- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
- Bosnia floods kill 16 people
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Prosecutors seek dismissal of rape charges against French rugby players
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- Bolivia's Morales says claims he raped a minor are a 'lie'
- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
- Daniel Maldini receives first Italy call-up for Nations League
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- Ancelotti points finger at Madrid's 'lack of intensity'
- Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
- Five Czech kids in hospital over TikTok 'piercing challenge'
- What happens next in Iran-Israel conflict?
- Country star Garth Brooks denies rape accusations
- Stubbs hits maiden century as South Africa make 343-4 against Ireland
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Odegaard injury has forced Arsenal to be 'different', says Arteta
- Ratcliffe refuses to guarantee Ten Hag's Man Utd future
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
French presidency race enters final stretch with TV showdown
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen girded for a televised debate Wednesday that is likely to prove the climax of this year's turbulent French presidential campaign, with millions of votes potentially up for grabs just four days before ballot casting begins.
The centrist incumbent and his far-right rival will trade blows starting at 9:00 pm (1900 GMT), in a rematch of their 2017 face-off that was widely seen as disastrous for Le Pen.
But this time Macron will not be the ambitious outsider making his first run at public office -- he will have a five-year record to defend against a candidate who has softened her extremist edges to present a more mainstream image.
Recent polls give Macron the advantage, at 53 to 56 percent against 44 to 47 percent for Le Pen, who is making her third run at the presidency, though analysts say low participation could still sharply sway the final result.
Turnout in the first round of voting was just 74 percent, meaning one in four eligible voters stayed home, a pool that both candidates are eager to motivate.
In addition, the fiery hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon scored nearly 22 percent in the first round, and he has refused to urge his supporters to vote for Macron in order to keep Le Pen out of the Elysee Palace.
The decisions by those left-leaning voters -- many of whom have expressed a visceral rejection of Macron's pro-business tax cuts and other policies -- could prove crucial.
Looking ahead to parliamentary elections in June, often deemed the "third round" in France's electoral system, Melenchon on Tuesday called for a left-wing alliance that would deny either Macron or Le Pen a majority and potentially set him up as prime minister.
"I will be prime minister, not because Macron or Le Pen want it, but because the French will have elected me," he told BFM television.
- Approval slips -
Wednesday's debate, the only one Macron agreed to in this year's race, is a pre-run-off ritual watched by millions and has often proved pivotal in determining the choices of last-minute voters.
Macron's allies have warned him against complacency, not least faced with Le Pen's persistent attacks against the former investment banker as an aloof "president of the rich," out of touch with workaday concerns at a time of rising inflation and insecurity.
An Odoxa poll released Wednesday found that Macron's approval rating as a "good president" had slumped to just 40 percent in mid-April, down six points from March.
That could render the result on Sunday extremely close, even though the survey found that a majority of respondents still find Le Pen's populist, anti-immigration programme racist (56 percent) and divisive for the country (67 percent).
"For the first time, in order to kick out a 'president of the rich,' a large number of French seem ready to elect a president they consider less competent, without sufficient stature to be president," Odoxa's president Gael Sliman wrote.
"This debate will probably be decisive for giving an advantage to one of these two rivals," he said.
- Zelensky weighs in -
Macron will likely seek to portray Le Pen as a fringe politician who cannot be trusted on foreign policy -- especially after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, given her past support for President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky entered the French debate Wednesday by urging Le Pen to admit "she made a mistake" in her admiration for Vladimir Putin and her refusal to condemn his 2014 annexation of Crimea.
If she did, "our relationship could change," Zelensky told BFM in a video interview, but "obviously I have ties with Emmanuel Macron and I would not like to lose them."
Appealing to French people to vote for Macron, jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was blunter.
In Twitter posts, he accused Le Pen of "corruption" and "selling political influence to Putin" over a 2014 loan of nine million euros ($10 million) from a Russian bank he called "Putin's notorious money-laundering outfit".
Macron is also likely to target Le Pen's plans for limiting the economic impact of the Ukraine war for low-income households, and her promise to give "national priority" to French citizens for jobs or welfare benefits.
For her part, the far-right leader will zero in on Macron's proposal to push back the retirement age from 62 currently -- though in recent days he has wavered on whether it should be 65 or 64.
L.Torres--PC