WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

30

2024

Protesters interrupt Biden, Obama, Clinton at $25 million New York fundraiser

WORLD

PRESIDENT Joe Biden and his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, headlined a star-studded fundraiser with former President Bill Clinton, offering a robust defence of the White House's handling of the Gaza crisis as protesters interrupted the event. Biden, who travelled with Obama on Air Force One to New York, took part in a discussion with Clinton moderated by "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert at the iconic Radio City Music Hall in front of thousands of guests. Organizers say the event raised more than $25 million for Biden's U.S. reelection campaign. But the fundraiser was punctuated by several protests inside the…

Mar

30

2024

By The African Mirror

Caught up in concert shooting, a Russian woman said goodbye to the world

WORLD

RUSSIAN artist Alyona Kazinskaya likes to fill her social media feed with cheerful messages and vivid floral paintings. For 30 minutes last Friday night, it turned into a timeline of terror. Kazinskaya and a friend had bought last-minute tickets to see Soviet-era rock group "Picnic" perform in front of 6,200 people at a concert hall near Moscow. They thought about taking their daughters but decided to go by themselves. It was at 8:01 p.m. that Kazinskaya posted a first 10-second audio message on her Telegram channel, sounding breathless and frightened as loud bursts of gunfire rang out. "I love you…

Mar

29

2024

By ESTELLE SHIRBON and POLA GRZANKA

Israeli soldiers play with Gaza women’s underwear in online posts

WORLD

ISRAELI soldiers have been posting photos and videos of themselves toying with lingerie found in Palestinian homes, creating a dissonant visual record of the war in Gaza as a looming famine intensifies world scrutiny of Israel's offensive. In one video, an Israeli soldier sits in an armchair in a room in Gaza grinning, with a gun in one hand and dangling white satin underwear from the other over the open mouth of a comrade lying on a sofa. Elsewhere, another soldier sits atop a tank holding a female mannequin dressed in a black bra and helmet and says: "I found a beautiful wife, serious…

Mar

29

2024

By JEFF MASON

Obama, Bill Clinton to join Biden to raise $25 million at event with Queen Latifah and Lizzo

WORLD

PRESIDENT Joe Biden will get a boost from Democratic predecessors Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at a fundraiser in New York slated to raise more than $25 million and add some oomph to Biden's 2024 re-election campaign. Biden and the two former commanders-in-chief will take part in a discussion moderated by "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert at Radio City Music Hall in front of thousands of guests at what Biden's re-election campaign said would be the most successful political fundraiser in history. Musicians Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele are slated to perform, and some…

Mar

29

2024

By The African Mirror

Italian woman held in Hungary to remain in jail

WORLD

AN Italian woman charged in Hungary with taking part in an anti-fascist group's assaults on people they viewed as far-right activists will remain in jail after a judge denied her attorney's request that she be released into house arrest. Ilaria Salis, a 39-year-old teacher, is accused of taking part in a serious assault on two far-right militants by a group of anti-fascist activists in Budapest last February. She pleaded not guilty at a hearing in January. Prosecutors are seeking an 11-year sentence for her. Salis appeared in a Budapest court on Thursday for a hearing in which her attorney presented…

Mar

28

2024

By MAAYAN LUBELL

As Israel’s politicians squabble, some soldiers voice their anger

WORLD

Standing in front of a tank on the edge of the Gaza Strip, an Israeli general interrupted his speech on the war against Hamas to deliver a televised rebuke to Israel's political leaders. Brigadier General Dan Goldfus urged politicians "on all sides" to reject extremism and unite, avoiding a return to the status quo before the outbreak of the conflict in October - when political divisions and months of protests had left Israel deeply polarized. "You must be worthy of us. You must be worthy of those fighters who have lost their lives," Goldfus said in his March 13 briefing, broadcast on…

Mar

28

2024

By RYAN WOO and ELLA CAO

Dutch PM downplays conflict over ASML after meeting with China’s Xi

WORLD

DUTCH Prime Minister Mark Rutte downplayed conflict between the Netherlands and China over restrictions on the export of equipment made by Dutch firm ASML following a meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Earlier this year, the Dutch government began denying licences for ASML to export advanced "DUV" tool lines to China, joining a U.S. effort to curb chip exports to the world's second-biggest economy. Now in doubt is whether The Hague will allow ASML to continue servicing the billions of euros worth of advanced equipment it has already sold to Chinese customers that now falls under export restrictions when current licences…

Mar

27

2024

By The African Mirror

Russian investigators question Moscow attack suspects’ families in Tajikistan

WORLD

RUSSIAN investigators were in Tajikistan, questioning the families of four men charged with carrying out a deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow, three Tajik security sources told Reuters. The sources, who were not authorised to comment publicly, said Tajik security officials had brought the families to the capital Dushanbe from the towns of Vakhdat and Gissar, and from the Rudaki district. Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon was personally overseeing the investigation on the Tajik side, the sources said. On Monday, making his first public comment on Friday's attack, Rakhmon called it a "shameful and terrible event" and urged Tajiks to…

Mar

27

2024

By STEVE GORMAN

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ properties in L.A. and Miami raided by federal agents

WORLD

U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents have opened an investigation of hip-hop star Sean "Diddy" Combs, searching his properties in Los Angeles and the Miami area, agency officials said on Monday. The inquiry was led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents in New York, where a lawsuit was filed against Combs by a former girlfriend in federal court in November accusing him of engaging in sex trafficking. Combs, 54, has said that he is innocent and that his accusers were seeking "a quick payday." His New York-based lawyer, Ben Brafman, did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Television…

Mar

27

2024

By MATT SPETALNICK

Biden, Netanyahu on collision course after Gaza UN vote

WORLD

RELATIONS between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sank to a wartime low with the U.S. allowing passage of a Gaza ceasefire resolution at the United Nations and drawing a sharp rebuke from the Israeli leader. Netanyahu abruptly scrapped a visit to Washington this week by a senior delegation to discuss Israel’s threatened offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah after the U.S. abstained in a Security Council vote that demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the release of all hostages held by the Palestinian militants. The suspension of that meeting puts a major…