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    World elections

    July

    A protester runs past a police motorbike set on fire during demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election.

    Protests erupt in Venezuela as nations denounce election result

    The US and countries around the world denounced the official results of Sunday’s vote, which did not appear to match statistical estimates based on partial counts.

    • Frances Robles, Jack Nicas and Alejandro Cegarra
    President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters gathered outside the Miraflores presidential palace after electoral authorities declared him the winner.

    Maduro declared winner in Venezuela’s disputed presidential election

    Nicolás Maduro will face the challenge of legitimising the vote to his people and the rest of the world, given his government’s history of repression and fraudulent elections.

    • Updated
    • Patricia Laya and Andreina Itriago Acosta
    Protesters take a break near the front line of a conflict between farmers and police in Rajpura, India, on Thursday.

    India’s have-nots are expressing their displeasure

    While Mumbai’s super-rich show off their wealth, a chastened Narendra Modi moves to shore up support among the poor.

    • Hamish McDonald
    French President Emmanuel Macron has failed to counter the far-right narrative.

    French government to resign but stay on in caretaker role, sources say

    The caretaker government will run current affairs in France, including the start of the Olympics, but cannot pass laws.

    • Elizabeth Pineau
    Olivier Faure: “We will take our time, don’t worry.”

    France’s left-wing parties struggle to unite, Socialists’ leader says

    The New Popular Front, an alliance ranging from socialists and Greens to the communist party, won the parliamentary election but fell well short of a majority.

    • Sudip Kar-Gupta
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    Masoud Pezeshkian.

    Iran’s new president vows balance with all countries but warns US

    Masoud Pezeshkian urged Arab countries to use “all diplomatic leverages” to push for a lasting ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

    • Amir Vahdat
    Newly elected members of the Socialist party, with former French president Francois Hollande, pose outside the parliament.

    Macron coalition talks shaky as left ‘behaves like children’

    While French leftists demand the premiership, the president faces fissures in his own camp.

    • Leila Abboud, Adrienne Klasa, Sarah White and Ian Johnston

    France says adieu to the centre

    Australia too faces a drift to minority government, polarisation and identity politics at the next election, which France showed how easily can go off course.

    • The AFR View
    La Defense business district in Paris. Corporate heads have responded to the election result with a mix of relief and fear.

    Corporate France bids adieu to Macron’s pro-business agenda

    Many business leaders are relieved to see extremes neutralised, but political gridlock and the rise of the left has sparked concern.

    • Anne-Sylvaine Chassany, Adrienne Klasa, Leila Abboud and Sarah White
    President Joe Biden.

    Confused despair grips Democratic voters

    Joe Biden seems to be revelling in his determination to once again prove his doubters wrong. The Trump campaign is confident it ensures their victory on November 5.

    • Jennifer Hewett
    The centre ground in French politics is shrinking – and with it the authority of President Emmanuel Macron.

    Europe now leaderless as global threats rise

    President Emmanuel Macron’s authority in Europe has shrunk after chaotic national elections, while the UK’s influence has been hobbled by Brexit.

    • Gideon Rachman
    Populist-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon wants to play kingmaker.

    Markets on tenterhooks as French politicians jostle for power

    France’s left-wing parties are scrambling for a way to break the political impasse created by President Emmanuel Macron’s snap parliamentary election.

    • Hans van Leeuwen

    France faces political gridlock after shock election result

    France faces fresh political uncertainty and weeks of wrangling, with an intractable hung parliament carved up between three blocs, after a shock election result.

    • Updated
    • Hans van Leeuwen
    Look past election noise, Anna Shelley says to superannuation investors.

    Super fund savings will ride out ‘year of elections’: CIOs

    But investment chiefs warn that the rise of populism or an increase in US-China tensions could flow through to short-term returns.

    • Hannah Wootton
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    What are the options to govern France?

    Complicated talks lie ahead after snap elections called by Emmanuel Macron resulted in hung parliament.

    • Anne-Sylvaine Chassany, Leila Abboud, Adrienne Klasa and Ian Johnston
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    Immigration is the reason swing states are turning back to Trump

    Joe Biden is still betting big he can move key swing states his way, but Arizona was shifting back to Trump well before that debate. Jennifer Hewett reports from the south-west.

    • Jennifer Hewett
    A hung parliament would risk policy paralysis for the rest of President Emmanuel Macron’s presidency.

    France heads back to its postwar era of ungovernability

    France seems to be turning the clock back to the 4th Republic, the volatile postwar period when the presidency was weaker and a raucous parliament was supreme.

    • Ben Hall
    Marine Le Pen’s party was even beaten by President Macron’s centrist alliance.

    How it all went wrong for Le Pen’s National Rally

    The second round of the election was framed as a referendum for or against the hard right party, and the French clearly came out against.

    • Henry Samuel and Rebecca Rosman
    Far-right National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen answers a television network after the second round of the legislative election on Sunday in Paris.

    French left alliance set for shock victory over Le Pen and Macron

    The coalition’s surge is a surprise blow to far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who had hoped to form the next government, and incumbent president Emmanuel Macron.

    • Ania Nussbaum

    France braces for far-right chaos as voting under way

    France was voting on Sunday in pivotal runoff elections that could hand a historic victory to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and its inward-looking, anti-immigrant vision – or produce a hung parliament and years of political deadlock.

    • Barbara Surk and Helena Alves