French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday sacked Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne after 20 months on the job and appointed Gabriel Attal, a youthful, media-savvy former government spokesman and minister of education.
Attal, 34, is France’s youngest-ever prime minister. He is also the first openly gay man to serve in the post.
The move signals a shift for Macron, who has had a bruising second term since his 2022 reelection. After pushing through deeply unpopular pension reforms, as well as a tough immigration law that split his coalition, tapping Attal suggests Macron is moving to a milder phase of his presidency.
In the final three years of Macron’s term, experts say Attal will lead an effort to reinvigorate faith in France’s institutions by focusing on education and social issues. If Attal succeeds, he could give former PM Edouard Philippe a run for his money as the leading centrist candidate for the 2027 presidential election.
But he has a more immediate task at hand: fending off the challenge from the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen ahead of this summer’s European Parliament elections. Le Pen’s campaign, run by a 28-year-old political phenom Jordan Bardella, currently leads Macron’s party by 10 points.In this Quick Take, Ian Bremmer examines what may come next in the US-Israel war with Iran as the Trump administration signals significantly larger military operations ahead.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney struck a series of deals during a meeting in New Delhi on Monday, including a 10-year nuclear energy deal under which Canada will provide India with uranium.
A satellite image shows black smoke rising and heavy damage at Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's compound, following strikes by the United States and Israel in Tehran, Iran, on February 28, 2026.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is dead, the conflict is spreading, and US President Donald Trump still isn’t clear on who he wants to run Iran.
Shipping in the world’s most crucial oil chokepoint has nearly ground to a halt after at least four tankers were targeted in Iran’s retaliation to US and Israeli strikes on Saturday.