Overnight global roundup: Bombings, evacuations, and political shifts

• At least one person was killed due to two explosions that occurred late Wednesday evening near the headquarters of Brazil's Federal Supreme Court in the country's capital, Brasília. Local authorities have assessed it as a suicide bombing. The explosions took place at the Three Powers Plaza, where the Supreme Court and Planalto Palace, the president's office, are located. The Congress building is nearby. Local firefighters confirmed that a man was killed but did not disclose his identity.

• More than four thousand people were evacuated in Andalusia due to further floods caused by heavy rainfall. In Málaga and Valencia, the highest possible red alerts were issued. The internet is flooded with recordings, including those showing residents assisting each other.

• At least 30 residents of Cuba were detained over the past week by special services during anti-government protests in response to restrictions on electricity supplies, independent Cuban media reported on Wednesday. Opposition activists reported that among those detained in recent hours is the well-known writer Jose Gabriel Barrenechea. According to police, he was leading a group of people participating in a protest in the town of Encrucijada, in the central part of the island. The writer has already been imprisoned in a facility in the city of Santa Clara. Among those detained in recent days is also the leader of the Cuban women's opposition organization Ladies in White, Berta Soler. Her whereabouts are unknown.

• In the area of the city of Dzhankoy in Russian-occupied Crimea, a road bridge collapsed over railway tracks on Wednesday. Due to the disaster, rail freight transport between Crimea and the Zaporizhzhia region is temporarily suspended, reported the Russian news agency Tass.

• The Republican Party will maintain a majority and control in the U.S. House of Representatives, as reported by NBC and CNN on Wednesday, based on the results so far in the race for House seats. Republicans also decided on Wednesday to re-elect Mike Johnson as Speaker. According to forecasts by both television networks, Republicans have already secured the required majority of 218 seats, although not all electoral races have been decided so far, and it is uncertain what the margin of their control in the House will be. So far, the party has secured 218 seats, while Democrats have secured 208. The results of votes in nine districts, including in California and Alaska, are still undecided. In the current Congress, Republicans have 221 seats and will likely maintain that number or increase it by one vote. However, the situation may be complicated by appointments to Donald Trump’s cabinet, which has already announced the selection of three Republican congressmen, which could at least temporarily reduce the Republican majority to minimal numbers.

• Former Bosnian Serb army general Radislav Krstić, sentenced by the Hague tribunal for aiding in the massacre in Srebrenica, admitted that genocide indeed took place there in 1995. For the first time, a Serbian participant in these events has described them using the term recognized by international jurisprudence. Convicted of war crimes and genocide, Krstić, one of the closest associates of the Serbian forces' commander Gen. Ratko Mladić, wrote in a letter to the UN tribunal attached to his request for early release from prison, where he is serving a 35-year sentence. "I helped and supported genocide. I committed an unimaginable and unforgivable crime. I am not asking for forgiveness, I am not asking for justification, I am not asking for understanding because I know that I cannot and should not obtain it," wrote Krstić in a letter made available at his request by the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), to which it was addressed.

Source: PAP, WP Wiadomości