Athens, Greece — The head of the Albanian Orthodox Church, who was airlifted to a hospital in Athens due to complications from a virus, is in a critical condition, the Evangelismos hospital said Sunday.

Archbishop Anastasios, 95, was taken to the Greek capital Friday evening, four days after being admitted to hospital in Tirana with what Church officials called a “seasonal virus.”

“His Beatitude’s condition is assessed as critical by the attending physicians,” the medical report from the hospital stated.

On Saturday, his condition was assessed as “stable despite his already complicated medical history.”

Anastasios is credited with having revived the Orthodox Church in Muslim-majority Albania. He led the Church there for three decades.

He was airlifted to Athens on a C-27 Greek air force plane following a request from Greek emergency services, the defense ministry said.

Greek public television ERT reported that he was also suffering from gastric bleeding.

In November 2020, he was hospitalized in Athens for 12 days with COVID-19.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited Sunday afternoon the hospital where Archbishop Anastasios of Albania is being treated and was informed for the ailing archbishop’s health condition.
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Paris — Convoys of farmers set off Sunday to try to block roads around Paris in protest of what they say is unfair competition from overseas and excessive regulation.

Farmers from France, the European Union’s biggest agricultural producer, led European-wide protests at the start of 2024, but demonstrations fizzled out as the year went on.

However, a move last month by the EU and South American nations in the Mercosur bloc to announce an agreement in principle on a free trade deal has given new impetus to French farmers opposed to the Mercosur deal.

French farmers also remain unhappy about regulation which they say is hitting their profits. Farming trade union officials are due to meet French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Jan. 13 to express their concerns.

“They don’t understand the level of misery and distress that farmers are going through at the moment,” Amelie Rebiere, vice-president of the Coordination Rurale farming trade union, told BFM TV.

Those who back the EU’s Mercosur deal, such as Germany, say it offers a way to reduce reliance on trade with China, and insulates EU nations from the impact of trade tariffs being threatened by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Nevertheless, many European farmers — often led by those from France — have repeatedly protested the EU-Mercosur deal, arguing it would lead to cheap imports of South American commodities, notably beef, that do not meet EU safety standards.
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Vienna — Austrian People’s Party on Sunday nominated its General Secretary Christian Stocker as interim leader after the expected resignation of Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Austrian news agency APA reported. 

Nehammer announced Saturday he would resign in the next few days after coalition talks with the Social Democrats collapsed. 

Stocker, a lawyer and member of the Austrian Parliament, has served as general secretary of the People’s Party since 2022. He is seen as an experienced and calm crisis communicator who has frequently appeared in Austrian media to defend controversial decisions. 

It is not clear yet who will become acting chancellor until a new government is formed. 

Protected by special police forces, Nehammer walked across the square from the Chancellery toward the president’s office in Vienna. 

“What is important for me is that the way of stability and the center can be continued,” he said. 

Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen will make a public statement to announce the next steps once the meeting with Nehammer is over. 

The 52-year-old Nehammer became chancellor and conservative party leader in 2021, after his predecessor Sebastian Kurz was forced to stand down following allegations of corruption. 

In April 2022, Nehammer became the first European leader to visit Moscow and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine in February that year. Before going to Moscow, he also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. 

Austria was thrown into political turmoil on Friday after the liberal party NEOS pulled out of coalition talks with the center-left Social Democrats and the conservative People’s Party. On Saturday the two remaining parties, who have a razor-thin majority in Parliament, made another attempt to negotiate and form a government — but this effort also ended in failure after a few hours, with negotiators saying they were unable to agree on how to repair the budget deficit. 

 
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ATHENS, GREECE — Costas Simitis, former prime minister of Greece and the architect of the country’s joining the common European currency, the euro, has died at age 88, state TV ERT reported. 

Simitis was taken to a hospital in the city of Corinth early Sunday morning from his holiday home west of Athens, unconscious and without a pulse, the hospital’s director was quoted as saying by Greek media. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. 

The government decreed a four-day period of official mourning. Simitis will receive a state funeral. 

Warm tributes appeared, and not just from political allies. 

“I bid farewell to Costas Simitis with sadness and respect. A worthy and noble political opponent,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a Facebook post, also saluting the “good professor and moderate parliamentarian.” 

Another conservative politician, former European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, recalled how he, as mayor of Athens, had cooperated “seamlessly and warmly” with Simitis in organizing the Olympic Games. 

“He served the country with devotion and a sense of duty. … He was steadfast in facing difficult challenges and promoted policies that changed the lives of [many] citizens,” Avramopoulos added. 

Simitis, a co-founder of the Socialist PASOK party in 1974, eventually became the successor to the party’s founding leader, Andreas Papandreou, with whom he had an often contentious relationship that shaped the party’s nature. Simitis was a low-key pragmatist where Papandreou was a charismatic, fiery populist. He was also a committed pro-European, while Papandreou banked on strong opposition to Greece’s joining what was then the European Economic Community in the 1970s, before changing tack once he became prime minister. 

When the profligate first four years of socialist rule, from 1981 to 1985, resulted in a rapidly deteriorating economy, Papandreou elevated Simitis to be finance minister and oversee a tight austerity program. Finances improved, inflation was partly tamed, but Simitis was pushed to resign in 1987 when Papandreou, eyeing an upcoming election, announced a generous wages policy, undermining the goals of the austerity program. 

The socialists returned to power with Papandreou still at the helm in 1993, but he was ailing and finally resigned the premiership in January 1996. A tight two rounds of voting among the socialist lawmakers unexpectedly elevated Simitis to the post of prime minister, a post he held until 2004. 

Simitis considered Greece’s entry into the eurozone, in January 2001, as the signature achievement of his premiership. But he also helped secure the 2004 Olympic Games for Athens and presided over a vast program of infrastructure building, including a brand new airport and two subway lines, to help host the games. He also helped Cyprus join the European Union in 2004. 

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides praised Simitis as an “outstanding leader” who has earned a special place in the history of not only Greece, but also of Cyprus. 

“His calm political voice, far from populism, and his political course of action were based on a longstanding philosophy of modernization and reform,” Christodoulides said in a written statement. 

Simitis’ critics on the right and left did their best to denigrate his legacy, highlighting a dubious debt swap concluded after the country had joined the eurozone as an attempt to massage the debt numbers. 

In the end, it was determined opposition from his own party, including trade union leaders, to pension reform in 2001 that fatally weakened Simitis’ administration. He decided to resign his party post and not contest the 2004 election, five months before the Olympics, rather than face certain defeat to the conservatives. 

George Papandreou, son of the socialist party’s founder, succeeded him as party leader, and in 2008 expelled Simitis from the PASOK parliamentary group after the two men clashed over policies, including Papandreou’s proposal to hold a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. Simitis left parliament in 2009, but not before issuing a prescient warning that financial mismanagement would bring the country under the tutelage of the International Monetary Fund, which would impose harsh austerity. In the end, it was the IMF, jointly with the EU, that imposed a harsh regime on a bankrupt country in 2010. 

Costas Simitis was born on June 23, 1936, the younger son of two politically active parents. His lawyer father Georgios was a member of the left-leaning resistance “government” during the German occupation and his mother, Fani, was an active feminist. 

Simitis studied law at the University of Marburg, in Germany, in the 1950s, and economics and politics at the London School of Economics in the early 1960s. He later taught law at the University of Athens. His elder brother Spiros, who died in 2023, was a noted legal scholar in Germany, specializing in data protection. 

Simitis is survived by his wife of 60 years, Daphne, two daughters and a granddaughter. 

 
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KYIV, UKRAINE — The pro-Russian breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria, left without Russian gas supplies no longer transiting through neighboring Ukraine, faced longer periods of rolling power cuts on Saturday, local authorities said. 

Flows of Russian gas via Ukraine to central and eastern Europe stopped on New Year’s Day after a transit deal expired between the warring countries and Kyiv refused to extend it. 

Transdniestria, a mainly Russian-speaking enclave which has lived side-by-side with Moldova since breaking away from it in the last days of Soviet rule, received gas from Russian giant Gazprom through the pipeline crossing Ukraine. 

The gas was used to operate a thermal plant that provided electricity locally and for much of Moldova under the control of the pro-European central government. 

The region’s self-styled president, Vadim Krasnoselsky, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said rolling power cuts in various districts would be extended to four hours Sunday. 

Hour-long cuts were first imposed Friday evening after heating and hot water supplies were curtailed. The cuts were then extended to three hours on Saturday. 

“Yesterday’s introduction of rolling cuts was a test. And it confirmed that an hour-long break to keep the electrical supply system operating was insufficient,” Krasnoselsky wrote. “The power generated is not covering sharply rising demand.” 

All industries except those producing food have been shut down. The official Telegram news channel of the region’s separatist authorities announced the official closure on Saturday of a steel mill and bakery in the town of Rybnitsa. 

Regional officials announced new measures to help residents, especially the elderly, and warned that overnight temperatures would fall to -10 Celsius (+14 Fahrenheit). Residents were told not to put strain on the region’s mobile phone network. 

Using firewood 

The news channel warned against using heaters in disrepair after two residents died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a stove. Online pictures showed servicemen loading up trucks with firewood for distribution. 

“Don’t put off gathering in firewood,” Krasnoselsky told residents. “It is better to ensure your supply in advance, especially since the weather is favorable so far.” 

Moldova’s government blames Russia for the crisis and has called on Gazprom to ship gas through the TurkStream pipeline and then through Bulgaria and Romania. 

Russia denies using gas as a weapon to coerce Moldova and blames Kyiv for refusing to renew the gas transit deal.  

The Transdniestria power cuts are a problem for Moldova particularly because the enclave is home to a power plant that provides most of the power for government-controlled areas of Moldova at a fixed and low price. 

Prime Minister Dorin Recean said Friday his country faced a security crisis after Transdniestria imposed the rolling blackouts, but he also said the Chisinau government had prepared alternative arrangements, with a mixture of domestic production and electricity imports from Romania.  

Even before the halt of supplies via Ukraine, Gazprom had said it would suspend exports to Moldova on January 1 because of what Russia says are unpaid Moldovan debts of $709 million. Moldova disputes that and put the figure at $8.6 million.  
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WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni flew to Florida to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday, as the key European leader sought to buttress ties with Trump before his inauguration on Jan. 20.

Members of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort welcomed Meloni with applause after an introduction by the president-elect, according to videos shared on social media by reporters and others.

Her trip comes days before she is to meet U.S. President Joe Biden during a visit to Rome from Thursday to Jan. 12. Trump defeated Biden in the November election and is preparing his return to the White House.

While no details of their meeting have been disclosed, Meloni had planned to talk with Trump about Russia’s war in Ukraine, trade issues, the Middle East and the plight of an Italian journalist detained in Tehran, according to Italian media reports.

Meloni’s office declined to comment on the reports.

She is seen as a potentially strong partner for Trump given her conservative credentials and the stability of the right-wing coalition she heads in Italy. She has also forged a close relationship with billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, a close Trump ally who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help him win the election.

“This is very exciting. I’m here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy,” Trump told the Mar-a-Lago crowd, according to a media pool report. “She’s really taken Europe by storm.”

Trump and Meloni then sat down for a screening of a documentary questioning the criminal investigations and legal scrutiny faced by John Eastman, a former Trump lawyer who was central to Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

One of the biggest challenges facing Meloni is the arrest of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in Iran on Dec. 19.

Sala was detained three days after Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on a U.S. warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in a 2023 attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.

On Friday, Iran’s foreign ministry summoned Italy’s ambassador over Abedini’s detention, Iranian state media reported.

Meloni became the latest in the handful of foreign leaders who have visited Trump in Florida since the Nov. 5 election. He has met with Argentinian President Javier Milei, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 
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VIENNA — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Saturday he will resign in the coming days after talks on forming a new government failed a second time. 

The announcement came after the People’s Party and the Social Democrats on Saturday continued coalition talks a day after the liberal Neos party’s surprise withdrawal from discussions. 

“Unfortunately, I have to tell you today that the negotiations have ended and will not be continued by the People’s Party,” said Nehammer, the conservative party’s leader, in a statement on social media. 

He said that “destructive forces” in the Social Democratic Party have “gained the upper hand” and that the People’s Party will not sign on to a program that it considers to be against economic competitiveness. 

Social democratic leader Andreas Babler said he regretted the People’s Party decision to end the talks. 

“This is not a good decision for our country,” he said. One of the main stumbling blocks had to do with how to repair the “record deficit” left by the previous government, he added. 

“I have offered to Karl Nehammer and the People’s Party to continue negotiating and called on them not to give up,” he told reporters Saturday evening. 

Challenge for next government

The next government in Austria faces the challenge of having to save 18.6 billion euros to 24.8 billion euros, according to the EU Commission. In addition, Austria, which has been in a recession for the past two years, is experiencing rising unemployment, and its budget deficit is currently at 3.7% of Gross Domestic Product — above the EU’s limit of 3%. 

Babler blamed the collapse of the negotiations on “forces within the People’s Party” that were against a coalition with the Social Democrats, while praising Nehammer for his readiness to compromise. 

A coalition between the People’s Party and the Social Democrats was considered shaky from the beginning because the two parties together have a razor-thin one-seat majority in the Austrian parliament. 

It was not immediately clear what would happen next. 

Criticized for creating ‘chaos’

The People’s Party will have to search for a replacement for Nehammer, who has always ruled out the possibility of a coalition with far-right leader Herbert Kickl. But Nehammer’s expected resignation could now prompt the party to rethink its options under new leadership. 

People’s Party officials planned to meet Sunday to discuss choosing a new leader. 

The People’s Party and the far-right Freedom Party are close on economic policies as well as other issues such as migration and are already working together in five coalitions on the local level. 

An early election would be another option. But given Austrian election laws, such an election would unlikely take place before May. 

Party leader Herbert Kickl criticized Nehammer, Babler and Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen in a written statement Saturday evening for having created “chaos instead of stability” and said the ball is now in Van der Bellen’s court. 

Van der Bellen is expected to make a statement tomorrow, Austrian’s public broadcaster ORF reports. 
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Russia-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea announced a regional emergency Saturday, as oil was detected on the shores of Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city.

Fuel oil spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers nearly three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, close to eastern Crimea — about 250 kilometers from Sevastopol, which lies on the southwest of the peninsula.

“Today a regional emergency regime has been declared in Sevastopol,” regional Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote on Telegram.

Oil was found on four beaches in the region and was “promptly eliminated” by local authorities working together with volunteers, Razvozhaev said.

“Let me emphasize: there is no mass pollution of the coastline in Sevastopol,” he wrote.

Razvozhaev’s announcement came after authorities in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region announced a region-wide emergency last week, as the fuel oil continued washing up on the coastline 10 days after one tanker ran aground and the other was left damaged and adrift on December 15.

Krasnodar regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said that almost 7,000 people were still working Saturday to clean up the spill.

More than 96,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil have been removed along the region’s shoreline since the original spill, he wrote on Telegram.

On December 23, the ministry estimated that up to 200,000 tons in total may have been contaminated with mazut, a heavy, low-quality oil product.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the oil spill an “ecological disaster.”

The Kerch Strait, which separates the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula from the Krasnodar region, is an important global shipping route, providing passage from the inland Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.

It has also been a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where it accused Russia of trying to seize control of the area illegally. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, described the oil spill last month as a “large-scale environmental disaster” and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers.
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis warned that bullying in schools prepares students for war rather than peace, in a speech to Catholic educators gathered at the Vatican on Saturday. 

Speaking to about 2,000 Italian educators and parents, Francis stressed his message against bullying, asking the audience to pledge to fight against it both at school and at home. 

The pontiff praised educational efforts at schools to promote peace, noting that “imagining peace” lays the foundations for “a more just and fraternal world” through “every subject taught and through the creativity of children and young people.” 

“But if, at school, you wage war among yourselves or engage in bullying, you are preparing for war, not for peace,” he said 

The pope also called for more dialogue within families, emphasizing that “it is dialogue that makes us grow.”
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NEW YORK — Say hello to the latest dog in the American Kennel Club’s lineup of recognized breeds. Or you might say “hej.”

The Danish-Swedish farmdog — yep, that’s the official name — joined the pack Thursday. The designation makes the breed eligible to compete for many best in show trophies, and it likely augurs more widespread interest in the small, sprightly dogs. The prospect both gladdens and concerns their biggest fans.

“We’re excited about it. We’re looking forward to it,” said Carey Segebart, one of the people who worked to get Danish-Swedish farmdogs recognized by the AKC. She proudly plans to debut one of her own at a dog show this month near her Iowa home.

Still, she thinks increased exposure is “a double-edged sword” for the fleet, versatile pups.

“We don’t want the breed to just explode too quickly,” she said.

Called the farmdog or DSF for short, the breed goes back centuries in parts of what are now Denmark, southern Sweden and some other European countries, according to the Danish-Swedish Farmdog Club of America.

“They’re interesting, fun little dogs,” said Segebart, who has owned them since 2011 and is the club’s incoming president. “They’re essentially up for anything. They succeed at most everything.”

In their original homelands, the dogs’ main job was rodent patrol, but they also would herd a bit, act as watchdogs and play with farmers’ children. Some even performed in circuses, according to the club.

After Denmark and Sweden became more urban and suburban in the 20th century, farmdog fanciers set out to secure the breed’s place in both nations (where “hej” translates to the English “hello”). Kennel clubs there began registering farmdogs in 1987.

In the U.S., many of the just about 350 farmdogs nationwide compete in agility, obedience or other canine sports that are open to all dogs, including mixed breeds.

But until now, farmdogs couldn’t enter the traditional breed-by-breed judging that leads to best in show prizes at events including the prominent Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York. The entry deadline has passed for February’s Westminster show, so farmdogs will have to wait for 2026 there, but they may well appear later this year at two other major, televised shows, the National Dog Show and AKC National Championship.

The Danish-Swedish farmdog is the AKC’s 202nd breed and “a wonderful addition to a family that is able to provide it with the exercise and mental stimulation that it needs,” said the club’s Gina DiNardo.

Too popular for its own good?

The AKC is the United States’ oldest purebred dog registry and essentially a league for many dog competitions. Registration is voluntary, and requirements for breed recognition include at least 300 pedigreed dogs spread through at least 20 states. Some breeds are in other kennel clubs or none at all.

Danish-Swedish farmdog fanciers deliberated for several years before pursuing AKC recognition and the attention that’s likely to come with it, Segebart said. The number of farmdog puppy-seekers has grown substantially over the last decade; each of the few breeders receives multiple inquiries a week, and the typical wait for a puppy is a year or more, she said.

Farmdog folk fear that their appealing, relatively easy-care breed could quickly become too popular for its own good. They’re not the first to worry: Much fur has flown in dogdom over the rise of the French bulldog, which the AKC now ranks as the most popular breed in the country.

Some animal rights activists echo those concerns to argue against dog breeding in general. They say purebred popularity trends divert people from adopting shelter animals, fuel puppy mills and prize dogs’ appearance over their health.

The AKC says it promotes responsibly “breeding for type and function” to produce dogs with at least somewhat predictable traits, whether as basic as size or as specialized as bomb-sniffing skills. The club says it has given over $35 million since 1995 to its canine health research charity.
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Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Nadiya in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region and had shot down eight U.S.-made ATACMS missiles.

Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.

The ministry said its air defense systems had shot down 10 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory on Saturday morning, including three over the northern Leningrad region.

St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport temporarily halted flight arrivals and departures on Saturday morning.
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