Elon Musk, a close ally of United States President-elect Donald Trump, last month endorsed a German anti-immigration, anti-Islamic political party ahead of that country's national elections in February, and recently made remarks on British politics.

Putin did admit that Russian air defences were at work when the passenger plane tried to land in Grozny before crashing, and the Kremlin said Putin apologised to Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev over the "tragic incident" in a phone call, but did not say Russian air defence shot the plane. 

In an effort to address manpower shortages, Ukrainian lawmakers in August approved an amnesty for first-time offenders who voluntarily returned to their units.

Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defense systems against Ukrainian attack drones, with at least 38 people were killed.

The crypto tycoon was arrested in March 2023 at the airport in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, while preparing to board a flight to Dubai, in possession of a fake Costa Rican passport.

The Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau, an oil and gas hub, on Wednesday after going off course for undetermined reasons.

The plane was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on the western shore of the Caspian to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia.

Russian missiles killed at least one person and damaged energy infrastructure across Ukraine, according to officials, who reported a massive Christmas attack.

In a sermon focused on the virtue of hope, which is also the theme of the Holy Year, the pontiff said hope "is a summons not to tarry, to be kept back by our old habits, or to wallow in mediocrity or laziness".

"I can tell you that the United States was not aware of it in advance and was not involved," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said of the killing of Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian army's chemical weapons division.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said earlier the US would continue to provide additional packages for Ukraine "right up to the end of this administration."

Speaking at Russia's flagship AI conference, Putin said the new AI Alliance Network would include national associations and development institutions in the field of AI from BRICS countries and other interested states. 

Analyses by Indonesian and German research bodies suggest that Indonesia has enough policies on the conservation of environment and climate that are in line with economic development, but lags behind in their implementation and enforcement. 

The money forms a significant chunk of the $50 billion in new loans finalized by Group of Seven advanced economies in October, aimed at helping Kyiv as it struggles to fight back against Moscow's ongoing invasion.

The data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) comes two weeks after UN climate talks yielded a $300-billion to tackle climate change, a package poorer countries blasted as insufficient to cover the soaring cost of climate-related disasters.

The presence of Trump and the outgoing president's family presented protocol planners with a headache so soon after one of the most bitter election campaigns in US history.

For nearly a month, the 71-year-old has sat aboard his small vessel embedded in grass on a hillside in France's central Loire region, tracking his progress against some 700,000 virtual participants in the famous Vendee Globe.

Amid grinding incremental progress, the talks were set to roll into 2025 without resolving some of the toughest sections.

Barnier, a veteran politician who was formerly the European Union's Brexit negotiator, will be the shortest-serving prime minister in modern French history after he hands in his resignation at around 10 am (0900 GMT). No French government had lost a confidence vote since Georges Pompidou's in 1962.

The ousting of the Barnier government after just three months in office would deepen the country's political crisis and present President Emmanuel Macron with the unenviable choice of picking a viable successor with over two years of his presidential term left.

The toppling of the Barnier government after just three months in office would present President Emmanuel Macron with the unenviable choice of picking a viable successor.

Sales of arms and military services by the world's 100 largest arms companies totalled $632 billion in 2023, up 4.2 percent, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Activists hope the legal opinion from the ICJ judges will have far-reaching consequences in the fight against climate change.

Notre Dame, which welcomed 12 million visitors in 2017, expects to receive an even higher figure of 14 to 15 million after the reopening, according to the church authorities.

The stakes were laid bare in a warning from Britain's foreign intelligence chief that Iran's nuclear ambitions posed a major global security threat, despite its weakened position after setbacks dealt to allies Hamas and Hezbollah.

The moves came as the country braces for legislative polls plus a run-off vote between a far-right admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a pro-European centrist contender.

Foreign Minister Sugiono this week met with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha in a bilateral meeting in Italy, where they discussed plans for peace amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

According to an official familiar with the plan, the Biden administration plans to provide a variety of anti-tank weapons from US stocks to blunt Russia's advancing troops, including land mines, drones, Stinger missiles and ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

Since she stepped down in 2021, Merkel has been accused of having been too soft on Russia, leaving Germany dangerously reliant on cheap Russian gas and sparking turmoil and the rise of the far right with her open-door migrant policy.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made his remarks after being asked to comment on an interview that Mike Waltz, Trump's pick for national security adviser, gave to Fox News on Sunday.