BELARUS: Russian President Vladimir Putin visited his Belarusian counterpart and close ally Alexander Lukashenko for talks in Minsk today, after which he questioned whether Volodymyr Zelensky has the legitimacy to negotiate on Ukraine’s behalf.
Russia is willing to hold talks about the war in Ukraine, Mr Putin said, but Mr Zelensky’s five-year term in office was supposed to end on May 20.
However, Mr Zelensky has ruled out holding new presidential elections while his country is at war, something Mr Putin apparently ignored in remarks to reporters.
MYANMAR: The UN human rights office warned today of “frightening and disturbing reports” about the impact of new violence in the country’s western state of Rakhine, pointing to new attacks on Rohingya civilians by the military and an ethnic armed group fighting it.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights cited the burning of the town of Buthidaung, as well as air strikes, reports of shootings at unarmed fleeing villagers, beheadings and disappearances as part of the violence in the northern part of Rakhine in recent weeks.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: More than 100 people are believed to have been killed in a landslide today that buried a village in a remote, mountainous part of the country and an emergency response is under way, officials in the South Pacific island nation said.
The landslide struck Enga province, about 370 miles north-west of the capital Port Moresby, at roughly 3am, Australian media reported. Residents from surrounding areas said boulders and trees from a collapsed mountainside had buried parts of the community and left it isolated.
EUROPEAN UNION: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that the next president of the EU Commission should not seek support from far-right parties hoping to make big gains in next month’s European parliamentary elections.
Left-leaning parties across Europe have been heaping pressure on their conservative and liberal counterparts to rule out co-operation with far-right parties after the June 6-9 vote.
Mr Scholz’s message is likely to be seen as a warning to commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
