BERLIN (AFP) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday promised a full investigation after what appeared to be a recording of confidential army talks on the Ukraine war was posted on Russian social media, in a potentially huge embarrassment for Berlin. The head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday posted the 38-minute audio recording of what she claimed were German army officers on February 19 discussing potential strikes on Crimea. “What is being reported is a very serious matter and that is why it is now being investigated very carefully, very intensively and very quickly,” Scholz said on a visit to Rome. In the recording, discussions can be heard on the possible use by Ukrainian forces of German-made Taurus missiles and their potential impact. Topics include aiming the missiles at targets such as a key bridge over the Kerch strait linking the Russian mainland to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. The discussions also cover the use of missiles provided to Kyiv by France and Britain.

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NJAMENA (AP) – Chad’s military leader has said that he will run in the country’s long-awaited presidential elections in May, just three days after his chief rival was killed in suspicious circumstances. “I, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, am a candidate for the 2024 presidential election under the banner of the For a United Chad coalition,” Deby said in a speech on Saturday. The vote will mark the end of three years of military rule in the politically charged Central African country. Deby took power after his father and longtime ruler, Idriss Deby Itno, died fighting rebels in the country’s north in April 2021. The younger Deby promised a return to civilian rule, as well as elections, but the leader extended the transition by two years, despite loud objections from opposition parties. Last week, the country’s elections agency finally announced that the vote would be held on May 6, following a December referendum promising to amend the constitution.

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RENO (AP) – A powerful blizzard raged overnight into Saturday in the Sierra Nevada as the biggest storm of the season shut down a long stretch of Interstate-80 in California and gusty winds and heavy rain hit lower elevations, leaving tens of thousands of customers without power. Up to 10 feet (3 meters) of snow is expected in some areas. The National Weather Service said early Saturday that widespread blowing snow was creating “extremely dangerous to impossible travel conditions.” The combination of snow and high winds was most intense in the Sierra Nevada, with more than 3 inches (7 centimeters) of snow falling per hour and wind gusts over 100 mph (161 kph). “High to extreme avalanche danger” is expected in the backcountry through Sunday evening throughout the central Sierra, including the greater Lake Tahoe area, the weather service said. California authorities on Friday shut down 100 miles (160 kilometers) of I-80 due to “spin outs, high winds, and low visibility.” They had no estimate when the freeway would reopen from the California-Nevada border just west of Reno to near Emigrant Gap, California.

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PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbecue, has warned he would keep trying to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry, and asked families to keep children from going to school to “avoid collateral damages” as violence surges in parts of the capital. Heavy gunfire and traffic disruptions were seen in some areas of Haiti’s capital, where more people fled homes close to the fighting as burnt buses lay on the streets and burning barricades filled the air with thick, gray smoke. “The battle will last as long as it needs to. We will keep fighting Ariel Henry. To avoid collateral damage, keep the kids at home,” the gang leader said at a press conference. Cherizier is a former police officer who heads an alliance of gangs and disrupted the country when he blocked its biggest oil terminal in 2022. He has faced sanctions from both the United Nations and the United States Department of Treasury.

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BUENO AIREST (AFP) – Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei has promised to keep pushing his agenda of radical economic liberalization with or without the support of parliament. In a state-of-the-union-style address to lawmakers, Milei said he would “keep pushing forward” with a package of sweeping economic reforms aimed at jolting the country out of decades of dysfunction and decline. “We are going to change the country for good … with or without the support of political leaders, with all the legal resources of the executive,” Milei said. “If you look for conflict, you will have conflict.” Milei laid down the gauntlet to parliament after lawmakers last month rejected his omnibus reform bill despite tough negotiations with the opposition that reduced the number of proposed changes by nearly half. In more conciliatory remarks to local governors, Milei called for a 10-point “social pact” that would overhaul the framework for distributing tax funds between the federal government and provinces.

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NEW YORK (AP) – The United Nations human rights chief has said that the apparent deliberate denial of safe access for humanitarian agencies within war-torn Sudan could amount to a war crime. “Sudan has become a living nightmare. Almost half of the population – 25 million people – are in urgent need of food and medical aid. Some 80 percent of hospitals have been put out of service,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said. The Sudan crisis “continues to be marked by an insidious disregard for human life”, he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, saying that many of the violations of international humanitarian law committed by the warring parties “may amount to war crimes, or other atrocity crimes”. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been fighting Sudan’s army for control of the country since April last year in a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions inside and outside the country, and sparked warnings of famine. Both sides “have killed thousands, seemingly without remorse”, Turk said, noting the use of heavy artillery, even in densely populated urban areas.