World
Where India Turned Against Modi
Narendra Modi set a lofty goal for an election he hoped would send him to a legacy-defining third term as prime minister: winning a majority so staggering that his party would cement itself as the only plausible option to lead India for years to come.
To do that, his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., aimed to expand on its deep support across the so-called cow belt in India’s populous north, while also making significant inroads in the country’s south, which has been more resistant to the party’s Hindu-nationalist agenda.
But little went according to plan for Mr. Modi when the election results arrived on Tuesday. His party did not just fall well short of its goal of winning more than 400 of the 543 parliamentary seats. It took such a steep dive — losing more than 60 seats — that it no longer had a majority in Parliament.
To stay in office, the powerful Mr. Modi is now forced to do something that does not come naturally to him: work with others, in a political coalition. That alliance, known as the National Democratic Alliance, or N.D.A., will face a reinvigorated political opposition, led by the Congress party, that significantly improved its performance since the previous election, in 2019.
Modi’s N.D.A. alliance lost swaths of territory in this election
The B.J.P.’s losses were sprinkled around the country, from Maharashtra in the west to West Bengal in the east. But Mr. Modi’s biggest setback came where it was least expected: the northern belt where his party was well entrenched and its Hindu-nationalist ideology had strong backing.
It appeared that some of Mr. Modi’s tactics had backfired in this region, perhaps because his party’s candidates there were seen as incumbents without much to offer after a decade in power. Those losses were offset in part however by gains in stretches of the south, where the B.J.P. — as a new entrant that has had little footprint there in the past — found better reception to its messages.
In Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, with a population of 240 million, the B.J.P. won just 33 seats, down from 62 in the previous election. It was in this Northern state that Mr. Modi in January inaugurated the lavish Ram temple, seen as one of his biggest offerings to his Hindu support base. But the B.J.P.’s chest-thumping over its Hindu-first policies turned off many lower-caste voters more concerned with issues like unemployment, inflation and social justice.
One of the biggest surprises was in the city of Ayodhya, the site of the Ram temple. The B.J.P. lost the seat in the city and other seats in its neighboring districts.
In the important state of Maharashtra, home to India’s business and entertainment capital, Mumbai, the B.J.P. won only nine seats, down from 23 in the last election. The party’s coalition partners suffered even worse losses.
The vote was seen as a verdict on the B.J.P.’s heavy-handed ways of reshaping the state’s political map. The B.J.P. had used pressure by government agencies and enticements of cash and power to split both of the state’s two largest parties. A faction within each of the two split parties then aligned with the B.J.P. The move backfired, however: In what was viewed as a sympathy vote, the original factions from the two parties outdid the B.J.P. allies by large margins.
The B.J.P. did have some good news: It continued to expand its support in the south, where it has struggled to establish a lasting foothold. In Andhra Pradesh, it formed a strong local alliance with two secular parties, and their coalition won 21 of 25 seats because of the unpopularity of the party in power in the state. It won a seat for the first time in the left-dominated state of Kerala and several seats in the state of Telangana.
N.D.A. alliance gained territory in the east and south
The party’s most impressive gains came in the state of Odisha in the east. That state is part of the “tribal belt,” which weaves across central India and is the only part of the country where the B.J.P. has unified support. Its relatively poor communities have been skillfully targeted by the B.J.P.’s Hindu-first politics and welfare benefits.
But the party’s progress in eastern and southern India was far from enough to make up for its losses in the north. Now, with Mr. Modi deprived of the landslide victory he had sought, the country will see how he responds. Some of the strains in India’s democracy might be mended as Mr. Modi is forced to consult with coalition partners who could restrain his more authoritarian tendencies. Or he could crack down more fiercely than ever, worried about losing more ground to a revived opposition.
World
Video shows bomb rock Damascus hotel where French President Macron is staying during Syrian state visit
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A pair of explosions rocked the Syrian capital of Damascus near the downtown Four Seasons hotel, where French President Emmanuel Macron was staying during a state visit, Syrian state media reported Tuesday.
Eighteen people, including four police officers, were injured by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on Tuesday, Syria’s interior ministry reported through state outlet SANA.
According to the ministry, both bombs exploded after security forces had discovered them, “while preparations for the disposal operation were underway.”
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The bombs were placed inside a car and a garbage can near the hotel where Macron was staying during his visit, the first Syrian state visit by the leader of a Western country since Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa took over for the now-deposed former President Bashar al-Assad in 2025.
A spokesman for Élysée Palace said Macron was not in his hotel during the explosions and didn’t even hear them. He continued his visit with al-Sharaa, according to both Élysée Palace and SANA.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa at the People’s Palace in Damascus, July 7, 2026. (Reuters/Mahmoud Hassano)
While not commenting on the explosions directly, Macron posted a statement on X shortly after the incident.
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“Nothing can smother the aspiration of Syrian women and men to live in a fully sovereign, safe, pluralistic, and united Syria. This morning I met Syria in all its diversity. I saw dignity, courage, and determination. My visit continues,” he wrote.
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa greets supporters after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., NOV. 10, 2025. (Lubna Allababidi/Handout via Reuters)
Syria’s Ministry of the Interior confirmed the explosions but stressed that they were outside the security perimeter designated for Macron.
“We confirm that the explosion site is outside the security perimeter designated for the French president’s residence. It posed no direct threat to the residence or the official visit program, which is proceeding as planned,” the ministry announced through SANA.
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An ambulance drives past the site where explosive devices blew up near a hotel where French President Emmanuel Macron was meant to be staying, in Damascus, Syria, July 7, 2026. (Reuters/Yamam Al Shaar)
Macron is the first Western leader to meet with al-Sharaa in Damascus since he became the country’s president in 2025. Some have criticized Western leaders, including President Donald Trump, who hosted al-Sharaa in the White House in November, for normalizing relations with al-Sharaa given his past as a fighter for the al Qaeda terrorist group.
Tuesday’s explosions in Damascus were also the second and third major blasts in Damascus in less than a week.
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On Monday, France’s government condemned what it called a “terrorist attack” after an explosive device killed at least nine people in a Damascus cafe on July 2.
Syrian authorities are still investigating the attack and have not publicly ascribed it to any group or individual, according to The Washington Post.
Fox News Digital contacted the Syrian Foreign Ministry and Élysée Palace for confirmation and further details.
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NATO must become more European to reduce its long-standing reliance on the US security umbrella, Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte said on Tuesday as leaders of the 77-year-old alliance gathered in Ankara, Turkey, for their annual summit.
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“We both know how important close cooperation between the European Union and NATO is,” the European Commission president said alongside the NATO secretary general at an industrial forum ahead of the summit.
“But to make this possible, what we need is interoperability.”
Rutte echoed von der Leyen’s remarks, highlighting the “clear division of labour” between the two organisations: NATO oversees the command structure, capabilities and standards, while the EU is responsible for industry, investment and regulation.
Twenty-three of the EU’s 27 member states are also members of NATO.
“We cannot continue, as we did, being over-reliant on the United States. We need a much stronger Europe within a stronger NATO,” Rutte said, hailing an “unparalleled” transformation driven by closer EU-NATO cooperation.
“To stay transatlantic, we have to become more European.”
The Ankara summit comes after months of growing tensions across the Atlantic, fuelled by the White House’s unilateral decision to strike Iran and its gradual reduction of military assets stationed in Europe.
Rattled by the deepening fractures, Europeans are determined to show US President Donald Trump that they are pulling their weight and stepping up their defence investment at a rapid pace, a trend often described as the “Europeanisation of NATO”.
But while some nations, such as Poland, the Baltics and the Nordics, have drastically increased their military spending towards the new 5% of GDP target, others, such as Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, still lag far behind.
On Tuesday, von der Leyen touted the financial plans that her Commission has put forward to ramp up homegrown defence capabilities: €150 billion under the SAFE loan programme and €135 billion provisionally allocated in the next EU budget.
“In this geostrategic and geopolitical environment, we need a massive surge in defence investment,” she said.
“With this taxpayers’ money, we want, of course, a return on investment. And we want good jobs in Europe. We want research and development in Europe. So that’s important for us,” she added.
Rutte said NATO requires a “huge increase” across its entire defence industrial base, on both sides of the Atlantic, to keep up with Russia’s all-consuming war machine.
“Russia has the whole of its economy now on a war footing. The car industry in Russia is producing for the war effort, and that means that we’ve got to do this also in Europe, Canada and the US,” Rutte said.
“We have to defend ourselves. It’s the first task for every government. And the threat is there. Russia are working with North Korea, Iran and China. Let’s not be naive.”
“Respect the grind you never see,” Kerr Kriisa wrote in an Instagram post on Oct. 30, captioning a series of stylized photos showing him clutching a basketball and flexing his muscles in the jersey of his new team, the University of Cincinnati. Presumably, the well-traveled guard was referring to the unseen work of preparing for another college basketball season at his fourth school in four years, following stints at Arizona, West Virginia and Kentucky.
But according to a federal grand jury, Kriisa might as well have been referring to a much more sinister kind of hidden hustle.
On Monday, federal prosecutors unsealed a grand jury indictment charging the Estonian-born basketball player with orchestrating a yearslong wire fraud scheme that used fabricated personal crisis, false identities and other deceptions to induce two victims to send him roughly $2.2 million.
The indictment, returned in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia—where Kriisa played for the Mountaineers for the 2023-24 season—traces the alleged scheme back to at least 2022, when he was heading into his junior year at Arizona. The following year, after transferring to West Virginia, Kriisa would face a nine-game suspension for violating NCAA rules governing impermissible benefits while with the Wildcats.
Those unrelated NCAA infractions, however, pale in comparison to the federal allegations he now faces.
Prosecutors’ timeline suggests Kriisa’s alleged criminal conduct tracked closely with his college basketball career, with many of the acts occurring during the heart of the season.
Sportico was unable to identify an attorney representing Kriisa and his agent did not respond to an email request for comment.
According to the indictment, his alleged scheme involving the first victim began in August 2022 and continued through April 2025, when he was transferring from Kentucky. Prosecutors allege that Kriisa began targeting a second victim on Nov. 18, 2025, three days before Cincinnati lost to No. 6 Louisville in a game in which Kriisa, then a starter, shot 2-for-7 from the field.
Much of the alleged activity involving the second victim occurred in late December, as Cincinnati went on holiday break. On Dec. 29, prosecutors allege, Kriisa sent the second victim an email while posing as a fictional person named “Irene.” That same day, Cincinnati played Lipscomb, with Kriisa coming off the bench for the first time that season. He scored 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point range.
Prosecutors allege Kriisa sent another email as “Irene” on Jan. 28, the same day Cincinnati beat Baylor. Kriisa played limited minutes that game while still recovering from an injury he suffered earlier that month. The five charged wire-fraud counts stemmed from emails and text messages Kriisa sent Feb. 1 to Feb. 4, a day before Cincinnati lost at home against West Virginia, his former team. Kriisa played 15 scoreless minutes that game, a loss, while posting the worst +/- of any player on either team.
The indictment says that the victim who was the recipient of those messages received them in Morgantown, W.Va., where WVU is based, but does not explain how Kriisa was connected to them.
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