Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Haitian gangs' growing funds, arsenals challenge planned intervention -report

Haitian gangs are increasingly economically autonomous, a Geneva-based criminal research group warned, using funds coerced from private businesses, local residents and families of kidnapping victims to pay for guns and soldiers. "Gangs have undergone a radical evolution, going from rather unstructured actors dependent on resources provided by public or private patronage to violent entrepreneurs," said the report, published on Monday by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime report.

Exclusive-Trump adviser proposes new tiered system for NATO members who don't pay up

A leading national security adviser to Donald Trump told Reuters on Tuesday that he would push for changes to NATO if the former president returns to power that could result in some member nations losing protection against an outside attack. Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general and onetime chief of staff of the former president's National Security Council, said in an interview that if a member of the 31-country alliance failed to spend at least 2% of its gross domestic product on defense, as agreed, he would support removing that nation's Article 5 protections under the North Atlantic Treaty.

Russia's parliament to vote on suspending Moscow's OSCE participation

Russia's parliament will vote on Feb. 21 on suspending the country's participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE), Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Tuesday. The OSCE, which counts Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia among its 57-members, is the successor to a Cold War-era organisation for Soviet and Western powers to engage. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the organisation has been largely paralysed by Moscow's ongoing use of the effective veto each country has.

Biden, senators urge House Republicans to take up $95 billion Ukraine bill

Democratic President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of lawmakers including the top U.S. Senate Republican on Tuesday urged the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to take up a $95.34 billion military aid package for Ukraine and other allies. The measure passed the Senate in a 70-29 vote shortly before dawn on Tuesday after a hardline group of Republicans spent the night trying to block it. But it was unclear if House Speaker Mike Johnson would even bring it up for a vote in the chamber his party controls by a narrow 219-212 margin.

Strong winds cause power outages, fan bushfires in Australia's southeast

Tens of thousands of residents across Australia's Victoria state remained without power on Wednesday after wild weather knocked down transmission lines, forcing a major power plant to disconnect from the grid, while strong winds fanned bushfires. AGL's Loy Yang A power station, responsible for about a third of the state's power, had to shut down on Tuesday afternoon impacting half a million properties, which officials said was one of the largest outages in Victoria's history.

Exclusive-Putin's suggestion of Ukraine ceasefire rejected by United States, sources say

Russian President Vladimir Putin's suggestion of a ceasefire in Ukraine to freeze the war was rejected by the United States after contacts between intermediaries, three Russian sources with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters. The failure of Putin's approach ushers in a third year of the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two and illustrates just how far apart the world's two largest nuclear powers remain.

Indonesian polling stations open in election to replace Jokowi

Indonesians started voting in eastern areas of the vast country on Wednesday in an election headlined by the race to succeed popular President Joko Widodo, whose influence could determine who takes the helm of the world's third-largest democracy. Nearly 259,000 candidates are contesting 20,600 posts across the archipelago of 17,000 islands in the world's biggest single-day election, but all eyes are on the presidency and the fate of Widodo's ambitious agenda after a decade in charge of Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

US reviewing reports of civilian harm by Israel, State Dept says

The United States is reviewing reports that Israel has harmed civilians in its war in Gaza under a set of guidelines aimed at ensuring countries receiving U.S. arms conduct military operations in line with international humanitarian law, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday. The Biden administration has faced criticism for continuing to supply arms to Israel as allegations pile up that American-made weapons have been used in strikes that have killed or injured civilians.

South Africa asks World Court to weigh Israel's Rafah offensive

South Africa said on Tuesday it had asked the World Court to consider whether Israel's plan to extend its offensive in Gaza into the city of Rafahrequires additional emergency measures to protect Palestinians' rights. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) last month ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent its troops from committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in a case brought by South Africa.

Gaza truce talks end inconclusively as Rafah braces for Israeli assault

Talks involving the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar on a Gaza truce ended without a breakthrough on Tuesday as calls grew for Israel to hold back on a planned assault on the southern end of the enclave, crammed with over a million displaced people. The city of Rafah, whose pre-war population was about 300,000, teems with homeless people living in tent camps and makeshift shelters who fled there from Israeli bombardments in areas of Gaza farther north during more than four months of war.

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