“Babaryko is alive!” Those were the words of Viktor Babaryko’s team after seeing the first images of the imprisoned Belarusian opposition politician in more than 630 days. Arrested in 2020 as he tried to run for president against authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Babaryko was then held incommunicado behind bars as extra punishment. His political team…
President-elect Donald J. Trump blamed California’s Democratic governor on Wednesday for the failure to contain fires engulfing parts of the Los Angeles area, accusing the state’s government of letting environmental policies run amok. In a post on his social media site, Mr. Trump mocked Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling him “incompetent” and claiming that the governor…
Federal Reserve officials at their December meeting expressed concern about inflation and the impact that President-elect Donald Trump’s policies could have, indicating that they would be moving more slowly on interest rate cuts because of the uncertainty, minutes released Wednesday showed. Without calling out Trump by name, the meeting summary featured at least four mentions…
At least 19 Palestinians, including eight children, were killed in Israeli air strikes in southern Gaza overnight, local health officials say. A mother and her four children were reportedly killed when a tent camp for displaced people in al-Mawasi was hit, while another a couple and their children died in the nearby city of Khan…
Getty Images High winds and lack of rain are the main factors driving the Southern California fires, but climate change is altering the background conditions, increasing the likelihood of these conflagrations, say experts. Researchers have shown that a warming world increases the number of “fire weather” days, when conditions are more suited to outbreaks of…
Chora Media/Reuters Cecilia Sala (L) was welcomed home to Rome by Italy’s prime minister who took personal charge of her case An Italian journalist has returned to Rome after spending weeks in an Iranian jail. Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on 19 December, three days after an Iranian engineer was detained by Italian authorities in…
Mexico’s president rejected several of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s assertions about her country and even joked that the United States should be called “Mexican America” after Mr. Trump said the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the Gulf of America. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico used her Wednesday morning news conference to show a world…
Getty Images An aircraft carrying President-elect Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Junior, arrives in Nuuk, Greenland on 7 January 2025 US President-elect Donald Trump has repeated his intention to take control of Greenland, the Arctic territory controlled by Denmark. Why is Trump talking about this – and why now? Where is Greenland? Greenland, the world’s…
The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on Antal Rogan, one of the most powerful men in Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz government and the minister in charge of his cabinet office. It is a rare move between Nato allies, and symbolic of the depth to which US-Hungarian relations have sunk since Russia’s full-scale invasion…
Getty Images Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is now the co-chair of Meta’s oversight board, is the former Prime Minister of Denmark. The co-chair of the independent body that reviews Facebook and Instagram content has said she is “very concerned” about how parent company Meta’s decision to ditch fact-checkers will affect minority groups. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, from Meta’s…
