Category Archives: World News

Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine cease as transit agreement expires

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Ukraine president hails ‘one of Moscow’s biggest defeats’ as deal’s end brings power cuts in breakaway Moldovan region

Russian gas has stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine, ending a major energy route that goes back to Soviet times and had even survived three years of full-scale war between the two states.

Ukraine cut off the transit route after an agreement signed in 2019 expired in the early hours of New Year’s Day, marking a new milestone in Europe weaning itself off Russian gas supplies over the past few years, and prompting immediate power cuts for hundreds of thousand of people in a breakaway region of Moldova.

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Ukraine halts supply of Russian gas to Europe

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Ukraine ends agreement to allow gas to flow through its pipelines, with European supplies set to be tested as cold weather forecast later this week

Ukraine has halted Russian gas supplies to European customers through its pipeline network, almost three years into Moscow’s all-out invasion.

The move comes after a prewar transit deal expired during the final hours of 2024 and as the continent braces itself for a plunge in temperatures that could hasten the drain on gas reserves.

Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the transit “in the interest of national security” after Russia refused to alter its stance on the war.

“This is a historic event,” he said in an update on the Telegram messaging app. “Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses. Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas, and [this] aligns with what Ukraine has done today.”

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Israeli strikes kill at least 12 Palestinians in Gaza on New Year’s Day

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Officials say most of the victims were women and children as Israel’s war against Hamas continues into the new year

Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on New Year’s Day, mostly women and children, officials said, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year.

One strike hit a home in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory, where Israel has waged a major operation since early October. Gaza’s health ministry said seven people had been killed, including a woman and four children, and at least a dozen had been wounded.

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Critic wrongly jailed by former president of Philippines hopes to return to politics

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Leila de Lima enraged Rodrigo Duterte when she began investigating killings carried out during his ‘war on drugs’

Leila de Lima, one of fiercest critics of the former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs” who was jailed for more than six years on baseless charges, will try to return to politics in 2025.

De Lima was one of the few politicians who criticised Duterte during his time in office, and enraged the former leader when she began investigating killings carried out during his anti-drugs crackdowns. She knew to expect retaliation, she said. “I thought it would just be regular vilification, the slut-shaming, the verbal attacks,” she said. She did not anticipate that she would spend more than six and a half years in prison.

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Trump’s killing of Qassem Suleimani led to fall of Assad, says Tugendhat

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Ex-security minister says assassination ordered by Trump set off chain of events that led to revolution in Syria

Donald Trump’s decision to sanction the assassination of an elite Iranian commander triggered a chain of events that has revealed Iran as a paper tiger and led to the overthrow of Basher al-Assad, a former UK security minister has said.

Tom Tugendhat, now on the Conservative backbenches and intending to focus on foreign policy, also predicted the Iranian regime would collapse in a few years. He said that if handled properly, Syria could become the economic powerhouse of the Middle East within a decade.

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Belgium becomes first EU country to ban sale of disposable vapes

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Products banned on health and environmental grounds, while Milan outlaws outdoor smoking

Belgium has become the EU first country to ban the sale of disposable vapes in an effort to stop young people from becoming addicted to nicotine and to protect the environment.

The sale of disposable electronic cigarettes is banned in Belgium on health and environmental grounds from 1 January. A ban on outdoor smoking in Milan came into force on the same day, as EU countries discuss tighter controls on tobacco.

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South Korea plane crash investigators extract data from Jeju Air black box

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Authorities hope for vital clues as contents of cockpit recorder are converted into audio format

Investigators in South Korea have extracted data from one of two black boxes retrieved from a Jeju Air plane that crashed shortly after landing on Sunday, killing all but two of the 181 people onboard.

The country’s deputy minister for civil aviation, Joo Jong-wan, said initial data had been retrieved from the Boeing 737-800’s cockpit voice recorder, and that the contents were being converted into audio format.

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Sweden begins wolf hunt as it aims to halve endangered animal’s population

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Five entire families can be killed, totalling 30 wolves, in move campaigners say is illegal under EU law

Sweden’s wolf hunt starts on Thursday, with the country aiming to halve the population of the endangered predator.

The Swedish government has given the green light for five entire wolf families, a total of 30 wolves, to be killed in a hunt campaigners say is illegal under EU law. Under the Berne convention, protected species cannot be caused to have their populations fall under a sustainable level.

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Top Venezuelan pianist urges music world to snub youth orchestra linked to Maduro

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Gabriela Montero asks promoters to cut ties with El Sistema on 2025 Europe tour, after alleged theft of election

One of Venezuela’s most celebrated musicians, the pianist Gabriela Montero, has called on concert halls and music promoters to cut ties with her country’s world-renowned youth orchestra as a result of Nicolás Maduro’s alleged theft of this year’s presidential election.

The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (SBSOV), which has close ties to Maduro’s administration, is scheduled to perform at some of Europe’s most prestigious classical music venues in January to mark the 50th anniversary of Venezuela’s world-famous music training programme, El Sistema.

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Former EU environment chief warns against backsliding on climate crisis

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Virginijus Sinkevičius, a former environment commissioner, criticises bloc’s decision to delay deforestation law

A former EU environment commissioner has warned against backsliding on the protection of nature and the battle against the climate crisis after the bloc decided to delay its landmark deforestation law.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, the Lithuanian MEP and a vice-president of the European parliament’s Green group, said he disagreed with the decision to amend the deforestation law in order to give companies a year of extra time to ensure their products are not implicated in the felling of trees.

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Ecuador confirms incinerated bodies belong to missing ‘Guayaquil Four’ boys

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Sixteen air force personnel who apprehended boys being held in custody as inquiry into deaths continues

Ecuador’s attorney general’s office has confirmed that incinerated bodies found on Christmas Eve belong to the four children missing since early December, in a case posing a severe challenge to President Daniel Noboa’s “war on drugs”.

The four boys – all black, aged between 11 and 15, and residents of Las Malvinas, a poor area in the country’s largest city, Guayaquil – were returning from a football game on 8 December when they were apprehended by 16 air force soldiers.

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South Korea plane crash investigators turn to black boxes in search for vital clues

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Experts hope flight recorders will provide answers to key questions surrounding crash in which 179 died

As investigators set to work unpicking the cause of Sunday’s devastating plane crash in South Korea, the black boxes carried on the aircraft will be of prime importance, with retrieval of data from the cockpit voice recorder under way.

All but two of the 181 people onboard died in the disaster, with the victims aged from three to 78. The Korean airline’s chief executive, Kim E-bae, said he wanted “to bow my head and apologise”, according to a statement on the company’s website, adding it was “difficult to determine the cause of the accident”.

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Xi says China’s economy on course to expand by 5% despite Trump concerns

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President seeks to allay fears that world’s second-largest economy will falter in 2025 because of high US tariffs

China’s economy is on course to expand by 5% in 2025, according to its president, Xi Jinping, meeting official growth targets and rebutting concerns that Donald Trump’s incoming US administration will harm Beijing’s prospects in the new year.

Using his annual address to the nation, Xi sought to allay fears that the world’s second-largest economy would falter over the next 12 months after the government battled to prevent a slide towards recession during 2024.

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Israel’s hospital attacks have put Gaza healthcare on brink of collapse, says UN

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Assaults on medical facilities could amount to war crimes in certain circumstances, human rights office report says

Israel’s pattern of sustained attacks on Gaza’s hospitals and medical workers has brought the coastal strip’s healthcare system to the brink of “total collapse”, according to a report by the UN’s human rights office.

The report, which catalogues the besieging and targeting of hospitals and their immediate grounds with explosive weapons, the killing of hundreds of medical workers, and the destruction of critical life-saving equipment, said that in certain circumstances the attacks could “amount to war crimes”. Israel has consistently denied committing war crimes in Gaza.

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Russia winds down gas supply to Europe via Ukraine as transit deal expires

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Exports to cease on New Year’s Day as Europe faces cold snap and higher than usual fall in reserves since September

Europe will receive the last Russian gas sent via Ukraine’s pipelines in the early hours of the new year as the continent braces for a plunge in temperatures that could hasten the drain on gas reserves.

The Russian state energy company, Gazprom, is expected to cut off its exports to Europe through Ukraine’s pipelines on New Year’s Day after a gas transit deal struck between the countries five years ago comes to an end overnight.

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France carried out bombing raid on Islamic State targets in Syria, defence minister says – as it happened

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French aircraft carry out strikes on Islamic State positions, says French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu. This live blog is closed

As the time approaches 3pm in Tel Aviv, Israel, here’s a roundup of today’s news in the Middle East.

A UN report has said Israel’s attacks on hospitals in and around Gaza have led the area’s healthcare system to the brink of “total collapse”. The UN Human Rights Office says its report raises concerns about how much Israel is complying with international law.

Meanwhile The head of Unrwa – the UN agency for aid in Gaza – Philippe Lazzarini says “horrors continue unabated” 15 months since the war broke out between Israel and Gaza, triggered by the Hamas terror attack.

More than 250 members of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (Unrwa) had been killed since the start of the conflict, and more than two-thirds of Unrwa buildings have been damaged or destroyed, he said.

The president of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ola Awad, said the Gaza Strip’s economy crumbled this year during the continued Israeli operations in the territory.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported: “By the end of 2024, estimates indicate that the unprecedented sharp contraction in the GDP in the Gaza Strip will continue by more than 82%, accompanied by an increase in the unemployment rate to 80%.”

The Palestinian Civil Defence agency said it has received hundreds of distress calls from displaced people whose tents and shelters have been flooded by rainwater after heavy rain.

Palestinian health authorities say 45 people have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip for general hospital treatment in the United Arab Emirates. They include a 10-year-old boy suffering from kidney failure.

French aircraft have bombed Islamic State positions in Syria, the country’s defence minister Sebastien Lecornu has announced. The strikes are the first on Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

Syria’s new rulers have confirmed the appointment of Murhaf Abu Qasra as defence minister in the new interim government, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

The new Syrian government has reportedly appointed former foreign fighters to its armed forces, Reuters has reported.

The new figures include Uyghurs, a Jordanian and a Turk as Damascus tries to shape a patchwork of rebel groups into a professional military, two Syrian sources told the news agency.

Israel has warned Yemen’s Houthi rebels that they face the same “miserable fate” as Hamas and Hezbollah if they continue with rocket attacks.

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Kung fu nuns show off martial art skills at monastery reopening in Nepal

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Nuns mark opening of Druk Amitabha nunnery with performance, five years after Covid closure

About a dozen nuns performed hand chops and high kicks, some of them wielding swords, as they showed off their martial art skills to hundreds of cheering wellwishers at the reopening of their nunnery in Nepal.

The nuns of the hilltop Druk Amitabha monastery put on the show of strength to mark the institution’s reopening five years after Covid forced it to close its doors to the public.

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World of dance mourns death of ‘brilliant light’ Dada Masilo at age of 39

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South African dancer and choreographer died unexpectedly after a brief illness, her family says

The dance world is mourning the internationally acclaimed South African dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo, who died in hospital at the weekend aged 39.

Masilo died unexpectedly on Sunday after a brief illness, a spokesperson for her family said in a statement.

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Netherlands to open archive on people accused of wartime Nazi collaboration

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Some descendants are apprehensive but a historian says making 30m pages of records public is ‘important step’

For 80 years, details of their ancestors’ collaboration with the Nazis have been buried in spotless rows of filing cabinets in The Hague. But thousands of Dutch families face having their relatives’ history laid bare later this week when an archive opens on 425,000 people accused of siding with the occupier during the second world war.

On Thursday, the central archives of the special jurisdiction courts (CABR), established after the allies liberated the Netherlands to bring collaborators to justice, will open under national archive rules.

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Beijing denies involvement in US treasury cyber-attack

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Claims a Chinese state-sponsored actor was behind breach this month are ‘groundless’, says foreign ministry

Beijing has hit back at accusations that a China state-sponsored actor was behind a cyber breach at the US treasury department, calling the claims “groundless”.

The breach was orchestrated via a third-party cybersecurity service provider. Hackers were able to gain access to a key used by the vendor to override certain parts of the system, according to a letter the treasury department sent to lawmakers on Monday.

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