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The Legal Affairs Committee of the Georgian Parliament approved a bill on transparency of "foreign influence" in its third hearing on Monday, the final step before it goes for a parliamentary vote.
Meanwhile, protesters have gathered in front of the parliament building amid heavy police presence, resulting in a standoff early Monday.
The divisive draft law, reintroduced by the ruling Georgian Dream party, requires media and non-commercial organisations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.
The proposed legislation has been dubbed "Russian law" after a similar rule in Russia, which has been used to suppress voices and groups critical of the Kremlin.
Critics say it could undermine democracy and derail the country’s chances of joining the European Union. Similar legislation in Russia was used to suppress voices and groups critical of the Kremlin.
In an online statement last month, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described the parliament’s move as "a very concerning development".
He warned that "the final adoption of this legislation would negatively impact Georgia’s progress on its EU path."
The draft law is identical to a bill proposed in 2023, which the government was forced to withdraw in the face of mass protests.
Although Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said she would veto the law if it is passed by parliament, the ruling party can override the veto by collecting 76 votes. Then the parliament speaker can sign it into law.
Our journalists are working on this story and will update it as soon as more information becomes available.
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Lithuania’s President Gitanas Naus？da appears on course to secure a second term following the country’s first round of presidential elections.
In a rerun of the 2019 elections, the president will face off against Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte in the country’s second round of presidential elections.
Lithuania's Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, a presidential candidate, casts her vote at a polling station during the advance presidential elections in VilniusMindaugas Kulbis/AP
Nauseda narrowly missed the chance to be re-elected in the first round, receiving about 45% of the vote. There are eight candidates running in all, making it difficult for him or any other candidate to muster the 50% of the votes needed to win outright on Sunday. A runoff vote will be held on 26 May.
Polls closed at 8 pm local time. Initial voter turnout was 59.4%, higher than in the previous election in 2019, the Central Electoral Commission said.
The president’s main tasks in Lithuania’s political system are overseeing foreign and security policy, and acting as the supreme commander of the armed forces. That adds importance to the position in the relatively small nation given its strategic location on NATO’s eastern flank as tensions rise between Russia and the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea is sandwiched between Lithuania to the north and east, and Poland to the south. There is great concern in Lithuania, as well as neighbouring Latvia and Estonia, about Russian troops' latest gains in north-eastern Ukraine.
All three Baltic states declared independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union and took a determined westward course, joining both the European Union and NATO.
Nauseda is a moderate conservative who turns 60 a week after Sunday’s election. One of his main challengers is Ingrida Simonyte, 49, the current prime minister and former finance minister, whom he beat in a runoff in 2019 with 66.5% of the votes.
Another contender is Ignas Vegele, who gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic by opposing restrictions and vaccines.
Nauseda's first term in office ends at the beginning of July.
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In a pair of TV interviews, Blinken underscored that the United States believes Israeli forces should “get out of Gaza,” but also is waiting to see credible plans from Israel for security and governance in the territory after the war.
Hamas has re-emerged in parts of Gaza, Blinken said, and “heavy action” by Israeli forces in the southern city of Rafah risks leaving America’s closest Mideast ally “holding the bag on an enduring insurgency.”
He said the United States has worked with Arab countries and others for weeks on developing “credible plans for security, for governance, for rebuilding’’ in Gaza, but ”we haven’t seen that come from Israel... We need to see that, too.”
Blinken also said that as Israel pushes deeper in Rafah in the south, a military operation may “have some initial success” but risks “terrible harm” to the population without solving a problem “that both of us want to solve, which is making sure Hamas cannot again govern Gaza.” More than a million Palestinians have crowded into Rafah in hopes of refuge as Israel’s offensive pushed across Gaza. Israel has said the city also hosts four battalions of Hamas fighters.
Israel’s conduct of the war, Blinken said, has put the country “on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy, and probably refilled by Hamas. We’ve been talking to them about a much better way of getting an enduring result, enduring security.”
Blinken also echoed, for the first time publicly by a US official, the findings of a new Biden administration report to Congress on Friday that said Israel’s use of US-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law. The report also said wartime conditions prevented American officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes.
“When it comes to the use of weapons, concerns about incidents where given the totality of the damage that’s been done to children, women, men, it was reasonable to assess that, in certain instances, Israel acted in ways that are not consistent with international humanitarian law,” Blinken said. He cited “the horrible loss of life of innocent civilians.”
Blinken spoke to Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, reiterating the longstanding US opposition to what is now the growing Israeli offensive in Rafah, given the toll on civilians there, according to the State Department’s recounting of the call.
Blinken urged Gallant to allow humanitarian workers to bring aid into Gaza and distribute it. Israel’s offensive into Rafah has shut down one of the two main border crossings into the territory for a week, and most operations have stopped at the other one after it was targeted by a Hamas rocket attack.
Seven months of fighting and Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries already have led to famine in the north of Gaza. Aid organizations say the now nearly total cutoff of food, medicine and fuel and the disruption from the Rafah offensive have humanitarian operations across Gaza on the brink of collapse.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in a call Sunday with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi, raised concerns about a military ground operation in Rafah and discussed “alternative courses of action” that would ensure Hamas is defeated “everywhere in Gaza,” according to a White House summary of the conversation. Hanegbi “confirmed that Israel is taking U.S. concerns into account,” the White House said.
The war began on October 7 after an attack against Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. About 250 people were taken hostage. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
There are increasing tensions between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about how the war has been conducted, and also domestic tensions about US support for Israel, with protests on U.S. college campuses and many Republican lawmakers saying that Biden needs to give Israel whatever it needs. The issue could play a major role in the outcome of November’s presidential election.
Blinken appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.”