Fact: Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
Georgia’s parliament passed a “foreign agents” bill in its final reading, which now goes to President Salome Zourabichvili for approval. The bill requires organizations receiving over 20% of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents. Critics have compared the bill to Russian legislation and have called for further protests. The European Union has warned that the bill could hinder Georgia’s integration with the bloc. Despite opposition, the ruling party in Georgia insists that the bill is necessary for transparency and to combat foreign influence.
Ukraine will eventually need to enter into talks with Russia to end their more than two-year-old war, according to Major-General Vadym Skibitsky. Both sides are preparing for potential negotiations, with the earliest possible start in the second half of 2025. Ukraine is planning a peace summit in Switzerland in June, with the goal of uniting countries before potentially including Russia in talks. Russian President Putin believes Ukraine is blocking a settlement, while Ukrainian President Zelenskiy sees the June meeting as a chance to begin restoring peace.
Russian peacekeepers have started withdrawing from Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, ending their multi-year deployment. The move comes after Azerbaijan retook Nagorno-Karabakh last year despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers, triggering the exodus of ethnic Armenians. Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan has questioned his country’s alliance with Russia and is building closer ties with the West. Armenia has asked Russian border guards to leave their posts at the main airport in Yerevan. Kremlin spokesman Peskov confirmed the withdrawal, and Azerbaijani media reported that Russian peacekeepers have already started leaving the region. The peacekeeping troops were deployed in November 2020 under a Moscow-brokered deal to stop fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces.
Floods engulfed cities and towns across Russia and Kazakhstan after major rivers burst their banks, forcing about 110,000 people to evacuate and swamping parts of Orenburg in Russia.
More than 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Russia and Kazakhstan due to severe flooding caused by swiftly melting snow. The Ural and Tobol rivers reached their highest levels ever recorded, with the Ural River bursting through an embankment dam. President Putin spoke to President Tokayev of Kazakhstan, where over 86,000 people have been evacuated. The flooding affected regions bordering Russia and was described as the worst in 80 years. Despite warnings, some residents ignored evacuation calls, prompting officials to urge them to take the situation seriously. Scientists attribute the severity of the floods to climate change.
Fact: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected assertions by French President Emmanuel Macron that Russia would malevolently target the Paris Olympics this summer. Peskov also denied a claim by the Czech Republic’s transport minister that Russia had been trying to sabotage the EU’s railway networks through hacking.