Thousands of displaced Palestinians are still being prevented from returning to their homes in northern Gaza after Israel accused Hamas of breaching the terms of a ceasefire deal. On Saturday, Hamas freed four Israeli female soldiers it had held hostage since 7 October 2023, in return for 200 Palestinian prisoners. However, a dispute broke out when Israeli civilian Arbel Yehud was not included in the swap, even though Hamas was scheduled to free more non-military hostages. While Hamas insisted Ms Yehud is alive and will be freed next week, Israel reacted by delaying the planned withdrawal of some troops from Gaza, which would have allowed Palestinians to return to homes in the north - BBC
President Trump said he told King Abdullah II of Jordan during a phone call Saturday that he would like Jordan and Egypt to take in more Palestinians from Gaza, an idea that is likely to reignite debate about the future of nearly two million Palestinians. “I said to him, ‘I’d love for you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess,’” Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One. He added that he would also like Egypt to take in more Palestinians and that he would speak to the country’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, on Sunday. Mr. Trump made the remarks on an evening flight after a rally in Las Vegas; it is unclear whether they signal a change in U.S. policy toward Palestinians - NYT
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Polls have opened in Belarus in a presidential election which is all but certain to see incumbent Alexander Lukashenko win a seventh term in office. And voting started following a period of almost non-existent election fever. In the capital Minsk, there’s an almost total absence of billboards promoting the candidates and there has been little in the way of campaigning. Even Lukashenko himself seemed disinterested in the process. “I’m not following the election campaign,” he said earlier this week at a state-run car manufacturing plant. “I’ve got no time.” 70-year-old Lukashenko, frequently dubbed ‘Europe’s last dictator’, has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994. Many of his political opponents have either been imprisoned or fled abroad - Euronews
Thousands of Germans on Saturday protested in Berlin and other cities against the rise of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of a February 23 general election. At Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, participants lighted up their phones, blew whistles and sang anti-fascist songs, and in Cologne, protesters carried banners denouncing AfD. An opposition bloc of Germany’s center-right parties, the Union, led by Friedrich Merz, is leading pre-election polls with AfD in second place. Merz said Friday that his party will bring motions to toughen migration policy – one of the main election issues – to parliament next week, a move seen risky in case the motions go to a vote and pass with the help of AfD. - France 24
Finger-pointing has erupted in Ukraine over how nuclear facilities were left exposed to Russian bombardment this winter, putting the country on the cusp of a devastating blackout. Under the spotlight are Ukraine’s state-owned atomic energy firm Energoatom and Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who stand accused of failing to ensure that the nuclear sector was adequately prepared for Russian attacks during the freezing temperatures that now blanket Ukraine. Experts and numerous Ukrainian lawmakers say the firm did little to protect its nuclear facilities for months despite explicit orders from Ukraine’s government and policy changes that freed up cash. Galushchenko, they add, failed to pressure the company. Instead, Energoatom pushed to expand a new nuclear plant that many lawmakers argue does nothing to keep the lights on in the short term. The issue is a vital one in Ukraine. Nuclear facilities currently provide the bulk of the country’s electricity after months of Russian bombing devastated much of its energy system. The situation has left Ukraine perilously close to a catastrophic outage during the depths of winter. Already in November the country had to cut output at one of its nuclear plants due to large-scale missile attacks. Kyiv’s intelligence services have warned for months that Russia is likely to order fresh strikes targeting critical nuclear infrastructure. The delay in protecting atomic plants is “hardly explainable,” said Anastasiya Radina, a lawmaker from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, who chairs Ukraine’s parliamentary anti-corruption committee. Meanwhile, the nuclear expansion project is “ridiculous,” she added. Radina said she would back a parliamentary inquiry into the delay. “It’s a legitimate question to ask,” Radina said. “What were you doing this whole time?” - Politico
The Kremlin is paying French influencers who have become ideological mercenaries promoting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s narrative. Cartes du Monde reports that more than 2,000 influencers have been approached by the Kremlin to promote its narrative. About twenty have accepted and almost half are French. Reaching influencers allows you to reach an audience that is not interested in geopolitics. As an investigation is ongoing, no names have been released regarding the French influencers who accepted rubles from the Kremlin. This underlines that France is fully aware of the threat that exists and is seeking to hinder Moscow’s operations. Influencers who claim to be distant from political issues have been starting to make editorial changes for some time now. There is, alas, nothing new in these practices of recruiting influencers & journalists. Already, during the Cold War, Moscow had multiplied the purchase of French personalities to spy and promote its narrative. More recently, this practice had already been detected during COVID when Moscow approached influencers to relay disinformation about vaccination. With the war in Ukraine, this has only intensified. In addition to influencers, Moscow can rely on zealous relays of its narrative such as the magazine Omerta, financed by Charles d’Anjou with documented links to the Kremlin, or the MEP Thierry Mariani.
New online videos recently investigated by VOA’s Russian and Ukrainian services show how artificial intelligence is likely being used to try to create provocative deepfakes that target Ukrainian refugees. In one example, a video appears to be a TV news report about a teenage Ukrainian refugee and her experience studying at a private school in the United States.The offensive voiceover was likely created using artificial intelligence to realistically copy her voice, resulting in something known as a deepfake. And it appears to be part of the online Russian information operation called Matryoshka — named for the Russian nesting doll — that is now targeting Ukrainian refugees. VOA found that the campaign pushed two deepfake videos that aimed to make Ukrainian refugees look greedy and ungrateful, while also spreading deepfakes that appeared to show authoritative Western journalists claiming that Ukraine — and not Russia — was the country spreading falsehoods. The videos reflect the most recent strategy among Russia’s online disinformation campaign, according to Antibot4Navalny, an X account that researches Russian information operations and has been widely cited by leading Western news outlets. Russia’s willingness to target refugees, including a teenager, shows just how far the Kremlin, which regularly denies having a role in disinformation, is prepared to go in attempting to undermine Western support for Ukraine. - VOA
Ads featuring fake CBC articles have inundated the social media platform X in recent weeks. The ads are designed to lure Canadians into a sophisticated scam that uses Russian internet infrastructure, CBC News has found. CBC News’ visual investigations unit has investigated both the internet infrastructure behind the ads — leading from a Barrie, Ont., provider, to the Netherlands, to Russia — as well as the spoofed accounts from local businesses sharing the ads. Dozens of accounts on X, formerly Twitter, have shared the ads, which often feature sensationalist headlines focusing on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre or NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh - CBC News
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