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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
A second Australian teenager has died after being poisoned with methanol in Laos, bringing the number of people killed to six.
Holly Bowles, 19, has died, according to the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Penny Wong, who said: “All Australians will be heartbroken by the tragic passing of Holly Bowles. I offer my deepest sympathies to her family and friends.”
Bianca Jones, who according to Australian authorities was Ms Bowles’s best friend, died earlier this week after both 19-year-olds fell ill on 13 November while staying in southeast Asian country.
They are two of six people who are believed to have died after drinking methanol-laced vodka in the tourist hotspot.
The death of British woman Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, was announced on Thursday. She fell ill after reportedly drinking “free shots” from a local bar in Vang Vieng – a resort popular with backpackers.
Two Danish women in their 20s and a 56-year-old US citizen also died as a result of the mass poisoning.
Methanol, which is sometimes added to mixed drinks as a cheaper alternative to alcohol, but can cause severe poisoning or death.
The manager and owner of the hostel where the two Australians, both from Melbourne, were staying, has been detained, according to an officer at Vang Vieng’s Tourism Police office who refused to give his name.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Arrest warrants have been issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence secretary Yoav Gallant and a senior Hamas commander by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The warrants against the senior Israeli figures are for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the war in Gaza that Israel launched following the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
The prime minister’s office said the warrants against him and Gallant were “anti-semitic” and said Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions”.
Another warrant was issued for the arrest of Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al Masrifor alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Neither Israel nor the US are members of the ICC. Israel has rejected the court’s jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden described the warrants against Israeli leaders as “outrageous”, adding “whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas”.
Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were a “mark of shame” for the ICC.
The court originally said it was seeking arrest warrants for the three men in May for the alleged crimes and today announced that it had rejected challenges by Israel and issued warrants of arrest.
In its update, the ICC said it found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for alleged crimes.
These, the court said, include “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the ICC’s decision sent a “terrible message”.
“The court has minimised how Hamas fights – deliberately from within civilian infrastructure and cruelly using Palestinian civilians as human shields, tragically leading to many casualties,” the board said.
“Democratic governments, and people around the world, should consider how they would have responded to an October 7th perpetrated against their country, involving mass murder, rape, and hostage-taking.
“We should all be focused on defeating the Hamas terrorists, liberating the hostages, ensuring that civilians in Gaza receive all necessary aid and working towards a sustainable peace for Israelis and Palestinians to prevent these horrible conflicts in the future.
“The decision of the ICC is counter-productive in all these respects.”
Three arrest warrants have been issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) but the two most significant are those against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
The court in their statement said that they have reasonable grounds to believe that those two men, have been carrying out the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.
Ever since the arrest warrants were first sought there have been a lot of legal challenges. But the court has rejected all that and has now issued these arrest warrants.
So what does it mean? Well, practically, it would mean that Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant couldn’t travel to any state that is a signatory of the ICC – about 120 countries around the world, including the UK and many European countries.
Were Netanyahu to travel to any of those countries, he should be arrested by the police forces of those countries. And it’ll be very interesting to see what Sir Keir Starmer’s reaction is to this.
But the US, Israel’s closest ally, is not a signatory of the ICC. I think Netanyahu will have support on the other side of the Atlantic.
Also, these ICC arrest warrants don’t always get carried out. We saw President Vladimir Putin, who had an arrest warrant issued for him after the invasion of Ukraine, travel to Mongolia a couple of months ago and nothing was done about that.
But in terms of the reputations of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, in terms of that legacy, they are now wanted suspects, wanted to be put on trial for war crimes. And it is a label that will never leave them.
Warrant for Hamas leader
The ICC also said it has issued an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Al Masri, saying it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that he is responsible for crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, torture, rape, as well as war crimes including taking hostages.
Discussing the 7 October attacks, the court said: “In light of the coordinated killings of members of civilians at several separate locations, the Chamber also found that the conduct took place as part of a mass killing of members of the civilian population, and it therefore concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of extermination was committed.”
In its statement, the ICC said the prosecution was not in a position to determine whether Al Masri is dead or alive, so was issuing the arrest warrant.
The court previously said it was seeking an arrest warrant for Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas who was subsequently killed in July.
Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, fell ill after reportedly drinking “free shots” from a local bar in Vang Vieng – a resort popular with backpackers.
Four people had already died following the suspected poisonings – an Australian named Bianca Jones, 19, from Melbourne, as well as two Danish women in their 20s and a 56-year-old US citizen.
They are believed to have consumed drinks tainted with methanol, which is sometimes added to mixed drinks as a cheaper alternative to alcohol, but can cause severe poisoning or death.
“We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Laos, and we are in contact with the local authorities,” the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement.
The FCDO said it was also providing consular assistance to other British nationals hospitalised in the incident, as well as their families.
Ms White was an associate lawyer specialising in intellectual property and technology and worked at the London office of the American law firm Squire Patton Boggs.
Her work involved general commercial matters, and contentious and non-contentious intellectual property law issues, according to the firm’s website.
Bethany Clarke, a friend of Ms White and a healthcare worker, also from Orpington, said a group of six people had been taken to hospital after drinking from the same bar.
She posted on a Laos Backpacking Facebook group to warn other travellers after the group fell ill.
“Urgent – please avoid all local spirits. Our group stayed in Vang Vieng and we drank free shots offered by one of the bars,” she wrote.
“Just avoid them as so not worth it. Six of us who drank from the same place are in hospital currently with methanol poisoning.”
‘Every parent’s very worst fear’
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed to his country’s parliament that 19-year-old Bianca Jones had died after being evacuated to a Thai hospital from Vang Vieng.
Thai authorities confirmed Jones had died of “brain swelling due to high levels of methanol found in her system”.
Her friend Holly Bowles, also 19, remains in hospital in neighbouring Thailand, Mr Albanese said.
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Laos methanol poisonings – what we know
Australian officials said “several foreign nationals” had also been victims of methanol poisoning
“This is every parent’s very worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure,” Mr Albanese said.
“We also take this moment to say that we’re thinking of Bianca’s friend Holly Bowles who is fighting for her life.”
‘Her incredible spirit touched so many lives’
In a statement to the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper, Ms Jones’ family paid tribute to her.
“She was surrounded by love, and we are comforted by the knowledge that her incredible spirit touched so many lives during her time with us,” the family wrote.
“We want to express our deepest gratitude for the overwhelming support, love, and prayers we’ve received from across Australia.”
The US State Department confirmed an American had also died in Vang Vieng, and Denmark’s Foreign Ministry said two of its citizens had also died in “the incident in Laos”.
Neither would comment directly on a link to methanol poisoning.