International Glance
Syria is holding parliamentary elections on Sunday forthe first time since the fall of the country's longtime autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, who was unseated in a rebel offensive in December.
Under the 50-year rule of the Assad dynasty, Syria held regular elections in which all Syrian citizens could vote. But in practice, the Assad-led Baath Party always dominated the parliament, and the votes were widely regarded as sham elections.
Outside election analysts said the only truly competitive part of the process came before election day — with the internal primary system in the Baath Party, when party members jockeyed for positions on the list.
The elections to be held on Sunday, however, will not be a fully democratic process either. Rather, most of the People's Assembly seats will be voted on by electoral colleges in each district, while one-third of the seats will be directly appointed by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
For the second anniversary of launching mobilization in the Russian Federation, the Chronicles research project and the Extreme Scan group conducted a survey among Russians which proved that almost half of them support the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that an independent Palestinian state is “not even a realistic thing right now.”
Japan's governing party on Saturday elected former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, a hard-line ultra-conservative and China hawk, as its new leader, making her likely to become the country's first female prime minister.
French photojournalist Antoni Lallican has been killed in a Russian drone strike in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military has said.
Hamas says that it accepts several parts of US President Donald Trump’s plan for a ceasefire in Israel’s nearly two-year war on Gaza, but that some elements of the proposal require further negotiations.
