Comment on NATO: Russia talk of pre-emptive strike unjustified

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the U. S. with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its Oct. 26 attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East, already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, into a wider regional conflict just ahead of the U.

LONDON — Britain’s Conservative Party on Saturday elected Kemi Badenoch as its new leader as it tries to rebound from a crushing election defeat that ended 14 years in power. The first Black woman to lead a major British political party, Badenoch (pronounced BADE-enock) defeated rival lawmaker Robert Jenrick in a vote of almost 100,000 members of the right-of-center Conservatives. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] She got 53,806 votes in the online and postal ballot of party members, to Jenrick’s 41,388. Badenoch replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who in July led the Conservatives to their worst election result since 1832.

On Friday afternoon, with only a few days left in the presidential race, the federal agencies that help safeguard American elections issued a warning to voters about a video that had been circulating online. It appeared to show immigrants voting illegally in Georgia, and U. S. intelligence officials had concluded that it was the latest in a series of fakes produced by “Russian influence actors.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans,” read the statement from the FBI and two other federal agencies, who warned that Russia would continue to creating and spreading these fakes even in the weeks and months after the elections.

Few voters are as easily overlooked as Americans living outside the United States. This population–of émigres, military personnel, dual citizens, and people born outside the U. S. to American parents–is both disparate and elusive. It is thought to number at least 4.4 million people, some 2.8 million of whom are eligible to vote in U.

JOHANNESBURG — The government of Mauritius on Friday banned access to social media websites ahead of parliamentary elections on Nov. 10 in which Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth is seeking a second term in power. The directive was announced by the national communications regulator, which said social media sites will be banned until Nov.

The end may not be near, but the end is clear—according to those who have kept a close eye on Myanmar’s ongoing civil war, since a military coup toppled its civilian government in 2021. While the fighting between the junta and armed resistance groups was locked in a stalemate for the first two years of the conflict, observers note that the third year has seen the military on the back foot. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The protracted conflict has been estimated to have killed over 50,000 people and displaced around three million.