Criticised the West for not denouncing what he said were escalating human rights violations

International news via Reuters:

Ugandan opposition leader and pop singer Bobi Wine said on Friday he plans to run for president for a second time and criticised the West for not speaking out more against “gross human rights violations” in the country.

Wine, 43, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, will be challenging long-serving President Yoweri Museveni, 80, who is widely expected to seek re-election.

“Yeah, I’ve expressed my availability on behalf of my team,” Wine said in an interview with Reuters when asked whether he would stand again in the east African country’s next presidential election, due in January. 

Participation in the election, he said, will also be “a fighting opportunity to further undress and expose the regime and to further galvanise the people of Uganda to rise up and free themselves.” 

Wine came second in the last election in 2021 but rejected the outcome, alleging ballot staffing, falsification of results, beatings and intimidation by soldiers and other irregularities.

Government and electoral officials denied the accusations. 

Wine criticised Western governments for not denouncing what he said were escalating human rights violations, including abductions, illegal detention and torture of his supporters and officials. Wine did not single out any country for criticism.

“Some leaders in the West are complicit in our suffering. They are here to crack their (business) deals and they don’t care about human rights,” he said. 

“If they were standing for the values that they profess, then they would be castigating all these gross human rights violations.” 

Uganda is considered by the West as an ally in the fight against jihadists and has deployed troops in Somalia.

Uganda’s justice minister said this week that Eddie Mutwe, an activist in Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) party, who also doubles as his personal body guard, appeared to have been tortured while in captivity.

Museveni’s son and head of the military, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, said he had kept him in his basement and that he was using him as a punching bag. 

After missing for a week Mutwe was on Monday produced in court, charged with robbery and remanded. 

Wine said Mutwe told him he had been electrocuted, waterboarded and beaten. 

Police spokesman Rusoke Kituma did not respond to a Reuters call for comment on the allegations. Reuters contacted a spokesperson for Uganda’s defence forces seeking comment from Kainerugaba. He did not respond. 

Wine said that if was elected, his priorities would include restoration of political and civil rights and a crackdown on corruption.

Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by George Obulutsa, Ammu Kannampilly and Timothy Heritage

Before his election, U.S. cardinals had largely been written off as papal contenders

International news via Reuters:

Pope Leo XIV on Friday celebrated his first Mass in the Sistine Chapel where he was elected less than 24 hours earlier and prayed that his historic papacy can help the Catholic Church be a beacon illuminating “the dark nights of this world”.

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost and the first U.S. pope, looked serene as he said the Mass in the famous, frescoed chapel with the same cardinals who chose him to be the 267th pontiff and the successor to Pope Francis.

Dressed in relatively simple white and gold vestments, Leo, who was born in Chicago but spent two decades as a missionary in Peru, said a few words in English before continuing his homily in fluent Italian. He painted the spiritual picture of the Church he would like to see under his papacy.

“God has …. entrusted this treasure to me so that, with his help, I may be its faithful administrator for the sake of the entire mystical Body of the Church,” he said.

“He has done so in order that she may be ever more fully a city set on a hill, an ark of salvation sailing through the waters of history and a beacon that illumines the dark nights of this world,” he added, according to the official translation.

The 1.4 billion-member Church, was great not because of “the magnificence of her structures or the grandeur of her buildings … but rather through the holiness of her members.”

SWIFT APPOINTMENT

Leo, aged 69, was elected at the end of a swift two-day conclave that was wrapped up on Thursday evening when white smoke billowed from the chimney on the chapel.

Before his election, U.S. cardinals had largely been written off as papal contenders because of a widespread assumption that the global Church could not be run by a superpower pope. 

However, he also holds Peruvian citizenship, meaning that he has deep knowledge of both the West and less developed nations.

After the Mass, Leo will have lunch with the cardinals who elected him and they will then be free to leave the Vatican and return to their homes around the world.

The successor to Pope Francis, who died last month at the age of 88, inherits a number of major challenges, ranging from a budget shortfall to divisions over whether the Church should be more welcoming towards the LGBT community and divorcees, and should let women play a greater role in its affairs. 

U.S. President Donald Trump was quick to congratulate Leo. However, the new pope has a history of criticizing Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s policies, according to posts on the X account of Robert Prevost.

The new pope worked for decades in the north of Peru, first as a missionary and later as Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. Catholics took to the streets of the small city in northwestern Peru, and church bells rang out to celebrate the election of a man who they embrace as one of their own.

One of the clues to what kind of a Church leader Leo will be was in his choice of name, something that pontiffs often use to send a signal about the priorities of their new papacy.

The last pope with this name was Leo XIII, who led the Church from 1878-1903. He was known for his devoted focus to social justice issues, and is often credited with laying the foundation for modern Catholic social teaching.

Prevost became a cardinal only in 2023. He has given few media interviews and is known to have a shy personality.

Francis brought him to Rome two years ago to head the Vatican office in charge of choosing which priests should serve as Catholic bishops across the globe, meaning he has had a hand in selecting many of the world’s bishops.

Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Frances Kerry and Crispian Balmer

About 600 North Korean troops have been killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine

International news via Reuters:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare visit to Russia’s embassy in Pyongyang with his daughter on Friday and reaffirmed “the invincible alliance” between the two countries, while Russia’s leader greeted North Korean generals in Moscow.

Congratulating Russia on the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, Kim said North Korea would “consolidate and develop the long tradition of the DPRK-Russia relations, the noble ideological foundation and the invincible alliance”, state-run KCNA reported.

Kim has taken his young daughter to a variety of events recently, part of what South Korean intelligence views as plans for her to succeed her father.

North Korea’s unprecedented deployment of thousands of troops, as well as huge amounts of artillery ammunition and missiles, has helped Russia push back a Ukrainian incursion into its western Kursk region. It has also brought North Korea and Russia – both economically and politically isolated – closer. 

More than three years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia is marking the World War Two anniversary with a military parade attended by China’s Xi Jinping.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted North Korean army generals with handshakes after hosting the parade.

Putin embraced Kim Yong Bok, a three-star general who is considered to be a key figure overseeing North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia. Kim is subject to sanctions by the United States, South Korea and the European Union. 

“All of the best wishes to all of your warriors,” Putin said in video footage of their encounter.

Kim responded to Putin by thanking him for his “high evaluation.”

With Kim was Sin Kum Chol, another general blacklisted by the South Korean government over involvement in the war in Ukraine. 

About 600 North Korean troops have been killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine out of a total deployment of 15,000, according to the South Korean intelligence. 

In return, Pyongyang appears to have received technical assistance on satellites, as well as drones and anti-aircraft missiles, South Korea has said.

Pyongyang and Moscow have denied the weapons trade, although the two countries have confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops on the frontlines in Russia’s Kursk region.

Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Philippa Fletcher