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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Paris — France’s president and prime minister managed to form a new government just in time for the holidays. Now comes the hard part. 

Crushing debt, intensifying pressure from the nationalist far right, wars in Europe and the Mideast — challenges abound for President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Francois Bayrou after an already tumultuous 2024. 

The most urgent order of business is passing a 2025 budget. Financial markets, ratings agencies and the European Commission are pushing France to bring down its deficit, to comply with European Union rules limiting debt and keep France’s borrowing costs from spiraling. That would threaten the stability and prosperity of all countries that share the euro currency. 

France’s debt is currently estimated at a staggering 112% of gross domestic product. It grew further after the government gave aid payments to businesses and workers during COVID-19 lockdowns even as the pandemic depressed growth, and capped household energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. The bill is now coming due. 

But France’s previous government collapsed this month because Marine Le Pen’s far-right party and left-wing lawmakers opposed $62.4 billion (60 billion euros) in spending cuts and tax hikes in the original 2025 budget plan. Bayrou and new Finance Minister Eric Lombard are expected to scale back some of those promises, but the calculations are tough. 

“The political situation is difficult. The international situation is dangerous, and the economic context is fragile,” Lombard, a low-profile banker who advised a Socialist government in the 1990s, said upon taking office. 

“The environmental emergency, the social emergency, developing our businesses — these innumerable challenges require us to treat our endemic illness: the deficit,” he said. “The more we are indebted, the more the debt costs, and the more it suffocates the country.” 

This is France’s fourth government in the past year. No party has a parliamentary majority, and the new Cabinet can only survive with the support of lawmakers on the center-right and center-left. 

Le Pen — Macron’s fiercest rival — was instrumental in ousting the previous government by joining left-wing forces in a no-confidence vote. Bayrou consulted her when forming the new government and Le Pen remains a powerful force. 

That angers left-wing groups, who had expected more influence in the new Cabinet, and who say promised spending cuts will hurt working-class families and small businesses hardest. Left-wing voters, meanwhile, feel betrayed ever since a coalition from the left won the most seats in the summer’s snap legislative elections but failed to secure a government. 

The possibility of a new no-confidence vote looms, though it’s not clear how many parties would support it. 

Macron has repeatedly said he will remain president until his term expires in 2027. 

But France’s constitution and current structure, dating from 1958 and called the Fifth Republic, were designed to ensure stability after a period of turmoil. If this new government collapses within months and the country remains in political paralysis, pressure will mount for Macron to step down and call early elections. 

Le Pen’s ascendant National Rally is intent on bringing Macron down. But Le Pen faces her own headaches: A March court ruling over alleged illegal party financing could see her barred from running for office. 

The National Rally and hard-right Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau want tougher immigration rules. But Bayrou wants to focus on making existing rules work.  

“There are plenty of [immigration] laws that exist. None is being applied,” he said Monday on broadcaster BFM-TV, to criticism from conservatives. 

Military spending is a key issue amid fears about European security and pressure from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for Europe to spend more on its own defense. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who champions military aid for Ukraine and ramping up weapons production, kept his job and stressed in a statement Tuesday the need to face down ”accumulating threats” against France. 

More immediately, Macron wants an emergency law in early January to allow sped-up reconstruction of the cyclone-ravaged French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean off Africa. Thousands of people are in emergency shelters, and authorities are still counting the dead more than a week after the devastation. 

Meanwhile, the government in the restive French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia collapsed Tuesday in a wave of resignations by pro-independence figures — another challenge for the new overseas affairs minister, Manuel Valls, and the incoming Cabinet. 
…

Officials in northeastern Ukraine reported a “massive missile attack” Wednesday on the city of Kharkiv that injured at least three people.

Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram there was a series of explosions in the city.

Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, said the attack damaged civilian infrastructure.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday its air defenses destroyed 58 Ukrainian aerial drones, a number that is higher than typical in the daily exchange of drone attacks between the two sides.

The ministry said 26 of the intercepts took place over the Belgorod region and 23 over Voronezh, with other drones being shot down over Kursk, Bryansk, Tambov and the Sea of Azov.

Voronezh Governor Aleksandr Gusev said on Telegram that the Ukrainian attacks damaged several houses and a power line.

Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis kicked off the 2025 Holy Year on Tuesday, inaugurating a celebration of the Catholic Church that is expected to draw some 32 million pilgrims to Rome in a test of the pope’s stamina and the ability of the Eternal City to welcome them. 

From his wheelchair, Francis knocked a few times, and the great Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica swung open. He was wheeled across the threshold as bells tolled across Rome and the choir inside the basilica began Christmas Eve Mass. 

In his homily, Francis said the Holy Year is an opportunity to relieve the debt of poor countries and commit to protecting the planet. The aim of the Jubilee, he said, is “to bring hope to the interminable, dreary days of prisoners, to the cold and dismal lodgings of the poor and to all those places desecrated by war and violence.” 

The ceremony inaugurated the once-every-25-year tradition of a Jubilee, in which the Catholic faithful make pilgrimages to Rome. 

Francis has dedicated the 2025 Jubilee to the theme of hope, and he will underscore that message when he opens a Holy Door on Thursday at Rome’s Rebibbia Prison in a bid to give inmates hope for a better future. Francis has long incorporated prison ministry into his priestly vocation and has made several visits to Rebibbia and other prisons during his travels. 

Security around the Vatican was at its highest levels following the Christmas market attack last week in Germany, the Interior Ministry said. 

Italian authorities were using extra police patrols and camera surveillance around Rome, while pilgrims faced metal detectors and other security checks to access St. Peter’s Square via a reinforced police barricade passage. 

Francis, who turned 88 last week, went into the Christmas week and Jubilee launch with a cold that forced him to deliver his weekly Sunday blessing from indoors. But he appeared in fine form Tuesday night. His health and stamina, already compromised because of his tendency to get bronchitis, are a concern given the rigorous calendar of events during the Holy Year. 

One of the highlights will be the canonization of the teenage internet whiz Carlo Acutis, considered the first millennial and digital-era saint, during the Jubilee dedicated to adolescents in April. 

This week, Francis also delivers his annual “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) speech on Christmas Day from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. In addition to the outing at Rebibbia, he will celebrate New Year’s Eve vespers and a New Year’s Day Mass. 

The city of Rome entered the Jubilee with some trepidation. It has undergone two years of traffic-clogging public works upgrades of transportation, hospital emergency rooms and other vital services, testing residents’ patience. 

But only about a third of the 323 projects have been completed, and the city is already groaning under the weight of overtourism. Visitors have returned to Italy in droves following COVID-19, and the explosion of short-term vacation rentals has exacerbated a housing crisis. 

Some of Rome’s prized monuments have reopened recently, including the Trevi Fountain. And the main Jubilee project was finished just in time: A pedestrian piazza linking Castel St. Angelo to the Via della Conciliazione, the main boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square, was unveiled Monday. 

Vatican officials insist that Rome has a tradition of welcoming pilgrims and point to how past Jubilees have left their mark on the Eternal City’s urban and spiritual landscape. The Sistine Chapel was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV for the Jubilee of 1475, and the big Vatican garage was built for the 2000 Jubilee under St. John Paul II. 

Pope Boniface VII called the first Holy Year in 1300, and in recent times, they are generally celebrated every 25 to 50 years. Pilgrims who participate can obtain “indulgences” — related to the forgiveness of sins that roughly amounts to a “get out of purgatory free” card. 

Francis declared a special Jubilee in 2015-2016 dedicated to mercy, and the next one is planned for 2033 to commemorate the anniversary of the crucifixion of Christ. 

The last regular Jubilee was in 2000, when St. John Paul II ushered in the church’s third millennium. The one before that, in 1975, was notable because Pope Paul VI was nearly hit by falling plaster when he opened the Holy Door. The door was still behind a fake wall and Paul had used a ceremonial hammer to bang on it three times to open it. The fake wall now is removed well in advance.
…

The Hague, Netherlands — An Amsterdam district court on Tuesday sentenced five men to up to six months in prison for violence that erupted around a UEFA Europa League football match between the Dutch club Ajax and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv in November.

The riots, which caused an international outcry and accusations of deliberate antisemitic attacks, left five people in the hospital and 20 others with minor injuries. More than 60 people were detained.

The court on Tuesday sentenced one man to 6 months in prison, another to 2 1/2 months and two to 1 month in jail. A fifth defendant received 100 hours of community service.

A series of violent incidents took place between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soccer fans around the soccer match.

Some of the violence was condemned as antisemitic, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offering to evacuate Maccabi supporters. The violence, which garnered headlines worldwide, damaged Amsterdam’s reputation as a beacon of tolerance and a haven for persecuted religions, including Jews.

“It seems that the violence arose from strong pro-Palestine sentiments and dissatisfaction with the situation in Gaza, and related anger against the Israelis present,” the prosecutors’ office said in a statement at the conclusion of hearings two weeks ago.

The five defendants, who are all Dutch residents and aged between 19 and 32, were accused of public violence, theft and assault.

The November 8 game was allowed to go ahead after the Netherlands’ counterterror watchdog found there was no “concrete threat” to Israeli fans, and the match wasn’t considered a high risk. Even so, Amsterdam authorities banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Johan Cruyff Arena.

According to an investigation, the day before the game the authorities reported several incidents, including Israeli fans tearing a Palestinian flag from an Amsterdam building and attacking a taxi.

Six more suspects will have their trials at a later date, including three minors. Under Dutch rules, proceedings for juveniles are held behind closed doors. Police are continuing to investigate the violence and have released images of several suspects they want to identify.
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Istanbul — An explosion at an ammunition factory in northwest Turkey left 11 dead and five injured Tuesday morning.

The blast occurred in Balikesir province, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. The factory is in a rural area away from population centers.

Balikesir Governor Ismail Ustaoglu said the explosion collapsed the capsule production building and the surrounding buildings had minor damage. “The explosion was due to a technical issue. There is no possibility of sabotage,” he added.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc wrote on social media platform X that public prosecutors have been assigned to investigate the cause.
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Tuesday formally inaugurates the 2025 Holy Year, reviving an ancient church tradition encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome, amid new security fears following a Christmas market attack in Germany.

At the start of Christmas Eve Mass, Francis will push open the Holy Door on St. Peter’s Basilica, which will stay open throughout the year to allow the estimated 32 million pilgrims projected to visit Rome to pass through.

The first Holy Year was called in 1300, and in recent times they are generally celebrated every 25 to 50 years. Pilgrims who participate can obtain “indulgences” — the centuries-old feature of the Catholic Church related to the forgiveness of sins that roughly amounts to a “get out of Purgatory free” card.

The last regular Jubilee was in 2000, when St. John Paul II ushered in the church’s third millennium. Francis declared a special Jubilee in 2015-2016 dedicated to mercy and the next one planned is in 2033, to commemorate the anniversary of the crucifixion of Christ.

What are indulgences?

According to church teaching, Catholics who confess their sins are forgiven and therefore released from the eternal or spiritual punishment of damnation. An indulgence is designed to remove the “temporal” punishment of sin that may remain — the consequence of the wrongdoing that might disrupt the sinner’s relationships with others.

Martin Luther’s opposition to the church’s practice of selling indulgences inspired him to launch the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s. He was excommunicated, and the practice of buying and selling indulgences has been illegal since the 1562 Council of Trent. But the granting of them has continued and is an important element in Holy Year pilgrimages.

According to the norms issued for the 2025 Jubilee, Catholics can obtain an indulgence if they: 

Undertake a pious pilgrimage, participating in Masses and other sacraments, at any of the four papal basilicas in Rome or the Holy Land, or other sacred Jubilee sites "so as to manifest the great need for conversion and reconciliation."
Participate in works of charity, mercy or penance, such as visiting prisoners, sick people or elderly people or undertaking corporal works of mercy "to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned and bury the dead." 
Abstain, in a spirit of penance, for at least one day of the week from "futile distractions," such as social media, or from "superfluous consumption," such as fasting; or donating a proportionate sum to the poor or to help migrants.

 

Why the focus on prisoners?

Francis has long made ministry to prisoners a hallmark of his priestly vocation, and a Holy Year dedicated to a message of hope is no exception.

In fact, the only other Holy Door that Francis will personally open this year is located at the chapel of Rome’s Rebibbia prison, to draw attention to the need to give prisoners in particular hope of a better future.

The final big event of the Holy Year before it closes on January 6, 2026, is the Jubilee of Prisoners on December 14, 2025.

What’s on the calendar?

The Jubilee calendar is a compilation of official and unofficial Holy Year events that will test the stamina of Francis, who just turned 88 and went into the Christmas season with a cold that made it hard for him to catch his breath.

Every month has two, three or four official Jubilee events that Francis is expected to attend that are designated for particular categories of people: the armed forces, artists, priests, poor people, volunteers and teachers. Then there are the unofficial Jubilee events, in which individual dioceses and other groups have organized their own pilgrimages to Rome.

One item on the Jubilee’s unofficial calendar, September 6, has made news because it has been organized by an Italian association, “La Tenda di Gionata” or “Jonathan’s Tent,” which is dedicated to making LGBTQ+ Catholics feel more welcome in the Catholic Church.

What about security for so many people?

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri has said the security plans call for a mix of traditional policing — a reported 700 extra officers — plus high-tech surveillance using drones and closed-circuit cameras that, thanks to algorithms informed by artificial intelligence, can keep track in real time of crowd sizes and congestion points.

“There will be more vehicles, more men, and very, very, shall we say, robust and important security devices,” Gualtieri told reporters last week.

The Vatican has tried to reduce congestion for pilgrims by allowing them to reserve their visits to St. Peter’s Basilica online in advance.

After a driver plowed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing five people, Italian authorities last week sent a circular to police stations around the country recommending “maximum” investigative efforts and to immediately boost surveillance and police patrols around Christmas markets and displays and tourist attractions.

The Vatican, with its life-sized creche and giant Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square and outdoor exhibit of nativity scenes in the Bernini colonnade ringing it, qualifies as an at-risk target. 

How else is Rome preparing?

Rome has had two years of intense preparations for the Holy Year that involved major public works projects and artistic renovations that have coincided with separate initiatives paid for by the European Union’s COVID-19 recovery funds.

Fewer than a third of the 323 Jubilee projects have been finished or will wrap up by next month, meaning traffic headaches and eyesores will continue well into 2025 and even 2026. But Romans and visitors are beginning to see some of the finished products.

Bernini’s fountains in Piazza Navona are glistening white again after a monthslong cleaning. A spiffed-up Trevi Fountain reopened over the weekend, and on Monday the main Jubilee project was unveiled: A pedestrian piazza linking Castel St. Angelo to the Via della Conciliazione, the main boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square. 
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Russia recently expanded punishment against independent journalists and activists that the Kremlin designated as “foreign agents,” with Moscow charging a prominent exiled reporter, Tatyana Felgengauer, on criminal counts in absentia. The State Duma passed the law severely limiting the ability of “foreign agents” to get income from inside Russia. VOA Russian spoke to several people named “foreign agents” who said they expected repressions to ramp up further.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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Orleans, France — Nabil Attar sprinkles sesame and pomegranate over creamy mutabal, a roasted eggplant dip from his native Syria — one of his mother’s many recipes now featured at his restaurant, Narenj. A plate of stuffed grape leaves sits nearby, ready for the swelling lunchtime crowd.

The tiny kitchen where he works seems an unlikely place for Attar, once a successful Damascus businessman specializing in electronic fund transfers. That was before Bashar al-Assad’s regime kidnapped one of his sons, nearly a decade ago.

“It was so complicated,” recalled Attar, describing extortive practices wielded by the state to fill its coffers. “I paid a lot of money to get my son back.”

In 2015, Attar and his family joined the hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing their war-torn country for Europe. He settled in the Loire Valley city of Orleans, an hour’s train ride from Paris and best known for its historical ties to France’s patron saint Joan of Arc. Then came news earlier in December that the Assad era was over.

“I never imagined in my lifetime it could happen,” Attar said, scrolling through videos of himself and fellow Syrians in Orleans, rejoicing in the dictator’s downfall. “Now Syria is free.”

For a growing number of European Union countries, Assad’s ouster is triggering more than celebrations. Amid growing anti-immigration sentiment across the region, several have suspended Syrian asylum claims on grounds that the reasons that triggered them no longer exist.

That’s the case of Germany, which took in nearly a million Syrian asylum-seekers at the peak of the refugee influx, in 2015-16. While Chancellor Olaf Scholz says those “integrated” were welcome, one opposition Christian Democratic Union lawmaker suggested paying Syrians roughly $1,040 apiece to go home — a position already adopted by neighboring Austria.

Hardening attitudes are also evident in France, despite its having only about 30,000 Syrian refugees. A CSA poll this month found 70% of French supported suspending new asylum claims. French authorities say they are studying the matter.

“Since we hear that Syrian refugees are rejoicing in the fall of dictator Assad, let’s engage in sending them home,” Jordan Bardella, president of France’s far-right National Rally, told a cheering crowd recently. “And let’s hope Europe shuts the door after they leave.”

For Syria’s diaspora in Europe and rights advocates, the vanishing welcome mat is triggering alarm. In interviews across the region, many refugees say they fear returning.

“The situation in Syria is extremely volatile, extremely unpredictable,” said Olivia Sundberg Diez, the European Union migration and asylum advocate for Amnesty International. “What is most important should be the safety of Syrian refugees and people that are seeking protection — this has to be prioritized over political interests.”

“Rushing the return of millions of Syrians would put even more pressure on Syria at an extremely fragile moment and would undermine the prospect of a successful transition,” warned Will Todman, deputy director and a senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research group, in a commentary.

The debate is echoed among the Syrian community around Orleans.

“I’m worried about the country, I’m worried about the future,” said Ramez Ghadri, a Syrian gynecologist who settled in France decades ago. Of Syria’s new leaders, he added, “they’re extremists.”

Ehad Naily, a Syrian rights lawyer living outside the city, is also concerned. Like Attar, he arrived in France in 2015 and set up a local association to support fellow refugees.

“You can’t say ‘the regime is destroyed, you can now live in Syria,'” Naily said, describing shattered infrastructure and towns, and a tangle of religious and ethnic tensions simmering in his homeland. After nearly a decade living in France, his 15-year-old daughter does not speak Arabic.

“You can’t force people to leave host countries if there’s no stability there,” he said.

Attar is more optimistic about Syria’s near future.

“I believe that Syria will be better — much, much better than before,” he said.

Like other Syrians here, he described Orleans residents as welcoming the newcomers. His older son, who was kidnapped, is now a pilot. His youngest is still in school. “We never had any problem” in France, Attar said.

After receiving asylum, he learned how to run a restaurant. In 2018, he and his wife opened Narenj, which means “bitter orange” in Arabic.

“He’s well-known here. He’s got lots of loyal customers,” said Sophie Martinet, Attar’s former French teacher who has now become a friend. “He’s undeniably talented. And people like Nabil.”

Throughout the years, however, Assad’s secret service kept tabs on him, Attar said, demanding money to leave him alone. “This regime, they keep tracking everyone,” he said. “It was a business, a network. It was organized crime.”

Now a French citizen, Attar doesn’t have worry about being sent back to Syria. But he believes other refugees here with legitimate reasons to stay in France have nothing to fear.

“People who are working, who are doing their best, who are well integrated in society — they will not be affected by what’s happening in Syria,” he said.

Attar himself is eager to return to a post-Assad Syria.

“I would like to go back, visit my family, my friends,” he said. “See the streets where I worked, where I lived.”

But not for good. Today, Attar said, his life and future are in France.
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WASHINGTON — A journalist jailed in Azerbaijan for nearly seven months has said he believes his arrest is linked to his reporting.

Farid Mehralizada, an economist and journalist with VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has been jailed since May on charges including conspiring to smuggle foreign currency. The journalist, his employer and press freedom groups believe the case is retaliatory and part of a wider crackdown in Azerbaijan.

In messages relayed to VOA through his wife, Mehralizada spoke about his passion for journalism and said he believed he was targeted for his work.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with statistical data and numbers. As a journalist and economist, it was my job to interpret them,” Mehralizada said.

Mehralizada says he believes he is being detained in retaliation for his work, which is often critical of the government’s economic policy.

“I think my arrest highlighted how authoritarian governments, like Azerbaijan’s, fear the power of numbers and the reality they reveal through statistics,” Mehralizada said. Among the journalist’s criticisms was that the Azerbaijani government isn’t diversifying the economy’s reliance on oil and gas.

Mehralizada is one of at least 14 journalists jailed in the past year for their work in Azerbaijan, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. Several of them work at Abzas Media, one of the country’s most prominent anti-corruption investigative outlets.

Mehralizada did not work with Abzas Media but he sometimes provided expert commentary to the outlet. Still, he is facing charges of “conspiring to smuggle foreign currency” in connection to a case brought against Abzas Media. Mehralizada denies the charge. Mehralizada and Abzas Media have both said that he never worked for the outlet.

Mehralizada is facing additional charges of “illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion and document forgery.” He faces up to 12 years behind bars if convicted of all the charges against him. He denies the accusations.

A trial against Mehralizada and six Abzas Media staffers began on Dec. 17 in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku. Press freedom groups say the charges against the group of journalists are politically motivated.

The trial “epitomizes the way the Azerbaijani government has used retaliatory criminal charges to lock up vast swathes of the country’s leading independent journalists over the past year,” Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a statement.

RFE/RL has condemned the trial and called for Mehralizada’s immediate release.

“Farid is being punished for reporting uncomfortable truths about Azerbaijan’s economy. Azerbaijan must end this sham trial and release Farid to his wife and newborn daughter,” RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said in a statement last week.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called for the release of Mehralizada and other journalists jailed in Azerbaijan.

“The United States is deeply concerned not only by these detentions, but by the increasing crackdown on civil society and media in Azerbaijan,” Blinken said in a statement earlier in December.

Azerbaijan’s Washington embassy and foreign ministry did not reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment.

When the trial began, Mehralizada’s wife, Nargiz Mukhtarova, said it was difficult to see her husband and the other defendants in handcuffs.

“But their courage was incredibly impressive,” she told VOA. “They were smiling during [the] hearing.”

In prison, Mukhtarova said, her husband spends his days reading books — nearly 200 of them since he was detained — and doing crossword puzzles. He is being treated well, but without internet access, he “mostly suffers” from a lack of economic news, Mukhtarova added.

Mukhtarova and her husband are permitted one weekly meeting, which she said they always look forward to.

“He is doing good,” she said. “His mood is better now because at least they have a chance to talk publicly about their case.”

The trial is set to resume on Dec. 28.
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PARIS — France unveiled a new government on Monday, composed of former ministers and senior civil servants that Prime Minister Francois Bayrou will hope can oversee the passage of a 2025 budget and avoid a collapse that would deepen the country’s crisis. 

Eric Lombard, 66, the head of Caisse des Depots, the investment arm of the French government, became finance minister, working with Amelie de Montchalin as budget minister. 

Conservative Bruno Retailleau remained interior minister. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu also remained in post. 

Elisabeth Borne, who stepped down as prime minister in January, became education minister, while former interior minister Gerard Darmanin will lead the Justice Ministry. 

Bayrou has struggled for almost 10 days to put together a government as he looks to stave off potential no-confidence votes from the far right and left.  

He will need to begin work immediately on passing a 2025 budget bill after parliamentary pushback over the proposed legislation led to the toppling of his predecessor, former Prime Minister Michel Barnier.  

The names were read out by President Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff Alexis Kohler.

 
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