Thursday, March 28, 2024

BIG Wrap

Putin rails against Ukraine as attacks mar Russian presidential election

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt his country’s presidential election by shelling Russian territory and using 2,500 soldiers to try to pierce Russia’s borders, promising to punish Kyiv for its actions. Polls opened across 11 time zones in Russia on Friday to begin three days of voting with Putin almost certain to secure his fifth term since winning his first election in 2000 with dissent in...

Judge rules that prosecutor Willis can stay on Trump Georgia election case if romantic interest Wade quits

(BBC News) The prosecutor in Donald Trump's election fraud case in Georgia can stay on the trial, if the lawyer she had an affair with quits, a judge has ruled. Trump and his co-defendants had tried to get Fani Willis disqualified, saying her relationship with Nathan Wade — whom she hired — had compromised the integrity of the case. Judge Scott McAfee disagreed, but said it did create an "appearance of impropriety." He said either Willis or...

Thailand, Laos try to ‘make junta presentable’ amid ASEAN Myanmar inertia

(Al Jazeera Media Network) The ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat wrapped up recently in Luang Prabang, the old capital of landlocked Laos, with an emphasis on the stalled five-point consensus agreed between the bloc and the Myanmar military shortly after it seized power in a 2021 coup. An official from Myanmar attended the meeting for the first time since the military regime was shut out of the top summits for failing to take steps to end the crisis. Democracy activists and...

Top Democrat Schumer calls for Israel elections

(BBC News) US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has called for new elections in Israel, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prioritizing his "political survival" above the country. Schumer, a Democrat and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US, said Netanyahu had "lost his way." He warned that huge civilian casualties in Gaza risked alienating allies and turning Israel into a global "pariah". It is a sharp escalation in US criticism of Netanyahu's government. Officials in Washington, including...

Georgia judge dismisses some criminal charges against Trump

(BBC New) The judge overseeing an election interference case against Donald Trump in Georgia has thrown out some criminal charges, but left most in place. Judge Scott McAfee found six counts in the 41-count indictment against Trump and some of his co-defendants, including Rudy Giuliani, lacked detail. But he said the charges can still be refiled at a later date. Trump was among 19 people charged with a conspiracy to overturn the state's 2020 election results. "The lack...

Aid ship sets sail to test corridor from Cyprus to Gaza

(Al Jazeera Media Network) An aid ship loaded with food has departed Cyprus heading for Gaza, after days of delay. The Open Arms, owned by a charity of the same name, left Larnaca port early on Tuesday, towing a barge containing about 200 tonnes of flour, rice, and protein. The voyage is a test of a planned sea corridor to carry aid to a population on the brink of starvation. Mostly funded by the United Arab...

Trump will not give a penny to Ukraine, says Hungary PM

(BBC News) Donald Trump will not fund Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion if he is elected US president again, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has said. "He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war. That is why the war will end," the conservative premier said after meeting Trump in Florida. The former US president has pledged to end the war "within 24 hours" if elected – but provided no details. Orban is openly backing his long-term...

Ukraine rejects Pope Francis’s call to ‘raise the white flag’

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Ukraine has rejected Pope Francis’s call to hold negotiations with Russia more than two years into its invasion, saying that Kyiv will “never” surrender. “Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media Sunday, a day after the pope said Kyiv should “have the courage...

Ireland’s referendum on family, women’s roles defeated

(Al Jazeera Media Network) A dual referendum in the Republic of Ireland on redefining family and women’s roles in the constitution has been defeated, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. The government supported the proposed changes, which would have widened the definition of the family and clarified the duties of women in society. Varadkar had described Friday’s polls, which deliberately fell on International Women’s Day, as a chance to do away with “very old-fashioned, very sexist language about...

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un orders heightened war preparations

(Al Jazeera Media Network) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered heightened readiness for war after inspecting troops at a major military operations base in the country’s west. The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not reveal the location of the base in its report on Thursday. The North Korean leader said the military must “dynamically usher in a new heyday of intensifying the war preparations in line with the requirements of the prevailing...