VOA Russian speaks to aviation expert Konstantin Kryvolap, who takes apart Moscow’s official versions of the crash of the Russia-bound Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan and says a Russian missile was the only viable cause. Kryvolap says as soon as the first photos and videos from the crash site started to trickle in, this became obvious, taking into account the shrapnel damage on the plane fuselage.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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VOA Russian spoke with U.S. officials, politicians and experts to see how U.S. relations with China and Russia could change under the incoming Donald Trump administration. Experts say Beijing may be worried about Trump’s plans for the swift end of the war in Ukraine, while North Korea’s involvement in the war could become a lightning rod in China-Russia relations.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on the founder of Georgia’s ruling political party, which has steered the country away from a pro-Western stance and toward Russia, U.S. officials said Friday.

The State and Treasury departments said they hit Georgian Dream party founder and honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili with penalties “for undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation,” according to a statement.

The designation of Ivanishvili is the latest in a series of sanctions the United States has slapped on Georgian politicians, lawmakers and others this year. The sanctions include freezes on assets and properties that those targeted may have in U.S. jurisdictions or that might enter U.S. jurisdictions as well as travel bans on the targets and members of their families.

“We strongly condemn Georgian Dream’s actions under Ivanishvili’s leadership, including its ongoing and violent repression of Georgian citizens, protestors, members of the media, human rights activists, and opposition figures,” the State Department said in a statement. “The United States is committed to promoting accountability for those undermining democracy and human rights in Georgia.”

Ivanishvili is a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and served briefly as Georgia’s prime minister. In 2012, he founded Georgian Dream, the longtime ruling party.

Critics have accused Georgian Dream of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. The party recently pushed through laws like those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights, prompting the European Union to suspend Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely.

In October, Georgian Dream won another term in a divisive parliamentary election that has led to more mass protests. Last month, the country’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, announced a four-year suspension of talks on Georgia’s bid to join the European Union, fueling further public outrage.
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BAMAKO, MALI — Nearly 70 migrants died when their boat sank as they tried to reach Spain earlier this month, Mali’s Minister for Malians Living Abroad said.

In a press release Thursday, Mossa Ag Attaher announced that a migrant boat bound for Spain sank on Dec. 19. The migrants in this boat “numbered 80 at the start, with only 11 survivors,” according to the Ministry. The Malian authorities have identified nine Malians among the survivors, and “25 young Malians have unfortunately been formally identified among the victims,” the minister added.

The Atlantic route for migrants from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world. Located nearer to Africa than mainland Spain, the archipelago is seen by most as a step toward continental Europe. Many of those making the journey come from Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, and other West African countries, seeking better job opportunities abroad or fleeing violence and political instability.

Several of the Malian victims are from the Kayes region in the west of the country, according to Doulaye Keita, adviser to the ministry, in a statement to the AP on Friday.

“Among the 25 Malians dead, there are 8 Malians from my commune,” Mamadou Siby, the mayor of the commune of Marena in the Kayes region, told The Associated Press.

“These dead young men left my commune seven months ago to work in the construction industry in Mauritania. Unfortunately, they were in contact with their friends in Europe and America, who encouraged them to come to these countries, and in most cases, they took the perilous journey without even informing their families back home.”
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Brussels — NATO will bolster its military presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage of an undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia this week, the Western military alliance’s chief Mark Rutte said on Friday.

On Christmas Day, the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia was disconnected from the grid, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic.

Finnish authorities on Thursday said they were investigating the oil tanker, Eagle S, that sailed from a Russian port, as part of a probe for “aggravated sabotage.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Friday: “We’ve got the situation under control, and we have to continue to work together vigilantly to make sure that our critical infrastructure is not damaged by outsiders.”

Officials suspect the tanker is part of the Russian “shadow fleet”, which refers to ships that transport Russian crude and oil products embargoed due to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Eagle S vessel, which flies under the flag of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, was en route to Port Said in Egypt. Police suspect that the oil tanker’s anchor might have damaged the power cable.

Rutte said he spoke to President Stubb about Finland’s probe, adding in a post on X: “I expressed my full solidarity and support. NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea.”

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur earlier on Friday said on X that the country began naval patrols to protect the undersea cable supplying electricity from Finland.

In a separate statement he said Tallinn wanted to send a clear message it was ready to protect its power connections with Finland with military and non-military means.

Rutte on Thursday promised NATO support to Estonia and Finland, and condemned attacks on critical infrastructure after speaking to Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal.

More EU sanctions

The European Union has also threatened further sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet after this week’s incident.

The bloc’s 27 member states agreed earlier this month to blacklist around 50 more oil tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet used to circumvent Western sanctions, taking the number targeted to around 80.

Ukraine’s international backers have looked to curb funds going to the Kremlin’s war machine by imposing a price cap and restrictions on Russia’s key oil exports.

To skirt the measures, Russia has resorted to using a so-called “shadow fleet” of often ageing vessels that operate under dubious ownership or without proper insurance.

Tensions have mounted around the Baltic since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe, the cause of which has yet to be determined.

In October 2023, an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship.

On November 17 and 18 this year, sections of two telecom cables were cut in Swedish territorial waters. Suspicions have been directed at the Yi Peng 3, which according to ship tracking sites had sailed over the cables around the time they were cut.
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FRANKFURT, Germany — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday ordered parliament dissolved and set new elections for Feb. 23 in the wake of the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition.  

Scholz lost a confidence vote on Dec. 16 and leads a minority government after his unpopular and notoriously rancorous three-party coalition collapsed on Nov. 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. 

Since the post-World War II constitution doesn’t allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself, it was up to Steinmeier to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election. He had 21 days to make that decision. Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days. 

In practice, the campaign is already well underway. Polls show Scholz’s party trailing the conservative opposition Union bloc led by Friedrich Merz. 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. If recent polls hold up, the likely next government would be led by Merz as chancellor in coalition with at least one other party.  

Key issues include immigration, how to get the sluggish economy going, and how best to aid Ukraine in its struggle against Russia.  

The populist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, 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. 

It’s only the fourth time that the Bundestag has been dissolved ahead of schedule under Germany’s post-World War II constitution. It happened under Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1972, Helmut Kohl in 1982 and Gerhard Schroeder in 2005. Schroeder used the confidence vote to engineer an early election narrowly won by center-right challenger Angela Merkel.  
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CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — The parliament in ex-Soviet Moldova, controlled by pro-Western lawmakers, approved a 10-year defense strategy on Thursday calling for increased military spending as part of a plan to join the European Union.

The chamber’s pro-Russian opposition ridiculed the document as pointlessly directed against Moscow in view of Moldova’s small land mass and armed forces.

The document, presented by Defense Minister Anatolie Nosatii, aims to boost military spending by 2030 to 1% of gross domestic product, with figures showing increases already being put into place.

“The first step to implementing this was taken after the war in Ukraine started, by increasing budget resources for defense to 0.39% in 2022 and 0.55% in 2023,” the document said.

One of Europe’s poorest countries, lying between Ukraine and EU member Romania, Moldova is a candidate to join the EU, with a membership date set for 2030. It is not considering joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the country’s neutral status is set down in its constitution.

The document says Moldova’s neutral status requires it to boost partnerships with different countries and international organizations to strengthen its national defense. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has jolted Moldova as drone fragments land on its territory and missiles aimed at Ukrainian targets pass through its airspace.

Pro-Western President Maia Sandu, reelected to a second term last month, though by a smaller margin than anticipated, has accused Russia of trying to unseat her government.

Members of the pro-Moscow Socialist Party dismissed the document as meaningless.

“If, God forbid, we are subject to an attack from the direction of the Russian Federation, how long do you think Moldova will resist such aggression?” Socialist member Adrian Albu asked the minister.

The document cites risks of the Ukraine conflict spreading, particularly around the Black Sea port of Odesa close to Moldova’s border.
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that a North Korean soldier sent to back Russia’s war against Ukraine had been captured by Ukrainian forces.

Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russian troops, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock border incursion in August.

“Through real-time information sharing with an allied country’s intelligence agency, it has been confirmed that one injured North Korean soldier has been captured,” South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said in a statement.

The soldier was captured by the Ukrainian army, an intelligence source told AFP, adding that the location where he was seized was unknown.

The first confirmation of the capture of a North Korean soldier came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” so far.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also said Monday that more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded.

The JCS had also said that Pyongyang is reportedly “preparing for the rotation or additional deployment of soldiers” and supplying “240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery” to the Russian army.

Seoul’s military believes that North Korea was seeking to modernize its conventional warfare capabilities through combat experience gained in the Russia-Ukraine war.

North Korean state media said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a New Year’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying “the bilateral ties between our two countries have been elevated after our talks in June in Pyongyang.”

A landmark defense pact went into effect in December after the two sides exchanged ratification documents.

Putin hailed the deal in June as a “breakthrough document.”
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The Kremlin completed preparations to isolate the Russian segment of the internet from the rest of the World Wide Web, experts told VOA Russian. The Kremlin may implement severe internet restrictions in 2025, mirroring Iran’s experience of blocking undesirable web traffic. Experts note that YouTube speeds in Russia are 20% of the pre-war speeds, meaning that YouTube is essentially blocked in Russia.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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Both Russia and Ukraine expanded the use of drones in 2024 as a relatively cheap means of warfare that requires an opponent to use a much more expensive air defense system. Moscow and Kyiv acquired 1.5 million drones between them in the past year, with Ukraine hitting thousands of targets inside Russia in recent months.

Click here for the full story in Russian.

 
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FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Finnish authorities have detained a Russia-linked ship as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables, according to police and news media reports, in the latest incident involving disruption of key infrastructure.

Finnish police and border guards boarded the vessel, the Eagle S, just past midnight Thursday and took over the command bridge, Helsinki Police Chief Jari Liukku said at a news conference. The vessel was intercepted in Finland’s exclusive economic zone and taken to Finnish territorial waters, police said.

The Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands but was described by Finnish customs officials as a suspected part of Russia’s shadow fleet of fuel tankers, Yle television reported. Those are aging vessels with obscure ownership, acquired to evade Western sanctions over the war against Ukraine and operating without Western-regulated insurance.

The Eagle S’s anchor is suspected of causing damage to the cable, Yle reported, relying on police statements.

The Estlink-2 power cable, which brings electricity from Finland to Estonia across the Baltic Sea, went down just after noon on Wednesday. The incident follows damage to two data cables and the Nord Stream gas pipelines, both of which have been termed sabotage.

The Estonian government was holding a meeting on the issue Thursday, Prime Minister Kristen Michal said on X.

Two data cables — one running between Finland and Germany and the other between Lithuania and Sweden — were severed in November. Germany’s defense minister said officials had to assume the incident was “sabotage,” but he did not provide evidence or say who might have been responsible. The remark came during a speech in which he discussed hybrid warfare threats from Russia.

The Nord Stream pipelines that once brought natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022. Authorities have said the cause was sabotage and launched criminal probes.

Estonian network operator Elering says there was enough spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side, public broadcaster ERR said on its website.
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Azerbaijan on Thursday observed a nationwide day of mourning for the victims of the plane crash that killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured as speculation mounted about a possible cause of the disaster that remained unknown.

Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons yet unclear and crashed while making an attempt to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan after flying east across the Caspian Sea.

The plane went down about 3 kilometers from Aktau. Cellphone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball. Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft lying upside in the grass.

On Thursday, national flags were lowered across Azerbaijan, traffic across the country stopped at noon, and signals were sounded from ships and trains as the country observed a nationwide moment of silence.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said that the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course.

“The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he said.

Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said that preliminary information indicated that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird strike led to an emergency on board.

According to Kazakh officials, those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry on Thursday flew nine Russian survivors to Moscow for treatment.

As the official crash investigation started, theories abounded about a possible cause, with some commentators alleging that holes seen in the plane’s tail section possibly indicate that it could have come under fire from Russian air defense systems fending off a Ukrainian drone attack. 

Ukrainian drones had previously attacked Grozny, the provincial capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and other regions in the country’s North Caucasus. Some Russian media claimed that another drone attack on Chechnya happened on Wednesday, although it wasn’t officially confirmed. 

Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security firm based in the United Kingdom, warned its clients that the “Azerbaijan Airlines flight was likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system.” Osprey provides analysis for carriers still flying into Russia after Western airlines halted their flights during the war. 

Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson said that the company had issued more than 200 alerts regarding drone attacks and air defense systems in Russia during the war. 

“This incident is a stark reminder of why we do what we do,” Nicholson wrote online. “It is painful to know that despite our efforts, lives were lost in a way that could have been avoided.” 

Asked about the claims that the plane had been fired upon by air defense assets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “it would be wrong to make hypotheses before investigators make their verdict.” 

Kazakhstan’s parliamentary Speaker Maulen Ashimbayev also warned against rushing to conclusions based on pictures of the plane’s fragments, describing the allegations of air defense fire as unfounded and “unethical.” 

Other officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have similarly avoided comment on a possible cause of the crash, saying it will be up to investigators to determine it.
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Moscow — A “terrorist act” sank the cargo ship that went down in international waters in the Mediterranean this week, the Russian state-owned company that owns the vessel said Wednesday.

The Oboronlogistika company said it “thinks a targeted terrorist attack was committed on December 23, 2024, against the Ursa Major,” it said in a statement cited by Russian news agencies, without indicating who may have been behind the act or why.

The ship sank in international waters off Spain in the early hours of Tuesday after having sent a distress call for help on Monday.

“Three consecutive explosions” took place on the ship before it began taking on water, added the company, which belongs to the Russian defense ministry.

Oboronlogistika did not say what evidence it had allowing it to conclude a terrorist attack sank the Ursa Major.

Russian foreign ministry’s crisis unit said on Telegram on Tuesday that the ship sank “after an explosion in the engine room.”

It added that out of the 16 Russian crew members on board, 14 had been rescued and taken to the Spanish port of Cartagena and two were missing.

The ship sent a distress call Monday morning from off the coast of southeastern Spain in bad weather, reporting it was listing and sailors had launched a lifeboat, Spain’s sea rescue service said in a statement.

Spain sent out a helicopter and rescue boats and took the survivors to port, the service said. 

A Russian warship then arrived and took charge of the rescue operation since the ship was between Spanish and Algerian waters, after which the Ursa Major sank overnight.

The Ursa Major is listed on MarineTraffic.com as a 124.7-meter long general cargo ship.

It is owned by a subsidiary of Russia’s Oboronlogistika, which belongs to the defense ministry and also provides civilian transport and logistics, the Russian foreign ministry said.

The Ursa Major was sailing from the Russian city of Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East.

Last week Oboronlogistika issued a press release with photos of the ship in port, saying it was to transport a particularly large and heavy load: cranes each weighing 380 tons and hatch covers for icebreakers each weighing 45 tons to Vladivostok.

The United States in 2022 imposed sanctions on Oboronlogistika and ships including the Ursa Major for providing “transportation services…for the delivery of cargo to Russian-occupied Crimea”. 

This means any U.S. organization dealing with the company or its ships would risk sanctions. 

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence said the Ursa Major was also used to supply Russian troops in Syria where Moscow has a naval base at Tartus. 
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ISTANBUL — In a dim one-room apartment in one of Istanbul’s poorest neighborhoods, 11-year-old Atakan Sahin curls up on a threadbare sofa with his siblings to watch TV while their mother stirs a pot of pasta. 

The simple meal is all the family of six can look forward to most evenings. Atakan, his two younger brothers and 5-year-old sister are among the one-third of Turkish children living in poverty. 

“Look at the state of my children,” said Rukiye Sahin, 28. “I have four children. They don’t get to eat chicken, they don’t get to eat meat. I send them to school with torn shoes.” 

Persistently high inflation, triggered by currency depreciation and unconventional economic policies that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pursued but later abandoned, has left many families struggling to pay for food and housing. 

Experts say it’s creating a lost generation of children who have been forced to grow up too quickly to help their families eke out an existence. 

According to a 2023 joint report by UNICEF and the Turkish Statistical Institute, about 7 million of Turkey’s roughly 22.2 million children live in poverty. 

Look at neighborhoods such as Istanbul’s Tarlabasi, where the Sahin family lives. 

The Sahins eat sitting on the floor of their room — the same floor Rukiye and her husband sleep on while their children occupy the sofas. In the chilly early December night, a stove burns scraps of wood to keep them warm. They sometimes fall asleep to the sound of rats scuttling through the building. 

Atakan spends his days helping his father scour trash bins in search of recyclable material to earn the family a meager income. 

Poor children in Istanbul also earn money for their families by selling small items such as pens, tissues or bracelets at the bars and cafes in the city’s entertainment districts, often working late into the night. 

“I can’t go to school because I have no money,” Atakan said. “We have nothing. Can you tell me how I can go? On sunny days, when I don’t go to school, I collect plastic and other things with my father. We sell whatever we find.” 

The cash helps buy basic foodstuffs and pay for his siblings to attend school. On the days Atakan can attend, he is ill-equipped to succeed, lacking proper shoes, a coat and textbooks for the English class he loves. 

The Sahins struggle to scrape together the money to cover the rent, utilities and other basic expenses as Turkey’s cost-of-living crisis continues to rage. Inflation stood at 47% in November, having peaked at 85% in late 2022. Prices of food and nonalcoholic drinks were 5.1% higher in November than in the previous month. 

Under these circumstances, a generation of children is growing up rarely enjoying a full meal of fresh meat or vegetables. 

Rukiye and her husband receive 6,000 lira ($173) per month in government welfare to help toward school costs, but they pay the same amount in rent for their home. 

“My son says, ‘Mom, it’s raining, my shoes are soaking wet.’ But what can I do?” Rukiye said. “The state doesn’t help me. I’m in this room alone with my children. Who do I have except them?” 

The picture of children rummaging through garbage to help support their families is far from the image Turkey presents to the world: that of an influential world power with a vibrant economy favorable to foreign investment. 

Speaking at the G20 summit in November, Erdogan described Turkey’s social security system as “one of the most comprehensive and inclusive” in the world. “Our goal is to ensure that not a single poor person remains. We will continue our work until we achieve this,” he said. 

Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, tasked with implementing austerity and taming inflation, said the 17,000 lira ($488) monthly minimum wage isn’t low. But he has pledged to raise it as soon as possible. 

Although the government allocates billions of lira to struggling households, inflation eats into any aid the state can give. 

Experts say welfare payments aren’t enough for the millions who rely on them. 

Volunteers are trying to ease the cycle of deprivation. 

Mehmet Yeralan, 53, a former restaurant owner, brings essentials to Tarlabasi’s poor people, including coats, notebooks and the occasional bag of rice. 

“Families are in very difficult situations,” he said. “They cannot buy food for their children and send them to school. Children are on the streets, selling tissues to support their families. We are seeing deep poverty here.” 

Hacer Foggo, a poverty researcher and activist, said children are forced to drop out of school to work or are channeled into vocational programs where they work four days and study one day per week, receiving a small fraction of the minimum wage. 

“Look at the situation of children,” she said. “Two million of them are in deep poverty. Child labor has become very common. Families choose these education-work programs because children bring in some income. It’s not a real education, just cheaper labor.” 

UNICEF placed Turkey 38th out of 39 European Union or Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in terms of child poverty between 2019 and 2021, with a child poverty rate of 34%. 

It is a situation Rukiye fully understands. 

“We can’t move forward, we always fall behind. … When you don’t have money in your hands, you always fall behind,” she said. 

Her eldest son, meanwhile, clings to his childhood dreams. 

“I want to go to school regularly.” Atakan said. “I want everything to be in order. … I’d like to be a football player one day, to support my family.”
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LILLE, FRANCE — French authorities said they rescued 107 migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to England on Wednesday.

Over the course of Christmas Day, 12 rescue operations were staged along the coast of northern France, including of a boat experiencing engine trouble, France’s Channel and North Sea maritime prefecture said in a statement.

In the morning, 30 passengers were rescued from a boat near Dunkirk, while the others onboard wished to continue onward and were taken into British custody once they reached British waters, the maritime authorities said.

Another boat experiencing engine damage was spotted later in the day, also near Dunkirk, and all 51 passengers were rescued.

Later, 26 people were taken off a boat having trouble near Calais.

The English Channel is “a particularly dangerous area, especially at the height of winter for precarious and overloaded boats,” the statement said.

At least 73 migrants have died trying to cross the Channel to Britain in 2024, according to the Pas-de-Calais authorities, making it the deadliest year on record for the crossings.

Tens of thousands more have reached Britain, where the government has vowed to crack down on people-smuggling gangs.

In November, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for greater international cooperation against the gangs, which he described as a “global security threat similar to terrorism.” 
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PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo’s election appeals authority on Wednesday canceled a ban on the main party of the ethnic Serb minority, allowing it to field candidates in the upcoming parliamentary election. 

The Electoral Panel for Complaints and Appeals decided that the party, Srpska Lista, or Serb List, has “fulfilled the political terms to be certified for registration.” 

The panel overturned a decision Monday by the Central Election Commission, which declined to certify the Srpska Lista party because of its nationalist stance and close ties to neighboring Serbia. 

The panel ruled that the commission’s decision was “contrary to the legal dispositions referring to the application and certification of the political subjects.” 

Of the 10 seats reserved for the Serb minority in the 120-member parliament, Srspka Lista holds nine. It will put up 48 candidates for the parliamentary election on February 9, expected to be a key test for Prime Minister Albin Kurti, whose governing party won in a landslide in 2021. 

Western powers also expressed concern about the commission’s decision, fearing it might further aggravate the tense ties between Kosovo and Serbia, despite their efforts to normalize them. 

Kosovo was a Serbian province until NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo. The war left about 11,400 dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and pushed Serbian forces out. Kosovo proclaimed independence in 2008, which Serbia doesn’t recognize. 

Belgrade still considers Kosovo as its province and has a major influence on the Serb minority there.
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Vatican City — Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message on Wednesday urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

The pontiff’s “Urbi et Orbi” — “To the City and the World” — address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, “even [with] our enemies.”

“I invite every individual, and all people of all nations … to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions,” the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to throngs of people below.

The pope invoked the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, which he opened on Christmas Eve to launch the 2025 Jubilee, as representing God’s mercy, which “unties every knot; it tears down every wall of division; it dispels hatred and the spirit of revenge.”

He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, “particularly in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave,” as well as Lebanon and Syria “at this most delicate time.”

Francis repeated his calls for the release of hostages taken from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

He cited a deadly outbreak of measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the suffering of the people of Myanmar, forced to flee their homes by “the ongoing clash of arms.” The pope likewise remembered children suffering from war and hunger, the elderly living in solitude, those fleeing their homelands, who have lost their jobs, and are persecuted for their faith.

Pilgrims were lined up on Christmas Day to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica, as the Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome.

Traversing the Holy Door is one way that the faithful can obtain indulgences, or forgiveness for sins during a Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century tradition that dates from 1300.

Pilgrims submitted to security controls before entering the Holy Door, amid new security fears following a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany. Many paused to touch the door as they passed and made the sign of the cross upon entering the basilica dedicated to St. Peter, the founder of the Roman Catholic Church.

“You feel so humble when you go through the door that once you go through is almost like a release, a release of emotions,” said Blanca Martin, a pilgrim from San Diego. “… It’s almost like a release of emotions, you feel like now you are able to let go and put everything in the hands of God. See I am getting emotional. It’s just a beautiful experience.”

A Chrismukkah miracle as Hanukkah and Christmas coincide

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.

The calendar confluence has inspired some religious leaders to host interfaith gatherings, such as a Hanukkah party hosted last week by several Jewish organizations in Houston, Texas, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities for latkes, the traditional potato pancake eaten on Hanukkah, topped with guacamole and salsa.

While Hanukkah is intended as an upbeat, celebratory holiday, rabbis note that it’s taking place this year as wars rage in the Middle East and fears rise over widespread incidents of antisemitism. The holidays overlap infrequently because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on Dec. 25. The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005.

Iraqi Christians persist in their faith

Christians in Nineveh Plains attended Christmas Mass on Tuesday at the Mar Georgis church in the center of Telaskaf, Iraq, with security concerns about the future. “We feel that they will pull the rug out from under our feet at any time. Our fate is unknown here,” said Bayda Nadhim, a resident of Telaskaf.

Iraq’s Christians, whose presence there goes back nearly to the time of Christ, belong to a number of rites and denominations. They once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq, estimated at around 1.4 million.

But the community has steadily dwindled since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and further in 2014 when the Islamic State militant group swept through the area. The exact number of Christians left in Iraq is not clear, but they are thought to number several hundred thousand.

German celebrations muted by market attack

German celebrations were darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 people injured. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying, “There is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension over what took place in Magdeburg.” He urged Germans to “stand together” and that “hate and violence must not have the last word.”

A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim and is filled with anti-Islamic themes. He criticized authorities for failing to combat “the Islamification of Germany” and voiced support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
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Moscow — A Russian cargo ship called Ursa Major that sank in the Mediterranean Sea was the victim of “an act of terrorism,” state news agency RIA cited the vessel’s owner as saying on Wednesday. 

The ship, built in 2009, sank after an explosion ripped through its engine room and two of its 16 crew were missing, the Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. 

RIA cited Oboronlogistika, the ship’s ultimate owner and a company that is part of the Russian Defense Ministry’s military construction operations, as saying the vessel had been targeted in “a terrorist act.” 

Oboronlogistika had previously said that the ship had been en route to the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok with two giant port cranes lashed to its deck. 

 
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SARAJEVO — Lawmakers in Bosnia’s Serb Republic regional parliament on Wednesday ordered Serb representatives in state institutions to block decision-making and reform laws needed for the Balkan country’s integration into the European Union. 

An emergency session of parliament was called on Tuesday evening to discuss a “degradation of a legal system” in relation to the ongoing trial of the region’s president Milorad Dodik at Bosnia’s state court. 

Dodik, a Serb separatist leader, is being tried for defying decisions by the international High Representative which oversees peace in the country under the 1995 Dayton Accords which ended 3-1/2 years of ethnic war. 

The MPs said the trial was “politically mounted,” based on the “illegal decisions” of current envoy Christian Schmidt and of the state court and prosecution which they regard as unconstitutional because they were set up by the peace envoy and not by the Dayton treaty. 

Pro-Russian Dodik has tried hard to separate his Serb-dominated region from Bosnia in recent years but halted the process after the start of the war in Ukraine.  

Under the Dayton treaty, Bosnia was split into two autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and a Federation dominated by Croats and Bosniaks linked via a weak central government. That secured peace but left Bosnia dysfunctional as a state. 

After years of political obstructions to joining the EU, Bosnia received a boost last year when EU leaders agreed to open negotiations once it had reached the necessary compliance with membership criteria.
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