of the Central Military Commission.

Analysts say that’s a key difference between the two coast guard agencies.

“It is not really intended to carry out traditional coast guard missions, but is primarily used as a central element in China’s paramilitary maritime force,” Powell said of “The Monster.”

Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said CCG-5901’s size and crew enable it to be a central command ship for a larger operation.

He noted that a Chinese navy aircraft carrier was also operating near the Philippines in recent weeks and that the combination of the two is a coordinated effort to demonstrate overwhelming Chinese naval power to Manila.

China has both the world’s largest navy, in terms of sheer ship numbers, as well as the world’s largest coast guard.

Collin Koh, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said “The Monster” shows the Chinese military’s ability for “escalation dominance,” adding that the vessel the Philippines had previously sent to Sabina Shoal, the Teresa Magbanua, was one of its best.

The China Coast Guard “doesn’t want to be outdone thus this monster came along to show who’s got a bigger set of muscles,” Koh said.

A month ago, the New Popular Front (NFP) did not exist. Now, it has won the most seats in the French parliament and could provide France with its next prime minister.

The left-wing coalition chose its name in an attempt to resurrect the original Popular Front that blocked the far right from gaining power in 1936. Official results released early Monday show the NFP has done so again — winning 182 seats in the National Assembly, making it the largest bloc but short of an absolute majority, according to the French Interior Ministry.

But the hastily assembled coalition comprises disparate political parties that have not always played nice. And it has campaigned on a platform of high public spending that has spooked financial markets and could tip France into economic chaos.

So, what is the NFP, what does it stand for, and who are its key players?

Who are the NFP?

The NFP is made up of several parties: the far-left France Unbowed party; the more moderate Socialist Party; the green Ecologist party; the French Communist Party; the center-left Place Publique, and other small parties.

It formed just days after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election, in the wake of his centrist party’s embarrassing defeat to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party in last month’s European Parliament election.

“Following his side’s defeat at the European elections, Emmanuel Macron has opted for a gamble at a time when the far right is at its most powerful, running the risk of seeing it come to power for the first time since Vichy,” Socialist leader Olivier Faure said last month, referring to the French government that collaborated with Nazi occupiers during World War II.

“Only a united left can stand in its way,” he said.

Who’s in charge of the NFP?

It’s hard to say. Each party celebrated the results at their own headquarters and separate campaign events, rather than together. Going into the second round, it was not clear who the coalition would nominate to be its prime minister.

Its most prominent – and divisive – figure is Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a 72-year-old populist firebrand and longtime leader of the France Unbowed party.

France Unbowed is the largest single party within the coalition, winning 74 seats in Sunday’s vote ahead of the Socialists on 59 seats.

With France now facing a hung parliament it remains unclear who the next prime minister will be. Figures in Macron’s Ensemble party have repeatedly said they would refuse to work with France Unbowed, saying it is just as extreme – and therefore as unfit to govern – as the RN.

Announcing his intention to resign Monday as prime minister, Gabriel Attal said, in an apparent swipe to France Unbowed: “No absolute majority can be led by the extremes. We owe it to the French spirit, so deeply attached to the Republic and its values.”

Mélenchon’s three presidential campaigns have been beset by accusations of antisemitism. In a recent survey of French Jewish voters by Ifop, 57% said they would leave France if Mélenchon’s party were to govern.

A more acceptable face of the coalition could be the Socialist Faure, or Raphaël Glucksmann, the moderate leader of Place Publique and a member of the European Parliament.

What are the NFP’s policies?

On foreign policy, the NFP has pledged to “immediately recognize” a Palestinian state, and will push for Israel and Hamas to cease fire in Gaza.

The NFP campaigned on an expansive economic platform, promising to raise the minimum monthly wage to 1,600 euros (more than $1,700) and to cap the price of essential foods, electricity, fuel and gas.

It also pledged to scrap Macron’s pension reform, a deeply unpopular policy that raised the French retirement age – one of the lowest in the Western world – from 62 to 64.

While these pledges have proved popular, they have been made at a time when France could be heading for a period of austerity.

France is running one of the highest deficits in the Eurozone and now risks falling foul of the European Commission’s new fiscal rules, which were suspended to help countries recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and energy crisis.

Since Macron called the election, financial markets have taken fright – first at the prospect of an extremist government, then at the economic policies of the hard left and right, with the RN also promising an expansive fiscal program.

Because the NFP did not win enough seats to form an absolute majority, it will have to enter into another coalition – likely with Ensemble, which may try to dilute some of its more radical spending policies – in order to pass laws. This process is likely to be frustrating, as several parties – straddling huge ideological divides – try to find common ground.

A fashion major from a vocational high school in rural China has amazed the nation by outshining elite students in a global math contest – but the teenager’s underdog story has now been mired by controversy.

Jiang Ping, born in a poor village in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, ranked 12th out of 802 shortlisted competitors – mostly from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Oxford, and MIT – in first-round results released on June 13 by DAMO Academy, the organizer of the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition.

Launched in 2018 by Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, the free online contest is open to math enthusiasts worldwide, though Chinese math majors typically dominate the top places. This year’s top 85 finishers will win prizes from $2,000 to $30,000.

Jiang’s high placement – in the first of the contest’s two rounds – was a remarkable achievement for a student from one of the country’s vocational schools, which suffer deep-seated social prejudices and whose graduates occupy the lowest rungs of China’s educational hierarchy.

Her success initially garnered nationwide acclaim, with multiple Chinese state media outlets jumping on the story and a deluge of online commentary buoyed by seeing a vocational student do so well in an international math competition.

But doubts about the 17-year-old’s math skills have gained momentum online since the end of last month, ahead of the release next month of results from the much more challenging second round. The organizing committee has yet to address them.

Suspicions cast

Jiang’s gift for math came to the fore in junior high, where her scores far outstripped those of her peers, state-run news agency Xinhua reported. She was later trained by math teacher Wang Runqiu at Lianshu Secondary Vocational School, where she studies fashion design.

Wang, a three-time finalist in the contest, helped Jiang to teach herself advanced math over the past two years, according to Xinhua.

Since Jiang’s top-20 finish in the first round was announced, a related hashtag topped searches on X-like platform Weibo, amassing more than 650 million views so far. In her hometown, her image beamed from television screens at local malls.

Jiang finished the final round on June 22, and the results will be released in August.

However, just a day after the final, Richard Xu from Harvard Business School, who placed 190th in the first round, announced on China’s Quora-type site Zhihu that he, along with 38 other contestants, had filed a joint letter to the organizing committee asking for an independent investigation into Jiang and Wang’s answer sheets from the qualifying round.

The letter cites “evidence” of alleged fraud, including a theory of “collaborative cheating” headed by Wang, who came 125th.

Four days before the final round, Yin Wotao, a member of the organizing committee, had defended Jiang in a soon-deleted response to a skeptic on X.

“Some math amateurs have indeed placed well in the qualifying rounds in past years,” given the moderate difficulty and generous 48-hour time limit, Yin argued.

Blocked from accessing Yin’s short-lived comments by Chinese internet restrictions, users posted on the Lianshui county government’s website, demanding an official investigation into Jiang and Wang.

On June 27, the local government confirmed what until that point had been an online rumor that Jiang scored only 83 out of 150 in a school math exam held after the qualifying round. The next day, it provided a formulaic response to further related queries, saying “the investigation is underway.”

Soon after, all the posts relating to Jiang were taken down and there’s been no update since.

Social stigma for vocational students

Among the cacophony of commentary, some suspect the harsh public scrutiny of Jiang is rooted in social prejudice against vocational students.

These students make up the bottom 40% in China’s senior high school entrance exam, or “zhongkao.” They do not qualify to enter regular high schools, where students cram for “gaokao,” China’s notoriously daunting college entrance exam.

In a society where poor academic performance is often equated with moral failings, “lazy bones,” “small-timers,” and “delinquents” have become bywords for the cohort who perform poorly on the zhongkao at 15 and are generally resigned to toil in factories for the rest of their lives.

This represents a stark reversal from the 1980s and 90s when vocational schooling was respected as a sought-after path to “iron rice bowls,” a popular term for secure jobs, amid the country’s urgent need for technical workers. However, the boom soon died down as higher education expanded in 1999.

As China races to meet its ambitious “Made in China 2025” goal to become “a world manufacturing power,” Beijing has been strengthening vocational education in recent years. But structural discrimination in China’s schools, universities and workplaces means society still favors academic degrees over trades.

Another ‘disappeared Einstein’?

In an interview with The Beijing News, a Communist Party-owned newspaper, Jiang said she wanted to go college and that her dream school was Zhejiang University, a top academy in the e-commerce hub Hangzhou. But that could still be difficult despite her apparent maths proficiency.

Jiang’s mentor Wang told the state-run Xinhua Daily that due to restrictions on major choices for future vocational education, she can only apply to three colleges in Jiangsu province, with her best option being a second-tier public university.

“China selects and categorizes talents way too early and too rigidly. This has greatly limited individuals’ future options and paths,” said Zhao, citing Germany and Finland as better examples of dual-track schooling with greater flexibility for students to shift between vocational and academic tracks.

Beijing’s attempt to emulate those European nations by encouraging resource exchanges between the two types of schools over the past decade has met a lukewarm response from high schools busy coaching students to score higher in the “gaokao” university entrance exam.

According to Zhao, Jiang is already “a lucky rarity if she’s truly gifted in math.” But he warned she may become a “disappeared Einstein” – one of the many buried talents in China’s education system.

The jury is still out, with second-round results due next month.

Jiang considers math her “Plan B,” prioritizing fashion design for future study, according to The Beijing News.

Zhao said working in a factory is a “reasonable choice” for the 17-year-old village girl, who as a vocational student has limited options for higher education.

“After all, she has a mouth to feed,” he said.

“I threw my live grenade at their feet” is how French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly saw his call for snap elections after a stinging far-right victory in June’s European elections.

It was an explosive gamble and the final results took the country by surprise: France’s left-wing alliance coming in first with 182 seats and the far-right trailing in third place – a shocking reversal of last Sunday’s first-round results.

On Place de la Republique in Paris news of the projected results was met with rapturous applause and fireworks as people embraced one another, breathing a collective sigh of relief: in their eyes, France had been pulled back from the brink.

Turnout on Sunday was the highest in a parliamentary election for more than 20 years as French citizens took to the ballot box to make their feelings known: they did not want the far-right to govern.

However, with the left falling short of the 289 seats needed for a majority and with a weakened president, the national assembly is expected to be more fractured than ever.

What’s certain is that France is set to enter a prolonged period of instability as three opposing blocs with competing ideas and agendas try to form coalition or find themselves stuck in a state of paralysis.

Visibly disappointed, the far-right National Rally (RN) leader Jordan Bardella argued that his party’s defeat was only made possible by the tactical voting orchestrated by Macron and the left-wing NFP coalition that decided to withdraw 200 candidates from the race this week in an effort to block the far right.

Though the RN didn’t do as well as expected, it is still a victory for French far-right doyenne Marine Le Pen with her party getting more votes with each passing election. 8 in 2017, 89 in 2022, 143 in 2024 – the latter with the help of allies.

For the left-wing NFP alliance, it is going to have a tough time speaking with one voice. The last time it formed a bloc under the name of Nupes, in 2022, it fell apart because of personal differences as well as policy.

The bloc brings together five different parties. Far-left France Unbowed and the Communist party has joined with the center-left parties, the socialists and the greens to form a New Popular Front. Now the challenge is no longer whether the left can unite against the far right, but rather can the different groups work together to agree first on who might be prime minister from their camp – and then on the policies they might pursue?

How instability might impact internationally

With such a divided parliament there is no hope for major structural reforms at a domestic level, the best the leftists can hope for are ad hoc alliances to vote through individual pieces of legislation.

It’s equally hard to imagine how the current constellation would allow France to play an important role regarding Ukraine. Macron in the past has vowed to continue supporting Ukraine militarily while Le Pen has said her party would prevent Kyiv using French-supplied long-range weapons to strike inside Russia and would oppose sending French troops.

The left has remained relatively quiet on Ukraine – different parties from the coalition have slightly different stances – France Unbowed is against what it calls “escalation” with Russia.

Macron’s central bloc seems to have held up quite well, winning 163 seats. Even though it lost roughly 100 MPs, it’s a much better result than what the polls were suggesting, although we will see a shift in power from the Elysée to the National Assembly.

Macron’s gamble may have prevented the far right from coming to power, but it could yet plunge the country into chaos. And with no parliamentary elections scheduled for another year, France is in for anuncertain time with the eyes of the world firmly on Paris as it prepares to welcome the Olympics in three weeks’ time.

Voters are heading to the polls across France to vote in the second round of a snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron, who risks losing swaths of his centrist allies in parliament and being forced to see out the remaining three years of his presidential term in an awkward partnership with the far right.

After taking the lead in the first round of voting last Sunday, the far-right National Rally (RN) – led by the 28-year-old Jordan Bardella under the watchful eye of party doyenne Marine Le Pen – is closer to power than ever before.

The RN, whose once-taboo brand of anti-immigrant politics has been given a fresh and more acceptable face by Bardella, won 33% of the popular vote in the first round. The newly-formed left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front (NFP), came second with 28%, while Macron’s Ensemble alliance trailed in a distant third with 21%.

But the prospect of a far-right government – which would be France’s first since the collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II – has spurred Ensemble and the NFP into action. After a week of political bargaining, hundreds of candidates stood down in particular seats to try to deny the RN an absolute majority.

Voting began at 8 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET), as France began the process of electing the 577 members of its National Assembly, in which 289 seats are needed for a party to hold an absolute majority. In the outgoing parliament, Macron’s alliance had only 250 seats, and so needed support from other parties to pass laws.

Only those who win more than 12.5% of the votes of registered votes in the first round can stand in the second, meaning it is often fought between two candidates. But this time a record number of seats – more than 300 – produced a three-way run-off, in a measure of France’s polarization. In an attempt not to split the anti-far right vote, more than 200 candidates from Macron’s alliance and the NFP agreed to stand down in the second round.

While RN’s strong showing in the first round means it could more than triple the 88 seats it had in the outgoing parliament, it is not clear if it will be able to reach an absolute majority. Although it is customary for the president to appoint a prime minister from the largest party, Bardella has repeatedly said he will refuse to form a minority government.

In that case, Macron might have to search for a prime minister on the hard left or, to form a technocratic government, somewhere else entirely.

Whatever the result of Sunday’s vote, France seems set to endure a period of political chaos, with Macron unable to call another parliamentary election for at least a year.

The campaign has already been marred with violence. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Friday that 51 candidates and campaigners had been assaulted on the campaign trail, leading to some being hospitalized.

The vote is being held three years earlier than necessary. France was not due to hold parliamentary elections until 2027, but Macron called the snap vote – the first time a French leader has done so since 1997 – after his party was trounced by the RN at last month’s European Parliament elections.

Although the European election 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.

Some have argued that, with the possibility of the RN winning both the presidency and the parliament in 2027, Macron was keen to expose it to government beforehand, in the hope that it would lose its appeal once in office. If the RN refuses to form a minority government, Macron’s gamble could backfire.

An RN-led government would have huge implications for France and the rest of Europe. Its spending plans – which include cutting value-added tax on electricity, fuel and other energy products – have alarmed financial markets and could put France on a collision course with Brussels’ restrictive spending laws.

On the continental stage, an RN-led government would further Europe’s rightward shift, at a time when the center is trying to remain united on issues like support for Ukraine, migration and climate change.

Standing between the RN and an absolute majority is the NFP, comprising more radical figures like Jean-Luc Melenchon, a three-time presidential candidate and leader of the France Unbowed party, as well as moderate leaders like Place Publique’s Raphael Gluckmann.

While Macron’s Ensemble allies said they will do everything in their power to stop the RN coming to power, it has refused to collaborate with or endorse candidates from France Unbowed. Gabriel Attal, Macron’s protege and the outgoing prime minister, has vowed never to enter into alliance with Melenchon.

Polls will close at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) Sunday, with the full results expected early Monday.

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City killed a senior official in the Hamas-run government Sunday, according to the organization.

Hamas said that Ehab al-Ghussein, the Deputy Minister of Labor, was among four people killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Holy Family School in Gaza City.

“Civil Defense crews in Gaza Governorate were able to retrieve four martyrs and a number of injured individuals after Israeli occupation aircraft targeted the ‘Holy Family’ school, which houses a large number of displaced persons west of Gaza City,” the Civil Defense Directorate said.

Al-Ghussein was 45 and had been the Deputy Minister of Labor in Gaza since 2020, as well as the Head of the Emergency Committee for the Civil Service of the Northern Gaza Strip.

In May, his sister Muna Jamal and wife Amani Sakeek were killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to reports at the time.

The Israeli military has said it carried out strikes in the area, saying it targeted “a complex inside of which terrorists were operating and hiding in the area of a school building in Gaza City.” It’s not clear whether the strikes were those in which a senior Hamas official was killed.

It added that “numerous steps were taken in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.”

The strike took place at UNRWA’s Al-Jaouni school in al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Saturday. The school was sheltering displaced people, according to the health ministry.