US voters woke Wednesday to a uniquely volatile 2024 presidential election landscape, where Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate, now faces trial and the incumbent, Joe Biden, has not even confirmed he's running.. And he has yet to confirm he is running, despite strongly hinting on several occasions that he will.
Italian ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a dominant player in his nation's politics for decades, was in intensive care on Wednesday for heart problems.. After dominating Italian politics for two decades, the "Cavaliere" as he is widely known in Italy, now appears visibly diminished on the rare occasions he is seen in public.
The main suspect in the trial of nine alleged jihadists accused of taking part in the March 2016 bombings in Brussels denied on Wednesday having any knowledge of the plot.. Abdeslam has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for his role in the French massacre, but on Wednesday he insisted that he had no knowledge of the Belgian plot.
Shortly after the sun rose Wednesday over the Channel, a small black dinghy weighed down by eight migrants crossed into UK waters, the latest illegal arrivals via this contentious route.. The UK has been grappling with a surge in cross-Channel arrivals for around five years.
French junior minister Marlene Schiappa, who made headlines this week for a clothed Playboy photoshoot, is at the centre of accusations of alleged misuse of cash from an anti-radicalism fund set up after the beheading of a teacher.. The minister's fully-clothed interview with Playboy earned her a slap on the wrist from Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who said the interview was not to her "taste".
Thailand's main opposition Pheu Thai party confirmed on Wednesday the daughter of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra as one of its candidates to be prime minister in the kingdom's upcoming election.. The parties for the May 14 vote fall into two broad camps -- those backed by Thailand's military and royalist establishment, and more reformist opposition groups with Pheu Thai at their head.
Italian ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who dominated politics for decades, was in intensive care on Wednesday for heart problems, a member of his entourage told AFP. The 86-year-old media mogul and senator, who has been in and out of the hospital in recent years, is currently in Milan's San Raffaele Hospital, the source said.. Berlusconi, who served as prime minister three times after entering politics in 1994, had open heart surgery in 2016 and surgery on his intestine three years later.
French unions said last-ditch talks with the prime minister on Wednesday had failed to ease tensions over a divisive pension reform and called for record turnout at protest rallies the next day.. Union chiefs called for French people to take to the streets and strike en masse on Thursday during an 11th day of nationwide action against the bill.
French energy giant TotalEnergies announced Wednesday an agreement with Iraq on a long-delayed $10 billion project to improve the country's rundown electricity grid after resolving disputes over the terms of the deal.. The $10 billion Gas Growth Integrated Project includes recovering flared gas from oil fields to power electricity-generation plants.
Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who lost a general election at the weekend, said Wednesday that she would step down as Social Democratic Party leader and dismissed notions of any international postings.. Marin, who became the world's youngest prime minister in 2019 at the age of 34, was Finland's most popular prime minister in decades, according to polls, but her reputation in the Nordic country has been polarising.
