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Congress panel refuses to validate result

President Castro denounces 'electoral coup'

Results not updated for 24 hours

Latest tally shows Asfura leading Nasralla

TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Officials of a Honduras Congress panel threatened on Wednesday not to validate the result of a Nov. 30 presidential election, citing an "electoral coup" and "interference" by U.S. President Donald Trump, as counting stretched into an 11th day.

While the ruling LIBRE leftist party has no chance of winning the election, it is throwing its support behind Salvador Nasralla, of the center-right Liberal party, who has also alleged fraud and said he has won the election.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39998204

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — More than a week after Hondurans voted to elect a new president, results continue to trickle in as complaints grow about the slow process and allegations of irregularities by the three top candidates.

The election to pick a new president and Congress was held on Nov. 30 and as of Monday, 88% of the ballots have been counted.

The two leading candidates are Nasry Asfura, of the conservative National Party, who has 40.21% of the votes and Salvador Nasralla, of the also conservative Liberal Party, who has 39.49%.

Rixi Moncada, who ran for the ruling social democrat LIBRE, or Liberty and Re-foundation party, is in third place with 19.28% of the votes.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39769652

The maternity ward in Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital has been reopened after renovation by the Palestinian ministry of health.

As part of the renovations walls of the maternity ward have been painted and the ceiling has been repaired. However, the rooms in the ward are not equipped for patients. According to reports, there is no oxygen, no monitors and no medical supplies.

According to doctors, the beds were retrieved from under the rubble and are worn out. The Palestinian ministry of health and the doctors had strived to find the tools and supplies for the maternity ward. However, most of the departments of the Al Shifa Hospital remain burnt and destroyed.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39664905

Lieutenant General Christian Freuding fears the longstanding military partnership between the two allies is unravelling under President Trump’s administration

The Pentagon has “cut off contact” between American defence officials and their German counterparts, according to the head of Germany’s army.

The United States has traditionally treated Germany as one of its most important European allies. It is thought to have about 35,000 soldiers stationed at German bases such as Ramstein and Stuttgart, which serve as staging posts for American operations across Africa and the Middle East.

Since President Trump’s return to power in January, the relationship between the countries has become markedly cooler.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39457420

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has resigned following an anti-corruption raid on his home.

Yermak, a towering figure with enormous political influence, has been Zelensky's closest adviser throughout Russia's full-scale war, but has come under increasing pressure over an escalating scandal - even though he is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Zelensky had recently appointed him to head crucial negotiations, with US President Donald Trump leading a new drive to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

In a stark address to the nation outside his presidential office, Zelensky called for unity, warning: "We risk losing everything: ourselves, Ukraine, our future."

The corruption scandal has rocked Ukraine for weeks, weakening Zelensky's own position and jeopardising the country's negotiating position with the US at a delicate time.

Ukraine, backed by its European allies, has sought to change the terms of a US-led draft peace plan originally seen as heavily slanted towards Russia.

Early on Friday Ukraine's two anti-corruption agencies raided Yermak's apartment in Kyiv's government quarters and the chief of staff said on social media that "from my side there is full co-operation".

"I'm grateful to Andriy that Ukraine's position on the negotiating track was always presented as required: it was always a patriotic position," Ukraine's president said during his video address in Kyiv.

Zelensky said he would start consultations on Saturday on who would replace Yermak as his top adviser: "When all the attention is focused on diplomacy and the defence in a war, inner strength is required."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39450256

President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the United States is preparing to take new action against alleged drug trafficking networks in Venezuela, telling service members during a Thanksgiving call that efforts for strikes on land will be starting “very soon.”

“In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore,” Trump told service members in the call.

“You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” the president continued. “The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon.

“We warn them: Stop sending poison to our country,” Trump added.

Trump comments suggest he has made up his mind on a course of action in Venezuela following multiple high-level briefings and a mounting US show of force in the region earlier this month.

Trump designated Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his government allies as members of a foreign terrorist organization earlier this week.

The designation of “Cartel de los Soles,” a phrase that experts say is more a description of allegedly corrupt government officials than an organized crime group, as a foreign terrorist organization will authorize Trump to impose fresh sanctions targeting Maduro’s assets and infrastructure. It doesn’t, however, explicitly authorize the use of lethal force, according to legal experts.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39450154

US president sends envoys to Moscow with peace plan that recognises Russia’s war gains

Vladimir Putin said legal recognition of occupied regions as Russian territory is one of the key issues in negotiations over Donald Trump's peace plan Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet in Alaska in August 2025. Moscow says legal recognition of land it has conquered is a key issue in peace talks Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds

The United States is poised to recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories to secure a deal to end the war.

The Telegraph understands that Donald Trump has sent his peace envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the direct offer to Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The plan to recognise territory, which breaks US diplomatic convention, is likely to go ahead despite concerns among Ukraine’s European allies.

One well-placed source said: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position. They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”

Russia’s president on Thursday said Washington’s legal recognition of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as Russian territory would be one of the key issues in negotiations over the US president’s peace plan.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39392633

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A Peruvian court on Wednesday sentenced former President Martín Vizcarra to 14 years in prison after finding him guilty of taking bribes while serving as governor of a southern state.

Vizcarra was sentenced to immediate imprisonment and a nine-year ban from public office. He is expected to appeal the decision.

“This is not justice, it is revenge,” Vizcarra said on social media. “But they will not break me.”

Vizcarra alleged his sentence was retribution for “standing up” to the right-wing political groups that control Congress, among which the influence of the late former President Alberto Fujimori is particularly prominent. Vizcarra clashed with these groups when he led the South American country between 2018 and 2020 and eventually dissolved Congress.

The criminal court in the capital, Lima, concluded that Vizcarra received illegal payments from companies in exchange for awarding them contracts for two major projects — an irrigation system and the construction of a hospital — during his time as governor of Moquegua.