Affected by negative factors such as the Russia-Ukraine war and tariff disputes, China-EU relations in 2024 show no obvious sign of recovery. Observers predict that China-EU relations will most likely remain at a low level in 2025. If U.S.-China relations deteriorate further during President-elect Donald Trump’s term, Beijing will need to maintain a relatively stable relationship with the EU even more, analysts say.
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TALLINN, estonia — Twelve Western countries have agreed to measures to “disrupt and deter” Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of vessels in order to prevent sanctions breaches and increase the cost to Moscow of the war in Ukraine, Estonia’s government said Monday.
The measures were agreed to by Germany, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, the five Nordic nations and the three Baltic states, said Estonia, where leaders of the 10-nation Joint Expeditionary Force were due to meet Tuesday.
Western nations have slapped sanctions on a wide range of ships they say are used by Moscow to avoid restrictions on the export of Russian oil and other cargoes. Vessels in the shadow fleet are not regulated or insured by conventional Western providers.
“We are taking concerted steps to deter Russia’s shadow fleet and avoid attempts to evade sanctions,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said in a statement.
Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Finland and Estonia will begin to check insurance documents of ships under suspicion passing through the English Channel, Danish straits, the Gulf of Finland and the sound between Sweden and Denmark, he added.
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GENEVA — Migrants play a crucial role in the global economy by filling essential jobs in foreign countries and sending much-needed remittances to their home countries, according to a report released Monday by the International Labour Organization.
The report’s release comes as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the United States. During his presidential campaign, he accused them of draining economic resources and taking jobs from native-born Americans.
The ILO report says migrants usually bring a net economic benefit to the countries they enter and those from which they depart.
“Migrants drive economic growth in destination countries, and they support home countries through their remittances and skills transfer,” Sukti Dasgupta, director of the ILO’s conditions of work and equalities department, told journalists at a briefing in Geneva on Monday.
Rafael Diez de Medina, chief statistician at ILO, said the report debunks the assertion by some that “migrants are taking away [the] jobs of nationals.”
“I would like to say that migrant workers often fill specific roles in low-wage or specialized jobs, and often as seasonal workers, and that they complement, rather than displace, the national labor force.
“There might be competition in specific contexts, but we do not really have evidence of migrants taking away jobs from nationals,” he said.
“In this report, migrants in the labor force include all foreign-born persons in the labor force of a host country who are employed or unemployed regardless of their legal status in the country,” Diez de Medina added. “So, documented and undocumented, regardless of the employment permission to the host country, are included in our figures.”
The report presents global and regional estimates of migrants in the labor force covering 189 countries and territories for 2022, representing 99% of the world population at that time.
Migrant labor force increases
The report says 167.7 million migrants were part of the international labor force as of 2022, accounting for 4.7% of the working force worldwide.
The report finds that the migrant global labor force has increased by more than 30 million since 2013, but notes that from 2019 to 2022, “the rate of growth slowed down to less than one percent annually.” This is attributed largely to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While migration patterns have changed in some regions of the world, the ILO said the overall composition of migrant workers has remained relatively stable, with men accounting for about 61% percent and women making up 39%.
About 68% of international migrants in the labor force, the report noted, were concentrated in high-income countries located in northern, southern and western Europe, North America, and the Arab states.
“Migrants were concentrated in high-income countries drawn by higher living standards and more job opportunities,” said Dasgupta, who added that most migrants work in the service sector.
“This is where we find 70 percent of all working migrants, and this is particularly true for women,” she said.
Diez de Medina said the estimates presented are based on a new and improved methodology that allows for more detailed breakdowns than before.
In 2022, the ILO reported that more migrants faced a higher unemployment rate of 7.2% compared to the rate of 5.2% for non-migrants, with more migrant women than men out of work.
According to the report, “This disparity may be driven by factors such as language barriers, unrecognized qualifications, discrimination, and limited childcare options.”
Migrants and legal protections
Diez de Medina stressed the importance of ensuring that migrant workers have access to social and labor protection and “are covered by the country’s labor laws, particularly for domestic workers.”
Instead of being a drain on society, he said, migrant workers are a benefit and “are essential for the global economy, particularly in certain sectors such as services, manufacturing and agriculture.”
“If there were to be major restrictions on the movement of migrant workers, there would be labor shortages in particular sectors in the destination countries,” he said.
Dasgupta agreed that migrants contribute significantly to host economies through taxes, social security payments and other means.
“Their employment to population ratios are often higher,” she said, noting the report finds that “migrants contribute more than they withdraw, particularly for the second-generation migrants.”
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BERLIN — Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German parliament on Monday, putting the European Union’s most populous member and biggest economy on course to hold an early election in February.
Scholz won the support of 207 lawmakers in the 733-seat lower house, or Bundestag, while 394 voted against him and 116 abstained. That left him far short of the majority of 367 needed to win.
Scholz leads a minority government after his unpopular and notoriously rancorous three-party coalition collapsed on November 6 when he fired his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalize Germany’s stagnant economy. Leaders of several major parties then agreed that a parliamentary election should be held on Feb. 23, seven months earlier than originally planned.
The confidence vote was needed because post-World War II Germany’s constitution doesn’t allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself. Now President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election.
Steinmeier has 21 days to make that decision — and, because of the planned timing of the election, is expected to do so after Christmas. Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days.
In practice, the campaign is already well under way, and Monday’s three-hour debate reflected that.
What did the contenders say?
Scholz, a center-left Social Democrat, told lawmakers that the election will determine whether “we, as a strong country, dare to invest strongly in our future; do we have confidence in ourselves and our country, or do we put our future on the line? Do we risk our cohesion and our prosperity by delaying long-overdue investments?”
Scholz’s pitch to voters includes pledges to “modernize” Germany’s strict self-imposed rules on running up debt, to increase the national minimum wage and to reduce value-added tax on food.
Center-right challenger Friedrich Merz responded that “you’re leaving the country in one of its biggest economic crises in postwar history.”
“You’re standing here and saying, business as usual, let’s run up debt at the expense of the younger generation, let’s spend money and … the word ‘competitiveness’ of the German economy didn’t come up once in the speech you gave today,” Merz said.
The chancellor said Germany is Ukraine’s biggest military supplier in Europe and he wants to keep that up, but underlined his insistence that he won’t supply long-range Taurus cruise missiles, over concerns of escalating the war with Russia, or send German troops into the conflict. “We will do nothing that jeopardizes our own security,” he said.
Merz, who has been open to sending the long-range missiles, said that “we don’t need any lectures on war and peace” from Scholz’s party. He said, however, that the political rivals in Berlin are united in an “absolute will to do everything so that this war in Ukraine ends as quickly as possible.”
What are their chances?
Polls show Scholz’s party trailing well behind Merz’s main opposition Union bloc, which is in the lead. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the environmentalist Greens, the remaining partner in Scholz’s government, is also bidding for the top job — though his party is further back.
The far-right Alternative for Germany, which is polling strongly, has nominated Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor but has no chance of taking the job because other parties refuse to work with it.
Germany’s electoral system traditionally produces coalitions, and polls show no party anywhere near an absolute majority on its own. The election is expected to be followed by weeks of negotiations to form a new government.
Confidence votes are rare in Germany, a country of 83 million people that prizes stability. This was only the sixth time in its postwar history that a chancellor had called one.
The last was in 2005, when then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroder engineered an early election that was narrowly won by center-right challenger Angela Merkel.
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Washington — Ten countries and the EU called North Korea’s growing involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine a “dangerous expansion” on Monday, in a joint statement released by the United States.
Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s war effort, including to the Kursk border region where Ukraine reported Monday that its fighters had killed or wounded at least 30 North Korean soldiers.
“Direct DPRK support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine marks a dangerous expansion of the conflict, with serious consequences for European and Indo-Pacific security,” the statement said, referring to North Korea by its official acronym.
The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and the high representative of the European Union signed the release.
They also said that they were “deeply concerned about any political, military, or economic support that Russia may be providing to the DPRK’s illegal weapons programs, including weapons of mass destruction.”
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Experts say the nuclear-armed North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, is keen to acquire advanced technology from Moscow and battle experience for his troops.
The statement signatories said they “condemn in the strongest possible terms the increasing military cooperation” including the “deployment of DPRK troops to Russia for use on the battlefield against Ukraine.”
They added that the export of ballistic missiles, artillery shells and other military materiel by Pyongyang to Russia as well as Moscow’s training of North Korean soldiers involving arms “represent flagrant violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
“We urge the DPRK to cease immediately all assistance for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, including by withdrawing its troops,” the statement said.
The United States and South Korea have accused the North of sending more than 10,000 soldiers.
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France’s latest prime minister, Francois Bayrou, gets to work this week to form a new cabinet, push a stopgap budget bill and — more precariously — scout for support for longer-term budget legislation to tackle the country’s fiscal woes — a move that led to his predecessor’s downfall.
The task and stakes are enormous for the 73-year-old centrist, a veteran politician and longtime mayor of the southwestern town of Pau. Picked by French President Emmanuel Macron Friday, Bayrou is the country’s fourth prime minister this year — and he faces a squabbling, deeply divided lower house anchored by powerful leftist and far right blocks.
Farmers, teachers, hospital staff and rail workers count among thousands who have taken to the streets in recent months over agricultural imports, labor issues, and other grievances.
France’s disarray is also a worry for the European Union, facing Russian gains in Ukraine, and the risk of a more fractious transatlantic relationship with the incoming Trump administration.
“Nothing suggests he’ll last longer or fare better than the others,” France’s leading Le Monde newspaper said in editorial of Bayrou.
The most immediate emergency lies in France’s Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, where Cyclone Chido has wreaked widespread devastation, causing hundreds and possibly thousands of deaths, French authorities say. The acting interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, was heading to Mayotte on Monday.
Head of the small MoDem or Democratic Freedom party that is part of Macron’s centrist alliance, Bayrou acknowledges he faces a “Himalaya” of difficulties ahead. France’s budget deficit is estimated at more than six percent of its GDP — double the EU limit — and the country shoulders a sizable debt. Hours after Bayrou’s nomination, Moody’s rating agency downgraded France’s credit rating to Aa3, citing “political fragmentation” as a reason.
“My first mission is to be a builder or, failing that, a repairer,” Bayrou told La Tribune Dimanche weekly, in an interview published Sunday.
The stakes are also high for Macron, who emerges severely weakened after a catastrophic political year. The French president gambled on snap legislative elections earlier this year, after the far-right National Rally party topped a June European Parliament vote. He saw his centrist coalition emerging as the weakest bloc in France’s National Assembly, behind a leftist alliance and the National Rally.
Risk for Europe
So far, Macron has resisted calls to step down, insisting he will serve out his term that ends in 2027. But analysts suggest he could become a lame-duck president — leading the EU’s second-biggest power, at a difficult time for the bloc. A strong champion of Ukraine, Macron has also long pushed the bloc to beef up its defense in what he calls “strategic autonomy.”
Fellow EU heavyweight Germany is also dealing with political uncertainty, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz facing a no-confidence vote in parliament Monday and the possibility of early elections in February.
Prolonged turmoil in France could affect the EU’s “capacity to demonstrate unity and leadership,” wrote analysts Camille Grand, Camille Lons and Pawel Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank. “Especially,” they added, “in the face of heightened threats to EU security policy posed by Russian president Vladimir Putin and America’s president-elect, Donald Trump.”
With France “mired in domestic issues,” the analysts added, “other European countries will need to show political creativity and readiness to take ambitious action,” including developing a plan to support Ukraine in the weeks remaining before Trump takes office.
A three-time presidential candidate, who served as education minister in the 1990s, Bayrou succeeds conservative Michel Barnier. Barnier was ousted earlier this month in a no-confidence motion in France’s lower house, after ramming through a budget bill without a vote. The move — by an unlikely front of leftist and far right lawmakers — made Barnier the country’s shortest-serving prime minister in modern history, lasting only three months.
Bayrou begins meeting Monday with political parties, starting with the powerful far right National Rally, which has the most seats in parliament. So far, the Rally counts among several key parties taking a ‘wait-and-see’ approach, albeit setting out red lines that will make it difficult for Bayrou to find compromise.
New polls found most French are underwhelmed by the latest political transition. More than two-thirds said they lack confidence in Bayrou’s ability to bring stability to the country, according to an Elabe survey. A separate IFOP poll found just one-fifth support Macron — the president’s lowest popularity rating to date.
France’s far left is among the most critical of Bayrou. France Unbowed party lawmaker, Eric Coquerel, said he expected “nothing” from the new prime minister. The party threatens another no-confidence motion, but so far lacks the votes to topple Bayrou.
“It’s up to him to prove this mission impossible is custom made for him,” La Tribune Dimanche wrote in an editorial of Bayrou.
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Saint-Denis de la Reunion, France — Rescuers raced against time Monday to reach survivors after a devastating cyclone ripped through the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, destroying homes across the islands, with hundreds feared dead.
Images from Mayotte, which like other French overseas territories is an integral part of France and ruled from Paris, showed scenes of devastation, with homes reduced to piles of rubble.
The crisis, which erupted at the weekend the day after President Emmanuel Macron appointed Francois Bayrou as the sixth prime minister of his mandate, poses a major challenge for a government still only operating in a caretaker capacity.
The cyclone has left health services in tatters, with the hospital extremely damaged and health centers knocked out of operation, Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq told France 2.
“The hospital has suffered major water damage and destruction, notably in the surgical, intensive care, maternity and emergency units,” she said, adding that “medical centres were also non-operational”.
Macron was due to chair a crisis meeting in Paris, the Elysee said.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, whose super ministry is responsible for Mayotte, arrived on the island.
Cyclone Chido caused major damage to Mayotte’s airport and cut off electricity, water and communication links when it barreled down Saturday on France’s poorest territory.
Asked about the eventual death toll, Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville, the top Paris-appointed official on the territory, told broadcaster Mayotte la Premiere “I think there will definitely be several hundred, perhaps we will come close to a thousand or even several thousand.”
With roads closed, officials fear that many could still be trapped under rubble in the inaccessible areas.
The mayor of Mayotte’s capital Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, told AFP the storm “spared nothing”.
“The hospital is hit. The schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated,” he said.
Some 160 additional soldiers and firefighters arrived, to reinforce the 110 already deployed.
The nearby French island of La Reunion was serving as a hub for the rescue operations.
‘Apocalyptic scenes’
Chido was packing winds of at least 226 kilometers per hour when it slammed into Mayotte, which lies to the east of Mozambique.
At least a third of the territory’s 320,000 residents live in shantytowns, where homes with sheet-metal roofs were flattened by the storm.
One resident, Ibrahim, told AFP of “apocalyptic scenes” as he made his way through the main island, having to clear blocked roads himself.
As authorities assessed the scale of the disaster, a first aid plane reached Mayotte on Sunday.
It carried three tons of medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff, according to authorities in La Reunion.
Patrice Latron, prefect of Reunion, said residents of Mayotte were facing “an extremely chaotic situation, immense destruction.”
Two military aircraft are expected to follow the initial aid flight, while a navy patrol ship was also due to depart La Reunion.
There have been international pledges to help Mayotte, including from the regional Red Cross organization, PIROI.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc is “ready to provide support in the days to come.”
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the WHO “stands ready to support communities in need of essential health care.”
With around 100,000 people estimated to live clandestinely on Mayotte, according to France’s interior ministry, establishing how many people have been affected by the cyclone is proving difficult.
Ousseni Balahachi, a former nurse, said some people did not dare venture out to seek assistance, “fearing it would be a trap” designed to remove them from Mayotte.
Many had stayed put “until the last minute” when it proved too late to escape the cyclone, she added.
Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide fueled by climate change, according to experts.
The “exceptional” cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of the Meteo France weather service told AFP.
Chido blasted across the Indian Ocean and made landfall in Mozambique on Sunday, where officials said the death toll stood at three.
The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, warned 1.7 million people were in danger and the remnants of the cyclone could also dump “significant rainfall” on Malawi through Monday.
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Norway announced Monday $242 million in new military aid for Ukraine, including help securing access to the country’s vital Black Sea ports.
“It is essential to protect the Ukrainian population and Ukrainian infrastructure from attacks by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement. “It is also important to protect exports by sea of grain and other products, which generate crucial revenues for Ukraine.”
The aid includes funding for training Ukrainian soldiers as well as mine clearance operations.
Norway’s Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram said mines are a “significant threat” in the Black Sea and that the aid will help Ukrainian forces detect and defuse mines near the coast.
Ukraine’s military said Monday it shot down 27 of the 49 drones that Russian forces deployed in overnight attacks.
The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi and Sumy regions, the Ukrainian air force said.
Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said debris from a destroyed drone damaged power lines, but caused no casualties.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday its forces destroyed three Ukrainian aerial drones over the Kursk region.
Some information for this story was provided by Reuters
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VIENNA — Three years ago, Andrea Vanek was studying to be an arts and crafts teacher when spells of dizziness and heart palpitations suddenly started to make it impossible for her to even take short walks.
After seeing a succession of doctors she was diagnosed with long COVID and even now spends most of her days in the small living room of her third-floor Vienna apartment, sitting on the windowsill to observe the world outside.
“I can’t plan anything because I just don’t know how long this illness will last,” the 33-year-old Austrian told AFP.
The first cases of COVID-19 were detected in China in December 2019, sparking a global pandemic and more than seven million reported deaths to date, according to the World Health Organization.
But millions more have been affected by long COVID, in which some people struggle to recover from the acute phase of COVID-19, suffering symptoms including tiredness, brain fog and shortness of breath.
Vanek tries to be careful not to exert herself to avoid another “crash”, which for her is marked by debilitating muscle weakness and can last for months, making it hard to even open a bottle of water.
“We know that long COVID is a big problem,” said Anita Jain, from the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.
About six percent of people infected by coronavirus develop long COVID, according to the global health body, which has recorded some 777 million COVID cases to date.
Whereas the rates of long COVID after an initial infection are declining, reinfection increases the risk, Jain added.
‘Everything hurts’
Chantal Britt, who lives in Bern, Switzerland, contracted COVID in March 2020. Long COVID, she said, has turned her “life upside down” and forced her to “reinvent” herself.
“I was really an early bird…. Now I take two hours to get up in the morning at least because everything hurts,” the 56-year-old former marathon runner explained.
“I’m not even hoping anymore that I’m well in the morning but I’m still kind of surprised how old and how broken I feel.”
About 15 percent of those who have long COVID have persistent symptoms for more than one year, according to the WHO, while women tend to have a higher risk than men of developing the condition.
Britt, who says she used to be a “workaholic”, now works part-time as a university researcher on long COVID and other topics.
She lost her job in communications in 2022 after she asked to reduce her work hours.
She misses doing sports, which used to be like “therapy” for her, and now has to plan her daily activities more, such as thinking of places where she can sit down and rest when she goes shopping.
A lack of understanding by those around her also make it more difficult.
“It’s an invisible disease…. which connects to all the stigma surrounding it,” she said.
“Even the people who are really severely affected, who are at home, in a dark room, who can’t be touched anymore, any noise will drive them into a crash, they don’t look sick,” she said.
Fall ‘through the cracks’
The WHO’s Jain said it can be difficult for healthcare providers to give a diagnosis and wider recognition of the condition is crucial.
More than 200 symptoms have been listed alongside common ones such as fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction.
“Now a lot of the focus is on helping patients, helping clinicians with the tools to accurately diagnose long COVID, detect it early,” she said.
Patients like Vanek also struggle financially. She has filed two court cases to get more support but both are yet to be heard.
She said the less than $840 she gets in support cannot cover her expenses, which include high medical bills for the host of pills she needs to keep her symptoms in check.
“It’s very difficult for students who get long COVID. We fall right through the cracks” of the social system, unable to start working, she said.
Britt also wants more targeted research into post-infectious conditions like long COVID.
“We have to understand them better because there will be another pandemic and we will be as clueless as ever,” she said.
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Istanbul — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Ethiopia and Somalia early next year after brokering a deal to end tensions between the two Horn of Africa neighbors, he said on X Sunday.
“I will visit Ethiopia and Somalia in the first two months of the New Year,” he wrote in a message that referred to the deal between Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Ankara on December 11.
The pair agreed to end their nearly yearlong bitter dispute after hours of talks brokered by Erdogan, who hailed the breakthrough as “historic.”
The dispute began in January when landlocked Ethiopia struck a deal in with Somalia’s breakaway region Somaliland to lease a stretch of coastline for a port and military base.
In return, Somaliland — which declared independence from Somalia in 1991 in a move not recognized by Mogadishu — said Ethiopia would give it formal recognition, although this was never confirmed by Addis Ababa.
Somalia branded the deal a violation of its sovereignty, setting international alarm bells ringing over the risk of renewed conflict in the volatile Horn of Africa region.
Turkey stepped in to mediate in July, holding three previous rounds of talks — two in Ankara and one in New York — before last week’s breakthrough, which won praise from the African Union, Washington and Brussels.
Fresh from his latest diplomatic success, Erdogan on Friday telephoned Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and he offered “to step in to resolve the disputes between Sudan and the United Arab Emirates,” his office said.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been mired in a brutal conflict between army chief Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo who leads the RSF.
Sudan’s army-backed government has repeatedly accused the UAE of supporting the RSF — a claim which the UAE has consistently denied.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced over 11 million more.
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Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Sunday that he would provide Syria with grain and other agricultural products on a humanitarian basis, a week after the fall of Moscow’s ally, President Bashar al-Assad.
“Now we can help the Syrians with our wheat, flour and oil: our products that are used globally to ensure food security,” he said in his daily address.
“We are coordinating with our partners and the Syrian side to resolve logistical issues. We will support this region so that stability there becomes a foundation for our movement towards real peace,” Zelenskyy added.
According to him, these possible deliveries will be part of the “Grain of Ukraine” program, launched in 2022 to provide food aid to the poorest countries.
Even at war, Ukraine, one of the world’s largest producers of grain, retains immense production capacities.
And despite Moscow’s threats to shoot ships sailing in the Black Sea, Kyiv has set up a corridor there to export its agricultural products from the summer of 2023.
After an 11-day offensive, the rebel coalition dominated by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on Dec. 8 overthrew Assad, who took refuge in Russia.
The fall was a serious setback for Moscow, which, along with Iran, was the former Syrian president’s main ally and had been intervening militarily in Syria since 2015.
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AJACCIO, Corsica — Pope Francis on the first papal visit ever to the French island of Corsica on Sunday called for a dynamic form of laicism, promoting the kind of popular piety that distinguishes the Mediterranean island from secular France as a bridge between religious and civic society.
Francis appeared relaxed and energized during the one-day visit, just two days before his 88th birthday, still displaying a faded bruise from a fall a week ago.
He frequently deviated from his prepared homily during Mass at the outdoor La Place d’Austerlitz, remarking at one point that he had never seen so many children as in Corsica — except, he added, in East Timor on his recent Asian tour.
“Make children,” he implored. “They will be your joy and your consolation in the future.”
Earlier, at the close of a Mediterranean conference on popular piety, Papa Francescu, as he is called in Corsican, described a concept of secularity “that is not static and fixed, but evolving and dynamic,” that can adapt to “unforeseen situations” and promote cooperation “between civil and ecclesial authorities.”
The pontiff said that expressions of popular piety, including processions and communal prayer of the Holy Rosary “can nurture constructive citizenship” on the part of Christians. At the same time, he warned against such manifestations being seen only in terms of folklore, or even superstition.
The visit to Corsica’s capital Ajaccio, the birthplace of Napoleon, is one of the briefest of his papacy beyond Italy’s borders, just about nine hours on the ground, including a 40-minute visit with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Francis was joined on the dais by the bishop of Ajaccio, Cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo, who organized the conference that brought together some 400 participants from Spain, Sicily, Sardinia and southern France. The two-day meeting examined expressions of faith that often occur outside formal liturgies, such as processions and pilgrimages.
Often specific to the places where they are practiced, popular piety in Corsica includes the cult of the Virgin Mary, known locally as the “Madunnuccia,” which protected the island from the plague in 1656 when it was still under Genoa control.
Corsica stands out from the rest of secularized France as a particularly devout region, with 92 confraternities, or lay associations dedicated to works of charity or piety, with over 4,000 members.
“It means that there is a beautiful, mature, adult and responsible collaboration between civil authorities, mayors, deputies, senators, officials and religious authorities,” Bustillo told The Associated Press ahead of the visit. “There is no hostility between the two. And that is a very positive aspect because in Corsica there is no ideological hostility.”
The visit was awash in signs of popular piety. The pope was greeted by children in traditional garb and was continually serenaded by bands, choruses and singing troupes that are central to Corsican culture from the airport to the motorcade route, convention center and cathedral. Thousands stood along the roadside to greet the pontiff and more waved from windows.
Renè Colombani traveled with 2,000 others by ship from northern Corsica to Ajaccio, on the western coast, to see the pope.
“It is an event that we will not see again in several years. It may be the only time that the pope will come to Corsica. And since we wanted to be a part of it, we have come a long way,” Colombani said.
The island, which Genoa ceded to France in 1768, is located closer to the Italian mainland than France.
From the conference, the pope traveled to the 17th-century cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta to meet with clergy, stopping along the way at the statue of the Madunnuccia where he lit a devotional candle.
The pope celebrated Mass beneath a looming statue of Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor whose armies in 1808 annexed the papal states and imprisoned two of Francis’ predecessors — Popes Pius VI and VII — before being excommunicated and eventually defeated on the battlefield. Thousands packed the esplanade where Napoleon is said to have played as a child.
Francis will meet privately with Macron at the airport before departing for the 50-minute flight back to Rome.
They are expected to talk about the world’s crises, including wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and environment and climate-related issues, Macron’s office said.
The pontiff pointedly did not make the trip to Paris earlier this month for the pomp surrounding the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral following the devastating 2019 fire. The visit to Corsica seems far more suited to Francis’ priorities than a grand cathedral reopening, emphasizing the “church of the peripheries.”
It is Francis’ third trip to France, each time avoiding Paris and the protocols that a state visit entails. He visited the port of Marseille in 2023, on an overnight visit to participate in an annual summit of Mediterranean bishops and went to Strasbourg in 2014 to address the European Parliament and Council of Europe.
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KYIV — Ukrainian drone strikes on southern Russia killed a 9-year-old boy and set fire to a major oil terminal, officials said Saturday, the day after Moscow launched a massive aerial attack on its neighbor that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was one of the heaviest bombardments of the country’s energy sector in the nearly three-year war.
The boy died when a drone struck his family’s home outside Belgorod, a Russian city near the border with Ukraine, local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on Saturday morning on the Telegram messaging app. His mother and 7-month-old sister were hospitalized with injuries, Gladkov said.
He posted photos of what he said was the aftermath of the attack, showing a low-rise house with gaping holes in its roof and front wall flanked by mounds of rubble.
Elsewhere in southern Russia, Ukrainian drones overnight hit a major oil terminal in the Oryol region, sparking a blaze, Ukraine’s General Staff reported. Photos published by the General Staff and on Russian Telegram news channels showed huge plumes of smoke engulfing the facility, backlit by an orange glow.
Oryol Gov. Andrey Klychkov confirmed that a Ukrainian drone strike set fire to a fuel depot. He said later the blaze had been contained and that there were no casualties.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday claimed its forces shot down 37 Ukrainian drones over the country’s south and west the previous night.
Russia pummels Ukrainian energy targets
The Ukrainian strikes came a day after Russia fired 93 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 drones at its neighbor, further battering Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, around half of which has been destroyed during the war. Rolling electricity blackouts are common and widespread, and Zelenskyy charged Friday that Moscow is “terrorizing millions of people” with such assaults.
According to Ukraine’s air force, Russia kept up its drone attacks on Saturday, launching 132 across Ukrainian territory. Fifty-eight drones were shot down and a further 72 veered off course, likely due to electronic jamming, it said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces used long-range precision missiles and drones on “critically important fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine that ensure the functioning of the military industrial complex.”
The strike was in retaliation for Wednesday’s Ukrainian attack using U.S.-supplied the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, on a Russian air base, it said.
Kyiv’s Western allies have provided Ukraine with air defense systems to help it protect critical infrastructure, but Russia has sought to overwhelm the air defenses with combined strikes involving large numbers of missiles and drones called “swarms.”
Russia has held the initiative this year as its military has steadily rammed through Ukrainian defenses in the east in a series of slow but steady offensives.
But uncertainty surrounds how the war might unfold next year. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, has vowed to end the war and has thrown into doubt whether vital U.S. military support for Kyiv will continue.
North Koreans reportedly in combat in Kursk
Zelenskyy said Saturday that a “significant number” of North Korean troops were being deployed by Moscow in assaults in Russia’s southern Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have held on following a stunning cross-border incursion this summer.
In a televised address, Zelenskyy said that North Korean soldiers have so far not entered the fight on Ukrainian soil, but claimed they are already taking “noticeable” losses.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian officials reported that Russian shelling on Friday and overnight killed at least two civilians and wounded 14 others in front-line areas Ukraine’s south and northeast.
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — At least 11 people have died after Cyclone Chido caused devastating damage in the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, France’s Interior Ministry said Sunday.
The intense tropical cyclone has now made landfall on the east coast of Africa, where aid agencies are warning of more loss of life and severe damage in northern Mozambique.
The ministry said it was proving difficult to get a precise tally of the dead and injured in Mayotte amid fears the death toll will increase. A local hospital reported that nine people were in critical condition there and 246 others were injured.
The tropical cyclone blew through the southeastern Indian Ocean, also affecting the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar. Mayotte was directly in its path and suffered extensive damage Saturday, officials said. The local prefect said it was the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Saturday night after an emergency meeting in Paris that there were fears that the death toll in Mayotte “will be high” and the island had been largely devastated.
Prime Minister François Bayrou, who took office Friday, said public infrastructure on Mayotte had been severely damaged or destroyed, including the main hospital and the airport. He said many people living in precarious shacks in slum areas have faced very serious risks.
Chido brought winds more than 220 kph (136 mph), according to the French weather service, making it a category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale.
Mayotte has a population of just over 300,000 spread over two main islands about 800 kilometers (500 miles) off Africa’s east coast. It is France’s poorest island and the European Union’s poorest territory. In some parts, entire neighborhoods were flattened, while residents reported many trees had been uprooted and boats had been flipped or sunk.
The French Interior Ministry said 1,600 police and gendarmerie officers have been deployed to “help the population and prevent potential looting.”
More than 100 rescuers and firefighters have been deployed in Mayotte from France and the nearby territory of Reunion, and an additional reinforcement of 140 people was due to be sent Sunday. Supplies were being rushed in on military aircraft and ships.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was closely monitoring the situation, while Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims of the cyclone while on a visit Sunday to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.
Chido continued its eastern trajectory and made landfall early Sunday in Mozambique on the African mainland, where emergency officials had warned that 2.5 million people could be impacted in two northern provinces, Cabo Delgado and Nampula. Landlocked Malawi and Zimbabwe are also preparing to be affected, with both countries warning they might have to evacuate people from low-lying areas because of flooding.
In Mozambique, the United Nations Children’s Fund said Cabo Delgado province, home to around 2 million people, had been hit hard.
“Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed, and we are working closely with [the] government to ensure continuity of essential basic services,” UNICEF said. “While we are doing everything we can, additional support is urgently needed.”
UNICEF Mozambique spokesperson Guy Taylor said in a video posted by the group from Cabo Delgado’s regional capital that alongside the immediate impact of the cyclone, communities now face the prospect of being cut off from schools and health facilities for weeks.
December through to March is cyclone season in the southeastern Indian Ocean and southern Africa has been pummeled by a series of strong ones in recent years.
Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed more than 1,300 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries last year.
Cyclones bring the risk of flooding and landslides, but also stagnant pools of water may later spark deadly outbreaks of the waterborne disease cholera as well as dengue fever and malaria.
Studies say cyclones are getting worse because of climate change. They can leave poor countries in southern Africa, which contribute a tiny amount to global warming, having to deal with large humanitarian crises, underlining their call for more help from rich nations to deal with the impact of climate change.
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MOSCOW — A Russian oil tanker carrying thousands of tons of oil products split apart during a heavy storm Sunday, spilling oil into the Kerch Strait, while another tanker was also in distress after sustaining damage, Russian officials said.
An emergency rescue operation is now underway, Russian officials told state news outlets Sunday.
The Volgoneft-212 tanker, which was carrying a crew of 13 and a cargo of fuel oil, ran aground and had its bow torn away, said Russian state news agency TASS, citing the country’s Emergency Situations Ministry. The damage was caused by severe weather conditions, officials said.
A second tanker, the Volgoneft-239, was also damaged in the storm and left drifting in the same area with 14 crewmembers on board, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. The 132-meter, Russian-flagged ship was built in 1973.
Russian investigators opened two criminal cases to investigate possible safety violations after at least one person was killed when the 136-meter Volgoneft-212 tanker, split in half with its bow sinking, footage published by state media showed, with waves washing over its deck. The Russian-flagged vessel was built in 1969.
“There was a spill of petroleum products,” said Russia’s water transport agency, Rosmorrechflot.
Both tankers have a loading capacity of about 4,200 tons of oil products.
Official statements did not provide details on the extent of the spill or why one of the tankers sustained such serious damage.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the government to set up a working group to deal with the rescue operation and mitigate the impact of the fuel spill, news agencies cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying, after Putin met with the ministers for emergencies and environment.
Russia said more than 50 people and equipment, including Mi-8 helicopters and rescue tugboats, had been deployed to the area.
Svetlana Radionova, head of Russia’s natural resources watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, said specialists were assessing the damage at the site of the incident.
Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported that the Volgoneft-212 tanker was carrying about 4,300 tons of fuel oil.
Unverified video posted on Telegram showed some blackened water on stormy seas and a half-submerged tanker.
The vessels were in the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and Crimea when they issued distress signals.
The Kerch Strait separates the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula from Russia and is an important global shipping route, providing passage from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
It has also been a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where it accused Russia of trying to illegally seize control of the area. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.
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ATHENS, GREECE — Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, a smile spreads across the little girl’s face. Blinking behind her glasses, she inches her wheelchair forward and gently reaches out to stroke the tiny gray horse.
Soon, 9-year-old Josifina Topa Mazuch is beaming as she leads Ivi, a specially trained miniature horse, standing no taller than her pink wheelchair, through the school hallway.
“I really want them to come again,” Josifina said of Ivi and a second miniature horse, Calypso, after a November morning visit to her Athens primary school for children with special needs. “They made me feel really happy.”
Ivi and Calypso are two of eight miniature horses from Gentle Carousel Greece, a Greek offshoot of Florida-based charity Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses offering visits to hospitals, rehabilitation centers and care homes.
Trained over two years to work comfortably in confined environments and with vulnerable children and adults, the tiny equines, which stand about 75 centimeters tall, provide a form of pet therapy that carers say offers valuable interactions and learning experiences, particularly to people confined to hospitals or care homes.
But the charity they are part of is struggling to make ends meet — run by one woman who funds the entire operation herself, with one assistant and no support team.
How it all began
Started in 2014 by Mina Karagianni, an interior architect and designer, the Athens operation is the only one affiliated with the Florida-based charity outside the United States. Karagianni came across Gentle Carousel while scouring the internet for information on caring for an abandoned Shetland pony she had rescued.
When she saw photos of the charity’s work in pediatric oncology wards, “I was touched and I was moved, and I said: ‘OK, we have to bring this to Greece,'” she said.
It took months to track down and persuade the U.S. charity to work with her, and even longer to obtain the requisite permits and arrange transport to bring the horses over. But after incessant efforts, six already trained miniature horses stepped off a flight from Florida via Frankfurt in November 2013.
Entirely self-funded through her day job, Karagianni now has a total of eight horses — the American six, one that was later born in Greece, and Billy, the rescued pony.
Karagianni transformed her family land in Rafina, a seaside area east of Athens, into Magic Garden, complete with stables, a paddock for the horses to run free every day, a small café and an area to host children’s parties and baptisms.
At the time, she was open for visits every weekend, charging a small entrance fee to help cover running costs – specialized food for the horses, wood shavings for their bedding, grooming material, veterinarian visits and transportation to and from hospitals and care homes. She also began visiting schools and setting up an education program.
From 2014 when Gentle Carousel Greece first opened until the first COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, Karagianni said her little equine team saw roughly 12,000 children.
Hard times
But the lockdowns took their toll. Karagianni had to shut down the café and hasn’t been able to reopen since.
With even the tiny income from the café drying up, and Karagianni herself facing a health issue that took her out for 1 ½ years, “we fell apart,” she said. Unable to meet utility bills, both the electricity and water companies cut off her supply, leaving her relying on neighbors for water for the horses.
“I’m just starting to get myself back together again now,” she said. “With a lot of financial difficulties. But what can I do? I’m trying.”
She’s got the utilities running again, but still owes thousands of euros. Approaches to companies and institutions for funding have been unsuccessful so far. “Maybe I just don’t know how to ask properly,” Karagianni said.
Running Gentle Carousel single-handedly is taking its toll. “I’m making super-human efforts,” said Karagianni, who at 68 wonders for how long she can go on and is searching for someone to ensure the program’s continuity.
“I’m doing what I can. But I can’t do it alone,” she said. “I can’t do it without a team.”
The joy they bring to children
Despite her financial struggles, Karagianni said seeing the horses’ effect, particularly on children, makes her determined to continue for as long as she can.
During a visit to the Athens special needs primary school, staff lined up children in wheelchairs so each could spend a few moments with the horses. Some reached out to stroke them; others bent their heads forward over the miniature horses for a kiss.
“It’s incredible, the reactions. It’s like something awakens their senses,” said special needs teacher Eleni Volikaki.
The state-run school, which shares facilities with a private charity for disabled children, ELEPAP, caters to children aged 6-14 with cognitive or mobility problems, or both. Anything that encourages the children to make even small hand gestures, such as reaching out to stroke a horse, “is very important for us. Especially when it’s spontaneous and comes directly from the child and isn’t instigated by us,” Volikaki said.
“We saw things we didn’t expect. We saw children with autism, or children who are generally afraid of animals, coming very close, letting the ponies get close to them,” Volikaki said. “And we saw … spontaneous contact that under other circumstances we wouldn’t see.”
Equines also help adults
The tiny horses don’t just enchant children.
In the seaside area of Nea Makri northeast of Athens, residents of an adult psychiatric care home gather to greet Omiros – Homer in Greek – a 12-year-old miniature gray and white stallion with a flowing mane and blue eyes.
Some show their excitement at the long-anticipated visit. Others are shyer at first, but nearly all eventually approach Omiros, leading him around the home’s recreation room or simply whispering to him.
The interaction is invaluable, said social worker Alex Krokidas, who heads the staff at the Iasis home.
“It offers, even if only briefly, the chance to create a bond that isn’t threatening, that has tenderness, quietness,” Krokidas said. “Let’s not forget, these people have faced many difficulties in their lives.”
Meeting Omiros and having a few moments each with him “gives them the opportunity to be a bit calmer, to not feel threatened, to stroke the animal,” Krokidas said. “All of that is very therapeutic, it is deeply therapeutic.”
Giorgos, one of the residents, initially kept his distance before letting Omiros come close. He leaned his head near the flowing mane.
“He gave me a beautiful feeling when he was here,” he said after Omiros headed back into the recreation room. “Now that it’s gone, I feel an absence.”
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LONDON — Britain officially became the 12th member of a trans-Pacific trade pact that includes Japan, Australia and Canada on Sunday as it seeks to deepen ties in the region and build its global trade links after leaving the European Union.
Britain announced last year it would join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in its biggest trade deal since Brexit.
The accession means Britain will be able to apply CPTPP trade rules and lower tariffs with eight of the 11 existing members from Sunday — Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.
The agreement enters into force with Australia on December 24, and will apply with the final two members — Canada and Mexico — 60 days after they ratify it.
The pact represents Britain’s first free trade deals with Malaysia and Brunei, but while it had agreements with the other countries, CPTPP provisions go further, especially in giving companies choices on how to use “rules of origin” provisions.
The CPTPP does not have a single market for goods or services, and so regulatory harmonization is not required, unlike the EU, whose trading orbit Britain left at the end of 2020.
Britain estimates the pact may be worth $2.5 billion a year in the long run — less than 0.1% of GDP.
But in a sign of the strategic, rather than purely economic, implications of the pact, Britain can now influence whether applicants China and Taiwan may join the group.
The free trade agreement has its roots in the U.S.-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership, developed in part to counter China’s growing economic dominance.
The U.S. pulled out in 2017 under then-President Donald Trump and the pact was reborn as the CPTPP.
Costa Rica is the next applicant country to go through the process of joining, while Indonesia also aims to do so.
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KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Russia has begun deploying North Korean soldiers to storm Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region.
Zelenskyy said in his evening address that he had “preliminary evidence that the Russians have begun to use soldiers from North Korea in assaults — a noticeable number of them.”
He said that according to his information, “the Russians include [North Koreans] in combined units and use them in operations in the Kursk region,” where Ukraine has been mounting an incursion since August.
Zelenskyy said he has also heard that the North Koreans “may be used in other parts of the front line,” and that “losses among this category are also already noticeable.”
Zelenskyy said last month that 11,000 North Korean troops were in Russia’s western Kursk region and had already sustained “losses.”
Washington and Seoul have accused Pyongyang of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Moscow, after Russia and North Korea signed a landmark defense pact this summer.
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Surprised by the Kursk incursion, Russia has since continuously clawed back territory, halting Ukraine’s advance and rushing reinforcements to the region.
A Ukrainian army source told AFP last month Kyiv still controlled 800 square kilometers of the Kursk region, down from previous claims it controlled almost 1,400 square kilometers.
Ukraine hits Russian oil terminal
Ukraine said Saturday it attacked an oil terminal in Russia’s western Oryol region overnight, sparking a fire.
The governor of Oryol said on Telegram that fuel caught fire at “a facility” in the region after a “massive drone attack.”
The Ukraine military’s General Staff said Kyiv’s forces attacked a major oil depot in Stal’noi Kon, about 165 kilometers into Russian territory.
“It’s one of the largest oil terminals in the suburbs of the city of Oryol” and is part of a “military industrial complex” that supplies the Russian army, the General Staff said.
Russian media showed images, purportedly of the attack, showing clouds of smoke billowing up into the night sky from a fire.
Oryol regional Governor Andrey Klychkov said Saturday on Telegram that Russian anti-air defenses shot down Ukrainian drones during the attack and that the fire was brought under control at 5 a.m., although it had not yet been extinguished.
He said there were no casualties.
Other developments
In Russia’s Belgorod region, which also borders Ukraine, a drone attack killed a 9-year-old boy and wounded his mother and baby sister, said Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
He posted photos of the family’s home with a huge hole in the facade and the roof partially torn off.
Ukraine regularly attacks military and energy infrastructure in Russia, sometimes deep into its invading neighbor’s territory, in response to Russian attacks on its own infrastructure.
Kyiv’s General Staff said Russia attacked overnight with 132 drones, claiming 130 of them were downed or failed to reach targets.
Russia’s military said Saturday that it shot down 60 Ukrainian drones overnight.
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TBILISI, GEORGIA — Former soccer player Mikheil Kavelashvili became president of Georgia on Saturday, as the ruling party tightened its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia.
Kavelashvili, 53, easily won the vote given the Georgian Dream party’s control of a 300-seat electoral college that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017.
Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the South Caucasus nation in an October 26 election that the opposition alleges was rigged with Moscow’s help. Georgia’s outgoing president and main pro-Western parties have since boycotted parliamentary sessions and demanded a rerun of the ballot.
Georgian Dream has vowed to continue pushing toward EU accession but also wants to “reset” ties with Russia.
In 2008 Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which led to Moscow’s recognition of two breakaway regions as independent and an increase in the Russian military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Critics have accused Georgian Dream — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow, accusations the ruling party has denied. The party recently pushed through laws like those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
Pro-Western Salome Zourabichvili has been president since 2018 and has vowed to stay on after her six-year term ends Monday, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held.
Georgian Dream’s decision last month to suspend talks on their country’s bid to join the European Union added to the opposition’s outrage and galvanized protests.
Who is the outgoing president?
Zourabichvili, 72, was born in France to parents with Georgian roots and had a successful career with the French Foreign Ministry before President Mikheil Saakashvili named her Georgia’s top diplomat in 2004.
Constitutional changes made the president’s job largely ceremonial before Zourabichvili was elected by popular vote with Georgian Dream’s support in 2018. She became sharply critical of the ruling party, accusing it of pro-Russia policies, and Georgian Dream unsuccessfully tried to impeach her.
“I remain your president — there is no legitimate Parliament and thus no legitimate election or inauguration,” she has declared on the social network X. “My mandate continues.”
Speaking to The Associated Press, Zourabichvili rejected government claims that the opposition was fomenting violence.
“We are not demanding a revolution,” Zourabichvili said. “We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again.
“Georgia has been always resisting Russian influence and will not accept having its vote stolen and its destiny stolen,” she said.
Zourabichvili called Saturday’s vote a “provocation” and “a parody” while a leader of one of Georgia’s main opposition parties said it was unconstitutional.
Giorgi Vashadze of the Unity National Movement Coalition said Zourabichvili is “the only legitimate source of power.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that Kavelashvili’s election “will make a significant contribution to strengthening Georgia’s statehood and our sovereignty, as well as reducing radicalism and so-called polarization.”
“The main mission of the presidential institution is to care for the unity of the nation and society,” said Kobakhidze, a former university professor and later chairperson of Georgian Dream.
Who is Kavelashvili?
Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili — mocked by the opposition for lacking higher education. He was a striker in the Premier League for Manchester City and in several clubs in the Swiss Super League. He was elected to parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket, and in 2022 co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which was allied with Georgian Dream and become known for its strong anti-Western rhetoric.
Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.
The European Union, which granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc’s recommendations, put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June following approval of the “foreign influence” law.
How did opposition protests unfold?
Thousands of demonstrators converged on the parliament building every night after the government announced the suspension of EU accession talks on November 28.
Riot police used water cannons and tear gas almost daily to disperse and beat scores of protesters, some of whom threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the capital’s central boulevard.
Hundreds were detained and over 100 treated for injuries.
Several journalists were beaten by police, and media workers accused authorities of using thugs to deter people from attending antigovernment rallies, which Georgian Dream denies.
The crackdown has drawn strong condemnation from the United States and EU officials.
“[Kavelashvili] is not elected by us. He is controlled by a puppet government, by Bidzina Ivanishvili, by Putin,” protester Sandro Samkharadze said.
Another protester waved a sign saying “We are children of Europe.”
Demonstrators vowed the rallies would continue. “If [the government] wants to go to Russia, they can go to Russia, because we are not going anywhere. We are staying here,” said protester Kato Kalatozishvili.
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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday named centrist ally François Bayrou as prime minister in an effort to address the country’s deep political crisis, after a historic parliamentary vote ousted the previous government last week.
Bayrou, 73, a crucial partner in Macron’s centrist alliance, has been a well-known figure in French politics for decades. His political experience is seen as key in efforts to restore stability as no single party holds a majority at the National Assembly.
Macron’s office said in a statement that Bayrou “has been charged with forming a new government.”
Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier resigned last week following a no-confidence vote prompted by budget disputes in the National Assembly, leaving France without a functioning government. Macron in an address to the nation vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027.
Bayrou vows to seek ‘needed reconciliation’
During the handover ceremony, Bayrou said that “no one knows the difficulty of the situation better” than he does.
“I’ve taken reckless risks all along my political life to raise the issue of debt and deficits in the most important elections,” he said.
France is under pressure from the European Union’s executive body and financial markets to reduce its colossal debt, estimated to reach 6% of its gross domestic product this year.
“I know that the risks of difficulties are much greater than the chances of success,” Bayrou said, adding that he hopes to lead the country towards a “needed reconciliation.”
“I think this is the only possible path to success,” he said.
Bayrou is expected to hold talks with political leaders from various parties in the coming days in order to choose new ministers.
Difficult political challenge
The task before him is challenging as Macron’s centrist alliance does not have a majority in parliament and Bayrou’s Cabinet will need to rely on moderate lawmakers from both the left and right to be able to stay in power.
Some conservatives are expected to be part of the new government.
Macron’s strategy aims at preventing far-right leader Marine Le Pen from holding “make or break” power over the government. Le Pen helped oust Barnier by joining her National Rally party’s forces to the left to pass the no-confidence motion last week.
Le Pen said on Friday that her party will adopt a wait-and-see approach for now and called on Bayrou to “hear” her voters’ demands, including preserving their purchasing power.
Bayrou’s appointment comes also in line with Macron’s efforts to build a non-aggression pact with the Socialists so that they wouldn’t support any future move to topple the new government.
The Socialists said Friday they would not take part in the new Cabinet but did not rule out possible “compromises” regarding policies. They asked Bayrou for a commitment not to use a special constitutional power to pass a law without a vote at parliament.
“We expect you to provide the guarantees needed to avoid another no-confidence vote,” the party wrote in a letter to Bayrou.
Weighty partner
Bayrou leads the centrist Democratic Movement, known as MoDem, which he founded in 2007.
In 2017, he supported Macron’s first presidential bid and became a weighty partner in the French president’s centrist alliance.
At the time, he was appointed justice minister, but he quickly resigned from the government amid an investigation into the MoDem’s alleged embezzlement of European Parliament funds.
He this year was cleared in the case by a Paris court, which found eight other party officials guilty and sentenced the party to pay a fine.
Bayrou became well known to the French public when he was education minister from 1993-97 in a conservative government.
Three-time presidential candidate
Bayrou was three times a candidate for president, in 2002, 2007 and 2012, which made him a familiar face in French politics.
His name had repeatedly surfaced as a potential prime minister in the past, but he was repeatedly passed over.
He is widely considered having helped lay the groundwork for Macron’s rise to power in 2017. Long before the French president upended the country’s politics by crushing the traditional right and left, Bayrou tapped into voter frustration with entrenched conservative and Socialist camps.
A father of six and a practicing Catholic, Bayrou has played up his rural farming roots in the Pyrenees mountains, showing off his knowledge of tractors and cattle-raising — even while spending most of his time in the corridors of political power in Paris.
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PARIS — Credit ratings agency Moody’s unexpectedly downgraded France’s rating on Friday, adding pressure on the country’s new prime minister to corral divided lawmakers into backing his efforts to rein in the strained public finances.
The downgrade, which came outside of Moody’s regular review schedule for France, brings its rating to “Aa3” from “Aa2” with a stable outlook for future moves and puts it in line with those from rival agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.
It comes hours after President Emmanuel Macron named on Friday veteran centrist politician and early ally Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister this year.
His predecessor, Michel Barnier, failed to pass a 2025 budget and was toppled earlier this month by left-wing and far-right lawmakers opposed to his $63 billion (60 billion euro) belt-tightening push that he had hoped would rein in France’s spiraling fiscal deficit.
The political crisis forced the outgoing government to propose emergency legislation this week to temporarily roll over 2024 spending limits and tax thresholds into next year until a more permanent 2025 budget can be passed.
“Looking ahead, there is now very low probability that the next government will sustainably reduce the size of fiscal deficits beyond next year,” Moody’s said in a statement.
“As a result, we forecast that France’s public finances will be materially weaker over the next three years compared to our October 2024 baseline scenario,” it added.
Barnier had intended to cut the budget deficit next year to 5% of economic output from 6.1% this year with a $63 billion (60 billion euro) package of spending cuts and tax hikes.
But left-wing and far-right lawmakers were opposed to much of the belt-tightening drive and voted a no confidence measure against Barnier’s government, bringing it down.
Bayrou, who has long warned about France’s weak public finances, said on Friday shortly after taking office that he faced a “Himalaya” of a challenge reining in the deficit.
Outgoing Finance Minister Antoine Armand said he took note of Moody’s decision, adding there was a will to reduce the deficit as indicated by the nomination of Bayrou.
The political crisis put French stocks and debt under pressure, pushing the risk premium on French government bonds at one point to their highest level over 12 years.
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Patricia Hubbard Fox, the sister of the 72-year-old U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard sentenced to jail in Russia for almost seven years on charges of “being a mercenary” for his alleged participation in fighting in Ukraine, says in an exclusive VOA Russian interview that she is still unsuccessfully trying to find out the location of his prison in Russia. She refuted the charges against her brother, saying that he would not be able to fight alongside the Ukrainian army and that he was an English language teacher in a small Ukrainian town.
Click her for the full story in Russian.
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Ukrainian news outlets say Russian troops are closing in on Pokrovsk, an eastern city that is considered a key logistical hub for the Ukrainian military.
The Kyiv Post and Kyiv Independent newspapers reported Friday that Russian troops control areas 5 kilometers or less from Pokrovsk, a city of about 60,000 in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
On the positive side for Ukraine, the Independent, citing the DeepState monitoring group that tracks the Russia-Ukraine war, reports that Ukrainian forces have resisted Russian assaults on several other Donetsk locales in recent days.
Earlier Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched one of the largest assaults to date on his nation’s energy infrastructure, sending 93 missiles and nearly 200 attack drones against the nation.
In a report from his X social media account, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s air defenses managed to shoot down 81 of the missiles, including 11 cruise missiles shot down by Ukraine’s F-16 fighter aircraft. The Ukrainian president said there was at least one North Korean missile used in the attack.
In his comments, Zelenskyy lashed out at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying of the attack, “This is Putin’s ‘peaceful’ plan — to destroy everything. This is how he wants ‘negotiations’ — terrorizing millions of people.” Zelenskyy also called for a strong reaction from world leaders: “a massive strike — a massive reaction. This is the only way to stop terror,” he said.
Zelensky said if world leaders hesitate to react, “Putin takes it as permission to continue. Patriots are needed to shoot down these missiles and prove that terror will not achieve its goal.” He also called for stronger sanctions against Russia to hamper missile production.
The Ukrainian president said he discussed the attack later Friday in a telephone call with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
He said Stubb expressed his readiness to help enhance Ukraine’s air defenses as well as Finland’s strong support for “Ukraine’s sovereign right to choose its own future without external interference, including our choice to join the EU and NATO.”
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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CHISINAU — Moldova’s parliament on Friday voted in favor of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over fears that Russia could leave the European Union candidate country without sufficient natural gas supplies this winter.
A majority in Moldova’s 101-seat legislature voted to pass the state of emergency, which will start on Dec. 16 and last 60 days. A special commission will urgently adopt measures to manage “imminent risks” if Moscow fails to supply gas to the Kuciurgan power plant, the country’s largest, which is situated in the separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region.
Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said his country faces an “exceptional situation” in which Moscow could deliberately weaponize energy flows to destabilize the country, and potentially leave people “in the middle of winter without heat and electricity.”
Russian energy giant Gazprom supplies the gas-operated Kuciurgan plant, which generates electricity that powers a significant portion of Moldova proper. The plant was privatized in 2004 by Transnistrian officials and later sold to a Russian state-owned company. Moldova doesn’t recognize the privatization.
In late 2022, Moldova suffered major power outages following Russian strikes on neighboring Ukraine, which is interconnected to the Kuciurgan plant.
“This must be the last winter in the country’s history in which we can still be threatened with energy,” Recean said. “It is clear that these crises are deliberately provoked, and their goal is to create panic and chaos.”
He added that a cessation of natural gas could trigger economic and humanitarian crises, but vowed that nobody in Moldova would be left “in the cold and dark.”
Transnistria, which broke away after a short war in 1992 and is not recognized by most countries, also declared its own state of emergency this week in case the region does not receive gas supplies.
When Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.5 million people, was entirely dependent on Moscow for natural gas but has since pushed to diversify and expand its energy sources.
Sebastian Burduja, Romania’s energy minister, said late Thursday that Romania has the resources to support Moldova “if the situation demands it,” saying it would be “a duty … in the face of the aggressions coming from the east.”
In October, Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu won a second term in office, and a referendum voted in favor of securing the country’s path toward the EU, in two votes overshadowed by ongoing claims of Russian interference to derail the country’s westward shift in recent years. Russia denies it is meddling in Moldova.
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