6.10.2024

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European Parliamentary Elections

French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the lower house of parliament yesterday and called for snap elections later this month after projections showed the far-right National Rally party defeating pro-European centrists in elections to represent the country in the European Parliament.

France was one of 21 countries voting yesterday in European Parliament elections, and the final group to determine the makeup of the Parliament's 720 members, elected every five years. As of this writing, centrist groups were projected to keep their majority in the EU Parliament, though a number of nationalist-populist parties were projected to make gains. In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany earned 16.5% of the country's vote, outperforming the center-left Social Democratic Party. More than 370 million people were eligible to vote in European Parliament elections, the world's biggest democratic exercise after India's elections.

Separately, the EU's poorest country, Bulgaria, also held snap parliamentary elections yesterday following the collapse of its ruling centrist coalition earlier this year. The election marks the country's sixth in three years, following anticorruption protests in 2020. 

Israel's Hostage Operation

An Israeli special forces operation in central Gaza Saturday retrieved four living hostages captured on Oct. 7. More than 270 Palestinians were killed, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The daytime operation involved storming two multistory apartment buildings 650 feet apart, where hostages were held separately. Israel says special forces came under heavy fire, including from rocket-propelled grenades, with one Israeli officer killed. Among the hostages was Noa Argamani, filmed taken into Gaza on a motorcycle in a highly publicized video. About 120 hostages are believed to still be in Gaza, including 43 presumed dead. More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry.

Separately, opposition leader Benny Gantz resigned yesterday from Israel's war cabinet after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to set forth a postwar plan for Gaza. Netanyahu's coalition still holds enough seats to remain in power.

'Earthrise' Astronaut Dies

Former NASA astronaut Bill Anders died Friday in a plane crash near the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state, according to his family. The cause of the accident has not been determined; the 90-year-old Anders was piloting the craft and was the only one aboard. 

Anders was part of the Apollo 8 crew—the first humans to reach, but not land on, the moon. The mission helped lay the groundwork for Apollo 11, where astronauts first set foot on the lunar surface. 

Apollo 8 orbited the moon 10 times, during which Anders snapped a photo that became known as "Earthrise," depicting the Earth rising above the moon's horizon. Admirers of the shot said it contextualized Earth's fragility—the image has been credited with launching the modern environmental movement and has been called the most important environmental photo ever taken. 

See more images of Earth taken by the different Apollo missions here.

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