World News

Summary

Conor McGregor’s bid for Ireland’s presidency has been overwhelmingly rejected by politicians, with all 134 Oireachtas members surveyed by Sky News refusing to support his nomination.

Citing his divisive rhetoric, lack of qualifications, and ongoing legal battles—including a rape verdict under appeal—politicians used strong language to dismiss his fitness for office.

McGregor’s anti-immigration platform, announced after meeting Trump, is believed to be more about boosting his U.S. profile than a serious campaign, as experts say he faces significant hurdles to appear on the ballot.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27655856

Europe’s booming solar generation is overwhelming the region’s grids, sending power prices slumping far below zero.

The Jewish People Policy Institute Israel Index survey found that 8 out of 10 Jewish Israelis agreed with Trump's proposal of expelling Palestinians from Gaza.

Forty-three percent of all Israelis said that the expulsion plan was "practical" and should be implemented, while 30 percent said the plan was "desirable" but not practical.

A minority of 13 percent - made of up 54 percent of Palestinian respondents and just three percent of Jewish Israelis - described the Trump plan as "immoral".

MBFC

Summary

Germany has launched its first permanent foreign troop deployment since WWII, stationing a 5,000-strong armored brigade in Lithuania to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Officially activated near Vilnius, the 45th Armored Brigade marks a major shift in German defense policy, long averse to permanent overseas combat troop presence.

The deployment, set to be fully operational by 2027, includes support units and reflects NATO’s deterrence strategy.

Lithuania views it as crucial for national security, while Germany repositions itself as a more assertive military power.

Summary

Finland will exit the 1997 Ottawa landmine treaty and increase defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2029 in response to the growing threat from Russia, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced.

The move aligns Finland with Poland and the Baltic states, which also plan to leave the treaty.

Finland joined NATO in 2023 and shares NATO's longest border with Russia.

Officials emphasized landmines as a necessary deterrent. The decision, backed by major parties, allows renewed stockpiling and marks a major shift in Finland's defence posture.

Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza has reportedly left 322 children dead and 609 injured in the region in the past 10 days, as confirmed by the United Nations Children’s Fund on Monday.

Most of these children were displaced, sheltering in makeshift tents or damaged homes. These figures include children who were reportedly killed or injured when the surgical department of Al Nasser Hospital, in southern Gaza, was struck during an attack on March 23.

According to a Cyprus News Agency report issued late Monday that cited a criminal court announcement, the court found during closed-doors proceedings that most of the contradictions in the woman’s testimony concerned the identification of the perpetrators.

The woman told police that one of the five men had forcibly taken her to his room after grabbing her hand while she was partying with friends around the pool.

She said the man tried to remove her bathing suit while she pleaded with him to let her leave. The other suspects then entered the room and one had intercourse with her against her will and another forced her to perform oral sex, while two others held her down on the bed, she said.

The ruling came after the European Court of Human Rights ruled last month that Cyprus’ law enforcement authorities failed to live up to their obligation to thoroughly and effectively investigate a British teenager’s claims that she had been gang-raped by a group of Israelis while on a 2019 vacation in Ayia Napa.

Gaza’s bakeries will run out of flour for bread within a week, the U.N. says. Agencies have cut food distributions to families in half. Markets are empty of most vegetables. Many aid workers cannot move around because of Israeli bombardment.

“We depend entirely on this aid box,” said Shorouq Shamlakh, a mother of three collecting her family’s monthly box of food from a U.N. distribution center in Jabaliya in northern Gaza. She and her children reduce their meals to make it last a month, she said. “If this closes, who else will provide us with food?”

The World Food Program said Thursday that its flour for bakeries is only enough to keep producing bread for 800,000 people a day until Tuesday and that its overall food supplies will last a maximum of two weeks. As a “last resort” once all other food is exhausted, it has emergency stocks of fortified nutritional biscuits for 415,000 people.

Fuel and medicine will last weeks longer before hitting zero. Hospitals are rationing antibiotics and painkillers. Aid groups are shifting limited fuel supplies between multiple needs, all indispensable — trucks to move aid, bakeries to make bread, wells and desalination plants to produce water, hospitals to keep machines running.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/60080304

Summary

A YouGov poll across seven western European countries found strong public support for retaliatory tariffs if Donald Trump imposes new US import duties, including a planned 25% car tariff.

Majorities in nations like Germany (68%) and France (67%) backed countermeasures, even while expecting economic harm.

The EU vowed a “robust and calibrated” response amid fears of a trade war. Most respondents disagreed with Trump’s claims that the EU treats the US unfairly.

Arabic - Persian - Dutch

A number of large Iranian container ships are using the trade route to the port of Antwerp in Belgium as cover for suspicious activities, which are being closely monitored by Western intelligence agencies. However, catching them in the act is nearly impossible. There are six suspect ships tracked by the investigative team that are believed to be involved in espionage, aiding the Houthis in their attacks on commercial vessels, and transporting weapons to Syria and Russia. A team of investigative journalists, along with the Belgian newspaper De Tijd, followed the route of these six Iranian ships on their journeys from Iranian ports to Europe via the Syrian port of Latakia.

Long COVID is costing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and increased health and social welfare costs, economists say.

Five years on from the start of the COVID-19 crisis, millions of people are struggling with debilitating health problems that have decimated their lives and livelihoods.

The first cases of long COVID were reported in May 2020.

The OECD, a club of mostly rich nations, estimates long COVID could be costing its 38 members $864 billion to $1.04 trillion annually due to reductions in quality of life and labour force participation. This does not include the extra burden on health services.

Summary

China launched large-scale military drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, deploying air, sea, and rocket forces in what it called a "severe warning" against Taiwanese independence.

The exercises included 19 navy vessels and the Shandong aircraft carrier entering Taiwan’s defense zone.

Taiwan responded by deploying warships and missile systems. Beijing labeled Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te a "parasite" and accused him of separatism.

Taiwan condemned the drills as provocative and escalatory. The drills mark the latest move in China’s continued military pressure amid rising cross-strait tensions.

Berlin’s immigration authorities are moving to deport four young foreign residents on allegations related to participation in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, an unprecedented move that raises serious concerns over civil liberties in Germany.

The deportation orders, issued under German migration law, were made amid political pressure and over internal objections from the head of the state of Berlin’s immigration agency.

The internal strife arose because three of those targeted for deportation are citizens of European Union member states who normally enjoy freedom of movement between E.U. countries. None of the four has been convicted of any crimes.

“What we’re seeing here is straight out of the far right’s playbook,” said Alexander Gorski, a lawyer representing two of the protesters. “You can see it in the U.S. and Germany, too: Political dissent is silenced by targeting the migration status of protesters.”

Lebanese officials say the attack on Dahiyeh killed at least three people and wounded seven others.

Kyiv’s assault on Kursk in August 2024 took Russia by surprise. But Russia’s ongoing retaking of the Kursk region may remove a bargaining chip for Ukraine in the talks to end the war. As an additional weigh in the balance, Justice Info has calculated that Russia has put on trial at least 67 Ukrainian soldiers captured in Kursk, who were sentenced to between 14 and 26 years in prison.

Walid Ahmad was a healthy high schooler before his arrest in September for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers, his family said. Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities holding thousands of Palestinians who were rounded up after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

Prison authorities deny any systematic abuse and say they investigate accusations of wrongdoing by prison staff. But the Israeli ministry overseeing prisons acknowledges conditions inside detention facilities have been reduced to the minimum level allowed under Israeli law.

Israel’s prison service did not respond to questions about the cause of death. It said only that a 17-year-old from the West Bank had died in Megiddo Prison, a facility that has previously been accused of abusing Palestinian inmates, “with his medical condition being kept confidential.” It said it investigates all deaths in detention.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the conscription of 160,000 men by July 15, an increase from previous drafts as Moscow seeks to expand its military ranks.

Summary

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered 160,000 more Russians aged 18–30 be drafted from April 1 to July 15, amid U.S.-brokered ceasefire talks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the Kremlin is preparing a major offensive in Sumy, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia, accusing Russia of stalling negotiations to gain territorial leverage.

Over 100,000 Russian soldiers are confirmed dead. Ukraine reported 46,000 dead and 380,000 wounded.

https://archive.ph/mycfQ

The People’s Liberation Army launched joint exercises around Taiwan on Tuesday, marking Beijing’s latest warning to the island’s “separatist forces”.

In a statement, Colonel Shi Yi said that the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command was conducting patrols and exercises that included simulated air and land strikes, as well as control of key passages to test the joint combat readiness of its troops.

Ireland is expected to be one of the most affected countries when President Trump announces a new round of tariffs later this week.

EU goods are expected to face a tariff of about 20% when entering the United States.

Among EU countries, Ireland is the most reliant on the US as an export market.

In 2024, Irish goods exports to the US were worth €73bn (£61bn), almost a third of the country's total exports.