South African leader defends contested fundraising campaign

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited wounded soldiers from the war in Ukraine for the first time on May 25. Following this visit to a Moscow hospital, users claimed that Putin used secret service bodyguards as extras to pose as "'injured soldiers" as he's extremely paranoid about his safety. Is there any truth to these claims? We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Joe Biden is set to travel to Israel on July 13 before heading to the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia. The trip's announcement comes despite pledges to side-line the "pariah" Saudi state.

Burkina Faso's leader, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba traveled to Seytenga on Wenesday to visit people who survived an attack that reportedly killed over 100 people over the weekend. Soldiers have recovered 79 bodies so far after the attack in the northern Seno province, the government said on Tuesday, as new details of the assault emerged.

Hundreds demonstrated in Tunis on Sunday (June 19) in a second day of protest against a constitutional referendum called by President Kais Saied that his opponents say would cement his hold on power. The demonstration was organized by the Salvation Front, a coalition including the moderate Islamist Ennahda, the largest party in a parliament that Saied dissolved in March.

French President Emmanuel Macron is facing difficult negotiations after his centrist bloc lost its absolute majority in parliament. The conservatives have already ruled out forming a coalition.

Marcos Jr. has given himself the position of secretary of agriculture ahead of taking his presidential office and amid prohibitively high global prices. The Philippines is heavily reliant on importing its staple — rice.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have agreed to dissolve parliament and call early elections. It will be Israel's fifth election in three years.

French politics continues to dominate the papers as Emmanuel Macron desperately seeks an alliance to secure a parliamentary majority. The US Senate finds bipartisan support for new gun possession laws for the first time in 30 years. Organisers of the Miss France beauty pageant introduce radical new changes to shake up the contest. Finally, a man escapes his kidnappers by driving erratically on a highway in order to be stopped by authorities.

Colombians have elected a new president. Gustavo Petro, 62, is set to become the first leftist in the country's top job. The former rebel of the now defunct M-19 movement beat millionaire businessman Rodolfo Hernandez in Sunday's election. Petro will take the oath of office in August, replacing the deeply unpopular Ivan Duque. For analysis, we speak to Gerard Martin, a political sociologist based in Medellin, Colombia.

EU leaders are in Brussels to discuss the membership bids of Ukraine and Moldova. Meanwhile, the European Parliament has voted heavily in favor of the two countries' getting candidate status.

Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Friday.

The European Union should change the way it does business with Africa to redress imbalances left over in part from the colonial era, EU lawmakers have said.