This time the Pollsters managed to get it right. The two candidates to make it through the second round of the French elections are Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Marcon.
With almost all of the votes counted, Marcon gained 23.8% of the vote and Le Pen gained 21.6%. The result is notable because neither of France’s two major parties, the Socialists and the Republicans, managed to get their chosen candidate into the second round. The ruling Socialist party’s candidate gained a historically low 6% of the vote and the Republican’s Fillon, once a favorite to win, managed to gain just 20%.
Marcon and Le Pen will face off in the second round – Credit The Local
Le Pen cheered her “historic” victory in front of rapturous supporters and declared that the first hurdle towards the Elysée Palace had been overcome. Le Pen and the National Front may well have cleared the first jump but it looks as though the hardest battle is still to come.
Current polling gives Marcon a 61% lead over Le Pen, a gap that will likely narrow closer to the election but it is still a mountain to climb. On top of this, the Republicans candidate Fillon almost immediately threw his support behind Marcon stating that “there is no other choice but to vote against the far-right”.
A number of other French politicians have also put their weight behind Marcon and he is overwhelmingly the favored choice for the European Union and most of France’s neighbors. The German Foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel tweeted his support for Mr Marcon, a sentiment echoed by the leader of the German social democrats.
Le Pen’s supporters still have a mountain to climb if she is to be France’s first female President – Credit Times of Israel
No matter who wins the second round of the French elections, they will have to keep momentum up once they take the presidency. Both Le Pen and Marcon lack the support of France’s major political party, so will have to either make huge gains during the parliamentary elections or make a broad coalition in order to avoid becoming a lame duck.
Most pundits predict that Marcon will win the next round by a landslide and as things stand it looks like Le Pen is still a long way from the Elysée Palace. That said, the pundits have got it wrong more than once recently and Le Pen’s nationalist rhetoric plays well with large swathes of French society.
Set against the background of recent terror attacks and the looming refugee crisis this election is in many ways a battle for the soul of France. The question is, which France will prevail?
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, is traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with Republican lawmakers who will probably lead committees that regulate the tech sector.
Republican representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Darrel Issa of California, and Cathy McMorris Rogers of Washington are among those with whom Cook has booked meetings.
The meetings were probably planned several weeks, if not months, beforehand. Top conservatives have criticized Apple since the beginning, and many of them have joined with Twitter CEO Elon Musk in their recent dispute with Apple.
Jordan has publicly expressed his support for Elon Musk, as Bloomberg notes.
When the GOP wins over the House in 2023, Jordan is also set to serve as chair of the House Judiciary Committee. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s chairman is most likely to be McMorris Rodgers.
They both will play a key role in developing the GOP’s technology policy agenda for 2023.
What is particularly on the agenda is unclear. Even when he is not called to testify about big tech, Cook travels to Washington, DC, on several occasions each year.
The goal is to make sure marginalized people are considered in environmental decisions.
According to Reuters, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a new office to assist underserved communities in coping with the additional responsibilities of pollution and climate change. 200 EPA workers from the Washington headquarters and 10 regional bureaus will work in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights.
“The establishment of a new office dedicated to advancing environmental justice and civil rights at EPA will ensure the lived experiences of underserved communities are central to our decision-making while supporting community-driven solutions,” remarked Kamala Harris, vice president of the US.
As part of a $60 billion investment in environmental justice, one of the main responsibilities of the new office will be to supervise the distribution of $3 billion in grants for environmental justice that were made possible by the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, it will ensure that other EPA initiatives adhere to President Biden’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to ensure that 40% of certain government spending go to underserved communities. Finally, it will assist localities in obtaining funds, upholding human rights legislation, and resolving environmental disputes.
The opening of the new office took place in Warren County, North Carolina, the scene of demonstrations against the disposal of toxic waste there in 1982. While the 22-acre dump was not stopped as a result of the civil disobedience actions and arrests that followed, the current environmental justice movement was born. Participants remembered the protests’ 40th anniversary last week.
The competition between Pewdiepie and T-Series has been going on for quite a while. I say this mostly because if Pewdiepie was in the middle of a smear campaign, I would certainly believe that it was all a ploy by T-Series in order to make him lose popularity. However, it seems like T-Series doesn’t have to do much as Pewdiepie is no stranger to getting himself into trouble.
So, what did Pewdiepie do this time? Well, in his most recent edition of “Pew News,” a semi-satirical series where Pewds offers his own take on news events or YouTube discussions, he dedicates the last portion of the video to shouting out smaller YouTube creators he enjoys watching. One of those creators is E;R (otherwise known as “EsemicolonR”), an essayist who often includes anti-Semitic, sexist, homophobic, and cruel language in his videos.
At least that’s what TheVerge and so many outlets/other YouTubers are saying. I took a look at E;R’s content and saw mostly meme videos about political stuff. The guy even made a tribute to Tay AI. You can see a whole documentary made about this by Internet Historian down below:
However, the subjects tackled in the videos can be a bit more problematic because of the current political climate with Pewdiepie. As such, we can assume that a lot of people don’t find this very funny and even reprehensible. Especially when the US is caught in the middle of tension thanks to laws like FOSTA, which are an indirect cause of Tumblr’s collapse right now.
Ever since Pewdiepie has made the shoutout, the channel has gained over 15,000 Subscribers. Of course, this also means that the ire of the people who are against him has risen even more. As such, we’re in this situation where Pewdiepie has gotten himself into trouble yet again despite knowing that the current situation is tense. I guess some people will never learn.
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