The streets of Caracas are decorated with Christmas lights. The sound of traditional Venezuelan Christmas music can be heard everywhere. Daily routines seem undisturbed: children attending school, adults going to work, vendors opening their businesses.

US President Donald Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy said a deal to end the Ukraine war was “really close” and depended on resolving just two major issues but the Kremlin said there had to be radical changes to some of the US proposals.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that he will meet President Donald Trump later this month, saying a second phase of the US president’s Gaza plan was close.

The PTI emphatically deplored “ridiculous” remarks by the Pakistan military spokesperson against ex-premier Imran Khan, saying he was “not a security threat”, and lamented the weakening of democracy in the country following the passage of recent constitutional amendments.

A chain of tropical storms and monsoonal rains has battered Southeast and South Asia

The Ukraine war is the deadliest European conflict since World War Two

The shifting of this burden from the US to European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would dramatically change how the United States, a founding member of the post-war alliance, works with its most important military partners.

Since April 2023, the army and the paramilitary RSF have been locked in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million

"We considered this a positive step," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Greek state television channel ERT said the bodies had been found inside the vessel, which was taking on water and partly deflated.

Hegseth is no stranger to controversy and was only narrowly confirmed by the Senate earlier this year.

American forces have carried out deadly strikes on at least 22 vessels, killing at least 83.

The temblor at 2041 GMT was followed by more than 30 aftershocks ranging from magnitude 5.1 to 3.3 over the next three hours

Several tourists were among the dead in the blaze, which broke out at about midnight at a club in Arpora in North Goa district

Gunmen stormed a hostel in South Africa’s capital Pretoria yesterday, killing 11 people including a three‑year‑old child at a site police said was illegally selling alcohol.

A small French town is to offer expectant mothers 1,000 euros from next year to give birth at the local maternity ward in a bid to save it from closing.

Ruinous floods and landslides have killed more than 900 people on Indonesia’s island of Sumatra, the country’s disaster management agency said yesterday, with fears that starvation could send the toll even higher.

Eighteen people were killed in an airstrike on a town in central Myanmar, according to a local official, a rescue worker and two residents who spoke to AFP yesterday.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa warned yesterday that Israel’s demand for a demilitarised zone in southern Syria would endanger his country, as Israeli forces continue to operate in the area.

The Lebanese army has arrested six people after gunmen attacked UN peacekeepers patrolling in the south of the country, the military said yesterday.