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World Monthly Headline News January 2025
Story by Joshua Taylor

Norwegian police halted a Russian-crewed ship suspected of deliberately sabotaging an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland.

The Norway-flagged Silver Dania was stopped on Thursday evening and brought into the port of Tromsø in northern Norway on Friday morning by a Norwegian coast guard vessel, police said in a statement.
Story by Stu Woo, Raffaele Huang

SINGAPORE—Take a team of young Chinese engineers, hired by a boss with disdain for experience. Add some clever programming shortcuts, and a loophole in American rules that allowed them to get advanced chips.

That is the formula China’s DeepSeek used to shock the world with its artificial-intelligence programs.

Conventional thinking held that developing leading AI required loads of expensive, cutting-edge computer chips—and that Chinese companies would have trouble competing because they couldn’t get those chips. DeepSeek defied those predictions with a resourcefulness that led to a $1 trillion bloodbath on Wall Street and is spurring Silicon Valley to rethink its approach.

The Chinese company has also delivered a wake-up call to Washington, according to President Trump, whose administration is set to decide in the coming months what to do about Biden-era policies limiting China’s access to the best chips for AI.

DeepSeek’s leader, Liang Wenfeng, built his company in the tech hub of Hangzhou, the same city where tech giant Alibaba is based. The AI company grew out of a hedge fund co-founded by Liang that uses AI to find profitable trades in financial markets.
By Phil Stewart and Diego Oré

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Mexico has refused a request from President Donald Trump's administration to allow a U.S. military aircraft deporting migrants to land in the country, a U.S. official and a Mexican official told Reuters.

U.S. military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday. The government was not able to move ahead with a plan to have a C-17 transport aircraft land in Mexico, however, after the country denied permission.

A U.S. official and a Mexican official confirmed the decision, which was first reported by NBC News.

Mexico's foreign ministry, in a statement late on Friday, said the country had a "very great relationship" with the U.S. and cooperated on issues such as immigration.
"When it comes to repatriations, we will always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms," the ministry said.

The Mexican official did not give a reason for the denial of permission to land, while the foreign ministry did not mention the incident.
By WAFAA SHURAFA, ISABEL DEBRE, SAM MEDNICK and SAMY MAGDY

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Four female Israeli soldiers who were taken in the attack that sparked the war in Gaza returned to Israel on Saturday after Hamas militants paraded them before a crowd of thousands in Gaza City and handed them over to the Red Cross. Israel later released 200 Palestinian prisoners in the second exchange of a fragile ceasefire.

The four Israelis smiled, waved and gave the thumbs-up from a stage in Palestine Square, with armed, masked militants on either side as Hamas sought to show it remained in control in Gaza after 15 months of war. The hostages likely acted under duress. Previously released ones said they were held in brutal conditions and forced to record propaganda videos.

Israel’s Prison Service later said it had released 200 Palestinians, including 121 people serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis, while others were held without charge.

Thousands of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah celebrated their arrival. Some of those released wore Hamas headbands given to them by the crowd. Wan-looking and wearing gray prison sweatsuits, some rode on supporters’ shoulders.
Story by NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMY MAGDY and JOSEF FEDERMAN

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal, mediators announced Wednesday, pausing a devastating 15-month war in the Gaza Strip and raising the possibility of winding down the the deadliest and most destructive fighting between the bitter enemies.

The deal, coming after weeks of painstaking negotiations in the Qatari capital, promises the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in phases, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and would allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Gaza to return to what remains of their homes. It also would flood badly needed humanitarian aid into a devastated territory.

Three officials from the U.S. and one from Hamas confirmed that a deal had been reached, while a senior Israeli official said details are still being ironed out.

All three U.S. officials requested anonymity to discuss the contours of the deal before the official announcement by mediators in Doha.

President Joe Biden was preparing to address the breakthrough agreement later Thursday, officials said.

Any agreement still needs to be approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet, but is expected to go into effect in the coming days.
Story by Vipal Monga, Paul Vieira

TORONTO—Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that he will resign after almost a decade in power, bowing to members of his party who have been calling on him to step aside ahead of an election later this year.

“It has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election,” said Trudeau in an announcement from the country’s capital, Ottawa.

Trudeau said he would stay on as prime minister until the party picks a new leader, a process that could take months. He also moved to suspend the current session of the legislature, to avoid facing a no-confidence vote in Parliament.

The Canadian leader would exit as one of the most unpopular political figures in the country, leaving his party in a weakened position and his country facing an uncertain economic future, as Donald Trump takes power in the U.S. The president-elect is promising, among other measures, to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian imports.

Trudeau is the latest standard-bearer for progressive politics to suffer from a voter backlash, amid economic retreat, discontent with aggressive climate policies and a growing resistance to immigration.

The Canadian leader spent the holiday break weighing his future, and said he made his decision over dinner with his family.
The move was the latest escalation in the back and forth between Beijing and Washington over products considered vital to national security.
By Alexandra Stevenson

China on Thursday singled out dozens of companies from the United States, including Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, in a series of punitive trade measures that could ratchet up tensions between the two superpowers.

With weeks to go before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes the office with a promise to impose new tariffs and sanctions on China, Beijing is once again showing it is ready to strike back.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said it added 28 companies to an export control list to “safeguard national security and interests.” It also banned the export of so-called dual-use items, which have both civilian and military applications, to those companies. And it placed 10 companies on what it calls an “unreliable entities list” related to the sale of arms to Taiwan, preventing them from doing any business in China and prohibiting their executives from entering or living in the country.

Chinese authorities have taken similar — albeit narrower — actions in the past on these companies, most of which have a limited presence within China, said Andrew Gilholm, a China expert at the consulting firm Control Risks.
Yoon issues letter to supporters as he faces arrest over declaration of martial law and alleged insurrection
Reuters

South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has rallied his supporters in a letter saying he will “fight until the end” as he faces an attempt by authorities to arrest him over his short-lived declaration of martial law, a lawyer said.

“I am watching on YouTube live all the hard work you are doing,” Yoon wrote late on Wednesday to the hundreds of supporters who had gathered near his official residence to protest against the investigation into him.

“I will fight until the end to protect this country together with you,” he said in the letter, a photo capture of which was sent to the media by Seok Dong-hyeon, a lawyer advising Yoon.

The opposition Democratic party, which has majority control of parliament and led the impeachment of Yoon on 14 December after his declaration of martial law on 3 December, said the letter proved Yoon was delusional and that he remained committed to completing his “insurrection”.

“As if trying to stage insurrection wasn’t enough, he is now inciting his supporters to an extreme clash,” a party spokesperson, Jo Seoung-lae, said in a statement.

A court on Tuesday approved a warrant for Yoon’s arrest, which would potentially make him the first sitting president to be detained as part of investigations over allegations he masterminded insurrection by trying to impose martial law.

Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity.

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading a joint team of investigators that includes police officers and prosecutors, has until 6 January to execute the arrest warrant.
BY AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday hailed the end of Russian gas transit across his country as a significant “defeat” for Moscow amid its near three-year invasion.

Flows of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine stopped on Wednesday morning after Zelensky refused to prolong decades of cooperation that had earned billions of dollars for both Moscow and Kyiv.

Ukraine has attacked countries that still buy Russian energy as helping fuel Moscow’s war machine, but the decision has caused mixed reactions in Europe, Russia’s top gas customer before the February 2022 invasion.

Moscow says Ukraine is shooting itself in the foot and frustrating its partners in eastern Europe that rely on Russian supplies.

Russian gas accounted for less than 10 percent of the European Union’s gas imports in 2023 — down from more than 40 percent before the war.
CBS News

A submarine drone suspected to be from China was recovered in waters off the central Philippines, police said on Thursday, warning of "potential national security implications."

Three fishermen found the drone on Monday around six miles off the coast of San Pascual in Masbate province, a police report said.

The Philippines and China have for years clashed over maritime rights in the South China Sea as well as possession of reefs and islets.

China claims almost the entire sea, brushing off rival claims from other countries and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The yellow drone marked "HY-119" was found floating at sea before being turned over to authorities, regional police director Andre Dizon told AFP.

It was about six feet long, and torpedo-shaped with fins.
As authorities probe passenger jet crash, police conduct ‘search and seizure operation’ at airline’s offices and airport.
Aljazeera

Police in South Korea have banned Jeju Air chief executive Kim E-bae from leaving the country amid an investigation into the deadliest-ever air disaster on South Korean soil.

The move came on Thursday as aviation authorities stepped up their probe into the cause of the deadly crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 on Sunday, which killed 179 of 181 people on board, with the police issuing a statement saying they planned to “swiftly and rigorously determine the cause and responsibility” for the accident.

On Thursday morning, the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency carried out “search and seizure operations” at Muan airport where flight 2216 crashed, a regional aviation office in the southwestern city, and Jeju Air’s office in the capital Seoul.
Shock and dismay prevails in Montenegro after a gunman fatally shot 12 people including two children in a western town before killing himself
By RISTO BOZOVIC Associated Press

CETINJE, Montenegro -- Shock and dismay prevailed in Montenegro on Thursday after a gunman fatally shot 12 people, including two children, in a western town before killing himself.

At least four others were wounded in the shooting rampage in Cetinje on Wednesday that followed a bar brawl, officials said. This was the second such incident in the town in the past three years.

The shooter, identified as 45-year-old Aco Martinović, killed the owner of the bar, the bar owner's children and his own family members, officials have said.

The attacker, who first fled after the rampage, was later located and surrounded by police. He died after shooting himself in the head, Interior Minister Danilo Šaranović said.

Residents of Cetinje, a town of some 17,000 people, were stunned and grief-stricken.
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