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(AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Saturday at a Singapore security forum, as he seeks to rally support for Kyiv while a Russian offensive gains ground. AFP reporters saw Zelensky enter the lobby of the luxury hotel hosting the Shangri-La Dialogue, which is attended by defence ministers from around the world. Zelensky will speak at the security forum on Sunday, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which organised the three-day event.

Slovak PM Robert Fico’s independent stance earned him the wrath of NATO and the EU. Did a Western-directed plot to remove his troublesome government from office trigger his assassination attempt? On May 15, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was almost murdered in broad daylight. While shaking hands with supporters during a public appearance, a gunman shot him twice in the abdomen and once in the shoulder. The attack left him fighting for his life while authorities raced for clues, and many observers at home and abroad puzzled about the would-be assassin’s motives and whether foreign actors were in some way...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority in a historic election result Saturday that puts South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago. With more than 99% of votes counted, the once-dominant ANC had received just over 40% in Wednesday’s election, well short of the majority it had held since the famed all-race vote of 1994 that ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela. The final results are still to be formally declared by the...

Russia pummeled Ukraine's energy infrastructure with a large-scale drone and missile attack Saturday, injuring at least 19 people, local officials said. The strikes were part of a series of sustained attacks by Russia against Ukraine's power grid, which has been ongoing since March. Ukraine's largest private energy firm, DTEK said that two of its power plants had been seriously damaged in what it said was the sixth attack on the company's plants in two and a half months.

Argentine authorities are working with El Salvador, a pioneering nation in bitcoin adoption, aiming to boost cryptocurrency adoption in Argentina. High-ranking officials from Argentina's National Securities Commission (CNV), the country's securities regulator, met with El Salvador's National Commission of Digital Assets on May 23 to discuss the use of cryptocurrencies, according to an official announcement by the CNV. The talks focused on El Salvador's experience in adopting bitcoin and its regulatory framework. "El Salvador has emerged as one of the leading countries, not only in the use of bitcoin, but it has also stood out in the world of crypto...

Survey conducted in March finds only 19% of Israeli Jews believe peaceful coexistence possible with Palestinian state — lowest since Pew Institute began polling Israelis in 2013 Fifty percent of Israeli Jews support Israel maintaining control of the Gaza Strip after the war against the Hamas terror group ends, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Thursday. Asked who should govern the Palestinian enclave after the war, half of Jewish respondents said Israel; 15% said they didn’t know; 10% said the Palestinian Authority, but without its president, Mahmoud Abbas; 8% said people who live in Gaza should decide; 7%...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Joint British-U.S. airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed at least 16 people and wounded 42 others, the rebels said Friday, the highest publicly acknowledged death toll from the multiple rounds of strikes carried out over the rebels’ attacks on shipping. Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe a then-ongoing attack, described the strikes Thursday as hitting a wide range of underground facilities, missile launchers, command and control sites, a Houthi vessel and other facilities. They called it a response to a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on...

PARIS (AP) — French authorities on Friday raised preliminary terrorism charges against an 18-year-old accused of a plot targeting spectators attending soccer games at the upcoming Paris Olympics. The interior minister said it was the first such thwarted plot targeting the Games, which start in eight weeks as France is on its highest threat alert level. The man is accused of planning a ‘’violent action’’ on behalf of the Islamic State group’s jihadist ideology, the national counterterrorism prosecutor’s office said in a statement Friday. The man, who was not identified, is behind held in custody pending further investigation. Interior Minister...

A seething mob of anti-Israel protesters busted inside the Brooklyn Museum Friday, where they set up an encampment, made their way to the roof and draped a banner from the side of the building declaring the war in Gaza “genocide.” The intruders — who were the vanguard of a massive demonstration nearly 1,000 people strong — scaled the building and rappelled down inside of the art museum with climbing equipment, police sources said. Hundreds of others surrounded the museum. A number of protesters on the roof draped a giant banner reading “Free Palestine Divest From Genocide” over the front of...

Israeli Prime Minsiter Benjamin Netanyahu declined Friday to confirm or deny U.S. President Joe Biden’s claim that Israel had proposed a deal for a ceasefire and hostage release that would keep Hamas armed and in power in Gaza. On Friday, as Breitbart News reported, Biden proposed a three-part deal similar to proposals that Hamas had rejected in the past. The proposal never mentioned disarming Hamas and would effectively leave Hamas in power. Israel has now offered a roadmap to an enduring ceasefire – and the release of all the hostages. Yesterday, this proposal was transmitted by Qatar to Hamas. Today,...

President Joe Biden announced a proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas on Friday — but its terms repeat those that Hamas has already rejected in recent weeks. Biden spoke after the onset of the Jewish Sabbath in Israel, meaning that the Israeli government would not be able to respond to his comments, at least officially, for about 24 hours. He claimed that Israel had offered the new deal, and that it had been transferred, via Qatari mediators, to Hamas. However, he later criticized members of the Israeli government who, he said, opposed the terms.

It’s called “projection”: ascribing to others behavior or beliefs that are one’s own. Of the two major weapons in Hamas’s arsenal, projectiles and projection, the latter has been markedly the most successful.Hamas projectiles – rockets, missiles, mortars – have over the years, including over the five Hamas-initiated wars between 2008 and 2023, forced tens of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters. And the group’s targeting of civilians is a war crime. But the actual toll of the projectile assaults by the terror group, in terms of lives lost and property damaged, has (unlike Hamas’s gun, knife and grenade invasion of...

A man has attacked a number of people with a knife at a market square in the south-west German city of Mannheim, police say. One of the people injured was anti-Islam activist, Michael Stürzenberger, who had been preparing to hold a rally in the square, according to his group. The incident was caught on a YouTube livestream and showed the attacker stabbing a man, and then a police officer who went to help. The officer is in a critical condition. The attacker was shot and injured by another police officer. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the incident as “terrible”, and...

The Kremlin said on Friday that Donald Trump's guilty verdict showed that all legal and illegal means were being used in the United States to get rid of political rivals. Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election. "If we speak about Trump, the fact that there is simply the elimination, in effect, of political rivals by all possible means, legal and illegal, is obvious", Kremlin spokesman...

Two new polls show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surging politically in Israel, despite pressure by Democrats in the United States, and left-wing protests in Israel, to force new elections and a change in government Bloomberg News reported on a new survey by Israel’s Channel 12: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is starting to regain his popularity after struggling politically for more than a year, out-polling main rival Benny Gantz for the first time since the war against Hamas started in October. A Channel 12 survey conducted on Wednesday of 500 voters representing a cross-section of Israeli society asked “Who...

After many years in power, a corrupt and inept government is finally close to being removed. There is no great confidence in the opposition — but the people have had enough of seeing their country ruined and are finally having their say. No, I’m not talking about President Joe Biden’s administration but South Africa, where the ANC looks as if it might be close to losing power after almost three decades of one-party rule. Very high turnout for other parties is understood to have perhaps caused the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela, to fall below 50 percent...

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday held an operational situation assessment and visited several command and control centers in the IDF’s Northern Command, together with Head of the Command, Maj. Gen. Uri Gordin. Upon completing the visit, Minister Gallant referred to Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah’s recent speech in which he claims that, “Israel’s Minister of Defense is inflating the numbers.” Minister Gallant presented a series of images of Hezbollah brigade commanders and emphasized that the IDF has eliminated over 300 terrorists and commanders in the terrorist organization. He explained, "I have just completed a situation assessment and tour of...

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's office has instructed officials and lawmakers to publicly criticize US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for their reluctance to attend a conference on Ukraine to be held in Switzerland on June 15-16, the Financial Times reported, citing a document. According to an unnamed senior Ukrainian official, Zelensky's office feels "paranoia" in recent months. "Zelensky has deep anxiety about the military situation but especially about the peace summit in June," the source said. The newspaper emphasized that Zelensky sees no point in the forum unless Biden and Xi Jinping attend. Several members of...

A man was stabbed in both legs by three men believed to be wielding a machete outside of the Times Square McDonald’s on Thursday afternoon, law enforcement sources said. The man, who was not identified, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital after the 1 p.m. attack, police said. He’s listed in stable condition. Cops are still searching for the three suspects, all men, who allegedly carried out the attack. One of the suspects was wearing blue jeans, a black shirt and carrying a backpack. The second was wearing a black “Wu Tang Clan” logo hoodie, while the third was clad in...

Former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan slammed the Biden administration on Wednesday over the news that the $320 million pier the U.S. built to transport aid into Gaza had fallen apart after only a few days. "Let's be clear: if this had happened on Trump's watch, we would all be mocking and denouncing him," Hasan wrote on X. "It's super-embarrassing that it happened on Biden's watch and the fact that it did shouldn't prevent us from saying: what a bloody s--tshow."