Month: May 2024

The furore over Diane Abbott has exposed long-running divisions in the Labour Party

The event organizers have reportedly attributed their decision to “space limitations”

Media outlets from most former Soviet states will be barred from covering the upcoming Swiss-hosted Ukraine peace conference, the Russian media outlet Octagon reported on Friday, citing an official response from the Swiss authorities.

The conference is scheduled for June 15-16 at the Burgenstock Resort near Lucerne. The venue chosen to host the event supposedly has some “space limitations” that, together with the “security requirements,” prompted the organizers to limit media accreditations to 500, the report said. According to Octagon, both Swiss and American security services are responsible for the safety of the event and for checking all journalists planning to attend.

Not a single journalist from Russia or other post-Soviet states, including Belarus, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, or the five Central Asian nations was accredited, according to the Russian media outlet. Reporters from Southeast Asia have faced some restrictions as well, it added.

The Swiss authorities have not officially commented on the issue of media access to the conference. RT also could not independently verify the Octagon report.

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China to snub Zelensky ‘peace conference’

Russian officials have not been invited to the conference. Last week, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky said Russia must not be present at the summit because it could seek to sway other countries and hijack Kiev’s agenda.

Russian officials earlier said that they would not attend in any case, citing the fact that the summit would revolve around the so-called Zelensky ‘peace formula’. The ten-point plan demands that Russia withdraw its troops from all territories Kiev claims as its own, agree to pay reparations, and that a tribunal be established to try Russian officials for alleged war crimes. Moscow has dismissed the initiative as “absurd” and “detached from reality.”

More than 160 countries have been invited, including members of the G7, G20, BRICS, and EU. Earlier on Friday, however, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that it would not be sending a delegation to the event. Beijing has argued that it is important that both Russia and Ukraine participate in any peace conference.

The leaders of several other BRICS nations – including Brazil and South Africa – will reportedly skip the event as well. US President Joe Biden is not scheduled to come to Switzerland, as he is expected to attend a fundraising event for the upcoming presidential election instead.

Israeli prime minister set to deliver address to Congress despite growing anger over his government’s abuses in Gaza.

As US and China defence chiefs meet in Singapore, attention turns to rising tensions over the future of Taiwan.

The Labour leader endorses Diane Abbott to be Labour candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington.

The US president has insisted that “no one is above the law,” after a jury found his political rival guilty on 34 felony counts

US President Joe Biden has called on Americans to accept the guilty verdict handed down to his political rival, Donald Trump. Biden argued that his presidential predecessor was “reckless” and “irresponsible” to suggest that the trial was orchestrated by the White House.

Trump, currently the presumptive Republican nominee to challenge Biden in this November’s presidential election, was found guilty on Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records. New York prosecutors successfully argued that Trump concealed the payments – made to porn star Stormy Daniels – in order to influence the 2016 election.

“The American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed,” Biden said on Friday, in his first public remarks since the conviction. “Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself,” the president continued, adding that Trump was judged “by a jury of 12 citizens” and can now appeal the conviction “like anyone else.”

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The Democrats just sealed Donald Trump’s victory in November

Trump has long maintained that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, brought the case on Biden’s orders, and that judge Juan Merchan, whose family fundraises for Democrats, was too “conflicted” to oversee the trial fairly. The former president also complained that a jury in New York, which overwhelmingly votes Democrat, would be inherently biased against him.

“They’re in total conjunction with the White House and [Department of Justice],” Trump told reporters outside his Trump Tower property earlier on Friday. “This is all done by Biden and his people. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”

Trump said that he intends to appeal the “scam” judgment, and called November’s election date “the most important day in the history of our country.”

“It’s my honor to be doing this, but it’s a really unpleasant thing, to be honest,” he said, reiterating that he considered the trial “rigged.”

“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden shot back.

Asked after the speech whether Trump was right to call himself a “political prisoner” and blame Biden for his conviction, the president paused, said nothing, and grinned at reporters. The Republican Party has described Biden’s grin as “pure evil.”

The three-part plan would include the return of all Israeli hostages from Gaza, according to the US president

Israel has proposed a new “enduring” ceasefire for Gaza in exchange for the release of all remaining hostages by Hamas, US President Joe Biden said on Friday, calling on the Palestinian militant group to agree to the offer.

Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and others have repeatedly reached dead ends, with both sides pinning blame on the other.

During a news conference at the White House on Friday afternoon, Biden said Israel had put forward “a comprehensive new proposal” to end the war.

”Everyone who wants peace now must raise their voices and work to make it real. It’s time for this war to end,” Biden stated, calling on leaders on both sides not to “lose this moment.”

“Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says it wants a ceasefire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it,” he said.

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UN warns of new Palestinian exodus

According to Biden, the proposal involves three phases, with the first being a ceasefire of six weeks.

During this period, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza and hostages, including elderly and women, would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who would be returned to the enclave. Some 600 trucks of aid would also be allowed into Gaza every day, Biden said.

The second phase would involve negotiations on a permanent end to the conflict, with the ceasefire continuing “as long as negotiations continue,” he said. The third phase would examine a massive reconstruction plan for Gaza.

Biden’s announcement comes as efforts to reach a ceasefire again ground to a halt earlier this month when Israel refused to commit to ending the war and began its offensive in the densely populated southern city of Rafah.

READ MORE: Rafah refugee camp strike a ‘tragic mistake’ – Netanyahu

This week, Hamas reportedly told mediators that it would not negotiate during the ongoing aggression, but that it is ready for a “complete agreement,” involving a exchange of prisoners and hostages if Israel’s bombardments of the enclave stop.

The latest hostilities began after Hamas militants raided southern Israeli settlements on October 7 last year, leaving some 1,200 people dead and taking more than 200 hostages. Dozens of captives were subsequently released as part of prisoner exchanges during a weeklong truce in November.

More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the more than seven months of fighting, according to the local Hamas-run authorities.

RFK Jr. and Joe Biden were also invited, but the sitting US president has declined

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has confirmed reports that he would host a live town hall event with presidential candidate Donald Trump, after criticizing his felony conviction as politically motivated.

X (formerly Twitter), which Musk owns, has partnered with the TV network NewsNation to live-stream town halls with presidential candidates on both platforms, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an individual familiar with the matter. 

“This will be interesting,” Musk said on X Friday, linking to a New York Post story about the town halls. 

The idea is reportedly the brainchild of X CEO Linda Yaccarino. Musk apparently extended the town hall invitations to Trump, President Joe Biden, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Biden’s campaign reportedly declined, however.

According to the reports, X users will get to submit questions for the town hall, which will then be curated by moderators, who will include at least one NewsNation host. The date, location and moderators for the events have not yet been announced.

Earlier this month, the Biden campaign sent a debate offer to Trump to appear on two legacy TV outlets – CNN and ABC News, and with no audience in the studio. The Trump campaign accepted and the debates were scheduled for June 27 and September 10. The arrangement completely bypassed the Presidential Debates Commission.

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Musk and Trump in secret talks – WSJ

On Thursday, however, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 charges of “falsifying business records,” related to his reimbursement of then-lawyer Michael Cohen for the alleged hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denounced the trial and the verdict as politically motivated – as has Musk.

“If a former President can be criminally convicted over such a trivial matter – motivated by politics, rather than justice – then anyone is at risk of a similar fate,” Musk wrote on X, adding that the verdict did “great damage” to the Americans’ faith in their legal system.

The day before, the Wall Street Journal reported a rumor that Musk might become a White House adviser should Trump win the November election. The alleged connection has been widely interpreted as a sign that some Silicon Valley moguls were moving away from the Democrats.

Trump was a prolific user of Twitter and leveraged the platform to get his message out in 2016, when he beat the legacy media favorite Hillary Clinton. The company “permanently suspended” his account while he was still the sitting president in January 2021, following the US Capitol riot over the alleged irregularities in the 2020 election. Trump had called on his supporters to stand down, not break any laws and go home, but Democrats accused him of “inciting an insurrection” and he was banned by all major social media shortly thereafter. 

Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and restored Trump’s account last year, but the former president has chosen not to actively post on the platform.

Nasen Saadi is charged with murder and attempted murder after two women were stabbed on a beach at night.

President Joe Biden defends the justice system during his first comments on Trump’s guilty verdict.