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Europe
Croatia
SUN, 29 DEC, 2024 - 08:55 Croatia holds presidential election with Nato and EU critic considered favourite. Croatia’s left-leaning president Milanovic, an outspoken critic of Western military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, is running for re-election. Mr Milanovic, the most popular politician in Croatia, has served as prime minister in the past. Populist in style, the 58-year-old has been a fierce critic of current Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic who has labelled him pro-Russian and a threat to Croatia’s international standing. Milanovic is leading us East, Primorac is leading us West, Plenkovic said. Mr Milanovic faces seven contenders, including Primorac, the candidate of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union and is unlikely to get an outright majority in the first round of voting today. Mr Primorac’s, bid for the presidency has been marred by a high-level corruption case that landed Croatia’s health minister in jail last month and which featured prominently in pre-election debates. The Milanovic Primorac pair are expected to face off in the second round on January 12 if no contender gets more than 50% of the vote, according to pre-election polls. Trailing a distant third in the pre-election polls is Raspudic, a conservative independent candidate. She has focused her election campaign on the economic troubles of ordinary citizens, corruption and issues such as population decline in the country of some 3.8 million. Though the presidency is largely ceremonial in Croatia, an elected president holds political authority and acts as the supreme commander of the military. Mr Milanovic has criticised the Nato and European Union support for Ukraine and has often insisted that Croatia should not take sides. He has said Croatia should stay away from global disputes, thought it is a member of both Nato and the EU. Mr Milanovic has also blocked Croatia’s participation in a Nato-led training mission for Ukraine, declaring that “no Croatian soldier will take part in somebody else’s war”. Today’s presidential election is Croatia’s third vote this year, following a snap parliamentary election in April and the European Parliament balloting in June. (Source: Irish Examiner – Ireland)
Azerbaijan
(Sunday), 29.12.2024 The Azerbaijani civilian plane that crashed in Kazakhstan was damaged by ground fire Azerbaijani president said today. On Wednesday an Azerbaijan Airlines flight, en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny in Russia's Chechen Republic, crashed 3 kilometers from the Kazakh city Aktau on the Caspian Sea coast. The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft was made uncontrollable by electronic warfare, says Aliyev speaking to Azerbaijani television, adding that Russia must admit guilt for plane crash and pay compensation. A fuller answer would emerge after an examination of the aircraft's black boxes, Aliyev said. Regarding what Azerbaijan expects from Russia, Aliyev said they have told Moscow that they want a formal apology first. "Secondly, it must acknowledge its guilt. Thirdly, those responsible must be punished and brought to criminal responsibility, and compensation must be paid to the Azerbaijani state, to the injured passengers and crew members. These are our conditions," he added. Kazakh authorities said 38 people were killed in the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft, which had 67 people on board, while 29 survived. Investigations into the incident are ongoing. Initial statements said a bird collision might have caused the crash, though footage from the site revealed large holes in the tail section of the aircraft, leading to speculation of a possible attack. Earlier Thursday, senior Azerbaijani officials were suggesting the plane crash was caused by a Russian missile system. According to a Kremlin statement yesterday, Russian President Putin held a phone conversation with Aliyev, during which he apologized that the incident took place in Russian airspace and offered his condolences. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Georgia
29 December 2024, 14:36 Former Manchester City footballer Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of Georgia today. Kavelashvili’s Georgian Dream party won parliamentary elections in October. He sworn in as Georgia’s president as predecessor refuses to step down. She has vowed to stay on as office holder after her six-year term ends tomorrow. Pro-Western Zourabichvili has been president since 2018, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held. Georgia’s four main opposition groups have boycotted parliamentary sessions and demanded new elections. Riot police used water cannons and tear gas almost daily to disperse scores of protesters, some of whom threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the capital's central boulevard. Hundreds were detained and over 100 were treated for injuries. The Georgian Dream party refused to join the West in sanctioning Putin for the war in Ukraine, and called the West the "global war party", inconsistent with their stated goal of joining the EU. (Source: LBC – United Kingdom)
7:18 ET, Dec 29 2024 Kavelashvili, 53, a former footballer who played for Manchester City was sworn in behind closed doors today to become Georgia's sixth President. This comes as a wave of anti-government protests have gripped Georgia in recent months, 'as foreign powers seek to prevent the country from aiding Putin's effort to overthrow Ukraine'. /Videos/ (Source: The U.S. Sun)
Norway
5:48 ET, Dec 29 A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 737-800 which carried 182 people faced hydraulic system failure shortly after taking off from Oslo Airport to Amsterdam. The pilots were forced to quickly divert to Sandefjord Torp Airport, located 110 kilometres from Oslo, for an emergency landing. As the plane came down, it skidded along the runway so far that it hit the end of it and went on further to the grassy area adjacent to it. No injuries were reported as passengers were promptly evacuated using mobile stairs. The plane in Norway, a Boeing 737-800, was the same type of jet which crashed in South Korea. (Source: The U.S. Sun)
Russia
December 29, 2024 10:34 AM GMT+1 The arms control treaties sought to slow the arms race and reduce the risk of nuclear war. The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by Gorbachev and Reagan in 1987, marked the first time the superpowers had agreed to reduce their nuclear arsenals and eliminated a whole category of nuclear weapons. Trump in 2018 said he wanted to terminate the INF Treaty because of what he said were years of Russian violations and his concerns about China’s intermediate-range missile arsenal. The United States under former President Trump formally withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019 after saying that Moscow was violating the accord. The United States publicly blamed Russia's development of the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile, known in NATO as the SSC-8, as the reason for it leaving the INF Treaty. The Kremlin repeatedly denied the accusation and dismissed as a pretext. Russia then imposed a moratorium on its own development of missiles previously banned by the INF treaty - ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 km to 5,500 km. In his moratorium proposal, Putin suggested Russia could agree not to deploy the missiles in its Baltic coast exclave of Kaliningrad. Since leaving the pact, the United States has tested missiles with a similar profile. Russia will abandon its unilateral missile moratorium on the deployment of intermediate and shorter range nuclear-capable missiles because the United States has deployed such weapons in various regions around the world, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said today. Asked by state news agency RIA if Russia could withdraw from the New START treaty before its expiry in February 2026, Lavrov said that there were currently 'no conditions" for a strategic dialogue with Washington. "The U.S. has arrogantly ignored the warnings of Russia and China and in practice has moved on to the deployment of weapons of this class in various regions of the world.' "Today it is clear that, for example, our moratorium on the deployment of short- and intermediate-range missiles is no longer practically viable and will have to be abandoned,' Lavrov said. Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as "Oreshnik", or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine on Nov. 21 in what Putin said was a direct response to strikes on Russia by Ukrainian forces with U.S. and British missiles. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
by Faulconbridge, Moscow bureau chief
United Kingdom
18:31, 28 Dec 2024 Thousands of British troops are getting ready to take part in war games in Romania. The two-month exercise will rehearse the deployment of the new Allied Reaction Force 'to counter Russian threats' Soldiers are set to begin arriving in the country, which borders western Ukraine, within days. Top brass hope it will showcase NATO’s ability to defend every inch of territory. It comes eight months after the troops joined another NATO exercise, Swift Response in Estonia, billed as the biggest since the Cold War. The latest exercise, named Steadfast Dart, comes after UK signed a defence treaty with Romania last month. Earlier this year, an RAF squadron of six Typhoons and around 200 personnel was deployed to Romania to fly NATO air policing missions for four months. There was also a British Army deployment to Romania’s Carpathian Mountains to train alongside allies. Romania has already sent personnel to Britain to help the troops teach combat skills to over 45,000 Ukrainian recruits in Operation Interflex. (Source: Mirror - United Kingdom)
Asia
South Korea
10:19 GMT, 29 December 2024 At least 179 people are feared dead after the Jeju Air plane - a 5 year old Boeing 737-800 aircraft - returning from Bangkok, carrying 181 passengers skidded off a runway as it landed and smashed into a concrete wall at Muan International Airport in South Korea. The passengers on board the flight included 173 South Koreans and two Thais, Yonhap reported. The still-rising death toll includes at least 82 men and 83 women, according to the National Fire Agency. Two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail section of the burning plane. News1 Agency reported a passenger sent a text message to a relative saying a bird was stuck in the wing. The horror crash is believed to have been caused by 'contact with birds, resulting in malfunctioning landing gear' as the plane attempted to land at the airport in the country's southwest. According to Flightradar data, the plane departed from Bangkok at 2.29am local time and was due to arrive at 8.30 but landed at 8.59am. Boeing has said it is in contact with Jeju Air about the disaster. (Source: Daily Mail - United Kingdom)
Syria
Dec 29, 2024, 8:42 AM US military convoy arrives in Syria from Iraq, including 50 trucks carrying armored vehicles, military equipment, and logistics, is on its way to one of the US military bases in the east and north of Syria through the Al-Waleed border crossing. (Source: MEHR News Agency - Iran)
North America
Canada
5:48 ET, Dec 29 The Air Canada flight going from St John's to Halifax crashed down on the runway. It is believed that the Air Canada flight AC2259's tires failed to deploy during landing, which sent the aircraft careening along the tarmac at a reported 20 degree angle. The flight came skidding into Halifax Stanfield International Airport, which had to be temporarily shut down whilst authorities delft with the carnage. The aircraft was unable to reach the terminal and the crew and 73 passengers were off-loaded by bus. (Source: The U.S. Sun)
United States
29.12.24, 03:02 PM Visas for skilled workers have become a highly polarizing topic among Trump’s followers, many of whom oppose all types of immigration and call for the country’s borders to be closed. That contrasts with his supporters from Silicon Valley, who have long relied on programmers entering the country on H-1B visas to supplement their workforces. Musk has frequently stated that the visas are necessary because of a lack of US citizens capable of doing the work required by tech companies. President-elect Trump appeared to weigh in yesterday on a heated debate among his supporters over the role of skilled immigrant workers in the U.S. economy, saying he had frequently used the visas for those workers and backed the program. “I have many H-1B visas on my properties,” he told the New York Post. “I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.” But his comments - which were enthusiastically embraced by the technology industry as an endorsement - may muddy the waters because Trump appears to have only sparingly used the H-1B visa program, which allows skilled workers like software engineers to work in the United States for up to three years and can be extended to six years. Instead, he has been a frequent and longtime user of the similarly named, but starkly different, H-2B visa program, which is for unskilled workers like gardeners and housekeepers, as well as the H-2A program, which is for agricultural workers. Those visas allow a worker to remain in the country for 10 months. Federal data show Trump’s companies have received approval to employ over 1,000 workers through the two H-2 programs in the past 20 years. The Trump transition team did respond to a prior query about Trump’s position on work visas by sharing the text of a speech he made in 2020 extolling the work of U.S. citizens in building the country, noting that “Americans must never lose sight of this miraculous story.” While campaigning in 2016, Trump spoke out against the H-1B program, calling it “very bad for workers” and stating that “we should end it.” Both the H-1B and H-2 programs are overseen by the Department of Labor, which imposes different rules for each. The skilled worker program currently has a cap of 65,000 per year, a number that technology companies have pushed to increase. H-2B visas, which are for nonagricultural unskilled labor, are capped at 66,000, while H-2A visas, for agricultural workers, have no caps, but are limited to certain sectors of the industry. (Source: Telegraph India / The New York Times - U.S.)
Globalization
Sunday, 29 December 2024 09:37 PM EST Today a suspicious and small anonymous Telegram account with less than 500 followers is calling Muslims in Europe, the United States and Russia in Arabic to New Year's Eve attacks. Nothing is immediately clear about the terroristic post or the account - its sincerity or authentic links to a militant Islamic faction or even the facade of such a militant Islamic faction. (Source: Newsmax – U.S.)
4 12 29 .22:50
