World News

"Vote counts continue to lag in Mexico’s historic election. Despite private exit polls favoring frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum, The Associated Press bases its report on official results and will continue to update coverage as votes roll in."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16260179

> Nikki Haley writes ‘Finish Them!’ on Israeli bomb bound for Gaza

Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric dam, the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), is in “critical condition” after it was hit in a Russian strike on Ukraine’s key energy facilities, authorities say.

The head of the Zaporizhzhia region military administration, Ivan Fedorov, told Ukrainian television that the power plant can no longer produce electricity.

Traffic around the plant is “completely blocked,” he said, with residents being forced to drive over bridges to get around, he said.

Russia has continued its tactic of striking key energy facilities this week, with the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy warning Sunday of a “significant power shortage” as a knock-on effect of the strikes.

>MUMBAI, India — Two days before police finally came to arrest him, the Rev. Stan Swamy recorded a video of himself speaking directly into the camera.

>"They want to put me out of the way," the ailing 83-year-old Jesuit priest said.

>His voice sounded frail. But what he was saying was explosive.

>The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, was targeting him in retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of Indigenous people in Indian jails. A sociologist as well as a Roman Catholic clergyman, Swamy had recently published a study of 3,000 people jailed for being members of banned Maoist groups. He found that 97% of them had no such affiliation and that many of their trials were held without lawyers, in a language they didn't understand. He'd filed a case on their behalf in the state court of Jharkhand, where he lived. All of this had embarrassed the government, he said.

Businesswoman Halla Tomasdottir was on Sunday declared the winner of Iceland's presidential election, final results showed, beating former prime minister Katrin Jakobsdottir whom critics said was too political for the post.

Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes hurled themselves Sunday into now peaceful Normandy skies where war once raged, heralding a week of ceremonies for the fast-disappearing generation of Allied troops who fought from D-Day beaches 80 years ago to Adolf Hitler’s fall, helping free Europe of his tyranny.

All along the Normandy coastline — where then-young soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations waded ashore through hails of fire on five beaches on June 6, 1944 — French officials, grateful Normandy survivors and other admirers are saying “merci” but also goodbye.

The ever-dwindling number of veterans in their late nineties and older who are coming back to remember fallen friends and their history-changing exploits are the last.

European countries are getting increasingly frustrated with Budapest’s obstructions on Ukraine military aid and Russia sanctions.

Belgium, current holder of the rotating Council of the EU presidency, is taking the extraordinary step of urging EU governments to move ahead with the procedure to deprive Hungary — which takes over the presidency next month — of voting rights.

“We have a Europe that is making difficult headway, with unfortunately some states — one state in particular — increasingly adopting a transactional, blocking and veto attitude,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib told POLITICO in an interview.

She advocated advancing the EU’s Article 7 censure procedure against Budapest — an extreme move that can result in a country having its voting rights suspended.

Two far-right Israeli ministers have threatened to quit and collapse the governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to a Gaza ceasefire proposal unveiled by US President Joe Biden on Friday.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said they were opposed to striking any deal before Hamas was destroyed.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has pledged to back the government if Mr Netanyahu supported the plan.

The prime minister himself insisted there would be no permanent truce until Hamas's military and governing capabilities were destroyed and all hostages released.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16404113

> China surpasses US to become top export market for Korea

Estonia considers itself a front-line state, a Nato member where its border guards stare across the Narva River at the Russian fortress of Ivangorod.

This tiny Baltic state, once a part of the Soviet Union, is convinced that once the fighting stops in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin will turn his attention to the Baltics, looking to bring countries like Estonia back under Moscow’s control.

To help stave off that possibility, Estonia’s government has poured money and weapons into Ukraine’s war effort, donating more than 1% of its GDP to Kyiv.

Nearly 1,000 people attended a ceremony Sunday honoring the memory of Ukrainian journalist Iryna Tsybukh, who was killed in action while serving as a volunteer combat medic a few days before her 26th birthday.

Tsybukh was killed while on rotation in the Kharkiv area, where Russia started its offensive nearly a month ago.

She had left a note describing how she wished the ceremony to be held, asking people to sing Ukrainian songs and attend in vyshyvankas — traditional embroidered shirts — instead of black clothes.

“I want everyone to sing at the farewell, to learn at least 10 meaningful songs and sing them in unison, to extinguish sorrow with native songs,” she wrote. And instead of flowers, she said, she asked people to make donations to the Hospitallers Volunteer Medical Batallion, in which she served.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16367200

> Boeing executives unlikely to be charged over 737 MAX crashes: Source

Ukrainian president unleashes on Beijing, saying it’s helping Moscow threaten countries with higher food and fuel prices to convince them not to attend June 15-16 meeting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hit out at China, accusing the country of helping Russia derail a peace summit this month in Switzerland.

"Russia, using Chinese influence on the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit," Zelenskyy said Sunday during a press conference after delivering an address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

In a rare public rebuke of China — after years of careful attempts to court Beijing and peel it away from its "no limits" friendship with Russia — Zelenskyy's frustration appeared to boil over in Singapore. He said Ukraine had evidence that China was assisting Moscow's war efforts, despite the fact that Chinese President Xi Jinping had promised him in a phone call a year ago that Beijing would not get involved.

“Last night, we received a reminder of what a real leader looks like, who cares for Israel’s future and not his own. Thank you President Biden,” said Shaul Meridor, the former head of the Finance Ministry’s budget department, referring to the US president’s speech on Friday in which he outlined Israel’s proposal for a deal leading to a ceasefire and release of hostages, urged the Israeli government to stand behind it and called on Hamas to accept it.

The impact of an engorged Russia would unfurl over decades, touching every corner of the earth, and wreaking havoc on the global economy