WORLD

The flow of Russian gas to several European countries was halted on New Year’s Day after Ukraine refused to renegotiate a transit deal amid war with Moscow. Ukraine’s unwillingness to renew the five-year-old transit agreement aims to rob Russia of revenue that Moscow can use to fund its war, but the move will likely create an energy crisis in Eastern Europe, with Transnistria – a breakaway Moldovan region – cutting heat and hot water supplies to households It brings to a final end what was once Russia’s dominance of the EU energy market,” Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, said. Before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia supplied some 35 percent of Europe’s pipeline natural gas exports With the shutdown of Russia’s oldest gas route to Eur...

Ivory Coast says French troops to leave country after decades In a televised address, President Alassane Ouattara announced the ‘organised withdrawal’ of French troops would begin almost immediately. Ivory Coast has announced that French troops will leave the country this month after a decades-long military presence, becoming the latest African nation to downscale military ties with its former coloniser. In an end-of-year address to the nation on Tuesday, President Alassane Ouattara said the 43rd BIMA marine infantry battalion at Port-Bouet in Abidjan – where French troops were stationed – “will be handed over” to Ivory Coast’s armed forces as of January 2025 Ivory Coast has become the latest African country to expel France’s military from its nation. In a televised address, Pr...

Cities around the world are getting ready to ring in 2025 in style. Auckland was the first major city to welcome 2025 with thousands of revellers counting down to the New Year and cheering at colourful fireworks launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, the Sky Tower, and a spectacular downtown light show Countries in the South Pacific are the first to ring in the New Year with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square in New York. In Australia, fireworks blasted off the Sydney Harbour Bridge and across the bay to welcome the New Year. More than a million people had gathered at Sydney Harbour for the celebration featuring British pop star Robbie Williams, who led a singalong with the crowd. The upcoming Year of the Snake in the Asia...

Kooxda Daacish ayaa weerar culus saakay ku eekeeyay deegaanka Dharjaale ee gobolka Bari, halkaasi oo ku sugan yihiin ciidamo uu horkacyo guddoomiye ku-xigeenka baarlamaanka Puntland Maxamed Shire Baari. Ugu horreyn Saciid Deni ayaa isbitaalkaBoosaaso ku booqday qaar kamid ah askartii kusoo dhaawacantay dagaalkii maanta oo yimid, kadib markii xubno ka tirsan kooxda Daacish ay saaka weerar kusoo qaadeen fariisin ay ku sugnaayeen ciidanka Puntland. Dagaalka ayaa dhaliyay khasaare soo kala gaaray labada dhinac, waxaana Puntland ay sheegtay inay dishay xubnobadna oo ay ku jiraan ajaaniib ka tirsanaa Daacish. Dhinaca kale madaxweyne Saciid Deni oo wareegto soo saarya ayaa magacaabay guddiga taakulaynta iyo daryeelka dhaawacyada ee hawlgalka ciribtirka argagixisada ee Puntland, kaas oo k...

Every December, Google publishes its Year in Search, a revealing capsule of the most searched topics reflecting the collective curiosity of the world and what they typed into the famous search bar. In 2024, key news events, such as global elections as well as the greatest cultural hits of the year, were behind the highest search traffic. Here’s a breakdown of the year’s most searched topics across news stories, people, movies, songs, games, and food and drink globally What movies captured people’s attention in 2024? Disney and Pixar’s animated sequel, Inside Out 2, led global searches in the movie category. The follow-up to the 2015 hit film reignited interest with its coming-of-age themes. Deadpool and Wolverine, and Saltburn, were respectively the second and third most search...

Recent high-profile bouts, both professional and celebrity, are making boxing as popular as ever but medical science points to potential risks for the athletes. An estimated 40,000 boxing fans watched Oleksandr Usyk beat Tyson Fury at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh earlier this month. Millions tuned in over legal and illegal streams across the world to witness Usyk defend his title against Fury in an enthralling contest that reportedly earned the boxers a combined $191m in Earlier this year, an estimated 60 million households watched the punch-up between ageing boxing legend Mike Tyson and YouTube celebrity fighter Jake Paul. This was in addition to the 72,000 people inside the arena in Texas that together paid a whopping $18.1m to watch the fight in person, according to the promoter...

More than 10,000 migrants perished – an average of 30 a day – in 2024 while trying to reach Spain, NGO says in new report. More than 10,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea this year, a report released by a Spanish migration rights group has revealed, the most since it began keeping a tally in 2007. On average, that means 30 migrants died every day this year attempting to reach the country by boat, the NGO Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said on Thursday. Overall deaths rose by 58 percent compared with last year, the report added Tens of thousands of migrants left West Africa in 2024 for the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago close to the African coast that has increasingly been used as a stepping stone to continental Europe. Caminando Fron...

Famine in Sudan has expanded to five areas and will likely spread to another five by May, the global hunger monitor reported Tuesday, while warring parties continue to disrupt humanitarian aid needed to alleviate one of the worst starvation crises in modern times. Famine conditions were confirmed in Abu Shouk and al-Salam, two camps for internally displaced people in al-Fashir, the besieged capital of North Darfur, as well as two other areas in South Kordofan state, according to the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Phase Classification, or IPC. The committee also found famine, first identified in August, persists in North Darfur's Zamzam camp. The committee, which vets and verifies a famine finding, predicts famine will expand to five additional areas in North Darfur — ...

Scientists have engineered the pests to provide enhanced immunity to the disease they transmit, according to a new study Mosquitoes are usually associated with serious diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever. However, researchers from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Radboud University in the Netherlands may have found a valuable new role for the insects: as vaccine distributors. Their scientists say they have successfully engineered mosquitoes to deliver vaccines that could potentially provide significantly enhanced immunity against malaria The World Health Organization’s most recent World Malaria Report revealed that an estimated 597,000 people died of malaria globally in 2023 with African countries bearing the brunt of the death toll – accounting for...