Israel has announced the closure of its embassy in Ireland, citing “extreme” policies towards the Jewish state, including the accusations of committing genocide of Palestinians. 

The decision to shut down the diplomatic outpost “was made in light of the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. 

The actions and antisemitic rhetoric used by Ireland against Israel are rooted in the delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish state, along with double standards,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said. “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel.”

“Israel will invest its resources in advancing bilateral relations with countries worldwide according to priorities that also take into account the attitudes and actions of these states toward Israel,” Saar added.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said he was “deeply disappointed” by Israel’s decision. “Keeping channels open has never been more important so that we can better understand each other’s positions, even when we disagree.”

Harris denied that Ireland was anti-Israel. “Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law,” he said.

“There has been a collective punishment of the Palestinian people through the intent and impact of military actions of Israel in Gaza, leaving 44,000 dead and millions of civilians displaced,” the Irish government said in a statement.

Israel has rejected the accusation of genocide as “absurd,” insisting that Hamas should be blamed for civilian deaths in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) accused the armed group of using Palestinian civilians as human shields and said that its operation in Gaza would continue until the threat from Hamas is eliminated. Israeli similarly dismissed the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Paris will send a team of diplomats to Syria on Tuesday to evaluate the political and security situation following the collapse of the government of President Bashar Assad, acting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has said.

“The goal of the four diplomats who will be sent to Syria is to recover our assets there,” as well as establish contacts with new authorities and “assess the humanitarian needs of the population,” Barrot said, according to Le Figaro.

Barrot stressed that the French delegation will travel to Syria for the first time in 12 years. The diplomats will “verify whether the somewhat encouraging statements made by these new authorities, which called for calm and seem not to have been involved in violations, are actually being implemented on the ground,” he added.

The situation in the civil war-torn Syria was upended earlier this month, when a coalition of armed opposition forces led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forced Assad into exile in Russia. Mohammad al-Bashir, who led the HTS-run government in Idlib province, was appointed caretaker prime minister.

“We are not naive about the new authorities in Damascus. We are aware of the past of some Islamist groups,” Barrot said, adding that France will monitor the developments in Syria “with great vigilance.”

“On the political level, the de facto authorities must give way to a transitional authority that is representative of all faiths and communities in Syria and that can gradually move Syria towards a new constitution and ultimately towards elections,” the diplomat said.

France broke off ties with the Assad government at the onset of the Syrian war in 2012. Like the US and its other European allies, Paris backed “moderate” opposition groups, as well as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). In April 2018, together with the US and the UK, France conducted airstrikes on the territory controlled by Assad.

Ukraine’s military leadership has changed the commander of the Donetsk tactical group amid Russia’s continued advance toward the city of Pokrovsk in southwestern Donbass. The replacement of General Alexander Lutsenko was announced on Friday by Ukrainian MP Mariana Bezuglaya on Telegram.

Pokrovsk (also known as Krasnoarmeysk) is the largest population center under Ukrainian control in the west of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). It has gone from a major supply hub for the frontline forts to being on the front line itself.

General Alexander Tarnavsky, who participated in the “failed southern counteroffensive in 2023” will be taking his place, Bezuglaya revealed. The general commanded the Ukrainian forces operating in the city of Avdeevka when Russian forces captured it. Tarnavsky claimed the chaotic retreat of Ukrainian forces from Avdeevka was in fact going according to plan.

In the past 24 hours, Russian troops have liberated two villages in the DPR: Vesely Gai, located ten kilometers south of Kurakhovo, and Pushkino, 15 kilometers south of Pokrovsk. Kurakhovo is heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces and remains one of the last few major populated areas they control in southwestern Donbass. Pokrovsk is about 30 kilometers north of Kurakhovo. Last month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky referred to these areas as “the most difficult” for Ukrainian forces.

Back in November one Ukrainian commander told CNN that troops on the Pokrovsk front have been told to shoot unidentified persons on sight, fearful of Russian patrols infiltrating the sparsely held line. Another one told the outlet that only about 60 soldiers defended the key town of Selidovo when Russian forces took it last month.

The Ukraine conflict will not be resolved until Kiev accepts some “partial territorial losses,” Slovak President Peter Pellegrini has said. Pellegrini and Prime Minister Robert Fico have both called on Russia and Ukraine to enter immediate peace talks.

Speaking to Slovakia’s broadcaster STVR on Sunday, Pellegrini said that daily updates from the front line have convinced him that Ukraine cannot hope to achieve its territorial goals – the return of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporozhye and Crimea – by force.

”When it comes to peace, I believe that we need to remain realistic,” he told the network. “Today, probably no sane person in Europe believes that it will be possible to achieve peace without some partial territorial losses for Ukraine.”

The president then called on Ukraine and Russia to sit down at the negotiating table as soon as possible.

After taking office last year, Fico immediately halted military aid from Bratislava to Kiev, and vowed to veto Ukraine’s potential accession to NATO. He has also accused “Ukrainian Nazis and fascists” of starting the conflict by “murdering the Russian population of Donbass,” and has condemned his fellow EU leaders for prolonging the fighting with military aid and sanctions on Moscow.

”What is the result? The Russians are gaining more and more territory, the sanctions are not working, and Ukraine is no longer strong enough for possible negotiations,” he told Folha de Sao Paulo. Fico also predicted that Kiev will likely be “betrayed” by its Western backers and possibly end up losing a third of its territories without being invited into NATO, receiving security guarantees only in the form of a foreign troop presence in the country.

Moscow maintains that any settlement must begin with Ukraine ceasing military operations and acknowledging the “territorial reality” that it will never regain control of its former regions. In addition, the Kremlin insists that the goals of its military operation – which include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – will be achieved.

Three drones attacked the city of Grozny in Russia’s Chechen Republic on Sunday. It was the second such attack on the southern republic in a week. 

There were no casualties, with air defenses having shot down two enemy UAVs, according to Kadyrov. The third one fell on the premises of the Akhmat Grozny riot police battalion under Russia’s National Guard. 

“The next time you come up with the idea of hitting the Chechen Republic with drones, keep in mind that we will carry out selective strikes on places where the Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel gather,” local leader Ramzan Kadyrov warned on his Telegram channel.

There were reports about the attack on the city in the Ukrainian media. The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet officially commented on the strike.

On Thursday a Ukrainian drone damaged a police barracks in Grozny, injuring four servicemen. 

“As for morale, such attempts only strengthen our faith in victory and the will to quickly rout the enemy,” Kadyrov wrote in that instance. 

US President-elect Donald Trump is taking “a hard look” at a proposal for a Christmas truce and prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine put forward by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Trump’s nominee for national security adviser Mike Waltz has said.

Orban met with Trump and Waltz at the incoming president’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, two days before he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone. After the conversation, the Kremlin announced that Orban had proposed a Christmas Day truce and a large-scale prisoner-swap between Moscow and Kiev, and that the Russian government had responded by sending its ideas for the exchange of POWs to the Hungarian embassy in Moscow.

Speaking to CBS News on Sunday, Waltz refused to say whether Orban had passed on a message from Trump to Putin. However, he said that Trump’s administration-in-waiting wants to “stop the fighting” and that if there is “some type of ceasefire as a first step…we'll take a hard look at what that means.”

“Orban has regular engagement with the Russians, and he clearly has a good relationship with President Trump, and I would hope the entire world would want to see some type of cessation to the slaughter,” Waltz told CBS’ Margaret Brennan, calling the Donbass battlefield “a meat grinder of human beings.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto then revealed that the Ukrainian leadership turned down a phone call request from Orban and had done so in a manner that was “quite unprecedented in diplomacy.” In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio on Sunday, Szijjarto said that the request was refused in “a somewhat strained” manner, without elaborating on the exact wording used by the authorities in Kiev.

Trump has repeatedly promised to end the Ukraine conflict within a day of taking office. However, he has not elaborated on how he plans to achieve this, and both Moscow and Kiev have cast doubt on his ability to single-handedly stop the fighting.

“Trump is really serious about wanting to get to a ceasefire on day one,” a source supposedly close to the incoming president told NBC News on Friday.

Moscow maintains that any settlement must begin with Ukraine ceasing military operations and acknowledging the “territorial reality” that it will never regain control of the Russian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, as well as Crimea. In addition, the Kremlin insists that the goals of its military operation – which include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – will be achieved.

A Qatari diplomatic delegation has arrived in Damascus “to complete the necessary procedures” for re-opening its embassy there, the Gulf country’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Qatar’s then-Ambassador to Syria, Zayed al-Khayarine, left Damascus in July 2011, when the embassy suspended its work. The decision followed strong criticism from Syrian authorities of Qatar’s state-backed media outlet Al-Jazeera’s coverage in March 2011 of a revolt against the Assad government.

According to the statement by the Official Spokesperson of the Qatari Foreign Ministry Majid bin Mohammed Al Ansari, “during its meetings with the ‘transitional government’ in Syria, the delegation reaffirmed the State of Qatar’s full commitment to supporting the Syrian people in achieving their aspirations for security, peace, development, and prosperity following the success of their revolution.”

The delegation and new Syrian authorities also discussed ways to enhance the flow of Qatari humanitarian aid and “the needs of the Syrian brothers during this important phase.”

A war broke out in Syria in 2011 following a wave of protests and uprisings known as the Arab Spring that swept across the Middle East and North Africa. While Western countries, Türkiye, Israel, and some Gulf states supported the anti-Assad forces, Russia and Iran backed the government in Damascus. A truce brokered by Moscow and Ankara in 2020 ended large-scale fighting for almost four years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed US President-elect Donald Trump in a call on Saturday night of his determination to act against Hezbollah and Iran. The two leaders also discussed the situation in Syria, as well as efforts to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.

”We are committed to preventing Hezbollah from rearming,” Netanyahu added in a video statement quoted by Times of Israel on Sunday. “This is an ongoing test for Israel, we must meet it – and we will meet it. I say to Hezbollah and Iran in no uncertain terms – to prevent you from harming us, we will continue to act against you as much as necessary, in every arena and at all times.”

Netanyahu called the conversation with Trump a “very friendly, very warm, and very important conversation” in the video statement quoted by Times of Israel.

He claimed that recent airstrikes against Syrian military sites were carried out “to thwart the potential threats from Syria and to prevent the takeover of terrorist elements near our border.” “We have no interest in a conflict with Syria,” Netanyahu added, arguing that Israel has changed the whole region. “Syria is not the same Syria, Lebanon is not the same Lebanon, Gaza is not the same Gaza, and the leader of the axis – Iran – is not the same Iran,” the PM said.

After militant groups led by Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) took power in Syria last weekend, Israel launched a major operation, reportedly striking weapons stockpiles and naval vessels that belonged to former president Bashar Assad’s army.

In an interview on Saturday HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani called on the international community to intervene in the situation and “assume its responsibilities towards this escalation.”

On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a surprise attack on Israeli cities, killing some 1,200 people and abducting over 250. According to Israeli officials, around 100 hostages remain in captivity. Immediately after the attack West Jerusalem launched a war in Gaza, killing nearly 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol failed to comply on Sunday with a summons from prosecutors, according to news agency Yonhap. They reportedly plan to issue another order on Monday, amid an ongoing investigation into his brief imposition of martial law.

The summons was issued on Wednesday. Yoon was summoned to appear for questioning at 10 am local time on Sunday but did not attend.

Yoon and senior military officials are facing potential charges of treason, insurrection, abuse of authority, and obstructing people from exercising their rights. 

The political crisis in South Korea erupted on December 3 when Yoon delivered a surprise televised address, declaring emergency martial law on the grounds that the opposition – which he accused of being sympathetic towards North Korea – had allegedly been preparing a “rebellion.”

Within hours, 190 lawmakers, who managed to access the National Assembly despite military cordons, voted unanimously to lift the decree. In addition, thousands of people took to the streets to condemn the president’s actions.

During his address on Thursday, Yoon, who faces an investigation over possible insurrection, defended his move, calling the declaration of martial law a “highly calibrated political judgment.” It was aimed to “protect the nation” from the opposition’s attempts to block the work of the government, he said.

Germany must ask whether NATO membership “is still useful for us,” Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Tino Chrupalla has said, arguing that the US-led military bloc forces Europe to act in America’s interests.

”Europe has been forced to implement America’s interests. We reject that,” Chrupalla told German daily Welt on Sunday.

”NATO is currently not a defense alliance,” he continued. “A defense community must accept and respect the interests of all European countries, including Russia’s interests. If NATO cannot ensure that, Germany must consider to what extent this alliance is still useful for us,” he explained.

West Germany joined NATO in 1955, at the height of the Cold War. Accession to the bloc meant that Bonn could focus its spending on post-WWII reconstruction and welfare while outsourcing defense to the US. However, NATO’s first secretary general, Britain’s Lord Ismay, reportedly remarked that the bloc’s purpose in Europe was to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

With snap elections in February looming, the AfD is currently polling at around 18%, ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ Social Democrats at 15% but behind the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at 32%. However, even if the AfD were to emerge as the largest party after the vote, all of Germany’s other mainstream parties have ruled out entering a coalition with the right-wingers.

The AfD nominated co-leader Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor earlier this month, marking the first time in its 11-year history that the party has put a name forward for the position.

Speaking to reporters after the nomination, Weidel promised to introduce drastic immigration restrictions, to roll back Scholz’s climate policies, and to cut off military aid to Ukraine.

“We want peace in Ukraine,” she said. “We do not want any arms supplies, we do not want any tanks, we do not want any missiles.”

Speaking to Welt, Chrupalla said that “Russia has won this war,” and that “reality has caught up with those who claim to want to enable Ukraine to win the war.”

The Northern Sea Route (NSR), known in Russian as Sevmorput, is a vital transportation artery spanning the country’s entire Arctic coastline. This icy maritime corridor connects Europe and Asia, playing a critical role in supporting Russia’s vast extraction of natural resources such as oil, gas, and precious metals. Nuclear-powered icebreakers guide cargo ships through the frozen waters, ensuring year-round navigation. Yet, this remarkable feat of engineering and logistics didn’t emerge overnight — it was the result of decades of exploration, resilience, and innovation.

Russia’s interest in the Arctic began in earnest during the late 19th century. Until then, Siberia’s harsh environment and lack of infrastructure made large-scale development impossible. However, the construction of the now iconic Trans-Siberian Railway in 1891 signaled a shift. Around this time, Admiral Stepan Makarov, a pioneering naval officer and visionary, championed Arctic exploration. His famous 1897 lecture, “To the North Pole – Full Steam Ahead!” emphasized the strategic importance of Arctic routes.

Makarov’s efforts led to the creation of Yermak, the world’s first true Arctic icebreaker. It was designed to smash through thick ice, paving the way for more advanced ships. His leadership laid the groundwork for Russia's Arctic ambitions, though he wouldn’t live to see the full realization of his dreams, as he died during the Russo-Japanese War.

Soviet Ambitions: Expansion and Innovation

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government maintained its commitment to Arctic development. Exploration intensified under the USSR’s industrialization drive in the 1920s and 1930s. One of the leading figures of this era was Otto Schmidt, a member of the Russian Baltic’s ethnic Germany community. He was a renowned scientist, polar explorer, and the director of Glavsevmorput, the government agency tasked with overseeing the Northern Sea Route.

Schmidt’s work was monumental. He coordinated research, established polar stations, and supervised construction projects that ensured the functioning of this 11,000-kilometer route. His most daring Arctic mission came in 1932 when he led an experimental expedition aboard the steamer Sibiryakov, aiming to traverse the NSR in a single navigation season. The journey faced severe setbacks, including losing a propeller in the ice. The crew’s ingenuity saved the mission—they crafted makeshift sails from canvas and managed to reach their destination despite overwhelming odds.

Schmidt’s most famous mission involved the ill-fated steamship Chelyuskin in 1933-1934. The ship, reinforced for Arctic navigation but not a true icebreaker, set sail from Murmansk to Vladivostok. Despite early progress, thick ice in the Chukchi Sea trapped the vessel, forcing its crew to survive on drifting ice floes after the ship was crushed.

What followed was one of the greatest Arctic rescue missions ever undertaken. Soviet pilots, using rudimentary equipment and navigating through brutal -40°C temperatures, airlifted the 104 stranded crew members to safety. The daring operation captivated the world and cemented the NSR’s place in Soviet lore. Seven pilots involved received the USSR’s highest honor, Hero of the Soviet Union, for their extraordinary bravery.

Cold War Era and Strategic Expansion

During the Cold War, the Northern Sea Route became a critical military and economic lifeline. Soviet leaders fortified Arctic infrastructure by building ports, airfields, and even entire Arctic cities like Norilsk and Murmansk. These hubs facilitated mineral extraction, scientific research, and military operations.

The USSR’s fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, such as Lenin, launched in 1959, revolutionized Arctic navigation. These vessels could clear paths through ice that conventional ships couldn’t manage, ensuring year-round Arctic transport. By the late 20th century, the NSR evolved into the most advanced Arctic transportation system in the world.

The Modern Era: Economic Potential and Geopolitical Competition

Following the Soviet collapse in 1991, the Northern Sea Route faced years of decline due to reduced funding and logistical challenges. However, in the early 21st century, the new Russia’s Arctic ambitions reignited as climate change opened new shipping lanes. Melting ice made the NSR navigable for longer periods each year, prompting Moscow to invest heavily in Arctic infrastructure once again.

Today, Moscow’s Arctic fleet includes nuclear icebreakers like 50 Let Pobedy and Arktika, ensuring the NSR operates year-round. These vessels escort commercial ships carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil, and minerals to international markets. Arctic ports such as Sabetta on the Yamal Peninsula have become critical hubs in the global energy trade.

Russia views the NSR as an essential part of its long-term economic and geopolitical strategy. President Vladimir Putin has called the Arctic a “strategic priority,” underscoring plans to transform the NSR into a competitive global shipping route rivaling the Suez and Panama Canals. Ambitious projects aim to double cargo traffic along the NSR by 2030.

Despite its potential, the NSR faces numerous challenges. Geopolitical tensions, especially between Russia and the West, complicate international cooperation. Western sanctions have hindered foreign investment in Arctic energy projects. Meanwhile, China has positioned itself as a key partner in Russia's Arctic development, viewing the NSR as a critical component of its Polar Silk Road strategy.

Environmental concerns also loom large. Melting ice has increased ship traffic, raising the risk of oil spills and ecological damage in this fragile environment. Environmental organizations have called for stricter regulations, while Russia argues that its nuclear-powered icebreakers produce fewer emissions than conventional fuel-burning ships.

Looking Ahead

The Northern Sea Route remains a symbol of Russia’s resilience, technological prowess, and strategic vision. What began as an audacious imperial project has evolved into a modern geopolitical asset with global implications. As the Arctic warms and sea ice retreats, Russia’s Arctic lifeline will only grow more significant—both economically and politically.

The NSR’s legacy is built on a history of exploration, survival, and determination. It stands as a testament to what human ingenuity can achieve in one of the planet’s harshest environments—and a reminder that the Arctic remains a stage where historical ambitions and modern realities collide.

The Israeli government has approved a plan to double the Jewish population of the illegally occupied Golan Heights. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that settling the region is vital for Israel’s security.

The decision to expand Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights was made “in light of the war and the new front facing Syria,” Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday.

”Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the state of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold onto it, cause it to blossom, and settle in it,” read a statement from the Israeli head of government.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria’s Quneitra Province during the 1967 Six-Day War, and unilaterally annexed the territory in 1981. West Jerusalem’s claim to the region is considered invalid by every other country in the world except the US. Roughly 20,000 Jewish settlers live in the Golan Heights, and the region is also home to around the same number of Syrian Druze. The 30 or so Jewish settlements in the area are considered illegal under international law.

Amid harsh criticism from the UN and its Arab neighbors, Katz said on Friday that he had instructed Israeli forces to remain on the eastern side of Mount Hermon – which straddles the border between the Golan Heights and the rest of Syria – during the winter. Katz defended the occupation of foreign territory, claiming that holding the mountain is of “enormous security importance” to Israel.

While the fall of Assad fulfilled a long-standing Israeli strategic objective, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have moved quickly to ensure that the country’s new government – led by the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group – cannot make use of Assad’s weapons. The IDF has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Syrian ports, airfields, and arms depots over the past week, destroying billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment.

“Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights,” the prime minister’s office stated.

US and British air forces have conducted strikes against several targets in western Yemen linked to the Houthi militant group, according to Al-Masirah TV.

The broadcaster, which is affiliated with the Houthi-associated Ansar Allah movement, reported on Sunday that the attacks and a raid targeted the At-Tuhayta district in Al-Hodeidah Governorate.

The report, confirmed by a security source in the governorate, has not provided information on casualties or any other details of the bombing.

Sunday’s raid was the first since the attacks in mid-November when American-British air forces jointly bombed targets in the country’s Saada and Amran governorates.

The Houthis, a Shia Islamist group that controls a large part of Yemen, have been attacking Israel-linked commercial shipping in the Red Sea since October last year, in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

The Houthis have also attacked Western warships in the region and claim to have launched missiles directly at Israel on several occasions, describing their actions as a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on his fellow G7 leaders to “continue maximizing Putin’s pain” through economic sanctions on Russia and increased military aid to Ukraine.

During a video conference on Friday, “the Prime Minister said that with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin showing no sign of relenting, it is vital that we bolster our support to put [Ukraine] in the best possible position for the future,” according to a readout released by his office.

“He called on fellow G7 leaders to continue maximizing Putin’s pain by increasing military support to the Ukrainians and ramping up economic pressure, including via further sanctions where possible,” the statement continued.

Two days earlier, the US and UK announced a new round of sanctions on Moscow, targeting what the British government called Russia’s “illicit gold trade.” At the same time, EU ambassadors agreed on a 15th package of economic penalties, this time targeting Russia’s petroleum industry and Chinese companies allegedly producing drones for the Russian military.

”We learned a lot after the sanctions started,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told American journalist Tucker Carlson earlier this month. “But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, you know. They would never kill us, so they are making us stronger.”

Amid a historic decline in living standards at home, the UK has given £8.34 billion ($10.52 billion) in military aid to Ukraine since February 2022, according to figures from Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Western aid to Kiev.

Starmer claimed last month that this outpouring of arms and ammunition will help the Ukrainians “secure a just and lasting peace on their terms.” However, the Kremlin has argued that any future peace terms will be worse for Ukraine than those rejected by Kiev during peace talks in Istanbul in April 2022.

While Russia was prepared to settle the conflict in 2022 with Ukraine agreeing to stay out of NATO and grant autonomy to the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, Kiev must now accept the “realities on the ground,” Lavrov told Carlson, referring to the fact that Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye are now parts of the Russian Federation and will not be ceded back to Ukraine.

Brazil’s former Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto was arrested on Saturday and charged with interference in an investigation into a planned military coup that he stands accused of organizing and financing.

The arrest follows allegations linking the retired general to efforts to overturn the results of the country’s 2022 election, which was narrowly won by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Braga Netto served as chief of staff under former President Jair Bolsonaro and was also his running mate during Bolsonaro’s unsuccessful reelection campaign against Lula.

Braga Netto has consistently denied any involvement in the alleged conspiracy. His legal team stated on Saturday that they plan to demonstrate that their client hadn’t attempted to hinder the investigation, as reported by Reuters.

The allegations against Braga Netto emerged last month when federal police accused him, along with Bolsonaro, senior aides, and former military leaders, of conspiring to prevent Lula from taking office. A statement by police suggested that the group even considered a scheme to assassinate the current president shortly after his election.

One of the suspects in the coup plot is retired General Mario Fernandes, who served as a senior advisor to then-President Jair Bolsonaro during his tenure. Lula da Silva returned as Brazil’s president for a third, non-consecutive term in January 2023 after narrowly defeating Bolsonaro in the October 2022 election.

Following the voting results, Bolsonaro claimed that the race had been stolen from him due to a “malfunction” affecting thousands of electronic voting machines. His supporters protested, blocking highways and storming the presidential palace in Brasília on January 8, 2023, just one week after Lula’s inauguration. 

At the time, Bolsonaro was in the United States but later urged an end to the unrest and approved the transition process to Lula’s government. Bolsonaro has since been barred from holding public office in Brazil until 2030. His lawyer, Paulo Cunha Bueno, claimed that the former president had no involvement in or knowledge of the alleged coup plot.

The Ukrainian authorities are conducting a “targeted hunt” on Russian journalists and war correspondents and will be punished for these deaths, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.

The diplomat made the remarks on a day of commemoration for reporters and technicians who lost their lives while performing professional duties.

“On this day, we remember those who did not return from editorial assignments from hot spots, who died for their convictions and loyalty to their profession, including as a result of terrorist attacks, who, risking their lives, honestly fulfilled their journalistic duty and defended the truth until the last moment, and freedom of speech,” Zakharova said in a statement.

She attributed Kiev’s deliberate attacks on Russian media workers to years of “connivance and encouragement” of such “terrorist methods” by Western authorities and structures under their control, “whose direct responsibility is to protect the safety of media workers without any distinction.”

Zakharova recalled the latest UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay’s safety report on media workers, which ignored the killing and oppression of Russian reporters.

The report, covering 2022 and 2023, claimed that 162 journalists, media workers, and social media producers had been killed over the indicated period. The publication mentioned the killings of only two Russian media workers since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.

In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that at least 30 Russian journalists had been killed in the line of duty since the Ukraine conflict flared up in 2022.

A number of prominent public figures and entities, including the Russian Union of Journalists, Moscow’s ambassador to UNESCO, Rinat Alyautdinov and TASS Deputy Director-General Mikhail Gusman have slammed the report as unacceptable, describing it as a source of disinformation.

RT joined the uproar by sending a letter to Azoulay that denounced the document and listed a number of incidents that had been omitted, including assassination plots against RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

UNESCO’s report was eventually dismissed at the organization’s session on Friday after Russia and several other countries protested the document.

Among the journalists murdered by the Kiev regime in 2022-2023 are Boris Maksudov, who worked for Russia 24 TV, RIA Novosti’s Rostislav Zhuravlev, Tavria TV’s Oleg Klokov, RuBaltic’s Aleksey Ilyashevich, military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, and journalist Darya Dugina.

Zakharova also mentioned more recent deaths, such as that of the Russian news photographer Nikita Tsitsagi, who was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in June, cameraman Valery Kozhin, who was also murdered this summer, and Izvestia correspondent Semyon Yeryomin, who lost his life in Zaporozhye Region in a Ukrainian drone attack in April.

A first pharmacy offering separate services for men and women has opened in the capital of Chechnya, the head of the Russian Muslim-majority republic announced on Saturday.

Ramzan Kadyrov visited the newly opened Darba Pharmacy in Grozny, accompanied by the Chechen health minister.

“I was pleased with what I saw. The pharmaceutical establishment meets all legal requirements, is equipped with the necessary medical supplies and drugs at an excellent level, and is capable of providing the population with high-quality medicinal products,” he stated.

Kadyrov also revealed plans to open another 15 pharmacies under the Darba network in Grozny in the near future.

Speaking on Saturday, the Chechen leader also called for the closure of beauty salons in the republic that promote “inappropriate behavior” and show body parts in their ads. He also highlighted concerns over health issues stemming from procedures performed at these establishments.

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has undergone hip replacement after falling during a congressional trip to Europe, her office said on Sunday.

The operation was carried out at Landstuhl Army Base in Germany, the California Democrat’s office said in a statement, adding that Pelosi “is well on the mend.”

The 84-year-old congresswoman “sustained an injury during an official engagement” in Luxembourg on Saturday, her office said. While Pelosi’s staff acknowledged the accident shortly after it happened on Saturday, they did not confirm reports that she had broken her hip until Sunday.

She was taken to Hospital Kirchberg in Luxembourg for evaluation before being transported to Landstuhl Army Base by US military personnel, the statement said.

Pelosi was first elected to Congress in 1987, and served as house speaker from 2007 to 2011, and again from 2019 until 2023. She was reelected last month to serve a landmark 20th term in office.

Pelosi is considered one of the most influential Democrats in Washington, overseeing two attempts to impeach then-President Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021, and reportedly spearheading efforts to pressure President Joe Biden to suspend his reelection campaign earlier this summer.

She has since blamed Biden’s refusal to step down earlier for Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump, telling the New York Times last month that her fellow Bay Area Democrat would have been “stronger going forward” if she had won an open primary election.

The Ukrainian leadership turned down a phone-call request from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a manner that was “unprecedented” in nature, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has revealed. The rebuff followed an hour-long conversation between Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio on Sunday, Szijjarto said that he had approached Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga and Vladimir Zelensky’s top aide Andrey Yermak, asking for the authorization of a telephone conversation between Orban and the Ukrainian leader.

”In a gesture that was quite unprecedented in diplomacy,” the request was refused in “a somewhat strained” manner, Szijjarto said, as quoted by the Magyar Nemzet newspaper. Hungary’s top diplomat did not elaborate on the exact wording used by the authorities in Kiev.

Earlier this week Orban said he’d put forward a proposal for a Christmas ceasefire and a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.

”One side accepted it, the other rejected it,” the Premier told Kossuth Radio on Friday.

Zelensky, in turn, claimed that the Hungarian leader was only trying to “boost personal image at the expense of unity” in the EU in terms of supporting Ukraine.

The authorities in Kiev have sent mixed messages about their readiness for negotiations with Russia.

On Wednesday, Zelensky’s top adviser Mikhail Podoliak said Kiev could engage in talks with Moscow if they are not based on Russia’s conditions.

Andrey Yermak said on Friday that Ukraine was not ready to start any talks with Russia as there is insufficient support from the West to conduct negotiations from a position of strength.

After 25 years of negotiations, the EU and the South American trade bloc, Mercosur, finally reached an agreement this December. The promise? A trade boom, cheaper food for Europeans and cheaper cars for Latin American consumers. But there is a roadblock in the way of the agreement’s ratification: France. Vocally backed by Poland, Paris has positioned itself as a defender of EU farmers and a zealous environmentalist – at the expense of everyone else involved.

The beef must flow

Mercosur – a trade union established in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and later joined by Bolivia – has been pursuing a deal with the EU that would create one of the world’s largest free trade zones with a market of over 700 million people. The agreement would remove tariffs: Europeans would get cheaper beef, soy, poultry, fruits, and other products from South America, while EU companies would benefit from lower costs for sales of cars, machinery, and chemicals to the South American bloc members. In order to protect EU farmers from getting pushed out of their own markets by foreigners, the parties have negotiated certain limits on how much beef, chicken and soy can flow freely into the EU. The agreement also includes rules to follow the Paris Climate Agreement on reducing emissions, and to tackle deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been very enthusiastic about the agreement. Her excitement comes against the backdrop of US President-elect Donald Trump’s promises to seemingly launch a new global trade war by imposing massive tariffs on various countries – potentially including Mercosur’s founding member, Brazil. “We are sending a clear and powerful message,” von der Leyen told a joint press conference. “In an increasingly confrontational world, we demonstrate that democracies can rely on each other. This agreement is not just an economic opportunity. It is a political necessity.”

Aside from poking Trump, the political necessity could also be explained by the EU’s hopes for easier access to critical minerals available in the ground in Mercosur countries, which would stall China’s increasing influence in this sector.

Von der Leyen happily sealed the deal with Mercosur on December 6, much to France’s dismay, and to her native Germany’s joy. Paris has vocally condemned the deal, warning that a flood of cheap beef and poultry from South America will devastate its farmers and pointing out that it allegedly doesn’t meet EU standards. Berlin, on the other hand, can’t wait to use the opportunity to boost sales in new markets.

For the agreement to come into force, it needs to be ratified by all 27 EU members. France’s opposition prevents that from happening – and it has found an ally in Poland. Both countries are hoping that Italy will join their fight and create a blocking minority with them.

The big farmer issue

France is the largest agricultural producer in the EU. Its farms produce key exports like wine, dairy, and beef, which are all staples of French culture and commerce. Therefore, these farmers hold significant political influence. Historically, they’ve been capable of bringing the country to a standstill through protests, roadblocks and strikes – a variety of tools they’ve used successfully to pressure the government. Rising rural discontent in the country has provided fuel for President Emmanuel Macron’s political rivals.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-wing National Rally, has consistently positioned herself as a hardline defender of French farmers. She even showed up on a tractor during one of their protests at the beginning of this year. She advocates for protectionism and portrays the EU as detrimental to the nation’s agriculture.

Initially, Macron tried to emphasize the benefits of European integration for the farmers. But as Le Pen’s movement gained traction among rural voters by criticizing EU regulations, the president started introducing adjustments to his rhetoric. In 2021, the French government presented exemptions allowing sugar beet farmers to use neonicotinoid pesticides, which are banned at the EU level due to their harmful effects on bees.

During farmers’ protests in early 2024, Macron acknowledged the challenges posed by EU regulations, mentioning, however, that “blaming everything on Europe” would be “too easy.” Lastly, the French president has led the opposition against the Mercosur trade agreement, citing farmers’ grievances.

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally had a startling victory in the European election this summer, primarily due to rural sympathies. The current political dynamics in France, marked by the recent government collapse and stalled agricultural legislation, have intensified the rivalry between her and the president. As farmers’ frustrations grow, both leaders are hoping to grasp their support, with Le Pen using the situation to challenge Macron’s leadership. The National Rally leader has consistently opposed the Mercosur deal as well – to no surprise, as it falls in line with her general protectionist stance and broader criticism of EU practices. While for Le Pen this rhetoric is consistent, Macron seemingly chose this particular issue to challenge the EU in the way that could get him most political gains from his rival’s usual electorate. 

Both politicians have cited the French farmers’ concerns that allowing cheaper Mercosur goods to enter the market would devastate them:

“Integrating Mercosur will drive prices down further and push consumers to buy even cheaper. We, sustainable farmers, must work three times harder to maintain our margins by processing and selling locally,” André Trives, a Slow Food farmer in southern France, has said.

The Irish government has estimated that the beef imported from Mercosur under the new trade deal will mainly consist of high-quality cuts, like premium steaks, which are sold at higher prices in Europe. Because of this, prices for these high-end beef cuts could drop by 3.3% to 7.2% as South American imports create more competition in the market. Essentially, consumers would pay less for meat.

While the French are world-famous protesters, consumers rarely organize and protest as effectively as farmers. The blame for the price hikes is often dispersed across a variety of issues – inflation, geopolitics and such. Farmers, on the other hand, are politically united, which makes them far harder to ignore. The same applies to Poland.

The presumed beef price drop may not be as overwhelming as it seems. In order to protect European farmers, the EU has limited Mercosur beef imports to 99,000 metric tons – split into 55% fresh beef and 45% frozen beef – with a 7.5% tariff. This quota is just over 1% of Europe’s annual 8 million metric tons of beef consumption, amounting to 221 grams per EU citizen – about one steak per year. Any imports beyond this quota face higher EU tariffs, keeping the impact on the market minimal. Brazil even complained about the EU only “half-opening” the doors to its market.

That said, Macron’s opposition to the Mercosur deal may play well in the streets of rural Normandy, but not throughout  the EU.

The green excuse

Apart from the farmer problem, the French resistance is largely based on Mercosur’s green record – deforestation in the Amazon and the use of pesticides which are prohibited in the EU. President Emmanuel Macron has labeled the current agreement as “unacceptable,” emphasizing that it does not sufficiently address environmental standards.

French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard has also spoken out against the trade agreement, citing health concerns linked to hormone-treated meat. In an interview with TF1, she said: “We don’t want this agreement because it’s harmful. It will bring in products, including substances banned in Europe, at the cost of deforestation. It will unfairly compete with our domestic production.”

The rainforest could allegedly be threatened by the significant expansion of cattle farming under the new agreement. Yet Brazil alone produces 11 million tons of beef annually, so the agreed quota of 99,000 tons, shared among the Mercosur countries, will not result in an overwhelming increase in beef production. On top of that, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to eliminate illegal deforestation by 2030, aligning with EU demands.

with regard to pesticides, the Mercosur bloc will have to follow European regulations – if the food meets EU standards, it will enter the market. If not, then not. But the French have refused to believe it. France’s Carrefour, one of the world’s largest supermarket chains with stores in over 30 countries, including Brazil and Argentina, has recently sparked controversy. Its CEO, Alexandre Bompard, said that “in solidarity with the ag world, Carrefour is committed to not selling any meat from Mercosur” due to the “risk of overflowing the French market with meat production that does not meet requirements and standards.”

Brazil’s Animal Protein Association (ABPA) was quick to fire back, calling the statement “clearly protectionist” and insisting Mercosur produces “high-quality products that meet all the criteria established by health authorities.” Bompard later retracted his comments, even praising Brazilian producers.

Macron’s environmental stance regarding the issue seemingly falls apart as well – especially given that France’s carbon footprint isn’t innocent either, with emissions from livestock farming and agriculture among the EU’s highest.

Who’s paying for France’s “Non”?

Macron’s opposition to the Mercosur agreement comes at a price: while the French farmers enjoy support on the issue from the two main sides of the French political spectrum, both EU businesses and Latin American consumers are losing out.

The deal could save €4 billion annually for European exporters following the tariff cuts on cars, machinery, chemicals and wine. Right now, EU businesses are facing tariffs as high as 35% on cars and 18% on machinery when selling to countries like Brazil or Argentina. Companies like Volkswagen, Renault, and BMW have to absorb these costs or pass them on to consumers. The high prices obviously make the South American market less appealing for European producers.

While EU companies are sidelined, global competitors like China are expanding their trade relationships with the market of hundreds of million people in Latin America, facing fewer trade barriers and supplying affordable cars and electronics. Without the deal, European businesses are missing out on the desires of emerging middle-class consumers in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay who want European cars, luxury products, and technology.

Latin American consumers face inflated prices for those European goods. A new car in Brazil is far more expensive than in Europe because of the tariffs on top of logistics. A Volkswagen or Renault vehicle in Brazil can cost 30-40% more than it does in Europe. Pharmaceuticals also face tariffs of 14% or more. European designer products remain far more expensive, even if we’re talking about fast fashion companies.

The French resistance is keeping European cars, technology, medicine and other goods from millions of South Americans. China and other competitors are stepping in to fill the void – something that the EU would probably want to avoid geopolitically at all costs. Both sides of the Atlantic are paying the price for Macron’s domestic political gamble. If Paris and Warsaw succeed in dragging Rome into forming the blocking minority for the Mercosur deal, they could potentially help Beijing increase its economic grasp on the globe.

Germany has been forced into a corner by underinvestment and policies pursued by other leading economies, Economy Minister Robert Habeck has said, after the central bank warned of a difficult year ahead.

In an interview with Bild newspaper published on Sunday, the politician, who intends to run for chancellor next year, insisted that Germany can turn the situation around.

“Our business model is really cornered. Will it no longer work? It would be too early for me to throw in the towel,” Habeck said.

The minister noted that Germany has failed to make sufficient investment in its infrastructure, tax system and workforce skills, resulting in a “negative impact” on its economy.

Habeck also pointed to Chinese-made electric cars flooding the EU market and causing “a big problem” for the German automotive industry.

Car manufacturing is one of the key drivers of the German economy, accounting for approximately 5% of gross domestic product (GDP).

The Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research estimates that future tariffs could cost Germany €33 billion ($34.6 billion), and that exports to the US could fall by 15%.

On Friday, the German central bank slashed its growth forecast for next year to 0.2%, from the 1.1% level it had predicted in June. The regulator also said it expects the economy to contract by 0.2% this year, having previously predicted modest growth of 0.3%.

It would mark a second consecutive year of decline, after gross domestic product shrank by 0.3% in 2023, according to the Federal Statistics Office, Destatis. The agency attributed last year’s contraction to persistent inflation, high energy prices, and weak foreign demand.

Russian forces have destroyed four Patriot anti-aircraft missile launchers provided to Ukraine by Western nations, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Saturday.

Russian Air Force jets, along with drones and artillery groups, “destroyed a combat control vehicle, an AN/MPQ-65 radar station and four launchers of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system made in the US,” the military said in a statement.

In addition, over the past 24 hours Russian troops have liberated two villages in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). One of them, Vesely Gai, is located 10 km south of the embattled town of Kurakhovo, and the other village – Pushkino – is 15 km south of Pokrovsk.

Kurakhovo in Russia’s DPR has been heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces and is one of the few major populated areas still under their control in southwestern Donbass. The largest settlement controlled by Kiev is Pokrovsk (also known as Krasnoarmeysk), located approximately 30 km north of Kurakhovo. Last month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky described the two locations as “the most difficult” for Kiev’s forces.

Earlier this week, Zelensky expressed frustration with Western arms donors for not meeting his requests for additional air defense systems, as Ukraine faces challenges on the battlefield and struggles to defend key locations from long-range attacks.

Back in April, Zelensky said Ukraine needed 25 Patriot batteries to counter Russian missile attacks effectively. Recently, Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga revealed efforts to secure “at least 20” more air defense systems, noting that Patriot systems were among the top-requested options.

Russian officials have repeatedly said that no amount of Western military aid can change the outcome of the conflict, but will only prolong it.

The British Royal Navy’s destroyer fleet has hit historic lows, with only two of the six advanced vessels currently operational, The Telegraph reported on Saturday, citing the UK Ministry of Defence.

Four of the type 45 destroyers are undergoing extensive repairs, maintenance or other work in dock in Portsmouth, leaving the British fleet at its smallest size in over a century, the report said.

The Type 45 destroyers, also known as the Daring class, form the backbone of the Royal Navy’s air defense capability. Built for anti-aircraft and anti-missile warfare, the ships, however, have been facing various maintenance issues. One of the vessels has spent more time in repairs than in active service since its commissioning 12 years ago, the outlet noted.

The drastic decline in operational warships has raised concerns about the nation’s security, with MPs warning that the UK is increasingly vulnerable to sea and air attacks.

Additionally, of the Navy’s eight Type 23 frigates (a class below the destroyers), only six are currently operational, according to the report.

With just eight out of 14 destroyers and frigates available for immediate deployment, compared to more than 800 during the Navy’s peak in 1945, the UK fleet has hit its lowest point since the destroyer program began under Queen Victoria, the outlet said.

Earlier this month, British Ministry of Defence official Alistair Carns admitted that the UK is not prepared to fight a war on a scale similar to the Ukraine conflict. He noted that in the event of an actual conflict, the UK would run out of soldiers in six months to a year.

As of July, the British Army had just over 73,000 active-duty soldiers, the lowest number since 1823. The UK’s overall population was around 20 million then, and has since grown to 67 million.

Two tankers carrying oil products are sinking in the Kerch Strait, the passage that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, according to the Russian Emergency Ministry.

The Volganeft 212 and the Volganeft 239 sent out distress signals and requested assistance amid high winds and powerful waves. The Russian water transport agency has said a total of 29 crew members were on board the two vessels.

According to Russian media reports, powerful waves struck the tankers several kilometers off the Black Sea coast. The Volganeft 212, carrying more than 4,000 tons of fuel oil, has run aground, and the Volgoneft 239 is drifting after sustaining damage.

Emergency rescue helicopters have flown response teams to the Kerch Strait area to assist the vessels. Their efforts, however, have been hindered by worsening weather.

Preliminary findings suggest that one of the ships broke in half after the storm caused it to run ground. An investigation has been launched, Russia’s Southern Transport Prosecutor’s Office said.

Slovakia will not bow to Western pressure to replace Russian natural gas with a more expensive alternative, Prime Minister Robert Fico has said.

A transit agreement between Moscow and Kiev that covers a portion of Russian energy supplies to the EU is set to expire at the end of this month.

The Slovak government is engaged in “very intense” negotiations over deliveries for next year, including on transit via Ukraine, Fico told reporters on Friday.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Fico said there are a “huge number of pitfalls” caused by Ukraine’s “political statements” on the issue and “pressure” to stop the gas flow from Russia to the EU,

Ukraine has said it will not extend the current transit deal beyond December 31, and Energy Minister German Galushchenko announced this week that Kiev was prepared for “zero transit” of Russian gas through its network starting from January 1.

Ukraine’s transit network is connected to the pipeline systems of Moldova, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The EU still receives around 5% of its gas from Russia via Ukraine, according to the latest data.

The gas supply alternatives are significantly more expensive than the Russian option, Fico noted.

“We reject this. We see no reason to pay more for gas than necessary for geopolitical reasons,” the Slovak prime minister said, adding that “extremely intensive negotiations at various levels and in various countries” will begin next week and continue through the holiday season.

Fico said he is “confident” that a solution can be found to keep the gas flowing to Slovakia through Ukraine.

The EU declared its intention to end its dependence on Russian energy supplies following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Supplies of higher-cost US fuel have replaced much of the cheap pipeline gas that was previously delivered by Russia.

According to German data-gathering platform Statista, Berlin accounted for 18% of the value of natural gas imports into the EU in the second quarter of 2024.

EU leaders are avoiding German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who either sits silent or tries to lecture them, his main political rival Friedrich Merz has claimed.

Merz, who heads the country’s largest opposition party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and will be its candidate for chancellor in the next election, launched an attack on Scholz in his MerzMail newsletter on Sunday.

The current German government’s EU policy has been a “total failure,” resulting in the chancellor being politically isolated in the bloc, he wrote.

“Regrettably, it should be said so: the majority of European politicians simply do not want to meet anymore the German Chancellor, who either sits silent for hours or lectures the world,” the CDU’s head stressed.

The latest example of Scholz’s isolation was the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Poland this week, during which the two NATO allies discussed policy with regards to Ukraine, he said. “The German Chancellor was not present again,” Merz noted.

“The demonstrative lack of interest” in EU policy by Scholz’s government is harmful for Germany as it is becoming a more and more serious obstacle to Berlin’s relations with its neighbors, he warned.

Germany is potentially heading into a snap election early next year after the collapse of the ruling ‘traffic light’ coalition between Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens. According to multiple media outlets, the election could take place as early as February 23 if Scholz’s now-minority cabinet loses a confidence vote on Monday.

Merz has been a proponent of an increasingly tougher stance on Moscow, saying, among other things, that if he is elected, he will allow Ukraine to use German-supplied weapons for strikes deep into Russia.

Despite Berlin being the second-largest supplier of arms to Kiev after Washington under Scholz, the chancellor has repeatedly ruled out the delivery of his country’s long-range Taurus missiles. “Be careful! You do not play Russian roulette with Germany’s security,” he said last month.

A man has been apprehended in Donetsk on suspicion of planting a bomb under a Russian officer’s car, while working for Ukrainian intelligence, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

The vehicle exploded in the main city of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic last week, killing the officer and wounding his wife, the agency said in a statement on Sunday.

A local resident was detained at his home as a result of joint actions by the FSB, the Interior Ministry, the National Guard, and Russia’s Investigative Committee, the statement read.

The suspect allegedly planted an improvised explosive device, and detonated it remotely when the victim and his wife got inside the vehicle.

The FSB published CCTV footage, in which the suspect could be seen attaching the bomb to the bottom of the SUV, and the subsequent blast.

It also released a video of the detained man, confessing that he had “established contact with the Ukrainian special services. After that, I detonated a bomb under the car on December 9. I know that a man died and his wife was injured. I regret what I did.”

A representative of the Investigative Committee told RIA Novosti news agency that the suspect had been offered $10,000 by Ukrainian operatives to carry out the assassination.

The FSB said the investigation is continuing, to identify other persons involved in the officer’s killing.

Last month, Russian law enforcement agencies arrested two people in the city of Sevastopol in Crimea over the assassination of Captain 1st rank Valery Trankovsky, who served as deputy commander of the Azov branch of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Trankovsky was the victim of a similar bomb plot, when his car exploded while he was driving to work. The suspects confessed their guilt and said that they were cooperating with the Ukrainian intelligence services.

Lithuanian athlete Kornelija Dudaite has been disqualified from an international fitness contest in Hungary for competing in a ‘Make Russia small again’ T-shirt.

The organizers said the slogan, which previously appeared on a T-shirt worn by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, violated the event’s ‘sportsmanship’ rules.  

The incident occurred on Friday at the 2024 Super Worlds championship, run by the International Functional Fitness Federation (iF3).   

Dudaite told the Lithuanian national broadcaster LRT that although Russian nationals participated in the event as neutral athletes, she was still upset by their presence. 

“I had this T-shirt, the same one worn by the Ukrainian president, and I thought that if it was necessary to show my political stance, I would show it,” Dudaite said. She added that she was outraged when the organizers “congratulated” the Russians on social media. “It seemed wrong to me. I don’t think that an aggressor country should be congratulated anywhere,” she stated. 

According to Dudaite, the organizers demanded that she change the T-shirt, but she refused.

Several top Lithuanian politicians have backed Dudaite on social media. “I’m proud of Lithuanians who bravely stand up for freedom and their values in all circumstances,” Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys wrote on X.

The organizers released a statement, saying that they “firmly believe that sport should remain apolitical and open to all.” They explained that Dudaite’s T-shirt “was deemed to be in violation of the sportsmanship clause of the iF3 rulebook.”

The iF3 expressed regret that the name Russia was “incorrectly” placed on athlete name cards during the opening day, and that announcers referred to the team from Russia as “Russian athletes.” The organizers stressed that the Russian competitors followed the restrictions, marched under a neutral flag during the opening ceremony, and did “not have any Russian symbols on their uniforms.”

Russia was banned from most international sports events over the conflict in Ukraine. In some cases, athletes from Russia have been allowed to participate as individuals, or under a neutral flag. Moscow has accused international federations of “politicization” of sports. 

ABC News has agreed to donate $15 million to US President-elect Donald Trump’s future museum in order to settle a defamation lawsuit.

Trump sued the network after anchor George Stephanopoulos claimed live on air that the US president-elect had been found liable for raping columnist E. Jean Carroll.

According to the settlement document made public on Saturday, ABC has agreed to transfer $15 million to “a presidential foundation and museum” set up by Trump. The channel will also pay $1 million to Trump’s lawyers.

In addition to the payout, ABC published an editor’s note on its website, saying that the network and Stephanopoulos “regret statements regarding President J. Trump.” 

“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” ABC said in a brief statement.

The legal dispute stems from an episode of ABC News’ ‘This Week’ show aired on March 10, 2024. During an interview with Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Stephanopoulos stated that “Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury.” 

In August 2023, a judge dismissed Trump’s defamation countersuit against Carroll.

According to Carroll, Trump assaulted her inside a New York department store during the mid-1990s. Trump has denied any wrongdoing, describing the allegations as “a hoax and a lie.” He claimed that the cases brought by Carroll were part of a larger politically motivated smear campaign aimed at sabotaging his 2024 presidential election bid. The president-elected has also repeatedly accused “the lying media” of amplifying false information about him.

Washington is maintaining direct contact with the Islamist group that was instrumental in overthrowing the government of President Bashar Assad in Syria, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said. 

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led a loose coalition of armed groups that captured Damascus on December 8, forcing Assad into exile in Russia.

HTS was founded through a merger of several jihadist groups, including Al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Syria. HTS chief Ahmed al-Shaara, better known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, previously led Al-Nusra.

HTS is listed as a terrorist organization in the US, which continues to offer a $10 million bounty for help in capturing al-Julani. 

Blinken acknowledged the contacts with HTS while giving a press conference in Aqaba, Jordan on Saturday. When asked whether the US has communicated with the group now holding power in Damascus, Blinken replied, “Yes, we’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties.” He later clarified, “That’s direct contact, yes.”

He added that all parties should prevent a resurgence of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and other terrorist groups, describing the American-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as “playing a critical role in pursuing that mission.”  

Al-Julani has made efforts to rebrand his group as a more moderate force, claiming that his views have evolved. During the opposition’s lightning offensive against the government forces, he pledged to protect Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians and Kurds. However, multiple videos have since emerged online of various anti-Assad groups executing POWs and civilians. 

The new Syrian authorities are calling on the international community to intervene and help it stop Israeli strikes, the head of the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, has said.

In an interview on Saturday on the Istanbul-based Syria TV channel, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who is better known by his nom de guerre, spoke about Israel for the first time since taking over the country. Militant groups led by HTS launched an offensive against Syrian troops in November, capturing major cities and advancing towards Damascus. After the collapse of the Syrian military, Former President Bashar Assad fled the country and was granted asylum in Russia.

Earlier in the week, Israel launched a major operation, reportedly striking weapons stockpiles and naval vessels that belonged to Assad’s army before armed opposition groups took control of the country. Israeli troops are also remaining in the UN-patrolled buffer zone between Israel and Syria, claiming it is a temporary “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria to prevent any “terrorist threat.” Speaking to Channel 4 on Wednesday, an HTS spokesman stopped short of outright condemning the Israeli strikes, merely stating that the group wants “everyone” to respect the sovereignty of “the new Syria.”

Al-Julani called on the international community to intervene in the situation and “assume its responsibilities towards this escalation.” The HTS leader believes that the only way to ensure security and stability is through “diplomatic solutions” and “away from ill-considered” military incidents.

Isak Andic, the founder and owner of the Spanish fashion retailer Mango, has died at the age of 71 after slipping while hiking on Saturday with relatives near Barcelona. According to police reports, Andic fell over 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) from a cliff in the Montserrat caves.

His family called emergency services at around 12:30 pm local time, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais. A helicopter and an ambulance were dispatched, but medics confirmed the billionaire’s death upon arriving at the scene.

In a statement, Toni Ruiz, CEO of Mango, expressed his sorrow: “It is with deep regret that we announce the unexpected death of Isak Andic, our non-executive chairman and founder of Mango.”

Born in Türkiye, Andic moved to Catalonia in the 1960s and founded Mango in 1984. Under his leadership, the company grew to nearly 2,800 stores worldwide, reporting a turnover of €3.1 billion ($3.26 billion) in 2023. Forbes estimated his net worth at $4.5 billion. He was believed to be the richest man in the region and one of the wealthiest in Spain.

The Catalan regional government head Salvador Illa praised Andic as a significant figure in the fashion industry, stating, “he leaves an indelible mark on the Catalan and global fashion sector.” 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez sent his condolences to Andic’s family in a post on X. “All my love and recognition for his great work and business vision, which has turned this Spanish firm into a world leader in fashion,” Sanchez wrote. 

Mango, like its rival Inditex, known for Zara, adapts quickly to fashion trends while maintaining affordable prices. The company outsources production primarily to lower-cost regions in Türkiye and Asia, operating under a single brand without any factories of its own.

US is set to slap sanctions on Serbia’s oil and gas company NIS due to its Russian ownership, the country’s president Aleksandar Vucic has said.

“We got confirmation that in the next few days, the US will introduce sanctions against NIS because of Russian ownership,” Vucic said in an interview with Serbian broadcaster Informer TV. However, Belgrade still hadn't received an “official paper with details” from Washington, he added.

NIS, the Serbian energy company, is predominantly owned by the Russian corporation Gazprom. In 2022, the Gazprom Neft company, which participated in the privatization of the largest oil company in the Western Balkans in 2008, reduced its stake in NIS to 50%, while Gazprom received 6.15%.

President Vucic also expects the UK to join the sanctions, “which means everyone,” he added during the interview. “I think this is part of broader geopolitical pressure on Russia,” he concluded.

Both Vucic and his cabinet have repeatedly highlighted the hypocrisy and double standards of the West. They insist on upholding Ukraine’s borders while simultaneously demanding that Serbia recognize the breakaway region of Kosovo as an independent state governed by NATO-backed ethnic Albanians.

Serbia is officially committed to joining the EU but the bloc has made its membership conditional on sanctioning Russia and on recognizing Kosovo, among other requirements, which Vucic has declared he will never accept.

The leaders of Slovakia and Serbia will travel together to Moscow to attend the May 9 Victory parade next year, President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed on Saturday in an interview with the news channel TV Informer.

Both Vucic and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico had previously been personally invited by Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War.

Last month, Vucic said that he intends to attend the parade so long as “the end of the world doesn’t happen.” In a statement on Saturday, the Serbian president highlighted the importance of May 9 as the day of celebration of the WWII defeat of fascism, and stated that he will attend the celebrations together with Fico.

The plans of the two leaders to conduct a joint visit to Moscow for the celebrations were initially revealed last month by Fico. At the time, he also emphasized that the USSR had played a key role in liberating both Slovakia and Serbia from fascism and that his and Vucic’s visit would symbolize their recognition of the historic defeat of Nazism.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated that the number of leaders and high-ranking officials invited to next year’s May 9 celebrations is comparable to the last BRICS summit held in Kazan.

Vladimir Putin has already invited the leaders and military units of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) countries, which include Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The head of the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group Abu Mohammed al-Julani said that it is possible for Syria to have a relationship with Russia if Moscow works towards doing so. 

Al-Julani said that “Syrian leadership was keen to avoid provoking Russia,” speaking in an interview on Saturday on the Istanbul-based Syria TV channel.

The situation in Syria deteriorated in a two-week period in November, when militants led by HTS launched an offensive against the country’s troops, taking over major cities and ending up in Damascus. After the collapse of the Syrian military, Assad fled the country and was granted asylum in Russia.

Al-Julani also claimed the new Syrian government is willing to give Russia “the opportunity to re-evaluate the relationship with Syria in a way that serves common interests.” He emphasized that this moment requires “careful management” of relations with other countries.

The Khmeimim Air Base and a logistics support center in Tartus are located in the western part of the country along the Mediterranean coast. In 2017, Moscow and Damascus agreed to station Russian troops at these bases for 49 years.

After militant groups took control of Damascus, the fate of the Khmeimim and Tartus bases came under question. However, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian diplomats have already discussed these issues with the HTS political committee.

The European Commission’s data protection oversight body has found that an advertising campaign by the bloc on X (formerly Twitter) in the fall of 2023 breached its privacy regulations. A regional privacy rights nonprofit noyb, which launched the complaint, said the campaign had illegally used “political micro-targeting.” 

Noyb (named after the phrase None of Your Business) said that the Commission’s strategy involved using “proxy data” to target specific groups while deliberately excluding conservative audiences by targeting users who had no interest in keywords like Qatargate, Brexit, Marine Le Pen, Alternative für Deutschland, Vox, Christian, Christian-phobia or Giorgia Meloni. Noyb highlighted that the targeted data included sensitive political opinions without explicit consent from users, which is restricted under EU regulations.

According to noyb’s statement on Friday, the EC tried to sway opinion and “indirectly promote” to users in the Netherlands a controversial chat control regulation proposal. The Commission targeted politically liberal and left-leaning users on X in a bid to “flip” public sentiment.

The 2022 CSAM (child sexual abuse material) draft law has attracted criticism among digital rights activists for potentially forcing messaging apps to conduct mass online surveillance in a bid to find and report child abuse material. In June the EU Council temporarily withdrew voting on the legislation, according to reports.

According to noyb, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) confirmed that the EU had acted unlawfully though it only issued a reprimand without a fine as the practice ceased. 

The EU previously argued on tech website TechCrunch that X was liable as it should have implemented the campaign according to the rules. It also previously told the publication that it “did not intend to trigger the processing of special categories of personal data.”

“We take note of the [EDPS] decision on the Commission’s campaign to raise awareness about the Commission’s legislative proposal to prevent and combat child sexual abuse material online. We will now assess the EDPS decision,” Commission Spokesperson Patricia Poropat told TechCrunch.

Syria is set to go through a prolonged period of chaos now that Bashar Assad’s government has fallen, John Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, has predicted. 

Last week, opposition forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists, launched a surprise offensive across Syria and took control of its major cities, including the capital Damascus. The erstwhile president has since resigned and sought asylum with his family in Russia.

In the latest episode of Going Underground, published on Saturday, Mearsheimer suggested that it’s hard to imagine that a “coherent government” will soon be formed in Damascus that would be capable of controlling the entire country.

“How this all plays out moving forward is almost impossible to say, other than it looks like there will be considerable chaos in Syria for the foreseeable future,” the professor said, noting that the sudden regime change is only a “short-term success” for those who had backed the opposition forces, primarily the US.

“We [the US] basically threw our lot in with a number of Al Qaeda and ISIS operatives and they won,” Mearsheimer said, adding that the White House and American media were now doing everything they can to “clean up” HTS leader Mohammed al-Jolani, who is still an internationally wanted terrorist and has a US-issued $10 million bounty on his head.

As for how the HTS had managed to overthrow the Syrian government, which had for years been assisted by Russia and Iran, Mearsheimer suggested that the country’s military had long-standing critical issues that Assad had failed to address and was “hollowed out” and simply “couldn’t stand up to the rebels.”

The professor claimed that while the fall of the Assad government was not a critical loss for Russia, it could prove to be an “existential” development for neighboring Iran and prompt Tehran to fast track its development of nuclear weapons. He admitted, however, that the country’s leadership has yet to make any indications regarding such a move and it would still take it several years to develop this kind of capacity.

For a man his age, incoming US president Donald Trump has a knack for cultivating a bad-boy image. Refreshingly direct to the point of rude honesty, or dishonesty, as the case may be, he has no time for polite circumlocution. His threats are harsh, his demands unvarnished, including toward Washington’s so-called allies in Europe, which really are, at best, clients, and, more realistically, just vassals. In that spirit of candid, no-frills domination, Trump already has a long record of threatening NATO, which he sees – plausibly – as a scam in which European members fleece the US to free-ride on its insane (but that’s a different story…) military spending.

Or, in the genteel English still cultivated at The Economist, “through NATO, America is the guarantor of the continent’s security.” Yeah, right, by firing missiles at Russia… The problem with Trump is that he is uncouth enough to know the real relationship is much more like Don Corleone “protecting” your funeral parlor. And he behaves accordingly: Even during his first term in the White House between 2017 and 2021, he started scaring other NATO members into higher military spending, while never allowing them to feel safe about his commitment. Art of the tough deal: Keep ‘em guessing, keep ‘em on their toes. And it worked, too: the European spongers began to pay more. So, there will be more of that, rest assured. If, that is, there will be a NATO to speak of.

Even less noticed is the fact that the new old US president – and thus capo dei capi of the West – is not much kindlier disposed toward the EU. And yet there it is: Trump’s frank, open, and long-standing dislike for that strange bureaucratic behemoth that is about as democratic as the former Soviet Union, less efficient than the Habsburg Empire, and so full of its global “norm-setting” mission that even American “indispensability” looks oddly old-fashioned by comparison.

As early as the beginning of 2017, when the great American bruiser gate-crashed the White House for the first time, The Economist warned its European readers to “be afraid” of Trump, a man harboring “indifference” and “contempt” for the EU. Really? How unheard of! The raunchy-tycoon-turned-peremptory-president, the British establishment Pravda of neoliberalism and Russophobia explained, would seek to shatter the EU by playing “bilateralism.” That, of course, is Euro-babble for respecting individual countries’ governments by taking their sovereignty more seriously than power-grabbing delusions of grandeur in Brussels. And – oh, horror! – he might even try to talk Russia. (Spoiler: back then he did not – big mistake.)

Well, first of all there is Russia. Regarding Moscow, Trump seems ready to talk, and in a substantial manner we have not seen since the end of the Cold War: He has publicly signaled that he does not believe in trying to coerce Moscow by further escalation; his freshly appointed advisers Mike Waltz and Keith Kellogg, though known for ambiguous signals in the past, will fall into line, as they should as public servants. And if not, they’ll be fired, Trump-style, fast and without remorse.

To say the least, Trump no longer feels as restrained by Washington’s deep-state, deep-freeze Cold War re-enactors as during his first term. Sure, it’s the US: there is always the possibility someone might try to murder him, again. But if he stays among the living, which is likely, then it’s payback time: Talking to Russia now is one delicious way in which he will dish out well-deserved retribution for both the media-lawfare circus of Russia Rage (aka ‘Russiagate’) in which his opponents weaponized slander and disinformation against him. And, more importantly, Russia has been winning the war in Ukraine, not only against Kiev but also, in effect, against the West. In sum, Trump has less reason to be afraid of his own backstabbers at home, and Washington has more reason to be much more careful about Russia.

Moscow, meanwhile, has made it clear repeatedly that any new agreements would have to be mutually beneficial. The time of Gorbachevian naivete will never return. Yet, at the same time, Russia does seem open to – serious – talks: The Russian leadership does not merely carefully watch Trump, as you would expect. It also sends back calibrated pings that signal cautious appreciation of his overtures, as recently over his criticism of firing Western missiles at Russia.

Hence, nightmare number one for the EU: Trump is serious about ending US support for the failed project of inflicting a geopolitical demotion on Russia via a proxy war in Ukraine. That will leave not only the regime of Ukraine’s past-use-by-date leader Vladimir Zelensky high and dry but remaining fanatics in the EU as well. In the best-case scenario, the US will leave the European vassals with the cost of the postwar, whatever shape that may take. Trump has already said as much. In the worst-case scenario, EU elites could try going it alone. That is, worst-case for them, in every (un)imaginable way: economically, politically, and yes, militarily, too.

Then, nightmare number two, there is the economy. The US-EU relationship is the single largest trade connection in the world, worth about $11 trillion per year. That, you may think, constitutes a lot of common interest and thus reasons for treating each other if not gently then, at least, cautiously. Nope, that’s not how this works, because the relationship is lopsided, and Trump is furious about it. For him, the EU’s trade surplus with the US is yet another way in which shifty Europeans have been milking America. His weapon of choice to retaliate and rectify the situation are, of course, tariffs, the higher the better. Even before his re-election, Goldman Sachs warned that his rule could cost the EU as a whole a full percent of GDP. And yes, that’s a lot, especially for a continent already largely economically depressed, demographically declining, and with badly squeezed public finances.

What can EU leaders, those sadly submissive vassals about to be abused even worse than usual by their hegemon, do now? Frankly, not much. It’s already too late: They have made themselves dependent as never before on whoever happens to win the strange event Americans call “elections” and gets to mess with the world from the White House. And that is not at all Trump’s fault, by the way. (No, and not “the Russians!” either…).

Take, for instance, the EU’s wannabe despot Ursula von der Leyen. Building her own power grab – like Stalin, as it happens – on a mix of executive apparat overreach, crony networking, and ideological bigotry, she has made one serious mistake that may cost her dearly: She has cozied up so shamelessly to the outgoing Biden administration that, serious rumor has it, Trump cannot stand her. So, alternatives are in demand: Maybe he likes Italy’s Giorgia Meloni better? Or originally the Netherlands, now NATO’s Mark Rutte, who is constantly praised for his alleged “Trump-handling” skills?

But here is the problem with that, frankly, silly approach: Trump is not an idiot. Attempts to “handle” him are insultingly obvious and, if he tolerates them temporarily, then it’s only to handle his would-be handlers back. And then the irony is, of course, that the only EU leaders Trump respects, such as Viktor Orban of Hungary, are outcasts among their own: Good luck recruiting them now to make up for how much he disrespects all the others. Maybe they’ll even help, a little, Ursula, Olaf, and Emmanuel. But it’ll cost you, because they will – rightly – set their own conditions and gain great leverage.

What about Danegeld perhaps? Danegeld, you must know, was what the hapless inhabitants of the British Isles paid the seaborne Viking marauders in the Dark Ages. The system was simple: pay up or be plundered and slaughtered. You think that sounds a little primitive for today’s sophisticated Europeans? Never underestimate how low they will stoop. Ursula von der Leyen has already suggested that one way to mollify Trump might be to just buy even more perversely expensive LNG from the US. Christine Lagarde, head of the European Central Bank, has gone even further, pleading for a whole ‘Buy American’ program, including – surprise, surprise! – arms to assuage Trump’s ire.

Desperate? You bet. Humiliating? Obviously. Yet what’s worse, it’s not going to work. Here’s why: Even if Trump condescends to accepting such tributes from his European subjects, he will never lose sight of the one thing that really interests him (apart from his own money, power, and fame): American advantage. Whatever the Europeans will offer and however low they will kowtow, in the end, any deal will be good only for one side, the US. That’s ironic, because Russia, for one, and possibly China as well can expect the minimum of respect that makes mutual benefit at least possible. That’s because they have stood up to American bullying. For the Europeans, though, it’s a Catch 22 now. One way or the other, they will pay even more dearly than before for their historic failure after the Cold War: When they should obviously have emancipated themselves from the US, they sold out worse than ever. And without need. To paraphrase a past master of politics: It’s worse than a crime, it’s self-abuse.

The southern Syrian village of Hader has reportedly requested to be incorporated in the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights, according to the Times of Israel. The outlet cited an unverified video where a member of the Druze community expressed concerns over the future of his people.

Bashar Assad’s government fell last week after opposition forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists, launched a surprise offensive across Syria and took control of its major cities, including the capital Damascus. The erstwhile president has since resigned and sought asylum with his family in Russia.

In a video posted to X on Friday that features captions in English, a Hader resident claiming to be a representative of the Druze people, an esoteric ethnoreligious group, urged a large crowd to consider what their future will be like. The village is located within the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, which IDF troops entered last week.

“If we have to choose, we will choose the lesser evil,” he said. “And even if it’s considered evil to ask to be annexed to the [Israeli] Golan, it’s a much lesser evil than the evil coming our way,” the man added, apparently referring to the HTS, which was formerly known as the Al Nusra front - an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Syria.

“We have asked to be annexed to the Golan to preserve our dignity” the man, who claimed to speak on behalf of the Druze community across the surrounding area of Quneitra Governorate, said. “We ask in the name of all the surrounding area to join our people in the Golan, and to live with freedom and dignity like our people are living [in Israel]. 

Around 48% of Syria’s Druze resided in the Suwayda Governorate some 90 kilometers from the border with Israel prior to the civil war, the Times of Israel reported citing a 2010 census. Since then, however, it is believed that many of them have fled the region for safer parts of the country.

Switzerland plans to prohibit the public display of swastikas, the Hitler salute and other Nazi symbolism, its federal government announced on Friday. The decision comes in response to a rise of anti-Semitism in the country since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

The proposed law aims to close a legal loophole that currently allows individuals to display such symbols as long as they don’t actively promote the associated ideology, the Federal Council said in a statement.

The ban will specifically target well-known symbols of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist regime as well as modified ones like the numeric codes ‘18’ and ‘88.’ The context in which these are displayed will be crucial in determining their legality, the government stressed.

Exceptions to the ban have been outlined for educational, scientific, artistic, or journalistic purposes, allowing for the forbidden logos, images and gestures to be shown under freedom of expression rights. Existing religious symbols that resemble those of the Third Reich will not be affected by this legislation.

“Racism and anti-Semitism are unacceptable in a democratic and free society,” the Federal Council stressed in its statement.

Consultations on the proposed ban will continue until March 31, 2025. This initiative fulfills part of a parliamentary request and is set to extend to other extremist, racist, and violence-glorifying symbols in a future phase.

Anti-Semitic incidents have risen sharply in different parts of the globe since West Jerusalem launched its offensive against Hamas, which has resulted in nearly 45,000 deaths and over 106,000 people being injured.

The move to bomb the enclave came in response to the October 7, 2023 Palestinian militant attack on Israel, when over 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage.

Earlier this year, the Intercommunity Coordination against Antisemitism and Defamation (CICAD) said it had recorded 944 anti-Semitic acts in the French-speaking part of Switzerland in 2023 - a 68% rise compared to the previous year.

Masses of Syrians celebrating the ousting of President Bashar Assad have been seen at Christmas markets across Germany over the past week. Videos posted online show thousands marching through the festive venues waving Syrian flags and chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Bashar is gone, Syria is free!’

The situation in Syria rapidly deteriorated in November when militants led by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) launched an offensive that routed the country’s troops, taking over major cities, including Damascus. After the collapse of Assad’s military, the armed opposition seized power and he was forced to flee to Russia, where he was granted political asylum.

According to German media, groups of Syrian opposition supporters have taken over Christmas markets throughout the country since the previous weekend. They were spotted in Stuttgart, Dresden, Baden-Württemberg, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Konstanz and several other cities. While the demonstrations have been peaceful, some slogans being chanted have sparked worry among security experts. For instance, the phrase ‘Allahu Akbar,’ which roughly translates into ‘God is Great,’ is a standard greeting for Muslims but, in certain contexts, is also associated with extreme Islamism. 

Auch in Stuttgart freuen die Syrer fröhlich auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt. Alles ganz normal im besten Deutschland Allah Zeiten.
Leute, ihr habt’s so gewählt und somit auch gewollt.
Jede Person, die Altparteien wählt, wählt somit auch diese Umstände. pic.twitter.com/dPr28vAU1a

— Raijin (@Raijinsays) December 11, 2024

Footage from the demonstrations posted online is currently being evaluated by the German police, Bild reported on Saturday, with the chants to be translated into German and assessed by law enforcement officials to determine whether they contain extremist ideas.

Authorities also reportedly fear that the rallies may recur this weekend and potentially lead to violence.

Syrer:innen verbringen einen besinnlichen Nachmittag auf dem Essener Weihnachtsmarkt. Darüber regen sich Rechte jetzt auf. pic.twitter.com/zzfJFSTCFx

— Ruprecht Parodielenz 🇪🇺🇩🇪🇵🇸🇺🇦 (@parodielenz_r) December 13, 2024

“Together with many Syrians in Germany, we are happy that Assad’s unjust regime has come to an end [but] chanting Islamist slogans is completely unacceptable, especially in the context of a Christmas market,” lawmaker Andrea Lindholz told the news outlet, adding that “anyone who flees to a democratic constitutional state but then glorifies Islamism should leave our country.” Extremism expert Ahmad Mansour stated that “deliberately using Christmas markets for demonstrations is disrespectful and tasteless,” noting that there are other ways to celebrate what the demonstrators deem “the end of a tyrant” without “stirring up cultural tensions.”

Germany’s federal minister of the interior Nancy Faeser previously warned that Christmas markets pose a heightened security risk, as they are an “ideologically suitable target for Islamist-motivated” terror attacks.

A nine-year-old child was killed and his mother and infant sister wounded after a Ukrainian drone struck a private home in Russia’s Belgorod Region, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.

The UAV targeted a residential area in the village of Maysky, located 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the border with Ukraine, Gladkov wrote on Telegram on Saturday.

"The most terrible thing happened – a nine-year-old child has died” in the attack, he wrote. The governor expressed his condolences to the boy’s family, stressing that it would be impossible to find words to console them.

The deceased child’s mother and his seven-month-old sister required hospitalization following the incident. The woman was hit in the leg, while the baby suffered from shell shock, he said.

Gladkov also published photos of the damaged building, which show that the explosion was so powerful that it destroyed the roof and punched a large hole in one of the outer walls.

More than a dozen other settlements in Belgorod Region were targeted by artillery and UAVs during the day. Some 30 shells and over a dozen drones were used by Kiev’s forces in those attacks, he said.

In the town of Shebekino, a UAV hit an apartment block, damaging the facade of the building and smashing windows. There was material damage in other parts of the region, too, he added.

The Russian regions of Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk, all of which border Ukraine, have been frequent targets of cross-border fire since the escalation of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. Shelling and drone strikes have been aimed at energy infrastructure and residential areas, resulting in dozens of civilian deaths and injuries, as well as the destruction of property.

Ukraine has intensified the bombardment of Belgorod Region in recent months amid continued Russian advances in Donbass and the launch of Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region in early August. The advance of the Ukrainian forces was swiftly halted, with the territory under their control steadily shrinking since then.

A Florida woman has been arrested for allegedly threatening an insurance firm that denied her medical claim, using words from the scene of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’ fatal shooting. The suspect, 42-year-old Briana Boston, has been charged with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, ABC News reported Friday, citing an arrest affidavit.

The incident reportedly occurred on Tuesday, when Boston was speaking by phone with a representative from the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance company, seeking to challenge the firm’s denial of her medical claim. When the representative reiterated that the claim had been denied, Boston allegedly became aggressive, and said “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.”

The three-word slogan has been making headlines this month, since being found written on bullet shell casings left at the scene of Brian Thompson’s death in New York. The words appear to be a reference to the “delay, deny, defend” strategy some insurance companies have been accused of using when dealing with expensive medical claims – meaning delaying a decision, denying the claim and defending themselves against disputes.

According to police, when questioned, Boston admitted to using the words, but said she did so because “it is what is in the news right now.” She also said insurance companies “are evil” and “deserve karma,” but claimed that she owned no guns and did not plan to carry out her threat. The woman has been charged with a second-degree felony and is currently awaiting trial at a Polk County jail, facing up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

While no official confirmation has been issued, media reports claim police believe Mangione’s motive for shooting Thompson was the healthcare industry’s treatment of his sick relative. Mangione appeared in a Pennsylvania court on Tuesday and was charged with second-degree murder.

Brian Thompson’s killing has sparked a furore on social media, with US users venting grievances over their own treatment by insurance companies, and posting rejection letters from healthcare firms. Many users have even celebrated Thompson’s suspected killer, offering to contribute to his legal fees.

The Russian Federation could welcome more territories into the country in the future, former President Dmitry Medvedev suggested on Saturday during the ongoing United Russia party congress.

Commenting on the ruling party’s efforts in helping to incorporate and develop the new regions that have joined the country, Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chairman of the nation‘s security council and the head of the United Russia party, suggested that this experience could one day come in handy again.

“This experience may be in demand in the future if new regions very close to us appear in our country, because this is possible,” he noted.

In 2022, four former Ukrainian territories, including the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, held public referendums where they decided to break with Kiev and become part of Russia.

Ukraine and its Western backers have refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of these referendums; Kiev has continued to claim authority over these territories and vowed to retake all of them.

Moscow however, has repeatedly urged Kiev to accept the new realities “on the ground,” with President Vladimir Putin calling the complete withdrawal of all Ukrainian forces from all Russian territories a key prerequisite for peace talks.

President Vladimir Putin addressed the ongoing challenges posed by international sanctions and external pressures at the plenary session of the ruling United Russia party on Saturday. 

“Russia is developing, the economy is growing. And this is against the backdrop of unprecedented sanctions, blunt interference, and pressure from the ruling elites of certain states,” Putin stated. He emphasized that “no blackmail or attempts from outside to hinder us will ever yield results.”

The United Russia congress is set to alter the party’s program and charter, as well as rotate its High and General Councils.

Russia will achieve all of its short and long-term objectives, Putin added.

Washington and its allies have imposed a record 22,000 sanctions on Moscow since 2014, when a Western-backed coup in Kiev prompted Crimea to rejoin Russia and led to a conflict between Ukraine and the Donbass republics. The number of measures spiked after the launch of the special military operation in February 2022.

Moscow views the Ukraine conflict as a proxy war to contain Russia. It has for years voiced concerns about NATO’s unchecked expansion towards its border, while regarding the US-led bloc as an existential threat.

The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden is preparing a significant surge in weapons deliveries to Ukraine in the final weeks of his tenure, a senior official told CNN on Thursday.

President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Biden’s handling of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, and campaigned on a promise to resolve the hostilities “within 24 hours.” However, since his election victory in November, he has not disclosed any detailed plans for achieving that goal.

The US Department of Defense “is undertaking a historic effort to move massive quantities of weapons into Ukraine in the next five weeks,” the unnamed official told CNN.

Washington reportedly plans to deliver “hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets, hundreds of armored vehicles, and other critical capabilities” between now and January 20, when Trump returns to the White House.

According to the source, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is leading an interagency effort to facilitate the deliveries. In November, he directed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “accelerate” the movement of various arms, including armored vehicles and missiles.

Since the start of the conflict, US weapons have been transported to Ukraine via Europe, but the upcoming surge will reportedly involve a substantial number of flights and sea vessels to ensure swift arrival.

On Thursday evening, Biden authorized a new $500 million weapons package for Ukraine, which includes air defense, artillery, drones, and armored vehicles. Since the escalation of hostilities in February 2022, the US Congress has approved over $174 billion in aid to Kiev. Biden has also given the greenlight for Ukraine’s strikes deep into Russia using US-supplied missiles.

Trump has slammed the decision as “a very big mistake”. In an interview with Time magazine earlier this week, he said such attacks are only “escalating this war and making it worse.”

That echoed the view of Moscow, which has repeatedly warned that long-range strikes will only worsen the conflict and be seen as NATO’s direct participation in the hostilities.

“In this case we take the same view of the reasons for the escalation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, adding that Trump’s opposition to Ukraine’s use of American long-range missiles “appeals” to Moscow.

French President Emmanuel Macron plans to urge EU leaders to send a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on Friday, citing sources.

The force would be tasked with observing a truce, if peace talks between Moscow and Kiev are successful. According to the US state-funded news outlet, the French leader plans to discuss the issue at next week’s EU summit.

The idea of sending Western peacekeepers to Ukraine was reportedly pitched by US President-elect Donald Trump at his December 7 meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and Macron in Paris. According to an earlier report by the Wall Street Journal, Trump has been drafting proposals for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, and wants European nations to play a leading role in monitoring a ceasefire.

The idea was later discussed by British and French officials, according to media reports, and Macron was said to have presented it to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk during their meeting in Warsaw earlier this week. Tusk, however, said no such plans are in place “for the time being” for either Poland or the rest of the EU. Warsaw, one of Kiev’s staunchest backers, will assume the EU Council presidency next month.

The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, stressed on Thursday that Russia and Ukraine first need to agree to a ceasefire for any peacekeeping missions to be possible. She also noted that it would be “up to every single European country” to decide whether to participate in such an effort.

Sources told Radio Free Europe the matter is currently being raised to lay the groundwork for discussions with Trump, to ensure the EU’s presence at potential peace talks.

The US president-elect has repeatedly pledged to end the Ukraine conflict within 24 of returning to the White House. His pick for special envoy on Ukraine and Russia, retired Army General Keith Kellogg, is reportedly among the authors of a draft peace plan that would freeze the conflict along the current line without recognizing Russia’s sovereignty over territories claimed by Ukraine, while suspending Kiev’s NATO membership bid.

The Georgian parliament has voted to appoint former Manchester City player Mikhail Kavelashvili, whose party is a member of the ruling coalition, as the new president of the country.

Kavelashvili’s candidacy has been supported by 224 legislators out of 300. The 53-year-old was the only candidate considered.

Georgia is a parliamentary republic, in which the prime minister and government wield executive power, while the president’s role is ceremonial.

The pro-EU opposition, which had been protesting since the ruling Georgian Dream party achieved a landslide victory in the parliamentary election in October, has said that it refuses to recognize the results of the presidential vote.

Zourabichvili told Radio France Internationale earlier this week that she has no intention of leaving the presidential palace despite her term officially expiring on Monday. “When a new president is legitimately chosen through an election, I will gladly give up my seat to him,” she said.

This is the first time that the Georgian president is being elected by MPs instead of via a popular vote.

Kavelashvili used to be a member of the Georgian Dream before joining the newly-created People’s Party in the summer of 2022. The party, which now holds eight seats in parliament, is a part of the ruling coalition.

Before becoming a politician, Kavelashvili enjoyed a successful career as a footballer. He has played for Manchester City, Dinamo Tbilisi, Spartak Vladikavkaz, and several Swiss clubs, including Basel and Zurich’s Grasshoppers, scoring a total of 166 goals. The striker also has 46 caps and 9 goals for the Georgian national squad.

A former OpenAI employee who claimed the company had violated copyright laws during work on its ChatGPT chatbot has been found dead, CNBC and other outlets have reported.

Suchir Balaji died several weeks ago, and “the manner of death has been determined to be suicide,” David Serrano Sewell, executive director of San Francisco’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told the broadcaster on Friday.

According to San Francisco police, officers discovered the whistleblower’s body during a “wellbeing check” at an apartment on Buchanan Street on November 26. “No evidence of foul play” was found during the initial investigation, they said.

Balaji’s untimely demise comes three months after he publicly accused OpenAI of violating US copyright law during the development of the ChatGPT large language model.

The information that the 26-year-old possessed was believed to have been crucial to multiple lawsuits filed against the San-Francisco-based firm by publishers, authors and artists, which claim that OpenAI used their data without authorization.

The “mysterious” drones spotted flying over New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and other East Coast states must be shot down, US President-elect Donald Trump has said.

An FBI official told the US Congress earlier this week that the agency had received more than 3,000 tips from the public about sightings of unidentified UAVs in US airspace since mid-November.

Trump weighed in on the issue in a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, saying: “Mystery Drone sightings all over the country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I do not think so!”

“Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!” the president-elect demanded.

The sightings have caused concerns among the US lawmakers, including Congressman Jeff Van Drew, who said on Wednesday that he had learned from “high sources” that they were launched from an Iranian ship in the Atlantic. The representative from New Jersey also called for the UAVs to be shot down.

However, Van Drew held his ground, telling Fox News the next day that “we are not being told the truth.” The Republican accused the Pentagon of “dealing with the American public like we are stupid.”

On Thursday, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said they were continuing to “investigate this situation and confirm whether the reported drone flights are actually drones or are instead manned aircraft or otherwise inaccurate sightings.”

The South Korean parliament has voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his brief imposition of martial law last week.

The National Assembly voted 204 to 85 in support of the measure on Saturday, above the required threshold of 200.

All 300 members of the legislature were in attendance for the secret ballot, but three abstained, and eight ballots were declared invalid.

The decision by the National Assembly means that Yoon is automatically suspended from office. The South Korean Constitutional Court now has 180 days to rule on the president’s removal from the post.

During this period, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will act as the country’s interim president.

“This is a victory for the South Korean people and for democracy,” Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said after the impeachment vote.

However, the PPP changed its stance this week, after its efforts to persuade the president to step down voluntarily failed.

“We tried to find a better way than impeachment, but that other way is invalid,” party leader Han Dong-hoon said. “Suspending the president from his duties through impeachment is the only way for now, to defend democracy and the republic.”

The political crisis in South Korea erupted on December 3 when Yoon delivered a surprise televised address, declaring emergency martial law on the grounds that the opposition – which he accused of being sympathetic towards North Korea – had allegedly been preparing a “rebellion.”

Within hours, 190 lawmakers, who managed to access the National Assembly despite military cordons, voted unanimously to lift the decree. Thousands of people took to the streets to condemn the president’s actions.

Less than six hours after imposing martial law, the head of state announced that he had decided to retract his decision.

During his address on Thursday, Yoon, who faces an investigation over possible insurrection, defended his move, calling the declaration of martial law a “highly calibrated political judgment.” It was aimed to “protect the nation” from the opposition’s attempts to block the work of the government, he said.

After several long years of uncertainty, Nepal and China have signed a framework agreement on cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – Beijing’s grand plan to develop new trade routes connecting it with the rest of the world. It happened earlier this month during Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s visit to Beijing. 

In 2020, China’s government sent Nepal a draft framework agreement. Although Kathmandu had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the initiative in May 2017, it did not proceed with further steps.

The stated reason was the financing of the projects: China wanted to give loans, while Nepal wanted to get grants. Unspoken was Kathmandu’s caution to not upset its giant neighbor to the south, India.

Even before Oli visited China in the first week of December, there was uncertainty about what would be included in the framework agreement.

Nepal sent a draft only at the last minute. It included a clause on “assistance financing under a corporate modality,” language agreed to by both sides which took into account Beijing’s reluctance to give grants to Nepal but also explicitly avoided mentioning loans from China.

“It would have been fundamentally flawed to borrow from anyone other than China. If the conditions are bad, then it is also possible to secure grants,” Sudhir Sharma, former editor-in-chief of Nepal’s largest daily, Kantipur, said. “An aid-assistance financing model was finally agreed to, which was not mandated as either purely grants or loans. This means grants and concessional loans. Both China and Nepal demonstrated flexibility, which has prevented the agreement from being sidelined.”

The CPN-UML has been positive about the BRI from the beginning. However, the Nepali Congress has been less supportive, vocally opposing the acceptance of any loans under the initiative. Despite these differences, both leading parties ultimately agreed on the country's involvement in the BRI. Sharma called it a positive step for Nepal’s foreign policy.

“It is encouraging to see both parties standing together on foreign policy. It sends a strong message,” he said. “Now, Nepal should work to maintain relations in this manner with other countries, including India.”

Development plans

Nepal has proposed 10 projects under the BRI. The most significant ones are the Kerung-Kathmandu railway, the Tokha-Chhahare tunnel, and the Kerung-Rasuwagadhi 220 KV transmission line.

The BRI, referred to as the New Silk Road, is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in history. Launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, it was initially designed to connect East Asia and Europe through physical infrastructure. Over the years, it has expanded to include Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, broadening China’s economic and political influence.

Experts believe that implementing the BRI projects could be a game-changer for Nepal. Nepal's former ambassador to Russia Milan Tuladhar noted that mega projects under the BRI, such as railways, highways, and infrastructure development, could transform the country. According to him, China aims to expand transportation networks, including railways, to the Indian border.

“Nepal can benefit from the Trans-Himalayan Multidimensional Connectivity Network that includes infrastructure like optical fiber networks, electric power grids, and railways,” Tuladhar said. “This will help Nepal’s economy. China wants Nepal to develop and remain stable.”

Tuladhar added that China seeks to address challenges posed by the West while maintaining good relations with India. At the same time, the West is determined to counter Chinese influence, and Beijing is navigating these dynamics through cooperation with New Delhi.

India has also expressed an interest in connecting Kathmandu via railway, with the Raxaul-Kathmandu railway line currently under study. Sharma emphasized that Nepal should focus on infrastructure projects under the BRI, such as railways, roads, and hydropower.

“Now that our two neighbors are advancing in prosperity, we must carefully assess how we can benefit from this,” Sharma said. “Just as during the Malla era, Nepal can capitalize on its strategic position as a trading hub. The opportunity is here as our neighbors grow wealthier, creating a unique advantage for Nepal to seize.”

Indian and US Factors

Sino-Nepalese relations date back to 1960, but Nepal’s historical ties with Tibet go back much further. Today, the country's relations with China extend to people-to-people connections, economic partnerships, and cultural exchanges.

Nepal shares a 1,414-kilometer border with China, with 14 trading points, including major ones at Tatopani and Kerung, currently operational.

China’s investment in Nepal has sparked debates and uncertainty. After 2017, BRI projects faced several obstacles. According to Pawan Adhikari, a senior research fellow at the Center for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy, these challenges stem largely from the influence of India and the United States.

“The main reason for the lack of BRI implementation is geopolitical pressure. Both India and the US aim to reduce China’s influence in Nepal,” Adhikari said. “As Nepal strengthens its relationship with China, it must also consider the interests of other friendly nations.”

Adhikari cautioned that BRI implementation could pose challenges to Nepal’s sovereignty. However, Bishnu Rijal, a central committee member of the CPN-UML, disagreed, arguing that the country must keep all avenues open, including energy trade agreements with China.

“If Nepal does not embrace cooperation with China, it will face significant challenges and risk being left behind,” Rijal asserted.

However, China has recently started speaking out on Nepal-related issues, particularly in response to US activities. In 2022, when the Millennium Challenge Corporation-Nepal Compact (MCC), a US grant project, was introduced in Nepal’s parliament, China reacted strongly. The MCC became a highly-charged geopolitical issue with both Beijing and Washington making frequent statements.

Prime Minister Oli made records of his visits to China, which outnumbered his visits to India – as highlighted by the Indian media. Likewise the Chinese media also highlighted his visit as significant. 

Senior journalist Yubaraj Ghimire insisted that Nepal is conducting independent foreign policy, saying the decision to visit a country should be autonomous, based on the demands and needs of the situation. “This reflects a positive aspect of Nepal’s diplomacy,” Ghimire said. He added Oli’s visits have been successful and demonstrate Nepal’s "pragmatic approach" to foreign relations.

Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor (RKN) has blocked access to the popular instant messaging service Viber, citing multiple failures to remove criminal content. 

The app has 17 million unique daily users in Russia, according to tech news website Telecom Daily.  

In its statement on Friday, RKN said access to Viber “has been restricted” due to violations of national laws aimed at preventing the use of online messengers to engage in “terrorist and extremist” crimes, drug dealing, and the dissemination of “unlawful information.” 

Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma who sits on the parliamentary information policy and communications committee, told TASS news agency that Viber’s owners have failed to pay 1.8 million rubles ($17,230) in fines and “continue to ignore Russian laws.” He added that Viber “does not delete illegal information,” including information related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

Nemkin also said the messenger is popular with scammers who target elderly people. He claimed that “foreign intelligence services” could exploit Viber as a recruitment tool for potential spies. 

Moscow has cracked down on social media platforms in recent years, citing persistent violations of national laws through the hosting illegal content, such as disinformation, hate speech, and the promotion of “extremist” activities. 

In 2022, the authorities banned access to X (formerly Twitter) and designated Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, an “extremist organization,” for refusal to take down criminal content. 

Viber was founded in 2010 by Igor Magazinnik, who emigrated from Russia to Israel at the age of 16, and Israeli-American entrepreneur Talmon Marco. The company was bought by the Japanese tech giant Rakuten in 2014. 

The US has repeatedly abused its veto power on the UN Security Council, rendering the global body incapable of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said. 

The statement came after the UN General Assembly adopted two resolutions on the war in Gaza, one of which called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas – and was similar to a document earlier blocked by the US at the Security Council. Unlike resolutions passed by the Security Council, those adopted by the General Assembly are legally non-binding.

The measure passed on Wednesday called for “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire,” as well as “for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.” The second document confirmed “full support” for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), and “deplored” Israel’s legislation that banned the agency’s work in the West Bank and Gaza. 

In a statement on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the ceasefire resolution “largely repeated the content” of a draft that was vetoed by the US at the Security Council last month.

“The UN Security Council – the main body tasked with maintaining international peace and security – remains paralyzed as a result of the use of the veto power by Washington (six times since the beginning of the current crisis),” the ministry wrote on its website.

The US and Israel have argued that an immediate cessation of hostilities would only benefit Hamas, and have accused the Palestinian armed group of sabotaging the negotiations. “It would be shameful and wrong if the General Assembly voted today to vindicate Hamas’ cynical strategy of stalling and obstruction,” US envoy to the UN, Robert Wood, said in a statement explaining Wednesday’s vote.

Israel has long accused UNRWA of covertly aiding Hamas and other militants.

"Despite the overwhelming evidence we submitted to the UN that substantiate Hamas’ infiltration of UNRWA, the UN did nothing to rectify the situation,” Israel’s envoy to the UN, Danny Danon, wrote on X last month.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini described Israel’s decision to block the operations of the agency as an “ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine refugees.”

Nearly 45,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s operation in Gaza, according to local authorities. The war broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and allied groups carried out a surprise attack on Israeli cities, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, around 100 of whom are believed to be still held in Gaza.

Russia is negotiating with the new Syrian authorities on maintaining two of its military bases in the country, at Tartus and Khmeimim, TASS news agency has reported.

Moscow and the Syrian jihadists who seized power in the country last weekend are currently discussing “maintaining Russia’s presence in Syria and its previous status,” according to agency sources reportedly familiar with the negotiations. “The Russian side has secured temporary security guarantees, so the military bases are operating as usual,” the source said. 

On December 9, a TASS source reported that the day before, armed formations of then-President Bashar Assad's opponents had established full control over the provinces of where Russia's bases are located, but had not invaded either of the compounds.

According to a statement by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian diplomats have already discussed several issues with the HTS political committee, including “ensuring the security of our diplomatic mission and Russian citizens who are on the territory of Syria.”

In 2017, Moscow and Damascus agreed to the stationing of Russian troops at the Tartus and Khmeimim bases for a further 49 years.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s team has been working hard to broker a truce between Ukraine and Russia that could pave the way to peace talks, NBC reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Trump has repeatedly slammed the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict and claimed that it would have happened at all with him in charge at the White House. He campaigned on stopping the conflict even before inauguration, though that has proven to be a tall order.

“Trump is really serious about wanting to get to a ceasefire on day one,” a source told NBC News.

According to the outlet, Trump’s national security team has already held talks with the outgoing White House and the Kiev leadership. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg met with Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak last week.

“The goal is for the world to understand there is a desire for the time of transition to be seen as a strong America, working for peace and stability around the world, until President-elect Trump is sworn in,” transition spokesman Brian Hughes has said.

Trump’s aides “hold a range of views” on Ukraine and have not yet presented “a conceptual or specific peace plan” to Kiev, NBC reported, citing former US officials in touch with the Ukrainians and two sources in Kiev. These sources described the Trump team’s contacts with Zelensky and his aides as “constructive” and “positive.”

US President-elect Donald Trump could solve the conflict between Moscow and Kiev “within the next few months,” retired US Army General Keith Kellogg, slated to become a special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, has suggested.

Speaking to Fox News on Friday, Kellogg did not rule out the idea that Trump could potentially invite both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to his presidential inauguration.

“President Trump plays three-level chess, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he did something like that. Could he do it? Of course, he could do it. He could make such a bold move,” Kellogg said, adding that he really believes the Ukraine conflict will be solved “within the next few months” because Trump is “the only person” who can and will do it.

Nothing should be put “beyond the realm of possible” at the moment, Kellogg said, adding that “he wouldn’t be surprised” by any unexpected moves made by the next US president.

Earlier this week, he said that resolving the Ukrainian crisis and the hostility in the Middle East were among his “big priorities.” He suggested, however, that achieving the latter was “less difficult” than the former.

Moscow has previously expressed skepticism about Trump’s repeated pledges to somehow settle the Ukrainian conflict, dismissing his promises as campaign talk. Shortly after he secured the election win, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the promises of resolving the conflict overnight were clearly “an exaggeration of sorts.”

“If the new [US] administration seeks peace rather than a continuation of the conflict, it will be better than the previous one,” Peskov said at the time.

The US online giant Amazon has confirmed it will donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund and stream the ceremony as well, in what has been widely interpreted as a peace offering by CEO Jeff Bezos.

The Washington Post, owned by Bezos since 2013, has been one of Trump’s most vocal critics since his first term in the White House.

“Bezos is donating through Amazon,” a source told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The company has since confirmed this in a statement to CNN.

In addition to the direct donation to the inaugural fund, Amazon’s Prime Video will stream Trump’s inauguration as an in-kind contribution valued at another $1 million. Bezos is also supposed to visit Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida next week.

Bezos’ net worth has been estimated at almost $250 billion, so the amount of the donations is largely symbolic. The tech mogul began shifting away from overt support to the Democrats earlier this year, praising Trump’s “tremendous grace and courage under literal fire” after the July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. He then vetoed the Post’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in October, causing no small consternation among staff and subscribers.

Both gestures were seen as an attempt to atone for donating over $400 million to Democrats and to various institutions in majority-Democrat areas, and later banning the sitting president from Facebook and Instagram after the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

Donations to an inaugural committee are not subject to any contribution amount limitations, but need to be reported to the Federal Elections Commission as such.
Earlier this month, at an event hosted by the New York Times, Bezos said he would try to talk Trump out of the idea that the legacy media is “the enemy of the people.”

“What I’ve seen so far is that he is calmer than he was the first time and more confident, more settled,” Bezos said, suggesting that Trump might be amenable to persuasion.

Meanwhile, SpaceX owner Elon Musk has emerged as one of Trump’s closest allies, first by buying Twitter in 2022 and ending most censorship on that platform, and later by openly endorsing Trump and donating an estimated $200 million to his re-election bid.

Germany’s central bank has slashed growth outlook for the EU’s largest economy, projecting that it will contract this year and will hardly grow at all in 2025, amid deepening structural problems.

In its monthly report, released on Friday, the Bundesbank said GDP is expected to shrink by 0.2% this year due to a more persistent weakness in the industrial sector. The forecast is a sharp downgrade of a previously projected 0.3% expansion.

The industrial sector weakness is now largely considered to be structural and is putting a strain on export business and investments, the central bank said. The labor market is also affected, which in turn is dampening private consumption, the report noted.

“Against this backdrop, the German economy is set to stagnate in the winter half-year 2024-25 and only begins to make a slow recovery over the course of 2025,” the Bundesbank said.

Output is set to increase by 0.2% next year, compared to the previously projected 1.1%. For 2026 and 2027, the Bundesbank forecast growth of 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively.

“The German economy is struggling not just with persistent cyclical headwinds but also with structural problems,” Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said in the report.

He cited uncertainty surrounding geopolitical conflicts, the impact of structural changes and the orientation of future fiscal and economic policy following the Bundestag elections in February. “All in all, the prevailing risks at present are of even weaker economic growth and higher inflation,” Nagel said.

Bundesbank also warned that a potential trade war with the US could push the German economy into recession. If President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his threat of imposing blanket tariffs on all imports to the US, it could slash between 0.2 and 0.6 percentage points off German GDP next year, the Bundesbank said.

The Eurozone’s largest economy has been falling behind its peers in recent years, largely due to a prolonged manufacturing downturn. Germany was the only Group of Seven economy to contract in 2023.

Israeli aircraft have bombed Syrian army facilities in Latakia and Tartus provinces, where Russian military bases are located, a Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen reported, citing a correspondent.

According to the channel, the strikes targeted command posts and military warehouses used by the Syrian army, however, no information on possible casualties was provided.

Russian military forces are present in Syria at Khmeimim Air Base and a logistics support center in Tartus, located in the western part of the country along the Mediterranean coast. In 2017, Moscow and Damascus agreed to station Russian troops at these bases for a period of 49 years.

After militant groups led by Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) took control of Damascus last weekend, prompting Syrian President Bashar Assad to flee to Russia where he was granted asylum, the fate of Khmeimim and Tartus bases was under question. However, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian diplomats have already discussed these issues with the HTS political committee.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier Friday ordered the country’s troops to prepare to stay in newly seized Syrian territory over the winter. Katz also said he'd ordered that the IDF “set up appropriate facilities and make special preparations for the soldiers to remain on Mount Hermon” inside Syria, which lies near the border with Lebanon and is a strategic location overlooking Damascus.

IDF seized the territory, which is a demilitarized buffer zone established in 1974 after an armistice agreement that paused a conflict between Syria and Israel, on Sunday after HTS took power. It also expanded beyond the area of the Golan Heights it has been illegally occupying since 1967.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later announced that the agreement with Syria had “collapsed” with the HTS takeover of the country.

Euthanasia continues to represent a growing proportion of the mortality rate in Canada, accounting for nearly one in every 20 deaths in the country last year, the latest government figures show.

According to Health Canada’s annual medical assistance in dying (MAID) report, released on Wednesday, 15,343 people were euthanized in the country in 2023, an all-time high. While the number represents an increase of 15.8% over 2022, it registers a drop from an average annual growth rate of about 31%, the report noted.

While the growth rate has declined, it still reveals another double-digit increase in Canadian citizens opting to end their lives under the country’s national suicide law. It is “not yet possible to make reliable conclusions about whether or not these findings represent a stabilization of growth rates over the longer term,” the MAID report added.

Federal statistics show the growth in cases of assisted death making up 4.7% of deaths in 2023, compared to 4.1% the previous year.

More than 95% of euthanasia cases involved people who were terminally ill, with cancer cited as the most common reason for the request. The average age of someone seeking assisted death is over 77.

Medically assisted death in Canada is only legal for people on the basis of a physical health condition. However, the government is reportedly considering allowing persons with Alzheimer’s and dementia to request their deaths before the worst effects of such illnesses set in.

In February, the government delayed a controversial plan to allow assisted dying for the mentally ill until at least 2027, to allow the country’s healthcare services to properly prepare. Medical professionals expressed concerns that they are not yet adequately trained to determine whether someone with a mental illness qualifies for euthanasia.

Canadian Health Minister Mark Holland said at the time the government accepts the equivalency of mental suffering and physical suffering, but that it is a “question of readiness.”

In 2021, Canada loosened its euthanasia laws to no longer require that a patient’s condition be terminal, allowing people whose condition is serious and incurable to request the option. The number of medically-assisted deaths in Canada has risen significantly since it was first introduced, from roughly 1,000 in 2016 to more than 15,000 last year.

In recent years a number of other countries have introduced assisted dying laws, including Austria, Australia and Spain. The UK recently passed legislation on the issue though the vote in the House of Commons was not the final say.

The mayor of the Canadian township of Emo (pop: 1,204), which borders the US state of Minnesota, has to personally pay an LGBTQ group $5,000 for injury to their self-respect. And that’s on top of the $10,000 that the town has to fork over.

According to official documents, the drama started in 2020 when Borderland Pride, a Canadian non-profit group, requested that the town officials officially recognize Pride Month in June of that year. The town had done so in previous years, but reportedly decided to amend their proclamations policy – which had yet to be adopted when this latest request came through. So the group’s request was rejected in a 3-2 council vote that year.

It’s not like this particular policy amendment was high priority, particularly at the height of the Covid fiasco, since they barely had any requests anyway. This one group alone represented half of all of the town’s requests for declarations, proclamations, or flag displays from April 2019 to April 2020.

Their request for the town to fly the rainbow flag for a week, and to send the group photos of it with the town’s officials for use on social media, reportedly wasn’t considered since the town didn’t even have a flagpole.

So here comes a complaint by the group to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal – which was decided on November 20, 2024.

In the case of Borderland Pride against the Township of Emo, the tribunal accepted at face value that the council didn’t consider hanging the flag because of its lack of a flagpole. It did however note that the flag could have been “displayed” somewhere else other than on a flagpole. But it stopped short of ordering the mayor to walk around with it like a Superman cape.

The tribunal also accepted that two of the three council votes against issuing the Pride Month proclamation occurred in good faith and were merely the result of not wanting to adopt any proclamations before the new policy governing them was put into place. It was only the mayor’s “no” vote that was problematic.

During the council meeting in question, after discussing what they should do with the Pride flag display request in the absence of a flagpole, but before the vote against the Pride Month proclamation, Mayor Harold McQuaker said, “There’s no flag being flown for the other side of the coin…there’s no flags being flown for the straight people.”

Uh oh, here’s comes the forbidden-thinking patrol!

Suddenly, because of the mayor’s pro-heterosexual comments, it must mean that he hates gays. So it’s decided that “on the preponderance of evidence,” the rejection of the Pride proclamation was, more likely than not, the end-result of the mayor’s homophobia, and couldn’t be because he aligned with the other two Council “no” votes on the need for the policy amendment to deal with it first.

“I don’t hate anybody,” he said. “We just don’t have a flagpole at our town hall,” McQuaker recently told the Toronto Sun. But cognitive deviance is cognitive deviance, and like a colon polyp, best to nip it in the bud so there’s zero risk of it ever potentially developing into systemic cancer.

So here come the experts to tell the tribunal about how malignant this mayor’s thinking already is.

According to Dr. Emily Saewyc, an LGBTQ specialist who testified at the hearing, research suggests that “anti-LGBTQ rhetoric by President Trump, Vice-President Pence, and members of Trump’s cabinet during his presidency visibly increased the amount of hate and violence” towards these minorities. Or, you know, maybe people are just fed up with having special interest agenda shoved down their throats in make-work projects for activists at a time when citizens of all stripes are facing common and federating hardships. She then attempted to draw a parallel with the “homophobic and hateful social media posts about Borderland Pride and the LGBTQ2 community” after the vote – as though people would have been cheering the LGBTQ cause had the mayor not been such a bigot and supported Pride Month.

Borderland Pride wanted the tribunal to allow it to choose a week for the Township to have 2020 Pride Month now, and to force it to hold Pride Month every June going forward. It refused. But it did order Mayor McQuaker to attend a sort of re-education camp. Within 30 days, he has to provide Borderland Pride with proof that he’s completed the province’s human rights training course.

McQuaker has basically told the tribunal to shove it, refusing to pay or take the course, calling it “extortion,” according to the Toronto Sun.

All of this is the sort of blueprint that demonstrates exactly how special interest agendas end up hijacking the most basic aspects of daily life, through relentless activist browbeating that has a chilling effect on anyone who fails to passionately cater to their sacred cows.

A smaller version of the Eiffel Tower installed in a town in Russia’s Kursk Region, which borders Ukraine, should be demolished as a symbol representing an “enemy state,” the local mayor has suggested.

Kiev launched a large-scale incursion into Kursk Region in August. The Russian military has been conducting counteroffensive operations and has regained control of multiple towns and villages. According to the latest estimates by the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Ukraine has lost more than 40,000 troops during the invasion, but is still holding its ground in some areas. On Thursday, Russian marines recaptured fortified positions used by Ukrainian forces in the border area of the region.

Мэр Железногорска призвал снести в городе копию Эйфелевой башни как «символ страны-агрессора»

На встрече с жителями курского Железногорска мэр Александр Михайлов заявил, что надо решить вопрос о сносе местной 15-метровой «Эйфелевой башни» у кафе «Cafe Si de Paris». Глава города… pic.twitter.com/wP8hKjdTXc

— SOTA (@Sota_Vision) December 13, 2024

France is among the countries supplying weapons to Kiev and recently authorized the use of its missiles for strikes deep into Russia.

“[The copy of the Eiffel Tower] represents enemy states that are committing acts of aggression against our country,” Zheleznogorsk mayor Aleksandr Mikhailov said during a meeting with residents on Thursday.

The official also pointed out that the 15-meter-high model was welded from hollow pipes and is beginning to “rust [and] rot” and “could collapse tomorrow.” 

The construction was erected in 2007 outside a café named after the French capital by the establishment’s owners. According to the media, the tower has become a local landmark and is featured in guidebooks.

A delegation of six European Parliament lawmakers arrived in Georgia on Thursday, where they are taking part in ongoing pro-EU protests and meeting key opposition figures.

The visit was intended to “show solidarity with Georgians fighting for a European future,” one of the MEPs, Lithuanian lawmaker Rasa Jukneviciene, has said.

The delegation met with the country’s pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili, as well as representatives of the opposition coalitions and NGOs. Jukneviciene also described the visit as a “fact-finding mission.” The meetings with the opposition figures were positioned as being “very important for drawing the right conclusions.”

The MEPs have openly rallied support for the ongoing protests in the country, reiterating the EU’s stance on recent general elections. The polls “were neither free nor fair,” Polish MEP Michal Szczerba claimed, urging Tbilisi to scrap the results and hold a new one.

“Therefore, we ask the Georgian government to rerun these elections with certain conditions and according to the standards we respect in the European Union,” he stated.

Prosto z Tbilisi. Kolejny dzień proeuropejskich protestów przed 🇬🇪 parlamentem. Mówimy jasno. Miejsce Gruzji jest w UE. Odpowiedzieli za przemoc wobec ludzi i wyborcze nieprawidłowości będą rozliczeni! Czas na twarde sankcje. Nigdy nie będziemy obojętni. Nie traćcie nadziei! 🇵🇱🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/t964fnDOlo

— Michał Szczerba (@MichalSzczerba) December 12, 2024

In the evening, the delegation took part in the protests, joining the rally in central Tbilisi. The MEPs shared footage from the scene online, showing the protesters carrying Georgian and EU flags.

The Georgian people continue to protest against the stolen election and their government's decision to turn away from the EU path.

Our MEPs visited the country to express solidarity and listen to their concerns.

Watch @RJukneviciene's message from #Georgia ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/kMIyudvab9

— EPP Group (@EPPGroup) December 13, 2024

The country was plunged into a crisis following the October vote, which resulted in a landslide win for the ruling Georgian Dream party. The opposition parties, however, claimed the polls had been rigged, with the assessment backed by the EU and Zourabichvili, who called the election a Russian “special operation” and urged citizens to protest against the outcome. However, she snubbed an invitation by the country’s prosecutor general’s office to provide possible evidence to back up her assertion.

The protests escalated late last month after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said he would freeze accession talks with the EU until 2028. Apart from that, Zourabichvili has refused to leave office before a new general election is held, although she is obliged to recognize the upcoming presidential election on December 14.

According to the latest revision of the Georgian Constitution, the head of state, who holds largely ceremonial powers, is chosen by an electoral college consisting of 300 members, half of which is composed of MPs and the other half selected from representatives of various Georgian regions. The election is apparently set to oust Zourabichvili, given that the only candidate, Mikheil Kavelashvili, was fielded by the ruling party, with the opposition insisting on holding new parliamentary elections instead.

US Vice President-elect J.D. Vance has invited Daniel Penny to be his personal guest at the upcoming Army-Navy football game in Washington, just days after a Manhattan jury cleared the former Marine of racially motivated murder charges.

New York prosecutors had charged Penny, like Vance a former US Marine, with homicide over a May 2023 incident that ended in the death of Jordan Neely, a mentally ill black homeless man. Neely had entered a subway car shouting that “someone is going to die today,” before Penny and two of his friends subdued him.

“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone. I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun. I appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage,” Vance posted on X on Friday.

Earlier reports quoted anonymous sources saying that Vance had invited Penny to the presidential suite at the Washington, DC stadium, where President-elect Donald Trump is also expected to attend. The Army-Navy Game is played by West Point cadets and Annapolis midshipmen and is one of the most enduring rivalries in US college football.

Following the handing down of the verdict on Monday Vance declared on X that it was “a scandal Penny was ever prosecuted in the first place.”

Charges against Penny became a hot-button issue in the US, with Republicans such as Trump and Vance accusing the Democrats ruling New York of wanting to criminalize the defense of self and others, while Democrats tried to present the incident as driven by racism and bigotry.

During the trial, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office repeatedly referred to Penny only as “the white man” and claimed he had “choked” Neely, setting up comparisons to the 2020 death of George Floyd that triggered a wave of race riots across the US.

Bragg also prosecuted Trump on questionable grounds for alleged “hush money” payments, securing a conviction that is currently in legal limbo due to the outcome of November’s presidential election and Supreme Court rulings about executive immunity.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered the country’s troops to prepare to stay in newly seized Syrian territory over the winter, despite growing international calls to retreat.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seized the demilitarized buffer zone (DMZ) on the border with Syria established in 1974 and expanded beyond the area of the Golan Heights they had been illegally occupying since 1967. Katz said this week the IDF would establish a temporary “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria to prevent any “terrorist threat” after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.

On Friday, Katz said he had instructed the IDF to “set up appropriate facilities and make special preparations for the soldiers to remain on Mount Hermon” inside Syria.

Mount Hermon, which lies near the border with Lebanon, is a strategic location overlooking Damascus. As the highest mountain in Syria, it provides a plateau for observation across the region, including for areas in Lebanon. With radars placed on Mount Hermon, Israel would be able to monitor a much broader area, experts say.

“Due to what is happening in Syria – there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon,” Katz has stated, as quoted by media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday reportedly told US national security adviser Jake Sullivan that Israel would remain in the buffer zone “until there is an effective force” to uphold a 1974 armistice agreement that paused a conflict between Syria and Israel.

According to the IDF, the massive airstrikes carried out across Syria over the past week have destroyed billions of dollars worth of military assets, including Syria’s vast aerial defenses, at least five air force squadrons, and a missile production facility. About 90% of Syria’s “identified strategic surface to air missiles” have also been demolished, the IDF said.

Israel’s incursion has been condemned internationally, with the UN saying it violates the disengagement agreement. On Thursday, the UN demanded that all parties end “all unauthorized presence in the area of separation.”

Türkiye, which supports some of the Syrian opposition factions that ousted Assad, has accused Israel of applying an “occupier mentality.”

The US has defended Israel’s military incursion into Syria, claiming the operation comes in self-defense.

Since the start of the large-scale offensive by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied opposition groups, the HTS-led Syrian Salvation Government has issued a series of loud statements.

The first concerned Russia and its support of the Syrian authorities. Russian troops were the only ones to oppose the advancing opposition forces, and the rebels urged them to end the strikes on terrorist positions, claiming that such actions would only result in civilian casualties. The Syrian Salvation Government said that its actions were aimed against the Syrian authorities, not Moscow, with which the militants intend to establish mutually beneficial cooperation.

Next, the Salvation Government released statements concerning neighboring countries. It called on Iraq to close its borders and prevent pro-Iranian groups from entering Syria to help exiled President Bashar Assad. Additionally, the rebels proclaimed that they would protect all foreign embassies, humanitarian organizations, and journalists.

Some of the rebels’ most notable promises were made to ethnic and religious minorities in Syria, including Kurds, Alawites, Christians, and Shiites. The Salvation Government declared that no minority would face genocide or persecution for their views and beliefs, since they are an integral part of the Syrian nation. It also said that inclusivity is the strength, not the weakness, of the future Syria.

In addressing the Kurds, the rebels condemned the barbaric practices of ISIS, such as murder, slavery, and other brutal actions committed against the Kurdish population by jihadists. They also guaranteed the safety of Syrian soldiers who laid down their arms and surrendered.

These statements by the Salvation Government and the HTS leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, were met with enthusiasm by prominent experts of Islamic radicalism and fundamentalism. They praised al-Julani’s professionalism, transparency, and moderate views, and the fact that he distanced himself from his jihadist roots.

However, as often happens, the statements issued by the rebels were far from the truth. HTS terrorists and allied opposition groups have already released dozens of videos demonstrating executions of members of Arab-Kurdish forces, Syrian soldiers (even those who surrendered voluntarily), Alawites, and Shiites. In several video clips, militants are seen slitting the throats of their captives.

Additionally, there are videos of the rebels hunting down former soldiers, which they refer to as “patrolling” or “clearing” an area. Mostly, their targets are shot on the spot. In addition, the rebels have published dozens of video messages threatening various minorities and neighboring countries. Some of them claim that the coup in Syria gives them the freedom to destroy Israel and liberate Palestinian territories.

Russian-speaking terrorists from the Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and Ajnad al-Kavkaz jihadist militant groups, whose former leader and certain members are currently fighting in the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the side of Ukraine, have threatened that their next target will be Russia.

The actions of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and affiliated opposition groups have nothing in common with the rebels’ public statements. They stand in stark contrast to the promises of a measured and moderate stance when it comes to the future of Syria and the status of its minorities.

Since the Syrian Salvation Government was established in 2017, we have closely monitored the rebels’ statements and propaganda. The militants claim that peace and stability reign in the areas under their control in Syria’s Idlib governorate, where all problems are resolved effortlessly; and al-Julani, they say, would have no trouble applying his “invaluable experience” of governing Idlib to the rest of Syria.

In reality, the population was facing immense economic and social hardships. Even significant financial support from Türkiye failed to make a difference. The funds were simply embezzled by the leadership of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. Abu Mohammad al-Julani established an absolute totalitarian regime where torture, abduction of dissenters, and extrajudicial killings thrived. In Idlib province, weekly protests against HTS and its leadership took place. Al-Julani even resorted to orchestrating terrorist attacks, human trafficking, and a drugs trade. This was confirmed by Abu Ahmed Zakura, the former chief financier and head of security for the group, who fled Idlib in December 2023.

Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov has made a plea deal with investigators and admitted to lying about US President Joe Biden and his son Hunter receiving bribes from the Ukrainian owner of Burisma, according to a Thursday court filing.

Smirnov was arrested in February and charged by a special council, which was investigating Hunter Biden, with making a false statement and creating a fictitious record in his report on the dealings of the son of the current president. The would-be informant was also accused of failing to pay taxes on over $2 million in income for 2020 through 2022.

Previously, Smirnov, 43, had reported to FBI agents that Hunter and Joe Biden had received $5 million each from Burisma Holdings for “protection” while Biden Sr. was serving as US vice president and his son held a paid position on the firm’s board. He also claimed that during his time as vice president, Biden had pressured Kiev to fire Ukrainian Prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the company.

On Friday, it was reported that Smirnov had pled guilty to four charges, including tax evasion and obstruction of justice, for providing false information to the FBI. US media outlets noted that the plea deal will likely put an end to the investigation into Hunter Biden. 

Last month, despite repeatedly saying he would not do it, the US president also officially pardoned his son of all crimes committed since 2014, claiming that his prosecution was unfair and instigated by his political opponents. Hunter had previously been convicted of tax evasion and illegally purchasing a firearm.

Meanwhile, a number of other documents and witness testimonies have also suggested that Burisma had appointed Hunter Biden to its board in order to influence US policy and shield itself from prosecution in Ukraine. 

Hunter’s former business partner, Devon Archer, had previously testified to the Republican-led House Oversight Committee that the outgoing president’s son had personally asked his father to disrupt the investigation into Burisma. He also claimed that Joe Biden had taken the money in exchange for orchestrating prosecutor Shokin’s dismissal.

Joe Biden has publicly admitted to being responsible for Shokin’s firing but has denied taking bribes. He has also denied having knowledge of his son’s foreign business dealings, despite documents found on Hunter’s laptop suggesting that the then-vice president was repeatedly in contact with both his son and his business associates.

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been admitted to a hospital in Luxembourg while on a congressional trip to Europe, according to her office.

Pelosi, 84, was in Luxembourg with a bipartisan delegation to mark the 80th anniversary of the WWII Battle of the Bulge. 

The California Democrat “sustained an injury during an official engagement and was admitted to the hospital for evaluation,” her office said in a statement, adding that she was “receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals.”

There have been unconfirmed reports that Pelosi may have fallen and broken her hip, which would require surgery.

She was reportedly one of the key players who, in July, pressured then-President Joe Biden to drop out of the re-election race in July, which allowed the Democrats to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris instead.

Pelosi has represented San Francisco on Capitol Hill for 37 years and is one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington. She was the first woman to be elected speaker of the House and held the gavel for four sessions of Congress (2007-2011 and 2019-2023).

Moldova's parliament has declared that a 60-day national state of emergency will go into effect on December 16, prompted by Ukraine’s decision not to provide the country with Russian pipeline gas after the end of the year.

Lawmakers in the EU candidate state's capital, Chisinau, voted to impose the measure “due to insufficient energy resources,” according to a statement the parliament released on X (formerly Twitter).

Declaring a state of emergency allows the government to respond rapidly and curb energy exports, according to Reuters.

Moldova receives Russian pipeline gas via Ukraine’s transit network under a five-year contract with Gazprom, which was signed in October 2021.

The transit agreement between Russia’s energy giant and Ukraine’s state energy firm Naftogaz, however, is set to expire on December 31. Ukraine has reiterated that the deal will not be extended, and the flow will drop to zero on January 1.

Moldovan Vice-Premier Oleg Serebrian claimed on Friday that Ukraine would not agree to continue transit “just for the sake of Hungary and Moldova.” The latter is one of the few EU countries which remains dependent on Russian gas.

In November, Moldova’s then-energy minister Victor Parlicov stressed that maintaining transit through Ukraine would be the best scenario not only for his country, but for all parties involved.

Earlier this month Moldova’s pro-EU President Maia Sandu fired Parlicov for failing to tackle the country’s energy crisis.

Moldova has pursued a distinctively pro-Western course since 2020, when President Sandu came to power. Her government has been actively pushing for EU and NATO membership, going as far as banning critics and calling on Brussels to sanction those opposed to the idea. Moldova was granted candidate status by the EU in 2022.

A coroner in the UK has established that former British paratrooper Daniel Burke was killed in an August 2023 incident by a fellow foreign fighter kilometers from the Ukraine conflict front line. 

On Friday, British state broadcaster the BBC quoted Manchester Area Coroner Zak Golombeck as saying the 36-year-old was “sadly killed by cowardice and dishonor.”

“Whilst there was evidence initially presented that it was an accident, I reject that based on evidence gathered by Ukrainian authorities and Greater Manchester Police,” the official stated. He added that the former paratrooper was “unarmed and unable to defend himself” at the time of his death.

After Burke went missing, Ukrainian police questioned Abdelfetah 'Adam' Nourine, an Australian national known as “Jihadi Adam”. The foreign fighter initially told the authorities that he had shot Burke accidentally during target practice, the British state broadcaster reported, before leading officials to an underground pipe at a military training ground, where the Burke's corpse was buried.

Nourine's version of events, however, was later found to contradict the conclusions of a post-mortem examination. In addition, according to the BBC, ballistics tests conducted in Ukraine found that the weapon – reportedly an assault rifle – could not have been fired accidentally.

According to the article, Nourine subsequently fled Ukraine and is wanted by local authorities.

Several weeks later, the family of a 22-year-old British man, Callum Tindal-Draper, who had also fought with the Ukrainian International Legion, told the media that he had also perished at an undisclosed location.  

In November, Russia’s RIA Novosti and TASS reported that another 22-year-old British man had been captured in Kursk Region, approximately 5km inside Russian territory. The news agencies shared video clips purportedly showing the man, who said he had previously served as a signalman in the UK Army.

Around the same time, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, citing Italian nationals fighting for Ukraine, reported that foreign fighters were complaining of severe shortages of basic equipment and weaponry.  

Unidentified drones have repeatedly flown over the Ramstein Air Base in western Germany, Der Spiegel has reported, citing security sources in Berlin. UAVs have also been spotted over facilities owned by chemicals giant BASF and arms maker Rheinmetall.

Ramstein Air Base was built shortly after WWII and has long been the main US Air Force hub on the continent. Several drones were detected over the facility in the evening of December 3 and the following day, according to a classified German security report quoted by Der Spiegel on Friday.

“At the beginning of December, there were several sightings of small unmanned aircraft in the area and above Ramstein Air Base,” a base spokeswoman told the magazine.

“They had no impact on the residents of the base or on the facilities and military equipment there,” she added, noting that the USAF is in “close coordination” with the German authorities regarding the incident.

Even though the local authorities launched “intensive search measures,” the drone pilot was never found.

The matter was reportedly brought up at a security conference in Brandenburg last week, but no consensus was reached on how to deal with the alleged spy flights.

Berlin is reportedly concerned about sabotage due to its support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. German authorities have been on edge ever since several suspected spy flights were detected over a chemical park and a liquefied natural gas terminal in Schleswig-Holstein this summer.

While the German Defense Ministry declined to comment, a security source confirmed the report to Reuters.

In recent weeks, drones have also been spotted over properties belonging to the chemical industry giant BASF and the weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall. BASF issued a statement saying that the safety of its facilities is a “top priority” and that it has been working closely with the security authorities and keeping “an eye on suspicious activities at all times.”

Kiev is in urgent need of 20 new Western air defense systems to protect the country from Russia’s long-range missile and drone attacks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga said on Friday.

Sibiga took to X, formerly Twitter, in the aftermath of the latest massive strike launched by Moscow in retaliation for Ukraine’s cross-border attacks on Russia using Western-supplied missiles. Explosions were reported all across Ukraine last night, with electricity supplies disrupted across several regions.

“Massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine this morning, primarily targeting the energy system. Russia aims to deprive us of energy. Instead, we must deprive it of the means of terror. I reiterate my call for the urgent delivery of 20 NASAMS, HAWK, or IRIS-T air defense systems,” the minister wrote.

All the systems listed by Sibiga fire short- to medium-range anti-aircraft missiles. Such weaponry has been supplied to Kiev by its Western backers and has been seen in active use during the conflict.

“In response to the use of American long-range weapons, Russia’s Armed Forces launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons and UAVs at critical fuel and energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine that support the operation of the military industrial complex,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The latest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory with Western-supplied weaponry took place on Wednesday, when Kiev targeted a military airfield located near the city of Taganrog in Rostov Region.

According to the Russian military, six US-supplied ATACMS ballistic missiles were used in the attack. Two were shot down and the rest were disrupted using electronic warfare measures. The strike inflicted minor damage on the airfield’s administrative buildings, as well as damaged multiple civilian cars at an adjacent parking lot, the military said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed his third prime minister this year, after the two previous heads of government resigned after just months in office.

Veteran centrist Francois Bayrou was announced as the new premier on Friday after a “tense” two-hour meeting with Macron, Politico reported. The 73-year-old politician, who is a former presidential candidate, will now try to steer France out of a political and budgetary quagmire.

“The president of the Republic has appointed Mr Francois Bayrou as prime minister and tasked him with forming a government,” the French presidency said.

Bayrou’s predecessor, Michel Barnier, had been in office for just over three months. He resigned on December 5 after losing a no-confidence motion in parliament.

Barnier’s predecessor, Gabriel Attal, who had been prime minister since January, resigned in July following a snap parliamentary election that resulted in a hung parliament comprising three warring blocs.

Macron called a snap election in June after his Renaissance party was dealt a massive defeat by the right-wing opposition National Rally (RN) in the European parliamentary elections.

As a result of the snap vote, the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) coalition won the most seats in the French parliament as part of a pact with the president to sideline RN. Macron, however, then turned around and snubbed the NPF in favor of a minority cabinet that relied on the tacit support of RN.

Bayrou, a long-time ally of Macron, is likely to face the same difficulties as Barnier in steering legislation through the hung parliament, Reuters said. His proximity to the deeply unpopular Macron will also prove to be a vulnerability, added the agency.

Macron’s term ends in 2027, and some opponents have called on him to resign, something which the president has ruled out.

Bayrou is the founder of the Democratic Movement party, which has been part of Macron’s ruling alliance since 2017. He ran for president in 2002, 2007 and 2012. He served as education minister between 1993 and 1997.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Washington and Ankara have reached a general consensus on how to normalize the situation in Syria. The US diplomat, who is currently touring the Middle East, added that President Joe Biden’s administration would like the regional powers to develop a unified approach on the issue.

Armed opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) mounted a surprise offensive in Syria in late November, capturing several major cities, and seizing the capital, Damascus, last Saturday. Former President Bashar Assad and his family fled to Russia, where they were granted asylum.

While Türkiye supports some of the Syrian opposition factions that ousted Assad, it considers the Kurish-dominated militias to be terrorists, despite their long-time backing from the US.

Following his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday, Blinken said there is “broad agreement, what we would each like to see going forward, starting with the interim government in Syria.”

He noted that the US and Türkiye have “worked very hard… to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate of ISIS,” and that “it’s imperative that we keep at those efforts.”

Late on Thursday, the US secretary of state held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to Blinken, the “so-called SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces, that we’ve been supporting” has played a key role in preventing the resurgence of the terrorist group Islamic State in Syria.

In a post on X on Wednesday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi announced that his group and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) had sealed a truce, following days of fighting for control for the northern city of Manbij. He added that the US had mediated the negotiations.

Formed in 2015, the SDF is a broad coalition of Kurdish and Arab militias, which has actively engaged in military operations against Islamic State militants in north-eastern Syria.

The group has also repeatedly found itself in armed confrontations with the Turkish military. Ankara believes the SDF is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it considers a terrorist organization.

Russia is outpacing the arms production of the entire EU after significantly ramping up its defense industry and despite Western sanctions, the bloc’s commissioner for defense and space, Andrius Kubilius, has said.

Kubilius, a noted Russia hawk and two-time prime minister of Lithuania, was approved by the European Parliament last month as the EU’s first ever defense commissioner.

In an interview on Friday with the RND media group, he called on the EU to significantly expand the production of conventional weapons such as artillery and infantry vehicles, as well as long-range and precision weapons amid what he called a Russian attack threat.

“The Russians have expanded their arms industry to an unimaginable extent despite our sanctions,” Kubilius stated.

Russia now produces “more weapons in three months than the entire European arms industry can produce, and in six months more weapons than the entire German army has,” he added.

Kubilius also cited experts who, according to him, say that Russia now produces more tanks than it uses on the front lines in the Ukraine conflict.

The commissioner said that a NATO standard for weapons production should be developed in order to be prepared for a possible Russian attack on the EU by 2030. Kubilius claimed he was warned about such an attack by EU members’ intelligence services, including Germany’s BND.

NATO has long declared Russia to be a direct threat, and Western officials have repeatedly claimed that if Moscow wins the Ukraine conflict, it could then attack other European countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed claims of any possible military advance by Moscow against NATO countries as “nonsense.” 

The US and its allies have sent over $200 billion worth of weapons, equipment, ammunition, and cash to prop up Ukraine in the conflict.

In an interview with Politico last week, Kubilius revealed that he would push for the EU’s next seven-year budget to allocate “not far away from” €100 billion ($105 billion) for defense. The current seven-year budget of over €1 trillion reportedly has allocated only €10 billion for defense.

Russia has boosted its defense industry amid the Ukraine conflict. Putin, however, has insisted that “every ruble” spent on the armed forces should be used effectively. Funding should not only provide for the needs of the military, but “fit in” with the national economy as well, he said earlier this year.

Russian fertilizer giant Uralchem has delivered a humanitarian consignment of 55,000 metric tons of potash to Sri Lanka. The shipment arrived this week and an official ceremony to mark the delivery was held on Friday in Colombo.

According to the group, the shipment is part of a Russian initiative to support developing nations, mainly in the Global South, amid food shortages and global supply chain disruptions that are most affecting poorer nations. A total of 262,000 metric tons of Russian fertilizers was blocked in 2022 at ports in Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, and the Netherlands as a result of Western sanctions imposed against Moscow. In response, Russia offered the commodity free of charge to nations in need, particularly in Africa and South Asia.

The latest delivery of fertilizers marks Uralchem’s sixth free shipment. Since late 2022, the group has donated around 190,000 tons of fertilizers to developing countries, while covering the shipping and delivery costs. In partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), over 166,000 tons of essential fertilizers have been shipped from European ports to Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and now Sri Lanka.

“Mineral fertilizers play a crucial role in ensuring healthy plant growth, supporting higher yields and thus safeguarding stable food supply,” said Dmitry Konyaev, CEO of Uralchem. In an earlier statement, Konyaev emphasized that Sri Lanka has recently suffered one of the worst economic crises in decades, which affected the nation’s agricultural output and put “vast swaths of the population at risk of food insecurity.”

Speaking at the ceremony, Sri Lankan Agriculture Minister Lal Kantha noted the significance of the donation in aiding the country’s farmers during a critical time. Over 30,000 metric tons will be allocated to paddy farmers, while the remainder will be distributed to coconut cultivators, he said, according to local media.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s statement regarding Ukraine’s use of Western long-range missiles to strike deep into Russia is completely in line with Moscow’s stance on the matter, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

Peskov was commenting on Trump’s sharp criticism this week of President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Kiev to conduct long-range strikes on Russian territory with US-supplied missiles.

“The statement itself completely coincides with our position,” Peskov told reporters. “In this case we have the same vision of the reasons for the escalation.” He added that Trump’s thinking on the matter “appeals” to Russia.

“It is obvious that Trump understands what exactly is escalating the situation around the conflict,” he said.

At the same time, the Russian presidential spokesman warned against “jumping ahead of ourselves” and predicting the actions of the incoming US administration.

“Let’s wait until the moment when the president-elect takes his post in the Oval Office,” he advised.

In an interview with Time magazine, which named him the 2024 Person of the Year, Trump stated that he disagrees “very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” asking rhetorically: “Why are we doing that?”

Trump said that missile strikes deep into Russia’s internationally recognized territory are “just escalating this war and making it worse,” and described such attacks as a “very big mistake.”

In response to Kiev’s attacks, Moscow hit a number of Ukraine’s key energy facilities overnight into Friday.

Russia has repeatedly warned that long-range strikes using foreign-made weapons would escalate the conflict and be seen as NATO’s direct participation in the hostilities.

In late November, Moscow used its new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile system for the first time, striking the Yuzhmash military plant in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned at the time that if Ukraine’s attacks deep inside Russia continue, Moscow reserves the right “to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow the use of their weapons against our facilities.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that there is still time to consider his proposal for a Christmas ceasefire and a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.

Speaking about the offer he made to Moscow and Kiev earlier this week in an interview with Kossuth Radio on Friday, Orban said “one side accepted it, the other rejected it.”

Judging by comments coming from Ukraine, it is Kiev that is currently reluctant to support Budapest’s initiative.

”But there are still a few days until Christmas [December 25], and this may change,” he stressed.

The Hungarian proposal is aimed at making sure that “no one should die, at least, on Christmas. If the parties can come to an agreement, there could be a ceasefire on Christmas – as was the case in the First World War,” the prime minister explained.

"And if a large prisoner exchange could be agreed, then hundreds… of families could be made happy,” he added.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky belittled Orban’s diplomatic activities, claiming that the Hungarian leader was only trying to “boost personal image at the expense of unity” in the EU in terms of supporting Kiev.

“There can be no discussions about the war that Russia wages against Ukraine without Ukraine,” he wrote on X.

Shortly after that, an aide to Zelensky, Dmitry Litvin, denied that any contacts between Kiev and Budapest on a proposed Christmas ceasefire and prisoner swap took place at all.

According to Peskov, unlike Ukraine, Russia “fully supports Orban’s efforts aimed at finding a peaceful settlement and resolving humanitarian issues related to the exchange of prisoners.”

“Russia has never refused peace talks and has repeatedly stated its readiness to resume them on the basis of the Istanbul agreements of 2022. We proceed from the assumption that consultations on establishing peace will continue,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

The planned withdrawal of French troops from Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) shows that the contingent is no longer needed in the West African nation, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

France is set to hand over its largest military base on the Gulf of Guinea, Port-Boue, located southeast of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s former capital, to the local authorities. The expected withdrawal is being portrayed as a significant step for the country to regain control of its defense installations.

The move was first announced in October, when General Pascal Ianni, commander of the French forces in Africa, met with the Ivorian army chief of staff, General Lassina Doumbia, in Abidjan. During the talks, the head of Africa Command (CPA) reportedly said the French army’s 43rd Marine Battalion camp would be “gradually redeployed.” 

The army official did not provide a timeline, but in a statement on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the “final change of owner” of the base is scheduled for July or August 2025.

“This generally fits into the logic of the processes taking place in the Francophone countries of West Africa, whose populations are increasingly critical of the large-scale presence [of foreign troops],” it added.

If finalized, Ivory Coast will join its West African neighbors Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger as countries in the region that have parted with French security forces, amid a wave of anti-colonial sentiment. Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has said French military bases are “incompatible” with the country’s sovereignty and announced that they “will soon be no more.” 

Last month, Chad terminated its defense cooperation agreement with France, from which it gained independence in 1960. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, all former French colonies now ruled by military leaders, have also severed defense ties with Paris, citing the failure of a decade-long counterterrorism mission against jihadists in the Sahel. The three landlocked countries have also accused Paris of aggression and sought closer security and trade ties with Moscow.

Thierry Mariani, a European Parliament member, told RIA Novosti last week that Paris has lost almost all of its footholds in Africa as a result of French President Emmanuel Macron’s “endless contempt for African leaders.”

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has responded to the latest strikes on his country's energy infrastructure. The massive overnight barrage came in response to Kiev’s recent use of US-made ATACMS missiles to attack a military airfield in southern Russia, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.

The Russian military has said it targeted “critical fuel and energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine that support the operation of the military industrial complex,” in a retaliatory strike for this week’s attack near the city of Taganrog.

Moscow’s response on Friday morning was “one of the biggest yet” to hit the Ukrainian energy network, Zelensky acknowledged in a statement on social media. He claimed, however, that most of the Russian weapons had been intercepted.

Zelensky complained that Moscow “is not restricted in terms of weapons range or the purchase of components necessary to produce missiles” and urged his Western backers to supply more arms and impose more restrictive anti-Russian sanctions.

”We need strength, which would bring peace,” Zelensky said, adding that “the world can stop this madness” by putting more pressure on Moscow.

Trump also called the Ukraine conflict “madness” due to the high number of casualties suffered by both sides, after holding a meeting with Zelensky last week. Moscow and Kiev must want a ceasefire, Trump suggested.

Following his party's loss to the Republicans in the US elections, outgoing president, Joe Biden, authorized Kiev to fire long-range missiles deep into Russia. The decision has made NATO members direct participants of the hostilities, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated, since Ukrainian troops are incapable of deploying systems like the ATACMS on their own. Trump called Biden’s decisions “foolish” in a recent interview.

Russia responded to the escalation last month by firing a new medium-range Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile at an arms factory in Ukraine. The demonstration of the new capability was meant as a message to the US and its allies, officials have said.

Cuba and Bolivia are expected to officially join BRICS as partner states on January 1, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said.

In an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on Friday, Ryabkov confirmed that both countries had received invitations.

“We are confident that everything will work out in terms of their joining the group as partners,” the diplomat said.

The new ‘partner country’ status was approved at the BRICS summit in October, hosted by Russia in Kazan, and is intended to serve as an alternative to membership after more than 30 nations applied to join the organization.

Following the gathering, Russia, which at present holds the group’s rotating presidency, announced that 13 new countries could become BRICS partner states after the new status was introduced. 

BRICS initially comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and was expanded earlier this year to include Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The group is now holding consultations with the invited nations to formalize their membership, Ryabkov told the outlet.

The list of aspiring partners has not been officially announced, but it reportedly includes Türkiye, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam as candidates.

Although discussions regarding the partner status of these countries are still ongoing, the senior diplomat confirmed that none of the invited nations had rejected the invitation.

“This is a big, serious prospect for all the countries that have been invited, so there are just a few days before the list is made public,” he noted.

Partner-country status provides for permanent participation in special sessions of BRICS summits and foreign ministers’ meetings, as well as other high-level events. Partners can also contribute to the group’s outcome documents.

Twelve original unknown tracks from the late King of Pop Michael Jackson have been discovered in a storage unit in California, Hollywood Reporter wrote on Friday.

The unexpected find was made by former traffic police officer turned stay-at-home dad, Gregg Musgrove during a “treasure hunting” venture, when he was informed about a storage unit he had purchased in Van Nuys, California.

The unit had previously belonged to music producer Bryan Loren. Inside, Musgrove found tapes containing 12 unreleased tracks that Jackson had recorded between 1989 and 1991, before releasing his album Dangerous.

Under US law, a storage unit is considered legally abandoned 60 to 90 days after non-payment, depending on the state. At that time, the units may be auctioned off to bidders who gamble on their contents.

Musgrove stated that while some songs had been rumored or partially leaked, several are complete originals. “I’ve gone to all the fan sites. Some of them [the songs] are rumored to exist, some of them have been leaked a little bit,” Musgrove told The Hollywood Reporter. “A couple aren’t even out there in the world.”

Among the notable tracks is “Don’t Believe It,” which appears to address media rumors about the pop star. Jackson, who died in 2009 at age 50, faced controversy over accusations of sexually abusing minors. Despite the scandals and their impact on his reputation, his commercial success as an artist remains strong.

Another track, “Truth on Youth,” reportedly a duet with LL Cool J, showcases Jackson’s versatility as he rhymes alongside the iconic rapper.

The estate reportedly conducted its own research into the recordings, but declined to purchase them for undisclosed reasons. The estate provided Musgrove with a letter clarifying that they do not claim ownership of the tapes.

They emphasized, however, that any potential buyer would not own the copyright to the recordings or compositions, as those rights remain with the estate. Consequently, the tapes cannot be released publicly.

Musgrove plans to present the tapes to major auction houses soon, potentially attracting celebrity memorabilia collectors.

Elon Musk’s charitable foundation has reportedly failed to give away the amount of money required by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to comply with its tax status, while also sending millions of dollars to other entities controlled by the billionaire, Bloomberg reported on Friday.  

According to the outlet, which has obtained the Musk Foundation’s latest tax filing, the organization grew to $9.5 billion in assets last year while handing out $237 million in gifts, most of which went to Musk’s other nonprofits, such as The Foundation, X Prize Foundation, and Fidelity Charitable.  

The New York Times has reported that the tax filings suggest that the Musk Foundation fell $421 million short of the amount it was required to give away in 2023, meaning that the billionaire now has until the end of the year to distribute that money or be required to pay a sizable penalty to the IRS.  

As noted by Bloomberg, the IRS mandates that all charitable foundations deploy, on average, at least 5% of their assets a year. Musk, however, has apparently missed that bar on numerous occasions.  

The entrepreneur, who is estimated to be the world's richest person, saw his net worth surpass a record $440 billion this week after an insider share sale of his privately held business, SpaceX, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

Meanwhile, the entrepreneur has emerged as one of the top Republican donors this year and has become one of the most prominent members of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle.  

Following the Republican’s election victory last month, Musk also pledged to audit the entire US government and cut government spending by up to $2 trillion as the head of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is now capable of processing video cues provided by users. The new feature is already being made available to paid ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers, with enterprise and educational customers expected to gain access next month.

Launched in 2022, the artificial intelligence chatbot has been steadily expanding its capabilities. Last year, its developers said the GPT-4 Large Language Model could get a higher score on the SAT exam – the standardized test widely used for college admissions in the US – than over 90% of all people.

During a livestream on Thursday, OpenAI unveiled the latest feature, which enables ChatGPT to interact with the user based on what it observes through a smartphone camera or what is currently being displayed on the screen. For instance, a human can ask the chatbot to help write a suitable answer to a message in an open app or give real-time advice on performing tasks in the real world.

In February, researchers unveiled a tool named ‘Sora’, which is “able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background,” all based on prompts from users. It can extend images or videos fed to it with new material, the company said at the time, sharing a few examples of AI-generated videos on its social media accounts.  

‘Strawberry’ should enhance the AI chatbot’s ability to find common-sense solutions that are usually intuitive to humans – something of a weak spot for ChatGPT and similar models so far.

Around the same time, a group of Russian scientists from the T-Bank’s AI Research Lab and the Moscow-based Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (AIRI) said they had developed a new artificial intelligence model capable of self-adaptation to new tasks and context without additional input by humans.

According to the developers of the model dubbed ‘Headless-AD’, it was already capable of performing five times more actions than it was initially taught.

Ukraine will stop the flow of Russian natural gas via its transit network on January 1, Energy Minister German Galushchenko has confirmed.

A key gas transit agreement between Moscow and Kiev is due to expire on December 31, and the Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly warned that it has no plans to extend it.

Several EU countries continue to rely on Russian gas, despite the sharp drop in supplies due to sanctions on Moscow and a push by Brussels to sever energy ties with Russia.

“Our position is completely open. We are preparing for zero transit from January 1. And we have been [preparing] for a long time. This year alone we conducted several stress tests for our gas system to see how it will function with zero transit,” Galushchenko said, as quoted by the Ukrinform news agency.

The transit agreement between Ukraine’s state energy firm Naftogaz and Russia’s energy giant Gazprom was signed in 2019. Naftogaz praised the deal at the time as ensuring security on the domestic gas market. It also revealed that Gazprom had paid nearly $3 billion for the transit service, thus ensuring that the Ukrainian system would operate without a loss over the following five years.

Ukraine’s transit network is connected to the pipeline systems of Moldova, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The EU still receives around 5% of its gas from Russia via Ukraine, according to the latest data.

Russia has said it is ready to continue deliveries beyond 2024. Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller warned in October that the EU would be committing “energy suicide” by shunning Russian gas. The bloc’s policies will result in further deindustrialization, increased volatility on the gas market, and may lead to a new gas price shock and supply disruptions, Miller predicted.

Similar concerns have been voiced by Hungary and Slovakia, the two EU nations most reliant on Russian gas. Budapest continues to receive more than a half of the gas it consumes from Russia under a 15-year contract signed with Gazprom in 2021.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has reported a successful test of the hypersonic weapon system dubbed the Dark Eagle, which is being developed jointly by the Army and the Navy.

The two military services intend to use the same hypersonic glider warhead, the C-HGB, whose booster rocket could be launched from either land or a vessel, including a Zumwalt-class destroyer and a Virginia-class submarine.

The recent test launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and which the Pentagon announced on Thursday, involved the Army’s version, officially named the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW).

The previous test launch was conducted in June from the Hawaiian island of Kauai, according to the DoD. The new trial differed in using for the first time a Battery Operations Center and a Transporter Erector Launcher, the elements of the ground-mobile platform for the Army’s booster missile.

The US used to have a commitment not to develop the LRHW with that range under the now-defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which banned both conventional and nuclear-capable surface-to-surface delivery systems in a certain range bracket. Washington withdrew from the treaty in 2018.

The joint program faced delays, with the Army telling Bloomberg in September 2023 that it was missing its goal to field the system by the end of FY2023.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon heralded a major defense achievement, reporting that the US Missile Defense Agency has for the first time conducted a successful interception of an air-launched medium-range ballistic missile in Guam.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 1,499 people and pardoned 39 non-violent offenders, the White House announced on Thursday.

Earlier this month, he also granted a blanket pardon to his son Hunter, claiming he had been convicted for political reasons.

The decision is the largest single-day clemency in US history, according to the statement. The previous record was set by President Barack Obama, who commuted 330 sentences shortly before leaving office in 2017. Biden’s predecessor and successor, Donald Trump, issued 237 executive grants of clemency during his first term, of which nearly 150 were granted in the final days of his presidency, in early 2021.

Biden has commuted the sentences of people “who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities,” the announcement said. Many of those on the list were released from prisons to home confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the infection swept through US detention facilities, affecting as many as 20% of the prison population.

The pardons were largely given to “individuals convicted of simple use and possession of marijuana” and to “former LGBTQI+ service members convicted of private conduct because of their sexual orientation,” the statement said. Biden’s use of presidential power builds on his “record of criminal justice reform to help reunite families, strengthen communities, and reintegrate individuals back into society,” it added.

On December 1, Biden announced that he was pardoning his son, Hunter, who was would have faced sentencing this month for federal tax and gun convictions. The president claimed that the prosecution was flawed and politically motivated. The move came despite multiple assurances by Biden and his office that he would not shield his son from criminal liability.

Only 20% of Americans and 40% Democrats approved of the pardoning of Hunter Biden, according to an opinion poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Overnight missile strikes on critically important Ukrainian facilities were conducted in response to Kiev’s recent ATACMS attack on a military airfield near the city of Taganrog, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

The ministry stated that all the goals of the retaliatory strike had been achieved and that all targeted facilities have been hit.

“In response to the use of American long-range weapons, Russia’s Armed Forces launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons and UAVs on critical fuel and energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine that support the operation of the military industrial complex,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement published on its official Telegram channel.

On Wednesday, the ministry had reported that Ukraine’s forces had launched six US-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles towards an airfield in Rostov Region. Two were shot down using a Pantsir air defense system, while the other four were deflected using electronic warfare systems, Moscow said, adding that fallen debris resulted in some injuries and minor damage to two buildings and several vehicles.

Earlier, Kiev’s Energy Minister German Galuschenko reported that Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had been targeted in a major attack, resulting in power outages in the capital as well as several other cities.

Explosions have been reported in Odessa Region, Ivano-Frankovsk Region, and other parts of the country. Ukrainian media have claimed that some 50% of residents are currently without electricity in Ternopol Region.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also confirmed that the overnight strike was conducted “in part” as a response to the ATACMS attack on Taganrog.

The day before, he had warned that Russia would retaliate to the attack on the airfield in a way that would be “deemed appropriate.”

A mysterious flu-like illness that has claimed dozens of lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent weeks is likely malaria, according to preliminary laboratory findings announced by the authorities on Wednesday.  

Samples taken from infected individuals indicated that nine out of 12 tested positive for malaria, although the quality of the samples was reportedly poor. 

Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, Congolese microbiologist and director-general of the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, indicated that research is ongoing to confirm if this represents a localized epidemic. He suggested that malaria is the probable culprit, noting that most victims have been children. 

Earlier this week, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also noted that most samples have tested positive for malaria. However, he acknowledged that multiple diseases could be at play, adding that further samples would be collected and analyzed.   

According to the WHO, there have been 406 reported cases of the mystery illness and 31 deaths between October 24 and December 5. Most of these cases have affected children under 14 in nine of the 30 areas in the Panzi health zone, Kwango Province, in the southwest of the country.   

The unidentified disease manifests as a fever, headache, cough, runny nose, and body aches. Without a conclusive diagnosis, it remains unclear whether the cause is viral or bacterial, according to Dieudonne Mwamba, head of the country’s National Institute for Public Health. 

Local authorities, including Provincial Health Minister Apollinaire Yumba, have urged residents to take precautions to prevent the further spread of the illness, advising them not to touch the deceased. 

Due to the region’s remote location – around 700km (435 miles) from the capital, Kinshasa – and limited local testing capacity, samples had to be transported over 500km to Kikwit for analysis.

Specialist teams from the WHO and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention are continuing their investigations.

One person has been killed and another severely wounded in Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s Belgorod Region in the past 24 hours, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.

Kiev’s forces used 52 shells and 41 drones to target eight districts of Belgorod Region, Gladkov wrote in a post on Telegram on Friday morning.

In the village of Terebreno, a member of the local self-defense forces was killed by an explosive device dropped from a UAV, he said.

According to the governor, a man was also severely wounded in a drone strike on the village of Krasnaya Niva. He had been hospitalized with multiple shrapnel wounds to his head and arms.

Some 30 settlements in the region have been attacked by Ukrainian artillery and drones, with damage to private homes and social facilities reported, Gladkov reported.

Ukraine has intensified the bombardment of Belgorod Region in recent months amid continued Russian advances in Donbass and the launch of Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region in early August. The advance of the Ukrainian forces was swiftly halted, with the territory under their control steadily shrinking since then.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Ukraine had lost 40,060 troops and several hundred units of military equipment, including 236 tanks and 175 infantry fighting vehicles, during its operation in Kursk Region.

Kiev’s forces have also attempted to enter Belgorod Region in a similar fashion on several occasions, but have been pushed back.

Google’s official application store, Google Play, has indefinitely suspended payments to app developers with Russian bank accounts.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the US-based tech company had already limited monetization options and some other services available to Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities.

Minsk is one of Moscow’s key allies, and has supported Russia in the Ukraine conflict, without directly engaging in hostilities.

On Thursday, Russia’s Habr media outlet published a screenshot of a notification apparently sent to a developer by Google, telling them that “on December 26, 2024 Google Play will indefinitely stop processing payments to Google Play developers whose receiving bank accounts are opened in Russia.”

“This means that… income from worldwide sales will no longer be accrued to you. You will receive the final payments on all transactions in Google Play on January 15, 2025,” the message added.

A few months prior, YouTube, which is owned by Google, announced that it had “paused all YouTube ads in Russia.” 
Around the same time, the video-hosting platform removed channels belonging to multiple Russian state-funded media.

In August of this year, Google AdSense – a program which helps website owners tailor advertisements to their content and generate per-click revenue – announced that it was terminating its services in Russia. Local media quoted an email notification sent by Google to Russian publishers as stating that “we will deactivate all AdSense accounts located in Russia.”

Russian authorities have accused the tech giant of discriminating against Russian state media and users, as well as failing to remove content they deem illegal.

In October, Russian media reported that Google owed a staggering $20 decillion to 17 Russian broadcasters that had lodged lawsuits against the company for what they described as the unlawful blocking of their content. Soon after that, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the news, saying that the huge sum was “filled with symbolism.”

In October 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered Google to restore YouTube access to blocked Russian media outlets, imposing a compounding penalty of 100,000 rubles per day ($1,028) for non-compliance. The penalty doubles every week with no cap imposed on the sum.

In May of that year, Google filed for bankruptcy in Russia and moved its staff out of the country after authorities seized its bank account.

Niger has suspended BBC programming, accusing the British state broadcaster of spreading false information that could destabilize the West African country, which has struggled to combat a decade-long lethal jihadist insurgency.

The move on Thursday adds the BBC to a growing list of Western media agencies sanctioned by the Nigerien military government and its allies in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali in recent years.

State-owned outlet ANP published a letter from the African state’s media regulator, ordering local press groups affiliated with the British state broadcaster to “suspend, with immediate effect,” the channel’s programs across the country for three months.

The Nigerien communications ministry said the outlet has aired “erroneous information tending to destabilize social tranquility and undermine the morale of the troops.” 

The authorities failed to mention any specific broadcast that prompted their decision. However, on Wednesday, several Western outlets reported that jihadists had killed 90 soldiers and at least 40 civilians in Chatoumane in Niger’s Tera region near Burkina Faso.

Niger’s leadership denied the attack had occurred, labeling the reports “baseless assertions” and a “campaign of intoxication.” 

Two French state broadcasters, Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24, have been banned in Niger since August 2023 for similar reasons. Last month, the landlocked state barred the French channel Canal Plus from airing a romance-themed television show, arguing that it undermined the country’s values.

“A vast disinformation campaign is orchestrated by Radio France Internationale in a crude and shameful montage with genocidal overtones,” according to a government press release.

French-language channel TV5 Monde has also faced temporary suspension in Burkina Faso and Mali for alleged biased reporting and disinformation in violation of regulatory laws.

Essential skills such as literacy and numeracy have declined among adults over the past decade in most Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, a survey conducted by the group of developed nations has revealed.

According to the Survey of Adult Skills, which tested 160,000 people aged between 16 and 65 in 31 countries, the downturn is most noticeable among poorly educated adults.

The survey, published earlier this week, evaluated reading comprehension, numeracy and problem-solving. It also looked at how developing and using these skills improves employment prospects and overall quality of life, as well as boosting economic growth in participating economies.

The study found that despite government efforts to strengthen education, literacy stagnated or declined in a majority OECD countries, which include 22 EU member states, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea. Over the past decade, literacy has only improved in Denmark and Finland.

“As technology reshapes many jobs, these skills are more important than ever to face the future of work,” he added.

The OECD linked degrading levels in average skills to widening inequality within participating states.

The study showed that in many countries, the lowest-performing adults saw the biggest decline in literacy, and on average across the countries, “one in five adults are only able to understand simple texts or solve basic arithmetic.”

The OECD also flagged a concerning trend in reading comprehension, which has stagnated or declined across most countries.

The transition team of US President-elect Donald Trump is considering options for targeting Iran, including a direct attack on its nuclear facilities, sources have told the Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity.

During his first presidential term from 2017 to 2021, Trump pulled out of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, which was intended to make it harder for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, and waged what he called a “maximum pressure campaign.” 

Trump’s aides are now discussing a “maximum pressure 2.0” strategy, which could include direct military action, the newspaper reported on Friday.

Trump is understood to have told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent phone call that he does not want Iran to go nuclear on his watch. Tehran denies that it wants to achieve nuclear capability, but has stockpiled a significant amount of highly enriched uranium in retaliation for Trump’s sabotage of the nuclear deal.

According to the WSJ, the incoming administration is seeking an option, which would not draw the US into a major war in the Middle East. Iran hawks believe that Trump will have a short window of opportunity to act after coming into office in January.

”Trump aides and confidants supporting military options for his second term said the main idea would be to support Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities like Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, and even potentially have the US participate in a joint operation,” the newspaper reported.

The Times of Israel reported this week that the Netanyahu government is preparing strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. The sites are highly fortified, so it’s not clear whether the Israeli military could inflict sufficient damage with the conventional weapons in its arsenal. The US could provide heavy bombers and bunker-buster bombs for such an operation.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has authorized a new $500 million weapons package for Ukraine, as his administration seeks to spend every dollar allocated by Congress before leaving office in January.

The package is the 72nd of its kind and includes additional air defense, artillery, drones, and armored vehicles, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told the media during a regular briefing on Thursday.

The Pentagon estimated the value of the weapons being sent under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) at $500 million. The tranche includes HIMARS rocket launchers, artillery munitions, anti-radar missiles, different types of military vehicles, and other hardware, the statement said.

Last week, the US announced a security package worth $988 million authorized through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), a separate military assistance mechanism.

The Biden administration has vowed to drain dry the reserves of Ukraine-related funding, after Donald Trump won the presidential election in early November. The Republican has said that he will end the Ukraine conflict, potentially cutting aid to Kiev to put pressure on it.

“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that?” Trump said of the decision this week in an interview with Time magazine, which chose him as its person of the year for 2024. “I think that is a major escalation. I think it is a foolish decision,” the president-elect added.

Moscow has said that no amount of Western aid can alter the outcome of the conflict. Biden is working to leave behind “a difficult legacy” of ramped up tensions with Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has asserted.

Beijing firmly opposes South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to “hype up” espionage accusations, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said. The claims reflect the internal political struggle taking place in the country, a ministry spokesperson added.

During an address on Thursday, Yoon claimed that the political opposition's move to block legislation that would allow him punish foreigners for spying was a key reason behind his imposition of martial law last week. 

He mentioned two cases of alleged Chinese agents surveying US and South Korean assets with drones earlier this year.

Beijing is “deeply surprised and dissatisfied” with the South Korean president’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a briefing later in the day.

“The Chinese side will not comment on South Korea’s internal affairs, but it firmly opposes… linking of internal affairs with China-related factors, hyping up the unfounded ‘Chinese espionage’ accusations and smearing normal economic and trade cooperation,” she stressed.

The Chinese government has “consistently required” its citizens abroad to comply with local laws and regulations, she noted. The spokeswoman urged Seoul to handle the cases of Chinese nationals it suspects of espionage “fairly.” 

Mao was also asked to respond to Yoon’s suggestion that “China-made solar power facilities will destroy forests” across South Korea.

“The development of China’s green industry… made important contributions to addressing climate change and improving global environmental governance,” she insisted.

Three Chinese nationals had been arrested on suspicion of using a drone to film a US aircraft carrier docked in the South Korean port of Busan in June.  Last month, a Chinese man was detained for allegedly flying a UAV over the headquarters of the National Intelligence Service in Seoul.

Numerous missile strikes were reported across Ukraine on Friday, causing power outages in Kiev and several other cities.

Energy infrastructure in all parts of Ukraine has come “under a massive attack,” Kiev’s energy minister German Galuschenko said. Power engineers are working to minimize the negative effects of the bombardment, he added.

According to accounts on social media, explosions have been heard in Odessa, Ivano-Frankovsk and other regions. Strikes have been reported in the town of Burtysh in Ivano-Frankovsk Region, where a key power plant is located.

Ukrainian media have reported emergency power outages in Kiev, Odessa and elsewhere. In Ternopol Region, some 50% of residents are currently without electricity, according to local authorities.

According to national media, air defenses have been activated in Lviv Region, which borders Poland.

Warsaw has said its Air Force has raised jets over the border area, in response to the Russian missile bombardment in Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet officially commented on the strikes.

Ukraine’s state-run energy company, Ukrenergo, has warned that 50% of the population could be left without power on Friday due to the attack.

The reported bombardment comes two days after Ukraine fired six US-supplied ATACMS missiles at a military airfield near the southern city of Taganrog, inside Russia’s internationally recognized territory.

According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, two of the missiles were shot down and the rest were diverted using electronic warfare. The fallen debris resulted in some injuries and minor damage to two buildings and several vehicles, it said.

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s response to the strike on Taganrog with Western-made weaponry “will follow at a time and in a manner deemed appropriate. But it will definitely follow.”

Security agencies in Delhi have been placed on heightened alert following multiple bomb threats received by several prominent schools via email on Friday, according to Indian media. The wave of threats is the second within a week, and has resulted in the evacuation of students and staff. 

Among the schools targeted were the Delhi Public School East of Kailash, Salwan School, Modern School, and Cambridge School. In response to the threats, police, fire department officials, bomb detection squads, and dog units were deployed for thorough searches. Police have launched a comprehensive investigation.  

The email sent to the schools claimed that “several explosives” had been planted on their premises. The message, reportedly sent by a group operating on the dark web, threatened significant destruction and harm, according to NDTV, which said it had seen a copy of the email. “I am sure that you all do not check your students’ bags frequently when they enter the school premises. The bombs are powerful enough to destroy the buildings and harm people,” the email warned.  

The message suggested that potential attacks could be carried out on December 13 or 14, highlighting the upcoming parent-teacher meetings scheduled for December 14 in some of the schools mentioned. The email suggested that the authorities respond to the email to learn more about the sender’s “demands.” 

Schools in Delhi and the central bank had already received similar threats. On December 9, over 40 schools in the national capital received a bomb threat via email, with police later declaring it a hoax. The RBI was warned of a potential bomb threat on November 16 when a message was delivered through the banks’ customer care number. A caller claimed to be the “CEO of Lashkar-e-Taiba” – a terror group that carried out deadly attacks in Mumbai in 2008 which left 166 people dead.  

The recent developments follow a troubling trend earlier this year, when over 100 schools in New Delhi and the surrounding areas were evacuated after similar threats, traced back to an email address associated with a Russian domain. Major airlines also received bomb threats, causing massive disruption to their operations. The Indian Home Ministry labeled the threats as hoaxes and advised the public to remain calm, emphasizing that police and security agencies were adhering to established protocols to manage the situation.

Six European members of NATO have released a joint statement backing Ukraine’s plan to join the US-led bloc, and promising to support the peace terms offered by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to Russia.

Moscow has previously rejected Zelensky's insistence on restoring Ukraine’s 1991 borders as unacceptable.

The foreign ministers of the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Poland signed a declaration after meeting with the Ukrainian leader in Berlin on Thursday. 

“The goals of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine and durable security for Europe are inseparable. Ukraine must prevail,” the statement said. 

The countries pledged to support an end to the conflict in accordance “with full respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“We reaffirm our commitment to President Zelensky’s Peace Formula, as a credible path towards a just and lasting peace,” the statement read.

Kiev’s backers vowed to “support Ukraine on its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership,” as well as “its path towards accession to the European Union.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga thanked the six nations and the EU for “candid discussion and readiness to take concrete steps.” He called for additional sanctions, targeting Russia’s metals sector, shipping, and banks.

“We are closely monitoring the increase in trade with the countries that have not imposed sanctions on Russia,” Sibiga said. 

Trump, who takes office on January 20, has described Zelensky as “the greatest salesman on Earth” and promised to do his best to quickly end the conflict through diplomacy. Although he has not yet produced a concrete plan, during the presidential campaign he appeared open to pressuring Kiev to start negotiations with Moscow.

Trump has also blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for allowing Ukraine to use American-made missiles for strikes deep into internationally recognized Russian territory. “I think that is a very big mistake,” he told Time magazine in an interview published on Thursday. 

Russia has rejected Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’ outright, insisting that a peace agreement could only be reached on its terms. Moscow has stressed that Ukraine must renounce claims on Crimea and four other regions, which voted to join Russia in 2014 and 2022.

The Kremlin has also said Ukraine should drop its plan to join the US-led military bloc in favor of becoming a permanently neutral country. President Vladimir Putin has cited NATO’s expansion eastward and military cooperation with Ukraine as one of the root causes of the current conflict.