Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed support for Panama’s government on Monday after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to reassert U.S. control over the Panama Canal on Sunday. “Indeed, the Panama Canal belongs to the Panamanians,” Sheinbaum said, speaking during her regular morning press conference. Sheinbaum’s comments came one day after Trump accused Panama of charging excessive rates to use the Central American passage while speaking to a crowd of supporters in Arizona. After the event, he posted an image on Truth Social of an American flag flying over a narrow body of water, with the comment: “Welcome to the United…
Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk defeated Britain’s Tyson Fury by unanimous decision at the Kingdom Arena on Saturday, retaining his WBA (Super), WBO and WBC heavyweight titles and preserving his undefeated record in a thrilling bout. Giving up advantages in height, weight and reach to his much bigger opponent, Usyk fought superbly throughout to win 116-112 on all three judges’ scorecards as he again defeated Fury after his success in May made him the undisputed champion. Fury, 36, was much improved from that first encounter where he wilted in the ninth round but could still not solve the puzzle posed by the…
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that hybrid attacks were being launched from Russia and that the target of these attacks was Germany. “Putin is engaging in hybrid attacks, and Germany is particularly in focus. He knows us well, Putin knows how to needle us,” Pistorius told Funke Mediengruppe newspapers in comments released on Sunday. Defining a hybrid war as a “combination of classic military operations, economic pressure, computer attacks and propaganda in the media and social networks,” he said that the attackers’ aim was specifically to destabilize societies. Noting that it was important for Germany to prepare itself against…
Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 17 Palestinians, eight of them at a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City, medics said, as the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of a hospital in the north. Palestinian medics said eight people, including children, were killed in the Musa Bin Nusayr School that sheltered displaced families in Gaza City. Also in Gaza City, medics said four Palestinians were killed when an airstrike hit a car. At least five other Palestinians were killed in two separate airstrikes in Rafah and Khan Younis south of the enclave. In the northern…
Qatar will stop shipping gas to the EU if member states strictly enforce a new law cracking down on forced labour and environmental damage, Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, approved this year, requires larger companies operating in the European Union to check whether their supply chains use forced labour or cause environmental damage and to take action if they do. Penalties include fines of up to 5% of global turnover. “If the case is that I lose 5% of my generated revenue by going to…
A man suspected of ploughing a car through crowds at a German Christmas market in an attack that killed five people and injured scores faces multiple charges of murder and attempted murder, police said on Sunday. Friday evening’s attack in the central city of Magdeburg shocked the country and stirred up tensions over the charged issue of immigration. The suspect, who was in custody, is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric who has lived in Germany for almost two decades. The motive for the attack remained unclear. There were scuffles and some “minor disturbances”…
Players with winning tickets in Spain’s huge Christmas lottery draw on Sunday celebrated with sparkling wine, cheers and hugs in a 200-year-old tradition that marks the beginning of the Christmas season. The total prize pot in the state-run National Lottery event reached 2.71 billion euros ($2.83 billion) this year, slightly more than last year’s 2.59 billion euros. The top prize, known as “El Gordo” (The Fat One), was won in the northern city of Logrono, capital of La Rioja region that is famed for its wines. In the nationally televised draw at Madrid’s Teatro Real, young pupils from San Ildefonso…
Russian forces executed five Ukrainian prisoners of war, Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said on Sunday. Lubinets said on the Telegram messenger app that Russian troops shot the five unarmed soldiers after capturing them. He gave no details, but will report this fact to the UN. “Russian war criminals who shoot Ukrainian prisoners of war should be brought before an international tribunal and punished with the most severe punishment provided for by law,” Lubinets said. Russia did not immediately comment on the incident, but has previous denied committing war crimes.
Ukraine’s membership of NATO is “achievable”, but Kyiv will have to fight to persuade allies to make it happen, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Ukrainian diplomats in a speech on Sunday. Ukraine has repeatedly urged NATO to invite Kyiv to become a member. The Western military alliance has said Ukraine will join its ranks one day but has not set a date or issued an invitation. Moscow has cited the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO as one of the principal justifications for its 2022 invasion. Kyiv says membership in the Western alliance’s mutual defence pact, or an equivalent form of security…
A small plane carrying 10 people crashed into shops in the center of the tourist city of Gramado in southern Brazil on Sunday, killing everyone on board, state government officials said. The aircraft’s owner and pilot, Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, died along with the other nine passengers, all of whom were members of his family, according to Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite. In addition, 17 people on the ground were injured, Leite said at a press conference, with 12 still receiving hospital care, including two in critical condition. Manufactured in 1990, the twin-engine Piper PA-42-1000 took off shortly after…