World
Georgia votes in high-stakes election affecting EU membership ambitions
Voting is under way in Georgia’s parliamentary elections that could shape the future of the country’s young democracy and its European ambitions.
Saturday’s vote will see an unprecedented alliance of pro-Western opposition parties challenging the governing Georgian Dream party, which has faced criticism for stifling democracy and drifting towards Russia.
The European Union has warned that the election will determine the country’s chances of joining the 27-nation bloc. Polls suggest most Georgians favour joining the EU, but accession talks were frozen after Georgian Dream passed a law cracking down on freedom of speech in June.
Polls opened at 8am (04:00 GMT) and are set to close 12 hours later, with some 3.5 million Georgians eligible to cast ballots.
Opinion polls indicate opposition parties could get enough votes to form a coalition to supplant Georgian Dream, controlled by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who set up the party and made his fortune in Russia.
“Tonight, there will be victory for all of Georgia,” said pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili, who is at loggerheads with the governing party, after casting her ballot.
Georgian Dream’s reclusive founder and former prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, said the election was “a very simple choice”.
“Either we elect a government that serves you, the Georgian people … or we elect an agent of a foreign country that will only fulfil the tasks of a foreign country,” he said as he cast his vote in the capital, Tbilisi, on Saturday.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said he was confident Georgian Dream would win a commanding majority in the 150-seat parliament and called for “maximum mobilisation” of supporters.
Central Election Commission spokeswoman, Natia Ioseliani, said turnout was 9 percent by 10am (06:00 GMT), two hours after voting began.
Georgians will elect 150 lawmakers from 18 parties. If no party wins the 76 seats required to form a government for a four-year term, the president will invite the largest party to form a coalition.
‘Dragging us back’
Many voters believe the election may be the most crucial vote of their lifetimes, determining whether Georgia gets back on track to EU membership or embraces authoritarianism and leans towards Russia.
“Most Georgians have realised that the current government is dragging us back towards the Russian swamp and away from Europe, where Georgia truly belongs,” 48-year-old musician Giorgi Kipshidze told an AFP news agency reporter at a polling station in central Tbilisi.
In power since 2012, Georgian Dream initially pursued a liberal pro-Western policy agenda. But over the last two years, it has reversed course.
Its campaign has centred on a conspiracy theory about a “global war party” that controls Western institutions and is seeking to drag Georgia, still scarred by Russia’s 2008 invasion, into a war that only Georgian Dream could prevent.
“Right now, some people don’t understand the danger they might face if we’re defeated. But we will try our best to win and show the people the correct path,” Georgian Dream activist Sandro Dvalishvili told the Reuters news agency.
Georgia, which lost swaths of its territory to Russian-backed separatists in the 1990s and was defeated in a brief Russian invasion in 2008, was for decades one of the most pro-Western states to emerge from the Soviet Union. But since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Georgian Dream has moved the country decisively back towards Moscow’s orbit, accusing the West of trying to lure it into war.
Opposition parties and President Zourabichvili accuse Georgian Dream of buying votes and intimidating voters, which it denies.
Georgian Dream’s adoption of a controversial “foreign influence” law this year targeting civil society prompted weeks of mass street protests and was criticised as a Kremlin-style measure to silence dissent.
Russia on Friday blasted “unprecedented attempts at Western interference” in the vote, accusing it of “trying to twist Georgia’s hand” and “dictate terms”.
World
Israeli Strikes Kill a Journalist and Injure Another in Lebanon
Israeli strikes killed one journalist and wounded another in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, rattling a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said the Israeli military had targeted the journalists in the town of Tayri, where they took shelter in a nearby house after an airstrike struck a vehicle in front of the car they were traveling in. About an hour and a half later, a second strike hit the house they were hiding in, according to a statement by a Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which employed the journalist who was killed.
The Lebanese Red Cross said its teams came under fire while trying to evacuate the journalists from the house, forcing them to withdraw. The rescue crews were targeted by a warning strike and machine-gun fire, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Zeinab Faraj, a photojournalist, was rescued from the house. The other journalist, Amal Khalil, who was a reporter for Al-Akhbar, remained trapped under rubble for hours before emergency medics recovered her body, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense.
In addition to Ms. Khalil, the two people in the car in front of her were killed in the strikes, Al-Akhbar reported.
Amid the 10-day truce between Israel and Lebanon, Israel has continued strikes against what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, citing its right to self-defense. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia group, said that it had fired rockets and drones into Israel on Tuesday in response to what it said were violations of the cease-fire. Earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese News Agency reported that an Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded two others in another part of the country.
The Lebanese health ministry called the strikes in Tayri a “blatant double breach, involving both the obstruction of rescue efforts for a civilian known for her media and humanitarian work, and the direct targeting of an ambulance clearly marked with the Red Cross.”
The Israeli military denied in a statement that it had prevented rescuers from reaching the injured journalists, and said the incident was under investigation.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said Israeli forces had spotted two vehicles emerging from a military building used by Hezbollah. The military observed the vehicles cross what the spokeswoman called the forward defense line, determining the move to be a violation of the truce agreement.
The spokeswoman confirmed that the Israeli military had struck one of the vehicles and the building some of the occupants of the second vehicle had taken shelter in.
Ms. Khalil had covered southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah exercises strong control, since at least 2006. In a tribute to Ms. Khalil, a colleague from Al-Akhbar said she embodied the resilience of the southern Lebanese through her relentless reporting, refusing to leave the front lines of war where thousands of Lebanese had been displaced.
“As with every act of aggression, wearing a press vest did not protect those who wore it from the treachery of the Israeli enemy,” Al-Akhbar said in a statement. “Instead, it has become a danger to journalists’ lives, as part of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at silencing anyone who seeks to expose the crimes and practices of the occupation.”
In a forceful statement on social media, Nawaf Salam, the Lebanese prime minister, accused the Israeli military of war crimes for targeting journalists and obstructing access to medical aid. He said that Lebanon would pursue action to ensure Israel is held accountable with international bodies.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that it was outraged by the attack, and that it raised serious concerns of deliberate targeting.
“The repeated strikes on the same location, the targeting of an area where journalists were sheltering, and the obstruction of medical and humanitarian access constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
World
Former Mexican beauty queen found shot dead as investigators examine possible family involvement: reports
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A former Mexican beauty queen was found shot to death in her Mexico City apartment, with investigators examining the possible involvement of her mother-in-law, according to local reports.
Carolina Flores Gómez, 27, was found dead inside an apartment in the Polanco neighborhood, one of the city’s most affluent areas, Reporte Índigo, a Mexico-based news outlet, reported.
Authorities said the death is being investigated as a homicide, after initial findings indicated she suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Emergency responders were called to the scene, where paramedics confirmed she showed no signs of life.
Prosecutors are investigating whether Flores Gómez’s mother-in-law, Erika María, as well as a man described in reports as her partner or husband, may have been involved in her death.
CALIFORNIA HIKER’S BODY FOUND NAKED IN BIG SUR BACKCOUNTRY
Carolina Flores Gómez was found shot dead in her luxury apartment April 15 in Mexico City. Her mother-in-law has been named the main suspect in the suspected homicide. (Jam Press)
The man, identified as Alejandro, accused his mother of killing Flores Gómez, Mexican news outlet Azteca Guerrero reported.
The outlet also reported that the woman’s mother-in-law was present at the scene when the gun was fired and that authorities are looking into the timeline of when the incident was reported.
WIDOW, SON OF LATE CHICAGO COMMISSIONER FOUND SHOT DEAD INSIDE HOME IN SUSPECTED HOMICIDE
Mexican prosecutors have opened a homicide with intent case in the death of former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez. (Jam Press)
Preliminary reports cited by Mexican news outlet Diario Puntual indicate that a security guard at the building did not hear gunshots, adding uncertainty about how the crime occurred.
Authorities in Baja California, Mexico, also responded to the case, Diario Puntual reported.
CIA PERSONNEL KILLED IN MEXICO CRASH TIED TO CARTEL OPERATION; QUESTIONS MOUNT OVER US ROLE
Former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez, 27, was found dead in her Mexico City apartment. (Jam Press)
Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda expressed solidarity with the victim’s family and called for the case to be clarified.
State prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez also said there is coordination with Mexico City authorities to support the investigation.
Flores Gómez previously competed in beauty pageants and was crowned Miss Teen Universe Baja California in 2017.
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The case has drawn attention in Mexico amid ongoing concerns about violence against women, with advocacy groups calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.
The investigation into the matter is open and ongoing.
World
‘Blockade and threats’: Iran blames US siege of ports for stalled talks
Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed at least five people on Wednesday, including Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, in what was described as a ‘heinous crime’ by the government.
Published On 23 Apr 2026
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