Georgia’s ruling party wins election over pro-EU opposition
Georgia’s ruling party has won the country’s general election, beating its pro-EU and pro-Western opposition.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) said the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has been in power for 12 years, had won 54% of the vote with more than 99% of precincts counted.
Both Georgian Dream and the opposition blocs trying to end its time in power portrayed the vote as an existential choice between moving towards the West – potentially by joining the European Union – or tightening ties with its regionally-dominant neighbour, Russia.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of Georgian Dream and a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, has accused opposition parties of being “an agent of a foreign country that will only fulfil the tasks of a foreign country” – suggesting the West wants Georgia to go to war with Russia.
Founder of the Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili after the exit poll results. Pic: Reuters
He also pledged to ban all pro-Western opposition groups if the party won a constitutional majority.
Mr Ivanishvili claimed victory almost immediately after polls closed, saying it was “rare in the world for the same party to achieve such success in such a difficult situation”.
But the pro-Western Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who has regularly criticised Georgian Dream, was among the opposition leaders who also claimed victory when competing exit polls were released, with some putting the opposition ahead.
Ms Zourabichvili earlier wrote on X that her bloc, European Georgia, had taken 52%, despite what she called “attempts to rig elections”.
Pictures were also published of opposition leaders celebrating, confirming their early confidence.
Nika Melia (L) and Nika Gvaramia, leaders of Coalition for Change, celebrate after polls closed. Pic: AP
There were reports of voting irregularities, and a video shared on social media on Saturday showed a man stuffing ballots into a box at a polling station in Marneuli.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry said it launched an investigation and the CEC said a criminal case had been opened and that all results from the polling station would be declared invalid.
Sky News’ international correspondent John Sparks, in the capital Tbilisi, called it a “stunning result” and predicted many Georgians would find it “unbelievable”, as after 12 years in power, a change of government had been widely expected.
Election a ‘stunning result’ for Georgian Dream
The result in the Georgian parliamentary election is now beyond doubt – the country’s election commission has declared ruling party, Georgian Dream, victors after counting more than 99% of the vote.
In many ways, it is a stunning result for a party that has already spent 12 years in power. Georgian Dream has increased its share of the vote while moving the country decisively away from Europe and into alignment with Russia.
Founder and leader Bidzina Ivanishvili turned to the populist playbook with a series of contentious laws that restrict the activities of media and civil rights groups. His party also passed an anti-LGBT bill in the name of protecting, “family values and minors”.
Most effective perhaps, his decision to characterise the west as the “global war party”, seeking to suck Georgia into a war against Russia.
Georgian Dream still maintains an interest in joining the European Union – although officials say they would only join “with dignity”. The fact that the EU shows little interest in having them does not seem to phase Ivanishvili and co.
From the other side of the political divide, the results in this election will strike many as simply unbelievable.
Leading opposition figures, including the country’s president Salome Zourabishvili, have already accused the government of vote rigging and they have called their supporters out onto the streets to protest the result.
Georgian Dream stand accused of a range of offences, like ballot box stuffing, intimidation and forcing civil servants to vote for them.
But mass protests are unlikely to change the result – nor will the assessment of international election observers now examining the poll.
Georgia can expect another four years under the current administration and the fundamental nature of this country will also certainly change.
The result spells a striking defeat for Ms Zourabichvili, a French emigre, who had made her number one priority “restarting talks with the European Union”, Sparks said, while Mr Ivanishvili has moved his party “from being expressly pro-Western to an organisation that is more in line with Russia”.
Brussels suspended the country’s membership process after Georgian Dream passed laws restricting freedom of speech in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people.
The biggest opposition party, United National Movement, said its headquarters came under attack on polling day.
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Georgian media also reported two people were taken to hospital after being attacked outside polling stations, one in the city of Zugdidi, the other in Marneuli, a town south of Tbilisi.
Protests have been taking place across the country after the result, with leading opposition figures, including the country’s president Salome Zourabishvili, calling on supporters to take to the streets.
Donald Trump said he will ask the Justice Department to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged ties to former US president Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats.
The call from the US president comes as fresh questions about Mr Trump’s own relationship with the paedophile financier were raised as his name came up multiple times when 20,000 pages were released from Epstein’s files earlier this week. Mr Trump has called claims to link him to Epstein as a “hoax”.
Mr Trump said he would ask US Attorney General Pamela Bondi to look into any alleged involvement between former Democrat leader Clinton and paedophile financier Epstein. She later wrote on X that she would assign the investigation to Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Along with Mr Clinton, Mr Trump said he would also ask the Justice Department to investigate former treasury secretary Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder, who is also a prominent Democratic donor.
Former US president Bill Clinton. File Pic: Reuters
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All three men were mentioned in the 20,000 Epstein-related documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. None of them, however, have been accused of wrongdoing in the Epstein case.
In a lengthy post on his social media platform Truth Social, Mr Trump said: “Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures, I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”
Mr Trump also said: “Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem!
“They all know about him, don’t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!”
What do the named parties say about alleged links to Epstein?
Angel Urena, deputy chief of staff for Mr Clinton, said in 2019: “President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some time ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York…has never been to Little St James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida.”
Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 1998 until 2013.
“The firm deeply regrets any association with this man, and would never have continued doing business with him if it believed he was using the bank in any way to commit his heinous crimes,” JPMorgan said in a statement in September 2023.
Summers, former Harvard University president, recently issued a statement saying he has “great regrets in my life.”
“As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement,” the statement said.
Similarly, Mr Hoffman told Axios in 2019 he regretted his relationship with Epstein.
“My few interactions with Jeffrey Epstein came at the request of Joi Ito, for the purposes of fundraising for the MIT Media Lab.
“Prior to these interactions, I was told by Joi that Epstein had cleared the MIT vetting process, which was the basis for my participation.
“My last interaction with Epstein was in 2015. Still, by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice. For this, I am deeply regretful.”
A 47-year-old New Jersey man died last year from alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy caused by a tick bite.
His death is believed to be the first documented death from a meat allergy triggered by tick bites.
Symptoms for alpha-gal syndrome – which in 2011 was first linked to bites from the Lone Star tick – can include hives, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, severe stomach pain, difficulty breathing, dizziness and swelling of the lips, throat, tongue or eyelids.
The reaction to the foods that cause the symptoms can be delayed, and usually present themselves a few hours later, unlike some other food allergies, which occur soon after eating.
The new research follows the case of a healthy airline pilot who went camping in 2024 with his wife and children. They had steak for supper. This was unusual, as he rarely ate meat.
He woke at 2am with violent pain in his abdomen, vomiting and diarrhoea.
The next day he ate breakfast and went on a five-mile walk.
A fortnight later, back in New Jersey, he went to a barbecue, where he ate a hamburger. About four hours later, he grew ill. Shortly afterwards, his son found him on the bathroom floor unconscious.
Am operating theatre. File pic by iStock
His son called paramedics, and he was admitted to hospital, but the man was announced dead later that night.
Blood tests conducted by researchers revealed evidence of the alpha-gal syndrome. Proof that it came from a Lone Star tick is inconclusive.
The researchers made the link after a statement from the man’s wife, who had said he had 12 or 13 “chigger” bites near his ankles earlier in the summer.
But the conclusion makes sense, as people in eastern America sometimes mistake the bites from mites with those from larval ticks.
More than 100,000 people in the U.S. have become allergic to red meat since 2010 because of the syndrome, according to one estimate.
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Dr Scott Commins, a leading alpha-gal syndrome researcher at the University of North Carolina, called his death an “unmitigated tragedy”.
“Totally unnecessary and with increased awareness, this won’t happen again,” he said in an email.
Three Chinese astronauts have successfully returned to Earth from their nation’s space station after their capsule was damaged.
The team deployed a red and white striped parachute as they descended, before landing at a remote site in the Gobi Desert in Asia on Friday.
The astronauts – Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie – had been due to return on 5 November to end their six-month rotation at the Tiangong space station.
However, their journey back was delayed by nine days because the Shenzhou-20 return capsule they were due to travel in was found to have tiny cracks.
These were most likely caused by the impact of space debris hitting the craft, China’s space agency said.
There are millions of pieces of mostly tiny particles that circle the Earth at speeds faster than a bullet.
They can come from launches and collisions and pose a risk to satellites, space stations and the astronauts who operate outside them.
With the Shenzhou-20 out of action, the crew – who travelled to the space station in April – used a Shenzhou-21 craft instead, which had brought a three-person replacement crew to the station.
The launch of the Shenzhou-21 craft from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province, China, on 31 October. Pic: Kyodo via AP
The Chinese space agency said the stranded taikonauts – the Chinese word for astronauts – had remained in good condition throughout.
The first module of the Tiangong, which means “Heavenly Palace”, was launched by the Chinese state in 2021.
It is smaller than the International Space Station, from which Beijing is blocked, due to US national security concerns.
China’s space programme has developed steadily since 2003.
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In a long term plan to advance its orbital capabilities, China plans to land a person on the moon by 2030 and has already explored Mars with a robotic rover.
The Asian nation’s latest space mission brought four mice to study how weightlessness and confinement would affect them.
An engineer from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the study will help master key technologies for breeding and monitoring small mammals in space.
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