The autonomous region of Moldova where most people are pro-Russian – ‘why do we have to only look to the West?’
For months, rising food and energy costs have brought protesters on to Moldova’s streets but while the cost-of-living crisis is biting, the government claims outside forces are fuelling the unrest.
The pro-Western leaders have accused Russia of deliberately stoking the anger by reducing gas supplies to push up prices, spreading propaganda and backing a plot to overthrow them.
Moscow and politicians from Moldova‘s pro-Russian ŞOR party dispute the claims.
“We are supporting the protest because life in our country became too difficult,” says Marina Tauber, ŞOR party’s vice president. “We as the parliamentary faction and the parliamentary party, we don’t feel this [Russian] interference.”
Moldova’s President Maia Sandu says they’re fighting a hybrid war and are under attack from Kremlin interference, which is aimed at destabilising Ukraine’s neighbours.
President of Moldova Maia Sandu
In the past year, they’ve experienced “an explosion in security threats”, according to the interior ministry – including hundreds of bomb hoaxes, a coup plot and an online disinformation campaign.
Monitoring group Watchdog MD says it has seen Russian disinformation rocket tenfold in Moldova since the war broke out in Ukraine.
The small team’s funding will run out next month.
Until then, they continue to compile lists of concerning content that have been shared thousands of times.
The posts range from fake polls comparing the president to Hitler to footage of an old military parade relabelled as Romanian troops moving towards the Moldovan border.
It says it’s all part of a propaganda war that Russia is driving to upset the peace.
“We are not under siege like the Ukrainians are, but we are feeling the pressure even from here, from Kyiv, you know. What I would say is the future of the country… lies at stake,” says Watchdog MD analyst, Andrei Curararu.
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Could Moldova be Russia’s next target?
Russia is a ‘strong country’
But public opinion is divided.
In the pro-Russian autonomous region of Gagauzia, many feel closer to Moscow than the West.
A recent poll showed 93.8% of respondents have a “positive” or “very positive” attitude to the Russian Federation.
The majority trusted Russian mass media over Moldovan outlets.
Comrat in Moldova
At the market in the capital, Comrat, no one I speak to believes Russia is a threat.
Cheese seller Valentina fondly remembers their time in the Soviet Union.
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Cheese seller Valentina is pro-Russia
“Do you believe Russia is trying to cause trouble and hurt Moldova?” I ask.
“No… all our lives we lived in Soviet Union and our country didn’t do anything bad to us,” she replies.
“And you trust President Putin?” I ask.
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“I believe in everyone… if a person is attacked, he has to defend his people,” she explains.
Shopper Leonid shares his views, saying: “I’m not happy with what is happening in Moldova.
Leonid says Russia is a ‘strong country’
“Why do we have to only look to the West? Why can’t we also look to Russia? It’s a strong country. You underestimate Russia. That’s why the West and Russia need to find a common language,” he says.
But Moldova’s leaders don’t share this trust as they continue to fight disinformation they say is aimed at spreading panic and unease.
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
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Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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