World
Georgian PM praises country's protest crackdown despite US condemnation
Facing condemnation from the United States and defiance from his own president, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze praised police on Sunday for cracking down on protesters who he said were acting on foreign orders to undermine the state.
Georgia, a country of 3.7 million people that was once part of the Soviet Union, has been plunged into crisis since the governing Georgian Dream party said on Thursday it was halting European Union accession talks for the next four years.
The EU and the United States are alarmed by what they see as Georgia’s shift away from a pro-Western path and back towards Russia’s orbit. Big anti-government protests have taken place in the capital Tbilisi for the past three nights, and police have fired water cannon and tear gas into the crowds.
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Georgia’s Prime Minister Kobakhidze attends a press conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Nov. 28, 2024 (Irakli Gedenidze)
More protests are planned in Tbilisi for Sunday night, and local media reported demonstrations were taking place in towns and cities throughout the country.
Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that an attempted revolution was taking place in Georgia. The former Russian president said on Telegram that Georgia was “moving rapidly along the Ukrainian path, into the dark abyss. Usually this sort of thing ends very badly”.
Medvedev, once seen as a modernising reformer, has reinvented himself as an aggressive hawk since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, often hurling dire warnings at Kyiv and its Western supporters.
The Kremlin has yet to comment on the latest events in Georgia, but it has long accused the West of fomenting revolutions in post-Soviet countries that Moscow still regards as part of its sphere of influence.
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‘Foreign Instructors’
Georgian Prime Minister Kobakhidze dismissed criticism by the United States, which has condemned the use of “excessive force” against demonstrators.
“Despite the heaviest systematic violence applied yesterday by the violent groups and their foreign instructors, the police acted at a higher standard than the American and European ones and successfully protected the state from another attempt to violate the constitutional order,” he told a press conference, without providing evidence of foreign involvement.
Kobakhidze also shrugged off Washington’s announcement on Saturday that it was suspending its strategic partnership with Georgia. He said this was a “temporary event”, and Georgia would talk to the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump when it takes office in January.
Deepening the constitutional crisis in the country, outgoing President Salome Zourabichvili – a critic of the government and a strong advocate of Georgian membership of the EU – said on Saturday that she would refuse to step down when her term ends later this month.
Zourabichvili said she would stay in office because the new parliament – chosen in October in elections that the opposition says were rigged – was illegitimate and had no authority to name her successor.
Kobakhidze said he understood Zourabichvili’s “emotional state”.
“But of course on December 29 she will have to leave her residence and surrender this building to a legitimately elected president,” he said.
Georgian Dream has nominated Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former soccer star with a record of hardline, anti-Western statements, as its candidate for president. The head of state will be chosen on Dec. 14 by an electoral college consisting of members of parliament and local government representatives.
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‘Foreign Agents’
For much of the period since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia has leaned strongly towards the West and tried to loosen the influence of Russia, to which it lost a brief war in 2008. It has been promised eventual NATO membership, and became an official candidate for EU entry last year.
But domestic opponents and Western governments have become alarmed by what they see as increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russian tendencies by the Georgian Dream government.
In June, it enacted a law obliging NGOs to register as “foreign agents” if they received more than 20% of their funding from abroad. In September, parliament approved a law curbing LGBT rights.
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The government says it is acting to protect the country from foreign interference and avoid suffering the fate of Ukraine by being dragged into a new war with Russia.
New EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas voiced solidarity on Sunday with the demonstrators.
“We stand with the Georgian people and their choice for a European future,” she posted on X.
“We condemn the violence against protesters & regret signals from ruling party not to pursue Georgia’s path to EU and democratic backsliding of the country. This will have direct consequences from EU side.”
World
Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol sentenced to 30 years over North Korea drone flights
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A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison Friday in a case that accused him of ordering drone flights over North Korea in an effort to justify his declaration of martial law.
Yoon, 65, was sentenced alongside former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun by the Seoul Central District Court.
The ousted president was previously sentenced to life in prison for leading an insurrection following his declaration of martial law in December 2024.
North Korea accused South Korea of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets on three occasions in October 2024.
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South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Feb. 11, 2025. (Lee Jin-man/AP)
Then-Defense Minister Kim initially issued a vague denial before South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it could neither confirm nor deny the allegations.
Although tensions between the two Koreas escalated following the incident, the drone flights did not lead to any military clashes.
Prosecutors accused Yoon of attempting to create a crisis with North Korea while plotting an authoritarian power grab aimed at removing political opponents and consolidating control.
SOUTH KOREAN COURT RULES EX‑PRESIDENT YOON SUK YEOL GUILTY IN INSURRECTION TRIAL
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stage a rally outside the Seoul High Court in Seoul on April 29, 2026. (Ahn Young-joon/AP)
Before declaring martial law, Yoon delivered a televised address accusing liberal lawmakers of sympathizing with North Korea.
Yoon has argued that he possessed the constitutional authority to declare martial law and said the move was intended to draw attention to what he viewed as obstruction by opposition parties.
His attempt to impose martial law lasted roughly six hours before lawmakers voted to overturn it amid mass public protests.
Yoon was arrested in July 2025 and continues to face multiple criminal proceedings.
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South Korea’s ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives at Seoul Central District Court in Seoul to attend his trial on charges related to declaring martial law on Dec. 3, 2025. (Ahn Young-joon/AP)
The insurrection verdict has been appealed by both Yoon and prosecutors, who had sought the death penalty.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Nigeria killed more than 13,000 ‘terrorists’ in past year, president says
President Tinubu takes victorious tone despite recent mass kidnappings by armed groups across the country.
Published On 12 Jun 2026
Nigeria’s military has “neutralised” more than 13,000 “terrorists” in the past year, the president says, as armed groups and criminal gangs continue to carry out mass attacks and kidnappings in the country.
In a televised national address on Friday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the death toll from Nigeria’s fight against armed rebels is down 81 percent since he took power in 2023.
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Tinubu added that “124,000 fighters and dependants have laid down their arms since 2023 through Operation Safe Corridor,” a programme aimed at rehabilitating repentant armed group members who voluntarily lay down their arms.
Tinubu’s speech was in commemoration of Nigeria’s Democracy Day, which marks the end of several years of military rule and the restoration of democracy in 1999.
However, despite the victorious tone of his speech, Africa’s second-biggest economy is in the throes of a spiralling insecurity crisis that has seen armed groups linked to ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda, as well as criminal gangs, abduct citizens for ransom money.
Soft targets, including schools, churches and mosques, particularly in vulnerable rural communities with limited state security presence, have been particularly at risk.
While armed groups initially limited their operations to the country’s north, they have begun spreading through thick forest corridors to attack targets in the country’s southwest.
Officials say the groups are shifting base because of military pressure on their locations.
Following unfounded allegations of a “Christian genocide” in the country by US President Donald Trump late last year, the United States military has since begun supporting Nigeria in conducting precision strikes on armed group locations. In February, 100 American soldiers were deployed to Nigeria.
Scores of people have been abducted since January alone, including teachers and pupils as young as four years old. The latest incident in May saw 46 people kidnapped from a school in southwest Oyo state.
On Monday, the Nigerian military said it rescued 360 people kidnapped by ISIL-linked Boko Haram and held in a remote mountain hideout in northern Borno State.
World
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