Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas 13 days after Catholics and Protestants’
The patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Mathias, in his televised Christmas Eve message called for reconciliation and peace in a nation where conflict has been often fuelled by ethnic strife.
CNN defamation trial comes at a rough time for legacy media and for the struggling network
CNN said in court papers that Young’s case amounts to “defamation by implication” and that he hadn’t actually been accused of nefarious acts. The initial story he complained about didn’t even mention Young until three minutes in, CNN lawyer David Axelrod argued on Tuesday.
Quincy Jones: Chicago-born Black music and film icon born and lived in penury, sometimes eating rats for supper then rose to stardom
Over the course of 91 years, Quincy Jones did pretty much everything you could do in the entertainment industry. He was a musician, arranger, composer, solo artist, record company executive, mogul, entrepreneur and a producer not just of music but of films and TV – and, as was noted in Chris Heath’s extraordinary, headline-grabbing 2018 profile piece Quincy Jones Has a Story About That, he had known everyone. “The ghetto Gump”, as he called himself, referring to Forrest, was the thread that linked Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis to Dr Dre and the Weekend; a musician who’d appeared with Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse, Count Basie and Bono, Nat King Cole and Young Thug; the man who had a credit on Sinatra At the Sands and Harry’s House by Harry Styles.
Transition: Founder of France’s post-war far right party Jean-Marie Le Pen dies aged 96
Commenting on Le Pen’s death, President Emmanuel Macron said: “A historic figure of the far right, he played a role in the public life of our country for nearly seventy years, which is now a matter for history to judge.”
Impeached South Korean President Yoon faces second arrest attempt in fortified compound
President Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his December 3 martial law bid that stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant to be issued for a sitting president. He is also involved in a separate Constitutional Court trial over his December 14 impeachment for violating his constitutional duties with the late-night martial law declaration.
US says Sudan rebel force has committed genocide, imposes sanctions on its generals
The sanctions announced by the US include several businesses based in the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, including one handling gold likely smuggled out of Sudan.
Powerful earthquake rocks Tibet’s holiest cities and kills at least 55, rattles Nepal
Severe travel disruptions were expected across the storm’s path and officials urged drivers to stay off the roads if possible. Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said the tremors were felt in seven hill districts bordering Tibet.
First person: In Gaza starving people live among the dead and are trapped in a land reduced to rubble
A 25-kg bag of wheat flour can sell for $150. In an enclave where farmers once harvested citrus, vegetables and strawberries, I saw small peppers selling at a Gaza City market for $195 a kilo. Nobody was buying. Nobody could afford them.
Slaughtered by Islamist extremists or Russian mercenaries, Burkina Faso’s 2.5 million displaced people are further abandoned by UN
For decades, the Fulani were neglected by the central government, and some did join Islamist fighters. As a result, Fulani civilians are often targeted both by the extremists – affiliated with al-Qaida or the Islamic State group – and by rival pro-government forces.
France’s ex-president Sarkozy goes on trial for illicit campaign funding, influence peddling by Libya’s Gaddafi
The case emerged in March 2011, when a Libyan news agency reported that the Gaddaffi government had financed Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign. In an interview, Gaddaffi himself said “it’s thanks to us that he reached the presidency. We provided him with the funds that allowed him to win,” without providing any amount or other details.
