Category: European Union

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. … “Pope Francis kicks off year-long Jubilee that will test his stamina, Rome’s patience” →

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. …

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. …

Prague — The list of sacrifices that Alesya Marokhovskaya has made to keep reporting on Russia from exile runs long: her home, her country, family, friends, culture, safety. This month alone, Russian authorities searched the home of the journalist’s parents in the eastern port town of Magadan and opened a criminal case against Marokhovskaya for violating Russia’s foreign agent law. When she spoke with VOA in Prague this fall, Marokhovskaya searched for words to explain why the sacrifices are worth it. Eventually, she settled on the Russian people. “They’re poisoning Russians,” she said, explaining how she views Kremlin propaganda. “Information in our world is one of the most important things, and I am completely against manipulating people’s minds.” As editor-in-chief of the exiled Russian investigative outlet IStories, breaking through propaganda to bring ordinary Russians the truth is Marokhovskaya’s core focus. But in doing so, Marokhovskaya and her team face legal threats and surveillance, even while based in Prague. Marokhovskaya had not planned to leave Russia, even when Moscow declared the journalist a so-called foreign agent in 2021. Instead, the reporter followed the strict rules that accompany the designation. For months, she labeled all of her social media posts — even ones that were photos of her dog — as the work of a so-called foreign agent, and she submitted financial reports to the Justice Ministry. “It was really humiliating,” Marokhovskaya said. But she followed the rules because she wanted to keep reporting from inside Russia. “For me, it was important to stay in Russia as long as I could. Because I was thinking there is no way to be a Russian journalist not inside Russia,” Marokhovskaya said. But when Russia invaded Ukraine, Marokhovskaya said it became clear that Moscow would ramp up its persecution of independent journalists. Soon after, she and many of her colleagues at IStories fled for the Czech capital of Prague. At the time, Marokhovskaya worried the relationship between IStories and its primary audience inside Russia wouldn’t survive the distance. “It was our fear to become media for immigrants. We want to be media for Russians [inside Russia] in the first place,” Marokhovskaya said. But IStories survived. “I still have this fear, but now I see we can work in such circumstances.” Marokhovskaya has worked for IStories, or “Important Stories,” since it was founded in 2020. In September, at the age of 29, she became the outlet’s editor-in-chief. … “People in Russia ‘need the truth,’ says journalist who sacrificed home and security to keep reporting” →

MOSCOW — An engine room explosion sank a Russian cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea between Spain and Algeria and two of its crew are missing, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.  The vessel, built in 2009 and called ‘’Ursa Major,’’ was controlled by Oboronlogistika, a company that is part of the Russian Defense Ministry’s military construction operations, which had previously said it was en route to the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok with two giant port cranes lashed to its deck.  The Foreign Ministry’s crisis center said in a statement that 14 of the ship’s 16 crew members had been rescued and brought to Spain, but that two crew were still missing. It did not say what had caused the engine room explosion.  Unverified video footage of the ship heavily listing to its starboard side with its bow much lower down in the water than usual was filmed on Dec. 23 by a passing ship and published on Russia’s life.ru news outlet on Tuesday.  Oboronlogistika, the ship’s ultimate owner, said in a statement on Dec. 20 that the ship, which LSEG data showed was previously called Sparta III, had been carrying specialized port cranes due to be installed at the port of Vladivostok as well as parts for new ice-breakers.  Two giant cranes could be seen strapped to the deck in the unverified video footage.  LSEG ship tracking data shows the vessel departed from the Russian port of Saint Petersburg on Dec. 11 and was last seen sending a signal at 2204 GMT on Monday between Algeria and Spain.  On leaving Saint Petersburg it had indicated that its next port of call was the Russian port of Vladivostok, not the Syrian port of Tartous which it has called at previously.  The operator and owner is a company called SK-Yug, part of Oboronlogistika, according to LSEG data. Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug declined to comment on the ship’s sinking.  Spanish news outlet El Espanol said on its website that crew members had been evacuated to the Spanish port of Cartagena and that several vessels, including a Spanish Navy ship, had taken part in rescuing the crew.  It said the vessel had been due to arrive in Vladivostok on Jan. 22. …

Ukraine’s military said Tuesday it shot down 36 of the 60 drones that Russian forces deployed in overnight attacks. The intercepts took place in the Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions, Ukraine’s air force said. Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said on Telegram that the drone attacks and Russian shelling damaged several homes and a power line. In Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine, Governor Serhii Tiurin reported the Russian attack damaged several homes. Officials in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine said a farm building was damaged there. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday its air defenses destroyed four Ukrainian aerial drones, including three over the Rostov region and one over Voronezh. Both Rostov and Voronezh are located along the Russia-Ukraine border and are frequent targets of Ukrainian drones. The governors of Rostov and Voronezh each said on Telegram there were no reports of damage or casualties as a result of the Ukrainian attacks.  …

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 … “Holy Year about to start in Rome” →

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. …

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. … “Going home? Syrians in Europe are not so sure” →

Berlin — Germany searched for answers on Monday on possible security lapses after a man drove his car into a Christmas market, killing at least five people and casting a renewed spotlight on security and immigration ahead of a snap election. The possible motive of the arrested suspect, a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric and a sympathy for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, remains unknown. As a nation mourned, with citizens leaving flowers and lighting candles in Magdeburg where the incident took place on Friday, questions swirled about whether more could have been done and whether the authorities could have acted on warnings. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called for tougher internal security laws to be adopted, including a new act to strengthen police forces as well as the introduction of biometric surveillance. “It is clear that we must do everything to protect the people of Germany from such horrific acts of violence. To do this, our security authorities need all the necessary powers and more personnel,” Faeser told Spiegel newsmagazine. The deputy head of a security committee in the Bundestag (parliament) announced he would convene a special session asking why previous warnings about the danger posed by the suspect, identified only as Taleb A., were not acted on. The arrested man has lived in Germany since 2006. The main opposition Christian Democratic Union, which is on course to form the next government after an election in February, called for the strengthening of intelligence services. “We can no longer be satisfied with the fact that information about violent criminals and terrorists often only comes from foreign services,” Guenter Krings, justice spokesperson for the CDU, told the Handelsblatt newspaper. “That is why our German security authorities need more powers of their own in order to gain more of their own knowledge, especially in the digital area.” The security services also must be able to remove dangerous people from circulation based on such knowledge, he said. “The authority and obligation for official cooperation and data exchange must also be improved,” he said. Germany’s data protection rules are among the strictest in the European Union, which federal police say has prevented them from resorting to biometric surveillance to date. Police in the northwestern city of Bremerhaven said on Monday they had arrested a man who had threatened in a TikTok video to commit “serious crimes” at … “Germany looking into possible security lapses after Christmas market attack “ →

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday there are indications that North Korea is preparing to send more troops and weapons to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. The additional weapons being readied include suicide drones, and North Korea has already sent 240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery to Russia, the JCS said in a statement. North Korea has also sent about 12,000 troops already to Russia, according to South Korea, the United States and Ukraine.   The JCS said Monday that at least 1,100 of the North Koreans have been killed or wounded. Ukraine’s military said Monday it shot down 47 aerial drones that Russian forces launched in attacks overnight targeting multiple areas of the country. The Ukrainian air force said Russia used a total of 72 drones in its latest round of daily aerial assaults. Ukrainian air defenses shot down drones over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy and Zhytomyr regions, the military said. Khmelnytskyi Governor Serhii Tiurin said on Telegram that the drone attacks damaged a business and some homes, while injuring one person. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday it destroyed a Ukrainian aerial drone over the Bryansk region, which is located along the Russia-Ukraine border. Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram there were no reports of damage or casualties from the Ukrainian attack. Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.  …

BUCHAREST — Romania’s outgoing president Klaus Iohannis is expected Monday to designate leftist Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to form a new government after three pro-European parties agreed to the details of a parliamentary majority.  The Social Democrat Party (PSD) will hold eight cabinet posts including justice, transport, labor and defense, and most of its current ministers will stay on in their posts.  The centrist Liberal Party (PNL) will have six cabinet jobs, including energy and interior and foreign ministries. The ethnic Hungarian party UDMR will have two posts, including finance.  Together with representatives of local ethnic minorities, the three parties will have a slim majority in the legislative in which three ultranationalist and hard-right parties won over a third of seats in a Dec. 1 parliamentary election.  The new government will need to approve a calendar for a new two-round presidential election. The three parties in the coalition have agreed to back a single presidential candidate in an attempt to prevent a representative from the radical right from winning.  The original three rounds of votes to elect a new president and parliament in the European Union and NATO state, which shares the longest land border with Ukraine, descended into chaos when a little-known far-right pro-Russian politician won the first presidential round on Nov. 24.  His shocking win prompted Romania’s top court to annul the election on suspicion of Russian meddling and order that it be re-run, likely in the first part of 2025.  Romania’s new cabinet will also have the daunting task of lowering the budget deficit from an expected 8.6% of economic output this year – the EU’s largest – to around 7% in 2025 and ratings agencies and analysts expect tax hikes. …

Madrid — For weeks, Spaniards had anticipated the arrival of “El Gordo” or “The Fat One.” But unlike Santa Claus, El Gordo arrived three days before Christmas, before noon on Sunday. El Gordo is the first prize of Spain’s hugely popular national Christmas lottery, which is said to be the world’s largest based on the total prize money involved, even though other lotteries have larger single prizes. This year’s draw will spread riches of around $2.8 billion, much of it in small winnings. Several ticket holders with the number 72480 won the top prize, worth about $417,000 before taxes. The winning tickets were sold in Logrono, a city in northern Spain’s La Rioja region that is known for its wines. Multiple tickets with the same number can be sold to different groups and full tickets are divisible into 10 parts. Buying and sharing these fractions, known in Spanish as “décimos” or tenths, is a popular tradition in the run-up to Christmas. Families, friends, and co-workers often take part, usually spending $21 each. On Sunday, young students from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school selected the numbers from two revolving orbs in the capital’s Teatro Real opera house and sang them out in turn for nearly five hours in a cadence familiar to Spaniards. After “El Gordo” was announced, audience members — some dressed in costume as Don Quijote, Christmas elves, Biblical wise men and the lottery itself — began streaming out of the venue, from which the event was televised nationally. María Angeles, a teacher from the southwestern province of Badajoz, said she waited for hours in line to get a seat inside the opera house to watch the event with a group of 14 friends and family members that she traveled with to Madrid. “The point of coming to see the lottery is the hope,” Angeles said. She reckoned no one in her group won more than $146. The lottery works on the premise of distributing the most winning numbers to the largest number of people possible. There are hundreds of small prizes and 13 major ones, including the “El Gordo” winner. In the weeks leading up to the draw, lines form outside lottery offices, especially those with a history of selling prize-winning tickets in previous years. Spain’s Dec. 22 Christmas lottery began during the Napoleonic wars in 1812 and has continued largely without interruption since then, even during the Spanish Civil … “‘El Gordo’ lottery in Spain spreads Christmas riches worth $2.8 billion” →

Russian forces captured two villages in Ukraine, one in Kharkiv region in the northeast and one in eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday. Donetsk region is where Moscow is concentrating most of its efforts to seize two cities. Russian forces, making steady progress across Donetsk region, are moving on the towns of Pokrovsk, a logistics center and site of an important coking colliery, and appear to be closing in on Kurakhove, farther south. The Defense Ministry statement said troops had taken control of Lozova, near the town of Kupiansk, in an area north of Donetsk region also under Russian pressure in recent weeks. The village of Sontsivka, north of Kurakhove, was also captured. The ministry on Saturday announced the capture of another village near Kurakhove, Kostiantynopolske. The Ukraine military’s general staff made no mention of those villages falling into Russian hands, but said Sontsivka was in a sector subject to 26 Russian attacks in the past 24 hours. The general staff also reported heavy fighting near Pokrovsk, with 34 Russian attempts to pierce defenses. The popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState said Sontsivka was under Russian control. Russian reports have described intensified pressure on Kurakhove. The Moscow-appointed governor of areas of Donetsk region occupied by Russian forces, Denis Pushilin, said on Telegram that Russian troops now controlled the town center. He also said troops were advancing on Pokrovsk from the south. Russian troops have been moving through eastern Ukraine in the past two months at the fastest rate since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Ukrainian military said on Friday its forces had pulled back from the area around two villages — one near Pokrovsk, the other near Kurakhove — to avoid being encircled by advancing Russian troops. …

Vatican City — Pope Francis called for a ceasefire on all war fronts in his Sunday Angelus prayer ahead of Christmas, condemning the “cruelty” of bombing schools and hospitals in Ukraine and Gaza. “Let the weapons fall silent and let the Christmas carols ring out!” Francis said, delivering his Sunday blessing from indoors due to a cold and as a precaution ahead of a busy Christmas period. “Let us pray that at Christmas there will be a ceasefire on all war fronts, in Ukraine, in the Holy Land, throughout the Middle East and throughout the world,” the pope said. Francis recalled, as he often does, the “battered Ukraine” that continues to be hit by attacks on cities, “which sometimes damage schools, hospitals and churches.” He also expressed his pain thinking of Gaza, “of such cruelty, to the machine-gunning of children, to the bombing of schools and hospitals … How much cruelty!” Francis on Saturday also criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza and said that his envoy had been unable to enter the territory because of Israeli bombing. Israeli authorities on Sunday allowed Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, to enter Gaza and celebrate a pre-Christmas Mass with members of the territory’s small Christian community. Israel says it has made great efforts to spare civilians and is only at war with Hamas, which it accuses of genocidal violence in the attack that ignited the war. The pontiff, who turned 88 this past week, appeared in good shape on Sunday, after looking wheezing and congested during his annual Christmas greeting to Vatican bureaucrats on Saturday. The Vatican cited the cold temperatures outside and Francis’ strenuous week ahead in deciding to deliver his Sunday blessing indoors. The pope on Tuesday is due to inaugurate his big Holy Year and preside over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations in St. Peter’s Basilica. On Thursday, he is scheduled to travel to Rome’s main prison to inaugurate the Jubilee there. Francis has long suffered bouts of bronchitis, especially in winter. In 2023, he ended up in hospital to receive intravenous antibiotics. He had part of one lung removed as a young man and frequently seems out of breath, especially after walking or exerting himself. …

Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks at the Kremlin on Sunday with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, one of the few European leaders he has stayed friendly with since the eruption of hostilities with Ukraine, according to Russian television. “Putin is currently holding talks in the Kremlin with Slovak Prime Minister Fico,” Russian TV journalist Pavel Zarubin, a Kremlin insider, posted on his Telegram channel, along with a short video showing the two leaders. The visit by Fico, whose country is both a NATO and European Union member, had not been previously announced. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told Zarubin however that it had been arranged “a few days ago.” Peskov did not give details of the talks but said it could be “presumed” that supplies of Russian gas would be discussed. Ukraine announced this year that it would not renew a contract allowing the transit of Russian gas through its territory that runs out on December 31. Slovakia and Hungary, which rely on Russian gas, have raised concerns about the prospect of losing supplies. Fico ended military aid to Ukraine when he became prime minister again in October 2023, and like Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban has called for peace talks. Fico announced in November that he would go to Moscow in May for ceremonies to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. …

Belgrade — Thousands protested Sunday in Serbia’s capital Belgrade to demand that leaders take responsibility for the collapse of a train station roof that killed 15 people last month. For over seven weeks, the Serbian government has been under pressure from nation-wide demonstrations following the deaths in the northern city of Novi Sad, with many protesters accusing authorities of corruption and inadequate oversight. Sunday’s protest organized by university students started with 15-minutes of silence as tribute to the 15 victims in the incident. The demonstration occupied Slavija square, a key roundabout, snarling traffic in the city center. “The state is children’s property” and “Protests are exams” read some of the banners of the demonstrators who have demanded that the prime minister and the Novi Sad mayor resign, and that those found responsible be prosecuted. Farmers, actors and other citizens from across Serbia have come to support the students. Students have also called for legal proceedings to be dropped against demonstrators, and for the prosecution of assailants who have attacked the protesters. In a bid to dilute the anger and calm the protests, the authorities over the past weeks have promised various subsidies for young people. On Friday, the government announced plans to close schools early for winter holidays. Students continued to protest, saying their demands have only been partially met. Fourteen people, aged between six and 74, were killed on November 1 when the roof collapsed after major renovation works on the station. A 15th victim died in hospital weeks later.  …

SAARISELKA, Finland — Russia poses a bigger threat to European Union security than just defense as Moscow can use illegal immigration and other issues to undermine the bloc, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday. Finland hosted the leaders of Italy, Sweden and Greece, as well as the EU foreign affairs chief, in its northern Lapland region at the weekend to discuss security in the Nordic region and the Mediterranean, as well as migration challenges in southern Europe. “We have to understand the threat is much wider than we imagine,” Meloni, who leads a conservative government, told a press conference when asked about Russia. The danger to EU security from Russia or from elsewhere would not stop once the Ukraine conflict ended and the EU must be prepared for that, she said. “It’s about our democracy, it’s about influencing our public opinion, it’s about what happens in Africa, it’s about raw materials, it’s about the instrumentalization of migration. We need to know it’s a very wide idea of security,” Meloni said. She urged the EU to do more to protect its borders and not let Russia or any “criminal organization” steer the flows of illegal migrants. Some EU members, including Finland and Estonia, have accused Russia of allowing illegal migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere to enter EU states via Russia without proper checks, undermining the EU’s security. Moscow has denied Russia was deliberately pushing illegal migrants into the EU. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said securing his country’s 1,340-km border with Russia was “an existential” question for Finland and for other EU members and NATO allies. Meloni said the EU had been wrong in dealing with the issue of immigration over the years simply in terms of how to share the burden. “Tackling the issue of illegal immigration solely as a solidarity-based debate was a mistake,” she said. “The result is that we have been unable to protect our borders. … We want to defend our external borders and we will not allow Russia or criminal organizations to undermine our security.” While NATO remained “the cornerstone” of EU security, the bloc had to tackle wider challenges, Meloni said. “Security also means critical infrastructure, it means artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, raw materials, supply chains. It means a new and more effective foreign and cooperation policy, it means migration,” she said.   …

MAGDEBURG, GERMANY — German authorities received a warning last year about the suspected perpetrator in a car attack at a Christmas market, a government office said Sunday as more details emerged about the five people killed in the attack.  “This was taken seriously, like every other of the numerous tips,” the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said Sunday on X about the tip it said it received in the late summer of last year.  But the office also noted that it is not an investigative authority and that it referred the information to the responsible authorities, following the procedure in such cases. It gave no other details about the suspect or the nature of the warnings.  Police in Magdeburg, the central city where the attack took place on Friday evening, said Sunday that those who died were four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, as well as a 9-year-old boy they had spoken of a day earlier.  Authorities said 200 people were injured, including 41 in serious condition. They were being treated in multiple hospitals in Magdeburg, which is about 130 kilometers west of Berlin, and beyond.  Authorities have identified the suspect in the Magdeburg attack as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.  Saturday evening, the suspect was brought before a judge who, behind closed doors, ordered that he be kept in custody pending a possible indictment.  Police haven’t publicly named the suspect, but several German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.  Describing himself as an ex-Muslim, the suspect appears to have been an active user of the social media platform X, sharing dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who had left the faith.  He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he referred to as the “Islamification of Europe.” He also appears to have been a supporter of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party.  The horror triggered by yet another act of mass violence in Germany make it likely that migration will remain a key issue as German heads toward an early election on February 23.  Right-wing figures from across Europe have criticized German authorities for having allowed high levels of migration in the … “German authorities received a warning last year about the suspect in Christmas market attack “ →

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — French President Emmanuel Macron said his country supports Ethiopia’s quest for access to the sea through discussion and respecting international laws and neighboring countries. Macron spoke on Saturday after a one-day visit to Addis Ababa, where he held bilateral talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. During a news conference, Macron welcomed the Ankara Declaration reached by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Federal Republic of Somalia on Dec. 11. In the declaration, brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “the leaders of Somalia and Ethiopia reaffirmed their respect and commitment to one another’s sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity, as well as the principles enshrined in international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the Constitutive Act of the African Union.” The two sides also agreed to start “technical negotiations” by February on details of Ethiopia’s sea access, and that those negotiations would be facilitated by Turkey and be “concluded and signed” within four months. The breakthrough came after an almost yearlong dispute between Somalia and Ethiopia that began Jan. 1 when Somaliland’s former president, Muse Bihi Abdi, and Ethiopia’s Abiy signed a memorandum of understanding to lease 20 kilometers of Somaliland seafront to Ethiopia for 50 years, in return for diplomatic recognition. The Somali government rejected the deal and accused Ethiopia of a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. On Saturday, President Macron expressed his readiness to support Ethiopia’s legitimate quest for sea access. He said France is interested in playing its part in facilitating ways in which sea access can be achieved responsibly through talks, in a way that recognizes international laws and respects neighboring countries. Abiy said the two leaders have thoroughly discussed his country’s pursuit of peaceful access to the Red Sea. He said the French president accepted Ethiopia’s request for support in its quest for sea access through international law, peacefully and diplomatically. “The ties between our two nations continue to be strengthened and I look forward to our discussions during his stay in Ethiopia,” Abiy said of Macron in a post on X. Macron also touched on a domestic issue in Ethiopia: the implementation of the Pretoria agreement signed in November 2022 by Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front that ended a deadly two-year war. Macron said France is keen to support those affected by the conflict and would like to see … “France supports Ethiopia’s quest for sea access through discussion” →

TIRANA, ALBANIA — Albania’s prime minister said Saturday the government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children.  Albanian authorities held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents following the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel that started on TikTok.  Prime Minister Edi Rama, speaking at a meeting with teachers and parents, said TikTok “would be fully closed for all. … There will be no TikTok in the Republic of Albania.” Rama said the shutdown would begin sometime next year.  It was not immediately clear if TikTok has a representative in Albania.  In an email response Saturday to a request for comment, TikTok asked for “urgent clarity from the Albanian government” on the case of the stabbed teenager. The company said it had “found no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts, and multiple reports have in fact confirmed videos leading up to this incident were being posted on another platform, not TikTok.”  Albanian children comprise the largest group of TikTok users in the country, according to domestic researchers.  There has been increasing concern from Albanian parents after reports of children taking knives and other objects to school to use in quarrels or cases of bullying promoted by stories they see on TikTok.  TikTok’s operations in China, where its parent company is based, are different, “promoting how to better study, how to preserve nature … and so on,” according to Rama.  Albania is too small a country to impose on TikTok a change of its algorithm so that it does not promote “the reproduction of the unending hell of the language of hatred, violence, bullying and so on,” Rama’s office wrote in an email response to The Associated Press’ request for comment. Rama’s office said that in China TikTok “prevents children from being sucked into this abyss.”  Authorities have set up a series of protective measures at schools, starting with an increased police presence, training programs and closer cooperation with parents.  Rama said Albania would follow how the company and other countries react to the one-year shutdown before deciding whether to allow the company to resume operations in Albania.  Not everyone agreed with Rama’s decision to close TikTok.  “The dictatorial decision to close the social media platform TikTok … is a grave act against freedom of speech and democracy,” said Ina … “Albania to shut down TikTok for 1 year, says platform promotes violence among children” →

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.  Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican’s various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza.  “Yesterday, children were bombed,” the pope said. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”  The pope, as the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been designated a terror group by the United States, the U.K. and other Western countries.  In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”  Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope’s remarks amounted to a “trivialization” of the term genocide.  On Saturday, Francis also said that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.  The patriarch’s office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope’s remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.  The Israeli military said on Saturday the patriarch’s entry had been approved, and he would enter Gaza on Sunday, barring any major security issues. Aid from the patriarch’s office entered last week, the military said.   Israel allows clerics to enter Gaza and “works in cooperation with the Christian community to make it easier for the Christian population that remains in the Gaza Strip — including coordinating its removal from the Gaza Strip to a third country,” a statement from the military said.  The war began when Hamas-led Palestinian militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.  Israel’s retaliatory campaign, which it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas, has killed more than 45,000 … “Pope describes Israeli airstrikes of Gaza as ‘cruelty’” →

MOSCOW — The airport in the Russian city of Kazan reopened on Saturday after temporarily closing earlier in the day following a Ukrainian drone attack, Russia’s aviation watchdog said.  Russian state news agencies reported the drone attack on a residential complex and other areas in Kazan, some 800 kilometers east of Moscow.  The Defense Ministry said the city had been attacked by three waves of drones between 7:40 a.m. and 9:20 a.m. (0440 and 0620 GMT). It said three drones were destroyed by air defense systems and three others by electronic warfare systems.  There were no casualties reported, agencies said, citing local authorities. The mayor of Kazan said on Telegram that all planned mass events in the city would be canceled over the weekend and that authorities would offer temporary accommodation to evacuees.  The Baza Telegram channel, which is close to Russia’s security services, published unverified video footage showing an aerial object crashing into a high-rise building, producing a large fireball.  Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the attack, saying Ukraine was “taking out its impotent anger for real military defeats on the peaceful population of Russia.”  Airports in Izhevsk, a smaller city northeast of Kazan, and Saratov, some 650 kilometers south of Kazan, had also temporarily halted flight arrivals and departures, Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said via Telegram.  Restrictions at the airports were later lifted, Rosaviatsia said.  …

PARIS — France connected the Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor to its grid on Saturday morning, state-run operator EDF said, in the first addition to the country’s nuclear power network in 25 years. The reactor, which began operating in September ahead of the grid connection, is going online 12 years later than originally planned and at a cost of about $13 billion — four times the original budget. “EDF teams have achieved the first connection of the Flamanville EPR to the national grid at 11:48 a.m. The reactor is now generating electricity,” EDF said in a statement. The Flamanville 3 European Pressurized Reactor is France’s largest at 1.6 gigawatts and one of the world’s biggest, along with China’s 1.75 GW Taishan reactor, which is based on a similar design, and Finland’s Olkiluoto. It is the first to be connected to the grid since COVAX 2 in 1999 but is being brought into service at a time of sluggish consumption, with France exporting a record amount of electricity this year. EDF is planning to build six new reactors to fulfill a 2022 pledge made by President Emmanuel Macron as part of the country’s energy transition plans, although questions remain around the funding and timeline of the new projects. …

MAGDEBURG, GERMANY — Germans on Saturday mourned a violent attack and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove a black BMW into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least two people, including a small child, and injuring at least 60 others. Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany for nearly two decades, practicing medicine, officials said. Several German media outlets identified the man as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy. There were still no answers Saturday as to what caused him to drive into a crowd in the eastern German city of Magdeburg. Describing himself as a former Muslim, he shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith. He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.” Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers. Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann said he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile. “After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar,” Neumann, the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at King’s College London, wrote on X. The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin, where a truck attack on a Christmas market in 2016 killed 12 people, kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser were due to … “Germans mourn attack on Christmas market with no answers about why” →

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday added the 27 countries that make up the European Union to the list of trade partners he’s threatening with tariffs — unless the group takes steps to import more U.S. goods.  “I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas,” Trump posted shortly after 1 a.m. on social media. “Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!”  In 2023, the United States’ trade imbalance with the EU on goods was $209 billion, according to the Census Bureau. There were $576 billion in imports from Europe and $367 billion in exports from the United States.  Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions seeking greater clarity on the message, which for all its bluntness was unclear on next steps.  When Trump threatened Canada and Mexico with 25% tariffs in November, the leaders of both countries spoke with him to try to resolve any tensions. But the European Union lacks a single figure who can make the purchase commitments of natural gas and oil on behalf of its 27 member states that Trump is seeking.  EU Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said in reaction to Trump’s post that “we are ready to discuss with President-elect Trump how we can further strengthen an already strong relationship, including by discussing our common interests in the energy sector.”  Gill noted that the EU is already “committed to phasing out energy imports from Russia and diversifying our sources of supply. We’re not going to go into any details about what that might entail in the future, given that the new administration isn’t even in place yet.”  Scott Lincicome, a vice president at the libertarian Cato Institute, said it was difficult to parse what Trump was trying to say relative to European trade, given that natural gas exports to the continent are already up after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.  “What we really need to chalk all of this up to is Trump laying the groundwork for future negotiations,” Lincicome said. “This is for better or worse a lot of what we’re going to see for the next four years.”  While there is a $209 billion trade imbalance, a more complicated relationship lies beneath those numbers. A company such as German automaker BMW can import parts needed to assemble vehicles at its … “Trump adds EU to list of trade partners he threatens with tariffs” →