english news

Russia sees polling station protests as Putin set to extend long rule

Russia sees polling station protests as Putin set to extend long rule

CNN – Russia saw protests at polling stations on Sunday on the final day of voting in an election set to extend Russian President Vladmir Putin’s long hold on power.

Lines at some polling stations in Russia grew suddenly at around 12pm local time Sunday, the hour at which supporters of the deceased opposition leader Alexey Navalny called on people to turn out collectively as a show of opposition support.

A CNN team at a polling station in Moscow said the line grew rapidly over a five- to ten-minute spell at around noon, and estimated 150 people had arrived.The CNN team said that police were letting people in batches through the gates to pass through security, with metal detectors and bags being checked inside the building.

A woman told the CNN team, “This is the first time in my life I have ever seen a queue for elections.” Asked why she had come at that hour, she simply replied: “You know why. I think everybody in this queue knows why.”

It’s unclear how many polling stations across the country saw an increase in people waiting at around noon. The Reuters and AFP news agencies also reported protests taking place.

Social media channels set up by supporters of Navalny showed video clips of lines in several places, including Moscow neighborhoods such as Nekrasovka and at Tservkaya Street and locations in St Petersburg. The Navalny team also posted an image from the city of Novosibirsk with the caption: “Today is #noon. The protest has already taken place in the first cities of Siberia. We are looking forward to seeing you.

More supporters of the Kremlin critic gathered around his grave to pay their respects on Sunday. Video shows dozens of people gathered around the grave at the Borisovsky Cemetery in Moscow, with some laying flowers while others stand in silence or take pictures.

Russians overseas also responded to the calls by Navalny’s supporters to protest at polling stations, forming long lines outside the Russian embassies in Berlin and London.    (CNN)…[+]

Far-right leader Geert Wilders abandons Dutch PM bid despite election victory

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders speaks to reporters after announcing he will not become prime

CNN -Populist firebrand Geert Wilders has conceded that he will not become the next prime minister of the Netherlands because his potential coalition backers have refused to back him.

Wilders’ far-right Freedom party PVV sent shockwaves through Europe after coming first in Dutch parliamentary elections late last year, securing 23.5% of the vote and 37 seats out of 150 available in what observers dubbed the Netherlands’ “Trump moment.” But, after weeks of negotiations, Wilders failed to reach an agreement with other parties and announced he would not lead the next government.“I can only become Prime Minister if ALL parties in the coalition support it. That was not the case. I would like a right-wing cabinet. Less asylum and immigration. Dutch number one,” Wilders wrote Wednesday on X.

Wilders had hoped to form a coalition with the center-right Freedom and Democracy Party VVD of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which came third with 24 seats, and the newly formed New Social Contract Party, which came fourth with 20 seats.The conservative coalition would have commanded 81 seats  enough for a majority in the Dutch parliament. But Wilders’ path to the premiership was derailed when NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt last month withdrew from coalition talks with the PVV. Wilders said Omtzigt’s decision to “throw in the towel” was “incredibly disappointing.”

Despite a late surge in support for far-right parties before November’s election, Wilders’ inflammatory anti-Islam, anti-immigration, anti-European Union and Ukraine-skeptic platform was ultimately perceived to be beyond the pale for his potential partners.

The NSC’s and PVV’s refusal to cooperate with Wilders may represent the reassertion of the “cordon sanitaire,” a longstanding principle under which more mainstream parties refuse to cooperate with certain populist parties.

The cordon sanitaire has previously helped to keep extremists out of government. For instance, when the then-National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen father of Marine unexpectedly defeated the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the 2002 French Presidential election, the Socialists swung their weight behind the center-right candidate Jacques Chirac, delivering him a landslide in the second-round runoff.   ( FotoPhoto: Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders speaks to reporters after announcing he will not become prime)…[+]

China issues guidelines on region-specific environmental management

BEIJING – China has rolled out guidelines on a more region-specific approach to environmental management.

The guidelines were jointly issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council.

It is important to adopt a region-specific approach to environmental management, and to enforce red lines for the protection of ecosystems, the quality of the environment, and rational resource utilization, according to the guidelines.

By 2025, the system for region-specific environmental management should be essentially established, and the system will be full-fledged and functioning efficiently by 2035, the guidelines noted.

The guidelines include 18 detailed policies in six aspects, including facilitating high-quality development, ensuring high-level protection of the ecological environment, and strengthening supervision and assessment.     (Xinhua)…[+]

At least 21 dead after bus collides with tanker in southern Afghanistan

At least 21 dead after bus collides with tanker in southern Afghanistan

At least 21 people have been killed and 38 others injured after a bus collided with an oil tanker in the Gerashk district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province, officials said.

The crash on the Kandahar-Herat highway involved a motorcycle, a fuel truck and a bus travelling from Herat city to the capital Kabul, said Sher Mohammad Wahdat, head of the information department for Helmand’s provincial government.

The bus driver lost control after colliding with the motorcycle and crashed with an oil tanker travelling in the opposite direction from the southern city of Kandahar to Herat, sparking a fire.“On Sunday morning, 21 people were killed and 38 people were injured due to a collision between a tanker, a motorcycle and a passenger bus,” the provincial information department said in a post on X.An investigation into the accident was under way, said Qadratullah, a traffic official in Helmand.

Helmand police chief spokesman Hzatullah Haqqani said 11 of the 38 injured people were transferred to hospitals with serious injuries.

Images shared by the information department on social media showed charred, twisted metal scattered across the highway and the crushed cabin of the tanker.  (al Jazeera)…[+]

Three Egyptian Coptic Orthodox monks killed in South Africa monastery

Three Egyptian Coptic Orthodox monks killed in South Africa monastery

SOUTH AFRICA  –  Three Egyptian Coptic Orthodox monks have been stabbed to death in a monastery in South Africa.

A 35-year-old man was arrested in connection with the killings, police said, but they were still to establish a motive for the crime, in Gauteng province.

The suspect, whose name was not made public, was due to be arraigned in court yesterday.

The three monks were murdered inside the Saint Mark the Apostle and Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Cullinan, a town 50km (30 miles) northeast of the capital, Pretoria, police said.

“Three victims were found with stab wounds while the fourth victim that survived alleged that he was hit by an iron rod on his hand before fleeing and hiding in one of the rooms,” the police statement said.

Nothing was taken from the scene, it added.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “closely following the investigations into the killing of three Egyptian monks”.

The Coptic Orthodox Church said all three monks were Egyptian nationals as it named them as Hegumen Takla el-Samuely, Yostos Ava Markos and Mina Ava Markos.

“There is no doubt that it is a painful incident,” Pope Tawadros II said in a statement on Wednesday, calling the monks “martyrs” and saying that the church had sent a delegation to South Africa.

“There are many rumours, but so far the truth of the situation has not become apparent. We console their families, we console the church there, and we console ourselves.”

No date has been set for a funeral but the monks will likely be buried in South Africa where they served according to tradition, the pope added.

Deadly attacks on places of worship in South Africa are rare, however, the Coptic Orthodox Church, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, has been the target of assaults by Islamic fighters in Egypt and elsewhere.

The church had in recent months condemned Israel’s continuing war on Gaza. (Al Jazeera)…[+]

North Korea’s Kim test-drives new tank during military drills

North Korea

NORTH KOREA   –  Leader Kim Jong Un has joined North Korean soldiers training in operating a new battle tank, according to state media, as rivals South Korea and the United States wrapped up joint military exercises.

Sporting a black leather jacket, Kim watched live-fire “training march” exercises from a field command post before mounting the new tank and driving it himself, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported yesterday.

Kim expressed “great satisfaction” that the tank – first unveiled during a 2020 military parade – demonstrated its striking power in its inaugural performance display and told his troops to bolster their “fighting spirits” and complete “preparations for war”, KCNA said.

This was the third time Kim, who last week had also ordered heightened readiness for war, was reported to have observed military exercises in the past month. The other two drills he inspected were dedicated to artillery firing and manoeuvring exercises.

North Korea’s Ministry of Defense last week threatened “responsible military activities” in reaction to the South Korea-US training, which the North views as rehearsals for an invasion.

The US and South Korea have been expanding their training exercises, with the latest round involving a computer-simulated command post training and 48 kinds of field exercises.

North Korea’s military preparations follow a speech by Kim in January in which he pledged to rewrite the constitution to eliminate the country’s longstanding goal to seek peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula and cement South Korea as its “invariable principal enemy”.

He said the new constitution must specify North Korea would annex and subjugate the South if another war broke out.

The rolling of the new tank, which has a launch tube for missiles, a weapons system the former Soviet Union already operated in the 1970s, indicates that it is ready to be deployed but it remains to be seen whether it can be mass-produced, according to analysts.

Observers also say Kim likely wants to use his upgraded weapons arsenal to win US concessions like extensive relief of international sanctions on North Korea. They say North Korea is expected to extend its testing activities and ramp up warlike rhetoric this year as South Korea holds parliamentary elections in April and the US a presidential election in November.

“The South Korean-U.S. training is over, but the North’s isn’t over yet,” Yang Uk, an analyst at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told The Associated Press news agency. “They won’t just stand still … they’ve been talking about war.”

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to visit South Korea next week to attend the third Summit for Democracy.

The top US diplomat will also hold a meeting with his counterpart, Cho Tae-yul, the second in a month. (Al Jazeera)…[+]

Denmark to conscript women into armed forces for first time

Denmark

DENMARK  –  Denmark will call up women as well as men as it expands conscription to respond to Europe’s changing security climate.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the revised policy was designed to increase the number of young people doing military service.

Conscripts will also be expected to serve more time in the military – 11 months, compared with four months at the moment.

“We are not rearming because we want war, destruction, or suffering. We are rearming right now to avoid war and in a world where the international order is being challenged,” Frederiksen told reporters on Wednesday, indirectly referring to Russia’s military moves in recent years and months.

Denmark, a founding member of the NATO alliance, also plans to boost its defense budget by 40.5 billion Danish crowns ($5.9bn) over the next five years. Frederiksen said defence spending would amount to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year and in 2025, above NATO’s target for member states.

The country scaled back its military capabilities after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, but Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has reawakened concerns about security on the continent.

Last Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would send troops to its border with Finland, which joined NATO last year as a result of the Ukraine invasion, as Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo warned Moscow was gearing up for a “long conflict with the West”.

The situation in Europe “has become more and more serious, and we have to take that into account when we look at future defense,” Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said. “A broader basis for recruiting that includes all genders is needed,” he said, adding it will create “a more versatile and more complete defense”.

Denmark currently has as many as 9,000 professional soldiers in addition to 4,700 conscripts undergoing basic training, according to official figures.

The government wants to increase the number of conscripts by 300 to reach a total of 5,000. Under the revised draft, conscripts will first spend five months in basic training, followed by six months in operational service along with supplementary training.

The new system will require a change in the law, which Poulsen said would happen in 2025 and take effect in 2026.

Currently, all physically fit men over the age of 18 are called up for military service, which is decided according to a lottery system.

Neighbouring Sweden introduced a military draft for men and women in 2017 amid concerns about the security environment in Europe and around Sweden.

The Scandinavian country, which joined NATO this month, had previously abolished compulsory military service for men in 2010 because there were enough volunteers to meet its military needs. Women had not been required to do national service before the law was changed.

Norway introduced a law applying military conscription to both sexes in 2013. (Al  Jazeera)…[+]

Israeli forces launch deadly raids in occupied West Bank

israel

OCCUPIED WEST BANK  –  Israeli forces have killed at least four people, including two minors, in raids on multiple locations in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials reported on Wednesday. Israeli forces shot dead a 13-year-old boy, identified as Rami al-Halhuli, in the Shu’fat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem. The Israeli Border Police said he had fired fireworks at them.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed support for Israeli soldiers amid outrage over the killing. “I salute the fighter who killed the terrorist,” Ben-Gvir posted on X. However, witnesses say the slain Palestinian teen had shot the fireworks upwards into the air, not at the Israeli forces, Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan reported from occupied East Jerusalem. “Witness accounts have corroborated two videos that we’ve seen. One is of the boy shooting the fireworks up in the air, not in the vicinity of the Israeli soldiers. And the other is of him shot, lying on the ground, and his mother is seen devastated,” Khan said.

“The mosque there has said they are going to declare a day of mourning tomorrow and a strike where all businesses will be closed in order for people to mourn his death.” The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it treated five others wounded by Israeli fire. Overnight Israeli raids were also reported in the town of Anabta, east of Tulkarem, where shots were fired, and in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, where Israeli forces attacked a vehicle wounding a 35-year-old man and his three-month-old child.

The Israeli police claimed they shot five men near the town of al-Jib, northwest of Jerusalem, as they were throwing Molotov cocktails. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 23-year-old Zaid Ward Shukri Khalifa and 16-year-old Abdullah Mamoun Hassan Assaf were killed, according to the Wafa news agency. The three other men shot are being treated at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah. “Border Guard fighters noticed 5 terrorists who had ignited Molotov cocktails and intended to throw them at drivers, endangering their lives. They opened fire on them, then arrested them and referred them for medical treatment,” the Israeli police posted on its Arabic account on X.

Israeli forces also stormed the grounds of the Jenin Government Hospital, shooting one Palestinian man dead and wounding five others, Wafa reported. The victim, Rabie al-Noursi, was in his 20s, the agency said. A Wafa correspondent reported that Israeli forces stormed the hospital’s yard and opened fire at a group of civilians who were standing in front of the emergency department. The killing followed multiple raids across the city of Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp. Dozens of Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers, supported by drones and an undercover special unit, took part in the raid in the early hours of Wednesday, Wafa said.

Violence has surged in the occupied West Bank since Hamas’ October 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza. At least 427 Palestinians have been killed there, mostly during confrontations with Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israeli-Palestinian tensions often soar during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began Sunday, over access to Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem…[+]

Defamation case against Meghan Markle brought by half-sister dismissed in US

megan markle

US – A US judge has dismissed a defamation case brought against the Duchess of Sussex by her half-sister.

Samantha Markle was suing Meghan over comments she made in a Netflix documentary and a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey. In her ruling, Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell found these comments were either opinions, substantially true, or did not plausibly defame Samantha. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning she will not be able to refile. Samantha had taken issue with Meghan’s comment, made in her interview with Winfrey, that Samantha had changed her surname back to Markle when her half-sister had started dating the Duke of Sussex. But in her ruling Judge Honeywell said: “The court has taken notice of the fact that [Samantha] used the surname Rasmussen in September 2016 and Markle two months later, soon after [Meghan’s] royal relationship was first reported.

“Therefore, the gist of the statement – that [Samantha] switched to her family name a short time after it was reported [Meghan] was involved with Prince Harry – is true.” The lawsuit also took issue with Meghan’s remarks on how close they were growing up, with Meghan telling Winfrey: “I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings.” Judge Honeywell ruled that this was Meghan’s expressed opinion of the relationship. The judge added that Samantha had failed to identify any statements that could support a defamation claim. According to the court document, this was Samantha’s third try at amending her complaint against Meghan, with whom she shares a father, Thomas Markle.

She first took legal action in March 2022, alleging the duchess had defamed her by giving information to an unauthorised biography called Finding Freedom and by discussing their relationship with Winfrey on live television. The case was thrown out last year after Judge Honeywell found the duchess could not be liable for the contents of the book because she had not published it…[+]

Ukraine hits oil refineries deep inside Russian territory, as Kyiv steps up drone attacks before Putin’s likely re-election

Ukraine hits oil refineries deep inside

UKRAINE  –  Ukraine launched overnight drone attacks on three oil refineries deep inside Russia, a Ukrainian defense source told CNN yesterday, as Kyiv intensifies its cross-border strikes days before President Vladimir Putin’s anticipated re-election. The source told CNN that Ukraine is “implementing a well-planned strategy to decrease Russian economic potential.” The three Russian oil refineries targeted are in the cities of Ryazan, about 130 miles southeast of Moscow; Kstovo, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, nearly 300 miles east of the capital; and Kirishi in Russia’s northwest. The trio of facilities are among Russia’s largest refineries, the source said.

It marked the second consecutive day of Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy sites, and the locations targeted represent a spate of attacks well within Russia’s territory. “Our goal is to take away our enemy’s resources and decrease the flow of oil money and fuel Russia is using directly on the war,” the source told CNN. They came after a chaotic day on the Russian side of the Ukrainian border, during which pro-Ukrainian groups of Russian fighters said they launched cross-border attacks and claimed to have gained control of the village of Tyotkino in Russia’s Kursk region.

Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday its air defenses destroyed 58 Ukrainian drones overnight, including some that traveled as far as the Leningrad region, which borders Finland, supporting Kyiv’s claims. The regional governor in Ryazan, Pavel Malkov, said a fire broke out at the facility there but has since been extinguished. He said two people were injured. Social media video from the refinery complex, one of Russia’s largest, showed a large plume of smoke billowing from a building in the distance. A day earlier, Russian authorities reported at least 25 drone attacks, with local officials in the Oryol and Nizhny Novgorod regions reporting hits to fuel and energy facilities.

No casualties have been reported from either last Tuesday or yesterday’s attacks. But an apparent cross-border incursion on Tuesday saw attacks launched in the village of Odnorobovka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, and in the nearby Russian villages of Nekhoteevka and Spodariushino in Belgorod, according to Russian authorities. Russia’s Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said 10 civilians were injured and six were hospitalized in the region.

As well as targeting Russia’s deep oil reserves, Kyiv’s latest strikes may be partially intended to bring home to Russians the impact of the war just as the country prepares for a presidential election. The vote is essentially certain to hand Putin a fifth term, extending his rule into the 2030s. Voting will take place over three days from Friday, with the president sailing towards another spell in power in a ballot that is not considered free or fair and in which he faces no genuine competition. During a lengthy interview on state television channel Rossiya 1 yesterday, Putin said Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and Kursk are happening amid Kyiv’s “failures” on the battlefield.

“All this is happening against the backdrop of failures on the line of contact, on the front line. They did not achieve any of the goals they set for themselves last year,” Putin said. “Against the backdrop of those failures, they need to show at least something, and, mainly, attention should be focused on the information side of the matter.”…[+]