Chile’s President Gabriel Boric travelled to Antarctica’s South Pole on Friday, a place where no other Latin American president has set foot, according to the Chilean government.

Boric led the historic two-day trip, named Operation Pole Star III, to extend the environmental monitoring of pollutants on Antarctica, Chile’s government said in a statement.

He travelled with scientists, armed forces commanders and government ministers from the Chilean capital of Santiago to Punta Arenas, a city in southern Chile, public broadcaster Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) reported. From there, they made several stops before finally reaching the US-run Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, according to TVN.

Chile is one of seven countries that has a territorial claim in Antarctica, alongside Argentina, Australia, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom.

It is also a signatory of the Antarctic Treaty, which dictates that the continent may only be used for peaceful and scientific purposes.

While Chile has historically carried out scientific activity in Antarctica’s northern sector, the country’s government is now hoping to expand research into the west of the continent, its statement said.

Boric called his trip to the South Pole an “honor” and a source of pride, TVN reported.

“This is a milestone for us. It is the first time a Chilean and Latin American President has visited the South Pole,” he said, according to TVN.

The Chilean leader said that his journey demonstrated “the commitment we have for (Antarctica) to be and continue to be a continent of science and peace,” TVN reported.

“It is also a confirmation of our claim to sovereignty in this space,” he said, according to the outlet.

“From here everything is north: there are only 12 flags flying. One of them is the Chilean flag and that is a source of pride.”

The 12 flags represent the nations that signed the original Antarctic Treaty: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

On Saturday, Boric posted a video of himself on X, standing in the snow and wearing a red jacket, black hat and sunglasses. “Good morning from Chilean Antarctica, where everything begins,” he wrote.

Sweden began its annual wolf hunt this week, allowing nearly 10% of the endangered species population to be killed, as conservationists raise concerns about the controversial policy.

Since 2010, Sweden has allowed wolves to be hunted on a licensed quota basis. Conservationists say this goes against European Union law and have filed complaints with the EU Commission, which has previously said it is assessing Sweden’s compliance.

Hunted to the point of extinction by the 1970s, wolves have gradually returned to the northern European country, aided by EU conservation legislation.

But now the government is allowing 30 of the estimated 375 animals there to be culled, citing safety concerns for rural dwellers and livestock owners.

It’s part of the government’s effort to drastically reduce the overall number of wolves in the country – from a previous minimum population of 300 to a new minimum of 170. This minimum number, under Sweden’s Environmental Protection Agency, is referred to as a “favorable reference value.”

This is despite the wolf’s status as “highly threatened” on The Swedish Red List, which monitors the extinction risk of species in the Nordic country.

Conservationists were further alarmed last month when the Council of Europe’s Bern Convention committee, which includes 49 countries and the European Union, voted in favor of an EU proposal to lower the protection status of wolves from “strictly protected” to “protected.” The convention was originally established to protect species and habitats.

“Strictly protected” status meant wolves could not be deliberately killed or captured, but with the downgrading, the Council of Europe says member states will now have “additional flexibility” when managing their local wolf populations.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) responded to the decision, calling the EU’s move to weaken wolf protections “a serious misstep, devoid of any solid scientific foundation.”

Conservationists are concerned that if wolf numbers decline there will be an even greater likelihood of genetic problems within the population.

He accused the Swedish government of having “an anti-wildlife sentiment,” saying it had “a much more aggressive anti-carnivore policy” than previous governments.

But some conservationists think the wolves are being used as a political bargaining chip.

Just 3% of the Swedish population are hunters, according to Widstrand, who says those 300,000 people are “crucially important” to the country’s two main political blocs, who are often neck and neck in the polls.

“The hunting organizations have the ears of the politicians,” said Magnus Orrebrant, Chair of the Swedish Carnivore Association (SCA), which advocates for the coexistence of people and carniverous animals, like wolves and bears.

Wolves in Europe

Anti-wolf sentiment is growing elsewhere in Europe too.

A pony belonging to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s was killed by a wolf in 2022. She made a statement in 2023 saying that “the concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans,” which prompted several wildlife and conservation charities, including the WWF, to issue a response, calling her words “misleading” and “not based on science.”

Von der Leyen welcomed the news last month that the Bern Convention committee had decided to adjust the protection status of wolves, calling it “important news for our rural communities and farmers… because we need a balanced approach between the preservation of wildlife and the protection of our livelihoods.”

It’s true that the wolf population in Europe has increased over recent years. Wild Wonders’ Widstrand calls it “a major, fantastic comeback conservation story.”

There are approximately 1,500 wolves in Germany and 3,300 in Italy, according to conservation reports. Widstrand notes there are even 120 wolves in Belgium. “These countries are vastly smaller than Sweden and more densely populated,” he pointed out.

Yet rural affairs minister Kullgren says wolves are affecting Swedish society “more significantly than before.”

Kullgren said there were “parents who are afraid of letting their children play in their backyard, farmers who are afraid to let the animals out to graze due to the risk of wolf attacks and dog owners who are afraid that their beloved pets might get attacked while walking on forest paths.”

“The government is very much adding fuel to the polarized debate,” she added.

Orrebrant, chair of the SCA, said that if the EU follows the Bern Convention committee’s decision, which comes into effect on March 7, and decides to downgrade the wolf’s protection status, “that will allow countries like Germany, Italy or Spain to hunt in the same way that Sweden does.”

In parts of northern Europe, self-sufficiency has become increasingly important against the backdrop of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Sweden officially joined NATO last year and just a few months later it joined Norway in distributing booklets to millions of households with guidance on how residents could sustain themselves in the event of war, including details on how to grow food at home.

For livestock farmers involved in food production, this national agenda is further encouragement to lower Sweden’s population of large carnivores.

He believes the licensed wolf hunt is a necessary additional measure in the protection of livestock, adding that it is expensive for smaller farmers to install special, predator-proof fencing.

But Rindevall said that sheep are often used in the argument for wolf culling, even though she says only a tiny fraction of Swedish sheep are killed by wolves.

She is concerned about the message it sends to other countries, that a highly resourced country like Sweden is taking what she considers to be a regressive stance on conservation.

“How can we ask other countries to preserve animals like tigers, lions and elephants when we can’t seem to co-exist with wolves?”

Israel is considering limiting humanitarian aid to Gaza after Donald Trump comes into office later this month in a bid to deprive Hamas of resources, according to an Israeli official familiar with the matter.

Since October 7, Israel has been waging war in Gaza trying to dismantle Hamas militarily, but says the militants retain governing capacity through seizing aid. Such a move risks exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation.

“The humanitarian aid is not reaching the right hands,” the official said, who added it was one of “several” options currently being considered.

Relief organizations have consistently called for an increase in the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into the besieged strip, warning for months of the rising risk of famine for civilians.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on Tuesday that only 2,205 aid trucks had entered Gaza in the month of December, excluding commercial vehicles and fuel.

Israel disputed that number, saying there is no limit on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza and that over 5,000 trucks had entered over the course of the month, according to a statement from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which manages the flow of aid into the strip.

UN officials say the number of trucks entering Gaza before the war was approximately 500 per day, or 15,000 per month.

An estimated 91% of the territory’s 2.1 million residents are facing high levels of acute food insecurity, according to OCHA.

In October, less than a month before the US presidential election, the Biden administration sent a letter to the Israeli government demanding it act to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within 30 days or risk violating US laws governing foreign military assistance, suggesting US military aid could be in jeopardy.

The list of demands included allowing at least 350 trucks a day to enter Gaza while implementing combat pauses to enhance the flow and security for humanitarian convoys and movements.

A week after Trump won the election and the deadline expired, the Biden administration assessed that Israel was not blocking aid, despite key demands contained within the letter remaining unmet.

The State Department said that while changes were needed, progress had been made – so there would be no disruption to US arms supplies.

The head of Moldova’s breakaway region Transnistria has urged residents to burn firewood for heating and warned that blackouts cannot be avoided, after Moscow stopped supplying gas via Ukraine.

Vadim Krasnoselskyi, the president of the Russian-backed separatist slither on Moldova’s eastern flank, said in a message on Telegram on Friday that “1,500 multi-story apartment buildings have no heating and hot water. Almost 72,000 private households have no gas. One hundred and fifty gas boiler houses have been shut down.”

“Fortunately, our region is rich in wood. There are still reserves,” he added, encouraging residents in rural areas with active stoves to find and burn wood where possible.

The region has been plunged into an energy crisis since New Year’s Day, when Ukraine made good on its promise to halt the transport of Russian gas to Europe through its territory after a key deal with Moscow expired. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the move as “one of Moscow’s greatest defeats.”

Transnistria – a pro-Russian breakaway territory on the Ukrainian border – split from the rest of Moldova after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It had been receiving Russian gas via Ukraine until the supply was cut off.

“We cannot avoid rolling blackouts. This is required to protect the system. I am sure that everyone is accepting this stage with understanding,” Krasnoselskyi wrote on Telegram on Friday. “The government has developed a schedule, based on which it will be possible to organize everyday life and activity with the least inconvenience.”

Temperatures in the Transnistrian capital Tiraspol were forecast to hover slightly above freezing over the weekend, as a cold snap passes through much of Europe, though the European winter has otherwise been relatively mild so far.

The breakaway region’s parliament urged the Kremlin to reach a new deal with Ukraine over gas last month. Before the expiry of the transit deal with Ukraine, Russia had been supplying Moldova with around 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which was pumped through Transnistria, according to Reuters.

Ukraine now faces a loss of some $800 million a year in transit fees from Russia, while Kremlin-owned gas giant Gazprom will lose close to $5 billion in gas sales, the news agency reported.

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has meanwhile suggested he could cut electricity supplies to Ukraine and reduce aid to Ukrainian refugees in retaliation for the expiry of the gas transit deal, which he described as “sabotage” by Zelensky.

Europe has in general significantly reduced its reliance on Russian energy since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but parts of the former Eastern Bloc still import gas in large quantities.

Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman who was the world’s oldest person according to Guinness World Records, has died, an Ashiya city official said Saturday. She was 116.

Yoshitsugu Nagata, an official in charge of elderly policies, said Itooka died on December 29 at a care home in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, central Japan.

Itooka, who loved bananas and a yogurt-flavored Japanese drink called Calpis, was born on May 23, 1908. She became the oldest person last year following the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

When she was told she was at the top of the World Supercentenarian Rankings List, she simply replied, “Thank you.”

When Itooka celebrated her birthday last year, she received flowers, a cake and a card from the mayor.

Born in Osaka, Itooka was a volleyball player in high school, and long had a reputation for a sprightly spirit, Nagata said. She climbed the 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake twice.

She married at 20, and had two daughters and two sons, according to Guinness.

Itooka managed the office of her husband’s textile factory during World War II. She lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.

She is survived by one son and one daughter, and five grandchildren. A funeral service was held with family and friends, according to Nagata.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, the world’s oldest person is now 116-year-old Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born 16 days after Itooka.

Russia has vowed retaliation after claiming to have shot down eight US-made ATACMS missiles fired by Ukraine on Saturday morning.

Moscow sees the use of such missiles, which have a range of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles), as a major escalation.

The country’s air defenses shot down the eight ballistic missiles alongside 72 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Russia’s Ministry of Defense said. It added that “these actions by the Kyiv regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliation.”

The statement said several drones were destroyed in the Leningrad region in the north-west and one in Kursk, where Ukraine launched a surprise attack late last summer.

The outgoing US President Joe Biden approved Kyiv’s use of ATACMS in November – saying in part it was in response to Russia expanding the conflict by deploying North Korean troops.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to respond to Ukrainian strikes using ATACMS with Russia’s new nuclear-capable ballistic missile “Oreshnik.”

Last month, Putin suggested that it could be fired at the capital Kyiv as a test of Western-supplied air defense systems.

The first and only launch of the experimental weapon targeted Ukraine’s Dnipro region on the morning of November 21.

The Ukrainian drone attacks forced temporary restrictions to be introduced at an airport in St. Petersburg, Russian state media agency TASS reported.

The governor of Leningrad oblast, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said in a statement on Telegram that the “night and morning of January 4 were record-breaking in terms of the number of UAVs destroyed,” with four shot down over his region.

A Ukrainian security official, Andrii Kovalenko, said a seaport in Leningrad was targeted, calling it an “instrument of economic and military survival for Russia in isolation.”

Meanwhile, Russia launched a total of 81 drones at Ukraine overnight on Friday into Saturday, according to Ukraine’s Air Force Command, including Iranian-made Shahed drones and “various types of imitation drones.”

Some 34 Shahed attack UAVs and other types of drones were downed, according to a statement, although the downed drones caused damage in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions.

Ukraine enters the year on the back foot in the conflict, which began with in February 2022, with Russian making gains on the eastern frontlines.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday that its forces had taken control of the village of Nadiya in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region. In Donetsk, the hub of Pokrovsk is under growing Russian pressure as Ukrainian forces lose ground to the south and east of the town.

Ukraine is also concerned that the incoming Trump administration could cut vital military aid; Trump himself has vowed to end the conflict.

It was not the start to 2025 that Keir Starmer wanted or expected: in the early hours of New Year’s Day, Elon Musk lobbed a series of angry posts and allegations towards the British prime minister, engulfing his government in a very public fight.

In the days since, the world’s richest man has dredged up a painful, years-long scandal over grooming gangs and pushed for the release of Tommy Robinson, an imprisoned far-right agitator with a swelling social media following.

The tech billionaire, who played a prominent role in US President-elect Donald Trump’s election campaign, has posted or reposted on X about child sex abuse cases in the UK more than 50 times this week.

He has called for Starmer and his safeguarding minister to be removed from power, for new elections to take place, and even for King Charles III to unilaterally dissolve parliament – something which hasn’t happened for nearly two centuries and would cause a constitutional crisis.

The topics represent the latest fascination of Musk, but his vexation is not new – as Trump’s inauguration nears, the X owner has intervened with increasing ferocity in European politics and hailed far-right figures on the continent. He has repeatedly condemned the European Union’s institutions and policy decisions, and Italy’s president has warned him to stop meddling in the country’s affairs.

Musk now poses a delicate new challenge for Starmer. The British leader is taking great pains to charm Trump, while also hoping to hold back at home the growing influence of Reform UK, a populist, anti-immigration party that Musk has endorsed.

“He will help us enormously because he’s a hero figure, especially for the youth who really do admire this man,” Reform leader Nigel Farage said of Musk on the GB News channel on Friday. “He’s helping us because he has given us an understanding of how we did it in America. And that’s very useful to us.”

Can Musk be ignored?

Musk’s tussles with Starmer’s Labour government did not begin this week.

He had previously called Britain a “police state” over its crackdown on far-right rioters, who sparked violent clashes on the country’s streets during the summer. He has long derided Starmer on his platform, and more recently hailed Reform UK, which since its founding in 2018 has capitalized on public frustration with the country’s two major parties and now rivals each of them in opinion polling.

He has prodded other European politicians too; in the past week the German government has accused Musk of attempting to influence the country’s February election, through his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The group been accused of resurrecting Nazi-era ideology and slogans, and its youth arm has been designated by German authorities as an extremist organization.

Now, Musk’s growing infatuation with Tommy Robinson has positioned the billionaire as an idol for Britain’s online far-right community. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed for 18 months in October after he admitted to being in contempt of court by repeating false accusations about a Syrian refugee.

For most in Westminster, Musk’s anger – like much online trolling – remains little more than a sideshow.

But privately, some Labour MPs are asking themselves an obvious question: why us? Unlike in Germany, there is no impending parliamentary election through which Musk can exert his influence. An election is not due to be held in Britain for more than four years, and Labour’s government is relatively unpopular but, in parliamentary terms at least, rock solid.

And for Starmer, Musk can’t be entirely ignored. The prime minister has so far resisted taking Musk’s bait – the billionaire has accused him of failing to act against grooming gangs while director of public prosecutions – but MPs will eventually want to see him take a stronger stand, to protect his ministers from torrents of online abuse. (Musk has repeatedly this week called for Starmer’s safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, to be imprisoned – on Saturday calling her “pure evil” and “a wicked creature” – for prioritizing a local inquiry in Oldham over a national inquiry, a policy approach which is not a crime.)

At the same time, the United States is Britain’s closest and most important ally – and Musk seems to be, for now at least, the closest and most important ally of its incoming leader.

Labour is desperate to build trust with the Trump administration; the government being shunned by the president-elect would only work in Farage’s favor, and there is huge economic incentive in working with Trump on, for instance, exemptions from his tariff regime.

The comments of Starmer’s ministers reflect that dilemma. In a tip-toeing remark, health secretary Wes Streeting told reporters on Friday: “Some of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed, but we’re willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue.”

A delicate dance for Britain’s right

It remains unclear how much influence Musk will have on Trump’s decision-making – particularly on foreign policy, which is firmly outside his official remit as a co-head of the new Department of Government Efficiency.

But his remarks are already having some impact in Britain – exposing the fault lines in a deeply divided and unusually malleable political landscape.

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, reactively called on X for a “long overdue… full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal.”

But her authority on the issue, as with so many others, is limited by her own involvement in an ousted but deeply disliked Conservative government. That government had, indeed, commissioned a years-long inquiry into child sexual abuse, which concluded in 2022. But the probe’s leader subsequently criticized the former government’s response to her findings, which included a key recommendation that reporting of child sex abuse should be mandatory.

The long hangover of the Conservative era has allowed Farage to position his movement, with some success, as the “real” opposition in Britain, and Musk’s growing interest in Reform represents an opportunity for Farage to further his standing.

The populist leader predictably condemned Badenoch’s comments and has attached himself to most of Musk’s remarks. He talks openly about hoping for financial backing from Musk, ahead of a round of local elections in May in which Reform is on pace to perform well.

But there are dangers for Britain’s populist rabble-rouser, too. Echoing Musk’s support for Robinson was a bridge too far for Farage, who told GB News: “(Musk) sees Robinson as one of these people that fought against the grooming gangs. But of course the truth is Tommy Robinson’s in prison not for that, but for contempt of court.”

“We’re a political party aiming to win the next general election. He’s not what we need,” Farage said of Robinson.

For leading politicians across Britain’s ideological divide, Musk brings a heady mix of opportunity and risk.

His tendency to fawn over far-right figures won’t find much popular support in a country that, unlike some European nations, has not seen the emergence of a serious, extreme right-wing political movement – a fact Farage will remember even as he pushes for the US magnate’s financial backing.

But in government, outwardly shunning Musk is not yet an option. The delicate nature of Starmer’s relationship with Trump may depend on keeping the billionaire at arm’s length – for as long as that remains possible.

Russia is demanding the United Nations condemn Kyiv following an alleged drone attack that it claims killed a journalist working for a Russian outlet and injured several others.

Russia’s Izvestia newspaper reported Saturday that its freelance correspondent Alexander Martemyanov died from his injuries after the drone hit the vehicle he was traveling in on the Donetsk-Horlivka highway, in Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine.

Denis Pushilin, the head of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), where the incident allegedly took place, said Martemyanov had been returning from a reporting assignment in the city of Horlivka at the time.

Pushilin said two journalists from the state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti and two from the pro-Russian publication Bloknot Donetsk who were in the car with Martemyanov had also been “lightly injured” in the strike and were receiving medical assistance.

Bloknot Donetsk said its journalists had survived by “jumping out of the moving car” and sustained shrapnel wounds, concussions, and bruises.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the incident “a deliberate murder,” and accused Kyiv of trying to “eliminate” its “ideological opponents.”

She demanded the UN and other international organizations condemn Kyiv for the strike. “All those responsible for the crime against Russian journalists will be identified and will face deserved and inevitable punishment,” she added.

Russia would raise the issue at an upcoming UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, Izvestia quoted Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy as saying.

This is a developing story.

Mexico opened the possibility Friday of receiving non-Mexican migrants deported by the United States after initially saying they would push President-elect Donald Trump to return other nationalities directly to their countries of origin.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said during her daily press briefing that in cases where the US would not return migrants to their countries “we can collaborate through different mechanisms.”

She did not offer details, but Mexico could limit it to certain nationalities or request compensation from the US to move the deportees from Mexico to their home countries.

“There will be time to speak with the United States government if these deportations really happen, but we will receive them here, we are going to receive them properly and we have a plan,” she said. Sheinbaum had prefaced her comments by saying Mexico is not in favor of them.

Trump has promised to begin massive deportations. Critics have observed that there will be logistical challenges to significantly ramping up from the already high deportation numbers.

The deportations would be immediately felt in northern Mexico’s border cities, which struggle with high levels of organized crime and where non-Mexican migrants would make easy targets for kidnapping and extortion.

That happened during Trump’s first term, when thousands seeking US asylum were forced to wait out the process in Mexico. Many thousands more migrants who crossed into the US were sent back to Mexico under a public health provision held over from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In December, Sheinbaum had said she planned to ask Trump to deport non-Mexicans directly to their home countries.

Mexico, like any other country, is not obligated to accept non-Mexican migrants, but it has agreed to do so in the recent past, especially from countries like Cuba and Venezuela, which often refuse deportation flights from the United States, but may accept them from Mexico.

Mexico temporarily stopped deportations in December 2023 due to a lack of funds and they were substantially reduced during 2024 compared to 2023 and 2022.

Mexico wants to host a meeting of the region’s foreign ministers this month to discuss immigration.