Mozambique’s top court on Monday confirmed the ruling party Frelimo’s victory in an October election, which has sparked massive protests by opposition groups who say the vote was rigged.

The Constitutional Council has the final say over the electoral process and its ruling is likely to spark further protests in Mozambique, a Southern African country of close to 35 million people that Frelimo has governed since 1975.

Western observers said the election was not free and fair, and the post-election period has seen the biggest protests against Frelimo in Mozambique’s history.

At least 130 people have been killed in clashes with police, according to the civil society monitoring group Plataforma Decide.

Outside the conference center in the capital Maputo, where a senior Constitutional Council judge announced that Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo was president-elect and the party had retained its majority in parliament, the streets were deserted amid a heavy police presence.

But footage on local broadcaster TV Sucesso Moz showed protesters had taken to the streets in the northern city of Nacala-Porto within an hour of the announcement and in other areas of the capital.

In its final tally, the Constitutional Council said Chapo had secured about 65% of the vote, lower than the figure of more than 70% given by the electoral commission in late October. It also gave Frelimo fewer seats in the parliament than the commission did, without explaining why it had made those changes.

Frelimo has consistently been accused by opponents and election observers of rigging votes since it first allowed elections in 1994, although it has repeatedly denied those accusations. The electoral commission has not commented on allegations of fraud in this election.

Chapo told a Frelimo gathering that as president he would work to improve the lives of Mozambicans.

A representative of opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who the Constitutional Council said came second in the presidential election with about 24% of the vote, rejected the results announced on Monday.

“We never thought that the electoral truth would be trampled. The will of the people was obliterated,” Judite Simao said.

The post-election unrest has already affected the operations of foreign companies including the Australian mining firm South32 S32.AX and led to the temporary closure of the main border crossing with neighboring South Africa.

A senior International Monetary Fund official told Reuters Mozambique’s 2024 economic growth would likely be below a previous 4.3% forecast because of the unrest and the impact of this month’s Cyclone Chido.

The residence of the Argentine ambassador in Caracas, Venezuela, is mostly silent these days. Rather than diplomatic chatter or Christmas carols at this time of the year, the only noise is that of a small diesel power generator the residents turn on twice a day to charge their phones.

The rest of the time, the mansion sits almost still, the occupants busy with their own solitary tasks, like an oversized prison with few inmates.

There are no diplomats inside the compound – the Venezuelan government kicked out the ambassador shortly after President Nicolas Maduro proclaimed himself the winner of July’s contested presidential election and Buenos Aires cried foul.

Instead, five political asylum seekers – all members of the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s team – have been sheltering here for more than nine months. Now, they say, they are under “siege” by Venezuelan security forces.

“The pressure from the government has been escalating in the last few weeks. Psychological torture, we are under constant surveillance, and nobody can visit us without authorization … the spiritual damage we are subject to is tremendous,” one of them, Omar Gonzalez, told a virtual press conference earlier this month.

Edmundo González has since fled the country and is now living in exile in Spain, while Maduro is preparing to begin a new presidential term on January 10. González has publicly pledged to return to Venezuela in January to inaugurate his own government, although it’s unclear how he could enter the country without facing prosecution himself.

In March, six opposition members were accused of terrorist activities and treason for working with Machado, who went into hiding shortly after the election for her own safety. While Maduro’s government has at times denied that the diplomatic residence is under a blockade, it has also said the group will end up behind bars before long.

Machado’s team says they have done nothing wrong, but they have no doubt they would be arrested if they were to leave the building.

“It’s important to point out that there are six civilians, political activists that the only crime they committed is fighting for a free Venezuela, and we are threatened and in isolation, every day it gets worse,” Omar Gonzalez said.

A day later, Martínez went to the Attorney General’s office “voluntarily” to provide statements related to the accusations he faces and has agreed to “collaborate actively” with authorities, says a statement from the country’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab.

Under watch and running out of water

The group’s decision to speak to the media on the record was prompted by the tightening of the security measures imposed on the residence, which has been under the diplomatic custody of Brazil since the Argentine diplomats were expelled.

The green and gold Brazilian flag now flies above the residence, but there are no officials to keep the guests company. Venezuelan security forces have set up a series of checkpoints on the street outside to control who enters and leaves the building, but have not entered the residence itself.

Pressure is growing on their hideaway. On November 26, Venezuela’s state-run power company cut off their electricity. The security forces have also taken control of the surrounding buildings, and last week the Organization of American States’ Secretary General Luis Almagro posted a photo of someone appearing to spy on the building from a tree nearby – with a sniper’s rifle in their hands.

Drones routinely fly overhead and Venezuelan police units have threatened to break in several times, mostly at dawn, according to Gonzalez and the rest of the group, who are calling on other countries to intercede.

Argentina granted all six asylum in March, but the five who remain in the building have no means of getting there without risking arrest along the way.

Under international law, citizens granted political asylum by other countries should be allowed to leave their home country unharmed if they are under diplomatic custody.

Omar González, 74, has been married to his wife for 53 years. She is now living abroad, and this is the first time the couple will spend Christmas apart, he said.

“Power is our biggest issue: it’s not like we can go out to charge our phones, or go to the toilet… we are isolated,” said Magalli Meda, 56, Machado’s campaign manager.

Water is supplied by a small tank, the group said, but can only be pumped across the house with the power plant: when the plant is off, there’s no running water either.

Meda, a designer by trade, tries to shake off the tension by painting. “I like to paint wild horses, or birds flying away, open cages… everything I feel: sometimes I paint the pain of being locked up. This embassy has become a prison,” she said.

Coping with isolation

On June 28, the 100th day of their confinement in the residence – back when they still had access to water and power – Pedro Urruchurtu published a short video diary on his Instagram account showing him running in the front yard and reading: at that time, diplomatic personnel were allowed to go in and out the residence, providing the group with books and other items from friends and families.

“Each of us has a different coping mechanism, but mostly alone: it’s not like we’re here eating together and happy all the time… it’s tough,” said Claudia Macero, 32, Machado’s spokesperson.

Macero, Meda and Urruchurtu still try to work as regularly as possible for Venezuela’s opposition movement, which often means speaking with the relatives and friends of political activists held in the country’s notorious prisons. In the immediate aftermath of the election, security forces detained thousands of opposition activists, many of whom worked on the Machado campaign. Many remain behind bars.

The group tries to maintain optimism – and avoids speculating over how long they can hold out with the little fuel and food that remains.

When they entered the residence in March, none of the six believed they would still be here by Christmas. “It’s as if time halted,” said Urruchurtu, who in October celebrated his birthday with a video call to his family.

Meda is more sanguine, sharing her disappointment toward international institutions that, she believes, should do more to help but “end up being so slow and inefficient.”

Last week, the Associated Press reported that a senior adviser to the International Criminal Court resigned over the prosecutor’s inability to go after Maduro, who has been under investigation for crimes against humanity since 2021 but maintains a tight grip over his country.

At night, the group goes to bed early. Sunset in Caracas is at 6 pm and, with the power cut off, the only light is provided by candles and battery torches.

Macero admits she often finds it hard to fall or stay asleep.

“Sometimes I wake up and I don’t even remember what day of the week it is, because they are all the same,” Macero added. “Then work starts and we are constantly working… it’s more like sheltering in your office without power and water,” she quipped.

One of Colombia’s infamous drug lords and a key operator of the Medellin cartel has been deported back to the South American country, after serving 25 years of a 30-year prison sentence in the United States.

A short while later, Fabio Ochoa was again a free man.

Ochoa arrived in Bogota’s El Dorado airport on a deportation flight on Monday, wearing a gray sweatshirt and carrying his personal belongings in a plastic bag. After stepping out of the plane, the former cartel boss was met by immigration officials in bullet proof vests. There were no police on site to detain him.

Colombia’s national immigration agency promptly posted a brief statement on the social media platform X, saying Ochoa was “freed so that he could join his family” after immigration officials took his fingerprints and confirmed through a database that he is not wanted by Colombian authorities.

Ochoa, 67, and his older brothers amassed a fortune when cocaine started flooding the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s, according to US authorities, to the point that in 1987 they were included in Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires.

Living in Miami, Ochoa ran a distribution center for the cocaine cartel once headed by Pablo Escobar. Escobar died in a shootout with authorities in Medellin in 1993.

Ochoa was first indicted in the US for his alleged role in the 1986 killing of Barry Seal, an American pilot who flew cocaine flights for the Medellin cartel, but became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Along with his two older brothers, Juan David and Jorge Luis, Ochoa turned himself in to Colombian authorities in the early 1990s under a deal in which they avoided being extradited to the US.

The three brothers were released from prison in 1996, but Ochoa was arrested again three years later for drug trafficking and was extradited to the US in 2001 in response to an indictment in Miami naming him and more than 40 people as part of a drug smuggling conspiracy.

He was the only suspect in that group who opted to go to trial, resulting in his conviction and a 30-year sentence. The other defendants got much lighter prison terms because most of them cooperated with the government.

Ochoa’s name has faded from popular memory as Mexican drug traffickers take center stage in the global drug trade.

But the former member of the Medellin cartel was recently depicted in the Netflix series “Griselda,” where he first fights the plucky businesswoman Griselda Blanco for control of Miami’s cocaine market, and then makes an alliance with the drug trafficker, played by Sofia Vergara.

Ochoa is also depicted in the Netflix series “Narcos,” as the youngest son of an elite Medellin family that is into ranching and horse breeding and cuts a sharp contrast with Escobar, who came from more humble roots.

Richard Gregorie, a retired assistant US attorney who was on the prosecution team that convicted Ochoa, said authorities were never able to seize all of the Ochoa family’s illicit drug proceeds and he expects that the former mafia boss will have a welcome return home.

“He won’t be retiring a poor man, that’s for sure,” Gregorie told the Associated Press earlier this month.

A Chinese court has issued a suspended death sentence to a man who rammed his car into crowds outside a primary school in southern China last month, injuring more than two dozen people in one of several violent attacks that has recently rattled the country and prompted officials to ramp up security measures.

The driver, named as Huang Wen, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by a court in Changde city in Hunan province, state news agency Xinhua reported Monday.

Under Chinese law, the reprieve means Huang’s penalty can be commuted to life imprisonment, subject to his conduct during the two-year period.

Huang was arrested on site after injuring 30 people, including 18 students, on the morning of November 19, according to the court.

The court said Huang launched the attack to vent his frustration after suffering investment losses and conflicts with family members.

Huang got out of his vehicle after crashing it into people and attacked bystanders with a weapon before being apprehended, according to the court.

Another video showed multiple people, including adults, lying on the road, apparently injured. Police could be seen handcuffing a man in front of a vehicle.

Images circulating online of the incident were quickly wiped from social media platforms, while comment sections on posts related to the incidents were disabled.

“Huang Wen chose an unspecified large number of innocent primary school students as his main targets, demonstrating a despicable motive and extreme malice,” the court said in a statement.

Spate of attacks

The incident in Changde came just over a week after China saw its deadliest known attack in a decade, when 35 people were killed after a man plowed his car into crowds exercising at an outdoor sports center in the southern city of Zhuhai.

The suspect, a 62-year-old man, was apprehended while trying to flee the scene. An initial investigation suggested he was unhappy with the outcome of a divorce settlement, according to police.

Eight people were also killed and 17 others injured in a mass stabbing on a college campus in eastern China on November 16.

Sudden episodes of violence targeting random members of the public – including children – have surged across China in recent months as economic growth stutters, unnerving a public long accustomed to low violent crime rates and ubiquitous surveillance.

Some social media users have taken to warning each other to be cautious of people becoming more desperate and unstable, calling the recent attacks an act of “revenge against society.”

Public discontent has been mounting in China over the country’s flailing economy, which is grappling with numerous woes from an ailing property sector to low consumer confidence and high youth unemployment.

Authorities have rolled out some stimulus measures, but many experts say they are not enough to boost much-needed domestic demand and revive the economy.

The recent outbursts of violence have unnerved China’s top officials.

In response to the Zhuhai attack, Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged officials to “prevent risks at the source” and “promptly resolve conflicts and disputes” to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Last month, China’s top judge called on court officials to hand out swift and severe punishment for violent attacks on the public.

The country’s top prosecutor also pledged last month to “resolve conflicts, manage risks and maintain social stability” and maintain “zero tolerance” on crimes that endanger the safety of students.

2024 was the year of the vote. More than 60 countries – home to nearly half the planet’s population – selected their leaders. In the history of democracy, it is a first.

In the history of humankind, it was a remarkable coming of age, an evolution, that at its best would not just reveal our collective soul but also propel us to better days. But what did we learn?

The results, maybe, were less satisfying than many had hoped. It appears we are still selfish, survivalist in the immediate sense, and tribal – by and large we voted for ourselves and not our collective interests. Fear and greed remain big motivators.

In many industrialized countries, like the United Kingdom, the topic took a back seat to more immediate concerns like putting food on the table today, not ensuring we can grow it a hundred years from now. Concerns over the economy are what helped give Keir Starmer’s Labour Party such a decisive victory, after 14 years in opposition, over the Conservatives.

Climate change – potentially an existential threat for all of us – failed to cut through this year.

United States President Joe Biden was also a victim of the trend. He’d got inflation down, but not prices, while wages hadn’t gone up; people felt the pain and voted for change in the form of Donald Trump.

Viewed dispassionately, it may seem odd that a leader with a track record of lying and climate denial could land a successful message.

But seen from closer to home it really shouldn’t be so shocking. Across the world, most voters did what they traditionally do and voted with their wallets, punishing, even tossing out, incumbents.

Even where votes hadn’t been foreseen, elections continued to populate 2024 almost to the year’s end.

In mid-December, Germany’s moribund economy sank Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government when the Bundestag voted no confidence in his fractured coalition, triggering snap elections in early 2025.

From Algeria and Azerbaijan to Taiwan and Tuvalu, from the Solomon Islands to South Africa, democracy and the freedom to choose leaders has been embraced in a way unimaginable in countries where just a century or so ago voting, if available, was restricted to the wealthy, the middle-aged, and in many cases no women at all.

Biden and the UK Conservatives weren’t the only incumbents who had a bad year. In India, PM Narendra Modi’s populist nationalist party, the BJP, had its vote share cut; in South Africa, the party of Nelson Mandela lost its majority for the first time; and in the European Union, voters also shunned the mainstream, looking to populists on the left and particularly on the right. Mexico was unusual in seeing a sitting party improve its position.

In Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina easily won another term as president only to be swept from office by protesters, an indication that where the leader, and the ballot box, are widely distrusted, the trappings of democracy won’t save them.

But still, some votes stand out more than others. Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential contest is undoubtedly the most consequential, while French President Emmanuel Macron calling a snap vote after the EU parliamentary election is perhaps the most informative.

Like Modi in the world’s largest democracy of 1.4 billion people, Macron – with a much smaller electorate of about 50 million – lost significant support.

The populist nationalist Modi and reform-minded centrist Macron are still relatively powerful, but their political heft has been weakened because voters were unhappy with their economic performance.

In both cases, the hardships were largely beyond their control. The economic pain shared across the world, created in part by the long tail of Covid, coupled with the war in Ukraine driving up energy prices.

As the famous saying goes, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

The reason Macron’s victory is the most instructive is because it shows that where populism has historically been strongest it can still be challenged.

Macron had called the French parliamentary election immediately following the successes of France’s populist nationalists in the massive, 27-nation European Parliament elections in June.

His decision came on the heels of hosting the 80th anniversary commemoration of D-Day in Normandy, where France, and Macron, appeared at their finest, hosting myriad world leaders, World War II veterans, even royalty.

The event itself reflected a time when democracy was imagined to be coming of age, having seen off Nazism, yet held when once again the shadows of some of those same dark tendencies are lengthening.

At the celebrations Macron seemed buoyed and in control.

But just days later the EU election delivered an ego-busting blow and he appeared to be on the verge of a major miscalculation.

Although his position was safe, he was making a huge gamble. If the right-wing populists took parliament, his final years in office would be as a lame-duck president.

Macron’s bet landed his country with a conservative prime minister – rather than one from the populist right – who lost a confidence vote 57 days later. Macron then plucked another PM from a dwindling list of potential candidates, this time a centrist who described his task ahead as “Himalayan.” It may have paid off in the short term, but Trump’s success in the United States and the growth of the far right in Germany speak to an incoming tide that the French president has yet to figure out how to turn.

Perhaps the least unexpected result, and possibly the biggest abuse of the concept of democracy, could become one of the most consequential.

Vladimir Putin’s 87% share in Russia’s March presidential vote is an object lesson in what democracy is not.

It is not about political opponents languishing, or in the case of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, dying in jail just a few weeks before the election, neither is it about Putin’s chilling totalitarian grip on media. Nor his pernicious, meddling reach in Moldova, which narrowly voted to remain out with his grasp, nor Romania where the presidential vote was overturned, an apparent victim of social media jacking with telltale Russian hallmarks.

Next year will see a reprise of Putin and Trump’s relationship.

How the re-elected most powerful man in the world handles one of the most frequently illegitimately re-elected leaders in the world will test Europe’s future stability, and with it, global faith in the values of democracy.

Ironically their point of contest will be over Ukraine, a democracy overdue for an election but unable to hold one because of Putin’s illegal invasion, annexation of swaths of eastern Ukraine and Crimea and his military’s continued war there.

On his re-election campaign trail Trump vowed to end the war “in 24 hours” as well as cut the US support that is helping to stop Putin steamrollering the rest of Ukraine.

A Trump-Putin deal that validates illegality and illegitimacy over democratic norms would be a chilling way to kickstart 2025.

Trump has many options. Most Ukrainians will hope he chooses the values that began making America great even before the US army joined in with that WWII assault on Normandy.

And in this of course is a lesson in global democracy. Times change and so does popular will. The American people resoundingly voted for Trump, knowingly picking a more isolationist foreign policy president. It’s what they want, for now at least.

Perhaps the big takeaway of democracy’s impressive 2024 showing, is also the lesson of 1944 – how much one country’s electorate impacts another’s choices. It is a lesson writ larger and more complicatedly than any previous year.

The US is perhaps entering the twilight as global trendsetter, but its impact, be it on influencing the climate change calculations of India’s Modi and the actions of his populous nation, or a peace deal in Ukraine that signals Putin towards more deadly invasions, can easily affect countries thousands of miles way.

Trump is stacking his cabinet and White House with disruptors, as he is entitled to do; in four years Americans will be able to oust him, as they also are entitled to do.

That’s the trajectory that has got half the planet to the polls this year.

The democratic experiment has been working, mostly. Now is not the time to retreat.

It’s a lesson not lost on the Syrians emerging in late December from more than half a century of brutal Assad family dictatorship, whose 2025 might just hold the prospect of finally getting a share of democracy’s sweet allure and a trip to the polls themselves to pick their next leader.

(AP) — Burt, the huge crocodile that rose to fame with a cameo in the movie “Crocodile Dundee” and continued to impress visitors with his fiery temper and commanding presence, has died.

Burt died over the weekend, the Crocosaurus Cove reptile aquarium in Darwin, Australia, said. He was at least 90 years old.

“Known for his independent nature, Burt was a confirmed bachelor — an attitude he made clear during his earlier years at a crocodile farm,” Crocosaurus Cove wrote in social media posts.

“He wasn’t just a crocodile, he was a force of nature and a reminder of the power and majesty of these incredible creatures. While his personality could be challenging, it was also what made him so memorable and beloved by those who worked with him and the thousands who visited him over the years,” the aquarium wrote.

A saltwater crocodile, Burt was estimated to be more than 5 meters (16 feet) long. He was captured in the 1980s in the Reynolds River and became one of the most well-known crocodiles in the world, according to Crocosaurus Cove.

The 1986 movie stars Paul Hogan as the rugged crocodile hunter Mick Dundee. In the movie, American Sue Charlton, played by actress Linda Kozlowski, goes to fill her canteen in a watering hole when she is attacked by a crocodile before being saved by Dundee.

Burt is briefly shown lunging out of the water.

But the creature shown in more detail as Dundee saves the day is apparently something else. The Internet Movie Database says the movie goofed by depicting an American alligator, which has a blunter snout.

The Australian aquarium where Burt had lived since 2008 features a “Cage of Death” which it says is the nation’s only crocodile dive. It said it planned to honor Burt’s legacy with a commemorative sign “celebrating his extraordinary life and the stories and interactions he shared throughout his time at the park.”

A Moscow court has on Tuesday sentenced a US citizen to 15 years in prison on charges related to espionage, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

Gene Spector, who was born in Russia but later moved to the United States and received citizenship, had previously been sentenced to four years in prison in Russia for acting as an intermediary in a bribe, Russian state media said.

Independent Russian outlet Media Zona, who had a journalist inside the courtroom, reported that Spector was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony on espionage charges. His previous charge for bribery was added to this term, meaning he was handed down a 15-year sentence, it reported, adding that Spector was also fined 14,116,805 rubles (around $140,500).

In 2020, Spector pled guilty to mediating bribes for Anastasia Alekseyeva, a previous aide to former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, state news agency TASS reported.

Before this, Spector was the chairman of the board of directors of Medpolymerprom Group, specializing in cancer drugs, according to TASS.

When Islamist rebels swept through Syria’s second largest city in an operation that would eventually culminate in the ouster of the brutal Assad regime, Christians were given assurances that their churches and property would remain protected.

Three weeks since the rebels’ successful campaign to topple Assad, Syria’s Christians now join those in Lebanon and Palestinian territories to celebrate Christmas amid great uncertainty and fear in the region.

Under Bashar al-Assad, Christians were allowed to celebrate their holidays and practice their rituals but like all Syrians faced tyrannical limitations on freedom of speech and political activity.

In control of most of Syria now is the Islamist armed rebel group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed Al Jolani – a man who had established al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria before rebranding his group in 2016.

“Hayat Tahrir Al Sham have not announced anything on stopping our celebrations… but there are Christians who don’t want to go out to celebrate because they fear that they might get attacked from rogue armed individuals,” George, a 24-year-old Catholic resident of Damascus, who chose to give only his first name to speak freely.

Christmas trees and other festive decorations are up across Christian neighborhoods of Damascus, George said, but people are scaling back their celebrations and imposing their own restrictions amid an absence of communication from HTS.

“It will make a big difference if there are announcements on better security for Christmas. Until now there isn’t proper security that is 100% organized,” he added.

Hilda Haskour, a 50-year-old Aleppo resident who identifies as Syriac Catholic, is preparing to celebrate Christmas but says there’s still worry among Christians.

“We just want to live in peace and safety, we are not asking for much…there is fear, people are tired,” Haskour said.

‘We will rebuild again’

For the second year running, a Christmas tree will not be hoisted in the city revered as the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem.

Since the Gaza war started last year in the wake of Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, the Israeli-occupied city of Bethlehem has been subjected to “severe isolation” due to imposed restrictions, the suspension of tourism, the closure of its gates to pilgrims, and a frozen economy, the Mayor of Bethlehem Anton Salman said at a news conference on Saturday.

At least $600 million has been lost in revenue and unemployment rates have soared to over 36%, with poverty levels rising as nearly 30% of Bethlehem’s residents lack a source of income due to the absence of tourists.

“This year’s Christmas celebrations will be limited to prayers and religious rituals in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and across Palestine and as a rejection of the oppression and injustice they endure,” a statement citing Salman said.

Over the past year in Gaza, where Israeli attacks have killed at least 45,000 people and destroyed much of the strip, churches have been targeted several times by Israeli forces. Days before Christmas last year, an Israeli military sniper shot and killed two women inside the Holy Family Parish, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

This Christmas, the Catholic Bishop of Jerusalem, known as a Patriarch, was allowed to enter Gaza to pray with the small Christian population of the strip at the Holy Family Parish, which has served over the past year as a shelter for the small religious minority.

“The war will end, and we will rebuild again, but we must guard our hearts to be capable of rebuilding. We love you, so never fear and never give up,” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa told worshipers during Sunday Mass.

Lebanon celebrates

Meanwhile in Lebanon, decorations are up in Christian parts of Beirut, where communities are keen to celebrate just weeks after a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel was declared. Flights were fully booked as people returned to mark Christmas with families and festive markets opened in different neighborhoods.

“My brother is flying back from New York just to specifically celebrate with our mother,” Tony Batte, an Armenian Catholic resident of Beirut, said.

In September, Israel expanded its targeting of Hezbollah to areas inside Lebanon, including the capital Beirut. Around 4,000 people were killed and thousands more injured in Lebanon while Hezbollah continued firing rockets and drones on Israeli cities in the north displacing thousands.

Hezbollah entered the war last year in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and Hamas but has since suffered significant losses, including the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah and his top brass, and the debilitating of the militant group’s missile capabilities. The fall of its key ally Assad, and the rebels’ capture of key supply routes used by Hezbollah in Syria could also affect the capabilities of the Iranian-backed group.

“We want stability, we’re tired. We were occupied by the Syrians for years and then had Iranian influence, and we’re tired of the Christian infighting, the Islamic infighting, the Hezbollah-Israel war, every Lebanese person is tired, not just Christians,” Batte said.

At least 12 people were killed in a blast at an explosives and ammunition factory in the Karesi district of Balikesir province in northwest Turkey on Tuesday, the country’s interior ministry said.

At least four others were injured in the explosion, which also caused a building to collapse, according to the ministry.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on X that he was “deeply saddened by the death of 12 of our brothers.”

“I pray to God to have mercy on my deceased brothers, offer my condolences to their families, and wish a speedy recovery to our injured,” Erdogan added. “My condolences to Balikesir and our nation.”

Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on X that a committee of experts, including chemical, mechanical, occupational safety and geophysical engineers, had been assigned to determine the cause of the explosion.

This is a developing story and will be updated.