NewsNews overnight: Trump's allegations, Crimean tensions, and Assange's release rock world
News overnight: Trump's allegations, Crimean tensions, and Assange's release rock world
It happened while you were sleeping. Here's what global agencies reported overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
- Donald Trump claims he was tortured. In August of last year, Trump was placed in the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on charges of election fraud. At that time, his mugshot circulated in media around the world. Today, the candidate for US President revisits his time behind bars. In an email to those financially supporting his campaign, it was written: "I want you to remember what they did to me. They tortured me in Fulton County Jail and took my mugshot. So guess what?". A mugshot is a police photo taken of detainees from several angles. Trump decided the answer would be "putting it on a mug for the world to see." The February report from WinRed, the Republican Party's online donation platform, confirmed that the day after this photo was released, Trump raised as much as £3.4 million.
- A representative of the Russian authorities was asked by journalists whether, in light of the events in Sevastopol, where several people died in an attack on occupied Crimea, the proposal to "halt military actions in Ukraine" was still valid. "The proposal from Vladimir Putin to the Ukrainian authorities remains valid also in light of the attack," said the Kremlin's spokesperson. Dmitry Peskov forgot to add what experts emphasise. It's about the form of the proposal, which, is a demand for Ukraine's capitulation, something Kyiv completely excludes.
- According to Pentagon spokesman Major Charlie Dietz, Ukraine makes decisions on its attack targets independently. This statement was in response to a series of accusations from Russia following the Ukrainian forces' attack on Sevastopol using ATACMS missiles provided by the United States.
- Founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, was released from a British prison on Monday and left the United Kingdom aboard an aeroplane - the website reported. According to court documents revealed overnight from Monday to Tuesday, Assange reached a settlement with the American justice system, under which he admitted to leaking hundreds of confidential US government documents in exchange for regaining his freedom and returning to his native Australia.
