• 3 days ago
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00:00Thousands of protesters rallied outside as Georgia's new parliament opened its inaugural session with opposition saying the ruling party rigged the recent vote.
00:10Ahead of snap elections in February, Olaf Scholz was confirmed as his party's candidate for the position of German Chancellor.
00:17Thousands of protesters rallied outside the newly elected Georgian parliament as it opened its inaugural session, accusing the ruling Georgian Dream Party of rigging the vote.
00:36Opposition lawmakers and the country's ceremonial president refused to participate in the parliamentary activities.
00:44In Georgia, the Georgian Dream Party will continue to fight for the right to vote.
00:51I am very proud of the people of the country.
00:54I look forward to working with you and the other parties involved.
00:58Therefore, we urge you to continue to fight for the right to vote.
01:06Observers said the country's recent election took place in an atmosphere marked by bribery,
01:11double-voting and physical violence.
01:15This is a violation of the constitution and a breach of the rules.
01:21We demand that the mandates of the parliament and the CSS be repealed.
01:27This procedure is very complicated.
01:29Georgia's president filed a constitutional lawsuit saying principles of voting secrecy and universality were violated.
01:36The Constitutional Court of Georgia has no right to file a constitutional lawsuit.
01:44You violated the mandates of the deputies.
01:50You violated the rights of the deputies.
01:55This is a violation of the constitutional law.
01:59This is a violation of the constitutional law.
02:05This is a violation of the constitutional law.
02:13Critics accused Georgian Dream of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilting towards Moscow.
02:19At least 23 people have been injured in a Russian daytime attack on Kharkiv, according to its regional governor.
02:34The 8.30 a.m. attack targeted a central densely populated residential area, said Kharkiv's mayor.
02:41Local authorities reported damaged residential houses as a result of the strike.
02:47The center of Odessa was also targeted by a Russian daytime attack, injuring at least 11 people.
02:58Ukraine's air defenses reported to have downed 50 of 73 Russian drones launched during overnight attacks, dozens of them targeting Zaporizhia.
03:18In Russia, Kursk's governor reported on his Telegram channel that air defenses destroyed seven Ukrainian missiles overnight over the region.
03:27Russian forces captured a British mercenary named James Scott Rees, who was fighting with the Ukrainian army in Russia's Kursk region, a security source told Russian state news agency.
03:39Olaf Scholz has been officially nominated by his Social Democratic Party as its candidate for German chancellor, ahead of snap elections in February.
03:52Scholz is the current German chancellor, but there were weeks of tense discussions within his party over whether he was the right person for the job.
04:01His ruling traffic light coalition, compromised of the Social Democratic Party, the Greens and the Liberal Free Democratic Party, collapsed earlier this month after he fired his finance minister.
04:13Lacking a parliamentary majority, Scholz agreed to hold a no-confidence vote in December, with general elections set for 23 February 2025.
04:23Some Social Democrats had rallied around German defense minister Boris Pistorius, who enjoys higher approval ratings as a replacement for Scholz.
04:32Pistorius said he wasn't available to run for chancellor last week, paving the way for Scholz at the top of the party's ballot.
04:40France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen warned she might topple France's minority government by the end of the year if the budget bill isn't changed, threatening a confidence motion.
04:54Le Pen said she expressed red lines, including a refusal to raise electricity taxes and the need to increase state pensions from January.
05:04Conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier's cabinet is forced to rely on the far-right's goodwill to be able to stay in power.
05:13Barnier's cabinet is mostly composed of members of his Republican Party and centrists from President Emmanuel Macron's alliance.
05:21The budget bill for next year must be passed by December 21.
05:27Last month, the government survived a confidence vote brought by the left-wing coalition because the far-right group abstained from voting.
05:42Tight security surrounds the G7 foreign minister's two-day summit in Italy, which kicked off on Monday.
05:49Leaders face mounting pressure to push forward diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
05:56The summit is being held in the medieval town of Fugi, southeast of Rome.
06:02Hopes for brokering a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon are foremost on the agenda.
06:07As the G7 ministers arrived in Italy, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio on Monday a ceasefire deal to end fighting between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah could be reached within days.
06:21Ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as the Secretary General of the Arab League, are also present in the event.
06:33The Portuguese Navy says it has been recording an increasingly intense traffic of Russian ships off its coast.
06:40It says about three warships to refuel in vessels, three scientific research vessels and one spy vessel have passed through Portuguese waters in recent times.
07:10According to the Portuguese Military History Commission, these moves stem from the current context of the war in Ukraine and are not only a demonstration of Russia's power.
07:29The Commission warns the presence of spy ships indicates the obtaining of communications.
07:33Authorities say they are ensuring that the Navy follows the flow of Russian ships with close vigilance, given Portugal's geopolitical position as a gateway to Europe.
08:03The Navy says it has conducted about 126 monitoring missions in the past three years.
08:30In 2022, the year the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine, there were 14 such operations.
08:37The following year, this number tripled to 46.
08:41This year, 66 missions have been completed so far.
08:48Like many before it, the 29th edition of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change needed extra time for an overall agreement to be reached.
08:56In the early hours of Sunday, exhausted delegates in Baku finally found a compromise on the most crucial issue of COP29, a new climate financing regime.
09:07The UN Climate Change Executive Secretary called it an insurance policy for humanity.
09:13Like any insurance policy, it only works if premiums are paid in full and on time.
09:22Promises must be kept to protect billions of lives.
09:29The sum agreed on to be guaranteed by the developed nations is at $300 billion annually much lower than developing nations had been asking for, with many delegates making their frustrations clear.
09:42However, as others pointed out, the compromise was accepted regardless, as there is now an expectation that this sum will serve as the foundation to reaching the goal experts say is needed, $1.3 trillion annually.
09:56It was very important for the African group to have that number, $300 billion by 2035, as a floor and not a ceiling.
10:05And we've been able, very late in the negotiation, to have the term at least to ensure that this can only be a starting base, a minimum, due to the vast needs of developing countries.
10:20Voluntary contributions by rich nations not included in the group of developed nations in the Convention, like China and South Korea, are supposed to help reach that ceiling,
10:31as well as multilateral development banks, investments by the private sector and revenue from taxes in the carbon markets.
10:38As did most delegates, the European Commissioner for Climate Action stressed that an agreement being reached in difficult geopolitical times was particularly significant.
10:47But he also pointed to an issue close to the EU's heart, where at least some progress also had been made.
10:55Ladies and gentlemen, another topic that was on our minds this week is reducing emissions.
11:01It was not the focus of this COP, but we wanted more, because the world needs more of it.
11:08And even though the UAE consensus was attacked, we did move forward, even though it was just a bit.
11:17We did manage to safeguard Dubai and take some steps forward. It is less than what we have liked, but it is better than we feared.
11:25Next year's UN Climate Conference will be hosted by the Brazilian city of Belรฉm, where, among other issues, mitigation in general and the Amazon rainforest in particular will take centre stage.

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