TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — An imprisoned opposition activist in Belarus resurfaced Wednesday in a video shot by a pro-government blogger after over 700 days of no contact with his family, weeks before an election that is all but certain keep the country's strongman leader in power.
Viktar Babaryka, 61, has been denied meetings with his family and lawyers while serving a 14-year sentence in a penal colony after failing to get on the ballot against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in a 2020 election.
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FILE - People carrying an old Belarusian national flag ,that has become an anti-government symbol, march in an opposition rally to protest the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, on Oct. 18, 2020. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - People walk past informational posters supporting Viktar Babaryka, who wanted to run in the upcoming presidential elections, in Minsk, Belarus, on June 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)
FILE - Viktar Babaryka, a former presidential hopeful, makes a heart gesture while sitting in a defendants’ cage during his trial in Minsk, Belarus, on Feb. 17, 2021. (Oksana Manchuk/BelTA Pool Photo via AP)
FILE - Viktar Babaryka, a former presidential hopeful, stands inside a defendants’ cage during his trial in Minsk, Belarus, on July 6, 2021. (Ramil Nasibulin/BelTA Pool Photo via AP, File)
Babaryka was last heard from in February 2023, and other prisoners said later that year he was hospitalized with signs of beatings. Since then, authorities haven’t released any information about his condition and barred his lawyer from visits. The European Parliament has urged authorities to release him and other political prisoners.
Raman Pratasevich, a former opposition journalist who later became a government supporter after being arrested himself, posted photos and a brief video in which Babaryka greeted his family.
It wasn't clear when or under what conditions the images were taken, and The Associated Press could not independently verify them.
Babaryka, who looked visibly thinner than in his last appearance, was pictured wearing a prison uniform bearing a yellow tag designating him as a political prisoner and thus subjecting him to particularly harsh prison conditions.
Pavel Sapelka, a representative of the Viasna Human Rights Center, noted that the images were released ahead of the Jan. 26 presidential election, in which Lukashenko is seeking a seventh, five-year term to add to his more than three decades in power.
“The authorities decided to show Babaryka in the run-up to the election to avoid accusations of forced disappearance of opposition activists behind bars,” Sapelka said. “The terribly emaciated Babaryka epitomizes the nightmare of repressions in Belarus, a sad reminder for others who dare to challenge Lukashenko.”
In November, Pratasevich posted photos of Maria Kolesnikova, another prominent opposition activist who had been held for more than 20 months without any communication with relatives or friends.
Babaryka is one of 1,258 political prisoners in Belarus, according to Viasna, the country's leading human rights group. Top opposition figures were imprisoned or fled the country amid the sweeping crackdown that followed the 2020 election. Authorities responded to massive demonstrations protesting vote-rigging with brutal repressions in which about 65,000 people were arrested and thousands were brutally beaten by police.
At least seven political prisoners have died in custody, according to Viasna.
Like Babaryka, many other opposition activists have been held incommunicado.
Lukashenko pardoned some political prisoners last year but authorities launched a new wave of arrests before the election, seeking to uproot any sign of dissent.
Opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to leave the country after challenging Lukashenko in the 2020 vote, said she was happy to see Babaryka alive and demanded that authorities release information about others who have been held incommunicado, including her husband, activist Siarhei Tsikhanouski.
“We must now demand to see all others who have been held in complete isolation, and the cruel and inhumane incommunicado practice must stop,” she said.
Pratasevich ran a Telegram messaging app channel widely used by participants in the 2020 protests. He was living in exile when he was arrested in 2021 after being pulled off a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania that was diverted to Minsk by a bomb threat. Once in custody, he made several confessional appearances on state television that critics claimed were made under duress. He was later released and pardoned.
“We consider Pratasevich a hostage. He’s doing all what is ordered by the Belarusian authorities,” Sapelka said.
FILE - People carrying an old Belarusian national flag ,that has become an anti-government symbol, march in an opposition rally to protest the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, on Oct. 18, 2020. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - People walk past informational posters supporting Viktar Babaryka, who wanted to run in the upcoming presidential elections, in Minsk, Belarus, on June 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)
FILE - Viktar Babaryka, a former presidential hopeful, makes a heart gesture while sitting in a defendants’ cage during his trial in Minsk, Belarus, on Feb. 17, 2021. (Oksana Manchuk/BelTA Pool Photo via AP)
FILE - Viktar Babaryka, a former presidential hopeful, stands inside a defendants’ cage during his trial in Minsk, Belarus, on July 6, 2021. (Ramil Nasibulin/BelTA Pool Photo via AP, File)
U.S. forces have boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea. The announcement was made Friday by the U.S. military. The Trump administration has been targeting sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.
The pre-dawn action was carried out by U.S. Marines and Navy, taking part in the monthslong buildup of forces in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.
Navy officials couldn’t immediately provide details about whether the Coast Guard was part of the force that took control of the vessel as has been the case in the previous seizures. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said there was no immediate comment on the seizure.
The Olina is the fifth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid.
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Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, says a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump will make its premiere later this month, posting a trailer on X.
As the Trumps prepared to return to the White House last year, Amazon Prime Video announced a year ago that it had obtained exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release directed by Brett Ratner.
Melania Trump also released a self-titled memoir in late 2024.
Some artists have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center performances after a newly installed board voted to add President Donald Trump’s to the facility, prompting Grenell to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says that she has asked her foreign affairs secretary to reach out directly to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Trump regarding comments by the American leader that the U.S. cold begin ground attacks against drug cartels.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News aired Thursday night, Trump said, “We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”
As she has on previous occasions, Sheinbaum downplayed the remarks, saying “it is part of his way of communicating.” She said she asked her Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente to strengthen coordination with the U.S.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s offer to send U.S. troops after Mexican drug cartels. She emphasizes that there will be no violation of Mexico’s sovereignty, but the two governments will continue to collaborate closely.
Analysts do not see a U.S. incursion in Mexico as a real possibility, in part because Sheinbaum’s administration has been doing nearly everything Trump has asked and Mexico is a critical trade partner.
Trump says he wants to secure $100 billion to remake Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a lofty goal going into a 2:30 meeting on Friday with executives from leading oil companies. His plan rides on oil producers being comfortable in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.
The president has said that the U.S. will control distribution worldwide of Venezuela’s oil and will share some of the proceeds with the country’s population from accounts that it controls.
“At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.
Trump is banking on the idea that he can tap more of Venezuela’s petroleum reserves to keep oil prices and gasoline costs low.
At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.
Trump is expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday.
He hopes to secure $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s oil industry. The goal rides on the executives’ comfort with investing in a country facing instability and inflation.
Since a U.S. military raid captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has said there’s a new opportunity to use the country’s oil to keep gasoline prices low.
The full list of executives invited to the meeting has not been disclosed, but Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend.
Attorneys general in five Democratic-led states have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration after it said it would freeze money for several public benefit programs.
The Trump administration has cited concerns about fraud in the programs designed to help low-income families and their children. California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New York states filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit asks the courts to order the administration to release the funds. The attorneys general have called the funding freeze an unconstitutional abuse of power.
Iran’s judiciary chief has vowed decisive punishment for protesters, signaling a coming crackdown against demonstrations.
Iranian state television reported the comments from Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on Friday. They came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Trump’s support for the protesters, calling Trump’s hands “stained with the blood of Iranians.”
The government has shut down the internet and is blocking international calls. State media has labeled the demonstrators as “terrorists.”
The protests began over Iran’s struggling economy and have become a significant challenge to the government. Violence has killed at least 50 people, and more than 2,270 have been detained.
Trump questions why a president’s party often loses in midterm elections and suggests voters “want, maybe a check or something”
Trump suggested voters want to check a president’s power and that’s why they often deliver wins for an opposing party in midterm elections, which he’s facing this year.
“There’s something down, deep psychologically with the voters that they want, maybe a check or something. I don’t know what it is, exactly,” he said.
He said that one would expect that after winning an election and having “a great, successful presidency, it would be an automatic win, but it’s never been a win.”
Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.
December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.
The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.
FILE - President Donald Trump dances as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
