Mizzou softball's season ends in SEC Tournament as Auburn rallies

(The Center Square) – Four Republican U.S. senators are pushing a bill that would penalize states that issue driver’s licenses, commercial driver’s licenses, or personal identification cards to migrants illegally residing in the country.

“Since many illegal immigrants do not speak English and cannot read road signs, these drivers make roads less safe for the law-abiding public,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the bill’s main sponsor, said.

“While Wyoming already prohibits illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses, 19 states and the District of Columbia continue to issue personal and commercial driver’s licenses without verifying legal status.”

The No Licenses for Illegal Drivers or Truckers Act would slash a state’s annual federal highway funds by 10% if it does not verify the legal status of an applicant before issuing the person an ID or driver’s license.

The federal government would then redirect those withheld funds to states that are in compliance.

“We must defund woke sanctuary states who continue to put illegal aliens in the driver’s seat and Americans in the back seat,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a cosponsor of the bill, said.

“This legislation puts Americans first and keeps our roads safe by not only cutting federal highway funding for any state that allows illegal aliens to obtain a state-issued or commercial driver’s license but also redirecting those dollars to states like Texas that actually enforce the law.”

The legislation advances the Department of Transportation’s efforts to address a slew of deadly vehicular accidents caused by migrant semitruck drivers – many of whom had resided in the country illegally – who could not read English road signs.

Some states, such as California and New York, have resisted the DOT's reform efforts, which include English language proficiency tests for all commercial drivers.

Though the No Licenses for Illegal Drivers or Truckers Act is marketed as legislation focused on road safety, its targeting of personal IDs as well as driver’s licenses also addresses Republicans’ election security concerns.

The Republican party fears that the relative laxness of many states’ voter identification requirements enables or could enable widespread election fraud.

Only 36 states require prospective voters to present personal ID to vote, and even those states usually allow people to vote without an ID so long as they sign affidavits or provide mere proof of residency.

The No Licenses for Illegal Drivers or Truckers Act would impact California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

All of those states allow undocumented residents to obtain drivers’ licenses, which can often be used as ID for voting purposes.

Though election officials are supposed to verify voters’ citizenship status on the backend, illegal votes are sometimes already counted before ineligible voters are identified, which happened in Michigan at least 15 times in 2024.

Democrats argue that instances of illegal voting are rare and that stronger proof of citizenship requirements can disenfranchise rural and low-income Americans.

Citing this reason, not a single Senate Democrat supported the SAVE America Act, a House-passed Republican bill that has essentially died in the Senate.

If it reaches the Senate floor for a vote, the No Licenses for Illegal Drivers or Truckers Act will likely receive similar Democratic opposition.

(The Center Square) – Democrats on a Minnesota House committee refused to support a subpoena targeting U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar after Republicans accused her of ignoring repeated requests for documents and testimony tied to the Feeding Our Future fraud investigation.

The House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee voted Tuesday on whether to compel Omar, a Democrat, to provide records connected to the investigation. The motion failed after all five Republicans voted in favor, but three DFL members opposed it. Six votes were required.

Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove and the committee chair, said lawmakers had repeatedly asked Omar to testify and provide documents connected to trial exhibits in the federal Feeding Our Future case.

“We have been ghosted,” Robbins said during Tuesday’s hearing. “We have been absolutely ignored by a sitting member of Congress.”

Republicans on the committee have focused heavily on Omar’s sponsorship of the federal MEALS Act in 2020, legislation they argue loosened oversight requirements in federal child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Rep. Omar had some role, whether inadvertent or not,” Robbins said. “She passed the MEALS Act in March of 2020, and that took the guardrails off the federal school nutrition program, which created the conditions for Feeding Our Future.”

Federal prosecutors have described the Feeding Our Future case as one of the largest pandemic-era fraud schemes in the country, alleging that more than $250 million intended to feed children was fraudulently claimed through fake meal reimbursements.

Robbins said Republicans on the committee became interested in Omar’s involvement earlier this year after learning of communications between her and some individuals who were later convicted of fraud.

“We thought it would be very helpful to understand from Representative Omar’s perspective how she thought the MEALS Act impacted the community, why she brought it, what communication she had with the fraudsters,” Robbins said.

She also pointed to a 2020 video in which Omar promoted meal distribution efforts at Safari Restaurant, a Minneapolis restaurant later identified by prosecutors as a major participant in the fraud scheme.

“In this, she had, according to the trial exhibits, multiple communications between her office and the fraudsters who have been convicted,” Robbins said. “I think it’s important for the public to know what role she and her office played, not only in passing the MEALS Act, but in then communicating the information about how the guardrails are no longer in this program to the people who were later convicted of fraud."

Robbins explained the committee sent Omar another letter following an April hearing requesting records by Tuesday’s hearing, but said no response was received.

“The only tool left for us as a committee if we want to get these documents is to issue a subpoena,” she said.

Democrats on the committee pushed back against the effort.

Rep. Dave Pinto, DFL-St. Paul, questioned the timing of the subpoena.

“We know the president and federal administration have got no hesitation going after political enemies and investigating them in all sorts of ways,” Pinto said. “If there’s any sort of wrongdoing by Congresswoman Omar—and if there’s no wrongdoing by Congresswoman Omar—I have no doubt the Trump Administration will do all it can with all the resources it has.”

Rep. Isaac Schultz, R-Elmdale Township, argued the subpoena effort was part of a broader push to understand fraud in Minnesota government programs.

“Feeding Our Future is one part of the picture as it relates to what we know is to come in the fraud we’ve seen in Medicaid,” Schultz said. “Now, we have this opportunity to use our tools here in the House of Representatives to issue this subpoena to gain a greater understanding.”

The committee has spent months examining the Feeding Our Future scandal and other alleged fraud cases involving public funds.

Robbins previously told The Center Square the committee's investigation is necessary to establish a clearer timeline of oversight failures and ensure accountability for the spending of taxpayer funding.

Omar did not appear before the committee on Tuesday. Her office also did not respond to a request for comment from The Center Square.

(The Center Square) - The Republican majority in the Arizona Legislature is contemplating legal options to redraw the state’s congressional map in time for the 2028 races.

Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, told The Center Square on Wednesday that the Legislature is “considering litigation to compel the redistricting commission to convene and redraw the [congressional] map.”

Petersen made his comments after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Monday in Louisiana v. Callais. The court ruled Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act does not mandate states to create additional minority-majority districts in their congressional maps. Section 2 implemented a nationwide ban on "the denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of race or color,” according to the National Archives.

One of the factors that the current Arizona map considers is race, according to Petersen. If the redistricting commission, which is made up of two Republicans, two Democrats and one independent, redrew the state’s congressional map, it could no longer consider race when drawing districts, he said.

“These lines should be colorblind," Petersen said. "They shouldn’t discriminate based off of race."

Petersen said Arizona's court system could compel the redistricting commission to make a new congressional map.

Arizona Republicans are “doing an analysis on it right now,” Petersen said. Republicans control a majority in both houses of the Legislature.

If the Legislature decides to sue, he said it would file the lawsuit “pretty soon.”

The process for Arizona’s congressional map to be redrawn will be slower than in a state where the legislature redraws it, the Senate president noted.  

He said if Arizona redrew its congressional map, it would affect the 2028 races rather than this year’s.

Petersen called the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais the “right decision.”

“We shouldn’t be racist,” he said.

On the other side, state Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Glendale, told The Center Square on Wednesday that the decision made by the Supreme Court was “devastating.”

She noted the Voting Rights Act was created “because of explicit racism in the redistricting process that intentionally disenfranchised Black voters, in particular in the South.”

“We are not at a place as a country where that type of systemic racism has been solved,” Ortiz said. “This decision set us back significantly.”

Ortiz said it is a “good thing” Arizona has an independent redistricting commission.

“Any attempts to get in the way of the normal cycle of the independent redistricting commission [are] just blatant cheating, and it’s not right,” she said.

Ortiz noted Petersen’s idea of taking legal action in an attempt to have Arizona’s congressional map redrawn “is absolutely ridiculous.”

“This is nefarious stuff, and we have to call it for what it is. We have to stay vigilant in the face of a force that is trying to drag us back to the Jim Crow days. We are not going to go back quietly,” she said.

Arizona needs to do everything it can to protect its "current independent redistricting process,” Ortiz noted.

She added that Arizona needs to ensure its minority communities can “continue to be able to have their voices heard and be able to pick their politicians” rather than “politicians picking their voters.”

The Center Square reached out to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office about Arizona potentially redrawing its congressional map, but did not receive a response before press time.

Portugal's last circus elephant, Julie, is to become one of the first residents of a retirement home for the pachyderms that could become a major draw as European nations clampdown on performing animals.

Julie, who joined the Victor Hugo Cardinali circus in 1988, will follow Kariba, who has been based at a Belgian zoo, in moving to the British-run Pangea Trust sanctuary in Alentejo, southern Portugal, in June.   

Julie, who is aged about 40 and came originally from southern Africa, had not been part of the circus show since 2024, when Portugal joined a host of countries who have banned performing animals.

According to Pangea managing director Kate Moore, there are more than 600 elephants in circuses and zoos across Europe. And many may need a new home but the 400 hectare (1,000 acre) sanctuary can take a maximum of 30.

"Many circuses and some zoos in Europe are reaching the point -– through changing legislation, the loss of a companion, or simply a decision to move on –- where keeping elephants is no longer possible or appropriate," said Moore.

"We can only take a small number of the 600 elephants but elephants like Julie and Kariba would be priority because elephants are really social animals and it's not good for them to be kept on their own," she told AFP.

"They need companionship and we want to bring them together."

Circus director Victor Hugo Cardinali said he would be closely involved in Julie's move.

"This has not been an easy decision, as she has been a member of our family for decades, but we believe it is the right decision for Julie. Working with Pangea on her transition to her new home was a critical factor in our deliberations," Cardinali said.

tsc/tw/giv

Husky-voiced Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler was "recuperating" Thursday after emergency intestinal surgery in Portugal, a post on her official Instagram page said.

The 74-year-old star, best known for her 1983 mega-hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart", was operated on at a hospital in Faro in southern Portugal, the post said.

Tyler shot to fame in the 1970s with hits including "Lost in France" and "It's a Hearthache". "Total Eclipse of the Heart" later topped the charts in both Britain and the United States.

"We are very sorry to announce that Bonnie has been admitted to hospital in Faro, Portugal, where she has a home, for emergency intestinal surgery," the Instagram post on Wednesday said.

"The surgery went well and she is now recuperating," it added.

The Grammy-nominated Tyler, who was born Gaynor Hopkins, is due to tour Europe later this year to mark 50 years since the release of "Lost in France" which was her breakthrough hit in 1976.

Other hits include "Holding Out For A Hero" in 1984 which featured on the soundtrack to the huge US box office success "Footloose".

In 2013, Tyler represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, with the song "Believe In Me", finishing in 19th place.

She was recognised in 2022 by the late Queen Elizabeth II who before her death awarded her an honour for her five-decades-long music career.

har/jkb/pdw

The MV Hondius cruise ship, hit by a rare hantavirus outbreak believed to have killed three people, is sailing from Cape Verde towards the Spanish island of Tenerife where isolating passengers and crew will be finally be evacuated.

Here is what we know so far about the situation on the Hondius, which has sparked international alarm since news of the outbreak emerged last weekend.

- Who is on board? -

There are 149 people on the MV Hondius, the ship's Dutch operator Oceanwide Expeditions told AFP on Thursday.

There are 23 nationalities on board. There are more than 80 passengers, with the largest groups from Britain, the United States and Spain.  Most of the crew are from the Philippines.

Following Wednesday's evacuation of three suspected cases, the ship operator said Thursday "no symptomatic individuals are present on board".

- Cases -

There are three confirmed cases of hantavirus, according to health authorities -- a Dutch woman who died in hospital in Johannesburg, a British man being treated in Johannesburg, and a Swiss national in hospital in Zurich, who left the cruise in Saint Helena.

There are also five suspected cases of the virus: two people who have died and three evacuated from the ship.

- Three deaths -

A Dutch couple who had travelled around South America before boarding the ship in Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 were the first fatalities.

The husband, 70, showed symptoms on April 6 and died on April 11. His body was taken off the ship during its April 22-24 call at Saint Helena, an island in the south Atlantic.

His 69-year-old wife, who was feeling unwell, also left the ship at Saint Helena. Her health deteriorated during an April 25 flight to Johannesburg and she died in hospital a day later, with hantavirus confirmed on May 4.

A German passenger who developed a fever on April 28, which became pneumonia, died on May 2. Her body remains on the ship.

- Evacuees -

A British passenger became ill on April 24 with signs of fever and pneumonia and was evacuated from the Atlantic island of Ascension to South Africa, where he is in intensive care. Hantavirus was confirmed on May 2.

Two crew members, one British and one Dutch, also showed symptoms. They were evacuated from Cape Verde's capital Praia on Wednesday along with a passenger with no symptoms but with links to the German woman who died.

A medical plane carrying two evacuees landed at Amsterdam late Wednesday, while another air ambulance believed to be carrying the third evacuee landed there early Thursday.

- The virus -

The rare disease is usually spread from infected rodents, typically through urine, droppings and saliva.

Laboratory testing in South Africa and Switzerland confirmed the two patients being treated in those countries had the Andes strain of hantavirus -- the only one known to pass between humans.

There are no vaccines or specific treatments for hantavirus.

However, officials including the head of the World Health Organization said the overall public health risk from the current outbreak was low, as very close contact is needed for it to spread.

- Contact tracing -

The WHO has said that contact tracing is under way for people on the April 25 commercial flight taken by the Dutch woman from Saint Helena to Johannesburg before she died.

Dutch airline KLM indicated Wednesday that the Dutch woman who died had also been "briefly" on its flight from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25, but was removed before take-off.

A flight attendant on that flight is currently being tested for hantavirus after showing mild symptoms and being admitted to hospital in Amsterdam, the Dutch health ministry said Thursday.

Two Singapore residents who had been aboard the Hondius have been isolated and are being tested for hantavirus, Singapore officials said Thursday. 

Former passengers in Britain and the United States are also reportedly under observation.

A small number of people on Saint Helena, who had close, prolonged contact with unwell passengers, have been asked to isolate for 45 days.

Argentina's health ministry said Wednesday it was sending experts to Ushuaia to capture and test rodents for the virus "in areas linked to the route" the Dutch couple took.

- The journey -

The cruise began on April 1, with 114 guests boarding at Ushuaia, Oceanwide Expeditions said.

After South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha and other Atlantic islands, the vessel called at Saint Helena, where 30 guests disembarked on April 24. 

The Hondius then stopped at Ascension Island on April 27, before anchoring off Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, from Sunday until it set sail for the Canaries late Wednesday.

- What is happening on board? -

The WHO said passengers were being asked to isolate in their cabins while disinfection and other measures are being taken.

A former passenger told AFP that life carried on as usual aboard the ship after the captain announced the first passenger's death.

"We again kept eating all together... and we didn't wear any masks," said Turkish national Ruhi Cenet, who left the cruise in Saint Helena.

- What's next? -

Spain's health ministry has said the ship is expected in Tenerife on Sunday, with evacuation of passengers set to start on May 11.

burs-nl/rlp

No military hardware, internet shutdowns, Ukrainian drone threats and simmering discontent: President Vladimir Putin will host Moscow's Victory Day parade Saturday amid signs some Russians are tiring of more than 50 months of war.

The parade -- marking the World War II defeat of the Nazis and held as Putin's Ukraine offensive has dragged on for longer than the Soviet Union's fight against Germany -- has become a central symbol of his 26-year rule. 

Since launching the offensive on Ukraine in 2022, Putin has channelled Soviet victory to galvanise support for a campaign that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

But as Russia rolls out unpopular restrictions and a decisive military victory appears more and more out of reach, the scaled-back celebrations come amid increased nervousness in Moscow.

Tanks and missiles will not roll through Red Square for the first time in almost two decades -- a decision taken as Ukraine launches drone attacks as far away as the Urals.

Kristina Sitnikova, a 26-year-old visiting Moscow from the Russian Far East, said she would not be in the square for the parade as she was scared of "being at the wrong place at the wrong time".

Moscow, which pounded Ukraine with deadly strikes this week, warned foreign diplomats in Kyiv it would hit the Ukrainian capital if Kyiv targeted the commemorations. 

- 'Hard to see it as care for me' -

Russia has introduced massive wartime censorship, keeps its real military losses -- believed to be in the hundreds of thousands -- secret, and has jailed or forced war critics into exile. 

But the widespread internet outages, a slowing economy and rising prices have seen discontent trickle into the public domain in recent weeks. 

Major floods in Dagestan, protests from farmers against an animal cull in Siberia and authorities blocking attempts to organise protests against the internet outages have also led to localised pockets of frustration.

An appeal to Putin by a Russian blogger who lives in Europe, Victoria Bonya, raising a string of concerns -- without criticising the war and offering support for Putin personally -- gripped Russian political discourse last month, racking up millions of views.

Putin's personal approval rating -- hovering around 70 percent according to state pollsters -- has dipped to its lowest since the start of the war.

On the streets of Moscow, the internet outages split opinion.

"We used to somehow live without the internet, didn't we?," 44-year-old Alexander Zubkov, told AFP. 

But student Anna Chizhikova, 21, was frustrated she could not access her banking app, pay for lunch or talk to friends. 

"It's hard to see it as care for me," she said. 

- 'Where are we headed to?' -

"The feeling that something is going not right has been ongoing for a few months," Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya told AFP.

"There is a question in the air: where are we headed to and how?" 

While Moscow is, for now, tolerating some criticism, at the heart of the anxiety is the topic that is strictly taboo: the war.

In 2022, Russia cast its offensive as a days-long campaign that would see them capture Kyiv, install a friendly puppet regime and have little-to-no serious consequences for Russians at home.

Four years and hundreds of thousands of casualties later, Moscow's troops have been unable to capture even the areas of eastern Ukraine that Putin claims to have annexed and the domestic consequences are mounting. 

Negotiations on the conflict have led to nowhere.

Stanovaya, the analyst, said Putin is under pressure from hardliners, who accuse him of not being tough enough in Ukraine, and from the business community, frustrated he has not struck a deal yet. 

"There is a desire for more certain action: either you end the war and negotiate, or we hit Kyiv as hard as we can and show them," she said. 

But on the streets of Moscow days before the parade, many remained defiant. 

"I feel calm for our country, it is powerful," Olga Nikolenko, a speech therapist who travelled from the southern city of Stavropol to watch her son march in the parade, said. 

"Victory will be ours," she added. 

"Nothing will end any time soon, that's for sure," Arkady Solyanov, an ecologist in his 30s, said.

"We will have to still be patient."

bur/giv

The United States was waiting on Thursday for Iran to respond to its latest proposed deal to end the war in the Middle East and to reopen the key shipping lane out of the Gulf.

Asian stocks soared and oil prices fell after US President Donald Trump said once again that an agreement could be near after positive talks, and Iran said it would pass on its latest position to mediator Pakistan.

Any agreement to prolong the ceasefire between the United States and Iran could also lower tensions in Lebanon, where an already fragile truce with Israel was under renewed strain after a strike on southern Beirut killed a Hezbollah commander.

The war, launched by the United States and Israel in late February, has seen Iran respond with attacks across the Middle East and impose a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Gulf oil and gas industries and a strategic trade route.

Trump had this week briefly launched a naval operation to escort commercial vessels and force open the strait, only to stand it down within hours, citing progress on negotiations with Iran, which have been mediated by Pakistan and supported by Washington's Gulf Arab allies.

In Iran, however, many were wary of increased repression as the war drags on. 

"The economic situation got worse, and this government has become even more brutal," 49-year-old Ali told AFP journalists in Paris from the Iranian city of Tonekabon, using only his first name for fear of retribution. 

- 'Under review' -

"We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it's very possible that we'll make a deal," Trump told reporters on Wednesday, adding his now habitual threat to return to bombing if Tehran refuses to back down to US demands.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the US proposal remained "under review" and Tehran would communicate its position to mediator Pakistan "after finalising its views". 

According to a report from US network NBC News, Trump's U-turn came after Saudi Arabia -- whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly talked directly to Trump -- refused to allow US forces to use its airspace and bases for the Hormuz operation.

US news outlet Axios, citing two officials, reported that both Tehran and Washington were close to agreement on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme. 

Trump has claimed that Iran's leadership is divided, in the wake of the deaths of many senior figures in US and Israeli strikes.

But President Masoud Pezeshkian said Thursday he had met with the country's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his appointment in early March. 

"What struck me most during this meeting was the vision and the humble and sincere approach of the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution," Pezeshkian said, in a video broadcast by state television.

Khamenei, reportedly wounded in strikes on the first day of the Middle East war that claimed the life of his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei, has released only written statements since his appointment.

- Oil prices fall -

Oil prices fell again, tumbling by two percent Thursday -- having fallen around 10 percent over the previous two days -- and Tokyo's Nikkei index led another strong rally across Asia stocks, fuelled by revived optimism that the talks will bear fruit.

Energy prices are still much higher than before the conflict, but international standard Brent and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate are both now below the symbolic $100 level.

Markets have been particularly concerned about the Strait of Hormuz, which in peacetime carries a fifth of the world's oil and LNG trade as well as a good chunk of its fertiliser.

On the Lebanese front, Israel struck Beirut's southern suburbs Wednesday in the first such attack in nearly a month, killing a senior Hezbollah commander from its elite Radwan force. 

In a video released by his office, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "I say to our enemies in the clearest possible terms: no terrorist is immune. Anyone who threatens the State of Israel will die because of his actions."

The Israeli military said in a statement Thursday that an "explosive drone impact" had wounded four of its soldiers -- one severely -- in southern Lebanon the previous day.

burs/dc/ser

Russia said Thursday that it was "incomprehensible" its ally Armenia hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a European summit earlier this week, and cautioned the country against deeper European integration.

Ties between Armenia and its former imperial ruler Moscow have frayed in recent years.

The former Soviet republic froze its membership in the Russian-led CSTO military alliance in 2024 over Russia's failure to defend it against Azerbaijan, and has expressed an interest in joining the European Union, angering the Kremlin.

"Russian society, with deep indignation and bewilderment, not only saw, but above all remembered, the fact that Armenia, which we are accustomed to considering a friendly, fraternal country, had served as a platform. For whom? For a terrorist," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a weekly briefing.

Since launching its full-scale military offensive in February 2022, Russian officials have regularly hurled insults at Zelensky and routinely call Kyiv a "terrorist state" -- outbursts rejected and dismissed in Kyiv as baseless wartime propaganda. 

"No one in Armenia's current leadership snubbed Zelensky. So whose side are you on, historically?" she asked.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told reporters Thursday: "Back in 2022-2023 I already stated that, on the issue of Ukraine, we are not an ally of Russia."

Zakharova also criticised a joint declaration that Armenia and the European Union adopted at their summit on Tuesday.

The document recognises Yerevan's aspiration to join the bloc, as well as deepens cooperation between the two sides in economic and security matters.

"Such a course on the part of the Armenian authorities will sooner or later lead to Yerevan's irreversible involvement in Brussels' anti-Russian line, with all the ensuing political and economic consequences for Armenia," Zakharova said.

The nation of three million people bordering Iran and Turkey passed a law last year formally declaring its intention to apply for EU membership.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Pashinyan in April that Yerevan could not be a member of both the European Union and the Russian-led customs bloc.

bur/jc/pdw

France's far-right leaders have met the ambassadors of Germany and Israel in recent months as their party, once deemed antisemitic, seeks to court foreign envoys in the run-up to next year's presidential elections. 

Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party is eyeing its best chance yet at taking power, with President Emmanuel Macron stepping down after hitting the two-term limit.

Le Pen hopes to run for president for a fourth time in 2027, after twice making it to the runoffs against Macron in the last two votes.

But if an appeals court in July bars the 57-year-old from public office over an alleged fake jobs scam in European Parliament, her lieutenant Jordan Bardella, 30, is expected to run in her place.

France is home to western Europe's largest Jewish population, at around half a million people.

Le Pen has long sought to make the party she inherited from her father Jean-Marie more palatable, including by distancing it from the antisemitic legacy of a man convicted for Holocaust denial. 

As polls suggest she or Bardella could well lead in the first round of the election, the strategy seems to have paid off.

Bardella, who is RN party leader after taking over from Le Pen, in February met the German ambassador, his party and a participant said.

The embassy did not confirm the meeting.

But a diplomatic source told AFP it was "the responsibility of a foreign mission to maintain contacts with all the political forces in the host country concerned".

Germany has long been among Israel's staunchest allies, something Berlin has grounded in the country's responsibility for the Holocaust.

"Yes, they met in February," a member of Bardella's team said, seeking to present it as a routine meeting.

He "meets many ambassadors as part of his duties as head of the RN party and as leader of a group in the European Parliament," the person said.

Bardella is head of the Patriots for Europe group, the EU legislature's third-largest bloc that was co-founded in 2024 by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.

- 'Areas of convergence' -

The participant said the discussion between Bardella and the German ambassador made it possible to identify "areas of convergence" on several issues in France and neighbouring Germany.

They focused in particular on "budgetary discipline" in both leading EU member states.

The episode follows Le Pen last month meeting the Israeli ambassador for the first time.

The embassy confirmed the meeting, with a diplomatic source adding that the ambassador "received all political parties" except from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI).

LFI has criticised Israel over the war in Gaza, and its leader Jean-Luc Melenchon -- also a candidate next year -- has been accused of making antisemitic comments.

Before the meeting with the Israeli envoy, Le Pen had the previous day been seen meeting the Lebanese ambassador, who thanked her for her solidarity as his country sought a lasting ceasefire with neighbouring Israel.

Both Le Pen and Bardella also met the US ambassador late last year.

US ambassador Charles Kushner in December on X posted a picture of himself with them, saying he appreciated the chance to learn from them "about the RN's economic and social agenda and their views on what lies ahead for France".

gbh/ah/as/giv