Author: News Desk

Thousands of Israelis staged a protest on Saturday to demand that the remaining hostages still being held in Gaza be released. There has been guarded optimism in recent days that a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Gaza might finally be within reach after more than 14 months of war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.  Thousands of Israelis protest in Tel Aviv for Gaza hostage deal

The United Kingdom became the 12th member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, as of Sunday. 

In a significant move for global religious freedom, the UK Government has appointed David Smith MP as its new Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB). This appointment, announced in early December 2024, signals the government’s commitment to advancing religious liberty across the globe and responds to increasing concerns over the persecution of religious minorities in many parts of the world. Smith, a Conservative MP with a strong track record on human rights issues, takes on a critical role at a time when religious freedoms face unprecedented challenges worldwide. A Crucial Appointment for Religious Freedom The new position…

South Korea’s opposition leader urged the Constitutional Court to rule swiftly on a bid to remove president Yoon Suk Yeol from office, the day after parliament voted to impeach him over a short-lived attempt to impose martial law.Mr Yoon’s powers will be suspended until the court rules on the case, either removing Mr Yoon from office or restoring his powers.The court has up to 180 days to decide, and if he is dismissed, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, told reporters on Sunday that a…

Thousands of people dressed as Father Christmas jammed streets, pavements and bars around the world on Saturday for annual SantaCon charity pub crawls.In New York City, where temperatures hovered around freezing, the merriment kicked off at about 10am and was expected to stretch into the evening.Santas and others dressed as Grinches and elves strolled to bars and clubs, flooding the streets with a crimson tide of Christmas cheer. New York SantaCon” srcset=”https://content.assets.pressassociation.io/AP/2024/12/14/6cccb6e5a563454fadeb88005d8d41a1.jpg?w=320 320w, https://content.assets.pressassociation.io/AP/2024/12/14/6cccb6e5a563454fadeb88005d8d41a1.jpg?w=640 640w, https://content.assets.pressassociation.io/AP/2024/12/14/6cccb6e5a563454fadeb88005d8d41a1.jpg?w=1280 1280w”/> Revellers in New York (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)“The NYC SantaCon is a charitable, non-commercial, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year…

In rocky circumstances, a name finally came out of the hat on Friday, December 13: François Bayrou, the president of the Macron-aligned MoDem party, became France’s new prime minister at 73.

Over a year after he visited Marseille, Pope Francis returns to the Mediterranean shores. Whereas his predecessor , on September 12, 2008, inaugurated the Collège des Bernardins in Paris with a major address on the sources of European culture, Francis is coming to close a congress devoted to popular religion. The various aspects of this trip seem consistent with his way of doing things. Why choose Corsica over Paris [and the reopening of Notre-Dame]? Let’s not be too quick to see this as a feud with France, despite a few unfortunate past statements (“I’m going to Marseille and not to…

He is a man of faith. And he refuses to think that he sacrificed himself gratuitously. Oriol Junqueras believes that, if he sacrificed himself by going to prison, there must be a humane and fair counterpart, a gesture of affection that would fill his existence with meaning: obtaining the grateful vote of the Catalans to be president of the Generalitat.At the moment, it doesn’t seem like things are going that way. According to the latest survey by the Center for Opinion Studies – the Catalan CIS – only 17% of Esquerra voters want Junqueras to lead the Government. In other…

Although it was the Embassy in Paris that contacted the Elysée to inform that Don Felipe could not go to the inauguration of the cathedral, they claimed not to know anything. Read Foreign Affairs allowed Zarzuela to slip up in Notre Dame

Bundestag member Klaus Stöber is running for state chairman against Björn Höcke at the Thuringian AfD party conference – and accuses him of deliberate provocations and egocentrism on the open stage. The members’ reactions are clear.Klaus Stöber only has two minutes to settle scores with Björn Höcke on Saturday. “I know that I cannot win this election,” he said at the beginning of his speech at the state party conference of the Thuringian AfD in Arnstadt. “But I would like to use my speaking time to clarify a few things.” The member of the Bundestag is running this evening in…