In response to persistent assertions from the far right that Nicusor Dan’s election was unlawful, he was sworn in as Romania’s new president.
In order to end months of political unrest, the centrist promised on Monday to start a “new chapter” in Romania. However, George Simion, his pro-Russian and pro-nationalist rival, asserted that the May 18 election was a “coup d’etat.”
Dan promised to stop corruption and affirm Romania’s commitment to the European Union and NATO in the weeks leading up to the election, which was marred by the cancellation of November’s initial election due to Russian interference.
He declared in his inaugural address that he would address Romania’s economic and political problems and that he would “open the door to the voice of society.”
According to him, “the Romanian state needs a fundamental change within the rule of law,” and I encourage you to stay involved to put positive pressure on state institutions to change. I urge political parties to pursue national interests.
“National treason”
Months after the Constitutional Court’s decision to rescind the previous election, the May election rerun took place.
In the first round of the November election, Calin Georgescu, a far-right pro-Russian, had received the most votes, but Moscow has refuted those accusations of electoral violations and Russian interference.
Before a surge in the campaign’s final days pushed Dan out, Simion, the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), took his place and dominated the polls for weeks.
Simion has repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged by foreign interference since the results were released without providing any specifics.
Following Simion’s request to cancel the vote, the Constitutional Court affirmed the results on Thursday.
The court’s decision was condemned as a “coup d’etat,” while Simion criticized the AUR’s members for “legitimizing a national treason.”
Supporters of the extreme right are expected to protest, so authorities are still on the lookout for them.
The outcome was regarded as crucial for maintaining Romania’s position within Western alliances, especially as the conflict continues in neighboring Ukraine, with the victory over Simion widely anticipated throughout Europe.
“We won the presidential election in Romania.” At a rally in Poland for liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who will face nationalist Karol Nawrocki in a presidential run-off on June 1, Dan said, “People rejected isolationism and Russian influence.”
Dan faces significant difficulties as Romania struggles with both its political and economic situation.
Given that the political class is increasingly being resisted, figures like Georgescu and Simion have emerged as front-runners. He must first choose a prime minister who can secure the support needed to form a new government.
Ilie Bolojan, who had been in charge of interim government, is expected to meet Dan. The National Liberal Party, which supports the EU, has been suggested as a potential prime minister.
On Monday, Dan made few promises about Romania’s economic difficulties.
The new president claimed, “The Romanian state is spending more than it can afford,” to put it simply.
Kylian Mbappe, who won the European Golden Shoe award for his first season in Spain, has come to an end.
In Real’s final league game on Saturday, Mbappe overtook Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting Lisbon at the top of the weighted table, which only includes league goals, with the addition of the Pichichi Trophy winner for scoring twice.
Mbappe, 26, defeated Cristiano Ronaldo and Hugo Sanchez to become the third Real Madrid player to achieve the honor at the end of the season.
Thierry Henry won the Golden Shoe with Arsenal in 2004 and 2005 as the last Frenchman to do so.
Mbappe may have been discovered watching the Formula One Grand Prix in Monaco on Sunday.
Mohamed Salah scored once to finish third in his last league game for English champions Liverpool, who needed a hat-trick.
Robert Lewandowski of Barcelona scored twice on Sunday at Bilbao, two goals clear of Real Madrid in the race for the Spanish league title. He scored 27 goals overall, placing him in fourth place in Europe and second in the Pichichi.
Bayern Munich and The Pole claimed the Pichichi in 2023 after winning the Golden Shoe twice.
Harry Kane, the Golden Shoe winner of the previous year, won the league title at Bayern with 26 Bundesliga goals. Atalanta’s Mateo Retegui, who had 25 goals, was the best Serie A player in sixth place.
Kylian Mbappe scored 31 goals for Real Madrid between 2024 and 2025.
Mbappe scored 39 goals for Gyokeres, but the table is weighted. In the “big five” European competitions, La Liga, Premier League, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and Serie A, each goal is doubled. Goals are multiplied by 1.5% for the next 16 ranked leagues.
A goal is just a goal below that.
The top five in the rankings were Mbappe (62 points), Gyokeres (58), Salah (58), Robert Lewandowski (54), and Harry Kane (52).
Beirut, Lebanon – For decades, Palestinian groups in Lebanon have run their affairs themselves. In the refugee camps established for Palestinians displaced by Israel in 1948 and 1967, Palestinian factions have overseen security and many have retained their arms.
Those days, however, appear to be coming to a close. Instead, the Lebanese state is attempting to take advantage of a period of weakness for the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, as it struggles to regroup from its war with Israel, to exercise its power over the country.
Lebanon’s new government – formed in February and led by former International Court of Justice judge Nawaf Salam – has the backing of regional and international powers to disarm all non-state actors. That includes the many Palestinian groups that have carried arms since a 1969 agreement that allowed them to have autonomy in the 12 official Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
And on Wednesday, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas gave his blessing during a visit to Lebanon. A joint statement from Abbas and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun declared that both sides had agreed that the existence of “weapons outside the control of the Lebanese state has ended”.
“Abu Mazen [Abbas] came to say that we are guests in Lebanon and not above Lebanese authority,” Mustafa Abu Harb, an official with Fatah, the largest political faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Al Jazeera. “We do not accept weapons in the hands of anyone other than the Lebanese state.”
Is Hamas on board?
Abbas, on his first trip to Lebanon since 2017, also met Prime Minister Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss the challenging prospect of disarming Palestinian factions in Lebanon and improving the rights and conditions of the estimated 270,000 Palestinians in the country.
Palestinians in Lebanon do not have the legal right to work in a number of professions, they may not own property or businesses and cannot access public service employment or the use of public services, such as healthcare and social security, according to UNRWA, the United Nations body created in 1948 for Palestinian refugees.
“We reaffirm our previous position that the presence of weapons in the camps outside the framework of the state weakens Lebanon and also harms the Palestinian cause,” Abbas said in the meeting with Aoun, according to the Palestinian state news agency Wafa.
However, questions remain as to whether the divisive Abbas, who has not faced an election since 2005, has the authority to disarm the different Palestinian groups.
A senior Hamas official in Lebanon, Ali Barakeh, told the AFP news agency on Wednesday that he hoped the talks between Abbas and Aoun would go further than just Palestinian groups’ disarmament.
“We affirm our respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty, security and stability, and at the same time, we demand the provision of civil and human rights for our Palestinian people in Lebanon,” Barakeh said.
Hamas, which – along with Hezbollah – is considered part of the wider Iranian-allied “axis of resistance” network, has already cooperated with the Lebanese state on at least one occasion since the ceasefire with Israel. In May, the Palestinian group handed over a fighter suspected of firing rockets at Israel, according to the Lebanese army, and called them “individual acts”.
The group has also said it respects the ceasefire and is willing to work with the Lebanese state.
Abbas made his first visit to Beirut in eight years, where he met with Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun [File: Zain Jaafar/AFP]
‘Not our president’
Over the course of his two-decade reign, Abbas’s popularity among Palestinians in Lebanon has sharply eroded.
That lack of support can be seen in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, where posters of Abbas’s predecessor, Yasser Arafat, as well as Hamas’s spokesperson, Abu Obeida, can be seen far more than those of the PA leader.
“None of the Palestinians, except Fatah, claim that he’s our president,” Majdi Majzoub, a community leader in Beirut’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, Shatila, said. “This president doesn’t honour us and doesn’t represent us because he supports the occupation and adopts the occupation’s decisions.”
Aside from Abbas’s unpopularity, other factors may lead to a pushback against any attempt to disarm Palestinian groups in Lebanon.
Nicholas Blanford, a nonresident senior fellow with the US-based think tank Atlantic Council, said it “could be interpreted as a win for the Israelis if the Palestinians … were obliged to give [their weapons] up”.
Blanford also pointed out that defenders of the continued presence of armed Palestinian groups in Lebanon point to events such as the Sabra and Shatila massacre, when between 2,000 and 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians were killed over two days by right-wing Christian nationalist forces with Israeli support in 1982.
Blanford, however, believes that the consensus is moving towards the disarmament of at least heavy weaponry from the Palestinian factions in Lebanon, and that some Palestinians welcome the move.
“We as a Palestinian people certainly welcome [the initiative] because things have changed,” Majzoub said.
Majzoub said bad-faith actors have taken advantage of the Lebanese state’s lack of authority over the Palestinian camps to avoid being held accountable for crimes.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue despite a ceasefire [File: Rabih Daher/AFP]
Lebanon’s armed forces rarely enter the Palestinian refugee camps.
In 2007, the army besieged the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon and clashed with the Fatah al-Islam group, which was based in the camp. Hundreds died in the battle, which left large swaths of the camp uninhabitable.
The Lebanese army has also, on occasion, infiltrated camps to arrest individuals.
The security situation can at times be tense in the camps, as it is in other parts of Lebanon.
On Monday, local media reported that armed clashes between rival drug dealers in Beirut’s Shatila camp forced residents to flee.
Among the worst incidents in the past few years were the large-scale battles that erupted in the summer of 2023 between armed groups in Ein el-Hilweh camp, in southern Lebanon, after a botched assassination attempt on a Fatah official. More than two dozen people were killed in the fighting before a ceasefire was negotiated.
Carrying weapons in the camps was once seen as a right of resistance. But after more than seven decades of displacement and insecurity, some Palestinians in Lebanon today feel that carrying arms is undercutting their struggle for liberation.
“Palestinian weapons have become a threat to the Palestinian revolution,” Majzoub said. “Now, it is better for us to live under the protection of the Lebanese state.”
A young man holds a Palestinian flag with a slogan on it during a protest to condemn Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, on Beirut’s corniche, in Lebanon, April 7, 2025 [Bilal Hussein/AP Photo]
Claude fears he may soon die – either from starvation or violence – as he waits at a food distribution tent in a refugee camp in Burundi.
He is among thousands of Congolese refugees trapped between a brutal conflict across the border and severe reductions in international food assistance.
A former bouncer from Uvira, a town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Claude fled after violence erupted in the east, sparked by the rapid advance of the Rwanda-backed M23 group.
Armed groups “were shooting, killing each other, … raping women”, recalled the 25-year-old, who escaped across the border into Burundi in February.
In the overcrowded Musenyi camp, Claude now faces a different struggle as food rations dwindle.
Hunger has fuelled new tensions within the camp, prompting Claude to join volunteers who patrol the area to prevent theft of what supplies remain.
“When I arrived here, I was given 3.5kg]7.7lb] of rice per month. Now it’s a kilo]2.2lb]. The 3kg]6.6lb] of peas have dropped to 1.8kg]4lb]. What I get in tomato sauce lasts one day. Then it’s over”, said Claude, whose name has been changed for security reasons, as have the names of other refugees interviewed.
Some of the most desperate resort to slashing neighbours ‘ tents in search of food, he added, while gangs “spread terror”.
“The reduction of assistance will lead to many crimes”, he warned.
Oscar Niyibizi, the camp’s deputy administrator, described the cut in food rations as a “major challenge” that could “cause security disruption”.
He urges refugees to cultivate land nearby but said external support remains desperately needed.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump slashed its aid budget by 80 percent, and other Western nations have also reduced donations. As a result, many NGOs and United Nations agencies have been forced to close or significantly scale back their programmes.
These cutbacks have come at a “very bad time” as fighting escalates in the DRC, according to Geoffrey Kirenga, head of mission for Save the Children in Burundi.
Burundi, one of the world’s poorest countries, has received more than 71, 000 Congolese refugees since January while still hosting thousands from previous conflicts.
Established last year to accommodate 10, 000 people, the Musenyi camp’s population is now nearly twice that number.
In addition to food shortages, the reduction in aid has led NGOs to discontinue support services for survivors of sexual violence, who are numerous in the camp, Kirenga said.
His gravest concern is that “deaths from hunger” may become inevitable.
Since March, the World Food Programme has cut rations by half, warning that all assistance may run out by November without additional US funding.
According to officials, Iran won’t stop enriching uranium in order to reach a deal with the United States regarding its nuclear program.
Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for the Iranian government, criticized reports that Iran might offer to freeze enrichment for three years as US negotiations come to an end as “totally false.”
Three days after Tehran and Washington met in Rome for their fifth round of Oman-mediated negotiations, the denial was made. The US has stated that it will not tolerate any Iranian enrichment. Any “red line” like that has been rejected by Iran.
Tehran will never accept the country’s enrichment program’s suspension, Baghaei told reporters. Tehran is also awaiting information from Oman regarding a sixth round of negotiations looking at how the country might change its nuclear program in exchange for lowered US sanctions.
On May 23, 2025, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi meet at the Italian embassies in Rome.
Tehran has been careful to keep a tough line atop the talks despite its domestic politics.
On Monday, President Masoud Pezeshkian made an even stronger case for the need to leave Iran without a deal, regardless of the cost.
If they don’t agree to negotiate with us or impose sanctions, it’s not like we will starve ourselves. According to Pezeshkian, who was quoted by the state news agency IRNA, “we will find a way to survive.”
Complex puzzles
Tehran’s latest round of negotiations contrasted with Washington’s depiction of the mood.
US President Donald Trump stated on Sunday that the negotiations had been “very, very good” and that an announcement would be made “over the next two days” despite frequently making unsupported claims about progress being made in solving complex geopolitical puzzles.
Let’s see what happens, he said, “but I believe there may be some positive news on the Iran front.” “We’ve made some significant, real progress,” the statement reads.
After the fifth round of negotiations, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also mentioned a “sign of progress.”
A provisional agreement was being considered as a step-stone towards a final agreement, according to media reports.
However, Baghaei foresaw an interim deal being a possibility.
In order to record a video to raise awareness of the suffering of Palestinian children, Ms. Rachel, a three-year-old girl from Gaza, met her after she lost her legs during an Israeli attack on her home during the war.
![This pictures taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun shows smoke billowing from the site of Israeli airstrikes on the hills of the southern Lebanese village of Nabatiyeh on May 8, 2025. [Rabih Daher/ AFP]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/000_44X24T2-1746708607.jpg?w=696&ssl=1)
