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EDMONTON, Alberta, Dec. 31, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Regenx Tech Corp., (the “Company” or “Regenx“) (TSXV: RGX) (OTCQB: RGXTF) (FSE: YRS WKN: A2DSW3) announces the Company has received unsecured and non-brokered financing for gross proceeds of $503,423 in Debenture Financing. The debentures will bear interest at the rate of 15% per annum. The Subscriber will also be issued 500 warrants for each $1,000 Debenture. Each warrant allows the Subscriber to purchase a common share of the Corporation for $0.05 per share if exercised prior to the expiry date of October 30, 2025. The Corporation can redeem the Debentures at any time upon 10 days prior written notice. The Company intends to use the proceeds to support operations, and general working capital.

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About Regenx

Regenx Tech is a cleantech, urban mining company that recycles end-of-life diesel catalytic converters using its innovative and environmentally friendly proprietary technology for the recovery of precious metals, such as platinum and palladium. Learn more at www.regenx.tech.

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Some have greatness thrust upon them. Syria and its well-wishers worldwide hope that acting finance minister Riad Abd El Raouf will enter those ranks in the coming months.

Raouf, 49, cuts a lonely figure as the only Bashar al-Assad appointee retaining a top cabinet post after the dictator’s shocking ouster by Islamist rebels. With a doctorate in accounting and auditing from France’s Universite Paul Verlaine, trilingual in Arabic, French and English, Raouf returned home to teach at Damascus University. He chaired the board of the Commercial Bank of Syria for a few years and authored scholarly papers on corporate governance before President Bashar Hafez al-Assad tapped him for the ministry in a last-gasp government reshuffle this September.

After Assad fled on December 8, Raouf scored two quick successes: reopening a vital border crossing that neighboring Jordan had closed during the fighting and calming panic selling of the Syrian pound. The pound returned to its former value of 13,000 to the dollar.

Raouf’s longer-term challenges are more than daunting. According to the World Bank, Syria’s economy has shrunk by 85% since its civil war broke out in 2011. Currency reserves could be as low as $200 million. Debt to Iran, Assad’s primary foreign sponsor, totals $30–$50 billion by various estimates.

The now-ruling Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is still designated as a terrorist organization by the US and the UN. Pervasive sanctions will hobble any Syrian revival until the situation changes. Syria is the third-most sanctioned country in the world after Russia and Iran, according to data provider Castellum.AI. The Syrian government last met with the International Monetary Fund in 2009.

The outside world has plenty of reasons to help, though. Turkey and Europe want to send some of their approximately 4.5 million Syrian refugees home. The US and Arab Gulf States want to cement a strategic debacle for Iran and Russia. The IMF “stands ready to support the international community’s efforts to assist Syria’s reconstruction as needed, and when conditions allow,” a spokeswoman says. If Raouf can bring that moment closer, it would indeed be great.    

Meeting comes as new authorities seek to reassure minorities of their safety in post-Assad Syria.

Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa met senior Christian clerics on Tuesday, amid calls for the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to guarantee minority rights after seizing power earlier this month.

“The leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, meets a delegation from the Christian community in Damascus,” Syria’s General Command said in a statement on Telegram.

The statement included pictures of the meeting with Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican clerics.

Earlier Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called for an inclusive political transition in Syria that guarantees the rights of the country’s diverse communities.

He expressed hope that “Syrians could take back control of their own destiny“.

But for this to happen, the country needs “a political transition in Syria that includes all communities in their diversity, that upholds the most basic rights and fundamental freedoms,” Barrot said during a visit to Lebanon with Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu.

Barrot and Lecornu also met Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun and visited United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the southern border, where a fragile truce ended intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in late November.

‘Positive’ talks with SDF

Since seizing power, Syria’s new leadership, headed by al-Sharaa, who was previously a member of al-Qaeda, has repeatedly tried to reassure minorities that they will not be harmed, although some isolated incidents have sparked protests.

On December 25, thousands protested in several areas of Syria after a video circulated showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the country’s north.

A day earlier, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Christian areas of Damascus to protest against the burning of a Christmas tree near Hama in central Syria.

Before the civil war erupted in 2011, Syria was home to about one million Christians, according to analyst Fabrice Balanche, who says their number has dwindled to about 300,000.

Earlier, a Syrian official told the AFP news agency that al-Sharaa held “positive” talks with delegates of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday.

The talks were al-Sharaa’s first with SDF commanders since his rebels overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in early December and come as the SDF is locked in fighting with Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria.

The United States-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that pushed ISIL (ISIS) fighters from their last territory in Syria in 2019.

But Turkiye, which has long had ties with al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, says that the SDF is led by members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a four-decade rebellion against the Turkish state, and is branded a “terrorist” group in Turkiye and the US.

On Sunday, al-Sharaa told Al Arabiya television that the SDF should be integrated into the new national army.

“Weapons must be in the hands of the state alone. Whoever is armed and qualified to join the defence ministry, we will welcome them,” he said.

Auckland became the first major city to welcome 2025, while Sydney put on its largest ever fireworks display to celebrate the new year. Now people around the world are waiting for their turn.

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Palestinians in Gaza are entering the new year as defenceless and beleaguered as the last.

Israel’s war on the enclave continued into 2024, killing 23,842 people and wounding 51,925 during this year alone, driving the grisly official death toll to 46,376, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel has used siege and starve tactics, as well as scorched earth bombardment, drawing accusations that it is committing genocide, from rights groups and United Nations legal bodies.

All documented Israel’s systematic targeting of hospitals, displacement shelters, aid workers, journalists and so-called safe zones, which are often anything but.

In northern Gaza, the Israeli army has imposed a full and suffocating siege in an attempt to starve fighters and push out civilians, in what has been called “ethnic cleansing”.

These tactics violate international law and are creating the conditions to kill a people “in whole or in part”, matching the definition of genocide in the UN’s Genocide Convention, rights groups say.

“This last year has been very dark for us. How can I describe it in any other way? It’s been more than torturous,” said Eman Shaghnoubi, 52, from Deir el-Balah in Gaza.

“We have moved from one humiliation to another,” she added, remarking on the perpetual displacement of Palestinians in the enclave.

Within Gaza

Israel has rendered 34 hospitals in Gaza “nonfunctional” and forced 80 health centres to shut down entirely, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

In the last few days, Israeli forces stormed the only remaining major hospital in Gaza’s devastated north, ejecting staff and patients before setting the medical facility on fire.

Torrential rain is currently lashing the tent villages that stand in place of many of Gaza’s towns and cities, with deaths from hypothermia rising as freezing temperatures continue to flatline.

Shaghnoubi, who has six boys and two girls, said that her children are struggling to survive in the cold and that her small tent does not protect the family from the pouring rain.

“My children sleep on soaked bedding at night,” she told Al Jazeera.

Shereen Abu Nida, 40, also said that she and her four children are coping with hardship due to the terrible living conditions brought on by the war. Worst still, her husband was abducted by Israeli forces about a year ago, leaving her to care for her children all alone.

“I have had to go through this whole year alone, all by myself,” she said, her voice quivering.

Musa Ali Muhammad al-Maghribi, 52, added that his family have little hope for the future.

He said his nine children are ill and he can’t find medication, nor is there enough food or clean water for his family, an ordeal that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people face.

“[Israel] has destroyed us,” he told Al Jazeera. “Every day, we just hope to die.”

Netanyahu extends the fight

Despite the extreme hardship, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is showing no sign of halting the onslaught.

Efforts at mediating some form of ceasefire, which have been continuing throughout much of the conflict, have floundered in the face of what many, including United States President Joe Biden in June, have slammed as political self-interest on the part of the Israeli prime minister.

Accusations of exploiting the war on Gaza for personal gain have centred upon Netanyahu’s attempts to deflect from his ongoing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust, which he denies.

In addition, the prime minister’s corruption trial suggests that Netanyahu is seeking to prolong the war to distract from accusations of negligence or incompetence during the Hamas-led attack of October 7 2023, which killed 1,139 Israelis.

Charges of opportunism have come from both within Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet, as well as the street, where tens of thousands of people continue to rally in support of a deal that would see the captives taken during the Hamas-led attack released.

International impotence

The international community has failed to halt – or mitigate –  the carnage in Gaza largely due to the US’s unqualified political and military support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

In addition to the more than $20bn in aid provided to Israel since the war began, the US has torpedoed diplomatic efforts within the UN to end the war, including suppressing recent reports of the potential famine under way in northern Gaza.

In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to do all it could to prevent any act that could be considered genocide. Despite this, rights organisations based in Palestine and internationally, including Amnesty, have concluded that Israel is actively embarked upon a campaign of genocide within the Strip.

Similar international action has also been taken against both the Hamas and Israeli leadership. In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.

Israel claims to have killed Deif in July. Netanyahu and Gallant remain wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In October, Israel defied international pressure and voted to ban the UN’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), widely acknowledged as one of Gaza’s principal lifelines. When the ban comes into effect in late January of next year, Gaza will lose its principal aid agency and with it, much of the network that distributes food, medicine and the infrastructure needed to sustain life.

In December, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for UNRWA’s work to continue and, for the third time, that a ceasefire be immediately reached. Despite this, Israeli strikes on Gaza have continued and the agency’s future remains uncertain.

Palestinians in Gaza such as Abu Nida just hope the war will end soon this coming year.

“This has been the worst year of my life,” said Abu Nida.

“Nobody in the world has lived through the days that we are living through,” she said.

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 Asian zodiac is heralded as one of rebirth, alluding to the reptile’s shedding of its skin. Stores in Japan, which observes the zodiac cycle from January 1, have been selling tiny figures of smiling snakes and other snake-themed products. Other places in Asia will start marking the Year of the Snake later with the Lunar New Year.

New Year’s celebrations in Jakarta will feature a dazzling fireworks display, including an airshow featuring 800 drones, followed by countdowns to midnight at the Hotel Indonesia Roundabout.

Muan, South Korea — Muan International Airport looks like any other airport during the holidays. Its car park is filled with hundreds of cars while the doors to the departure and arrival gates are bustling with activity.

Yet it’s nothing like any other airport, and there’s no holiday spirit on show. It’s been two days since the airport paused all of its operations after a deadly passenger plane crash on Sunday left only two survivors out of a total of 181 passengers and crew. Jeju Air Flight 2216 from Thailand to South Korea crashed into a concrete barrier and was immediately engulfed in a fireball after an emergency belly landing on the Muan airport runway.

Inside the airport, in the country’s South Jeolla province, is a sea of people wearing black, resembling a South Korean funeral. Families and friends huddle around each other, amid tears and wails of sorrow.

They are waiting to receive the remains of their loved ones, to be united with them one last time.

Ki Hwe-man, 37, travelled for more than five hours from the northern city of Paju after hearing that his uncle was one of the victims of the plane crash. He remembers his late uncle as a man of faith and as a friend.

“I used to always kick around a soccer ball when I was young, and my uncle would visit our home often to see us. He was the only adult during our family gatherings to come play with the kids,” Ki recalls. “He was always bright and an exemplary adult. He’s someone I aspire to become one day.”

While immediate family members of the victims have stayed at the airport in makeshift tents and benches since Sunday, large numbers of relatives and close friends from all around the country started to gather at the airport the next day to grieve alongside them.

Out of the 179 dead, five victims are yet to be identified.

Many of the passengers were holidaying in Thailand, including 41 members of a package tour to Bangkok sold by a local travel agency. The oldest person was 78 while the youngest was three years old.

“Just a day before my sister left on her trip, she visited our mother’s home in Gwangju to give her Christmas presents,” remembers a middle-aged man getting fresh air outside the airport, who lost his sister and brother-in-law in the crash. “After making her try out new clothes, she told our mother that she would come back soon.”

He reminisces about how his sister, who was younger than him was the one who brought the family together after their father passed away last year.

“She was the one who suggested our trip to Yeosu this past summer and to Daecheon in the fall. She took care of our ill father during his last days. We took courage from her,” he says, before walking away, overcome with emotion.

A nationwide period of mourning has been announced for seven days with memorial sites set up in cities across the country. Less than 10km (6.2 miles) away from the Muan airport, a memorial altar was set up at the city’s sport complex to honour the victims.

Jeon Myung-hwan came down from Seoul to bid his best friend a last farewell.

“My friend and his wife were on their retirement trip, and we even talked on the phone last week. We talked about going on a trip of our own soon,” Jeon tells Al Jazeera with a trembling voice.

Having met in middle school in their hometown of Gwangyang just a couple of hours east of Muan, the two friends would get together at least once a year along with their other friends.

“We even got married around the same time, so our families often met and went on trips together. He was gentle and quiet, but he always looked out for others like a big brother,” Jeon recalls.

As his friend’s wife is yet to be identified by search efforts back at the airport, her name isn’t at the funeral altar with the other victims’ names.

“It’s sad to see that my friend is not next to his wife on the altar,” Jeon says. “I hope he’s at peace in heaven next to his wife.”

On Tuesday, after two full days of recovery efforts, families were able to start funerals as the first set of bodies were returned. However, families at the airport have voiced their frustration at the slow response from authorities and raised concerns about holes in their leadership.

Park Han-shin, the representative of the families, even told reporters gathered at Muan airport that he “wouldn’t fully trust the authorities anymore” after he claimed that they were too busy tossing the blame between each other.

South Korea is currently led by its third president in just a month’s time. President Yoon Suk Yeol was stripped from his presidential duties following his martial law declaration at the start of the month. Prime Minister Han Duk-soo, who was next in line, was voted out from his presidential role after just two weeks, leaving Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok to juggle national disasters, a polarised political arena, and an historic economic fallout as the current acting president.

Choi’s order of an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operation includes a special inspection of all 101 Boeing 737-800 aircraft — the model involved in Sunday’s crash — operated by South Korean airliners, focusing on the maintenance record of key components.

While a bird strike was mentioned early on as a key factor in the accident, experts have questioned the extent of this theory being the only cause of the accident. The aeroplane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been gathered by authorities for further analysis.

During its investigations, South Korean officials will need to look at questions such as the speed of the plane during landing, its unopened flaps, the function of its thrust reversers and inactivated landing gear. Muan locals have reported hearing explosions from the plane before it made its emergency landing.

Consequently, much of the public’s attention has focused on Jeju Air, the airline company.

The low-cost carrier’s bosses bowed deeply and issued a public apology at a news conference hours after the plane crash on Sunday. Named after Jeju Island, the airline is the first and largest of South Korea’s budget airlines. Among various concerns is the excessive usage of the plane during the year-end peak season for holiday trips. The Jeju aeroplane that crashed on Sunday was found to have operated 13 flights in 48 hours prior to the incident, according to Yonhap News Agency, which cited industry sources.

Local media has also highlighted online posts in the past that were presumed to be written by former and current Jeju Air employees. Posting on the anonymous online site Blind, a post from last year claimed that the company’s efforts to “save maintenance costs” caused “four instances of engine failure while flying.” Another post that was presumably written by a company mechanic asserted that “fellow mechanics worked overnight on top of 13 to 14 hours of work, getting no time to rest except for lunch.”

About 68,000 Jeju Air reservations were cancelled in the span of 24 hours after Sunday’s crash.

Questions also circulated about the concrete embankment at the end of Muan airport’s runway where the plane eventually crashed. Housing a localiser, an instrument to guide incoming aircraft, the embankment and the end of the runway were at least 250 metres (820 feet) apart, in line with safety regulations, according to Muan airport authorities.

Back at the memorial altar in Muan, Song In-young, 61, says he is visiting from the neighbouring city of Naju to pay his respect to the victims.

“We don’t have any blood relations [among the victims], but I consider everyone who was on that flight as my family. Especially for people like me who went through times of brutal political oppression in the 1980s, we feel a deep bond to cities in this part of the region,” he says, mentioning the Gwangju massacre, in which hundreds of lives were known to be taken by the military, which was in power at the time.

“I believe in an afterlife, so I wish all the victims peace in their next journeys,” Song says. “More importantly, I hope all of the remaining family members can find peace as soon as possible.”

Gaza doctor Hussam Abu Safia from Kamal Adwan Hospital is believed to be detained at Israel’s infamous Sde Teiman military base that doubles as a prison for Palestinians. Here’s why the facility is so controversial.

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According to the cost of servicing their debt, Cyprus, Spain and Croatia appear to be less risky investments in the bond market, than Europe’s second-biggest economy France.

The Eurozone sovereign bond market has been going through a transformation over the last year. 

“Generally speaking, there’s been a lot of decline in yields across the euro area”, said Frank Gill, Managing Director and EMEA Sovereign Specialist at S&P Global Ratings to Euronews Business, adding that “the big exception is France”. 

Some of the biggest surprises came from the bond market of the so-called periphery countries in the bloc, that struggled with unsustainable debts right after the financial crisis in 2008, including Portugal, Spain and Greece. Nowadays, most of them have to pay less to service their debts than the long-time favourite France.

One of the reasons is that these countries have put their debt on a sustainable path, with a backdrop of low inflation and high growth.

“Some of these countries with large tourism sectors which have been posting very high growth rates, very strong labour markets, and they are operating budgetary surpluses, including Portugal, Greece, even smaller economies like Cyprus”, said Gill. “They’re paying down debt. So the the absolute amount of debt in the market is declining. And I think that explains why, the ten-year yield of Greece declined over the last year by 0.5%.” 

This trend is probably going to continue in 2025. “I think if these countries continue to post budgetary surpluses, meaning their overall level of debt is declining and is declining very rapidly over GDP because GDP is increasing quickly, then I think you will continue to see a convergence of their yields towards German yields”, said Gill.

How did France lose some of the investors’ confidence?

Europe’s second-biggest economy kept drawing unwanted attention this year, with the bubbling political turmoil, the last chapter of which led to the country concluding the year without a valid new budget for 2025. 

For now, a special law allows public services to pay salaries and collect taxes, otherwise, the government needs to comply with the 2024 budgetary ceiling, until a new budget is approved.

Consequently, investors expect that the French deficit will remain around where it is in 2024, a bit more than 6% of the GDP. To finance that, the country will need to keep borrowing from the market, swelling further its debt which is already 112% of the GDP.

In the short term, the uncertainty triggered by the lack of clear fiscal policy and plans to put the debt on a sustainable path, may not let the currently elevated yields go down quickly in 2025.

“I definitely think there could be volatility in the French OAT market [the French bonds are called OATs which stands for Obligations Assimilables du Tresor] next year depending on what the 2025 budget eventually looks like, assuming there will be a budget finalised early next year”, said Gill.

He added that the country has a very significant deficit. “The debt to GDP path, as we project, is going to continue to increase between now and 2027 without much more significant adjustments.”

However, France’s 10-year bond yields have climbed to 3.05% after credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded the country’s debt on 14 December, and increased ever further since, “the actual cost for France to borrow hasn’t changed that much since December of last year”, said Gill, adding that “last year in December, their borrowing costs were around 2.75%, 2.8% on ten-year maturity”.

The cost of servicing France’s debt is also fuelled by investors’ concerns about who holds it. “Slightly over 50% of French debt is held by non-residents”, said Gill, adding that “there’s maybe some concern that non-residents might reduce their holdings of French bonds, which would mean that local banks and domestic creditors would have to absorb more supply, and that would likely lead to a repricing higher”.

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Why political turmoil in Europe’s two biggest economies will not fundamentally shake the bond markets?

Meanwhile, Germany is also going through political turmoil with elevated uncertainty as the government lost a no-confidence vote recently and snap elections are to be held on 23 February 2025. Meanwhile, the country’s economy is shrinking. 

Yet, 10-year German yields are comfortably sitting around 2.36% at the time of writing this article. 

“I don’t think there are significant credit risks for Germany”, reassured Gill. “We would argue that German debt to GDP is actually fairly modest. They have very significant fiscal space and the economy as a whole is running huge excess savings.” He is also expecting Germany to relax its fiscal policy in order to stimulate growth. 

“I think the market is looking at the policy of the incoming government. So they’ll be focusing on the election. What are they proposing in terms of budgetary policy, and budgetary stimulus? Will there be any specific industrial policies which require public subsidies? Anything that implies more supply of debt in two years or three years or four years?”

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France and Germany are very wealthy economies which are generating huge domestic savings. 

“France is also a very liquid system. The banks are extremely liquid. Banks don’t really have very large exposure to the sovereign. So I think while there are definitely medium-term challenges, fiscal challenges, political challenges, and growth challenges in both Germany and France. Their capacity to self-finance is extremely comfortable”, said Gill.

Russia’s flurry of attacks on Kyiv and elsewhere comes as Ukraine says it shot down an Mi-8 helicopter for the first time with a naval drone.

Russia launched a heavy aerial attack on Ukraine hitting the capital, Kyiv, and other regions with a volley of missiles and drones.

Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday it downed six out of 21 Russia-launched missiles overnight. Russia used 40 drones to attack the country, the air force said on Telegram. Air defence units shot down 16 and 24 more failed to reach targets.

Ukraine’s air force reported a ballistic missile threat at 3am (01:00 GMT) with at least two explosions heard in Kyiv minutes later amid a number of attacks throughout the country.

Another missile alert in Kyiv was issued at 8am (06:00 GMT), followed by at least one explosion in the city. Missile debris fell in the Darnytskyi district of the capital, with no reports of casualties or damage.

Meanwhile, authorities in the northeastern Sumy region reported attacks near the city of Shostka, where Mayor Mykola Noha said 12 residential buildings were damaged as well as two educational facilities.

Noha said some “social infrastructure objects” were destroyed, without providing more details. Ukraine’s air force also reported missiles and drones targeted several other regions.

The strikes come as the nearly three-year conflict rages on, but its course is uncertain with United States President-elect Donald Trump to soon take office. Trump has promised to end the war and threw into doubt whether vital US military support for Kyiv would continue.

Kyiv strikes back

Ukrainian military intelligence also said on Tuesday one of its naval drones – the Magura V5 maritime drone – destroyed a Russian Mi-8 helicopter and damaged another one in the Black Sea.

Ukraine’s GUR spy agency said it was the first time a Ukrainian naval drone had downed an air target.

While there was no comment from Russia, Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russia-appointed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea, said on Telegram two sea drones were destroyed near the coast overnight and Russian defences downed four unmanned aerial vehicles attacking the city.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said air systems shot down 68 Ukrainian drones overall in several regions of the country.

On Monday, President Joe Biden announced the US will send an additional $2.5bn in weapons to Ukraine as his administration works quickly to spend all the money it has available to help Kyiv fight off Russia before Trump takes office.

The war broke out in February 2022 with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. About half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed since, with Kyiv’s Western allies providing air defence systems to help it protect critical infrastructure.

But Russia has sought to overwhelm its air defences with combined strikes involving large numbers of missiles and drones in a series of slow but steady offensives.

Russian forces advanced by 3,985sq km (1,539sq miles) in Ukraine in 2024, seven times more than in 2023, according to an analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The advance up to December 30 was boosted by an uptick in Russian troop movements in the autumn, advancing 610sq km (235 sq miles) in October and 725sq km (280 sq miles) in November.

November and October were also the two months when they conquered the most territory since March 2022, the early weeks of the conflict.

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Coffee and cocoa are expected to be two commodities with some of the largest price hikes this year, after both products experiencing significant worldwide shortages. 

Cocoa prices have jumped 167.89% year-to-date, whereas coffee prices have surged 68.42% this year. 

According to ING, cocoa’s 2023-2024 marketing year experienced the worst worldwide supply deficit in six years. This was mainly because of poor weather across some of the most important cocoa producing countries in the world this year, which led to disappointing harvests, especially due to the rise of crop diseases. 

ING said on its website: “The 2023/24 marketing year saw the global cocoa market register a deficit of 478kt, the largest in over 60 years and also the third consecutive year of deficit. This shortfall was driven by crop failures in West Africa, particularly Ivory Coast and Ghana. 

“The deficit drove global cocoa stocks to the lowest level in more than a decade. While prospects for the 2024/25 marketing year are looking better, there are still concerns over weather developments in West Africa and what it could mean for output this season. 

“Forecasts currently show that West African output – which accounts for more than 70% of global output – will edge higher. However, there are risks to this due to recent poor weather.”

Apart from poor weather, cocoa crops were also affected by other challenges such as slower new plantings and aging cocoa trees. 

Global trade uncertainties are expected to keep affecting the commodities market next year, with the possibility of tariffs looking increasingly likely, as tensions between the EU and US, as well as the EU and China continue to heat up. If so, cocoa prices are likely to remain somewhat volatile next year. 

Although emerging coca producers from Latin America and other areas could help ease West African cocoa shortfalls, it may take some time for there to be a noticeable impact from this.

Coffee prices trade at all-time high

Global coffee prices hit an all-time high of $349.58 (€335.74) per pound in December 2024. Like cocoa, this was also driven mainly by poor weather in key coffee producing countries such as Vietnam and Brazil. 

Brazil experienced wildfires in São Paulo, one of its main coffee regions, along with droughts, which further impacted harvests. Another issue affecting coffee crops was low soil moisture levels, despite rains, which led to coffee trees having too few flowers, but too many leaves. 

Vietnam also faced a significant drought earlier this year, as well as considerable damage because of typhoons, which severely impacted coffee harvests. 

Coffee consumption and culture has also been on the rise in the last several months, especially in big markets such as China. This has led to more demand and higher pressure on supply chains, which are still recovering from the pandemic and other geopolitical challenges, such as Middle Eastern unrest. In turn, this has also contributed significantly to rising prices. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) called on China to share information on how COVID-19 emerged five years ago.

The coronavirus killed millions of people, locked down billions in their homes, crippled economies and destroyed health systems.

“We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of COVID-19. This is a moral and scientific imperative,” the WHO said in a statement.

“Without transparency, sharing, and cooperation among countries, the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare for future epidemics and pandemics.”

The WHO recounted how on December 31, 2019, its country office in China picked up a media statement from health authorities in the central city of Wuhan concerning cases of “viral pneumonia”.

“In the weeks, months and years that unfolded after that, COVID-19 came to shape our lives and our world,” the UN health agency said.

“As we mark this milestone, let’s take a moment to honour the lives changed and lost, recognise those who are suffering from COVID-19 and Long COVID, express gratitude to the health workers who sacrificed so much to care for us, and commit to learning from COVID-19 to build a healthier tomorrow.”

Beijing insisted on Tuesday it has shared information on the coronavirus “without holding anything back”.

“Five years ago … China immediately shared epidemic information and viral gene sequence with the WHO and the international community. Without holding anything back, we shared our prevention, control and treatment experience, making a huge contribution to the international community’s pandemic-fighting work,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said.

‘Painful lessons’

According to the WHO, more than 760 million COVID-19 cases and 6.9 million deaths have been recorded worldwide.

In mid-2023, it declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency but said the disease should be a permanent reminder of the potential for new viruses to emerge with devastating consequences.

Data from the early days of the pandemic was uploaded by Chinese scientists to an international database in early 2023, a few months after China dismantled all its COVID-19 restrictions and reopened its borders to the rest of the world.

The data showed DNA from multiple animal species – including raccoon dogs – was present in environmental samples that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID, suggesting they were “the most likely conduits” of the disease, according to a team of international researchers.

In 2021, a WHO-led team spent weeks in and around Wuhan – where the first cases were detected – and said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, but further research was needed.

China has said no more visits were necessary and the search for early cases should be conducted in other countries.

Earlier this month, the WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed the issue of whether the world was better prepared for the next pandemic than it was for COVID-19.

“The answer is yes and no,” he told a press conference. “If the next pandemic arrived today the world would still face some of the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities that gave COVID-19 a foothold five years ago.

“But the world has also learnt many of the painful lessons the pandemic taught us, and has taken significant steps to strengthen its defences against future epidemics and pandemics.”

In December 2021, spooked by the devastation caused by COVID, countries decided to start drafting an accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

The WHO’s 194 member states negotiating the treaty have agreed on most of what it should include, but are stuck on the practicalities.

A key fault line lies between Western nations with major pharmaceutical industry sectors and poorer countries wary of being sidelined when the next pandemic strikes.

Transfer of Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi from the US army prison in Cuba is the fourth in two weeks by the outgoing Biden administration.

The Pentagon has released a Tunisian detainee held in Guantanamo Bay since the first day the notorious prison camp opened in 2002 without ever being charged.

Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi was repatriated from the United States military prison in Cuba to Tunisia on Monday, the US Department of Defense said in a statement.

The transfer is the fourth in two weeks by the outgoing Biden administration in a quest to reduce the military prison’s population, which held 40 prisoners when Biden took office in 2020.

Al-Yazidi was “determined transfer-eligible by a rigorous interagency review process”.

“On Jan 31, 2024, Secretary of Defense [Lloyd] Austin notified Congress of his intent to support this repatriation and, in consultation with our partner in Tunisia, we completed the requirements for responsible transfer,” the Pentagon said.

Al-Yazidi, 59, was never charged with a crime by the US and was approved for transfer more than a decade ago, but no agreement with Tunisia’s government was made until now to bring him home.

Pakistani soldiers seized al-Yazidi near the border with Afghanistan in December 2001, and he was suspected of being an al-Qaeda fighter, The New York Times reported.

Twenty-six detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay with 14 eligible for transfer, the statement said.

Three inmates are eligible for a periodic review of their status, seven are currently involved in the military commissions process, and two detainees have been convicted and sentenced, it added.

Al-Yazidi was sent to the prison the day it opened on January 11, 2002, to house detainees captured during the US’s so-called “war on terror” after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Located at the US military base in Cuba, the prison operates under a legal system led by military commissions that do not guarantee the same rights as traditional US courts.

Inmates cleared for release sometimes spend years at Guantanamo as Washington looks for countries to take them after they are freed, with some governments unwilling to take them back or in.

Guantanamo Bay once housed nearly 800 prisoners, many of whom initially spent time at covert CIA locations known as “black sites” where some were tortured under an “enhanced interrogation” programme authorised by former President George W Bush’s administration.

The facility became a lasting symbol of US abuses during that era. President Barack Obama, who succeeded Bush, promised to close down the facility, but he failed largely because of legal technicalities and domestic political opposition.

North Korean leader expresses hope that Moscow will defeat ‘neo-Nazism and achieve a great victory’ in Ukraine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has paid homage to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a New Year’s message extolling deepening ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, state media has reported.

In a letter to mark the New Year, Kim extended his greetings to his “dearest friend and comrade” Putin, the Russian people and Russian military personnel, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday.

Kim wished Putin “greater success in his responsible and heavy state leadership activities and the Russian people prosperity, wellbeing and happiness”, KCNA said.

Kim expressed willingness to “design and push ahead with new projects” involving Pyongyang and Moscow after their “meaningful journey” in 2024, KCNA said, and hope that Russia would defeat “neo-Nazism and achieve a great victory” in Ukraine.

Putin has claimed without evidence that his 2022 invasion of Ukraine was necessary to protect Russian speakers from a “neo-Nazi dictatorship”.

North Korea and Russia have significantly ramped up ties since the start of the war.

In June, Kim and Putin signed a mutual defence pact during the Russian leader’s first visit to North Korea in nearly a quarter-century.

Pyongyang has since then sent more than 10,000 troops to assist Russian forces in Ukraine, according to South Korean and Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that his forces had killed or wounded more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has put the number of estimated North Korean casualties at about 100 killed and 1,000 injured.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Court’s issuance of warrant marks first time South Korean authorities have sought to detain a sitting president. 

A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant for impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived declaration of martial law in a historic first.

Seoul Western District Court on Tuesday approved the warrant following an earlier request by the Joint Investigation Headquarters, which is investigating the embattled South Korean leader for insurrection and abuse of power.

The move marks the first time authorities have sought to detain a sitting South Korean president.

Yoon has been suspended from his duties since December 14, when the National Assembly voted for his impeachment in a 204-85 vote.

The conservative leader faces possible life imprisonment or the death penalty over his brief imposition of martial law on December 3, which has plunged the East Asian nation into its biggest political crisis in decades.

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TORONTO, Dec. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Purpose Investments Inc. is pleased to announce the 2024 fourth-quarter distributions for Purpose Specialty Lending Trust.

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