A Palestinian grandfather in Gaza whose tribute to his slain granddaughter went viral last year was killed by Israeli fire on Monday, his family and a hospital said.

Khaled Nabhan drew global attention in a widely shared social media video of his moment of grief in November 2023, as he kissed his lifeless granddaughter Reem goodbye – the 3-year-old girl he called “the soul of my soul.”

His grandchildren, Reem and 5-year-old Tarek, were killed while they were sleeping in their bed last November. Their home was brought down by what Nabhan said at the time was a nearby Israeli airstrike in the Al Nuseirat refugee camp in southern Gaza.

On Monday, Khaled was killed by an Israeli tank shell, according to Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, central Gaza.

Saed said eyewitnesses told him that his uncle “saw injured people and ran to help, but he was instantly killed by another tank shell.”

He added: “What a great man we have lost. We will never have someone like him again.”

In footage shared on social media by local journalists in Gaza, Nabhan’s lifeless body is seen lying on a hospital bed, covered in blood, as weeping crowds huddle around him.

“Oh, Abu Diaa,” people are heard crying, referring to Nabhan by his nickname.

Ukraine said on Monday that North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian troops suffered heavy losses during fighting at the weekend in the Russian region of Kursk.

North Korean units that arrived in Kursk last month were involved in assaults at the weekend near three villages, according to Ukraine’s defense intelligence service.

It added that some 30 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded in the fighting and three had gone missing during clashes near the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba and Martynovka close to the border.

Separately, a Ukrainian frontline drone unit posted video on Sunday purporting to show the bodies of more than 20 North Korean soldiers lined up in an icy field. The quality of the video was not good enough to verify their identity.

One Ukrainian unit reported that Koreans – wearing different uniforms from the Russians – had launched infantry attacks using the “same tactics as 70 years ago,” in an apparent reference to the Korean War, where waves of infantry were used.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that North Korean troops deployed to Kursk had been involved in combat, adding that clashes had resulted in fatalities.

Since the beginning of December, North Korean troops appear to have been playing a more prominent role on the front lines in Kursk, especially as infantry.

Ukraine estimates that about 12,000 North Korean soldiers are in the region trying to assist Russian units in recovering parts of Kursk taken in a Ukrainian offensive in August.

The fighting around Plekhovo began earlier this month as Russian units tried to push Ukrainian forces back toward the border, some four kilometers (2.5 miles) away.

A Ukrainian military blogger, Yuriy Butusov, said on Facebook that a major assault had been repelled on Saturday.

Butusov said that North Korean infantry was backed by “massive fire support” from Russian units, as well as electronic warfare against Ukrainian drones.

“Despite the losses, the enemy assault groups continued to advance, never stopping even under precision fire and shelling.”

“The enemy managed to reach the Ukrainian positions due to their good physical training, fast movement, and ignorance of their own losses; no evacuation of the wounded and dead was carried out during the assault,” Butusov commented, adding that “our troops launched several successful counterattacks to restore the situation.”

It is unclear which side – if either – now holds the village of Plekhovo.

Syria’s new regime, led by a group with former ties to al Qaeda, is on a mission to gain international legitimacy – and it’s already seeing some success.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, an internationally sanctioned former jihadist, has been meeting foreign dignitaries since his group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) ousted ex-President Bashar al Assad’s regime last week. He seeks to present Syria’s new regime as a friendly, inclusive and non-belligerent state.

On Sunday, he secured a meeting in Damascus with Geir Otto Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, who said the international community will “hopefully see a quick end to sanctions, so that we can see really a rallying around building up Syria again.”

The envoy however warned that there must be “justice and accountability for crimes,” but that they must go through “a credible justice system.”

And on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she “tasked a European top diplomat in Syria to go to Damascus to make the contacts with the new government and people there,” adding that EU would consider more steps “if we see that Syria goes in the right direction.”

So far, the United States and the United Kingdom have also established contact with the rebel groups ruling the country, along with Qatar and Turkey.

Experts say that while Syria’s unfolding events present an opportunity to prevent the state from collapsing, they also come with uncertainties and risks as the country’s new leaders come to power – many with an unsavory past.

Jolani, who now goes by his real name Ahmad al-Sharaa, and his group, HTS, burst out of their pocket of territory in the northwest of Syria earlier this month, swiftly taking control of the country’s second-largest city Aleppo before capturing the strategic city of Hama and then the capital Damascus.

Despite his efforts over the years to distance HTS from al Qaeda, the US designated the group a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2018 and placed a $10 million bounty on him. HTS and its leader are also designated as terrorists by the UN and other governments.

Qutaiba Idlbi, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs who focuses on Syria, said that while engaging with the US- and UN-designated terrorist organization “will present its challenges, the designation presents important leverage for the United States and international partners.”

The incoming Trump administration could “use that leverage to ensure HTS walks the walk as an acceptable actor within the Syrian scene and affirm it is no longer threatening US or regional security,” Idlbi wrote for the Atlantic Council, adding that this can be done through dialogue with Turkey, which had long been at odds with Assad.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington has had direct contact with HTS, in the first public confirmation of direct contact between the US and the group.

“Yes, we’ve been in contact with HTS and the other parties,” Blinken said at a news conference in Jordan, adding that the contact was direct. He gave no details on when the contact was made or at what level. There is no legal barrier to speaking with a designated terrorist group.

The rebel leader has argued that some extreme Islamist practices had “created a divide” between HTS and jihadist groups early on, and claimed to oppose some of the more brutal tactics used by other jihadi groups which led to his severing ties with them. He also claimed that he was never personally involved in attacks on civilians.

It is unclear whether Western states will lift the terror designation or what will become of the pre-existing sanctions that were placed on the former regime.

Asked whether the terror designation hinders the US’ ability to speak to the rebel group, and whether the designation will be lifted, a senior state department official told reporters last week that the US is watching whether HTS’s statements “are translated into actions on the ground.”

“We’re very much hopeful they will be,” the official said.

Syria’s economy has been cripped for years by Western sanctions. Among the harshest is the US’ 2019 Caesar Act, which imposed wide-ranging sanctions that restricted individuals, companies or governments from economic activities assisting Assad’s war effort. The act rendered the entire economy untouchable. According to the World Bank, the county’s economy shrank by more than half between 2010 and 2020.

As of 2022, poverty was affecting 69% of Syria’s population, according to the World Bank. Extreme poverty affected more than one in four Syrians in 2022, the World Bank said, adding that this number likely deteriorated after a devastating earthquake in February 2023.

Idlbi, of the Atlantic Council, wrote that while Assad’s fall presents an opportunity, it is “not a panacea and could lead to further instability if not carefully managed.”

“The Biden and Trump administrations must adopt a balanced and strategic approach, focusing on inclusive governance, humanitarian support, and regional stability,” Idlbi wrote. “An opportunity of the kind that now presents itself in Syria comes only once.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces the biggest test of his political career after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long one of his most powerful and loyal ministers, announced Monday that she was resigning from the Cabinet.

It was a move that stunned the country and raised questions about how much longer the unpopular Trudeau can stay in his job.

Freeland, who was also deputy prime minister, said that Trudeau had told her Friday that he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister and that he offered her another role in the Cabinet.

But she said in her resignation letter to the prime minister that the only “honest and viable path” was to leave the Cabinet.

“For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” Freeland said.

Freeland and Trudeau disagreed about a two-month sales tax holiday and $250 Canadian ($175) checks to Canadians that were recently announced.

Freeland said that Canada is dealing with US President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose sweeping 25% tariffs and should eschew “costly political gimmicks” it can “ill afford.”

“Our country is facing a grave challenge,” Freeland said in the letter. “That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war.”

The resignation comes as Freeland, who chaired a Cabinet committee on US relations, was set to deliver the fall economic statement and likely announce border security measures designed to help Canada avoid Trump’s tariffs. The US president-elect has threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the US from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the numbers of migrants and drugs.

‘Trudeau has lost control’

Trudeau has said that he plans on leading the Liberal Party into the next election, but there are some party members who don’t want him to run for a fourth term. It wasn’t immediately clear what Freeland’s resignation from the Cabinet means for Trudeau’s immediate future.

“This news has hit me really hard,” a shocked Transport Minister Anita Anand said. She added that she needed to digest it before commenting further.

Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said that the government is losing control at the worst possible time.

“Justin Trudeau has lost control, but he’s hanging onto power,” Poilievre said.

“All this chaos, all this division, all this weakness is happening as our largest neighbor and closet ally is imposing 25% tariffs under a recently elected Trump with a strong mandate, a man who knows how to identify weakness.”

No Canadian prime minister in more than a century has won four straight terms.

The federal election has to be held before October. The Liberals must rely on the support of at least one major party in Parliament, because they don’t hold an outright majority themselves. If the opposition New Democratic Party, or NDP, pulls support, an election can be held at any time.

Trudeau channeled the star power of his father in 2015, when he reasserted the country’s liberal identity after almost a decade of Conservative Party rule. But the son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau is now in big trouble. Canadians have been frustrated by the rising cost of living and other issues like immigration increases following the country’s emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As a country we have to project strength,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. “It’s chaos right now up in Ottawa.”

Trudeau’s legacy includes opening the doors wide to immigration. He also legalized cannabis and brought in a carbon tax intended to fight climate change.

Freeland said in the resignation letter that Canadians “know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves. Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end.”

Freeland’s resignation comes as Trudeau has been trying to recruit Mark Carney to join his government. Carney is the former head of the Bank of England and Bank of Canada.

He was so well regarded after helping Canada dodge the worst of the global economic crisis that the UK named him the first foreigner to serve as governor of the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694.

Carney has long been interested in entering politics and becoming the leader of the Liberal Party. It wasn’t immediately clear if Carney has agreed to join Trudeau’s Cabinet.

A political earthquake

“This is quite a bombshell,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. “Freeland was not only finance minister but also deputy prime minister and, until a couple of years ago, was seen as Trudeau’s heir as Liberal leader and prime minister.”

Wiseman said that leaks from the prime minister’s office suggest that she was a poor communicator and made Freeland’s status questionable.

“There was talk about her becoming foreign minister again and that would have been a good fit for her, but the stab in the back from the prime minister’s office cast the die,” Wiseman said.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, also called it a political earthquake and not just because Freeland was the second most powerful official in government.

“Also because of how she resigned: by publishing a letter on social media that clearly criticizes the prime minister only hours before she was supposed to present the government’s fall economic statement,” Béland said.

“This is clearly a minority government on life support but, until now, the (opposition) NDP has rejected calls to pull the plug on it. It’s hard to know whether this resignation will force the NDP to rethink its strategy.”

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh released a statement, but didn’t say whether his party would vote to topple the government.

“While the Liberals fight with each other, I believe we should be fighting for Canadians jobs at risk from Donald Trump’s tariffs,” Singh said in a statement.

“People deserve a government that fights for you for a change.”

The vote by South Korea’s parliament to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday marked the culmination of a stunning political showdown sparked by his shock decision to impose martial law on the vibrant democratic country.

Yoon, whose short-lived decree triggered weeks of protests and political turmoil, was suspended from office, after at least 12 members of his own ruling party voted in favor of his impeachment following his refusal to resign.

But the fate of the embattled leader is far from sealed.

Yoon now awaits a top court to deliberate the impeachment motion and decide whether he will be formally removed from the presidency or reinstated in office – a process that could take up to six months.

Meanwhile, the former prosecutor-turned-politician has been banned from leaving the country and is facing a string of investigations, including potential charges of leading an insurrection – a crime punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

Here’s what you need to know about Yoon’s future:

Long road to formal impeachment

Saturday’s impeachment vote – met with jubilation among protesters outside parliament – is only the first step in a potentially long and challenging process to formally end Yoon’s presidency.

The next move now rests with the Constitutional Court, which has up to 180 days to decide whether to uphold or reject the impeachment vote. In the meantime, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is serving as acting president.

The court met for the first time to discuss Yoon’s case on Monday and announced plans to hold its first pretrial hearing on December 27.

It vowed to take the case as a “top priority” among other impeachment cases the opposition has pushed for against Yoon’s administration, including the justice minister, prosecutors and other senior officials.

In 2016, it took the Constitutional Court three months to reach the decision to remove Park Geun-hye, the country’s first female leader and sitting president to be thrown out of office by impeachment. Park was sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption and abuse of power but later pardoned.

Another predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, survived his impeachment in 2004 after the constitutional court rejected the motion following two months of deliberation. He went on to serve out his five-year term.

This time around, the Constitutional Court’s deliberations on Yoon’s future will be complicated by another factor: the nine-member court currently only has six justices, due to a delay in filling vacancies left by retired justices.

Under South Korea’s constitution, at least six justices must approve an impeachment for it to be upheld. That means the court’s current justices would have to vote unanimously in support of the impeachment to formally remove Yoon, unless it fills the empty positions in the coming weeks.

The opposition parties and the ruling party are aiming to appoint three justices by the end of the month.

If the Constitutional Court upholds Yoon’s impeachment, he would become the shortest-serving president in South Korea’s democratic history. The country must then hold new presidential elections within 60 days.

Insurrection probes

While Yoon has been suspended from exercising his powers, he has not been officially removed from office. That means he still has presidential immunity from most criminal charges – except for insurrection or treason.

South Korea’s police, parliament, prosecutors and an anti-corruption body have launched separate investigations into Yoon on treason allegations over the martial law incident.

A joint investigation team involving police, an anti-corruption agency and the Defense Ministry has accused Yoon of being the “ringleader of an insurrection” and abusing his power. On Monday, the team tried to serve a notice demanding Yoon appear for questioning on Wednesday, but the presidential office declined to pass on the request, an official from the team told reporters.

On Sunday, Yoon ignored a summons from prosecutors who are conducting a separate investigation into his martial law declaration. The prosecutors made a second request on Monday, though the summons date was not publicized, according to Yonhap.

Last week, the head of South Korea’s anti-corruption agency said his office would seek to detain Yoon if conditions are met.

“If the situation allows, we will attempt to make an emergency arrest or an arrest based on a court warrant,” Oh Dong-woon, the chief of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, told a parliamentary meeting.

On the same day, South Korean police tried to raid the presidential office but were blocked from entry.

South Korean prosecutors had earlier detained former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun, who allegedly recommended martial law and resigned in the wake of the scandal. Kim attempted to end his own life in custody last week, according to the head of the country’s correctional service.

When he emerged into the open air, the man appeared bewildered. Questioned by the rebel fighter who freed him, the man identified himself as Adel Ghurbal from the central Syrian city of Homs.

He claimed that he had been kept in a cell for three months, adding that it was the third prison where he had been confined. The man also said he was not aware that the Assad regime had fallen. He was being held in a jail that had been run by the Syrian air force’s intelligence services until the Assad regime collapsed.

Rebel guards handed him over to the Syrian Red Crescent. The medical relief organization later posted a picture of him on social media, saying they had returned a freed prisoner to relatives in Damascus.

Salama’s current whereabouts are unknown.

Wellington, New Zealand (AP) — A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck Tuesday just off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean, the (United States Geological Survey) USGS said.

The quake occurred at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles) and was centered near Port Vila, the largest city in the island nation.

It was not immediately clear whether it caused any damage.

The jolt was followed by a magnitude 5.5 aftershock at the same location.

Vanuatu government websites were offline in the aftermath of the quake.

The USGS warned of tsunami waves for some coasts on Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands that is home to about 330,000 people.

A Russian general who was wanted by Ukraine for using chemical munitions was killed by a remotely detonated bomb in Moscow on Tuesday, Russian authorities said.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who oversaw Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by an explosive device planted in an electric scooter outside an apartment building some 7 km (4 miles) southeast of the Kremlin, according to Russia’s investigative committee.

Kirillov’s assistant was also killed in the blast, the committee added, describing it as a “terrorist act.”

A criminal investigation into the deaths is underway, the committee said, adding that investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene.

“Investigative actions and operational search activities are being carried out to establish all the circumstances of the crime,” the committee said.

Videos posted on Russian Telegram channels showed emergency service officers walking outside a shattered entrance to a building littered with rubble, while two bodies lay in the snow.

The power of the explosive device, which was detonated remotely, amounted to some 300 grams of TNT, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

The site of the explosion has been cordoned off, according to TASS.

Kirillov’s death came a day after Ukrainian prosecutors charged the general in absentia with the use of banned chemical weapons in the war on Ukraine. According to the Security Service of Ukraine, more than 4,800 cases of Russian use of chemical munitions have been recorded on Kirillov’s orders since the beginning of the war.

Kirillov had also been sanctioned by Britain for the “abhorrent use of inhumane chemical weapons” on the battlefield in Ukraine.

In a statement announcing the sanctions in October, the UK foreign office said Kirillov was “responsible for helping deploy these barbaric weapons.” It also accused the general of being “a significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation” and “spreading lies to mask Russia’s shameful and dangerous behavior.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau soared to victory in 2015 on the promise of change and “sunny ways” for the country.

Nearly a decade later, a dark storm cloud has descended upon his increasingly unpopular administration, with the resignation of a top Cabinet minister over a dispute about how to manage US president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

The abrupt exit Monday of finance minister and longtime Trudeau ally Chrystia Freeland – and her public rebuke of her boss – stunned Canadians and threatened to further unravel the government of a country known for its stability.

Trudeau’s already shaky hold on the country has now become more tenuous as pressure builds on him to step down.

Here’s what’s happening and what it means for Canada.

Who is Trudeau?

Justin Trudeau, a former high school teacher and the eldest son of Pierre Trudeau, one of Canada’s most well-known prime ministers, was elected in 2015 with a decisive parliamentary majority for his Liberal party.

One of the country’s youngest-ever leaders, Trudeau quickly became a poster boy for Canada’s progressive values on the global stage – acting as an antithesis to Trump during the incoming US president’s first term.

Trudeau won successive elections in 2019 and 2021, but his popularity has steadily declined since as Canadians have become frustrated with political scandals, reneged promises and the economy, among other issues.

A viral video of a tense exchange between Trudeau and a steel worker complaining of the high cost of living came to embody the growing resentment many Canadians felt towards Trudeau.

“You’re not really doing anything for us, Justin,” the worker said.

Trudeau’s political downfall solidified in recent months after the Liberal party lost a couple of historically safe seats in by-elections, prompting some within Trudeau’s caucus to call for him to step aside.

In a particularly telling sign of the prime minister’s unpopularity, more Canadians now regard the incoming American president more favorably than they do Trudeau – 26% to 23% respectively in recent polls, according to David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data.

The last time Canadians were polled about Trump, in November 2020, just 11% viewed him favorably, Coletto said.

What sparked the latest crisis – and how is Trump involved?

On Monday, Finance Minister Freeland quit her post hours before she was due to deliver an annual fiscal update.

Her shock announcement came after Freeland said Trudeau had tried to demote her, following a disagreement between the two politicians over how Canada was handling the threat of tariffs by Trump.

Canada, home to about 40 million people, is one of America’s largest trading partners and closest allies.

Freeland, who has long been seen as a potential successor to Trudeau, said she and the prime minister had become “at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” in her resignation letter posted to social media.

She and Trudeau had disagreed in recent weeks about a two-month sales tax holiday and 250 Canadian dollar ($175) rebates for most workers – policies widely seen as tactics to win back voters.

“Our country today faces a grave challenge. The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including the threat of 25 per cent tariffs,” Freeland said.

“We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” she said, arguing that Canada must eschew “costly political gimmicks” in favor of “keeping our fiscal powder dry” so “we have the reserves we may need for a coming trade war.

Canadians “know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves. Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end,” said Freeland, who wrote that she will stay in parliament and plans to run again.

Freeland, a former journalist for The Financial Times, Reuters and the Globe and Mail, was a key interlocuter with the first Trump administration and negotiated the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Her resignation, from an American perspective, is akin to a vice president stepping down, said Tari Ajadi, assistant professor of political science at McGill University – and not going quietly, but “deciding to resign because they disagreed fundamentally with the direction of the government, the country, and because they were convinced they would lose the next election.”

Can Trudeau stay in power?

Trudeau has so far been adamant that he will stay on as prime minister and has yet to directly acknowledge Freeland’s exit.

But experts see little path forward for the embattled Liberal leader.

“I just don’t see how he recovers,” said Tyler Chamberlin, associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management.

“If it was almost impossible for him to come back, to be competitive again, to convince Canadians or change their minds about him, I think this basically makes it impossible now,” Coletto said.

Freeland’s departure has exposed the fissures within Trudeau’s own party and has emboldened more of his own caucus to call for his resignation.

Canada’s three opposition leaders have also called for Trudeau’s departure.

“This is not a government that has much life in it at all,” Ajadi said.

Canada’s next federal election must legally be held by next October. It could happen earlier if Trudeau calls it, or if lawmakers trigger a no-confidence vote.

Polls show if an election were held today, Pierre Poilievre’s opposition Conservative Party would earn a decisive victory.

What does this mean for Canada?

While Trudeau’s political survival hangs in the balance, Monday’s events have thrown a country that is widely considered to be a stable – and even boring – middle power into disarray, Ajadi said.

With the promise of tariffs on the horizon and little goodwill between Trudeau and Trump, the loss of Freeland is also a loss for Canada, said Chamberlin.

Following a visit by the Canadian leader to Mar-a-Lago to convince Trump to ease up on tariffs, the incoming US president has thrown jabs at Trudeau, calling him “governor” and referring to Canada as the 51st state.

“The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social. “Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!”

Forty years ago, Trudeau’s father Pierre famously took a reflective evening walk through an Ottawa snowstorm before deciding to resign as prime minister of Canada.

Now, with snow falling across most parts of the country, it may be time for the younger Trudeau to take his own walk, Coletto said.