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French President Emmanuel Macron vowed on Sunday that 2024 will be a year of French pride and hope, marked by the Paris Olympic Games and the re-opening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, in his traditional New Year’s Eve address from the Élysée Palace in the French capital.

From a devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey to a march on Moscow and the war against Hamas in Gaza, 2023 was full of dramatic moments, from the heartfelt to the heartbreaking. FRANCE 24 takes a look back at 12 key events that defined the year in news. 

Thousands of protesters gathered Saturday in Belgrade in the biggest of a series of rallies against alleged electoral fraud.

More than a dozen people were killed by Ukrainian strikes on the Russian provincial capital of Belgorod, Russia’s emergencies ministry said Saturday, with the Russian defence ministry vowing the strike “will not go unpunished”. 

Your early morning caffeine fix could improve your relationship.

A celebrity-studded “Almost Naked” party in Moscow’s famed Mutabor nightclub has drawn outrage from Russia’s political establishment, which has become increasingly po-faced since the assault on Ukraine.

While wars are fought between armies or militant groups, conflicts have their keyboard warriors too. It is estimated that more than half of the world uses social media, and many people do not go to traditional media as a source of information at all. As social media use increases, unease has grown among EU decision-makers about the power of these platforms to potentially distort people’s view of the world. The EU has tried to regulate on disinformation through the Digital Services Act (DSA), but how successful has that effort been? Our panellists assess the impact of the DSA and raise other issues that are connected to disinformation, such as spyware and election interference.

A mobster from the Neapolitan criminal clan known as the Camorra is amongst the criminals on the run.

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, currently serving a 19-year prison sentence, has been transferred to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. The IK-3 penal colony, located in Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 km (1200 miles) northeast of Moscow, is considered to be one of the toughest prisons in Russia. Penal colonies are descendants of Soviet-era Gulags, the notorious Stalin-era labour camps where thousands of Russians lost their lives.

Tributes from across Europe poured in for Jacques Delors, a former EU Commission chief who played an instrumental role in European integration, following his death on Wednesday (December 27) at 98.

France has declared two employees of Azerbaijan’s embassy persona non grata in a move of “reciprocity”, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Poland’s political battle over state media continued on Wednesday as the new pro-European Union government put them in a state of liquidation in response to the president’s rejection of funding for them.

The iconic landmark normally sees about 20,000 visitors per day this time of year.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, who served as a member of the German parliament for over half a century, has died aged 81, ending one of Germany’s longest political careers in which he helped secure his country’s place at the heart of Europe.

The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee gave its consent to Sweden’s bid to join NATO on Tuesday, drawing the previously nonaligned Nordic country closer to membership in the Western military alliance. Sweden’s accession protocol will now need to be approved in the Turkish parliament’s general assembly for the last stage of the legislative process in Turkey. “Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s joining NATO is linked to the US Senate’s approval of Turkey buying 14 F-16 fighter bombers from America”, FRANCE 24’s Jasper Mortimer said, adding that the Senate’s approval is contingent on Turkey ratifying Sweden’s NATO membership.

Nearly 60 French actors and other prominent figures have denounced the “lynching” of disgraced film legend Gerard Depardieu, who is charged with rape and is facing a litany of other sexual assault claims. FRANCE 24 Reporter Clovis Casali said the signatories included, “actresses like Carole Bouquet, Charlotte Rampling; singers Carla Bruni, Jacques Dutronc; many of them long-time friends of Gerard Depardieu”. Casali added: “it’s not the young generations, it’s more the old guard, if I may.” 

A key committee in the Turkish parliament on Tuesday approved Sweden’s bid to join NATO after months of delays, clearing another hurdle in the Nordic country’s accession process in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

Nearly 60 French actors and other prominent figures have denounced the “lynching” of disgraced cinema legend Gerard Depardieu, who is charged with rape and facing a litany of sexual assault claims. Last week French President Emmanuel Macron said Depardieu had become the target of a “manhunt”, while his family has denounced an “unprecedented conspiracy” against him. FRANCE 24’s Philip Turle brings you this analysis

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday said he was “fine” after a “pretty exhausting” 20-day transfer from his prison near Moscow to a penal colony beyond the Arctic Circle.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed the country’s troops took Mariinka near Donetsk.

Protesters tried to storm Belgrade’s city council building Sunday, using stones, flag-poles and eggs to break the building’s windows. Tensions ran high on Christmas Eve in Serbia’s capital as thousands of people came out to protest the results of this month’s elections. 

Serbian police said Monday they have detained at least 38 people who took part in a protest against reported widespread irregularities during a recent general ballot that declared the governing populists as winners of the parliamentary and local councils’ elections. 

‘Sixty-five years since the tragedy, we are no closer to solving the Dyatlov Pass mystery.’

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been moved to a penal colony in the Arctic, allies said on Monday after over two weeks during which his whereabouts were unknown.

Pope Francis on Monday deplored the desperate humanitarian situation of Palestinians in Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire and the freeing of hostages in his Christmas message.