LONDON — Vaughan Gething won the Welsh Labour Party leadership contest on Saturday, and is set to become the first Black leader of Wales’ semi-autonomous government. Gething, who is currently Welsh economy minister, narrowly beat Education Minister Jeremy Miles in a race to replace First Minister Mark Drakeford. Drakeford announced late last year he would … Read more
NEW DELHI — India’s top court on Thursday struck down a controversial election funding system that allowed individuals and companies to send unlimited donations to political parties without the need to disclose donor identity, a system critics have long said is undemocratic and favored Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party. A five-judge constitution bench on … Read more
BERLIN — Germany’s top security official said Tuesday that she aims to make it easier to trace right-wing extremists’ financing and plans to set up an “early recognition unit” to detect far-right and foreign disinformation campaigns as early as possible. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser’s proposals follow large protests against the far right in Germany in … Read more
TUNIS, Tunisia — A Tunisian corruption court that has targeted many government critics tripled the prison term facing a businessman who challenged President Kais Saied in the 2019 presidential election. Nabil Karoui — a populist media mogul who has been plagued by charges since being imprisoned in the lead-up to that election — was sentenced … Read more
PRETORIA, South Africa — South African election officials have visited prisons across the country as part of an ambitious project to register at least 100,000 inmates to vote in this year’s national election. The country’s constitution guarantees every adult citizen the right to vote — meaning there are no restrictions on prisoners taking part in … Read more
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday was forced to start this year’s parliamentary session with an apology over one of the country’s biggest corruption scandals in decades. Prosecutors recently indicted 10 people, including three lawmakers and a number of political aides, in the latest hit to Kishida’s already unpopular Cabinet. Kishida in … Read more
Japanese prosecutors made their first arrest Sunday in connection with a major political slush funds scandal that has rocked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s already unpopular government. Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office apprehended former vice-education minister Yoshitaka Ikeda on suspicion of failing to report fundraising proceeds he received from his faction within the governing Liberal Democratic … Read more
Presidential candidates Anies Baswedan, Prabowo Subianto, and Ganjar Pranowo, along with their vice presidential candidates, are posing for photos after the first presidential candidate debate at the General Election Commission (KPU) office in Jakarta, Indonesia, on December 12, 2023. Indonesia is preparing to hold general elections for president and vice president for the 2024-2029 period … Read more
BANGKOK — BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Vietnam’s prime minister and the head of the country’s National Assembly on Wednesday, on the second day of his visit to shore up Beijing’s relationship with Hanoi after the Southeast Asian nation recently elevated its ties with Japan and the United States. Xi met … Read more
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine came under heavy attack from the air and from cyberspace on Tuesday, local officials said, as nearly 600 Russian shells, rockets and other projectiles rained down on a southern region and unidentified hackers knocked out phone and internet services of the country’s biggest telecom provider. Ukraine also claimed a successful hacker … Read more