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Polls open in 20 EU countries as voting for the European Parliament enters its final day

Polling stations have opened across Europe as voters from 20 countries cast ballots in elections that are expected to shift the European Union’s parliament to the right and could reshape the future direction of the world’s biggest trading bloc.

The war in Ukraine, migration, and the impact of climate policy on farmers are some of the issues weighing on voters’ minds as they cast ballots to elect 720 members of the European Parliament.

Surveys suggest that mainstream and pro-European parties will retain their majority in parliament, but that the hard right, including parties led by politicians like the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders and France’s Marine Le Pen will eat into their share of seats.

That would make it harder for Europe to pass legislation and make decisions.

EU lawmakers have a say in issues from financial rules to climate and agriculture policy. They approve the EU budget, which bankrolls priorities including infrastructure projects, farm subsidies and aid delivered to Ukraine. And they hold a veto over the appointment of the powerful EU commission.

This elections come at a testing time for voter confidence in a bloc of some 450 million people. Over the last five years, the EU has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, an economic slump and an energy crisis fueled by the biggest land conflict in Europe since the Second World War. But political campaigning often focuses on issues of concern in individual countries rather than on broader European interests.

Sunday’s voting marathon winds up a four-day election cycle that began in the Netherlands on Thursday.

An unofficial exit poll there suggested that Geert Wilders’ anti-migrant hard right party would make important gains in the Netherlands, even though a coalition of pro-European parties has probably pushed it into second place.

Casting his vote in the Flanders region, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency until the end of the month, warned that Europe is “at a crossroads” and “more under pressure than ever.”

https://apnews.com/article/eu-election-right-migration-climate-polls-vote-0fbfcb7bd987008e802d70f759fa870b

Haiti’s new prime minister hospitalized days after being selected to lead country

https://apnews.com/article/haiti-new-prime-minister-hospital-gary-conille-73718330cfad56df15cbb536e6d0487e

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s newly selected prime minister, Garry Conille, was hospitalized late Saturday in the capital of Port-au-Prince just days after arriving in the country, the government said.

It wasn’t immediately known why Conille was hospitalized.

The office of the prime minister said in a statement that Conille was feeling slightly unwell “following a week of intense activities.” It did not provide further details except to say that Conille was stable and that he thanked those who visited him and wished him well.

Louis Gérald Gilles, a member of the transitional presidential council that recently chose Conille as leader of the troubled Caribbean country, told The Associated Press that he was at the hospital but unable to provide further information.

A person close to Conille, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, told AP that he was with the prime minister when he noticed Conille, who he said is asthmatic and sometimes uses an inhaler, appeared to have trouble breathing. The person said he called high-ranking officials and told them Conille needed to be taken to the hospital.

Billionaire Frank Stronach, 91, is arrested and charged with sexually assaulting multiple women

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13509789/Billionaire-Sexual-Assault-canada-toronto.html

A 91-year-old billionaire was arrested on Friday for sexual assault charges that span multiple decades.

Frank Stronach, who once oversaw a sprawling auto-parts empire, was charged with five criminal offences, including rape, sexual assault, indecent assault on a female, and forcible confinement.

The Peel Regional Police revealed that the alleged sexual assaults lasted from the 1980s to 2023.

A 91-year-old billionaire was arrested on Friday for sexual assault charges that span multiple decades.

Frank Stronach, who once oversaw a sprawling auto-parts empire, was charged with five criminal offences, including rape, sexual assault, indecent assault on a female, and forcible confinement.

Peel Regional Police Constable Tyler Bell confirmed that there were multiple accusers, but he declined to specify how large the number was.

'Obviously, this is a high-profile case. Our special victims unit is bound to protect the victims and in doing so that's why we're being vague,' Bell said.

'There is more than one victim but we won't confirm that number yet,' he added.

To head up his defense team, Stronach has tapped distinguished lawyer Brian Greenspan, whose previous notable clients included Naomi Campbell and Justin Bieber.

In a statement, Greenspan said that the 91-year-old billionaire 'categorically denies' all of the allegations that have been brought against him.

Greenspan continued: 'He looks forward to the opportunity to fully respond to the charges and to maintain his legacy as a philanthropist and as an icon of the Canadian business community.'

Born in Austria in 1932, Stronach grew up under Nazi rule before moving to Canada in the mid-50s.

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/college-basketball/article-13510123/pete-maravich-son-josh-dead-lsu-nba-college-basketball.html

Inside Israel's dramatic hostage rescue: IDF helicopter snatch squads came under heavy fire as they freed Noa and three other Hamas captives in raid that was months in the planning but left one soldier dead

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13508779/Israeli-hostages-freed-IDF-snatch-squad.html