tehopeng

By James FitzGerald

BBC News

The widow of one of the police officers killed in a shooting in Minnesota has said he was “the most generous, loving, patient person I’ve ever known”.

Paul Elmstrand, 27, was shot dead at a home in Burnsville on Sunday, alongside another officer and a paramedic.

The gunman had barricaded himself inside with seven children and opened fire as police tried to negotiate.

One other officer and a paramedic died in the incident, which followed a domestic abuse call in the early hours.

Mr Elmstrand’s wife, Cindy Elmstrand-Castruita, told the BBC’s US partner CBS: “I think he just had to be the hero. He had to do what he thought was right to protect those little lives even if it meant putting his at risk and it breaks my heart because now he’s gone.

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“But I know that he thought what he did was right.”

She said her husband – who was father to a five-month-old baby and two-year-old – “would drop everything to help someone who was in need, whether it be family, friend or someone on the street”.

“He could have a conversation with anyone and make them feel seen,” she said.

As well as Mr Elmstrand, police officer Matthew

Ruge, also 27, and paramedic Adam Finseth, 40, were also killed in the shooting.

State authorities said officers were called at about 01:50 local time (07:50 GMT) to the address in Burnsville, a city about 15 miles (24 km) south of central Minneapolis.

They were responding to a “report of a domestic situation” involving an armed man, said Supt Drew Evans from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

The responders later learned seven children, aged two to 15, were also “barricaded” in the property. They went on to spend “quite a bit of time negotiating with this individual”.

The attacker then opened fire, killing the three victims and inflicting non-life-threatening injuries on a fourth policeman, who was named as Adam Medlicott.

Details of exactly what happened next are not yet clear, though Supt Evans confirmed that the police “did return fire”. Local media said the gunman killed himself.

He is said by Supt Evans to have had “several guns and large amounts of ammunition”, and shot at the first responders from different parts of the home.

He has not yet been named. He was found dead at about 08:00, which left other inhabitants of the home able to escape unharmed.

Ms Elmstrand-Castruita told CBS she learnt about her husband’s death on Sunday morning, after waking up and seeing a text from her friend saying that she was sorry what she was going through.

“I looked out my bedroom window and saw a squad car out there,” she said. “I knew. That’s when I knew he was gone.”

• How gun violence is reshaping American lives

Neighbours on the quiet residential street described their fear as the incident escalated. Jason Skog recalled seeing a large police and Swat presence in his neighbourhood.

Describing the sound of explosions and gunfire, he said it quickly became clear that “something bad was taking place”.

An investigation is under way into what happened, while tributes have been paid by emergency workers in the local area and beyond. A candlelit vigil was held for the victims on Sunday night.

Burnsville police chief Tanya Schwartz said her whole force was “hurting”, while Minnesota Governor Tim Walz described it as a “tragic loss for our state”.

The incident came just days after another mass shooting in another Midwestern state, during which one person was killed and 21 injured in Missouri.

The victims were among a crowd who had been watching a victory parade by the Kansas City Chiefs after the NFL team won the Super Bowl earlier this month.https://blejermot.com/

By Andre Rhoden-Paul, & Louisa Pilbeam at the protest

BBC News

Tens of thousands of people have taken part in a pro-Palestinian march in central London.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march was calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war.

Saturday’s march was the first protest to go near the Israeli embassy in west London since a static rally in October.

Some 1,500 officers were deployed to police the protest. Demonstrators said it was one of busiest marches they have attended so far.

Five people were arrested in one incident, on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker, and police said there were seven other arrests.

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One person was arrested on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation, one arrested for obstruction, two arrested on suspicion of refusing to remove a face covering when requested, and a further three for using abusive or threatening words or behaviour or displaying material abusive or likely to stir up racial hatred.

BBC News saw tens of thousands of people at the start of the march at Marble Arch.

PSC criticised the government and Labour for refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire. The campaign group’s Ben Jamal said there was “mounting pressure from world leaders” on Israel.

“The moral imperative is clear. An immediate ceasefire is a simple, absolute necessity,” he said.

It was the first demonstration in the area of the Israeli embassy since a protest was held two days after the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas, a group designated as a terror organisation by the UK government.

Police restricted the start time of the march to ensure an event taking place at a synagogue would finish prior to the protest passing by the building.

The march set off along Park Lane around 13:30 GMT, and made its way along Knightsbridge and Kensington Road to near the Israeli embassy in Kensington, where speeches were taking place.

Addressing the crowd, the Palestinians’ top envoy to the UK, Husam Zomlot, said: “Hang on to your anger, hang on to your enragement, hang on to your horror and use it, use it in the pursuit of justice.”

Protesters had been told by police the march must stop by 17:00 and that demonstrators had to leave by 18:00.

Cdr Kyle Gordon appealed for marchers to stay within the law, after the force dealt with a number of offences involving placards and hate speech at previous protests.

The protest faced criticism from Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, who accused the march of being “another antisemitic hate parade through London”.

Protests have also taken place in Sydney and Istanbul.

• Gaza hospital in ‘catastrophic’ state as Israeli troops raid
• Israel Gaza war: History of the conflict explained
• Why are Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza?

Israel launched its military offensive after waves of Hamas fighters burst through Israel’s border on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people – mainly civilians – and taking about 250 others back to Gaza as hostages.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 28,600 people, mainly women and children – have been killed in Israel’s campaign. Israel says its aim is to destroy Hamas and secure the return of the hostages.

Israel is being urged not to send ground forces into Rafah in southern Gaza and on the Egyptian border, where many Palestinians are living after areas closer to their homes were affected by fighting.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called for a pause to fighting to get aid in and hostages, and a “sustainable ceasefire”.

Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has said the government supports a “move from a pause – to get aid in and hostages out – towards a sustainable ceasefire, leading to a long term political solution, including a Palestinian state”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told BBC News on Saturday “we all want to get to a ceasefire” in Gaza, but stopped short of calling for an “immediate” ceasefire.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Sir Keir said: “We do need to get to a ceasefire, we all want to get to a ceasefire. The question is how do we get there? The fighting has to stop. Any assault on Rafah must be repelled, we must not allow that to go ahead”.https://blejermot.com/

By Catherine Snowdon

BBC News

I have always been proud of donating blood. I have a relatively rare blood type (B-) and recently found out my blood is even more precious to the NHS, because it can be given to newborn babies.

At my last donation session, the donor carer who was about to put the needle in my arm asked: “It must feel great being a Neo?”

My baffled face prompted her to show me the bright blue tag that was waiting in the bowl to receive my bag of blood. Neo was written in large font on it. “Your blood is special, it’s going to help the tiniest of patients,” she explained.

Neo stands for neonatal, which is the term used to describe a baby in the first 28 days of life.

As my blood was collected I had a speed lesson about how blood is tested after donation. It turns out some patients – including infants – need specific blood.

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I wanted to learn more so I spoke to Dr Andy Charlton, a consultant in haematology and transfusion medicine at NHS Blood and Transplant.

He explained that all donated blood is screened for HIV, hepatitis B, C, and E, as well as syphilis.

Once that has been done, further tests and processes are carried out on some samples to ensure they are suitable for patients who have specific requirements.

For instance, some people need blood that has been “washed” to remove proteins they have previously had allergic reactions to during transfusions.

Common virus

Blood that is destined for new babies, immunocompromised patients, pregnant women or to be transfused into a foetus in-uterine must be screened for a virus called cytomegalovirus or CMV.

Part of the herpes virus family, it is very common and usually harmless, causing mild flu-like symptoms or none at all. But for some people it can be serious.

In babies it can cause seizures, sight and hearing problems as well as damage to the liver and spleen. In rare cases it can be deadly.

Estimates vary but it is thought that between 50 and 80% of adults in the UK have had CMV. As only about 2% of the eligible population in England currently give blood, finding enough donors who have not been exposed to the virus is crucial for supplies.

The blood I donated the previous time was tested and came back clear of antibodies for CMV, meaning I had not been exposed and received the special tag. My blood will be tested for the virus every time I donate, to ensure I have not caught it in the interim.

Immunity to the virus lives forever in white blood cells so if I ever catch it, my blood can no longer be given to these vulnerable patients.

I am one of only 10,916 active donors in England who has CMV-free, B- blood. Over the last year 153,801 units of CMV negative blood products were requested by hospitals.

Dr Charlton says demand for “specialised blood components” is increasing and urges people to come forward to donate.

“We can’t thank our donors enough,” he says. “Every donation of blood is a gift of life and can save more than one person.”

Lifesaver

No-one understands the importance of blood donation better than Hayley Bean. Her daughter Willow’s life was saved soon after birth by a transfusion of CMV-free blood.

During pregnancy, Hayley was diagnosed with vasa previa, a dangerous condition in which the blood vessels from the placenta or umbilical cord block the birth canal.

The vessels are at risk of rupture at any time and, because they obstruct the baby’s passage out of the uterus, natural birth is impossible.

Hayley was admitted to hospital at 32 weeks for monitoring, and a Caesarean section was planned for 35 weeks.

During the operation, Willow’s blood vessels burst, causing life-threatening bleeding.

“All the alarms were going off and people were running around,” recalls Hayley.

“They got Willow out and I waited to hear that first cry. It was the worst moment of my life. She wasn’t breathing and had gone into shock. The neonatal team had to resuscitate her. After about 10 minutes I remember finally hearing a tiny cry.”

Willow was taken to intensive care after a nurse quickly took a picture to show Hayley.

“All I remember was how pale and swollen she looked,” she says.

Hayley finally held Willow for the first time 12 hours after she was born.

Willow is now a thriving four-year-old, and Hayley is eternally grateful for the treatment her daughter received.

“She was in intensive care for five days but there was no permanent damage, thanks to her getting that blood transfusion,” says Hayley.

“She wouldn’t be here today except for the kindness of a stranger. Someone, somewhere made the choice to give blood, and it’s thanks to them that Willow is here today.”

A few days after my first Neo donation, the text I had been waiting for came through. It told me which hospital my blood had been issued to. I smiled and wished the little one well.https://blejermot.com/

By Rushdi Abu Alouf in Istanbul & Kathryn Armstrong in London

BBC News

The Israeli military says its special forces are still inside the Nasser hospital in Gaza as fears grow for patients at the site.

Israel launched what it described as a “precise and limited mission” there on Thursday. The military says it has caught “dozens of terror suspects”.

Hamas dismissed that claim as “lies”. The Hamas-run health ministry said five people died after generators failed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the facility urgently needed fuel.

It said the fuel was vital to “ensure the continuation of the provision of life-saving services”.

Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesperson, said there were now reports that the orthopaedic unit at the hospital, in the city of Khan Younis, had been damaged.

“That obviously reduces the ability to provide the urgent medical care,” he said, adding there were still “critically injured and sick patients” at the hospital.

“More degradation to the hospital means more lives being lost.”

Nasser is the main hospital in southern Gaza, and is one of the few still functioning. It has been the scene of intense fighting between the IDF and Hamas for days.

• Why are Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza
• Jeremy Bowen: Death and Israel’s search for “total victory”

An injured man who had to leave the hospital said the conditions there were dire.

“Since they besieged it, there is no water or food,” Raed Abed told the Associated Press.

“Garbage is widespread, and sewage has flooded the emergency department.”

The hospital’s director, Nahed Abu-Teima, told BBC Arabic the situation inside was “catastrophic and very dangerous”.

The Hamas-run health ministry reported on Friday that the five people who died at the hospital did so after the electricity generators went down and oxygen could not be provided.

The deaths have not been independently verified.

On Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) ordered thousands of displaced people who had been sheltering there to leave.

Images, verified by the BBC, showed medical staff rushing patients on stretchers through a corridor filled with smoke or dust.

The IDF believes Hamas has been using hospitals and other civilian bases as shields for military activities.

“We can’t give them [Hamas] a free pass, we have to make sure that they are pursued and hunted down,” IDF spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner told the BBC.

He said the military had been making “a huge effort to evacuate people from the hospital in order to get them out of harm’s way”, denying claims that civilians had been targeted.

The IDF said that among those it had captured at the hospital were 20 Hamas members who were part of the 7 October attacks on Israel.

It also said it had found weapons, including grenades, at the facility.

The military is also searching for the bodies of Israeli hostages which it said intelligence suggests might be hidden in the hospital.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli tanks were targeting the nearby Al-Amal hospital, “resulting in very severe damage in two nursing rooms”.

They wrote on social media that nobody had been hurt.

Intense hostilities have been reported around the hospital recently. The PRCS said it was raided last week after some 8,000 displaced people and patients complied with an order to evacuate.

On Friday, they said that two doctors who were arrested during the raid had been released, while 12 other staff remained in custody.

Israel launched its military offensive after waves of Hamas fighters burst through Israel’s border on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people – mainly civilians – and taking 253 others back to Gaza as hostages.

The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 28,700 people, mainly women and children – have been killed in Israel’s campaign.

Israel is facing increasing international pressure to show restraint but efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting have not yet yielded any results.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the ceasefire talks told the BBC that the gap between the negotiating parties was still wide and there were disagreements over many of the proposed provisions.

Senior officials from the US, Israel, Egypt and Qatar have been meeting in Cairo this week to try and hammer out a deal.

The official said that the main issue remains the disagreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what happens the day after the war is over. The US want to rely on a strengthened Palestinian Authority, while Israel is against having a single administration in charge of the West Bank and Gaza.

Another disagreement is over Israel’s aim of completely destroying Hamas, which the US thinks will be difficult to achieve anytime soon.

The US is said to be trying to pressure the two sides to reach a long period of calm to make it difficult for the two sides to return to fighting again.https://blejermot.com/

US President Joe Biden has said civilians who are “packed” into Rafah in the Gaza Strip are “exposed and vulnerable” and must be protected.

Israel must make “credible” efforts to protect the more than one million Palestinians sheltering in the southern Gazan city, he said.

Rafah has come under heavy Israeli air strikes in recent days, with a number of casualties reported.

A Palestinian doctor told the BBC people in Rafah were living in fear.

Last week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had ordered troops to prepare to expand its ground operation to Rafah. He vowed to defeat Hamas gunmen hiding in the city.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said any assault would be “terrifying” and many civilians “will likely be killed”.

More than half of the Gaza Strip’s population of 2.3 million is now crammed into the city on the border with Egypt, which was home to only 250,000 people before the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October.

Many of the displaced people are living in makeshift shelters or tents in squalid conditions, with scarce access to safe drinking water or food.

• Israel’s Rafah assault looms, but with no plan yet for civilians
• Palestinians sheltering in Rafah fear Israeli offensive
• Israel-Gaza war: Death and Israel’s search for ‘total victory’

Israel’s military launched its operations in the Gaza Strip after at least 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas-led gunmen, who also took 253 people hostage.

A number of those hostages were later released but Israel says 134 are still unaccounted for.

Some 28,473 Palestinians have been killed and more than 68,000 wounded in Gaza since 7 October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.

On Sunday, Israel’s military said two male Israeli-Argentine hostages had been rescued during a raid in Rafah.

President Biden again appealed for the protection of Rafah civilians after his meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Washington on Monday.

He said any major military operation in the city “should not proceed without a credible plan for ensuring the safety” of those living there.

“Many people there have been displaced, displaced multiple times, fleeing the violence to the north and now they’re packed into Rafah, exposed and vulnerable.

“They need to be protected. And we’ve also been clear from the start, we oppose any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.”

Last week, the White House said it would not support major Israeli operations in Rafah without due consideration for the refugees there.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas rulers said there could be “tens of thousands” of casualties in Rafah, warning that any operation would also undermine talks about a possible release of Israeli hostages held in the territory.

The head of Israel’s intelligence agency, David Barnea, CIA chief William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met Egyptian officials in Cairo on Tuesday for further talks about a Gaza truce proposal, according to AFP news agency, which cited Egyptian outlet Al-Qahera News. The officials’ planned meeting was also reported in Israeli media.

Benjamin Netanyahu last week rejected Hamas’s proposed terms for a ceasefire, saying “total victory” in Gaza would be possible within months.

Alongside the US, a number of countries and international organisations have warned Israel against launching its planned offensive.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Monday said Israel should “stop and think seriously” before taking further action in Rafah.

EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged allies of Israel to stop sending weapons, as “too many people” were being killed in Gaza.

Last week, Saudi Arabia warned of “very serious repercussions” if Rafah was stormed.

Correction 14 February 2024: This article originally included a sentence which described Rafah as the only open point of entry for humanitarian aid into Gaza. This is inaccurate because humanitarian aid has also been entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.https://blejermot.com/

By Nicholas Yong

BBC News, Singapore

Foreign tourists must now pay a 150,000 rupiah (£7.60; $9.60) levy to enter Bali, one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations.

Indonesian authorities say this is aimed at protecting the island’s environment and culture.

Bali is known for its pristine beaches and surfing waves, as well its beautiful landscapes.

Official data shows that almost 4.8 million tourists visited Bali between January and November last year.

The tourist tax, which was first announced last year, came into effect from Wednesday – Valentine’s Day.

It applies to foreign tourists entering the province from abroad or other parts of the country, with domestic Indonesian tourists exempt. Travellers are urged to pay up before arrival, through the Love Bali website.

Tourism contributed some 60% to Bali’s annual GDP before the pandemic.

According to the province’s statistics bureau, Australia was the largest contributor of foreign tourists to Bali in November 2023 with more than 100,000 arrivals. This was followed by tourists from India, China and Singapore.

But misbehaving tourists in Bali have riled locals in recent years.

Last March, a Russian man was deported from Bali after stripping off on Mount Agung, believed by Hindus to be the home of the gods.

In the same month, authorities said they planned to ban foreign tourists from using motorbikes, after a spate of cases involving people breaking traffic laws.

In 2021, uproar also resulted when a three-minute video circulated of a Russian couple having sex on Mount Batur, another holy site.

Watch: What maps don’t show about this Asian nation

The announcement came on the same day that millions of Indonesians headed to the polls to select a new president and legislature. More than 200 million people over Indonesia’s 17,000 islands and across three time zones are eligible to vote.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sells shares worth over $4bn

AuthoradminPosted onFebruary 14, 2024No commenton Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sells shares

azon founder Jeff Bezos sells shares worth over $4bn”

By Mariko Oi & Natalie Sherman

BBC News

Multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos has sold more of his shares in Amazon, bringing the total value of sales in recent days to more than $4bn (£3.2bn).

The technology giant, which Mr Bezos founded in 1994, said he has sold 24 million Amazon shares this month.

Mr Bezos, who is the firm’s executive chair, last sold Amazon shares in 2021.

Earlier this month, the company said he was planning to sell 50 million shares over the next year, which are worth around $8.4bn at current prices.

The first sale of 12 million shares was announced in a regulatory filing on Friday, followed by an announcement on Tuesday of the sale of another 12 million shares.

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Mr Bezos has also given away shares in Amazon as part of his philanthropy, most recently in 2022.

As Mr Bezos moved to Miami in Florida from Seattle in Washington last year, he will save around $280m in tax on the $4bn worth of stock he has sold.

• Call for billionaires to face a minimum tax rate
• Los Angeles Times to lay off 20% of its workforce

Gains above $250,000 from the sale of shares or other long term investments, are taxed at 7% in Washington state. Florida does not have state taxes on incomes or capital gains.

However, he will still be liable to federal taxes as a result of selling the shares.

When Mr Bezos announced his move to Florida it prompted speculation over whether it was because of a potential tax bill he would have faced in Washington after the state approved a new tax on large stock sales.

His sales of Amazon shares come after they have risen by almost 70% in the past year.

Mr Bezos said in November that his parents had recently moved back to Miami where he spent some of his childhood and that he wanted to be close to them and to his Blue Origin space project, which was “increasingly shifting to Cape Canaveral”.https://blejermot.com/

By Nick Thorpe

BBC News, Hungary

This has become the biggest threat to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s rule since he returned to power in 2010.

Hungary has been shaken by the sudden resignations of the two most popular and successful women in an otherwise strongly male-dominated governing party.

President Katalin Novak and former Justice Minister Judit Varga have both taken responsibility for the decision to grant clemency to Endre K, former deputy director of a state orphanage.

Endre K was jailed for persuading children to withdraw their testimony against the director of the orphanage for sexual abuse.

He was one of 25 people pardoned by the president during a visit by Pope Francis last year. But his name only became public on 2 February.

The issue has become deeply problematic for a government which has made protection of children and traditional family values the cornerstone of its policies.

Worst of all for Mr Orban and his party, the departures of the two women have been followed by an avalanche of allegations about the way he runs the country.

And this double resignation, coming amid increasing protests, has deprived Viktor Orban of two very different but essential allies.

• Who is Viktor Orban, Hungarian PM with 14-year grip on power?

President Novak radiated a “mother of the nation” image, closely identified with popular policies to encourage couples to have more children. She also promoted a more inclusive, less aggressive style than the prime minister in her largely symbolic role as head of state.

The tough-talking Judit Varga had been due to lead the governing Fidesz party into battle against the “Brussels bureaucrats” in the European elections in June. Now she has resigned as an MP and withdrawn from public life.

Two other key figures have come under attack too – Mr Orban’s communications chief Antal Rogan, who is also in charge of the secret services, and Zoltan Balog, a Protestant bishop and personal adviser to the prime minister.

Mr Balog is alleged to have lobbied behind the scenes for the presidential clemency in the Endre K case. He has denied the allegation.

Within minutes of Judit Varga’s resignation, her ex-husband, powerful Fidesz insider Peter Magyar, announced: “I do not want to be part of a system for a minute longer where the real culprits hide behind women’s skirts.”

“For a long time, I believed in an ideal, in a national, sovereign, civic Hungary,” he complained. “However, over the past few years and especially today, I have come to realise all this is indeed just a political product, a sugary coating that serves only two purposes: to conceal the operation of the power factory and to acquire enormous wealth.”

He followed that up with a 100-minute interview on Sunday evening to the government-critical Partizan channel on YouTube, which has now been viewed 1.4 million times.

Each day, he posts new criticism of government figures on Facebook.

On Tuesday, he singled out Antal Rogan, the government’s communications maestro, asking him why he was staying silent, hiding behind the prime minister’s spokesman.

“You used to cut a much tougher figure,” he said. “Why are you hiding from your constituents? Why haven’t you held a press conference for years? Are you afraid to answer questions?”

Then he turned on Istvan Tiborcz, the son-in-law of the prime minister and husband of Mr Orban’s daughter Rahel.

“Dear Stephen [Istvan], you are a really talented person, at the age of 37, you have 100bn Forints (£220m), so many hotels, banks, fund managers, valuable former state-owned properties.”

“What other companies have you taken over lately? What is the total of government loans or grants you received to build your portfolio? Have you recently visited villages in Borsod [in northeast Hungary], where children sometimes play in the yard without warm clothes in winter?”

Opposition parties have tabled demands to investigate how the clemency was granted, how the state is run, and to call for the direct election of the next president.

The response of the government and of pro-government media has been furious.

“We do not respond to the desperate attempts of people in hopeless situations,” insisted the prime minister’s spokesman, Bertalan Havasi, about Peter Magyar.

“We must demonstrate our strength, because the pack of hyenas, these completely amoral, lying bastards… now smell blood because they think that the moment has come,” wrote Zsolt Bayer in the government flagship daily, Magyar Nemzet.

He went on to propose a show of strength by government supporters on 15 March, a national holiday: “”Let’s show them that the moment hasn’t bloody well come!”

Another commentator, Zsolt Jeszenszky, did not hold back in the government tabloid, Pesti Sracok.

“Those who proclaim [Judit Varga] an ally of paedophiles, who foam at the mouth demanding her head, are the same vile, satanic mob who demanded the death of Christ from Pontius Pilate,” he fumed. “The scum, the sewer rats, have not changed in 2,000 years.”

From the prime minister himself there has been strict silence. At least for now.

It is without doubt his biggest challenge in 14 years of uninterrupted Fidesz rule and the high-profile resignations have dented but not yet seriously damaged his power.

An anti-Orban protest is planned for Friday, but the prime minister will come out fighting, presumably on Saturday when he is due to deliver his annual state of the nation address.https://blejermot.com/

Finland’s conservative former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb has won Sunday’s presidential election, final results show.

He secured 51.6% of the vote, while his Green Party rival Pekka Haavisto, the former foreign minister, had 48.4%. Mr Haavisto has already admitted defeat.

It is the first election since Finland joined the Nato military alliance.

Mr Stubb, 55, takes a hardline approach towards Russia, with which the Nordic nation shares a long land border.

He had said that joining Nato was a “done deal” for his country as soon as Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Finland officially became the Washington-led alliance’s 31st member last April.

• How Sweden and Finland went from neutral to Nato
• Russia warns of tension as Finns shut last crossing

At a press conference late on Sunday, Mr Stubb, a member of Finland’s National Coalition Party, described his election victory as “the greatest honour of my life”.

He also stressed that it was “rather self-evident that it’s difficult to have any kind of political dialogue with Putin as long as Russia is waging an aggressive war against Ukraine.

“So, I don’t see any kind of communication with Putin or with the Russian political leadership in the near future. We all want to find a pathway towards peace, but it seems to me that that pathway happens only through the battlefield at the moment.”

Mr Haavisto, who ran as an independent, admitted his defeat.

“Well, Alexander. Congratulations to Finland’s 13th president,” the 65-year-old said.

“If you ask me today if I’ll ever be involved in any elections again, my answer is probably ‘no’, not for a while and maybe never,” added Mr Haavisto, who had also unsuccessfully run for the presidency twice before.

Instead, he said he would would now focus on his job as a lawmaker.

Mr Stubb will officially assume office on 1 March, replacing Sauli Niinisto.

The Finnish head of state is directly responsible for foreign and security policy, and is commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces.https://blejermot.com/

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By Sofia Ferreira Santos

BBC News

Argentina’s first female saint was canonised on Sunday, in an event which brought Pope Francis and the country’s president face-to-face for the first time.

President Javier Milei, a libertarian, had previously said the Pope was an “imbecile” who “promotes communism”.

He has since toned down his criticism after taking office in December.

Mr Milei travelled to the Vatican for the Mass at St Peter’s Basilica, where he met and hugged the 87-year-old Pope.

They will meet again in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday.

María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, known as Mama Antula, was an 18th-Century laywoman who is considered by some to be Argentina’s first feminist.

She renounced her family’s riches to minister to the poor, and helped keep the Jesuit movement alive in Argentina after the religious order – to which the Pope belongs – was suppressed.

The Pope described her on Friday as a “gift to the Argentine people and also to the entire Church”.

The meeting between the political and religious leaders comes amid major political uncertainty in Argentina – where inflation has soared to 200% and 40% of the population lives in poverty.

Thousands of Argentines have protested against Mr Milei’s economic policies, which include deep spending cuts and a 50% devaluation of the Argentine peso.

He has also announced plans to slash workers’ rights, abolish rent caps and remove government subsidies on everyday items.

Mr Milei has said the country needs “economic shock therapy” to fix its current economic crisis, deemed the worst in decades.

Shortly after his election win in November, Mr Milei invited the Pope – whom he addressed as “Your Holiness” – to visit Argentina in 2024.

The religious leader, who is from Buenos Aires, has not visited his home country since becoming Pope in 2013.https://tehopeng.com/

By Tom Symonds

Home affairs correspondent, BBC News

Evidence that the Duke of Sussex had been the victim of phone hacking first emerged 11 years ago during the trial of media executives at the now defunct News of the World.

Prince Harry was put off from taking legal action in the civil courts by a palace culture which held that the royals don’t sue.

But that changed when his friends Elton John and David Furnish introduced him to David Sherborne, the slim-suited barrister who has led phone hacking cases for much of the last decade.

Now, despite some in the newspaper industry playing down their significance, he has achieved two big wins in his battle against what has become known in court as ‘unlawful information gathering’.

Most phone hacking victims reach a settlement with the newspapers, finalised with brief statements and few details.

Prince Harry tried another strategy. He turned down offers to settle, turned up at court, and gave evidence in person.

He was rewarded with a judgement last year which not only backed his claims about 15 newspaper articles but set out in detail what Mirror Group Newspapers knew about unlawful practices at its titles.

That was gold-dust for his campaign. It provided solid proof for his claims that he and others were unfairly victimised by red-top reporters and investigators desperate for celebrity scoops.

It made today’s settlement with MGN much more likely.

Incidentally, the damages he’s been awarded are not the highest for a phone-hacking case. In 2008 the Professional Footballers Association chief Gordon Taylor was reportedly given a sum of £400,000. Prince Harry’s payout is around £300,000, for the repeated hacking of a senior royal, potentially a major security risk.

The former Sun Editor Kelvin MacKenzie suggested Prince Harry had accepted a “much smaller deal than he could have done if he wanted a fight”.

Mr MacKenzie went on to talk about the prince’s popularity in the UK, saying the settlement “indicates that even he understands that the nation is not behind him, even though the allegations may be serious.”

In fact, according to the Prince’s barrister, he made the offer, not MGN, which, in accepting it, avoided much larger legal bills.

Though the Prince has been slow to flesh out his comments in statements about his anti-media campaign, it does seem likely he is not in it for the money.

He has repeated many times that he is pursuing “positive change” in the media culture, and that he will “see it through to the end.”

A successful end for him would mean defeating Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, and News Group Newspapers, now News UK, which publishes the Sun. Those cases are currently crawling through the courts.

There will be protracted legal arguments during 2024. Key to Prince Harry’s success will be getting Associated in particular, to disclose evidence it has about payments to private investigators who claimants allege carried out phone hacking and blagging of personal information for the Mail titles.

• Harry settle phone hacking claim with Mirror group
• Prince Harry has last laugh but his ‘mission’ goes on

What might change as a result of this legal battle?

In many ways Prince Harry is fighting to put right historical wrong-doing.

The phone hacking era began in the 90s when journalists realised that by dialling the friend of a celebrity and punching in a default pin-code they could hear the voicemail messages the star had left.

It ended in the 2010s as we replaced “brick” mobile phones with smartphones and moved to encrypted messaging apps for many conversations.

Around that time the police investigations of journalists and investigators made clear that methods relied on to get celeb scoops were actually criminal.

And then celebs started giving away their own secrets on social media. Much easier for the tabloids to digest without the unpleasant legal after-taste.

So perhaps the problem has solved itself.

There is one potential development which could ignite the campaign the prince is fighting.

He has called several times for the police to reopen their investigations into press malpractice and the civil case against Mirror Group has provided new potential evidence.

After convicting senior News International journalists in 2014 a subsequent investigation of the Mirror newspapers was shut down. It’s likely the Metropolitan Police has no stomach to get involved again, and currently Scotland Yard isn’t commenting.

One thing is clear. Prince Harry’s campaign has made him more enemies in the press. So far that has not deterred him.https://tehopeng.com/