Czech government faces no-confidence vote over bitcoin scandal
The vote, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, is likely to fail as the government has a majority in parliament - but it could still dent the ruling centre-right coalition's chances in an October 3-4 election in which it trails the opposition.
Political veteran Pavel Blazek resigned as justice minister on May 31 for accepting the payment for the state, though he denied doing anything illegal.
Opposition groups including the ANO party led by former prime minister Andrej Babis have called on Prime Minister Petr Fiala to quit and said the payment was evidence of corruption.
"We have no choice," ANO vice-chair Alena Schillerova said on X after filing the no-confidence motion.
The man who made the donation of 468 bitcoins to the state was in jail from 2017 until 2021 after being convicted of involvement in the drug trade, fraud and illegal possession of weapons.
Blazek has faced criticism for possibly legitimising the ex-convict's assets, instead of turning to prosecutors or police to help secure them.
Opinion polls show Babis's ANO party with a clear lead over the main group in the government coalition led by Fiala's ODS party. REUTERS
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Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Trump touts his diplomatic record, but the results are mixed
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gestures as U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during a meeting at the Oval Office of the White House, amid negotiations to end the Russian war in Ukraine, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 18, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently invoked his success at resolving international conflicts, casting himself as a global peacemaker while his aides and some foreign leaders push for him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He has found Russia's war in Ukraine to be far more vexing. Trump has put himself squarely in the middle of the diplomatic attempts to bring peace but has wavered on what he's willing to do to achieve it. Here are some of the foreign disputes Trump has intervened in since beginning his second term in January, using a mix of threats, inducements and the power of his office to shape the behaviors of allies and foes. ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN Trump brought together the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on August 8 to sign a joint declaration pledging to seek peaceful relations between nations that have been at odds since the late 1980s. "I got to know them through trade," Trump said later in a radio interview. "I was dealing with them a little bit and I said, 'Why you guys fighting?' Then I said, 'I'm not going to do a trade deal if you guys are going to fight. It's crazy.'" The two countries had committed to a ceasefire in 2023. In March they said they had agreed on the text of a draft peace agreement, but that deal has not been signed. The White House-brokered declaration falls short of a formal peace treaty that would place legally binding obligations on both sides. One snag is over whether an agreement requires Armenia to revise its constitution. The leaders also struck economic agreements with Washington that granted the U.S. development rights to a strategic transit corridor through southern Armenia. The Trump administration said this would allow for greater exports of energy. In documents released at the time, the corridor was named after Trump. CAMBODIA AND THAILAND Trump helped bring Thailand to the table for talks after long-simmering tensions with Cambodia spilled over in July into a five-day military conflict, the deadliest fighting there in over a decade. The U.S. president reached out to acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai two days after fighting erupted along a 200-km-long (125 mile) stretch of the border. Trump withheld deals on tariffs with both countries until the conflict ended. Up to that point, Bangkok had rejected third-party mediation and had not responded to offers of help from Malaysia and China, Reuters reporting showed. Trump's intervention helped get Thailand to the table, according to Lim Menghour, a Cambodian government official working on foreign policy. Subsequent talks yielded a fragile agreement to end hostilities, resume direct communications and create a mechanism to implement the ceasefire. Trump went on to impose a 19% tariff on both countries' U.S.-bound exports, lower than he had initially floated. ISRAEL, IRAN AND THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES Trump has maintained strong U.S. backing for Israel as it pummels Gaza and tries to uproot Hamas. He has also supported its efforts to disable other Iran-backed groups, including Hezbollah and the Houthi movement, and Tehran itself. The U.S. president is working to expand the Abraham Accords, an initiative from his first term that aims to normalize diplomatic ties between Israel and Arab nations. But a solution to Israeli-Palestinian and Iranian conflicts has eluded Trump, just as it has all U.S. presidents for decades. Washington provides weapons and diplomatic cover to Israel as its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed international condemnation of the humanitarian toll of his military campaign in Gaza. Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in Gaza in January, after Trump's election but before his inauguration. The deal had been mediated by Egypt and Qatar and also involved personnel from the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administrations. Israel abandoned the ceasefire in March. Talks toward a new ceasefire collapsed in July. Mediators are trying to revive a U.S.-backed ceasefire plan but Israel is also planning a new, expanded military operation in Gaza. Trump has blamed Hamas for not seeking a reasonable settlement of the conflict and pressured them to do so. Trump initially pursued talks with Tehran over its nuclear program. Israel launched an aerial war on Iran on June 13 and pressed Trump join in. He did on June 22, bombing Iranian nuclear sites. He then pressed Israel and Iran to join a ceasefire that Qatar mediated. The situation remains bitter and unstable. Iran continues to reject U.S. demands that it stop enriching uranium for its nuclear program. And Israel has said it will strike Iran again if it feels threatened. RWANDA AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement on June 27 under pressure from Trump, raising hopes for the end of fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more this year. The fighting is the latest episode in a decades-old conflict with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda sent thousands of soldiers over the border, according to analysts, to support M23 rebels who seized eastern Congo's two largest cities and lucrative mining areas earlier this year. Rwanda denies helping M23. In February, a Congolese senator contacted U.S. officials to pitch a minerals-for-security deal. Then, in March, Qatar brokered a surprise sit-down between Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda's Paul Kagame during which the two leaders called for a ceasefire. Qatar has also brokered talks between Congo and M23, but the two sides are yet to agree on a peace deal and violence continues. At the White House, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told Trump that past deals had not been implemented and urged Trump to stay engaged. Trump warned of "very severe penalties, financial and otherwise" if the agreement is violated. INDIA AND PAKISTAN U.S. officials worried conflict could spiral out of control when nuclear-armed India and Pakistan clashed in May following an attack in India that Delhi blamed on Islamabad. Consulting with Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance pushed Indian and Pakistani officials to de-escalate the situation. A ceasefire was announced on May 10 after four days of fighting. But it addresses few of the issues that have divided India and Pakistan, which have fought three major wars since their independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. Days after the ceasefire, Trump said he used the threat of cutting trade with the countries to secure the deal. India disputed that U.S. pressure led to the ceasefire and that trade was a factor. EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA Egypt and Ethiopia have a long dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo regards as a national security issue and worries will threaten its Nile River water supplies. "We're working on that one problem, but it's going to get solved," Trump said in July. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later included Egypt and Ethiopia in a list of conflicts that "the president has now ended." It's unclear what Trump is doing on the issue. In public statements, he has largely echoed Cairo's concerns, and some of his statements have been disputed by Ethiopia. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has vowed to open the dam in September over the objections of both Sudan and Egypt. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who welcomed Trump's comments on the issue, has vowed to protect his own country's interests. SERBIA AND KOSOVO Kosovo and Serbia still have tense relations nearly five years after agreements Trump brokered with both during his first term in office to work on their economic ties. Without providing evidence, Trump said in June he "stopped" war between the countries during his first term and that "I will fix it, again," in his second. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, almost a decade after NATO bombed Serb forces to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians from the region during a 1998-1999 counter-insurgency war. But Serbia still regards Kosovo as an integral part of its territory. The countries have signed no peace deal. Kosovo's prime minister Albin Kurti has sought to extend government control over the north, where about 50,000 ethnic Serbs live, many of whom refuse to recognize Kosovo's independence. Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani said in July that "the last few weeks" Trump had prevented further escalation in the region. She did not elaborate, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied that any escalation had been forthcoming. RUSSIA AND UKRAINE Trump, who said during the 2024 presidential campaign that he could solve the war in Ukraine in one day, has so far been unable to end the 3-1/2-year-old conflict that analysts say has left more than 1 million people dead or wounded. "I thought this was going to be one of the easier ones," Trump said on August 18. "It's actually one of the most difficult." Trump's views on how to best bring peace have swung from calling for a ceasefire to saying a deal could still be worked out while the fighting continued. He has threatened tariffs and sanctions against Putin, but then backed off them again after an Alaska summit where the two leaders appeared before backdrops that said "Pursuing Peace." Trump, who has sometimes criticized and sometimes supported Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, this week said the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal. He subsequently said he had ruled out putting U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine, but the U.S. might provide air support to help end the hostilities. Europeans have worried that Trump might push Zelenskiy to accept a proposal from Putin that included significant territorial concessions by Kyiv and limited security guarantees from Washington. Despite talk of a possible meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy, there was no let-up in the fighting. Russia this week launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, the largest this month. SOUTH KOREA AND NORTH KOREA Trump in June vowed to "get the conflict solved with North Korea." The U.S. president and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held three summits during Trump's 2017-2021 first term and exchanged a number of letters that Trump called "beautiful," before the unprecedented diplomatic effort broke down over U.S. demands that Kim give up his nuclear weapons. North Korea has surged ahead with more and bigger ballistic missiles, expanded its nuclear weapons facilities, and gained new support from its neighbors in the years since. In his second term Trump has acknowledged that North Korea is a "nuclear power." The White House said in June that Trump would welcome communications again with Kim. It has not responded to reports that Trump's initial efforts at communication with the North Korean leader have been ignored. REUTERS
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
As war in Ukraine rages, Trump touts uneven diplomatic record
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gestures as U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during a meeting at the Oval Office of the White House, amid negotiations to end the Russian war in Ukraine, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 18, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently invoked his success at resolving international conflicts, casting himself as a global peacemaker while his aides and some foreign leaders push for him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He has found Russia's war in Ukraine to be far more vexing. Trump has put himself squarely in the middle of the diplomatic attempts to bring peace but has wavered on what he's willing to do to achieve it. Here are some of the foreign disputes Trump has intervened in since beginning his second term in January, using a mix of threats, inducements and the power of his office to shape the behaviors of allies and foes. ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN Trump brought together the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on August 8 to sign a joint declaration pledging to seek peaceful relations between nations that have been at odds since the late 1980s. "I got to know them through trade," Trump said later in a radio interview. "I was dealing with them a little bit and I said, 'Why you guys fighting?' Then I said, 'I'm not going to do a trade deal if you guys are going to fight. It's crazy.'" The two countries had committed to a ceasefire in 2023. In March they said they had agreed on the text of a draft peace agreement, but that deal has not been signed. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 18 persons nabbed and 82 vapes seized in HSA ops in Raffles Place and Haji Lane Singapore 3 Sengkang Green Primary pupils suspended for bullying classmate, with 1 of them caned: MOE Singapore Woman trapped between train doors: Judge rules SBS Transit '100% responsible' Singapore Religion growing in importance for Singaporeans: IPS study Life Record number of arts patrons in 2024, but overall donation dips to $45.74m Life 'Loss that's irreplaceable': Local film-makers mourn closure of Singapore indie cinema The Projector Singapore Nearly 2 years' jail, caning for man caught with at least 100 sexually explicit videos of children Singapore Grab users in Singapore shocked by fares of over $1,000 due to display glitch The White House-brokered declaration falls short of a formal peace treaty that would place legally binding obligations on both sides. One snag is over whether an agreement requires Armenia to revise its constitution. The leaders also struck economic agreements with Washington that granted the U.S. development rights to a strategic transit corridor through southern Armenia. The Trump administration said this would allow for greater exports of energy. In documents released at the time, the corridor was named after Trump. CAMBODIA AND THAILAND Trump helped bring Thailand to the table for talks after long-simmering tensions with Cambodia spilled over in July into a five-day military conflict, the deadliest fighting there in over a decade. The U.S. president reached out to acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai two days after fighting erupted along a 200-km-long (125 mile) stretch of the border. Trump withheld deals on tariffs with both countries until the conflict ended. Up to that point, Bangkok had rejected third-party mediation and had not responded to offers of help from Malaysia and China, Reuters reporting showed. Trump's intervention helped get Thailand to the table, according to Lim Menghour, a Cambodian government official working on foreign policy. Subsequent talks yielded a fragile agreement to end hostilities, resume direct communications and create a mechanism to implement the ceasefire. Trump went on to impose a 19% tariff on both countries' U.S.-bound exports, lower than he had initially floated. ISRAEL, IRAN AND THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES Trump has maintained strong U.S. backing for Israel as it pummels Gaza and tries to uproot Hamas. He has also supported its efforts to disable other Iran-backed groups, including Hezbollah and the Houthi movement, and Tehran itself. The U.S. president is working to expand the Abraham Accords, an initiative from his first term that aims to normalize diplomatic ties between Israel and Arab nations. But a solution to Israeli-Palestinian and Iranian conflicts has eluded Trump, just as it has all U.S. presidents for decades. Washington provides weapons and diplomatic cover to Israel as its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed international condemnation of the humanitarian toll of his military campaign in Gaza. Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in Gaza in January, after Trump's election but before his inauguration. The deal had been mediated by Egypt and Qatar and also involved personnel from the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administrations. Israel abandoned the ceasefire in March. Talks toward a new ceasefire collapsed in July. Mediators are trying to revive a U.S.-backed ceasefire plan but Israel is also planning a new, expanded military operation in Gaza. Trump has blamed Hamas for not seeking a reasonable settlement of the conflict and pressured them to do so. Trump initially pursued talks with Tehran over its nuclear program. Israel launched an aerial war on Iran on June 13 and pressed Trump join in. He did on June 22, bombing Iranian nuclear sites. He then pressed Israel and Iran to join a ceasefire that Qatar mediated. The situation remains bitter and unstable. Iran continues to reject U.S. demands that it stop enriching uranium for its nuclear program. And Israel has said it will strike Iran again if it feels threatened. RWANDA AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement on June 27 under pressure from Trump, raising hopes for the end of fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more this year. The fighting is the latest episode in a decades-old conflict with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda sent thousands of soldiers over the border, according to analysts, to support M23 rebels who seized eastern Congo's two largest cities and lucrative mining areas earlier this year. Rwanda denies helping M23. In February, a Congolese senator contacted U.S. officials to pitch a minerals-for-security deal. Then, in March, Qatar brokered a surprise sit-down between Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda's Paul Kagame during which the two leaders called for a ceasefire. Qatar has also brokered talks between Congo and M23, but the two sides are yet to agree on a peace deal and violence continues. At the White House, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told Trump that past deals had not been implemented and urged Trump to stay engaged. Trump warned of "very severe penalties, financial and otherwise" if the agreement is violated. INDIA AND PAKISTAN U.S. officials worried conflict could spiral out of control when nuclear-armed India and Pakistan clashed in May following an attack in India that Delhi blamed on Islamabad. Consulting with Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance pushed Indian and Pakistani officials to de-escalate the situation. A ceasefire was announced on May 10 after four days of fighting. But it addresses few of the issues that have divided India and Pakistan, which have fought three major wars since their independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. Days after the ceasefire, Trump said he used the threat of cutting trade with the countries to secure the deal. India disputed that U.S. pressure led to the ceasefire and that trade was a factor. EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA Egypt and Ethiopia have a long dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo regards as a national security issue and worries will threaten its Nile River water supplies. "We're working on that one problem, but it's going to get solved," Trump said in July. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later included Egypt and Ethiopia in a list of conflicts that "the president has now ended." It's unclear what Trump is doing on the issue. In public statements, he has largely echoed Cairo's concerns, and some of his statements have been disputed by Ethiopia. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has vowed to open the dam in September over the objections of both Sudan and Egypt. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who welcomed Trump's comments on the issue, has vowed to protect his own country's interests. SERBIA AND KOSOVO Kosovo and Serbia still have tense relations nearly five years after agreements Trump brokered with both during his first term in office to work on their economic ties. Without providing evidence, Trump said in June he "stopped" war between the countries during his first term and that "I will fix it, again," in his second. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, almost a decade after NATO bombed Serb forces to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians from the region during a 1998-1999 counter-insurgency war. But Serbia still regards Kosovo as an integral part of its territory. The countries have signed no peace deal. Kosovo's prime minister Albin Kurti has sought to extend government control over the north, where about 50,000 ethnic Serbs live, many of whom refuse to recognize Kosovo's independence. Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani said in July that "the last few weeks" Trump had prevented further escalation in the region. She did not elaborate, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied that any escalation had been forthcoming. RUSSIA AND UKRAINE Trump, who said during the 2024 presidential campaign that he could solve the war in Ukraine in one day, has so far been unable to end the 3-1/2-year-old conflict that analysts say has left more than 1 million people dead or wounded. "I thought this was going to be one of the easier ones," Trump said on August 18. "It's actually one of the most difficult." Trump's views on how to best bring peace have swung from calling for a ceasefire to saying a deal could still be worked out while the fighting continued. He has threatened tariffs and sanctions against Putin, but then backed off them again after an Alaska summit where the two leaders appeared before backdrops that said "Pursuing Peace." Trump, who has sometimes criticized and sometimes supported Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, this week said the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal. He subsequently said he had ruled out putting U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine, but the U.S. might provide air support to help end the hostilities. Europeans have worried that Trump might push Zelenskiy to accept a proposal from Putin that included significant territorial concessions by Kyiv and limited security guarantees from Washington. Despite talk of a possible meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy, there was no let-up in the fighting. Russia this week launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, the largest this month. SOUTH KOREA AND NORTH KOREA Trump in June vowed to "get the conflict solved with North Korea." The U.S. president and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held three summits during Trump's 2017-2021 first term and exchanged a number of letters that Trump called "beautiful," before the unprecedented diplomatic effort broke down over U.S. demands that Kim give up his nuclear weapons. North Korea has surged ahead with more and bigger ballistic missiles, expanded its nuclear weapons facilities, and gained new support from its neighbors in the years since. In his second term Trump has acknowledged that North Korea is a "nuclear power." The White House said in June that Trump would welcome communications again with Kim. It has not responded to reports that Trump's initial efforts at communication with the North Korean leader have been ignored. REUTERS
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Jeffrey Epstein grand jury records to remain sealed, judge rules
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Judge Richard Berman is seen in this file photo, during a hearing, in a courtroom sketch at Federal Court in New York, U.S., August 27, 2019. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo NEW YORK - A U.S. judge denied on Wednesday the Justice Department's bid to unseal records from the grand jury that indicted the late financier Jeffrey Epstein on sex trafficking charges, saying the material paled in comparison to the trove of records the government has about the case but is not releasing. Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Richard Berman's decision came as President Donald Trump has sought to quell discontent from his conservative base of supporters over his administration's decision not to release files of the case. The judge wrote that it would be more logical for the government to directly release the vast amount of information it has collected from its investigation into Epstein than to petition the court to release the more limited grand jury materials, whose secrecy is protected by law. "The Government's 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials," Berman wrote. "The grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged conduct." The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump, a Republican, had campaigned for a second term in 2024 with promises to make public Epstein-related files, and accused Democrats of covering up the truth. But in July, the Justice Department declined to release any more material from its investigation of the case and said a previously touted Epstein client list did not exist, angering Trump's supporters. Evidence seen and heard by grand juries, which operate behind closed doors to prevent interference in criminal investigations, cannot be released without a judge's approval. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 18 persons nabbed and 82 vapes seized in HSA ops in Raffles Place and Haji Lane Singapore 3 Sengkang Green Primary pupils suspended for bullying classmate, with 1 of them caned: MOE Singapore Woman trapped between train doors: Judge rules SBS Transit '100% responsible' Singapore Religion growing in importance for Singaporeans: IPS study Life Record number of arts patrons in 2024, but overall donation dips to $45.74m Life 'Loss that's irreplaceable': Local film-makers mourn closure of Singapore indie cinema The Projector Singapore Nearly 2 years' jail, caning for man caught with at least 100 sexually explicit videos of children Singapore Grab users in Singapore shocked by fares of over $1,000 due to display glitch In July, Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek court approval for the release of grand jury material from Epstein's case. The grand jury that indicted Epstein heard from just one witness, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department said in a court filing in July. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty. His death in jail and his friendships with the wealthy and powerful sparked conspiracy theories that other prominent people were involved in his alleged crimes and that he was murdered. The New York City chief medical examiner determined that Epstein's death was a suicide by hanging. On Aug. 11, a different Manhattan-based judge, Paul Engelmayer, denied a similar request by the Justice Department to unseal grand jury testimony and exhibits from the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime girlfriend. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence following her 2021 conviction for recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse. Engelmayer wrote that the public would not learn anything new from the release of materials from Maxwell's grand jury because much of the evidence was made public at her monthlong trial four years ago. The grand jury testimony contained no evidence of others besides Epstein and Maxwell who had sexual contact with minors, Engelmayer wrote. Maxwell had pleaded not guilty. After losing an appeal, she has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case. In July, a Florida judge rejected the administration's request to unseal grand jury records from federal investigations there into Epstein in 2005 and 2007. Epstein served a 13-month sentence after pleading guilty in 2008 to a state-level prostitution charge as part of a deal now widely regarded as too lenient. REUTERS
