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PARIS — The monthslong legal saga that threatened to derail Marine Le Pen’s presidential aspirations ended with a major plot twist that will allow her to mount a fourth run for the Elysée Palace.

Le Pen was sentenced to a year of house arrest on Tuesday, but her election ban was reduced from five years to just 15 months as of March 2025, making it possible for her to run. But Le Pen said she would take her case to France’s highest court, the Cour de cassation , to challenge her sentence and avoid having to wear an electronic ankle monitor during the campaign.

“The French will judge,” she said as she launched her bid for the 2027 presidential election, pledging to work hand in hand with Jordan Bardella, whom she has designated as her future prime minister if elected.

Here are four key questions hanging over Le Pen’s political resurrection and her upcoming presidential campaign.

What are the legal next steps?

One key challenge for Le Pen is to avoid having to campaign while her movement is restricted by a court order.

In principle, when an appeal decision is challenged before the Cour de cassation , the sentence is suspended. So by appealing Tuesday’s ruling, Le Pen can make good on her promise not to campaign while wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.

But there is a catch: The president of the highest court has already said the judges would do their best to rule before the presidential election. If she loses that final appeal, she could be forced to wear a bracelet during the last stretch of the race.

Le Pen would then have to try to secure lenient conditions for her house arrest. Magistrates in charge of defining such conditions “could give her a wide time frame [for campaign outings], but the obligation is that she must be at home at night,” said Eva Barouk, a criminal lawyer in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

How strong is she now as a candidate?

As a candidate, Le Pen is on strong footing. A June poll by the French institute Ifop showed her coming in first place with 32 percent of the vote in the first round of the election.

Her 30-year-old protégé Bardella, who would have taken over as the National Rally’s nominee if she had been barred from running, polls slightly higher. He polled at 36 percent of the vote in the first round.

“Marine Le Pen has great name recognition, but she needs to reassure people on some topics,” a senior National Rally official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamic between the party’s top two figures, said ahead of the ruling.

One key difference lies in how the two far-right leaders are perceived by the electorate.

While Le Pen is a political veteran with a four-decade-long career and three presidential runs, her name remains toxic to parts of the electorate, especially the older generation that has not forgotten her father’s antisemitic and racist remarks.

Le Pen’s past pledge to leave the EU, even long abandoned, and her perceived weakness on economic issues have also historically scared off voters from the traditional, free-market-oriented right, which Bardella had been courting before the verdict.

That group could be key to winning in 2027.

For the National Rally, achieving the absolute majority needed to win in the second round of voting could require making gains among segments such as the center-right.

“They won’t rally behind Marine Le Pen in the way they would rally behind Jordan Bardella,” said Laure Salvaing, director general of polling firm Verian.

Can Bardella rebel?

Bardella’s advantage in the polls has left some to wonder whether the young leader could stage a coup against his mentor.

That’s unlikely. Even Le Pen’s most faithful lieutenants who have criticized Bardella’s moves on core issues, such as pension reform, credit him for being loyal.

He would also likely lack the troops to power such a move.

While Bardella has been presiding over the party’s operations and is the face of the National Rally in Brussels, heavyweights faithful to Le Pen have key positions inside the party’s structure and at the National Assembly, where she leads a group of 122 far-right lawmakers.

Where will the dust settle on Europe and the economy?

Marine Le Pen may have shifted on her party’s historic attachment to leaving the euro, but she is a committed Euroskeptic who embraces a confrontational approach to the European Commission.

She shares Bardella’s desire to sharply reduce France’s contribution to the EU budget, which she slammed as “delirious” a couple of months ago. The two also oppose the bloc’s policies on immigration.

Le Pen has said that if she’s elected president, she would seek to change the French constitution to enshrine the primacy of French law over European law to radically restrict immigration in France. This would likely put her at loggerheads with France’s Constitutional Council and EU institutions.

On the economy, Le Pen supports a pro-state, interventionist approach to protect national industries. She also regularly slams free trade deals — such as the pact with countries from the Latin American Mercosur bloc — as sacrificing French interests.

The National Rally leader wants to shore up France’s welfare state but exclude foreigners from drawing certain benefits. She is also in favor of reversing President Emmanuel Macron’s flagship pensions reform and bringing the legal age of retirement down to 62 from 64.

That issue has been at the heart of the National Rally’s credibility gap in business circles, where many see the party’s economic platform as unrealistic. In an effort to fill that gap, Bardella has in recent weeks openly questioned that position . Le Pen has shown some openness to tweaking her plans on pensions, but in a more limited way.

The party is expected to unveil its platform in the fall — leaving plenty for fine-tuning. But as the candidate, it’s Le Pen who will have the final say on issues that will define her campaign.

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Yesterday's 1,600 layoffs at Xbox—just half of the 3,200 job cuts Microsoft intends to inflict on its gaming division by the end of its 2027 fiscal year—seem to have taken a heavy toll on the company's celebrated accessibility efforts.

In the 24 hours since CEO Asha Sharma pronounced Xbox's "reset," senior and lead accessibility specialists have confirmed that they've been affected by the associated layoffs, casting into doubt how committed the company will be to championing accessibility initiatives like it has in recent years.

The first indication that accessibility efforts weren't coming away unscathed from Microsoft's cost-cutting emerged in mid-June, when an accessibility program manager working on contract said in a LinkedIn post that he was "unfortunately part of the incoming Xbox layoffs." Beginning last week, those job cuts seemingly began to accelerate, as an accessibility test lead for the Microsoft Gaming Accessibility Testing Service made a similar post saying he was seeking work after almost three years of Xbox accessibility consulting and organizing accessibility testing on over 1,000 Xbox Store titles.

Following yesterday's announcement, the scope of the layoffs had expanded to include accessibility leads like Kaitlyn Jones , who in five years at Microsoft had led projects like the Xbox Adaptive Joystick and the company's publicly-available training program on gaming accessibility fundamentals. Elsewhere, Elisabeth Whyte—an award-winning senior user researcher for accessibility who had spent seven years at ZeniMax—made her own open-for-work posting , indicating that accessibility specialists at Xbox's game development studios were affected, too.

Xbox's accessibility initiatives have been one of its few unequivocal achievements in an era of pervasive dysfunction: By investing in the development of peripherals like the landmark Xbox Adaptive Controller and the creation of accessibility guidelines in collaboration with industry and disability specialists, Microsoft has been a driving force in promoting the gaming industry's recently-increasing implementation and normalization of accessibility and disability-conscious options.

Xbox, however, says its cuts don't mean it's retreating from those initiatives.

"Accessibility remains a priority for Xbox," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement provided to GameSpot . "While we’ve made changes across the team, creating more accessible gaming experiences for players has not changed."

We'll have to wait and see how accurate that commitment proves to be. If Xbox is truly hoping to entertain " more than a billion people each day," cutting the employees who helped ensure its games are playable by as many people as possible seems like a strange way to go about it.

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In some parts of the US, up to 30 percent of people may carry the antibody behind a red meat allergy spurred by tick bites, far exceeding the estimated number of people who actually have the allergy, according a study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report .

The findings suggest far more Americans than previously thought may be at risk of the allergy, which can make having a hamburger for dinner a potentially life-threatening choice. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously estimated that only 0.14 percent of the US population (up to 450,000 people) has the allergy. But the study also highlights how little we understand about this unique disease—and the challenges of accurately diagnosing it.

The study surveyed blood donations for the disease's key antibody, which is in a class dubbed IgE and specifically attacks a double-sugar molecule called galactose-α-1,3-galactose, also known as alpha-gal. This disaccharide is found decorating the cells of nonprimate mammals, including cows and pigs, but it's also released in the saliva of ticks, particularly the lone star tick ( Amblyomma americanum ). People bitten by ticks can develop IgE antibodies against alpha-gal, which can sometimes trigger an allergic response to eating red meat as well as other animal products, such as dairy and gelatin.

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A team of conservationists has discovered and restored the tombstone of Sebastian, a formerly enslaved man who died free in 1729.

"That discovery is likely one of the oldest gravestones of a free Black person in America," Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston, said in a July 4 speech . "It's been there all along. We just had to go look and share the story."

The stone marker is inscribed with Sebastian's chosen name, Boston, and features an image common in 17th- and early 18th-century tombstones in New England: the death's head . The symbol includes a stylized skull flanked by wings, which were possibly intended to symbolize spiritual resurrection .

On the tombstone, a simple, five-line inscription reads:

Original Inscription

HERE LYES Y e

BODY OF BOSTON

AGED 70 YEARS

DEC D FEB Y Y e 28

1728

Modern English

HERE LIES THE

BODY OF BOSTON

AGED 70 YEARS

DECEASED FEBRUARY THE 28

1728

In 18th-century American writing, the word "the" was often abbreviated with a Y-shaped letter form called a " thorn " representing the "th" sound. Tombstones also frequently abbreviated "deceased" and the month. Somewhat confusingly, before 1752, the American colonies regularly used the Julian calendar , as did Britain, in which the new year started on March 25. Boston's year of death is listed on the tombstone as 1728, but his February 28 death was actually in 1729 in our modern Gregorian calendar.

Kelly Thomas, the director of the Historic Burying Grounds Initiative for the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, told WBZ News Radio that she identified the gravestone during a restoration project at the Granary Burying Ground , the city's third-oldest cemetery. Established in 1660, the cemetery includes over 5,000 graves, including the final resting places of Declaration of Independence signers Samuel Adams and John Hancock; the U.S. Revolutionary War officer Paul Revere; and Crispus Attucks, a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry who is thought to be the first American killed in the Boston Massacre.

"I was reviewing the photos of headstones, and then I noticed that the stone only had one name," rather than a first and last name, Thomas told WBZ News Radio, suggesting that Boston was either enslaved or free when he died. Based on a search of historical records, Thomas determined that Boston's enslaved name was Sebastian and that he also went by Bastian.

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A surprising amount of information was recorded about Boston and his wife, Jane Lake. In 1701, they had their daughter, also named Jane, baptized at First Church in Boston, where they regularly attended worship services. But while the two were married with children, they were also both enslaved and lived in different households, historian Gloria Whiting wrote in a 2016 study .

Boston was likely freed in the early 18th century, some time after the 1702 death of John Waite, who had held him in slavery. By 1708, a list of free Black people included the name Boston, and he had gained a reputation in the city as a hardworking handyman, according to Whiting's study. He had been freed for roughly 30 years when he died in 1729 and was well-known enough to have an obituary published for him in the New-England Weekly Journal , a rare occurrence for enslaved or freed Black people in colonial America.

Wu also said that, in recent weeks, archaeologists in Boston had discovered musket balls and gun flints from the infamous Battle of Bunker Hill that took place on June 17, 1775. The battle was fought by British Crown forces and New England troops in the first stage of the American Revolutionary War.

See if you know what these mysterious artifacts are with our archaeological fragments quiz!

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Hyundai is expanding the Palisade lineup with a new Black Ink Edition.

New range-topper starts at $59,280 and features a blacked out exterior.

Crossover has a hybrid powertrain producing 329 hp and 339 lb-ft.

Hyundai introduced the Ioniq 9 Performance Calligraphy Black Ink in April and now they’re following up with the 2027 Palisade Hybrid Calligraphy Black Ink Edition. It’s a blacked out flagship with a ridiculously long name.

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Tongue twister aside, the model embraces the dark side as it sports a number of black components including the grille and badging. They’re joined by gloss black paint on the window trim, roof rails, and wheels.

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Since that clearly isn’t dark enough, the model also sports dark chrome accents and satin black flourishes. While the crossover is available in Abyss Black Pearl, Hyundai also offers Creamy White Pearl and Ecotronic Gray Pearl for customers who want a two-tone appearance.

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The black theme continues inside as the traditional silver accents have been replaced by a “premium black finish.” Hyundai was surprisingly coy on details, but noted everything from the door handles to speaker grilles and center console bezels are now black.

While the cabin comes off as dark and dreary, the crossover should come nicely equipped as the standard Palisade Hybrid Calligraphy has eight-way power front seats that are wrapped in Nappa leather and feature heating, ventilation, and a relaxation mode. They’re joined by a heated second- and third-row as well as a heated leather steering wheel and a tri-zone climate control system.

Buyers will also find a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a 12.3-inch infotainment system, and a 12-inch heads up display. Other niceties include a 14-speaker Bose premium audio system, a dual pane panoramic glass roof, a hands-free power liftgate, and a wireless smartphone charger.

Power comes from a hybrid system that combines a turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with a 1.65 kWh battery and a six-speed automatic transmission with integrated electric motors. This gives the crossover a combined output of 329 hp (245 kW / 334 PS) and 339 lb-ft (459 Nm) of torque. We can also expect a fuel economy rating of around 31 mpg city, 32 mpg highway, and 31 mpg combined with front-wheel drive.

The Palisade Hybrid Calligraphy Black Ink Edition will arrive at dealerships later this month and pricing starts at $59,280 with front-wheel drive and $61,280 with all-wheel drive – including a $1,600 destination fee.

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