Geopolitics

French left upsets right at polls

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Monday, 8 July 2024

“The road to the Olympics, leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads — in the end — to the best within us.”

Jesse Owens

STORY OF THE DAY

Jailed ex-Honduras president ‘haunted’ by 2010 Soccer World Cup photo

By Caryn Dolley
Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández was jailed for 45 years in the US last week. A photograph of him and drug traffickers at the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa resurfaced in his sentencing procedures.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
🇫🇷😮 France’s far right has been handed a surprise trouncing by the left. A group of socialists, communists and general opposites to Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won the most seats at 198, followed by Macron’s centrists with 169. The surprise result is also a setback for Macron, but more in a swerve left way than a plane-to-Rwanda way.
🇺🇸👴🏻 Joe Biden has continued his campaign of convincing voters that he’s still the best candidate for Democrats. Speaking in Pennsylvania over the weekend, Biden joked, “Folks, I know with every fibre of my being, I know I don’t look like I’m 40 years old.”
🇺🇾🚑 Ten people have died in a tragic fire at a nursing home in Uruguay. The six-room nursing home was in Treinta y Tres, in the eastern part of the country. The cause of the fire has not been disclosed.
🇺🇸🇳🇪 US troops have withdrawn from their base in Niger. Dubbed Air Base 101, the 1,000 or so troops left after the ruling junta ordered them out in April. Next up: a US exit from a $100-million drone base (Air Base 201).

PICTURE OF THE DAY

📷 Thomas Holder

“SA speed climber Aniya Holder in one last practice before heading to Paris for the Olympics.”
Johannesburg.
Have a picture for us? Send it our way.
Click here for last week’s pictures.

IN NUMBERS

109 billion

… the estimated number of all humans who have died.

FACTS OF THE DAY

Today in 1889, the first edition of The Wall Street Journal is published.

Professional whistling is a thing. There is even a World Whistling Championship.

SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
🏉 The Boks beat Ireland for the first time since 2016, ending a three-match losing streak, but coach Rassie Erasmus was not purring about the performance.

🎾 Women’s top seed Iga Swiatek crashed out of Wimbledon in the biggest shock of this year’s Championships so far. Poland’s Swiatek was beaten 3-6 6-1 6-2 by Yulia Putintseva in the third round.

🏁 Lewis Hamilton ended a 945-day wait for a Grand Prix win with a record ninth British Grand Prix victory at Silverstone. The Mercedes seven-times Formula One world champion won for the first time since Saudi Arabia on 5 December 2021 — 56 races ago.

DAILY MAVERICK TODAY

Impoverished Joburgers buckle under new monthly R200 prepaid meter fixed electricity surcharge

By Nonkululeko Njilo

Relations & Relationships — GNU’s success may depend on Cabinet’s internal dynamics

By Stephen Grootes

Thousands left homeless in Western Cape as gale-force winds and torrential rain wreak havoc

By Takudzwa Pongweni

SA Weather Service extends dryer and warmer-than-usual forecast to November

By Ed Stoddard

Brazen Soweto criminals now target delivery vehicles at traffic lights and malls

By Bheki C. Simelane

OPINIONISTAS

We finally have a Cabinet — now let’s get down to business

By Melanie Verwoerd

SA’s midsummer drought takes its toll, but grain crop supply is not in jeopardy

By Wandile Sihlobo

John Stupart

Newsletters Editor
 
 

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