PARIS (AFP) - An opinion poll published in newspaper Les Echos on Friday said French far-right party National Rally (NR) further rose in its forecast and may reach as much as 37 percent of the popular vote, two days before the first voting round in parliamentary elections. NR was up by 2 percent from the last publication of the poll compiled by OpinionWay a week ago, while Macron’s centrist bloc Together poll was seen reaching 20 percent, down by 2 percent from the last publication. The New Popular Front leftwing alliance was seen reaching 28 percent of the vote, a level unchanged versus a week ago. OpinionWay made no seat projections for France’s next National Assembly which, due to the two-round majority voting system, could differ significantly from the measured popular vote.

 

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has successfully have conducted an important test aimed at developing missiles carrying multiple warheads, state media agency KCNA said. North Korea said the test was carried out using the first-stage, solid-fuel engine of an intermediate-range ballistic missile. The dispatch came a day after South Korea’s military said North Korea had launched what appeared to be a hypersonic missile off its east coast that exploded in midair. KCNA said the missile succeeded in separating warheads, which were accurately guided to three preset targets, in a test that was aimed at developing multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) technology.

 

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NAIROBI (Reuters) - Protests have continued in Kenya, albeit on a smaller scale, despite President William Ruto’s decision to drop tax hike proposals and his promise to institute austerity measures. Hundreds of people took to the streets of various towns across Kenya on Thursday, though their numbers were notably fewer than earlier in the week. They defied pleas from Ruto and his deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, who on Wednesday had urged them to call off the protests and engage in dialogue with the government. The demonstrators said they were protesting in memory of their colleagues who had died or been injured in previous rallies. 

 

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CAIRO (Reuters) - There is a realistic chance of famine in 14 areas across Sudan if the war that began in April last year escalates, a global monitor said on Thursday, in a sharply worsening hunger crisis that the World Food Programme called the world’s largest. The areas listed by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) as at risk of famine are those that have seen the heaviest fighting: the capital Khartoum, the regions of Darfur and Kordofan, and El Gezira state. It said the findings marked a “stark and rapid deterioration of the food-security situation” in Sudan since December, and the worst levels of hunger observed in the country since the IPC was formed 20 years ago.

 

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders agreed to nominate Ursula von der Leyen of Germany for a second five-year term as president of the European Commission, the EU’s powerful executive body. At a summit in Brussels, the bloc’s 27 national leaders also picked former Portuguese premier Antonio Costa as the future chair of their European Council meetings and selected Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the next EU foreign policy chief. “Mission accomplished! The European Council has delivered,” the body’s current chair, Charles Michel, told reporters early on Friday morning.