Trump calls Zelensky a 'dictator' as he hits back at 'disinformation' criticism
Fact-checking Trump's claim about Zelensky not holding elections
In Donald Trump's recent Truth Social post that we reported on, he claimed President Zelensky "refuses to have elections", calling the leader a "dictator".
He's repeating a claim he made yesterday from Florida, where he drew attention to the fact that Ukraine has not held a presidential election since 2019, when Zelensky - previously a comedian with no political base - swept to power.
His first five-year term of office was due to come to an end in May 2024. However, Ukraine has been under martial law since the Russian invasion in February 2022, which means elections are suspended.
In November, all parties in Ukraine's parliament backed postponing elections until the war end and Zelensky has vowed to hold a new election once the conflict ends.
Summary
Donald Trump launches a fresh attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a "dictator" and saying he has done a "terrible job"
Earlier, Zelensky accused the US president of "living in a disinformation space" created by Russia following US-Moscow talks in Saudi Arabia - from which Kyiv was excluded
Asked afterwards by the BBC how he would respond to Ukrainians who felt "betrayed" over not having a seat at the table, Trump said Ukraine "could have made a deal" earlier
Russian President Vladimir Putin later said "nobody is excluding Ukraine" from talks on ending the war
A full-scale Russian invasion sparked the war in Ukraine three years ago, eight years after it unilaterally annexed Crimea
Thousands rescued from illegal scam compounds in Myanmar as Thailand launches huge crackdown
Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have become havens for criminal syndicates operating online scam operations and tricking thousands into enslaved work
Wed 19 Feb 2025 06.17 GMT
About 7,000 people have been rescued from illegal call centre operations in Myanmar and were waiting to be transferred to Thailand, prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Wednesday, as the country launched a large-scale crackdown on scam centres operating on the border.
The prime minister’s announcement came after Thai police said they were preparing to receive up to 10,000 foreigners rescued from a network of notorious scam centres.
Uganda deploys troops to DR Congo to repel militias
The Ugandan troop deployment comes as the Congolese army faces a major challenge from rebel groups seeking to control the mineral-rich region.
Uganda's army said on Tuesday that its troops would be deploying to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help fight local militias.
The troops will be deploying to the town of Bunia in the eastern part of the DRC.
Why is the Ugandan military deploying in Congo?
Uganda's military accused militia groups of committing "massacres" in eastern Congo.
"There were massacres being committed by some militia groups and we agreed with our Congolese counterparts to carry out joint operations to save lives," Ugandan military spokesman Felix Kulayigye told AFP.
From Paris, Begum TV offers Afghan women ‘window onto the world’
Paris-based Begum TV provides school classes, health programmes and light-hearted entertainment to Afghan women stripped of all rights. Employing Afghan journalists exiled in France, the channel’s work is all the more precious now that one of Kabul's last remaining media outlets for women, Radio Begum, has been forced off air by the Taliban.
Operating from a small Paris studio, thousands of kilometres from Kabul, Begum TV has emerged as a beacon of hope for the women of Afghanistan, offering a raft of programmes produced for and by Afghan women, night and day.
“For Afghan women, it’s the only window onto the world, the only way to entertain themselves,” says Hamida Aman, a Swiss-Afghan journalist behind Begum TV and its parent group, the Begum Organization for Women (BOW).
Born in Afghanistan and raised in Switzerland, Aman has spent the past two decades running audiovisual and educational projects in her native country, where almost one household in two is equipped with a satellite dish, according to a BBC Media survey dating from 2023.
Exclusive: Captured North Korean soldiers speak out on deployment to Russia
Two North Korean prisoners of war, captured by Ukrainian forces last month, have spoken exclusively to the Chosunilbo at a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Ukraine. This marks the first time North Korean soldiers deployed to fight in Russia have been interviewed by the media. Mr. Ri (26), a reconnaissance sniper, and Mr. Baek (21), a rifleman, each served in the North Korean military for 10 and 4 years before they were deployed to Kursk, Russia, in October and November last year.
Both men had been held in solitary confinement after they were captured on Jan 9. While all North Korean troops sent to Russia were initially thought to have been part of the elite Storm Corps, the two soldiers insisted that they were actually affiliated with the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the intelligence agency that manages North Korea’s clandestine operations.
Punishing pro-Palestine protests
As pro-Palestine protests on US campuses grow smaller, advocates point to increasingly harsh disciplinary measures.
It was December, and the end of the quarter was fast approaching at the University of Chicago.
Mamayan Jabateh, a fourth-year student, was working on a final paper about the politics of the "carceral state", inside a dorm on campus, when a knock came at the door.
Four Chicago police officers were standing on the other side. They presented Jabateh, who uses the pronoun "they", with a printed photograph. It showed them at a pro-Palestinian campus protest two months earlier, on October 11.
No comments:
Post a Comment