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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,177

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,177

These are the key events on day 1,177 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here is where things stand on Friday, May 16 : Fighting Fighting continues along the 1,100km (683 mile) front line, where Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces captured two settlements located near Moscow’s long-term targets. Russia claimed to have taken Novooleksandrivka, a rural village near Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as well as the town of Torske, which is located near the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. The Ukrainian military acknowledged that Novooleksandrivka had been under attack, but it did not mention Torske in its latest report. Oleksandr Syrskii, Ukraine’s top military commander, said on Telegram that Russia “has turned its aggression against Ukraine into a war of attrition and is using a combined force of up to 640,000 troops”. Ukraine lost its first F-16 fighter jet on Friday due to an “unusual situation on board”, but the pilot successfully ejected, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Ceasefire Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian envoys will hold trilateral talks in Istanbul, although hopes are low for any breakthrough after Russia sent a lower-level delegation to the meeting than hoped. The meeting marks the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since a meeting in 2022 also held in Istanbul. Turkiye will take part in two trilateral meetings on Friday as part of the renewed diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources told the Reuters news agency. A meeting will take place between Turkish, US and Ukrainian officials and is scheduled to take place at 10:45am local time [07:45 GMT], followed by talks between Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian delegations at 12:30pm [09:30 GMT], the sources told Reuters. The Ukrainian delegation will now be led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov instead of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday. “We can’t be running around the world looking for Putin,” Zelenskyy said after a meeting with Erdogan. “I feel disrespect from Russia. No meeting time, no agenda, no high-level delegation – this is personal disrespect. To Erdogan, to Trump.” US President Donald Trump said an agreement between Russia and Ukraine is not possible without him first meeting Putin. “I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)

Peru arrests suspect in gold rush massacre

Peru arrests suspect in gold rush massacre

‘Cuchillo’ (Knife) accused of organised crime, aggravated kidnapping and homicide over murder of 13 miners. Police have arrested the main suspect in the kidnapping and murder in early May of 13 gold miners in Peru. Miguel Antonio Rodriguez Diaz, also known by the alias “Cuchillo” (Knife), was detained in the Colombian city of Medellin on Thursday, the Ministry of the Interior in Lima said. The murders in early May put the spotlight on increasing violence provoked by a gold rush in Peru’s northern Pataz district. The burned bodies of 13 missing gold miners were recovered after being reported as kidnapped by illegal miners allied with criminal armed groups. Diaz was detained in a joint operation by the Peruvian National Police, Interpol and the Colombian National Police, the Peruvian ministry stated. He is accused of “organised crime, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated homicide” and due to be extradited back to Peru. Colombia’s police chief, Carlos Triana, wrote on X that the capture of Diaz was with the support of the United States Homeland Security Investigations agency, which is responsible for investigating transnational criminal gangs. Advertisement The suspect’s lawyer, Kevin Diaz, told local radio station RPP that his client had been in Venezuela for “a few days” before returning to Colombia, where he was arrested. Wave of violence The wave of violence sparked by the gold rush in Pataz has led the government to establish a military facility in the area. Mining company La Poderosa, which owns the mine where the murders took place, claimed earlier this month that nearly 40 people, including contractors and miners, have been recently killed in the district by criminal gangs. The threat is of national importance. As one of Latin America’s biggest gold producers, mining is a key economic avenue in Peru. However, with the financial success of the market, illegal mining has taken off. The practice involves more money than drug trafficking, amounting to $3bn-4bn per year, according to the government. That has helped bring an unprecedented wave of gang violence, with several areas of the country under a state of emergency. Adblock test (Why?)

‘New paradigm’: A fractured Portugal votes, again, amid corruption cloud

‘New paradigm’: A fractured Portugal votes, again, amid corruption cloud

Lisbon, Portugal — Portugal is summoning its citizens to vote in their third general elections in three years on May 18, amid rapid shifts to the country’s political landscape that have left the country facing the prospect of yet another fractured mandate after decades of relative stability. This year’s snap election comes at a moment when rising living costs, a housing crisis, the future of the national health service and perceptions of immigration are all significant issues on the public agenda – as is a corruption scandal that precipitated the upcoming vote. The government of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), fell in March, when parliament voted against a motion of confidence, triggering elections. It’s the second Portuguese government in a row that had left office under a cloud of corruption allegations. Now, the country’s 10 million voters will need to choose the makeup of their next parliament, where 230 seats are up for grabs – and a divided mandate appears likely. Advertisement ‘A very serious case’ Montenegro led a right-wing minority government for less than a year before accusations of corruption emerged over a consultancy firm that he set up, called “Spinumviva”. A string of media investigations into potential conflicts of interest revealed the firm had received thousands of euros a month in consultancy fees from previously undisclosed clients, including companies with government contracts. When a defiant Montenegro appeared on national television back in March to issue his response, he insisted that he had not broken the law because he had transferred his shares in the company to his wife and sons before he became prime minister in 2024. But his defence is controversial, say experts. “Under Portuguese civil law, even if it was possible to sell shares to someone you’re married to, you’d still be a joint owner of them, and, therefore, still able to profit from them,” said Portuguese lawyer and political commentator Carmo Afonso. “Spinumviva is a very serious case – and revelations are still emerging.” Just hours before a live debate a few weeks later with his main rival, the Socialist Party’s Pedro Nuno Santos, Montenegro submitted an updated declaration of his business interests to the national online transparency portal. According to an investigation by the Portuguese newspaper Expresso, some of Spinumviva’s clients earned at least 100 million euros ($112m) a year in government contracts during Montenegro’s mandate alone. Montenegro, meanwhile, says that he has not been involved with Spinumviva since becoming prime minister in March 2024. Advertisement How the race is shaping up Still, the attention on Spinumviva may not have damaged Montenegro’s chances of re-election. According to Portuguese political scientist Vicente Valentim, “perceptions of corruption in Portugal are traditionally high, but it may not to be a significant factor in how people vote”. Despite the ongoing scandal, the conservative Democratic Alliance (AD) coalition, in which Montenegro’s Social Democratic Party (PSD) is the majority party, leads the race, and is polling at 34 percent. And according to a poll by Lisbon’s Catholic University, a third of voters think the Spinumviva case and its potential legal ramifications are irrelevant to the elections. Montenegro’s brief period in government has seen him enjoy the support of the professional class, riding on a budget surplus attained by the previous government of the centrist Socialist Party (PS) of Antonio Costa, who was prime minister from 2015-2024. Meanwhile, “the loss of the charismatic Antonio Costa has affected the PS’s popularity,” says Afonso. “Costa is a hard act to follow.” “Ironically, the more Spinumviva gets talked about, the better it is for Montenegro, is what some commentators are saying,” says Afonso, who believes Montenegro was well aware of this when the government collapsed. “Montenegro chose to bring a vote of confidence in parliament knowing full well that he would lose it, because there really couldn’t be a better time to hold elections – better for him, that is.” The PS, by contrast, is polling several points below the AD at about 26 percent. Advertisement Currently, it looks highly improbable that any of the parties or alliances running will win an outright majority of 116 seats or more. That leaves two likely possibilities: either a post-electoral coalition of parties that forms a majority in alliance; or a minority government, which needs the tacit support of other parties in parliament to push through essential legislation, including budgets. About half a dozen parties are serious contenders for the rest of the 230 seats in parliament. These include the traditional players such as the Communist Party-Greens alliance (CDU), the Left Bloc, and the People-Animals-Nature party, as well as new parties including the Europeanist-Socialist party Livre (“Free”), the radical right-wing Iniciativa Liberal (“Liberal Initiative”), and the extreme right Chega (“Enough”). The rise of the far right Chega, which opposes immigration, abortion, and LGBTQ rights, and has targeted minorities like Portugal’s substantial Romani population, won a surprising 50 parliamentary seats in the 2024 elections, with Andre Ventura as leader. It won 18 percent of the national vote. The party is currently in third position in the polls and is predicted to win close to what it did in the last elections. Valentim, the political scientist, warns against interpreting Chega’s support base as representing a protest vote. “A lot of people who vote for them already held the ideas they espoused, long before the party actually appeared; generally, the rapid growth of radical right-wing parties is not down to them changing people’s ideas,” he said. “So, Chega going from 1 percent of votes, to 7 percent, to 18 percent over the course of the last three elections doesn’t mean that the number of people with right-wing ideas has grown in those proportions.” Advertisement What it means, he said, is that “more and more people who already had those ideas, but used to feel that they were not socially acceptable, and that they would be judged, or made social pariahs or disadvantaged professionally because of them, no longer feel that”. With the

Gabbard says Comey should be ‘put behind bars’ after picture allegedly ‘issuing a call to assassinate’ Trump

Gabbard says Comey should be ‘put behind bars’ after picture allegedly ‘issuing a call to assassinate’ Trump

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said ex-FBI Director James Comey should be “put behind bars” for a post he made on Instagram on Thursday allegedly “issuing a call to assassinate [President Donald Trump.]” Earlier on Thursday, Comey shared a picture on Instagram with seashells formed in the numbers “86 47.” To some, the number “86” is a call sign for murdering or getting rid of someone or something and “47” is typically used to refer to the 47th President of the United States. “Cool shell formation on my beach walk…,” Comey wrote in the caption of the picture, which has since been deleted. Gabbard made the comments on “Jesse Watters Primetime” Thursday night after Comey said he wasn’t aware that the number “86” stands for some sort of violence. EX-FBI CHIEF COMEY’S ‘86 47’ SOCIAL MEDIA POST CONDEMNED BY WHITE HOUSE AS ATTEMPT TO PUT ‘HIT’ ON PRESIDENT “I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” Comey said after deleting the initial picture. “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”  Gabbard said Comey and his people “need to be held to account according to the law” regardless of why he said he posted the picture. “The rule of law says people like him who issue direct threats against the POTUS, essentially issuing a call to assassinate him, must be held accountable under the law,” Gabbard said, adding that she thinks he should be in jail. The national intelligence director said Comey’s post has her “very concerned for [the president’s life.]” “I’m very concerned for the president’s life; we’ve already seen assassination attempts. I’m very concerned for his life and James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this,” she said. ‘NEVER TRUMPER’ COMEY’S ’86 47′ TRUMP POST UNDER INVESTIGATION Gabbard also said Comey has a lot of influence and that there are “people who take [him] very seriously.” Shortly after Comey removed the post, Fox News Digital learned from a Secret Service source that the agency was aware of the incident and agents are being sent to investigate and interview Comey. The White House also condemned Comey’s actions, with White House deputy chief of staff and Cabinet Secretary Taylor Budowich calling his post “deeply concerning.” “While President Trump is currently on an international trip to the Middle East, the former FBI Director puts out what can clearly be interpreted as ‘a hit’ on the sitting President of the United States — a message etched in the sand,” Budowich wrote on X. “This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously.” Comey, who led the FBI during Trump’s first term before he was fired from the spot, had no comment when reached by Fox News Digital earlier on Thursday. Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel and David Spunt contributed to this report.