In an interview published on Wednesday, the pope had said being homosexual was "not a crime ... but it’s a sin".

"Nothing has been decided at this time regarding my visit to Ukraine," he told parliament.

Erdogan's furious comments further distanced the prospects of Sweden and Finland joining the Western defence alliance before Turkey's presidential and parliamentary polls in May.

Speculation has been growing in Russian media about Putin's plans for 2024, when a new election is due under Russia's constitutional rules. 

A US-led meeting of some 50 Ukraine allies came through with billions of dollars' worth of military hardware, including ample armored vehicles and munitions needed to push back Russian forces.

The since-deleted headline was posted Thursday on Twitter with a link to an article by BBC World, the UK broadcaster's global newsroom.

The penalty follows a 390 million euro fine for Meta-owned media platforms Instagram and Facebook two weeks ago after they were found to have flouted the same EU rules.

In a post on Telegram discussing NATO support for the Ukrainian military, Medvedev said: "Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends."

Germany will allow German-made tanks to be sent to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia if the United States agrees to send its own tanks, a report says. 

The announcement came hours German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht resigned after months of criticism over Berlin's stuttering response to the war in Ukraine as well as a series of gaffes.

"The first Poseidon ammunition loads have been manufactured, and the Belgorod submarine will receive them in the near future," TASS quoted the source as saying.

President Vladimir Putin's move to replace his top commander in Ukraine is a sign of military disarray and his growing impatience in a war Russia is not winning, analysts said.

The deficit reached 3.3 trillion rubles ($47 billion), or 2.3 percent of gross domestic product, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told a government meeting. 

"The will of the Brazilian people and the democratic institutions must be respected!" he tweeted.

Pope Francis will preside Thursday over the funeral of his predecessor Benedict XVI at the Vatican, an unprecedented event in modern times expected to draw tens of thousands of people.

Benedict's funeral will be "solemn but simple", the Vatican has said, after which he will be buried in the papal tombs under St Peter's Basilica.

Many were ready to set aside pinched budgets and a virus that is increasingly forgotten but not gone, and embrace a party atmosphere on New Year's Eve after a few pandemic-dampened years.

Former pope Benedict XVI has died at the age of 95, the Vatican announced Saturday, almost a decade after he became the first pontiff to resign in six centuries.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday officially apologised for the Dutch state's involvement in slavery in its former colonies, calling it a "crime against humanity".

Ukrainians generally celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7 in common with Russians, but the country's Orthodox church has gradually shifted from Moscow's orbit in recent years.

Two people were killed and four injured in a shooting in central Paris on Friday, police and prosecutors said, adding that the shooter, in his 60s, had been arrested.

The UN Security Council called for Myanmar's junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday as it adopted its first ever resolution on the situation in the turmoil-ridden Southeast Asian country.

Dutch involvement with slavery went hand-in-hand with the expansion of its colonial and trading interests across the globe in the 17th century, referred to in the Netherlands as the "Golden Age".

Prime Minister Mark Rutte is giving a speech on slavery in The Hague in what he has called a "meaningful moment" while Dutch ministers are travelling to seven former colonies in South America and the Caribbean for the event.

Macron watched France's semi-final victory over Morocco before flying to Brussels overnight to attend an EU summit.

President Jokowi is likely to leverage Indonesia's position as ASEAN chair during the upcoming ASEAN-EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, experts say, amid disagreements on trade policies.

The incident comes amid worries that power blackouts could cripple infrastructure in France as the first cold snap of the winter tests the resilience of the power network. 

Putin has rarely spoken about the duration of a war that he began more than nine months ago but told loyalists in a televised meeting on Wednesday it could go on for some time yet.

"The chancellor urged the Russian president to come as quickly as possible to a diplomatic solution including the withdrawal of Russian troops," according to the German leader's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

The US president and first lady Jill Biden held a sumptuous, star-studded White House state dinner, featuring music from Jon Batiste and Chardonnay from the Napa Valley, in honor of President Macron and his wife, Brigitte.