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‘Panic buttons,’ SWAT teams: US braces for election unrest

Panic buttons for poll workers, special weapons teams deployed on rooftops, and hundreds of National Guard personnel on standby. The 2024 US presidential campaign has been a particularly volatile one, and security for Election Day on Tuesday is being ramped up to unprecedented levels given concerns over possible civil unrest, election chicanery, or violence against election …

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Germany’s Baerbock offers Ukraine no guarantees as Kyiv sounds alarm

Germany’s Foreign Minister visited Ukraine on Monday in a symbolic display of support but offered no concrete assurances as the war-battered country sounded the alarm over thousands of North Korean troops building up in Russia and diminishing foreign aid. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Kyiv believed 11,000 North Korean troops had reached the Kursk border …

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Is the US election really so close?

The United States stands on edge as polls suggest one of the closest presidential races in history between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.Major polling outlets show the candidates virtually deadlocked.In battleground states on election eve, polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight reported a 47.8 percent tie in Pennsylvania, near-identical numbers in Nevada, and mere …

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Turkey sacks 3 mayors on ‘terror’ charges, sparking fury in southeast

Angry protesters hit the streets of several cities in mainly-Kurdish southeastern Turkey on Monday after the authorities sacked three mayors on “terrorism” charges, sparking a rebuke from Europe’s leading rights organisation.It was the latest move by the Turkish authorities to dismiss officials elected in March’s local elections and replace them with government-appointed trustees.The interior ministry’s …

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Germany’s Baerbock offers no Ukraine guarantees as Kyiv sounds alarm

Germany’s Foreign Minister visited Ukraine on Monday in a symbolic display of support but offered no concrete assurances as the war-battered country sounds the alarm over diminishing foreign aid and a buckling front line.Kyiv is urging its allies to respond to the Kremlin’s deployment of North Korean troops to western Russia and has appealed for …

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Turkey sacks 3 pro-Kurdish mayors for ‘terror ties’

Turkey on Monday sacked three mayors in the Kurdish-majority southeast on alleged “terrorism” charges, despite Ankara’s apparent desire to seek a rapprochement with the Kurdish community. In a sweep, the mayors of the cities of Mardin and Batman as well as the Halfeti district in Sanliurfa province were all removed and replaced with government-appointed trustees, the …

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