World News Roundup: Trump is confident Mexico will enforce new immigration deal; Nazarbayev ally set to win Kazakh presidential election


Reuters | Updated: 09-06-2019 05:27 IST | Created: 09-06-2019 05:23 IST
World News Roundup: Trump is confident Mexico will enforce new immigration deal; Nazarbayev ally set to win Kazakh presidential election
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Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Nazarbayev ally set to win Kazakh presidential election

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the interim president of Kazakhstan hand-picked by veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev as his successor, will confirm his position on Sunday in an election triggered by Nazarbayev's resignation. Nazarbayev, who had run the oil-rich former Soviet republic for almost three decades before stepping down in March, and retains sweeping powers, chose the 66-year-old diplomat as his successor, making the outcome of the vote all but certain.

Huge Hong Kong protest expected in last push to scrap extradition bill

At least half a million people in Hong Kong are expected to brave sweltering heat on Sunday to press the government to scrap a proposed extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to China to face trial, organizers of the march said. A committee of pro-democratic groups has raised turnout estimates and are now eyeing the biggest single-day rally since 2003, when a similar number of protesters forced the government to shelve tighter national security laws.

Warsaw pride parade attracts large crowd amid heated political debate

Tens of thousands of people joined a pride march in Warsaw on Saturday as gay rights continue to become a major issue in Poland's election campaign. The parade, which was expected to be the biggest of its kind in the city, came as the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party ramped up its opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, saying opposition support for LGBT issues threatens Polish culture.

U.S. envoy, in interview, does not rule out Israeli annexation in West Bank

The U.S. ambassador to Israel did not rule out an Israeli move to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, land that the Palestinians seek for a state, in an interview with the New York Times published on Saturday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in the run-up to an April election that he plans to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a move bound to trigger widespread international condemnation and complicate peace efforts.

UK’s Johnson threatens to withhold $50 billion Brexit payment

Boris Johnson, the leading candidate to succeed Theresa May as Britain's next prime minister, said he would withhold a previously agreed 39 billion pound ($50 billion) Brexit payment until the European Union gives Britain better exit terms. The EU has repeatedly said it will not reopen discussion of the Brexit transition deal it reached with May last year, which British lawmakers have rejected three times, prompting May to announce her resignation earlier this month.

Opposition rallies again to get Albanian PM to quit

Supporters of Albanian opposition parties rallied on Saturday to ask Prime Minister Edi Rama to quit and pave the way to fresh polls, dispersing after throwing firecrackers and flares to police who responded with water jets and tear gas. Holding posters saying "Rama Go" or "Break your neck!", several thousand protesters rejoiced when Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha said the June 30 local elections, which they had boycotted, would be canceled by presidential decree.

Investigative journalist put under house arrest in Moscow

Russian investigative journalist Ivan Golunov was placed under two months' house arrest in Moscow on Saturday while he is investigated for drug peddling, as a court rejected a request from investigators to hold him in custody. Golunov, 36, was on his way to a meeting with a source on Thursday when he was detained in central Moscow and illegal drugs were found in his rucksack, according to police and his employer, the online news portal Meduza, based in Latvia.

New U.S. sanctions show offer of talks with Iran not genuine: Foreign Ministry

Additional sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States show that Washington's offer of talks is not genuine, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday. The United States placed sanctions on Iran’s largest petrochemical holding group on Friday for indirectly supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a step it said aimed to dry up revenues to the elite Iranian military force but that analysts called largely symbolic.

Trump is confident Mexico will enforce new immigration deal

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday predicted Mexico would strongly enforce a new deal under which it agreed to expand a controversial asylum program and boost security on its southern border to stem Central American migrants trying to reach the United States. The deal, announced on Friday after three days of negotiations in Washington, averted Trump's threatened imposition of 5% import tariffs on all Mexican goods starting on Monday.

Angelina Jolie urges international support for Venezuelan children

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie on Saturday urged the international community to provide more support to three South American countries with the most migrants from crisis-hit Venezuela, saying 20,000 Venezuelan children are at risk of being without basic citizenship rights. Jolie spoke in Colombia as a special envoy for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She is on a two-day trip to meet Venezuelan migrants there and met with Colombian President Ivan Duque in Cartagena.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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