World News

Multiple injuries are feared after a car was driven into a crowd of people outside a primary school in China's southern Hunan province.

State media said "several students and adults were injured and fell to the ground", and several people were hospitalised, but a police statement later said there were no life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the vehicle - identified as a white SUV - was caught by parents and school security officers and handed over to police.

This is the third attack on a crowd in China in a week, and it has fuelled concerns about public safety.

(edit: I just saw that this about a week old, I first thought it's something very recent)

Summary

Two massive explosions occurred near Russia's Arctic naval base in Severomorsk, home to the Northern Fleet, sparking speculation about the cause.

The blasts were near key military sites, including airfields, ammunition depots, and electronic warfare installations. While the cause remains unknown, theories include sabotage, munitions disposal, or UAV strikes.

The base is crucial for Arctic sea route control, nuclear submarines, and missile operations, including Kalibr strikes on Ukraine.

If Ukraine is responsible, the attack could escalate the war, especially if long-range weapons were used.

Summary

A Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing five people, including a child, and injuring over 200.

The 50-year-old suspect, who had lived in Germany for nearly two decades, expressed anti-Islam views and supported far-right politics. Authorities believe he acted alone.

The attack shocked Germany, prompting other towns to cancel Christmas markets and increasing security measures nationwide.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz mourned the victims, and a memorial service is planned. Saudi Arabia condemned the attack, calling it a tragedy.

Summary

Elon Musk sparked outrage in Germany by endorsing the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on his platform, X, claiming “only the AfD can save Germany.”

The AfD, which polls second ahead of Germany’s February snap election, has been labeled extremist by German intelligence.

Political leaders accused Musk of election interference, while others criticized his remarks as harmful. Musk later doubled down, calling for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s resignation.

Musk’s comments align with his past support for far-right and anti-immigration figures across Europe and beyond.

Summary

Tesla’s European market share is declining sharply, with EU registrations dropping 40.9% in November 2024 compared to last year, and year-to-date registrations down 15.2%.

Including the UK and EFTA, Tesla’s registrations fell 13.7% this year.

The drop stems from reduced government EV incentives and growing dissatisfaction with CEO Elon Musk.

Despite Tesla’s decline, overall EV registrations in Europe have remained stable as competing automakers gain ground. Tesla remains the largest EV producer in Europe but faces growing pressure from rivals capitalizing on its waning dominance.

Summary

Buruli ulcer, a flesh-eating bacterial infection, is spreading in Melbourne’s suburbs, prompting warnings.

Cases in 2024 remain high, with 344 reported so far, slightly fewer than 362 in 2023.

The disease causes painless lumps or wounds that progress into destructive ulcers, with the elderly most affected.

The bacteria is transmitted via mosquitoes, and possums are known carriers.

Residents are advised to use insect repellents, wear protective clothing, and avoid mosquito-prone areas to minimize risk.

Summary

Jagmeet Singh announced plans to introduce a motion to topple Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.

Singh's announcement comes after a difficult week for Trudeau, who is facing growing calls to resign from his own Liberal Party following the exit of his most senior cabinet minister.

The move marks a turn for the NDP leader, whose centre-left party helped prop up Trudeau's minority government in exchange for support on their shared political priorities.

Summary

Eight people were convicted in France for their roles in the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty, killed after showing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad during a free expression lesson.

Convictions included aiding the attacker, a Chechen-Russian teen shot by police, and leading an online hate campaign. Sentences ranged up to 16 years.

The case highlighted France’s commitment to free speech and secularism but drew criticism from Paty’s family over downgraded charges and defendants’ lack of accountability.

The attack followed global protests and threats linked to caricatures republished by Charlie Hebdo.

Summary

A car ploughed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing at least two people, including a child, and injuring 68 others, 15 critically, in what authorities are treating as a terror attack.

The suspect, identified as Taleb A., a Saudi Arabian psychiatrist living in Germany since 2006, was arrested at the scene. He allegedly drove a rented BMW through the crowded market, targeting families and children.

The attack raised concerns about security at Christmas markets despite preventive measures like bollards. German and French leaders expressed shock and condolences.

This incident follows heightened vigilance since a 2016 truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed 13 people.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — 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!!!”

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Santa Claus is coming to town ... on a Jet Ski.

Dozens of children with disability gathered on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach on Tuesday to receive presents — and joy — from the white-bearded man himself, a joint effort by the city’s firefighters and nonprofit associations.

Under 27 Celsius degrees (80 Fahrenheit), firefighter sargeant Thiago Carvalho de Paiva wore Santa Claus costumes in tropical Rio, moving through the water as beachgoers cheered.

Summary

Elon Musk expressed support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on X, stating “Only the AfD can save Germany.”

Party leader Alice Weidel welcomed his endorsement, urging followers to review her criticisms of German politics.

The AfD, polling at 19% ahead of February’s federal election, is officially under scrutiny as an extremist group by German authorities.

Musk has previously questioned the party’s “far-right” label. Controversy surrounds the AfD, including links to a meeting discussing deportation of migrants.

Summary

Donald Trump has demanded the European Union reduce its $131.3 billion U.S. trade deficit by purchasing more American oil and gas or face tariffs.

Trump’s comments, posted on Truth Social, come as the EU works to phase out Russian energy imports and diversify suppliers.

EU officials, while open to U.S. energy imports, criticized Trump’s approach as transactional, warning of potential retaliation.

Analysts highlight risks of tariffs to inflation and global trade. The EU plans to engage pragmatically but has prepared for heightened U.S. protectionism under Trump’s leadership.

Summary

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a televised year-end press conference, said Russia should have invaded Ukraine earlier with better preparation.

He defended his policies, highlighting strengthened ties with China, Russia’s aggressive nuclear doctrine, and military gains in Ukraine, while dismissing claims of setbacks.

Putin claimed economic "stability" despite sanctions but acknowledged 9.1% inflation.

He emphasized “sovereignty” as a key success of reducing Western reliance.

The press conference was highly choreographed and tightly controlled.

Bashar al-Assad’s face has been ripped away from posters at the abandoned checkpoint that separates Sheikh Maqsoud, a neighbourhood in the north of Aleppo, from the rest of the city. No cars dare use the wide boulevard any more because the road is still watched by Kurdish snipers allied to the regime. The units retreated into the warren of bombed and burnt-out buildings when Islamist rebel groups launched an unprecedented attack on the city at the end of November, triggering a chain reaction that led to the swift collapse of the Assad dynasty.

Civilians hurry past, some with small children in pushchairs, others rolling cooking gas canisters down the road, all trying not to attract undue attention. A man had been shot and killed here the night before, picked off from the upper floor of a windowless apartment block. Aleppo fell to an umbrella of Sunni Arab factions led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) three weeks ago, but the Kurdish units stationed in Sheikh Maqsoud refused to surrender when HTS came in, afraid of what would happen if they surrendered. Now, they appear to be waiting for something to shift in Syria’s new and fragile status quo.

But a decade on from the Guardian’s last visit, during the four-year-long battle for Aleppo between the Assad regime and rebel forces, it is clear that Syria’s vicious civil war has ripped it apart, tearing at the social fabric and wreaking physical destruction that cannot easily be mended. At least 30,000 people were killed here, hundreds of thousands more lives ruined, and centuries’ worth of priceless human heritage has been destroyed for ever.

Aleppo quickly became one of the most dangerous places on Earth: jihadist groups infiltrated what began as a nationalist uprising, turning it into an ideological battle with seismic impact both inside and outside Syria’s borders. Vladimir Putin intervened in the war on Assad’s behalf in 2015, turning the tide, adding Russian airpower to the Syrian barrel bombs dropped on east Aleppo’s hospitals and White Helmet rescue workers.

Summary

Kenyan business student Nelson Amenya leaked documents in July exposing a proposed $2 billion deal between Kenya and India’s Adani Group to lease and modernize Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

Amenya criticized the deal as financially skewed against Kenya and lacking transparency, sparking public outrage and strikes by JKIA workers.

Though Adani denied wrongdoing, Kenya canceled the airport deal after U.S. authorities indicted Adani’s founder for bribery.

Amenya faces defamation lawsuits and threats but remains resolute, calling his actions a duty to fight corruption in Kenya.

Summary

Malaysia announced it will resume the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared in 2014 with 239 people aboard.

The government accepted a proposal by US exploration firm Ocean Infinity to search a 15,000-square-kilometer area in the southern Indian Ocean.

If significant wreckage is found, Ocean Infinity will receive $70 million. Two prior searches, including one in 2018, yielded no results.

Families of the victims, including over 150 Chinese passengers, continue to seek closure and compensation from involved companies.

Cyclone Chido swept through Mayotte, which lies between Madagascar and Mozambique, on 14 December, destroying vital infrastructure and flattening many of the tin-roofed shacks that make up its large slums. Almost a week after its worst storm in 90 years, France’s poorest territory still has shortages of water.

Throughout Thursday, the French president was confronted by angry Mahorais demanding to know why aid had not yet reached them. At one point he told a crowd: “You are happy to be in France. If this wasn’t France, you’d be in a bath of shit 10,000 times worse. There is no other place in the Indian Ocean where people are helped as much, that’s a fact.”

Summary

A New York man, Chen Jinping, pleaded guilty to operating an undeclared Chinese police station in Manhattan for China’s Ministry of Public Security.

The station, part of a transnational repression scheme, aided Beijing in locating and suppressing pro-democracy activists in the U.S., violating American sovereignty.

Authorities say the station also served routine functions like renewing Chinese driving licenses but had a more sinister role, including tracking a California-based activist.

Chen faces up to five years in prison, while a co-defendant has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.

Summary

Quebec has passed a law banning the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Starting in 2034, advertising gas-powered vehicles of the 2035 model year or later will be prohibited, and by the end of 2035, selling or leasing new gas-powered vehicles will be banned.

Exceptions include emergency, rental, and off-road vehicles, while used gas-powered cars can still be resold and driven.

Quebec aims for 2 million EVs on its roads by 2030, though challenges remain as EV rebates phase out starting in 2025.