Spotlight
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France's far-right National Front who was known for fiery rhetoric against immigration and multiculturalism that earned him both staunch supporters and widespread condemnation, has died. He was 96.
A polarizing figure in French politics, Le Pen's controversial statements, including Holocaust denial, led to multiple convictions and strained his political alliances.

A strong earthquake killed at least 95 people in Tibet on Tuesday and left many others trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the high-altitude region of western China and across the border in Nepal.
Officials in the region said at a brief news conference that 130 others were injured, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation after facing an increasing loss of support both within his party and in the country.
Now Trudeau's Liberal Party must find a new leader while dealing with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threats to impose steep tariffs on Canadian goods and with Canada's election just months away.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday accused Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of social media platform X, of intervening in elections, including Germany's snap legislative polls next month.
"Ten years ago, who could have imagined it if we had been told that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany," Macron said in a speech to French ambassadors, while also saying US president-elect Donald Trump "knows he has a strong ally in France".

France's former President Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial Monday over alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the government of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The so-called "Libyan case," the biggest and possibly most shocking of several scandals involving Sarkozy, is scheduled to run until April 10, with a verdict expected at a later date.

The New York judge presiding over President-elect Donald Trump's hush money case has set sentencing for 10 days before his January 20 inauguration and said he was not inclined to impose jail time.

Russia said on Saturday it had shot down eight U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles, whose use Moscow has warned could spark a hypersonic ballistic missile attack on central Kyiv.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is "strong and unpredictable," and those qualities can be a decisive factor in his policy approach to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
However, Zelensky said it won't be possible to end the almost three years of war in one day, as Trump claimed during his election campaign he could do.

Italy summoned Iran's ambassador on Thursday to demand the release of an Italian journalist while Tehran demanded Italy free an Iranian citizen arrested on a U.S. warrant over a drone attack in Jordan that killed three Americans a year ago.
The developments reflected an escalation in a sensitive, three-nation diplomatic tangle marked by a series of public barbs.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan presented President Joe Biden with options for a potential U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear facilities if the Iranians move towards a nuclear weapon before Jan. 20, in a meeting several weeks ago that remained secret until now, three sources with knowledge of the issue told U.S. news portal Axios.
