Polls open in Belarus – with Alexander Lukashenko set to extend 30-year presidential rule
People in Belarus have started to vote in the presidential election, which is all but certain to extend the rule of Alexander Lukashenko.
The authoritarian leader is expected to win a seventh term as leader in Sunday’s election, extending his 31 years in power in Sunday’s election.
Citizens were pictured heading to the polls in the country’s capital, Minsk. A total of 6.9 million people are registered to cast their ballots before voting ends at 5pm tonight UK time.
Four opposition candidates also appear on ballots, but all are loyal to Mr Lukashenko and have praised his rule.
Yesterday Sergei Syrankov, head of the Community Party of Belarus, told Sky News’ Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett that Mr Lukashenko is fondly referred to as Bat’ka, meaning father.
Mr Lukashenko’s dog Umka accompanied him to cast his vote. Pic: Reuters
Many of the actual opponents to the incumbent president are either in prison or have been exiled abroad as a result of a crackdown on dissent and free speech.
It comes after mass protests after the election in 2020 threatened his claim to the presidency as Western governments backed the opposition’s assertion that he falsified the results and stole victory from its candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
The demonstrations went on for months and led to the arrest of more than 65,000 people, many of whom are still in prison.
Ms Tsikhanouskaya, who fled Belarus under government pressure, told The Associated Press that Sunday’s election was “a senseless farce, a Lukashenko ritual”.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in 2020. Pic: Reuters
People cast their votes in Minsk. Pic: Reuters/Evgenia Novozhenina
In preparation for this year’s election, polling stations have removed the curtains covering ballot boxes, and voters are forbidden from photographing their ballots – a response to the opposition’s call in 2020 for voters to take pictures to make it more difficult for authorities to rig the vote.
Police have also conducted large-scale drills before the election as a way to prepare for dispersing a protest.
Speaking at a press conference as he cast his own vote on Sunday, Mr Lukashenko said some of his political opponents had “chosen” to go to prison, adding that no one was preventing from speaking out in the country.
“We didn’t kick anyone out of the country,” he said, adding: “[But prison was] for people who opened their mouths too wide, to put it bluntly, those who broke the law.”
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Belarus president set to extend rule
The president has repeatedly claimed that he wasn’t clinging to power at the last election and would “quietly and calmly hand it over to the new generation”.
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Since July last year, he has also pardoned more than 250 people described as political prisoners by activists.
Artyom Shraybman, a Belarus expert with the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Centre, told Reuters that Mr Lukashenko plans to use the pardons and his election win to try and ease his total dependence on Russia and start a conversation with the West about easing sanctions.
A woman brought in for cremation at a Thai temple was found alive in her coffin.
The 65-year-old had been taken to Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok, after she appeared to stop breathing two days earlier.
Her family had travelled hundreds of miles with her body in the coffin and were preparing for her to be cremated.
However, moments before the service began a shocked temple manager, Pairat Soodthoop, said he heard a faint knock coming from inside the coffin.
Ambulance workers lift the woman in her coffin. Pic: AP
“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” he said.
“I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time.”
The cremation was due to be live-streamed by the temple.
Thairath, the nation’s best-selling newspaper, named the woman in question as Chonthirat Sakulkoo, and said she was brought in by her brother, Mongkol Sakulkoo.
The brother said she had been bedridden for about two years before her health deteriorated further and she became unresponsive, appearing to have stopped breathing, according to Mr Soodthoop
The woman in her coffin. Pic: AP
So, the brother placed her in a coffin and drove her 300 miles (500km) from their home in Phitsanulok province, in the north of the country, to the capital, Bangkok.
The Bangkok Post reported that the woman’s brother had been told by local officials that his sister had died.
The woman had wished to donate her organs to a hospital in the Thai capital, but her brother was turned away as he did not have the relevant paperwork.
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Instead, he went to the temple, which offers a free cremation service.
After the woman was discovered alive she was assessed and sent to Bang Yai Hospital, Thairath reported, where she was treated for hypoglycemia, before being released back to her brother.
The woman in her coffin. Pic: AP
Asked how he felt to learn that his sister is still alive, Mr Sakulkoo said he was indifferent, according to the newspaper.
Mr Soodthoop, said the temple would cover her medical expenses.
Flights have been cancelled over ash clouds from Hayli Gubbi, a long-dormant volcano in Ethiopia, erupted for the first time in recorded history.
Plumes from the volcano pushed across the Red Sea through Oman and Yemen into India on Monday evening, leading airlines Air India and Akasa Air to cancel some flights.
Air India cancelled 11 flights, and Akasa scrapped flights to destinations such as Jeddah, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi, while carrier IndiGo said on social media that it was monitoring the situation “in coordination with international aviation bodies”.
The India Meteorological Department said that ash clouds from Hayli Gubbi, northern Ethiopia, are moving towards China, and are expected to clear Indian skies by 7.30pm (2pm in the UK).
It comes after the Ethiopian volcano erupted for the first time in recorded history on Sunday morning, leaving the neighbouring village of Afdera covered in dust.
No eruptions were ever recorded at Hayli Gubbi until Sunday. Pic: Afar Government/AP
Pic: Afar Government/AP
The eruption sent ash plumes up to 8.7 miles (14km) high, according to the Reuters news agency.
Mohammed Seid, a local administrator, told the Associated Press at the time that there were no casualties but that it could cause issues for livestock herders.
“While no human lives and livestock have been lost so far, many villages have been covered in ash and as a result their animals have little to eat,” he added.
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Ahmed Abdela, a local resident, also told the news agency that “it felt like a sudden bomb had been thrown with smoke and ash”.
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to hold talks over the Ukraine peace plan.
US and Ukrainian officials have held discussions in Geneva about a controversial 28-point proposal drawn up by America and Russia, which has since been countered by an amended deal drawn up by Kyiv’s European allies.
The White House said there were still a “couple of points of disagreement” as of Monday night, but spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said there was a “sense of urgency” to strike an agreement.
“The president wants to see this deal come together, and to see this war end,” she added.
Mr Zelenskyy echoed that message, saying “there is still work for all of us to do to finalise the document”.
“We must do everything with dignity,” he said in his nightly video address, adding: “The sensitive issues, the most delicate points, I will discuss with President Trump.”
Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters at the White House. Pic: AP
It comes after Mr Trump, who had accused Ukraine of not being grateful enough for US military support while the Geneva talks were under way, suggested the process could be moving in the right direction.
He had earlier given Kyiv until Thursday to agree to the plan, but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed the deadline, saying officials could keep negotiating.
Moscow, however, has already signalled its opposition to the European version of the peace plan.
It would halt fighting at present front lines, leaving discussions of territory for later, and also include a NATO-style US security guarantee for Ukraine.
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Russian drones devastate Kharkiv
The talks in Geneva, Switzerland, had begun with Mr Rubio denying the original plan was written by Russia.
It appeared to include a number of longstanding Kremlin demands that have proved impossible for Kyiv, including sacrificing territory Russian forces have not even seized since the war began.
Ms Leavitt has also insisted the US is not favouring the Russians.
Ukrainian troops fire near the frontline town of Pokrovsk. Pic: Reuters
Starmer to lead talks of Ukraine’s allies
Ukraine’s allies in the so-called “coalition of the willing” will hold a virtual meeting today, chaired by Sir Keir Starmer.
The British prime minister said the alliance was focused on achieving a “just and lasting peace”.
It “matters for all of us, because the conflict in Ukraine has had a direct impact here in the UK”, he added.
Russia and Ukraine report overnight attacks
The talks will begin hours after the governor of Russia’s Rostov region reported three people had been killed and 10 more injured in a Ukrainian attack overnight.
The Russian defence ministry said 249 Ukrainian drones were downed over Russian regions in total.
Meanwhile, Russian drone strikes in Kyiv left at least two dead and triggered fires on residential buildings – forcing evacuations, and leaving several people injured.
Drone strikes rocked Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday. Pic: Ukrainian emergency services/Telegram
The war was also a topic of discussion in a call between Mr Trump and China’s Xi Jinping on Monday.
Mr Xi urged “all parties” in the conflict to “reduce differences”, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
He reiterated that China supported all efforts conducive to peace.
China has remained a consistent ally of Russia throughout its invasion of Ukraine, and is the top buyer of Russian oil, along with India.
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