Worth a Thousand Words
William Anders, the Apollo 8 astronaut who took the famous “Earthrise” photograph, died on Friday. “Earthrise” made people look at the world differently—a new perspective that’s widely credited with helping to launch the environmental movement. “We came all this way to explore the Moon,” Anders said, “and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.” The news got us thinking about other historic photographs that are etched into our collective consciousness, including the following.
Jeff Widener’s 1989 Photo “Tank Man”
Jeff Widener/AP Images
Joe Rosenthal’s “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima”
Joe Rosenthal/AP
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Europe Goes to the Polls
The world’s second-largest election—for the European Parliament—wrapped up on Sunday, and a strong showing by far right parties is reverberating across Europe. (The current champ for “biggest exercise of democracy” is India, where nearly 650 million people voted in polling that concluded on June 1.) The most dramatic response was in France, where President Emmanuel Macron told French voters, “I have heard your message,” and called for snap parliamentary elections to be held.
Who won?
While leaders in Germany and France were left reeling by the results, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is relishing her moment in the sun ahead of this week’s G7 summit. Italy has emerged as an island of political stability in the wake of the EU elections, a surprising turn for a country that has had nearly 70 governments since World War II.
Macron’s gamble
It seems counterintuitive that Macron would call voters to the polls so soon after an electoral drubbing. The Paris Olympics are scheduled to begin in just six weeks, and Macron could have waited for athletic pageantry to take over the news cycle. However, Macron’s government is already weak, and term limits prevent him from running for reelection. If Marine Le Pen’s National Rally does emerge victorious, Macron would enter a period of “cohabitation” with an opposition prime minister. While this might lead to legislative gridlock, it would also saddle the French far right with a record of governance ahead of the 2027 presidential contest.
What is the European Parliament, anyway?
The legislature of the European Union crafts laws and regulations for the EU’s 27 member states. You have it to thank for things like mandating a single standard for mobile device charging and one of the first comprehensive attempts to regulate the use of artificial intelligence. And although far-right parties are grabbing all the headlines, legislative control still rests comfortably in the hands of the major centrist groupings, most notably the European People’s Party (center-right Christian democrats) and the Party of European Socialists (center-left social democrats).
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