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.»

BRIEF ALCOHOL BAN IN DAMASCUS SPARKS CONCERNS ABOUT PRESIDENT AL-SHARAA’S VISION FOR SYRIA

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.

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.

La líder de la extrema derecha francesa, Marine Le Pen, fue condenada a 15 meses de inhabilitación para ejercer cargos públicos, una sentencia por malversación de fondos europeos que, aun así, le permite ser candidata en las elecciones presidenciales de 2027.

Sin embargo, su candidatura quedó en el aire, ya que el tribunal también la condenó a tres años de prisión, uno de ellos bajo vigilancia mediante una tobillera electrónica, una situación que ella había considerado recientemente incompatible con una candidatura.

“Cuando uno es candidato a la presidencia, debe tener total libertad de movimientos, y ese no es el caso si lleva una tobillera electrónica”, había declarado el miércoles al canal LCI.

Se espera que oficialice su decisión durante el noticiero de las 20 (15 en la Argentina) del canal TF1.

Un fallo con un fuerte impacto político

La decisión de la Corte de Apelaciones de París era esperada por toda la clase política francesa, ya que tendrá un impacto decisivo en la elección del próximo jefe de Estado que sucederá a Emmanuel Macron en la primavera de 2027.

Marine Le Pen, de 57 años, ya logró llegar en dos ocasiones a la segunda vuelta de las tres últimas elecciones presidenciales (2017 y 2022).

Los resultados de su partido, Agrupación Nacional (Rassemblement National, ex Front National), crecieron durante años y la extrema derecha encabeza actualmente las encuestas.

Si finalmente Marine Le Pen no se presenta como candidata, su heredero político, Jordan Bardella, de 30 años y actual presidente del partido, será el candidato.

Una condena rebajada

El 31 de marzo de 2025, Marine Le Pen fue declarada culpable de haber instaurado, entre 2004 y 2016, un “sistema” para pagar con fondos del Parlamento Europeo a empleados del Frente Nacional (el antiguo nombre del partido), que en ese momento atravesaba dificultades financieras

Fue condenada a cuatro años de prisión, dos de ellos de cumplimiento efectivo, una multa de 100.000 euros y, sobre todo, a cinco años de inhabilitación con aplicación inmediata, lo que frenó su impulso hacia la elección presidencial. Le Pen denunció entonces una decisión “política” de los jueces y calificó el proceso como una “caza de brujas”.

Por eso, la decisión de la Corte de Apelaciones de París se anunciaba crucial a diez meses de la presidencial. El Tribunal señaló al inicio de la lectura del fallo que, aunque los hechos imputados son “graves”, las penas de inhabilitación fueron ponderadas teniendo en cuenta “la libertad de las candidaturas” y “la libre elección de los votantes”, considerada una “condición de la expresión democrática”.

Si los jueces de apelación le hubieran impuesto más de dos años de inhabilitación, le habría sido imposible presentarse a las elecciones.

“Hemos previsto todos los escenarios”, aseguró el lunes Bardella desde el Parlamento Europeo en Estrasburgo, afirmando sentirse “sereno y preparado para asumir las consecuencias” de la decisión judicial.

Tras sus derrotas frente a Emmanuel Macron en la segunda vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales de 2017 y 2022 (y su eliminación en la primera vuelta en 2012), la hija de Jean-Marie Le Pen —figura histórica de la extrema derecha francesa— llega fortalecida a los comicios del próximo año, culminando un largo proceso de “desdemonización” de la imagen del partido.

Las encuestas la sitúan al frente de la primera vuelta, prevista para el 18 de abril. A finales de mayo, incluso un instituto de opinión la proyectaba como ganadora de la segunda vuelta, prevista para el 2 de mayo, independientemente de quién fuera su rival.

Sea cual sea la decisión final, “nunca nos desanimaremos, seguiremos luchando, iremos hasta el final, hasta la victoria”, declaró el sábado, junto a Jordan Bardella, en su bastión electoral del norte de Francia.

A bombshell rape allegation has thrown Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign into turmoil, but some of his most progressive supporters in Congress are standing by him.

At least three Democratic lawmakers — Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. — have yet to withdraw their support or call on Platner to end his campaign after Maine resident Jenny Racicot, 41, accused him of rape in interviews with Politico and CNN.

Asked by Fox News Digital about Racicot’s allegation that Platner in 2021 barged into her home while intoxicated and forced her to have unprotected sex, none of the lawmakers responded by publication time.

The muted response marks the latest sign that some progressives are sticking with Platner despite mounting scandals threatening the viability of his Senate bid.

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Some Platner allies have viewed his rise as part of a broader fight over the Democratic Party’s direction, with the Senate hopeful embodying a more populist, far-left vision.

Maine Democrats rejected Platner’s primary rival, Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, who was aligned with the party’s establishment, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Mills suspended her campaign weeks before the June primary amid poor polling and fundraising struggles.

Other leading leftists, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., quickly rescinded their endorsements of Platner and called on him to exit the race. Similarly, Schumer and Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, which had only endorsed Platner after his June primary victory, demanded the immediate suspension of his campaign.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who previously called a physical abuse allegation by former Platner girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield «a lot of nothing» in an interview with NOTUS, withdrew his support for Platner on Tuesday following Racicot’s rape accusation.

His statement comes as Democrats face mounting scrutiny over their responses to the accusations against Platner, after years of taking a hard line on sexual misconduct allegations.

«A lot of people owe apologies to Lyndsey Fifield — most notably Sheldon Whitehouse, who dismissed her allegations on the grounds that she worked for ‘right-wing political operations,’» journalist Josh Barro wrote on social media.

Sanders, a leader of the party’s leftist base who campaigned with Platner several times, was notably silent after Racicot’s rape allegation. He continued to support the Senate hopeful after Fifield’s allegations first emerged in early June and similarly during reports that Platner sent sexually explicit text messages to at least half a dozen women while married.

«We got a housing crisis. People can’t afford healthcare, they can’t afford groceries, they can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks. And I think it’s important for us to focus on the issues facing working families a little bit more than Graham Platner’s marriage,» Sanders told reporters in June in remarks obtained by NBC.

Murphy, too, publicly defended Platner after news broke about Platner’s infidelity to his wife, Amy Gertner, who he married in 2023. He continued to embrace the Maine Democrat’s Senate bid after Fifield and other women accused Platner of abuse.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., embraced Graham Platner’s Senate bid amid mounting scandals over his treatment of women and controversial online posts. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

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And amid the piling up of controversies, Murphy suggested that Platner still had more character than incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

«Graham Platner is somebody who served our country, he’s served his community; he’s also made mistakes, and he’s admitted that,» Murphy said during an interview with CBS News in May. «Character also involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting this country.»

«And this race is going to be a contrast between somebody who has put his life on the line for this country, against somebody who is literally empowering the moral hollowing-out of our nation from the White House,» he went on.

Meanwhile, Van Hollen, a progressive senator with leadership ambitions, went to the mat to defend Platner amid scrutiny over his Nazi-linked tattoo and controversial online posts in which he declared himself a communist, disparaged law enforcement and Black people and White rural Americans, and mocked a teenage girl’s suicide.

«He’s been very clear that he went into combat on behalf of the United States, he went through a really rough period, PTSD-type period,» Van Hollen told Punchbowl News in April.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife Amy Gertner wave to supporters as they arrive at Platner’s primary election event in Blue Hill, Maine, on June 9, 2026. (CJ Gunther/Getty Images)

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«He himself said there are lots of things he’s done and said that he completely regrets, and I do believe people should have second chances and that people can learn from their mistakes, and I think he’s been doing that,» he said.