Category World News

Zelenskyy thanked Germany on Friday for continuing to support it during Ukraine’s conflict with Russia over the past two years, but he also said: “It is very important for us that this assistance does not decrease next year.”

The Ukrainian leader stated that he would send Scholz a draft of his strategy for winning the conflict with Russia and that he hopes the conflict will end “no later than 2025” by the year.

“This war needs to end, more than anyone else in the world,” Zelenskyy said.

“The war is destroying our country, taking the lives of our people”, he added.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly criticized any peace plan that calls for the surrender of all Ukrainian land to Russian forces as a means of achieving peace.

Alongside Zelenskyy, Scholz announced a 1.4 billion euro ($1.53bn) military aid package for Ukraine by the end of the year.

The aid will be jointly provided with partner countries, including Belgium, Denmark and Norway, and is expected to include air defences, tanks, combat drones and artillery.

“It is a clear message to]Russian President Vladimir] Putin – playing for time will not work. We will not let up in our support for Ukraine”, Scholz said.

The German leader added that he and Zelenskyy had reached a deal on a peace conference that would include Russia, and that international law alone could bring about peace.

“We will not accept a peace dictated by Russia”, Scholz said.

After the United States, Germany has been the largest supporter of military aid in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy’s trip to Berlin came at a crucial moment, with the US presidential election slated for next month and the possibility of former US president Donald Trump’s victory.

“Just and steady peace”

Zelenskyy and Pope Francis discussed the “incredibly painful” issue of Ukrainians who have been deported to Russia earlier on Friday at the Vatican.

According to the Vatican, Zelenskyy and the Pope had discussions about the conflict, “the humanitarian situation in Ukraine,” and ways to achieve “just and stable peace.”

Francis has repeatedly called for an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The New York Times and Washington Post reported on Friday that many in Trump’s orbit have come to the conclusion that Iran may have been responsible for two recent assassination attempts against the former president, in addition to the expanded flight restrictions on Trump’s residences, rallies, and an array of military vehicles to transport him around.

In recent years, no presidential candidate has used military aircraft to campaign before an election. Because she is the vice president in charge, Kamala Harris is protected by the military and flies on Air Force Two, a military aircraft.

Iran threat

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence warned Trump about the “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” according to a statement from a Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung last month.

According to Cheung, “intelligence officials have determined that these ongoing and coordinated attacks have increased in recent months.”

Trump echoed the assertion on his Truth Social platform, saying that “moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again.”

Iran has not been linked to either of the two recent assassination attempts against the former president, despite the FBI’s alleged lack of evidence. General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020, when Trump was in office, according to US intelligence officials. According to officials, Iran has a limited ability to strike US territory.

The government requested military protection after Trump’s campaign advisers received information that claimed Iran is still actively plotting to kill him, according to The Washington Post, which cited emails and anonymous sources. According to the sources, drones and missiles have grown in concern for the advisers.

Secret Service failures

The Secret Service and Trump’s team have engaged in the most recent exchanges, with Trump receiving a few shots and getting slightly hurt at a rally in July that featured Trump being shot at and wounded.

Both the attacker in that instance, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed on the scene, and Ryan Routh, a gunman who was found in September allegedly pointing a rifle through a fence at a West Palm Beach, Florida golf course where Trump was playing, are believed to have acted alone.

Routh has entered a not-guilty plea after being accused of an assassination attempt.

As concerns grow about the growing attacks between Israel and Iran and its network of aligned armed groups, Russian President Vladimir Putin has met Iran’s new leader.

On Friday, Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke about the Middle East with regional leaders in Turkmenistan, according to Russian state media.

Before their two nations are scheduled to sign a strategic partnership agreement, they interacted.

Pezeshkian said on Friday that he hoped the agreement could be finalised at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit, which Putin invited him to, in Russia on October 22-24.

During their meeting, Putin told Pezeshkian that Moscow’s and Tehran’s positions on international affairs were often “very close”, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

We prioritize our interactions with Iran. They are developing very successfully”, Putin said.

Our communications are being strengthened day by day and becoming more robust, according to Pezeshkian, who was quoted by the Iranian news agency IRNA as saying this.

Pezeshkian also spoke about Israel’s “savage attacks” in Lebanon, adding that Israel should “stop killing innocent people” in the region and accused the United States and Europe of backing its actions.

As the country fights the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which is affiliated with Tehran, the Israeli military has deployed ground troops into southern Lebanon.

In addition, Israel has previously been accused of attacking people’s homes in Lebanon and Gaza.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Iran’s relations have significantly improved. Iran is accused of providing Russia with weapons to use in Ukraine. Tehran has denied that claim.

As the conference opened on Friday, Putin said he wanted to create a “new world order” for Moscow’s allies to counter the West.

He stated that Moscow was willing to discuss the emerging multipolar world in various forums, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the BRICS, and that it would support “the broadest possible international discussion.”

Democrats are fighting it out for every vote in the presidential election in less than a month, and they have chosen third-party candidates as potential “spoilers.”

Some progressives who are disenchanted with the Democratic National Committee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have flocked to the party’s executive branch, the DNC, in a television advertisement that attacked Jill Stein, a long-time Green Party candidate.

The advertisement, which is running in the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, blames Stein for Republican challenger Donald Trump’s 2016 win and warns that “a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump” – a refrain Democrats have regularly levelled against her in tight races between their candidates and Trump.

The video also includes a comment by former President Trump, saying, “Jill Stein? I like her very much”.

The advertisement, the first against the third-party candidate, signals Democrats ‘ growing worry that every lost vote may cost them such a razor-thin election. Stewart is in the lead with a poll of about 1%, just like Cornel West and Chase Oliver, both of whom are progressive academic and independent.

In some battleground states, those votes may make all the difference.

Third-party history

Third-party candidates have long been blamed for their impact on tight election outcomes — most notably in 2000 when Green Party nominee Ralph Nader earned 97, 421 votes in Florida, a state that eventually went to George W Bush, along with the presidency, by only 537 votes.

Third-party supporters and candidates have since refuted the accusations, saying they are working to end a fundamentally flawed two-party system and give voters a greater choice.

“You don’t have a democracy unless it’s a competitive democracy at election time”, Nader recently told Al Jazeera. “Historically, the function of third parties in an Electoral College system has never really been to win elections but to have new agendas”, he said.

With only two choices, Democrat or Republican, Nader added, “on major issues, they are very similar”.

According to a Gallup poll this month, 58% of Americans believe a third major party is necessary because the Republican and Democratic parties “do such a poor job” of representing the people.

Stein on Israel

Despite having virtually no chance of winning the presidency, Stein’s message resonated with some voters because of Democrats’ and Republicans’ unwavering support for it despite the fact that she has hardly any chance of winning. She has consistently criticized US support for Israel, which has helped her gain new supporters in this election cycle.

“The Kamala Harris campaign is looking for a scapegoat”, she told The Washington Post this week, referring to the Harris campaign’s concern about her candidacy. They may alter their current policy at this time. They would rather not see the genocide end than they would prefer to lose the election.

This week, the Abandon Harris campaign, a Michigan-based Muslim group that says it aims to hold Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration “accountable for the Gaza genocide”, endorsed&nbsp, Stein for president.

The Muslim-American community is one of the country’s most important populations, and our movement continues to make sure that the American people understand that we are a part of fighting against oppression and using all of our resources to stop genocide wherever it occurs, according to a statement from the organization.