WASHINGTON — Press freedom groups and media organizations are calling for Iran to release an Italian journalist who was arrested last month.  

Cecilia Sala, who works for the daily Italian newspaper Il Foglio, was arrested on Dec. 19 and is being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. The 29-year-old was reporting in Iran on a journalist visa and was due to return to Italy on Dec. 20.  

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, said Sala’s jailing underscores Tehran’s harsh suppression of independent journalism in the country.  

“Sala’s arrest is a powerful reminder of the daily threats faced by those reporting in and about Iran, and she and all those wrongfully detained by Iran should be released immediately,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said Tuesday in a statement.  

Iran ranks seventh among the world’s top jailers of journalists. As of Dec. 1, 2024, 16 journalists were jailed in the country, according to CPJ data.  

Iran confirmed Sala’s detention on Monday when the state news outlet IRNA reported that she was being held after “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Sala, who also works for the podcast company Chora Media, is being held in solitary confinement, according to media reports.  

The office of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Meloni was “following the complex affair” closely and pursuing “all possible avenues of dialogue” to release Sala. Italy’s foreign minister said Sala was in good health and that negotiations were under way to bring her home.  

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said Sala appeared to have been arbitrarily detained.  

“We are also concerned about her conditions of detention as she is held in solitary confinement in Evin prison — infamous for being the cruel place where free voices critical of the regime are detained,” RSF Director General Thibaut Bruttin said Tuesday in a statement.  

The National Press Club in Washington condemned Sala’s solitary confinement. 

“Sala’s imprisonment is a chilling reminder of the risks journalists face in pursuit of the truth,” President Emily Wilkins said in a statement last week. “Her detention is an affront to press freedom and a violation of international norms.” 

Sala’s arrest came just a few days after Italy arrested Swiss Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, known as Abedini, in Milan at the request of the United States. 

The businessman is accused of breaking U.S. sanctions laws and providing support to a foreign terrorist organization, which ultimately led to the deaths of three U.S. service members in a drone attack in Jordan, according to the U.S. Justice Department.  

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that they believe Sala’s arrest is likely a response to Najafabadi’s arrest.  

Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.
…

ROME — Pope Francis ushered in the New Year with a renewed appeal for the faithful to reject abortion, calling for a “firm commitment” to protect and respect life from conception to natural death. 

Francis, 88, celebrated a New Year’s Day Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday that was dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus. 

In his homily, he prayed that everyone learns to care for “every child born of a woman” and to protect “the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying.” 

“I ask for a firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person may cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to the future,” he said, using the terminology of the church’s opposition to abortion and euthanasia. 

In recent years, the Argentine Jesuit has been speaking out more emphatically about abortion than he did at the start of his pontificate. After two doctrinaire popes, Francis complained in the first months of his papacy in 2013 that the church had become obsessed by “small-minded rules” about hot-button issues such as abortion. 

Francis now regularly refers to procuring an abortion as “hiring a hitman to solve a problem.” 

He recently sparked outrage in Belgium when he criticized its abortion law as “homicidal” and announced he wanted to beatify Belgium’s late king who abdicated for a day rather than approve legislation legalizing the procedure. The Vatican recently announced that the beatification process is under way for King Baudouin, who died in 1993. 

The morning Mass marked the final big event of Francis’ busy Christmas schedule. For the pope, who suffers from recurrent respiratory problems, this year’s season was even more challenging with the start of the Vatican’s big Holy Year, a once-every-quarter-century celebration of the faith that is expected to bring 32 million pilgrims to Rome during 2025. 

Speaking to pilgrims who gathered in a sun-filled St. Peter’s Square, Francis recalled the Jubilee’s central message of the need to forgive debts. He again called for world leaders from wealthy countries to eliminate or reduce the debts owed by poorer countries. 

Francis urged Christian leaders, in particular, “to provide a good example” by taking the lead to forgive debts.
…

Officials in Ukraine’s capital Wednesday said a Russian drone attack killed at least one person and injured at least six others.

Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration, said on Telegram that a woman was found dead in the rubble of a residential building that had been hit during the attack.

In Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said Russia attacked with artillery, rockets and drones, damaging seven houses and a medical center.

Ukraine’s military said it shot down 63 of the 111 drones that Russian forces launched.

The intercepts took place in the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr regions, the military said.

Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday it destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the Kursk region.

In neighboring Bryansk, the regional governor said Russian air defenses destroyed two drones, and that there were no casualties or damage.

In a New Year’s Eve address to his nation Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would do everything it could in the new year to end the war with Russia.

“And every day in the coming year, I, and all of us, must fight for a Ukraine that is strong enough. Because only such a Ukraine is respected and heard, both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table,” Zelenskyy said.

“May 2025 be our year. The year of Ukraine. We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift, but we will do everything to stop Russia and end the war. This is what each of us wishes for,” he added.

In 2024, Ukraine gave up seven times more ground than it did in 2023: about 4,000 square kilometers, mostly in the east, according to data from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. At the same time, Ukraine took several hundred square kilometers of Russian territory in Kursk. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

Russian gas exports crossing through Ukraine were halted Wednesday with the expiration of a transit agreement.

The development will force some European nations to find alternative sources of gas with the interruption of the decades-old route.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine had already prompted many in the European Union to cut their dependence on Russian gas.

“We stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia is losing its markets, it will suffer financial losses. Europe has already made the decision to abandon Russian gas,” Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said in a statement.

Russian gas giant Gazprom said it lost the “technical and legal right” to send its gas through Ukraine.

Russia is still able to export gas to Turkey and central European nations such as Hungary and Serbia.

Moldova’s government, meanwhile, has ordered sharp cuts in energy consumption to deal with its loss of Russian supply.

The European Union played down the impact on its member states, saying, “The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin” to central and eastern Europe.

Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
…

VOA Russian speaks to regional experts who believe that President Vladimir Putin has unexpectedly found himself in a corner after it appears Russian air defense accidentally shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane. Azerbaijan will not completely break away from Russia, but Baku’s strong statements indicate that Russia’s influence over the region will rapidly decrease.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
…

BELGRADE, SERBIA — Instead of the traditional boisterous street partying on New Year’s Eve, tens of thousands of protesters led by university students gathered overnight in Belgrade and other Serbian cities to demand political reforms and justice in the Balkan country.

The protesters have been actively demonstrating following the tragic collapse of a concrete canopy in the northern city of Novi Sad’s central train station on Nov. 1, which resulted in 15 deaths.

The tragedy has been attributed to corruption and substandard construction practices by the populist Serbian leadership, leading to a widespread public outcry and demands for accountability.

Students from various Belgrade universities have organized the protest under the slogan “There is No New Year — You Still Owe Us for the Old One.”

The loud crowd, chanting “We Want Justice,” went silent at 11:52 p.m. with 15 minutes to honor the victims of the Novi Sad tragedy. Many were holding banners with a red handprint, which has become a symbol of the antigovernment protests, telling the authorities that they have blood on their hands.

Earlier, they marched past a state-sponsored concert where the crowd danced to folk music tunes. Police guarded the area where the concert was taking place and set up metal fences while directing the protesting crowd to other streets nearby to avoid contact between the two groups.

The antigovernment protesters emphasized that, despite the festive season, their commitment to seeking justice remains unwavering. The student-led movement has garnered support from various societal groups, including professors, farmers and actors, reflecting broader discontent with autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic’s leadership.

Thousands of people also gathered in Novi Sad and the southern city of Nis for parallel gatherings also led by university students in those cities.

In Belgrade, state-sponsored concerts and other New Year’s celebrations were organized in the city center and in a newly built high-rise Belgrade Waterfront neighborhood, which Vucic has claimed is his own project together with the United Arab Emirates investors.

Belgrade has become a favorite partying destination for tourists on New Year’s Eve, with street partying and huge fireworks.

The crowds in Belgrade braved very cold weather and fog to join the students. The New Year’s Eve protest comes just more than a week after tens of thousands rallied together with the students in what was one of the biggest gatherings in recent years in the Serbian capital.

Serbia’s public prosecutor on Monday indicted 13 people, including a former minister, over the collapse of the concrete canopy. The protesters say that is not enough as the indictment does not include charges of possible corrupt deals during a renovation of the Novi Sad train station that was part of a wider deal with Chinese companies.

Vucic earlier told pro-government Prva TV that all student demands have been fulfilled.

“I have always been ready to talk, I am asking them now but they won’t talk to me, they have no arguments, the prosecutors fulfilled the last of their demands, all documents they wanted have been published and nothing happened,” Vucic said, adding he won’t be toppled by street protests. 
…

ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST — Ivory Coast announced on Tuesday that French troops will leave the country after a decadeslong military presence. It is the latest African nation to downscale military ties with its former colonial power.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said the pullout would begin in January. France has had as many as 600 troops in Ivory Coast.

“We have decided on the concerted and organized withdrawal of French forces in Ivory Coast,” he said, adding that the military infantry battalion of Port Bouet that is run by the French army will be handed over to Ivorian troops.

Outtara’s announcement follows that of other leaders across West Africa, where France’s military is being asked to leave. Analysts have described the moves as part of the wider structural transformation in the region’s engagement with Paris.

Several West African nations — including coup-hit Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — have recently asked the French to leave. Most recently, Senegal and Chad did the same. Chad is considered France’s most stable and loyal partner in Africa.

The downscaling of military ties comes as France has been making efforts to revive its waning political and military influence on the continent by devising a new military strategy that would sharply reduce its permanent troop presence in Africa.

France has now been kicked out of more than 70% of African countries where it had a troop presence since ending its colonial rule. The French remain only in Djibouti, with 1,500 soldiers, and Gabon, with 350 troops.

After expelling French troops, military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have moved closer to Russia, which has mercenaries deployed across the Sahel who have been accused of abuses against civilians.

The security situation has worsened in those countries, with increasing numbers of extremist attacks and civilian deaths from armed groups and government forces.
…

BUCHAREST, ROMANIA — Romania and Bulgaria became full members of the Schengen zone on Wednesday, expanding the borderless area to 29 members and ending a 13-year wait for the two eastern European countries.

The expansion, made possible when Austria and other members dropped their objections to the former communist countries joining, officially took place at midnight on Wednesday, marked by ceremonies at various border posts.

Romania and Bulgaria, both members of the European Union since 2007, were partially included in the Schengen zone in March, eliminating border checks at ports and airports.

But Austria had threatened to veto their full entry over migration concerns, which meant that controls still applied at land border crossings.

Vienna backed off its veto threat in December after the three countries reached a deal on a “border protection package,” clearing the way for Romania and Bulgaria, two of the EU’s poorest countries, to join Schengen.

Overlap with EU but not identical

Created in 1985, the zone will now include 25 of the EU’s 27 members, as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, covering a total population of more than 400 million people.

Romania and Bulgaria had met the Schengen zone’s technical requirements for membership since 2011.

But “member states objected every time” they tried to join, analyst Valentin Naumescu told Agence France-Presse.

That became “a source of frustration exploited by anti-EU parties, which alleged Romania was being treated unfairly,” he said.

The resentment came into play in Romania’s recent presidential elections, in which far-right candidate Calin Georgescu surged to a surprise first-round win, before the polls were canceled amid claims of Russian interference.

Now, “that feeling of being second-class citizens” should fade, Naumescu said.

Nations came to an agreement

Leaders on both sides hailed the expansion as “historic.”

Austria had for years complained about hosting a disproportionate number of undocumented migrants as a result of poorly protected external Schengen borders.

It dropped its objections to Romania (population 19 million) and Bulgaria (6.5 million) joining Schengen after the three countries signed a border protection agreement in November.

The deal provides for the joint deployment of guards to the Bulgarian-Turkish border and temporary controls at land crossings for an initial period of six months.

Joining the zone will boost Romania’s and Bulgaria’s gross domestic product by at least one percentage point, analysts estimate.

Truck drivers celebrate the change

Lorry drivers, who currently wait up to 20 hours at border crossings, celebrated the news.

“It was a pure waste of time for drivers, who couldn’t even stop to rest because they had to move their vehicles every 10 minutes,” said Beniamin Lucescu, head of a Romanian transport federation.

Poor road and railroad infrastructure in Bulgaria could limit the positive impact there.

The countries’ tourism sectors are meanwhile expecting a surge in visitors from the two countries to nearby Greece.

“It’s excellent news,” said 46-year-old sales manager Ivailo Kirkov, who owns a house in northern Greece. “We’d been waiting impatiently.”

Greek teacher and tour guide Gueorgui Grantcharov predicted a rush of Romanian and Bulgarian tourists to Greece.

With no queues at the border, “it takes just over four hours to get from Sofia to Thessaloniki,” he said.
…

France said Tuesday it had carried out airstrikes against Islamic State militant positions in Syria.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a post on X that the strikes happened Sunday, but did not specify where in Syria they took place.

The French action follows several rounds of U.S. strikes against Islamic State targets in the weeks since rebels ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.

Islamic State militants took control of large areas of eastern Syria and western Iraq in 2014, drawing an international response that included a U.S.-led coalition aimed at defeating the group.

The militants have lost much of the territory they once held, but they are still present in Syria.

The Western military strikes come amid questions about Syria’s political and security future following the fall of Assad’s government.

The rebels who led the quick advance that ended with Assad leaving the country have announced they would dissolve all rebel groups and incorporate them under the Syrian military.

Syria’s new authorities announced Tuesday the selection of Murhaf Abu Qasra as the new defense minister.

Qasra was a leading figure in the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that led the rebel push to topple Assad.

Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — On a frigid morning in Moldova’s capital, 39-year-old postal worker Petru Murzin braces for a difficult winter as he fears a looming energy shortage could leave many Moldovans with “no heating, no light.”

His concerns aren’t unfounded.

On January 1, Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom is set to halt gas supplies to the European Union candidate country over an alleged $709 million debt for past supplies, a figure fiercely disputed by Moldova’s pro-Western government, that has accused Moscow of weaponizing energy as a political tool to destabilize the country.

“I feel that we’ve entered a crisis that is quite difficult to resolve … which worries me greatly,” Murzin told The Associated Press in Chisinau. “Price increases are one thing, but when there is no gas at all, that’s something entirely different.”

The cessation will stop gas flowing to the Kuciurgan power plant, the country’s largest, which is situated in the separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region. The gas-operated plant generates electricity that powers a significant portion of Moldova proper.

“There will be no heating, no light,” Murzin added. “We are entering a very difficult year.”

Transnistria declares state of emergency

Transnistria, which broke away after a short war in 1992 and is not recognized by most countries, also declared its own state of emergency earlier in December, fearing the region will not receive gas supplies. A large majority of Transnistria’s 470,000 people speak Russian as their first language and some 200,000 are Russian citizens.

On December 13, Moldova’s parliament voted in favor of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector, as the looming crisis threatened to leave the former Soviet republic without sufficient energy this winter, sparking fears it could trigger a humanitarian crisis in Transnistria, where the impact of the gas cutoff could be immediately felt.

Many observers have predicted that the looming energy shortage could force residents in Transnistria to travel to Moldova to seek basic amenities to get through winter, a season in which temperatures throughout the country regularly drop below subzero degrees Celsius.

Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, said that Moscow is likely trying to exploit a “potential humanitarian crisis in Transnistria to overwhelm Moldova’s already-strained resources” to amplify tensions between Chisinau and the region’s de facto capital, Tiraspol.

“It could stoke fears among the Moldovan electorate of a violent conflict, and give fodder to pro-Russian parties who will accuse Chisinau of being responsible for increased prices for gas and electricity, which will be a major campaign issue” ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections in 2025, he said.

Chisinau takes steps

The unprecedented situation prompted Chisinau last week to implement a series of energy-saving measures beginning January 1, which include reducing lighting in public and commercial buildings by at least 30%, and energy-intensive businesses operating during off-peak hours.

“We’ll probably have to save power until we have a solution,” said Nicoleta Neagu, who is from Moldova but works in Germany. “I hope we’ll look at this seriously and not waste power on not-so-useful things.”

After Gazprom announced it would halt gas flows, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean accused Moscow of using energy “as a political weapon” and said his government does not recognize the debt cited by the Russian energy giant, which he said has been “invalidated by an international audit.”

“This decision confirms once again the intention of the Kremlin to leave the inhabitants of the Transnistrian region without light and heat in the middle of the winter,” he said.

For 30-year-old Chisinau resident Iuliana, who did not want to give her surname, power outages would prevent her from doing her online job, which could also be untenable if the heating goes off in the middle of winter in the country of about 2.5 million people.

“We’re afraid, but we’re happy that there’s no snow and the temperatures aren’t that low and we can turn on the heating maybe only in the evening if we work at an office,” she said. “But I work from home and I’ll be directly affected.”

She also noted that Moldova has faced multiple crises in recent years, “But regarding power and gas, it’s the first time we face this,” she said.

‘Energy blackmail’

Moldovan President Maia Sandu criticized Russia on Monday for Gazprom’s decision and said that the country has gas supplies “for the heating season” and measures will be taken “to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply,” adding that plans are also in place to provide humanitarian aid to residents in Transnistria.

“The Kremlin is again using energy blackmail in an attempt to destabilize the situation, to influence the 2025 parliamentary elections and to undermine our European journey,” she said. “It is important to remain united, show solidarity, and trust in Moldova and its people. And to use energy rationally.”

Moldova has repeatedly claimed Russia is conducting a vast “hybrid war” against the country by meddling in elections, funding anti-government protests, and running vast disinformation campaigns to try to topple the government and derail the country’s EU aspirations.

The Kuciurgan plant was privatized in 2004 by Transnistrian officials and later sold to a Russian state-owned company, but Chisinau doesn’t recognize the privatization. On Monday, Recean asked the justice minister to review nationalization legislation, to potentially recover “strategic assets that were forcefully taken over.”

Citing findings by British and Norwegian audit firms, Moldova claims its debt stands close to $8.6 million, a fraction of that claimed by the Russian energy giant. Gazprom said in a statement Saturday that it reserved the right to take further action, including terminating its contract with Moldovagaz, Moldova’s main gas operator, in which the Russian company owns a majority stake.

In late 2022, months after Russia fully invaded neighboring Ukraine, Moldova suffered major power outages following Russian strikes on Ukraine, which is interconnected to the Kuciurgan plant.

When the war next door started, Moldova was entirely dependent on Moscow for natural gas but has since pushed to diversify and expand its energy sources, and now relies on obtaining gas from other European markets.

Murzin, the postal worker, is expecting to see large inflows of people from Transnistria crossing the border once the shortage hits.

“I think cars will line up for several kilometers at the border,” he said. “Many people will come here, hoping for warmth.”
…

Paris — French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou arrived Monday in the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte to unveil a recovery plan three weeks after Cyclone Chido brought devastation.

Bayrou, recently appointed prime minister, also updated the death toll to 39 but urged caution, saying the final number could range from “a few dozen to a few hundred.”

Days after the cyclone, Mayotte’s prefect, François-Xavier Bieuville, had warned of the possibility of “several hundred or even a few thousand” deaths.

Bayrou’s visit follows that of French President Emmanuel Macron as some Mayotte residents have alleged that the French government had long neglected them. The prime minister said a draft emergency law aiming to rebuild Mayotte within two years will be submitted to parliament in January.

And he said local authorities agreed to ban the rebuilding of informal settlements, home to an unknown number of migrants from African nations in the region who hope to make their way to Europe. Many of the makeshift homes were torn apart by the storm.

Bayrou outlined plans to restore electricity to all homes by late January, supported by 200 workers and emergency generators. Water production is expected to reach pre-cyclone levels by January 6, with upgrades to the distribution network set for completion by mid-2025.

He also announced the deployment of 200 Starlink antennas for emergency communications.

Education also faces disruption, with many schools destroyed. Classes will resume January 13, with special provisions for exam students. Temporary schooling in mainland France is also being considered.

In Mozambique, also hit by Cyclone Chido, the National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management said Sunday that 94 people had been killed. Malawi’s presidential office said the death toll there had risen to 13.
…