عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Putin Says Russia Backs Kamala Harris in US Election

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia September 5, 2024. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia September 5, 2024. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS
TT
TT

Putin Says Russia Backs Kamala Harris in US Election

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia September 5, 2024. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia September 5, 2024. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS

Russia wants Kamala Harris to win the US presidential election, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday in an apparently ironic comment, citing her "infectious" laugh as a reason to prefer her over Donald Trump.
Putin was speaking a day after the US Justice Department charged two Russian media executives over an alleged illegal scheme to influence the November election with pro-Russian propaganda.
The Kremlin leader had said earlier this year, before President Joe Biden withdrew from the race - also with apparent irony - that he preferred him over Trump because Biden was a more predictable "old school" politician.
Asked how he viewed the election now, Putin told an economic forum in Russia's far east that it was the choice of the American people.
But he then added that as Biden had recommended his supporters to back Harris, "we will do the same, we will support her,” Reuters reported.
"She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that everything is fine with her," Putin said, adding that maybe this meant she would refrain from further sanctions against Russia.
US intelligence agencies believe Russia wants Trump to win because he is less committed to supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia.
But Putin said Trump, as president, had introduced more sanctions against Russia than anyone in the White House before him.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

German Police Say 4 Women and a Boy Were Killed in the Christmas Market Attack

Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
TT
TT

German Police Say 4 Women and a Boy Were Killed in the Christmas Market Attack

Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

More details emerged Sunday about those killed when a man drove a car at speed through a Christmas market in Germany, while mourners continued to place flowers and other tributes at the site of the attack.

Police in Magdeburg, the central city where the attack took place on Friday evening, said that the victims were four women ranging in age from 45 to 75, as well as a 9-year-old boy they had spoken of a day earlier.

Authorities said 200 people were injured, including 41 in serious condition. They were being treated in multiple hospitals in Magdeburg, which is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, and beyond.

Authorities have identified the suspect in the Magdeburg attack as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.

The suspect was on Saturday evening brought before a judge, who behind closed doors ordered that he be kept in custody pending a possible indictment.

Police haven’t publicly named the suspect, but several German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect appears to have been an active user of the social media platform X, accusing German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he referred to as the “Islamification of Europe.”

The horror triggered by yet another act of mass violence in Germany make it likely that migration will remain a key issue as German heads toward an early election on Feb. 23.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party had already been polling strongly amid a societal backlash against the large numbers of refugees and migrants who have arrived in Germany over the past decade.

Right-wing figures from across Europe have criticized German authorities for having allowed high levels of migration in the past and for what they see as security failures now.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is known for a strong anti-migration position going back years, used the attack in Germany to lash out at the European Union’s migration policies.

At an annual press conference in Budapest on Saturday, Orban insisted that “there is no doubt that there is a link between the changed world in Western Europe, the migration that flows there, especially illegal migration and terrorist acts.”

Orban vowed to “fight back” against the EU migration policies “because Brussels wants Magdeburg to happen to Hungary, too.”