WORLD BRIEFING: May 8, 2024

Vladimir V. Putin was inaugurated for a fifth term as president on Tuesday in a ceremony filled with pageantry and a televised church service, as the Russian leader tried once more to depict his invasion of Ukraine as a religiously righteous mission that is part of “our 1,000-year history.” Mr. Putin took the presidential oath — he swore to “respect and safeguard the rights and freedoms of man and citizen” — with his hand on a red-bound copy of Russia’s constitution, the 1993 document that guarantees many of the democratic rights that he has spent much of his 25-year rule rolling back. Mr. Putin claimed his fifth term in March in a rubber-stamp election that Western nations dismissed as a sham. If he serves the full six years of his new term, he will become the longest serving Russian leader since Empress Catherine the Great in the 19th century. “Together, we will be victorious!” Mr. Putin said at the end of a speech after he took the oath in the Kremlin’s gilded St. Andrew’s Hall. - NYT

The Ukrainian security service (SBU) says it has foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other high-ranking Ukrainian officials. Two Ukrainian government protection unit colonels have been arrested.The SBU said they were part of a network of agents belonging to the Russian state security service (FSB). They had reportedly been searching for willing "executors" among Mr Zelensky's bodyguards to kidnap and kill him. Ever since Russian paratroopers attempted to land in Kyiv and assassinate President Zelensky in the early hours and days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, plots to assassinate him have been commonplace. - BBC

​​There was a massive Russian rocket/drone attack in Ukraine overnight: ​​55 missiles of various types & 21 attack drones, officials said, adding that 59 were destroyed. Electricity generation/transmission facilities in 6 regions targeted. Railways station/tracks in Kherson hit. At least one death and five injuries reported

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a former top UN humanitarian official, told FRANCE 24 on Tuesday that Gaza is "among the worst places in humanitarian history". He described a trapped population enduring "relentless" bombardment since October 2023. With regards to the southern city of Rafah, where an Israeli offensive appears imminent, he said some 1.4 million people were "engulfed in fear and desperation beyond belief". Egeland said the World Food Programme was "correct" in assessing that famine was now raging in northern Gaza, "because Israel has not opened the border crossings in the north, except now a trickle through Erez".

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Belgrade, capital of Serbia, on Tuesday night, starting a state visit to the central European country. Upon his arrival, the Chinese president said he is confident that this visit will be a fruitful one and open up a new chapter in China-Serbia relations. “On behalf of the Chinese government and people, I would like to extend heartfelt greetings and best wishes to the friendly government and people of Serbia," Xi said in a written speech upon his arrival at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. The last time Xi was in Serbia was in 2016, when the two countries' heads of state upgraded bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Since then, the China-Serbia relationship has realized leapfrog development, and achieved historic results, Xi said in the speech. - China Daily

In a further widespread crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong, an appeal court has banned "Glory to Hong Kong", a protest song that emerged during the city's massive democracy demonstrations in 2019. Judges grantee an order that would stop a range of acts including broadcasting and performing the song - AFP

Millions of Indian voters across 93 constituencies were casting ballots on Tuesday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi mounted an increasingly shrill election campaign, ramping up polarizing rhetoric in incendiary speeches that have targeted the Muslim minority. In recent campaign rallies, Modi has called Muslims “infiltrators” and said they “have too many children,” referring to a Hindu nationalist trope that Muslims produce more children with the aim of outnumbering Hindus in India. He has also accused the rival Indian National Congress party of scheming to “loot” wealth from the country’s Hindus and redistribute it among Muslims, who comprise 14% of India’s more than 1.4 billion people. - AP