power

France's National Rally (RN) fell short of its ambition to capture Marseille and Toulon in yesterday's municipal ballots, a setback that offered a boost to embattled mainstream parties as they eye next year's presidential contest. In a separate high-stakes race, Socialist Party candidate Emmanuel Gregoire prevailed in the Paris mayoral contest, defeating conservative ex-minister Rachida Dati and keeping the French capital under left-wing control. These municipal votes were watched nationwide for signals ahead of the 2027…

Authorities in Cuba scrambled to restore electricity across the island on Monday after the country suffered a second nationwide blackout in under a week, a failure officials blame on aging infrastructure and a US oil blockade that has tightened fuel supplies. While sections of Havana reported the return of power, other neighborhoods remained without electricity a day after the energy ministry said the nation’s electrical system experienced a "total disconnection" in the country of nearly 10 million residents. Energy and…

Trump delays planned strikes on Iranian power grid for five days WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said Monday he has directed the US military to hold off for five days on planned strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure, citing “good and productive conversations” with Tehran. “I am pleased to report that the United States of America, and the country of Iran, have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the…

Two residents of Zaporizhzhia were killed and much of Chernihiv region was plunged into darkness after Russian strikes, Ukrainian officials reported. Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said the morning attack on the city claimed the lives of a man and a woman and wounded six other people, among them two children. In neighboring Chernihiv, Governor Viacheslav Chaus said crews were working to repair damage from a drone strike that struck an energy facility. The northern region, which shares borders with Russia and Belarus, had…

Iran elevated Mojtaba Khamenei to supreme leader following the Feb. 28 killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a U.S.-Israeli strike that also killed about 40 senior officials, a move intended to signal constitutional continuity in a precarious moment. The strike that assassinated the supreme leader aimed to decapitate Iran’s leadership and spur a popular push to unseat those in power. Debate over the strategy’s wisdom will continue, but authorities moved quickly to install Mojtaba Khamenei to show the state still…

Cuba works to restore power after nationwide blackout Cuba began restoring electricity after a nationwide blackout, with officials saying about two-thirds of the island had power by morning as authorities investigated the cause and reported no immediate damage from a separate offshore quake. Cuba was working to bring electricity back online following a countrywide outage, the government said, without specifying the cause. As of this morning, about two-thirds of the country had power again, according to the government. There…

Cuba grid collapse leaves millions without power; 14 detained after unrest Cuba’s national grid collapsed, the country’s grid operator said, leaving about 10 million people without electricity as officials reported arrests after protesters stormed a Communist Party office. The grid operator said the national electric system had collapsed, plunging much of the island into blackout. The scale of the outage was not immediately detailed beyond an estimate of around 10 million people without power. The island of 9.6 million…

Opinion/Analysis: Somalia’s constitutional crossroads — process, not power, will decide the future Somalia’s Constitution is again at the center of national politics. A round of changes presented as a constitutional amendment has triggered sharp objections from federal member states and opposition figures, raising questions about legality, legitimacy and the balance of power in the federation. At stake is not only the letter of the 2012 Provisional Federal Constitution but public confidence in the institutions charged with…

Somalia’s constitutional crisis has moved from a simmering dispute to a direct test of the country’s democratic commitments, as a recent bid to amend the Provisional Federal Constitution triggered accusations of procedural violations, executive overreach and erosion of federal norms. The constitution is meant to be Somalia’s stabilizing contract: a framework that binds clans, regions and political actors to shared rules. Changing it is not a technical exercise. It requires transparent debate, broad-based political consensus…

The United States–Iran crisis is not a two-player standoff. It is a layered confrontation running from Washington and Tehran through a lattice of militias, allies, maritime chokepoints and nuclear facilities. Understanding who the main actors are—and what levers they control—clarifies why the standoff persists, where it can flare and how it might be defused. The U.S. presidency is the cockpit of American policy, blending deterrence with limited diplomacy. The White House sets risk tolerance, balances support for Israel,…