TBILISI: Georgia’s prime minister on Tuesday threatened to punish his political opponents, accusing them of being behind violence at mass protests, as Tbilisi’s top court rejected a key lawsuit to annul the result of a contested October vote.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze — who infuriated protesters last week by announcing his government would shelve EU accession talks until 2028 — also suggested he would take retribution on public servants if they take part in protests.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Monday against the ruling Georgian Dream party in a fifth straight night of protests, with more demonstrations planned on Tuesday.
They accuse the government of bringing Tbilisi back into Moscow’s orbit and betraying the Black Sea nation’s bid for EU membership, which is enshrined in its constitution and supported by around 80 percent of the population.
Georgia has been gripped by political turmoil since a contested October election, which pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili and the opposition say Georgian Dream rigged, demanding a re-run.
But, intensifying the crisis, Tbilisi’s top court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit filed by Zurabishvili and opposition parties to overturn the election result.
A re-run of the contested vote was one of the protesters’ main demands.
Zurabishvili, who backs the protests and whom Georgian Dream are trying to remove from office, did not yet respond to the court’s decision to throw out her case.
That announcement came shortly after Kobakhidze — who has ruled out talks with the opposition — vowed to punish his opponents.
“Opposition politicians who have orchestrated the violence in recent days while hiding in their offices will not escape responsibility,” he said at a press conference.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has refused to back down despite increasing international criticism of Georgia’s handling of its protests, with several Western countries saying Tbilisi had used excessive force.
Kobakhidze, 46, also threatened to punish civil servants who join the protests, after several ambassadors and a deputy foreign minister resigned over the demonstrations crack-down and his decision to suspend EU talks.
“The process of self-cleansing within the public sector has been very interesting. We are closely monitoring everyone’s actions, and they will not go without a response,” he said.
Evoking language used by the Kremlin, Kobakhidze alledged the protest movement was “funded from abroad.”
He also singled out NGOs — heavily targeted in a repressive pre-election campaign by authorities — for being behind the protests, vowing that they will “not evade responsibility as defined by law.”
Tbilisi earlier this year adopted Russian-style legislation designed to restrict the activity of NGOs as well measures that the EU says curb LGBTQ rights.
The adoption of the laws prompted the US to slap sanctions on Georgian officials.
But Kobakhidze said his government hoped that the “US attitudes toward us will change after January 20” — when Donald Trump, who has criticized federal support for gender transition, takes office.
Kobakhidze’s threats to the opposition came as more Western leaders criticized Tbilisi’s police response to the protests.
NATO chief Mark Rutte on Tuesday slammed as “deeply concerning” the situation in Georgia, condemning “unequivocally” the reports of violence.
The mostly young protesters accuse Georgian Dream of acting on Russian orders and fear the ex-Soviet country will end up back under Russian influence.
“We want freedom and we do not want to find ourselves in Russia,” 21-year-old protester Nika Maghradze, told AFP.
Georgia’s health ministry earlier said that 26 people — 23 protesters and three law enforcement officers — were injured in the latest protest on Monday night.
President Zurabishvili has described the protests as Georgians “rising against the Russian puppetry regime.”
“The message is clear: Give me my vote back! Give me my European future back!,” she had said on social media on Monday.
Some protesters placed their hopes in the 72-year-old president.
“She is our only chance,” 43-year-old demonstrator Mariam told AFP on Monday.
Georgia PM vows retribution for protests as court rejects bid to annul vote
https://arab.news/ydkp8
Georgia PM vows retribution for protests as court rejects bid to annul vote
- Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also suggested he would take retribution on public servants if they take part in protests
- Georgia has been gripped by political turmoil since a contested October election
Record number of migrants lost at sea bound for Spain in 2024: NGO
The 58-percent increase includes 1,538 children and 421 women, migrants rights group Caminando Fronteras or Walking Borders said in a report which covers the period from January 1 to December 5, 2024.
It amounts to an average of 30 deaths per day, up from around 18 in 2023.
The group compiles its data from hotlines set up for migrants on vessels in trouble to call for help, families of migrants who went missing and from official rescue statistics.
It blamed the use of flimsy boats and increasingly dangerous routes as well as the insufficient capacity of maritime rescue services for the surge in deaths.
“These figures are evidence of a profound failure of rescue and protection systems. More than 10,400 people dead or missing in a single year is an unacceptable tragedy,” the group’s founder, Helena Maleno, said in a statement.
The victims were from 28 nations, mostly in Africa, but also from Iraq and Pakistan.
The vast majority of the fatalities — 9,757 — took place on the Atlantic migration route from Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands, which has received a record number of migrants for the second year in a row.
Seven migrant boats landed in the archipelago on Wednesday, Christmas Day, Spain’s maritime rescue service said on social media site X.
At their closest point, the Canaries lie 100 kilometers (62 miles) off the coast of North Africa. The shortest route is between the coastal town of Tarfaya in southern Morocco and the island of Fuerteventura in the Canaries.
But the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands is particularly dangerous because of strong currents.
Along with Italy and Greece, Spain is one of the three major European gateways for migrant arrivals.
According to the interior ministry, 60,216 migrants entered Spain irregularly between January 1 and December 15 — a 14.5 percent increase over the same time last year.
The majority, over 70 percent, landed in the Canaries.
Pope Francis opens special ‘Holy Door’ for Catholic Jubilee at Rome prison
- Francis opened the Catholic Holy Year, also known as a Jubilee, on Tuesday
- A Catholic Jubilee is considered a time of peace, forgiveness and pardon
ROME: Pope Francis made a visit on Thursday to one of the largest prison complexes in Italy, opening a special “Holy Door” for the 2025 Catholic Holy Year, in what the Vatican said was the first such action by a Catholic pontiff.
Speaking to hundreds of inmates, guards and staff at the Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome, Francis said he wanted to open the door, part of the prison chapel, and one of only five that will be open during the Holy Year, to show that “hope does not disappoint.”
“In bad moments, we can all think that everything is over,” said the pontiff. “Do not lose hope. This is the message I wanted to give you. Do not lose hope.”
Francis opened the Catholic Holy Year, also known as a Jubilee, on Tuesday. A Catholic Jubilee is considered a time of peace, forgiveness and pardon. This Jubilee, dedicated to the theme of hope, will run through Jan. 6, 2026.
Holy Years normally occur every 25 years, and usually involve the opening in Rome of four special “Holy Doors,” which symbolize the door of salvation for Catholics. The doors, located at the papal basilicas in Rome, are only open during Jubilee years.
The Vatican said the opening of the “Holy Door” at Rome’s Rebibbia prison was the first time such a door had been opened by a pope at a prison since the start of the Jubilee year tradition by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300.
Francis has shown special attention for the incarcerated over his 11-year papacy. He often visits prisons in Rome and on his foreign trips.
China urges Philippines to return to ‘peaceful development’
- The US Typhon system, which can be equipped with cruise missiles capable of striking Chinese targets, was brought in for joint exercises earlier this year
BEIJING: China’s foreign ministry on Thursday urged the Philippines to return to “peaceful development,” saying Manila’s decision to deploy a US medium-range missile system in military exercises would only bring the risks of an arms race in the region.
The US Typhon system, which can be equipped with cruise missiles capable of striking Chinese targets, was brought in for joint exercises earlier this year.
On Tuesday, Philippine Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro said the Typhon’s deployment for joint exercises was “legitimate, legal and beyond reproach.” Army chief Roy Galido said on Monday that the Philippines was also planning to acquire its own mid-range missile system.
Rivalry between China and the Philippines has grown in recent years over their competing claims in the South China Sea. Longtime treaty allies Manila and Washington have also deepened military ties, further ratcheting up tensions.
“By cooperating with the United States in the introduction of Typhon, the Philippine side has surrendered its own security and national defense to others and introduced the risk of geopolitical confrontation and an arms race in the region, posing a substantial threat to regional peace and security,” said Mao Ning, a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry.
“We once again advise the Philippine side that the only correct choice for safeguarding its security is to adhere to strategic autonomy, good neighborliness and peaceful development,” Mao told reporters at a regular press conference.
China will never sit idly by if its security interests were threatened, she added.
The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, which is also claimed by several Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines.
Russia says it foils Ukrainian plots to kill senior officers with disguised bombs
- The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that the Russian citizens had been recruited by the Ukrainian intelligence services
MOSCOW: Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Thursday it had foiled several plots by Ukrainian intelligence services to kill high-ranking Russian officers and their families in Moscow using bombs disguised as power banks or document folders.
On Dec. 17, Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service killed Lt. Gen. Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, in Moscow outside his apartment building by detonating a bomb attached to an electric scooter.
An SBU source confirmed to Reuters that the Ukrainian intelligence agency had been behind the hit. Russia said the killing was a terrorist attack by Ukraine, with which it has been at war since February 2022, and vowed revenge.
“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has prevented a series of assassination attempts on high-ranking military personnel of the Defense Ministry,” the FSB said.
“Four Russian citizens involved in the preparation of these attacks have been detained,” it said in a statement.
Ukraine’s SBU did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that the Russian citizens had been recruited by the Ukrainian intelligence services.
One of the men retrieved a bomb disguised as a portable charger in Moscow that was to be attached with magnets to the car of one of the Defense Ministry’s top officials, the FSB said.
Another Russian man was tasked with reconnaissance of senior Russian defense officials, it said, with one plot involving the delivery of a bomb disguised as a document folder.
“An explosive device disguised as a portable charger (power bank), with magnets attached, had to be placed under the official car of one of the senior leaders of the Russian Defense Ministry,” it said.
The exact date of the planned attacks was unclear though one of the suspects said he had retrieved a bomb on Dec. 23, according to the FSB.
Russian state TV showed what it said was footage of some of the suspects who admitted to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence for bombings against Russian defense ministry officials.
Moscow holds Ukraine responsible for a string of high-profile assassinations on its soil designed to weaken morale — and says the West is supporting a “terrorist regime” in Kyiv.
Ukraine, which says Russia’s war against it poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state, has made clear it regards such targeted killings as a legitimate tool.
Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, was killed in August 2022 near Moscow. The New York Times reported that
US intelligence agencies
believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the killing.
US officials later admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination, the Times said. Ukraine denied it killed Dugina.
Rural communities urged to flee east Australia bushfire
- About 600 firefighters battling the blaze in the Grampians National Park 240 kilometers west of Melbourne
- State emergency services warned residents to leave home immediately in more than two dozen mostly small rural communities
MELBOURNE: Australian authorities urged people in dozens of rural communities to leave home “immediately” Thursday to escape an out-of-control bushfire tearing through a national park.
About 600 firefighters were battling the blaze in the Grampians National Park 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of Melbourne, a Victoria state emergency services spokesperson said.
The blaze has persisted for more than a week in hot, windy conditions, scorching 55,000 hectares (136,000 acres) — about one-third of the park — so far without causing deaths or destroying homes.
State emergency services warned residents to leave home immediately in more than two dozen mostly small rural communities, with populations ranging from as few as six to as many as several hundred.
People in several other communities were told to take shelter indoors because it was unsafe to leave.
Firefighters expected shifting winds to complicate their task during the day, said Victoria state control center spokesman Luke Hegarty.
“We are reaching a critical part of the day when we see the wind change moving through the western part of the state,” he said in an afternoon update.
“We’re expecting strong winds and variable winds to be a concern for us over the next few hours.”
A total fire ban was declared across the whole of Victoria, barring any fires in the open air.
