NewsGlobal events roundup: Conflict, protests, and seismic shifts
Global events roundup: Conflict, protests, and seismic shifts
It happened while you were sleeping. Here's what global agencies noted overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
- Putin dismisses calls for a 30-day ceasefire. Overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, air raid sirens wailed across almost all of Ukraine. Swarms of drones attacked Ukrainian cities. Explosions were reported in the Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Kirovohrad regions, among other places.
- Sali Berisha, leader of the Democratic Party—the main opposition party in Albania—called on his supporters to protest on Tuesday after he refused to recognize the results of Sunday's parliamentary elections. With 98 percent of votes counted, it was announced that the ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama had won.
- The Malian Armed Forces (FAMA), along with Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, arrested 100 men, mainly herders from the Fulani ethnic group, last month in Sebabougou in the western part of the country. About 60 of them were kidnapped. A week later, their relatives discovered dozens of bodies near the military base. UN experts determined that they were executed by Wagner Group mercenaries.
- President Donald Trump announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria and the normalization of relations with the new government. The White House confirmed that Trump will meet with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Shara on Wednesday. Al-Shara was once a commander of Al-Qaeda and spent five years in American prisons in Iraq.
- Residents of several Mediterranean countries felt tremors overnight. Reports came from Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo, among other places. They were likely caused by an earthquake. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) reported its epicenter was located about 39 kilometres southwest of the island of Karpathos in Greece. Seismologists recorded a 6.1 magnitude quake there.
