🇰🇵N Korea fires first ballistic missile in two months - 🇰🇷Seoul
North Korea has fired what appears to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile towards the sea to its east, South Korea's military said, in what is Pyongyang's first missile launch in two months.
The missile flew 1,100km before falling into the sea, the military said, adding that it "strongly condemns" this "clear act of provocation".
The launch comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Seoul for talks with some of South Korea's key leaders.
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🇬🇧Musk says Farage 'doesn't have what it takes' to be Reform UK leader
Elon Musk has called for Nigel Farage to be replaced as leader of Reform UK, just weeks after reports the multi-billionaire was in talks to donate to the party.
In a post on his social media site X, Musk said Farage "doesn't have what it takes" to lead the party - but did not explain his reasoning.
Farage suggested this was due to a disagreement over Musk's support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
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🇦🇹Austria's chancellor to quit as coalition talks collapse
Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer says he will resign in the coming days, both as chancellor and party leader, after talks about forming a coalition government collapsed.
The chancellor said his party - the conservative People's Party (ÖVP) - and the Social Democrats had failed to agree on key issues.
The liberal Neos, another party involved in the talks, also pulled out on Friday.
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🇰🇷A dawn stand-off, a human wall and a failed arrest: South Korea enters uncharted territory
The stand-off started long before dawn. By the time we arrived in the dark, an army of police had pushed back suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol's angry supporters, who'd camped out overnight hoping to stop his arrest. Some of those I spoke to were crying, others wailing, at what they feared was about to unfold.
As dawn broke, the first officers ran up to the house, but were instantly thwarted - blocked by a wall of soldiers protecting the compound. Reinforcements came, but could not help. The doors to Yoon's house stayed tightly sealed, his security team refusing the police officers entry.
For several hours the investigators waited, the crowds outside growing more agitated - until, after a series of scuffles between the police and security officials, they decided their mission was futile, and gave up.
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🇺🇸Johnson re-elected as House Speaker in razor-tight margin
Republican Mike Johnson survived a razor-thin vote to remain House Speaker in a drama-filled, highly-anticipated vote that marked the start of complete Republican control in Washington.
Johnson could only afford to lose two votes because of the tight margin of control Republicans have in Congress. While he came close to losing re-election, he survived the vote after some lobbying.
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🇲🇩Moldova faces energy crisis as flow of Russian gas ends
On New Year's Day, Russian gas stopped flowing through Ukraine.
Kyiv is calling it a "historic" day as its refusal to extend a transit agreement with Russia's Gazprom has halted the return flow of cash to fund the full-scale invasion of Ukraine
But in neighbouring Moldova, the move threatens to cause a crisis.
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🇿🇼Zimbabwe abolishes death penalty
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa has approved a law that abolishes the death penalty in the southern African state with immediate effect.
Rights group Amnesty hailed the decision as a "beacon of hope for the abolitionist movement in the region", but expressed regret that the death penalty could be reinstated during a state of emergency.
Mnangagwa's move comes after Zimbabwe's parliament voted earlier in December to scrap the death penalty.
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🇰🇷Why was there a wall near runway at S Korea plane crash airport?
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🇮🇳Rocket blasts off for India's first space-docking mission
An Indian-made rocket has blasted off from a site north of Chennai, carrying two satellites which will test space-docking.Docking is crucial for manned travel to the Moon or supporting a space station.
Announcing "the successful accomplishment" of the launch, Indian Space Research Organisation chief Sreedhara Somanath said the rocket had "placed the satellites in the right orbit".
The two spacecraft began testing processes on Tuesday and the final docking will take place around 7 January.India hopes to become only the fourth country with such technology, after Russia, the United States and China.
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🇰🇷South Korea has voted to impeach its acting president Han Duck-soo, two weeks after parliament voted to impeach its President Yoon Suk Yeol.
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🇷🇺Putin apologises for plane crash, without saying Russia at fault
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has apologised to the president of neighbouring Azerbaijan for the downing of a commercial airliner in Russian airspace, in which 38 people were killed - but stopped short of saying Russia was responsible.
In his first comments on the Christmas Day crash, Putin said the "tragic incident" had occurred when Russian air defence systems were actively repelling Ukrainian drones.
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🇸🇩Sudan slides deeper into famine, experts say
War-hit Sudan is sliding into a "widening famine crisis" that has been marked by worsening starvation and a surge in acute malnutrition, an independent group of food security experts says.
Famine has spread to five areas, with 24.6 million people - about half the population - in urgent need of food aid, the experts said.
The hunger crisis has been caused by the 20-month civil war that has devastated Sudan.
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🇺🇸Biden commutes most federal death sentences
US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates, switching their penalty to life in prison without parole.
The three excluded from the measure include the Boston Marathon bomber and the man who killed Jewish worshippers in 2018.
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🇮🇱Israel confirms it killed Hamas leader Haniyeh in Tehran
Israel's defence minister has for the first time acknowledged that Israel killed Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Israel Katz made the comments in a speech vowing to target the heads of the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen, which has been firing missiles and drones at Israel.
Haniyeh was killed in a building where he was staying in the Iranian capital in an attack widely attributed to Israel.
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🇳🇿Cook Islands wants its own passport. New Zealand says no
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🇬🇱🇺🇸Trump's eyeing Greenland - but other Arctic investment is frozen
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🇨🇱Chilean president makes historic trip to South Pole
Chile's President Gabriel Boric has become the first leader in the Americas to visit the South Pole, after arriving at a US base there.
The president said his visit to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station reaffirmed Chile's own claim to sovereignty over part of the Antarctic.
"This is a milestone for us," Boric said in footage shown on Chilean television, before adding "it's the first time a Chilean president has come to the South Pole and talked about Chile's Antarctic mission".
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🇺🇦Ukrainians can take up 18-month extension to stay
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🇬🇭Ghana opens up visa-free travel to all Africans
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😱New Orleans attacker did not act alone, FBI believes
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💵Crypto fugitive Do Kwon extradited to US over $40bn crash
A South Korean man accused of being responsible for a cryptocurrency crisis which cost investors $40bn (£31.8bn) has finally been extradited to the United States.
Do Kwon was the boss of Terraform, which operated two cryptocurrencies - TerraUSD and Luna - both of which collapsed in 2022, sparking a wider sell-off in the crypto market.
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🇺🇦Ukraine ends transit of Russian gas to EU
Russian gas supplies to EU states via Ukraine have ended after a five-year deal between Ukraine's gas transit operator Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom expired.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier that his country would not allow Russia to "earn additional billions on our blood" and had given the EU a year to prepare.
The European Commission said the continent's gas system was "resilient and flexible" and that it had sufficient capacity to cope with the end of transit via Ukraine.
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🇺🇸US to hold national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter
Former President Jimmy Carter's state funeral will take place on 9 January at the Washington National Cathedral, part of a national day of mourning for the longest-lived US president.
Walter Mondale, who served as Carter's vice-president, had intended to give the eulogy for his former boss, but he died in 2021. Mondale's son plans to read the eulogy at the funeral, according to the New York Times.
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🇰🇷Arrest warrant issued for impeached S Korea president Yoon
A Seoul court has issued an arrest warrant against South Korea's suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol over his attempt to impose martial law on 3 December.
The warrant comes after Yoon, who is being investigated for abusing his power and inciting an insurrection, ignored three summonses to appear for questioning over the past two weeks.
Yoon's legal team has called the warrant "illegal and invalid" and said they would challenge it in court.
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🇮🇳India mourns ex-PM Manmohan Singh with full state funeral
India has mourned one of its longest-serving prime ministers, Manmohan Singh, with a state funeral in Delhi.
Singh led the country from 2004 to 2014 and was considered the architect of India's economic liberalisation. He died on Thursday aged 92.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present at the ceremony on Saturday. He has called Singh one of the country's "most distinguished leaders".
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🇸🇾Protests in Syria over Christmas tree burning
Protests have broken out in Syria over the burning of a Christmas tree, prompting calls for the new Islamist authorities to take steps to protect minorities.
A video posted on social media showed the tree on fire in the main square of Suqaylabiyah, a Christian-majority town in central Syria.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main Islamist faction which led the uprising that toppled President Bashar al-Assad, said foreign fighters had been detained over the incident.
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🇲🇿Mozambique's opposition leader vows to install himself as president
Mozambique's main opposition leader, Venâncio Mondlane, has declared that he will install himself as president on 15 January after rejecting his defeat in presidential elections.
His announcement came as his supporters staged violent protests across the country to demand an end to the 49-year-rule of the Frelimo party.
The capital Maputo was like a ghost town on Christmas Eve, with almost all businesses shut and people staying at home to avoid being caught up in the worst unrest in the city since Frelimo rose to power at independence in 1975.
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🇬🇱Greenland again tells Trump it is not for sale
Greenland has once again said it is not for sale after US President-elect Donald Trump said he wanted to take control of the territory.
"Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland," its prime minister said on Monday, a day after Trump repeated comments about the Arctic island that he first made several years ago.
Greenland, which is an autonomous Danish territory, is home to a large US space facility and lies on the shortest route from the US to Europe, meaning it is strategically important for America.
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🇸🇰🇷🇺Slovak PM meets Putin in surprise Moscow visit
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has made a surprise visit to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin - becoming only the third Western leader to meet the Russian leader since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
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🇩🇪What we know so far about Magdeburg market attack
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