Putin warns West not to cross Russia's "red line" amid standoff over Ukraine and Alexey Navalny
CBSN
Moscow — President Vladimir Putin warned the West not to cross "a red line with Russia" on Wednesday as he gave his annual state of the nation address. It was one of Putin's few references to the standoff between Russia and the West over the escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine, and his government's treatment of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
As he spoke, people were being detained across the country as mass protests called by Navalny's allies slowly ramped up. Russia ordered 10 U.S. Embassy staffers in Moscow to pack their bags to leave the country, meanwhile, as relations between Putin's government and the U.S. and Europe continued to sour. The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the senior U.S. embassy official on Wednesday and handed him a note saying the 10 employees "were ordered to leave the territory of our country by the end of the day on May 21." The expulsions were announced a day after the American ambassador in Russia said he was returning to Washington for "consultations," days after the Kremlin suggested he do so.
President Biden has given the OK to lift restrictions that will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided long-range weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News on Sunday. The move is a significant change to U.S. policy in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Tropical Storm Sara was downgraded to a tropical depression after it made landfall in Belize on Sunday as forecasters expect heavy rain to continue and cause life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.
The main spokesman for Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on central Beirut on Sunday, an official with the militant group said.
Eight people were killed and 17 others wounded Saturday in a knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China, and the suspect — a former student — has been arrested, police said.
A fire tore through a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital in northern India, killing 10 newborn babies and injuring 16 others, authorities said.
Johannesburg — It's often called the forgotten conflict, but the civil war that has torn Sudan apart for 19 months is fueling the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. In just over a year and a half, 13 million people have been displaced from their homes. At least one overcrowded camp for displaced civilians is already dealing with famine, while other parts of the country are suffering though famine-like conditions.
British jets were scrambled to monitor a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying close to U.K. airspace, the defense minister in London said on Friday, just days after NATO jets were mobilized when Russian aircraft were spotted over the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Norway.
A German soccer club is leaving X because of the increase in hate speech and disinformation on the social media platform that it claims could undermine the snap elections in the country.
Tropical Storm Sara formed in the Caribbean on Thursday, becoming the 18th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season. The system, previously called Tropical Depression 19, developed in the western Caribbean earlier this week and intensified while traveling westward on a path toward Central America.
Paris — Security forces were on high alert Thursday in Paris ahead of a soccer match between France's national soccer team and the visiting Israeli side. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators held protests in the city Wednesday night, and there has been fear of a possible repeat of last week's violence and antisemitic attacks against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam.
A mysterious diamond-laden necklace with possible links to a scandal that contributed to the downfall of Marie Antoinette, sold for $4.8 million at an auction in Geneva Wednesday.