by: Associated Press

Posted: Jun 30, 2024 / 12:22 PM PDT

Updated: Jun 30, 2024 / 12:26 PM PDT

ISTANBUL (AP) — A propane tank explosion at a restaurant in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Sunday left five people dead and 63 others injured, authorities said.

Security cameras recorded the explosion, which devastated the street and caused minor damage to surrounding buildings.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on social media that dozens of rescue personnel were immediately dispatched to the scene.

Izmir Gov. Suleyman Elban visited the injured at the hospital and announced that 40 of them had already been released.

Authorities have detained one suspect who might be responsible. The man had replaced the propane tank with a new one on Saturday.

June 30 is a very important date in college sports history and college sports administration. June 30, 2022, was the date when the USC-UCLA move to the Big Ten became known. June 30, 2023, was the date when the Pac-12 and the Pac-12 CEO Group had one last chance to invite San Diego State at a comparative bargain, help pay for SDSU’s Mountain West exit fee, and stabilize the conference with a Southern California-based member. San Diego State’s arrival in the Pac-12 would have appealed to ESPN, SMU, and various other entities which were monitoring the situation. When we consider why the Pac-12’s existence is ending today — June 30, 2024 — there are so many reasons to mention, but the failure to invite and on-board San Diego State was the last in a series of crucial mistakes which destabilized the conference and left it without a buffer to guard against other members fleeing.

We wrote this on June 20, 2023:

San Diego State University and the Pac-12 Conference want each other. At least, that is and has been the indication for several months.

San Diego State would love to move up from the Mountain West, a Group of Five league, to the Pac-12, a Power Five conference. The Pac-12, for its part, wants to maintain a presence in Southern California. The conference has expressed optimism that it can fetch a competitive price point for its new round of media rights deals based on having the added inventory provided by both San Diego State and SMU, the two schools it has heavily courted.

Now, however, the Mountain West is refusing to give San Diego State an extension on its timeline for leaving the conference without paying added exit fees beyond what it already owes. The current deadline is June 30. San Diego State would pay close to $17 million in additional exit penalties if it doesn’t leave the Mountain West by then.

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Why hasn’t SDSU already left? The Pac-12 hasn’t extended an offer to join the conference. Why hasn’t the Pac-12 extended an offer? Because it hasn’t finalized its media rights deal.

If San Diego State wants out of the Mountain West, it shouldn’t feel the need to wait beyond June 30. If the Pac-12 is confident that San Diego State will deliver a good media rights deal, what is the remaining holdup at this point?

San Diego State was right there on a platter as insurance in case Colorado left. SDSU’s arrival probably would have enticed SMU or another Texas-based school, or possibly Fresno State, to join the conference and guard against a mass exodus, thereby keeping the conference intact. Yet, nothing happened. The Pac-12 was amateurish to the end … and the end is now here.

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PARIS (AP) — French voters around the world are casting ballots Sunday in the first round of an exceptional parliamentary election that could put France’s government in the hands of nationalist, far-right forces for the first time since the Nazi era.

The outcome of the two-round election, which will wrap up July 7, could impact European financial markets, Western support for Ukraine and how France’s nuclear arsenal and global military force are managed.

Many French voters are frustrated about inflation and economic concerns, as well as President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, which they see as arrogant and out-of-touch with their lives. Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally party has tapped and fueled that discontent, notably via online platforms like TikTok, and dominated all preelection opinion polls.

A new coalition on the left, the New Popular Front, is also posing a challenge to the pro-business Macron and his centrist alliance Together for the Republic.

After a blitz campaign marred by rising hate speech, voting began early in France’s overseas territories, and polling stations open in mainland France at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) Sunday. The first polling projections are expected at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), when the final polling stations close, and early official results are expected later Sunday night.

Macron called the early election after his party was trounced in the European Parliament election earlier in June by the National Rally, which has historic ties to racism and antisemitism and is hostile toward France’s Muslim community. It was an audacious gamble that French voters who were complacent about the European Union election would be jolted into turning out for moderate forces in a national election to keep the far right out of power.

Instead, polls suggest that the National Rally is gaining support and has a chance at winning a parliamentary majority. In that scenario, Macron would be expected to name 28-year-old National Rally President Jordan Bardella as prime minister in an awkward power-sharing system known as “cohabitation.”

While Macron has said he won’t step down before his presidential term expires in 2027, cohabitation would weaken him at home and on the world stage.

The results of the first round will give a picture of overall voter sentiment, but not necessarily of the overall makeup of the next National Assembly. Predictions are extremely difficult because of the complicated voting system, and because parties will work between the two rounds to make alliances in some constituencies or pull out of others.

In the past, such tactical maneuvers helped keep far-right candidates from power. But now, support for Le Pen’s party has spread deep and wide.

Bardella, who has no governing experience, says he would use the powers of prime minister to stop Macron from continuing to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine for the war with Russia. His party has historical ties to Russia.

The party has also questioned the right to citizenship for people born in France, and wants to curtail the rights of French citizens with dual nationality. Critics say this undermines fundamental human rights and is a threat to France’s democratic ideals.

Meanwhile, huge public spending promises by the National Rally and especially the left-wing coalition have shaken markets and ignited worries about France’s heavy debt, already criticized by EU watchdogs.

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Follow AP’s coverage of elections at https://apnews.com/hub/global-elections