Vilnius, Lithuania (REUTERS) – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Sunday they had successfully synchronized their electricity systems to the European continental power grid, one day after severing decades-old energy ties to Russia and Belarus

Planned for many years, the complex switch away from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord is designed to integrate the three Baltic nations more closely with the European Union and to boost the region’s energy security.

“We did it!,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said in a post on social media X.

After disconnecting on Saturday from the IPS/UPS network, established by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and now run by Russia, the Baltic nations cut cross-border high-voltage transmission lines in eastern Latvia, some 100 meters (328 feet) from the Russian border, handing out pieces of chopped wire to enthusiastic bystanders as keepsakes.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, herself an Estonian, earlier this week called the switch “a victory for freedom and European unity.”

The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after power cable, telecom links and gas pipeline outages between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland. All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement.

Poland and the Baltics deployed navy assets, elite police units and helicopters after an undersea power link from Finland to Estonia was damaged in December, while Lithuania’s military began drills to protect the overland connection to Poland.

Analysts say more damage to links could push power prices in the Baltics to levels not seen since the invasion of Ukraine, when energy prices soared.

The IPS/UPS grid was the final remaining link to Russia for the three countries, which re-emerged as independent nations in the early 1990s at the fall of the Soviet Union, and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.

The three staunch supporters of Kyiv stopped purchases of power from Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but have relied on the Russian grid to control frequencies and stabilize networks to avoid outages.

Israel completed its withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor on Sunday, a key road that splits Gaza in half, as part of its commitments under a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Palestinians have been filing through the area by foot, car and in some cases, by donkeys video footage showed, although those traveling must navigate a checkpoint and the destruction wrought by months of fighting in Gaza.

“I was displaced a long time ago. I have seen people arriving on this road, sometimes even sleeping on it while waiting for the Israeli army to withdraw,” said Osama Saleem, who was waiting for his vehicle to be inspected.

“I hope the Israeli army withdraws from all of Gaza and that life returns to normal,” he added.

Hamas said in a statement that Israeli forces had fully withdrawn from the corridor, a six-kilometer strip of land that separates the north of the strip from its south and stretches from the Israel-Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had occupied the corridor since the early days of its war in Gaza.

“The withdrawal of the Zionist occupation army from the Netzarim axis is a victory for the will of our people,” a Hamas statement issued Sunday said.

Israel had used the corridor as a zone of occupation during its 15-month assault on the strip. Its troops began withdrawing from Netzarim Corridor two weeks ago as part of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced in the south have been able to cross Netzarim to return to their homes in the heavily bombarded north of Gaza.

Israel retains its presence along Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel.

A checkpoint run by Egyptian and Qatari officials – countries which play a mediator role between the warring sides – remains at Netzarim.

Israel’s complete withdrawal from Netzarim is part of its commitment to the fragile ceasefire and hostage agreement, which on Saturday saw the release of another three hostages – bringing the number released so far to 16 out of a total of 33 people promised to be released at staggered intervals during this stage.

Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy – all taken captive during the Hamas-led October 7 attack – were freed in return for 183 Palestinian prisoners, although their frail and gaunt appearances drew condemnation from Israel.

Negotiations on the agreement’s second and third phases are still in doubt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been deeply wary of phase two of the deal, which would see the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the return of the remaining hostages there. His finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has pledged to quit the government if the ceasefire continues.

Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed reporting.

The Aga Khan IV was laid to rest on Sunday at a private ceremony in Aswan, Egypt.

The death of Prince Karim – the 49th hereditary imam of the Shiite Ismaili Muslims – was announced Tuesday by the Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili religious community. His son, 53-year-old Rahim Al-Hussaini, has been named as the Aga Khan V, the spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims, in according with his father’s will.

On Saturday, a private funeral service took place at the Ismaili community center in Lisbon attended by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Spain’s King Emeritus Juan Carlos and Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

The Aga Khan is considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and is treated as a head of state.

The governor of Aswan welcomed Prince Karim’s family at the southern Egyptian’s provinces airport on Saturday.

“When his will was opened, it was found that he had requested to be buried in Aswan near his grandfather, Sultan Muhammad Shah, and his grandmother, Om Habiba,” said Maj. Gen. Ismail Kamal.

Ismaili mourners marched as bells rang during the burial ceremony in the country’s southern Aswan province, as Prince Karim’s body was taken in a van.

They carried his body, draped in a white shroud, and placed it on a yacht on the Nile River.

Prince Karim, 88, was given the title of “His Highness” by Queen Elizabeth in July 1957, two weeks after his grandfather, the Aga Khan III, unexpectedly made him heir to the family’s 1,300-year dynasty as leader of the Ismaili Muslim sect.

The late Aga Khan evolved over decades into a business magnate and a philanthropist, moving between the spiritual and the worldly with ease.

He was a defender of Islamic culture and values, but also widely regarded as a builder of bridges between Muslim societies and the West.

The Aga Khan Development Network deals mainly with issues of health care, housing, education and rural economic development.

It says it works in over 30 countries and has an annual budget of about $1 billion for nonprofit development activities.

Ismailis lived for many generations in Iran, Syria and South Asia before also settling in east Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, as well as Europe, North America and Australia more recently.

They consider it a duty to donate up to 12.5% of their income to the Aga Khan as steward.

Polls have closed and votes are now being counted in Ecuador’s general election, where 16 candidates are vying for the presidency, including incumbent Daniel Noboa and his main political rival Luisa González.

According to Ecuador’s Constitution, a candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to win the first round outright, or 40% with a margin of at least 10 percentage points over the next closest candidate.

If these conditions are not met, the two candidates with the most votes will face each other in a second round, which is provisionally scheduled for April 13.

Sunday’s vote will decide if the country will stick with Noboa’s tough crackdown on crime or seek an alternative voice in González.

Noboa, who won the 2023 snap election to finish the term of his predecessor Guillermo Lasso, has presided over a series of crises in his term.

He has declared numerous states of emergency, deployed military units to tackle gang activity in the country’s streets, and began construction on a new maximum-security prison after an infamous criminal leader escaped from custody last year.

González, who was the runner-up in the 2023 race, is a close confidante of former leftist President Rafael Correa, a dominant figure in Ecuador’s politics.

Running on a campaign to “Revive Ecuador,” González has pledged to tackle the drug trade just as vigorously as Noboa.

The main challenges the next government will face when it takes office in May are security, the economy, a nationwide energy crisis and international relations.

For a man who’s spent his career battling to make France more pro-business, Europe’s prospects on artificial intelligence are worrying: an oversight that could cost the bloc dearly.

“We need an AI agenda,” he said, “because we have to bridge the gap with the United States and China on AI.” The French leader added that he fears Europe becoming merely an AI consumer, losing control over the future direction and development of the technology.

That’s part of the impetus behind this week’s AI summit in Paris — the latest effort by Macron to put France at the heart of the debate and decision-making on international questions of the day.

Macron regularly touts the prospects of Paris-based company Mistral, widely considered OpenAI’s European competitor, which launched a new app on Thursday.

The company boasts of its ability to rival its US competitors, by getting the same results with less computing power needed, although the surprise arrival of lower-cost Chinese competitor DeepSeek has put pressure on the French firm.

Europe ‘must do much better’ on financing

With its nuclear-heavy energy portfolio making France a net energy exporter, the country is in an enviable position for the creation of power-ravenous data centers.

France is set to unveil what its government boasts is Europe’s largest supercomputer by fall 2025, outside Paris.

The Mont Valerien site will be a military facility, bringing AI capabilities at scale to help solve design and engineering questions, like the architecture of France’s next aircraft carriers. AI will also be used to improve future military technologies and practices, like anti-drone jamming, according to the French Ministry of Defense.

That’s the exception. With Europe holding a mere 3-5% of global computing power, Macron said he hopes this surplus power will open doors to Europe’s AI future. He has his sights on building 20% of the world’s data centers.

But financing — especially from the United States and the Gulf Arab states — will be key, according to Macron.

It’s where Europe “must do much better,” Macron said.

Finding cash within the continent could be an unwitting boon if President Donald Trump’s tariff threats against European allies come to a head.

“From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly,” Trump told the World Economic Forum in January, later threatening to levy tariffs against the bloc after slapping — and then rescinding — stiff import taxes on Canada and Mexico.

Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariffs on China still went into effect, and the president said he will announce new so-called reciprocal tariffs next week that could hit all corners of the world.

Trump has railed against the US trade deficit with the European Union, which increased by $26.9 billion to $235.6 billion in 2024, according to US government figures.

Macron pushed back against this, arguing the trade deficit ignores Europe’s significant spending on digital services, which is often excluded from such calculations.

In response to potential tariffs, Macron said Europe must look to protect producers against American and Chinese competition and, crucially, ease regulation on investments to stem the “leaking” of European savings to the United States. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mirrored that resolute stance last week.

Staying in the race

“I will fight for AI,” he said, calling for a business environment that makes Europe more competitive. “I will fight for more defence and security answers as Europeans. And I will fight for the maximum level of ambition on all these issues.”

February and March will bring announcements and a roadmap of reforms around AI startup regulations, Macron said, in an effort to rival the United States and China’s AI agenda.

“We have to focus on killing some crazy regulations, simplification of the current environment,” Macron said. “Europe has to simplify its rules, make it much more business friendly and synchronize with the United States.”

He hopes, for AI at least, this week’s summit will be a “wake up call” for Europe.

The families of the three Israeli hostages released Saturday have spoken out about their loved ones’ ordeal in Hamas captivity, saying they hope their suffering provides impetus to efforts to free all those still in Gaza as soon as possible.

Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy appeared gaunt and frail as they were paraded by the militants on a makeshift stage in Gaza before they were handed over to the Red Cross.

Their appearance was condemned as “shocking” by Israel, which has said the scenes will “not go unaddressed.”

‘Nothing prepared me for those pictures’

Ella Ben Ami, daughter of Ohad, spoke of her horror at watching Hamas parade her father on the stage.

“I had many pictures in my mind of my dad, but nothing prepared me for those pictures of him on that stage in Gaza. I was sure that I would be strong, but I fell on the floor and screamed, ‘I’m sorry,’” she said.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Ella Ben Ami said her father “went through hell” in Gaza and noted that the remaining Israeli hostages are suffering the same conditions her father did.

She called on the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “find a way” to bring them all home.

“We have to keep going to Phase B, and have to bring everybody back,” she said referring to the second phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, which is supposed to see the return of the remaining hostages and was expected to be discussed in a “a security-political cabinet meeting” held by Netanyahu this weekend.

‘He wasn’t the same Or’

Or Levy’s brother Michael said when he saw his brother on Saturday for the first time in 16 months, he wasn’t the same person who left home on October 7, 2023.

“He came back in poor physical condition. Anyone who saw the pictures and videos couldn’t ignore it. For 16 months, he was hungry, barefoot and in constant fear that every day can be his last,” Michael said, according to the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters.

After his release, Or received the heartbreaking news that his wife Einav had been killed in the October 7 attack.

“The hardest blow was yesterday when Or discovered that Einav, the love of his life, was murdered on that terrible day. For 491 days, he held onto hope that he would return to her,” Michael said.

He went on to call for the immediate release of the remaining hostages, saying, “Or’s return is a miracle, but we can’t rest until every single one of them is back with their families.”

‘Every second could save lives’

Eli Sharabi’s brother Sharon described the return of the three hostages as a victory for the Israeli people but said the government must work with a sense of urgency to save the other hostages, the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters said.

Yossi, another brother in the family, was also taken hostage by Hamas but he subsequently died in Gaza.

“Every moment that passes, every second could save lives from Hamas tunnels, from this cruel enemy that has massacred us since October 7,” Sharon said.

Hamas has now released a total of 16 Israeli hostages as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, of a total of 33 promised at staggered intervals during this stage. Eight of those 33 are dead, according to the Israeli government.

Following the release of the three hostages on Saturday, Hamas and its allies still hold a total of 73 people taken from Israel on October 7, 2023, of 251 initially taken. Three additional hostages, held captive since 2014, are still in Gaza.

The number of new marriages recorded in China fell to a record low last year, despite sweeping government efforts to encourage young people to tie the knot and have babies to halt demographic decline in the world’s second-largest economy.

Some 6.1 million couples registered their marriages in 2024, a plunge of 20.5% from the previous year, according to data released Saturday by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs. It marks a record low since the ministry started releasing the statistics in 1986.

Plummeting marriages – and births – pose a severe challenge to Beijing, as it grapples with the pressure of a shrinking workforce and rapidly aging population on the country’s slowing economy.

The sharp drop in the number of marriages in 2024 resumed the decade-long decline since 2013, after a brief rebound in 2023 following the lifting of stringent Covid restrictions.

Last year’s figure was less than half of the 13 million marriages registered at the peak in 2013.

The data released on Saturday also showed a slight increase in the number of divorces. Last year, nearly 2.6 million couples registered for divorce, an increase of 28,000 from 2023.

China has mandated a 30-day “cooling-off” period for people filing for divorce since 2021, despite criticism that it could make it harder for women to leave broken or even abusive marriages.

China’s population has shrunk for three years in a row despite a slight increase in the birth rate last year.

The working population, classified as those between the ages of 16 and 59, also declined by 6.83 million last year, adding to an ongoing contraction. The population of those over 60, meanwhile, continued to expand, to account for 22% of the total population.

Chinese officials see a direct link between fewer marriages and falling births in the country, where social norms and government regulations make it challenging for unmarried couples to have children.

To reverse the decline, Chinese officials have rolled out a raft of measures, from financial incentives to propaganda campaigns, to nudge young people to tie the knot and have children.

Officials have organized blind dating events, mass weddings, and attempted to curtail the tradition of large “bride price” payments from the groom to his future wife’s family that put marriage out of reach for many poor men in rural areas.

Some local governments have even handed out cash incentives for young couples to get married.

Since 2022, China’s Family Planning Association has launched programs to create a “new-era marriage and childbearing culture,” enrolling dozens of cities to promote the “social value of childbearing” and encouraging young people to get married and give birth at an “appropriate age.”

But so far, these policies have failed to convince Chinese young adults who are grappling with high unemployment, the rising cost of living and the lack of robust social welfare support amid the economic slowdown.

Many are postponing marriage and childbirth – and a growing number of young people even choose to eschew them entirely.

“Life is so exhausting, how could there be the courage to get married? Sigh,” said a top comment on Chinese social platform Weibo on Sunday, in response to news of the record-low marriages.

The decline in both marriages and births is partly due to decades of policies designed to limit China’s population growth, which resulted in fewer young people of marriageable age, according to Chinese officials and sociologists.

In 2015, China announced an end to its decades-long one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children, then increased that to three children in 2021 – but both marriage and birth rates continued to drop.

The stubborn downward trend is also a result of changing attitudes to marriage, especially among young women who are becoming more educated and financially independent.

Faced with widespread workplace discrimination and patriarchal traditions – such as the expectation for women to be responsible for childcare and housework – some women are growing disillusioned with marriage.

At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels and two police officials were killed on Sunday in the deadliest combat so far this year in central India, police said.

Hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers launched an operation in the forests of the Indravati area of Chhattisgarh state based on intelligence that large number of rebels had gathered there, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.

Sundarraj said as the troops conducted a search operation fighting erupted in the forest, killing at least 31 insurgents and two police officials. Two other police were injured. He said search operations were continuing in the area and the troops had recovered some arms and ammunition, including automatic rifles.

There was no immediate statement from the rebels.

Sunday’s fighting is the biggest so far this year and the second major clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to police officer Jitendra Yadav.

At least 16 rebels were killed in the state’s Gariband district on Jan. 23. According to Indian officials, the government had issued a bounty for 12 of them totaling about $345,000. Eight rebels were killed in a gunbattle with troops in the Bijapur district on Jan. 31.

Indian soldiers have been battling the Maoist rebels across several central and northern states since 1967, when the militants, also known as Naxalites, began fighting to demand more jobs, land and wealth from natural resources for the country’s poor indigenous communities. The insurgents are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.

Years of neglect have isolated many locals, who face a lack of jobs, schools and health care clinics, making them open to overtures by the rebels. The rebels speak the same tribal languages as many villagers and have promised to fight for a better future especially in Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest states despite its vast mineral riches.

The rebels have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted officials. They’ve also blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilitary warehouses to arm themselves.

Two rare black wolves, likely siblings, were spotted on camera crossing a stream in a Polish forest, a conservation organization said Sunday.

The unusual sighting, captured last year on a video camera set up by SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund Poland project coordinator Joanna Toczydłowska, has prompted the organization to collect scat (droppings) in the forest in the hopes of learning more about the black wolves’ genetics.

“It’s something new and unusual,” Toczydłowska told The Associated Press.

Toczydłowska initially placed the camera to study beavers. When she noticed she was recording wolves instead, she kept the camera there and collected the black wolf footage a few weeks ago.

In one clip, a black wolf and a gray wolf slowly crossed a stream in the forest, the water nearly up to their bellies, before they leap onto the bank. A second clip, taken last fall, records two black wolves and a gray wolf fording the same stream.

Most of the 2,500 to 3,000 wolves in Poland are gray with red or black accents. Black fur comes from a genetic mutation that was likely in domesticated dogs thousands of years ago. The dark fur is rare in Europe due to a reduced genetic diversity, but at least half of the wolf population has black fur in Yellowstone National Park in the United States.

Because wolves travel in families and both black wolves were around 30 kilograms (66 lbs) — roughly the size of a German shepherd — Toczydłowska said they were likely siblings and roughly a year old. At least one is male.

The conservation organization, which has been monitoring wolves in Poland for 13 years, is not disclosing the forest’s location to keep the wolves safe from poaching and prevent misinformation about wolves from spreading.

Wolves were essentially extinct in Poland by the 1950s, but the population has returned in recent years, especially in central part of the country in the early 2000s. Toczydłowska and her colleagues teach other the public how to safely live in areas inhabited by wolfpacks.

“For people, it is a new phenomenon,” Roman Gula, head of the organization’s wolf monitoring project, told the AP. “Education is one of our major, major goals.”

The conservation fund announced the sighting last week on Facebook and asked for financial support to pay for the scat’s genetic testing to learn more about the black-fur mutation.