Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

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.

Russian troops have captured the village of Kostiantynopolske in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the defence ministry said on Saturday. Reuters could not independently confirm the report about the village, called Ostrovsky by Russia. The settlement lies six miles (10 km) southwest of Kurakhove, which Russian troops have stormed and are threatening to encircle, according to DeepState, a Ukrainian group mapping the fighting.

U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, set to join President-elect Donald Trump’s administration as an outside adviser, on Friday called on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to resign, responding to reports of an apparent attack at a German Christmas market. “Scholz should resign immediately”, Musk posted on X, adding: “Incompetent fool.”

Saudi Arabia will participate in the next two editions of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the national team announced Thursday, following the country’s selection as the host of the 2034 World Cup. The 2025 Gold Cup, the regional championship for North and Central America and the Caribbean, will take place from June 14 to July 6 in the U.S. and Canada. Concacaf confirmed it will continue its tradition of inviting a global guest to the 2025 and 2027 tournaments after Qatar competed as a guest in the previous two editions following its 2022 World Cup hosting. “The national team will participate…

A Russian missile attack injured two people and damaged buildings in Kyiv, local officials said after explosions were heard in Ukraine’s capital on Friday. The attack sparked fires across the city, in addition to damaging an office building, according to the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that the attack injured at least two people. Ukrainian air defences were engaged in repelling a missile attack on Kyiv, local officials and the air force said earlier on Friday. Reuters witnesses said they heard multiple explosions following an air force warning about an attack

Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and plans instead to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Nordic country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, told Swedish TV4 on Friday.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least eight Palestinians in an apartment in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza strip on Friday, medics said. Palestinian health officials told Reuters that Israeli military strikes across the enclave had killed a total of 15 people on Friday. Mediated ceasefire efforts have yet to secure a deal between Israel and the resistance group Hamas after more than a year of conflict in the Gaza Strip. On Thursday, sources close to the discussions, told Reuters that the Arab mediators, Qatar and Egypt, had been able to hammer out some differences but some sticking points…

The head of a Canadian political party that has been keeping Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in power said on Friday he would vote in favor of a motion of no-confidence in the government. New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh made the commitment in an open letter. If all the opposition parties do vote together on a motion of no-confidence in the Liberal government, Trudeau will lose power and an election will occur. The House of Commons is on a winter break and a formal motion of no-confidence cannot be presented until after legislators have returned on Jan 27.

A car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German town of Magdeburg, broadcaster MDR and other local media said on Friday, citing a local government official. At least one person was killed and several were injured, MDR’s report said, citing local police. The suspected driver of the car was arrested, according to MDR. Police and the local government’s spokesperson were not immediately available for comment. Many police officers and emergency services were on site, and the market manager had told people to leave the city centre, MDR said. Eyewitnesses told the broadcaster that the car…

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that three of its staff were killed in war-torn Sudan’s Blue Nile state on Thursday after an aerial strike on its compound. “Any loss of life in humanitarian service is unconscionable. Humanitarians are not, and must never be, a target,” WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said. “I demand a thorough investigation and for the perpetrators to be held accountable.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was outraged by the killings, his spokesperson said. In a statement the Sudanese government expressed its condolences for the deaths, and condemned any attack on aid workers…