Hundreds of thousands demonstrate against right-wing extremism in Germany

FRANKFURT/BERLIN, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across towns and cities in Germany this weekend as the country enters a second week of nationwide protests against the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Demonstrations have gained momentum after reports emerged from investigative news website Correctiv of a meeting of right-wing extremists in Potsdam at which migration policies including mass deportations of people of foreign origin were discussed.

USA: In small-town Wisconsin, looking for the roots of the modern American conspiracy theory

APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — The decades fall away as you open the front doors.

It’s the late 1950s in the cramped little offices — or maybe the pre-hippie 1960s. It’s a place where army-style buzz cuts are still in fashion, communism remains the primary enemy and the decor is dominated by American flags and portraits of once-famous Cold Warriors.

Pakistan: A Russian private jet carrying 6 people is believed to have crashed in Afghanistan, officials say

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Russian private jet carrying six people is believed to have crashed in a remote area of rural Afghanistan, authorities said Sunday.

The crash happened Saturday in a mountainous area near Zebak district in Badakhshan province, regional spokesman Zabihullah Amiri said, adding that a rescue team had been dispatched to the area. Zebak is some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. It is a rural, mountainous area, home to only several thousand people.

Saudi says escalating tensions amid Houthi attacks and US strikes are dangerous

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said the kingdom was "very worried" that tensions in the Red Sea amid attacks by Yemen's Houthis and U.S. strikes on Houthi targets could spiral out of control and escalate the conflict in the region.

"I mean, of course, we are very worried. I mean, you know, we are in a very difficult and dangerous time in the region, and that's why we are calling for de-escalation," Prince Faisal bin Farhan told CNN 'Fareed Zakaria GPS' in an interview that will be aired on Sunday.

USA: Lauren Boebert switched districts in a bid to stay in Congress. Winning over voters won’t be easy

LAST CHANCE, Colo. (AP) — Fleeing a tough reelection bid in the district where she lives, Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert is moving from the mountains to the plains, in the hopes of finding conservative pastures green enough to salvage her place in Congress.

To win, she’ll have to convince a new swath of voters that her brand of white-hot, far-right political activism — built on divisive one-liners and partisan ferocity in the U.S. House — is more needed in Washington than the home-grown Republicans she now faces in the primary.

Egypt: Int'l medics recall tough time working in war-torn Gaza

CAIRO, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- A medic from Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), has given first-hand perspective about the challenges and experiences he had while working in a Gaza hospital during the Israel-Hamas conflict.

During a press conference held here Friday, Enrico Vallaperta, an Italian intensive care nurse with the MSF who left Gaza on Thursday, said he had worked in central Gaza's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for several weeks amid very tough and dangerous conditions.

Zelenskyy calls Trump’s rhetoric about Ukraine’s war with Russia ‘very dangerous’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was worried at the prospect of Donald Trump returning to the White House, branding Trump’s claim that he could stop Ukraine’s war with Russia in 24 hours as “very dangerous.”

In an interview with the U.K.'s Channel 4 News that aired Friday, Zelenskyy invited the former president and front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination to visit Kyiv, but only if Trump delivers on his promise.

NATO's Steadfast Defender exercises mark return to Cold War schemes, Russia says

Jan 21 (Reuters) - The scale of NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises mark an "irrevocable return" of the alliance to Cold War schemes, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told the state RIA news agency in remarks published on Sunday.

NATO said on Thursday it was launching its largest exercise since the Cold War involving some 90,000 troops, rehearsing how U.S. troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance's eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with a "near-peer" adversary.

Netanyahu rejects Hamas conditions for Israeli hostage deal

JERUSALEM, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected conditions presented by Hamas to end the war and release hostages that would include Israel's complete withdrawal and leaving Hamas in power in Gaza.

As Israeli planes resumed bombing Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the Israeli leader's refusal to end the military offensive in Gaza "means there is no chance for the return of the (Israeli) captives."

Senegal publishes final list of 20 candidates for presidential election

DAKAR, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Senegalese Constitutional Council on Saturday evening announced the final list of 20 candidates for the presidential election scheduled for Feb. 25.

Only Karim Wade, the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, was dropped from the provisional list of 21 candidates published on Jan. 13 on the grounds that his "candidacy is inadmissible," according to a document of the council.

Incumbent Prime Minister Amadou Ba and his two predecessors -- Idrissa Seck and Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne -- are on the final list.

Palestinian death toll in Gaza surpasses 25,000 with no end in sight to Israel-Hamas war

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian death toll from the war between Israel and Hamas has soared past 25,000, the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Sunday, while the Israeli government appeared far from achieving its goals of crushing the militant group and freeing more than 100 hostages.

The level of death, destruction and displacement from the war already is without precedent in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet Israeli officials say the fighting is likely to continue for several more months.

USA: 911 calls from Maui capture pleas for the stranded, the missing and those caught in the fire’s chaos

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) —The day after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century destroyed a seaside community on Maui, the barrage of 911 calls didn’t stop: Reports of missing people, stranded family members and confused tourists trapped without food or water lit up the emergency lines every few minutes, interspersed with reports of new fires starting and older ones flaring back up.

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