A Japan Airlines plane carrying hundreds of passengers burst into flames on landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday after it collided with an aircraft involved in earthquake relief efforts.

All crew members and passengers, including eight children under the age of two, on board JAL flight 516 were safely evacuated from the passenger plane, according to the airline, but five of six people on the other plane were reported killed.

The Airbus A350-900 aircraft ignited after flying into Haneda from the northern Japanese city of Sapporo at 5:47 p.m. local time (3:47 a.m. ET).

Five crew members died on the second aircraft, thought to be a De Havilland Canada DHC-8, operated by the Japan Coast Guard (JCG), according to Japan public broadcaster NHK. It said the plane’s captain was in a critical condition.

According to NHK, local fire services confirmed that 17 people on board the Japan Airlines plane were injured.

However, there is currently no further information regarding any details of injury.

More than 100 fire trucks were dispatched in response to the accident, NHK reports.

Video footage showed the passenger jet consumed by a large fireball as it moved down the runway. The plane was then seen at a standstill with people using emergency slides to flee the inferno as firefighters tried to battle the growing flames.

Japan Airlines flight 516 took off from Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido prefecture to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport with approximately 400 passengers and crew on board, according to NHK.

The majority of departures from Haneda Airport are now canceled and it’s unclear when flight services will resume, the broadcaster reports.

Israel’s Supreme Court has struck down a controversial government plan to limit the powers of the judiciary, in an unprecedented move that threatens to reignite fierce tensions in the country as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wages war against Hamas in Gaza.

The court ruled, by eight votes to seven, that a government amendment to the so-called reasonableness law should not stand. The bill had stripped the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable, and was the first major piece of a multipronged effort to weaken the judiciary to be passed by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, last year.

The verdict could reopen an emotional and heated debate that had raged in Israel throughout 2023 but was sidelined following Hamas’ attacks on October 7. And it could cause splits within Israel’s war cabinet, made up of Netanyahu and two prominent critics of his efforts to overhaul the courts.

Netanyahu’s next moves will be watched closely by all sides, with the threat of a constitutional crisis looming should he attempt to push ahead with the controversial change.

In its ruling, the court said it rejected the amendment because it would deal a “severe and unprecedented blow to the core characteristics of the State of Israel as a democratic state.”

The law, which came into effect after it was passed in July, took away the court’s power to veto government decisions based on them being “unreasonable.” Vast swathes of Israel’s population opposed the change, according to opinion polls, which critics said would erode the independence of the courts and harm Israel’s democracy.

Its passage caused huge protests – a regular sight in Israel’s cities since Netanyahu first unveiled his judiciary agenda – and prompted thousands of army reservists to threaten not to show up to work.

Among those opposing the plans were the two fellow members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet. Yoav Gallant, the minister of defense, became the first member of Netanyahu’s pre-war cabinet to publicly oppose his plans in March, leading to his temporary dismissal before he was reinstated. And Benny Gantz, the leader of Israel’s opposition National Unity party, led protests against the efforts earlier in the year.

Israel’s allies, including the United States, also expressed concern about the overhaul. US President Joe Biden told the New York Times in July that Netanyahu was risking the US-Israeli relationship should the overhaul pass without broad consensus. The amendment was passed in the Knesset without a single vote from the opposition, which boycotted the vote.

Netanyahu’s allies criticized the ruling Monday. Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, the architect of the judicial overhaul plans, called it “the opposite of the spirit of unity required these days for the success of our fighters on the front.” The Israeli prime minister’s Likud party said the ruling was “unfortunate” as it “is against the will of the people for unity, especially during wartime.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on X that the Supreme Court had his full backing as it “faithfully fulfilled its role in protecting the citizens of Israel.”

Reasonableness doctrine

The reasonableness doctrine is not unique to Israel’s judiciary. The principle is used in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

The standard is commonly used by courts there to determine the constitutionality or lawfulness of a given piece of legislation, and allows judges to make sure that decisions made by public officials are “reasonable.”

The prime minister and his supporters have argued that the Supreme Court has become an insular, elitist group that does not represent the Israeli people. They say it has overstepped its role, getting into issues it should not rule on, and the proposed changes would correct that trend.

But critics say Netanyahu pushed the overhaul forward to protect himself from his own corruption trial, where he faces charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. He denies any wrongdoing.

The government bill amended one of Israel’s Basic Laws, which, in the absence of a formal constitution, act as an informal one. Until Monday’s ruling, the Supreme Court had never before struck down a Basic Law or an amendment to one.

In their ruling, 12 out of the 15 judges agreed that the court had the authority to nullify a Basic Law in “extreme cases.” Only eight of the 12 thought this was an extreme case.

The debates over Netanyahu’s efforts were paused on October 7, with Hamas’ attacks on Israel prompting the formation of a war cabinet and seemingly suspending the back-and-forth of Israel’s sharply divided politics.

But on December 29, a leak of a draft document that pointed to Monday’s ruling caused the issue to reemerge.

Reacting to the leak, Minister of Justice Levin claimed that “citizens of Israel expect the Supreme Court not to publish during a war a ruling that is controversial even among its judges.” The speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, added that “a time of war is certainly not the time to establish a first precedent of its kind in the history of the country.”

But the Supreme Court was required to release its ruling by January 12, as two justices hearing the case have retired and are required by law to submit their final rulings within three months of stepping down.

Israel will begin pulling thousands of soldiers out of Gaza this week in preparation for a new phase of the conflict, the military announced Monday, though a top official warned that he expected the fighting to continue throughout the year.

The announcement from the Israel Defense Forces marked the biggest known withdrawal of troops from the territory since the war against Hamas began and comes after the military said it was expanding operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip.

A senior US official said Monday that the move shows signs of the country’s gradual shift to a lower-intensity phase of its war.

The 551st and 14th brigades – comprised of reservists – will return to their families and civilian lives this week, the IDF said in a statement.

The 828th brigade, which trains squad commanders; the 261st brigade, which trains army officers; and the 460th brigade, which trains the armored corps, will return to their scheduled training, the IDF said.

The statement said the move is expected to “significantly alleviate economic burdens” and the troops “to gather strength for upcoming activities in the next year, as the fighting will persist, and their services will still be needed.”

In a briefing on Sunday, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the return of the reservists was aimed at ensuring “planning and preparation for the continuation of 2024… understanding that we will be required for additional tasks and warfare throughout this year.” The objectives of the war “require prolonged fighting,” he added.

The focus of Israel’s ground operation has moved to the center and south of the Strip, but fighting in the north continues, where an estimated 52% to 65% of structures have been damaged and 46,000 housing units completely destroyed, according to the UN.

The IDF extended operations further into Khan Younis in southern Gaza last week. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warned on Thursday that over 150,000 people “have nowhere to go” after the IDF warned residents in many parts of central Gaza that they must urgently leave.

Israel aims to destroy Hamas after the Palestinian militant group’s surprise attacks on October 7 left 1,200 people in Israel dead, according to Israeli authorities, as well as bring back the hostages Hamas captured.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel’s war in Gaza is at its “highest level and will continue for months,” according to Israel’s Army Radio.

The US has been pressing Israeli officials to begin the more surgical phase of fighting. The Biden administration has warned Israel that it cannot replicate the kind of devastating tactics it used in the north and must do more to limit civilian casualties.

More than 21,000 people have been killed in the enclave during Israel’s offensive, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.

A US official said Monday’s announcement appeared to reflect the start of a gradual shift to lower intensity operations in the north of Gaza that American officials had been encouraging.

The official said the move reflected the success IDF forces have had in Northern Gaza in dismantling Hamas military capabilities. Still, the official cautioned there was still fighting ongoing in the north and that it did not appear to reflect any changes in the south of Gaza.

US officials are viewing the next few weeks as a critical period that will demonstrate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s willingness to move to a lower intensity phase of going after Hamas in Gaza.

Later this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to the Middle East to continue discussions with Israeli officials about the next phase of the war in Gaza, which American officials have made clear they expect to begin soon.

A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck central Japan on Monday afternoon, collapsing buildings, causing fires and triggering tsunami alerts as far away as eastern Russia, prompting orders for residents to evacuate affected coastal areas of Japan.

The earthquake left four people dead and two others seriously injured, according to authorities in Ishikawa prefecture.

The earthquake struck at 4:10 p.m. local time at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) in the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa prefecture, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The Japan Meteorological Agency immediately issued a tsunami warning along coastal regions of western Japan, and the first waves were reported hitting the coast just over 10 minutes later.

Some of the first reports came from the city of Wajima in Ishikawa prefecture, which saw tsunami waves of around 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) around 4:21 p.m., according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. No immediate damage was reported. The tsunami warnings along portions of Japan’s western coast were later removed.

The defense ministry dispatched 1,000 military personnel to help the rescue and recovery efforts, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters earlier Monday.

Hospital officials in Suzu said they received injured people, adding that some doctors were unable to make it to work because of damaged roads, NHK reported.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a “major tsunami warning” – the first since 2011’s devastating earthquake – for Noto but later downgraded it to a “tsunami warning.”

Tsunami warnings were later canceled as the threat of further tsunami waves diminished, though advisories for waves up to 1 meter (3 feet) continue.

Under Japan’s tsunami warning system, waves expected less than 1 meter fall under “tsunami advisory,” while those expected up to 3 meters fall under “tsunami warning” and waves expected above 5 meters fall under “major tsunami warning.”

‘The whole room was shaking’

Footage from NHK showed cameras shaking vigorously as waves slammed into the coastline when the quake hit Ishikawa prefecture.

Houses were also rocked by the earthquake, with images showing collapsed roofs and shaken foundations.

An eyewitness reported seeing people “panicked” as the ground started shaking while he waited for a bus home in western Japan.

“You can see all the snow from the the electric wire goes down, and also (the snow) from the roof fell down and all the cars are shaking. And so everybody was panicked at that time,” Taiwanese tourist Johnny Wu told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Baldwin Chia, a 38-year-old tourist from Shanghai who was with a group of snowboarders when the quake hit, told Reuters: “The whole room was shaking, the TV was shaking. I had to keep everything on the table. … I did feel safe in my room, though. But everything else was shaking.”

Some services of Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains were suspended while four trains were halted between the cities of Toyama and Kanazawa, in Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture. Nearly 1,400 passengers were stranded inside the immobile high-speed trains more than 10 hours since the tremors began, NHK reported, citing Japan Railways West.

Social media videos showed the aftermath of the quake, with store aisles strewn with goods. One clip filmed from inside a train showed signposts on the platform rocking intensely with the tremor.

More than 32,500 homes in Ishikawa prefecture were left without power following the quake, according to the Hokuriku Electric Power Company.

Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Company said in a statement on X that no abnormality had been reported at nuclear plants in the area.

Yoshimasa Hayashi, the chief cabinet secretary, said the power converter at the Shika nuclear power plant in Ishikawa had been affected but with “no major results.” Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority reported no problems were found with the reactors at the power plant, NHK reported.

The powerful quake was followed by a series of strong aftershocks, according to the USGS.

A 6.2 magnitude aftershock at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) struck at 4:18 p.m. local time around 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) southwest of Anamizu, according to the USGS.

Some 58 kilometers (about 36 miles) away, tremors of 5.2 magnitude were recorded, and another 5.6 magnitude aftershock was reported closer to the initial quake, according to the USGS.

Japan’s weather agency warned that powerful aftershocks could continue over the next three days to a week, and cautioned of potential building collapses and landslides.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said authorities were working to assess potential damage in affected areas.

Tsunami waves reported

Waves of less than a meter were reported in a number of other areas along Japan’s western coast, including 80-centimeter waves in Toyama city, 40-centimeter waves in Kashiwazaki and Kanazawa port, and 20-centimeter waves in Tobishima island and Sado island.

The South Korean Meteorological Administration said it was watching for possible sea level changes in the east coast areas of Gangneung, Yang Yang and Goseong of Gangwon Province and Pohang City.

A tsunami threat was also declared in the eastern Russian cities of Vladivostok and Nakhodka and the island of Sakhalin – as the areas face the western coast of Japan – Russian state media TASS reported. No evacuations have been reported so far.

North Korea will no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with South Korea, Kim Jong Un has declared, as his nation vowed to put three new military spy satellites into orbit in 2024.

Kim said inter-Korean relations had become “a relationship between two hostile countries and two belligerents at war,” the state-run news agency KCNA reported.

“It’s time for us to acknowledge the reality and clarify our relationship with the South,” Kim said, adding that if Washington and Seoul were to attempt a military confrontation with Pyongyang, its “nuclear war deterrent will not hesitate to take serious action.”

“I believe that it is a mistake that we must no longer make to deal with the people who declare us as ‘the main enemy’ and seek only opportunities for ‘[our] regime collapse’ and ‘unification by absorption’ by collaborating for reconciliation and unification,” Kim added.

North and South Korea have been cut off from each other since the end of the Korean War in 1953 which ended with an armistice. The two sides are still technically at war, but both governments have long sought the goal of one day reunifying.

Relations have ebbed and flowed over the decades, but tensions have remained particularly high in more recent years after Kim Jong Un ramped up the country’s nuclear weapons program in defiance of international sanctions.

Last week, KCNA reported that Kim had instructed the country’s army, munitions industry, nuclear weapons and civil defense sectors to accelerate war preparations in response to “confrontation moves” by the US.

At the time, KCNA described the political and military situation on the Korean Peninsula as “grave,” saying it had reached an “extreme” point because of Washington.

Kim’s latest comments on reunification were significant, according to Hoo Chiew-Ping, a senior fellow at the East Asian International Relations CAUCUS (EAIR) and member of the Asia Pacific Nuclear Advisory Panel (APNAP), who said the North Korean leader has been increasingly walking away from “inter-Korean relations” in recent years.

Pyongyang was keener to further relations instead with current allies like “China and Russia, and a selected network of countries around the world which will continue to enable its proliferation and financial outreach,” she added.

“The US, South Korea and Japan are excluded from Kim’s strategic outreach for now.”

Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science and nonresident scholar at Carnegie China, said Kim’s speech “reflects the reality that unification is not a short or even medium-term possibility (for the Koreas).”

“Given this situation, the question is whether non-unification means continuation of the status quo or if North Korea believes it needs to act to protect itself more actively, or even preempt what it sees as possible aggression from South Korea,” Chong added.

“The former is tolerable even as North Korea seeks to increase its defensive capability, since it keeps the status quo and is better than some belief in armed unification. If the latter, then friction and even tensions with South Korea and northeast Asia will likely rise,” he warned.

Ties with China reaffirmed

Kim and Chinese leader Xi Jinping exchanged New Year’s messages on Monday, with both pledging to deepen ties in a “year of China-DPRK friendship,” according to KCNA. DPRK is the abbreviation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

In his letter to Xi, Kim said the two countries will “further promote exchange and visits in all fields, including politics, economy and culture, further deepen the ties of friendship and unity and intensify the cooperation in the joint struggle to safeguard regional and global peace and stability” throughout the year, according to KCNA.

In his message to Kim, Xi said that relations between the two countries had “deepened practical cooperation,” maintained “close strategic communication,” and entered “a new historical period,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry.

Spy satellites

After repeated failures, North Korea in November said it had put its first spy satellite into orbit.

Analysts said if the spacecraft works, it could provide significantly improve North Korea’s military capabilities, including enabling it to more accurately target opponents’ forces.

Kim hailed the feat, celebrating with workers at the launch site according to images put out by state media. South Korea called the launch a “clear violation” of a UN Security Council resolution that prohibits North Korea from using ballistic missile technology.

On Sunday KCNA said North Korea plans to bolster that program with three additional spy satellites in the new year.

“Based on the experience of successfully launching and operating the first reconnaissance satellite in 2023, the task of launching three additional reconnaissance satellites in 2024 was declared to vigorously promote the development of space science and technology,” the statement read.

Throughout the course of 2023, Pyongyang also launched a series of intercontinental ballistic missiles tests, including a long-range solid-fueled missile called the Hwasong-18 in December, which defense experts and regional watchers says showed a “maturing” North Korean missile program.

North Korea’s testing and strong rhetoric may be playing into Washington’s hands, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

“The North Korean threat is motivating greater trilateral cooperation among the US, Japan, and South Korea, including real-time sharing of missile tracking data. Officials in Seoul knew this ICBM test was coming, and had coordinated in advance with partners in Washington and Tokyo,” he said.

The first day of 2024 has officially been declared a day of mourning in Ukraine’s capital as the death toll continued to climb from Friday’s massive attacks by Russia and fresh assaults were launched overnight.

At least 27 people were killed and 30 injured in Kyiv in Friday’s attack, its city military administration reported Monday after more bodies were recovered from the rubble while search and rescue operations remained ongoing.

A total of at least 52 people across Ukraine were killed in Friday’s attacks, which struck nationwide, with blasts reported in the capital Kyiv, as well as at a maternity hospital in the central city of Dnipro, the eastern city of Kharkiv, the southeastern port of Odesa, and the western city of Lviv, far from the frontlines.

Ukrainians across the country on Sunday and into Monday saw in the new year to the sound of air alerts and fresh Russian attacks.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Air Force Command said Russia launched a record 90 drone attacks on New Year’s Eve. Overnight, 90 Shahed drones were launched in waves from Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia and Crimea, and air alerts were declared in most regions of Ukraine along the route of the drones.

“A year ago, on New Year’s Eve, the defenders of the sky destroyed 45 ‘Shaheds.’ Today 87 Shaheds were destroyed,” Ukraine Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said in a Telegram post.

Russian shelling hours into the new year on Monday killed at least five people and wounded 22.

The southern city of Odesa came under an aerial assault from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launched from the Black Sea that hit residential buildings early Monday morning, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. One person died and at least nine were injured in the attack, Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa region military administration said.

And the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, illegally annexed by Russia, was targeted by at least 15 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) overnight at the stroke of midnight locally, according to Vladimir Rogov, member of the Russian-installed Zaporizhzhia administration.

The shelling killed four people and wounded 13, according to Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic.

In his New Year’s Eve speech Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought to rally the country, saying “we defeated the darkness,” as the war closes in on two years.

“Ukraine has become stronger. Ukrainians have become stronger… at the beginning of 2023, in January and February, we surmounted, without exaggeration, the most difficult winter in history… we did not fade away in the darkness. The darkness did not engulf us. We defeated the darkness,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky acknowledged that there have been challenges but implored the Ukrainian people to persevere.

“The war, unfortunately, separated families, took away sons and daughters, and at the same time united us into one big family… hold onto the belief in Ukraine’s return. Knowing that all expectations are not in vain. And I want you to feel our gratitude to you for this. And remember: without each and every one of you, Ukraine will be incomplete.”

A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck western Japan on Monday afternoon, triggering tsunami alerts as far away as eastern Russia and prompting a warning for residents to evacuate affected coastal areas of Japan as soon as possible.

The earthquake struck at 4:10 p.m. local time at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), around 42 kilometers (26 miles) northeast of Anamizu in Ishikawa prefecture, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The Japan Meteorological Agency immediately issued a tsunami warning along coastal regions of western Japan, and the first waves were reported hitting the coast just over 10 minutes later.

Some of the first reports came from the city of Wajima in Ishikawa prefecture, which saw tsunami waves of around 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) around 4:21 p.m., according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. No immediate damage was reported.

A major tsunami warning was in place in the city of Noto in Ishikawa, with waves of around 5 meters expected, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

It was the first major tsunami warning to be issued since 2011, according to a spokesman from Ishikawa prefecture’s disaster management agency.

Under Japan’s tsunami warning system, waves expected less than 1 meter fall under “tsunami advisory,” while those expected above 3 meters fall under “tsunami warning” and waves expected above 5 meters fall under “major tsunami warning.”

In a televised address earlier, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi urged people living in areas under tsunami warnings to evacuate to higher ground.

Footage from NHK showed cameras shaking vigorously as waves slammed into the coastline when the quake hit Ishikawa prefecture.

Houses were also rocked by the earthquake, with images showing collapsed roofs and shaken foundations.

Some services of Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains were suspended.

Social media videos showed the aftermath of the quake, with store aisles strewn with goods. One clip filmed from inside a train showed signposts on the platform rocking intensely with the tremor.

More than 32,500 homes in Ishikawa prefecture were left without power following the quake, according to the Hokuriku Electric Power Company.

Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Company said in a statement on X that no abnormality had been reported at nuclear plants in the area.

The powerful quake was followed by a series of strong aftershocks, according to the USGS.

A 6.2 magnitude aftershock at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) struck at 4:18 p.m. local time around 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) southwest of Anamizu, according to the USGS.

Some 58 kilometers (about 36 miles) away, tremors of 5.2 magnitude were recorded, and another 5.6 magnitude aftershock was reported closer to the initial quake, according to the USGS.

The country’s weather agency warned that powerful aftershocks could continue over the next three days to a week, and cautioned against potential building collapses and landslides.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said authorities were working to assess potential damage in affected areas.

“We have immediately set up the Prime Minister’s Office of Response – Disaster Counter Measure HQ. Putting human lives as priority, we are making every effort to assess damages – putting forth all efforts in disaster response,” the prime minister wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Monday.

Tsunami waves reported

Waves of less than a meter were reported in a number of other areas along Japan’s western coast, including 80 centimeter waves in Toyama city, 40 centimeter waves in Kashiwazaki and Kanazawa port, and 20 centimeter waves in Tobishima island and Sado island.

The South Korean Meteorological Administration said it was watching for possible sea level changes in the east coast areas of Gangneung, Yang Yang and Goseong of Gangwon Province and Pohang City.

A tsunami threat was also declared in the eastern Russian cities of Vladivostok, Nakhodka, and the island of Sakhalin – as the areas face the Sea of Japan – Russian state media TASS reported. No evacuations have been reported so far.

This is a breaking story. Updates to come.

Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny says he doesn’t feel lonely and is in a “great” mood despite serving a lengthy prison sentence in Siberia, but he still misses interacting directly with his family and friends.

In a New Year’s Eve message shared by Navalny’s team on social media, Navalny is quoted as saying that this will be the third time “I have taken the traditional family New Year’s Eve photo with Photoshop.”

“I am trying to keep up with the times, and this time I asked an artificial intelligence to draw me. I hope it turned out something fantastic – I will not see the picture myself until the letter with it arrives on Yamal,” he joked.

Navalny’s team has said he is currently serving his prison sentence in the IK-3 penal colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region of Russia.

“‘I miss you terribly’ is a kind of incorrect construction from the point of view of the Russian language. It’s better to say: ‘I miss you a lot’ or ‘I miss you so much,” he said. “But from my point of view, it is more accurate and correct. I miss my family terribly. Yulia, my children, my parents, my brother. I miss my friends, colleagues, our office, and my work. I miss you all terribly.”

However, Navalny went on to say that he doesn’t have “feelings of loneliness, abandonment, or isolation at all.”

“My mood is great and quite Christmassy. But there is no substitute for normal human communication in all its forms: from jokes at the New Year’s table to correspondence in Telegram and comments on Instagram and Twitter [currently known as X],” he said.

“Happy New Year to everyone,” Navalny said. “Arctic hugs and polar greetings to all. Love you all,” he concluded.

Navalny was located at a penal colony in Siberia earlier this month, two weeks after his team lost contact with him. Until then, he was imprisoned in a penal colony about 150 miles east of Moscow.

His disappearance, which came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he will run for re-election in March 2024, had sparked concerns for his well-being and safety.

The Russian opposition leader was sentenced to 19 years in prison in August after being found guilty of creating an extremist community, financing extremist activities and numerous other crimes. He was already serving sentences of 11-and-a-half years in a maximum security facility on fraud and other charges he denies.

Supporters of Navalny claim his arrest and incarceration are a politically motivated attempt to stifle his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny has posed one of the most serious threats to Putin’s legitimacy during his rule. He used his blog and social media to expose alleged corruption in the Kremlin as well as Russian business, and organized anti-government street protests.

Russia said it launched retaliatory strikes on military sites and “foreign mercenaries” in Kharkiv after Ukraine’s bombardment of the Russian border city of Belgorod killed at least 24 people.

At least three people were killed and 28 others were injured after Kharkiv was struck with waves of missiles and drones, Ukrainian officials said.

The head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said in a post on Telegram that rescuers had retrieved the bodies of two men and a woman from a house damaged by Russian attacks on the village of Borova, in the Kharkiv region.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meanwhile gave a pared-back New Year’s Eve message, praising Russian soldiers but not directly mentioning Ukraine.

In the reprisal attacks, several missiles struck the city of Kharkiv with two children among those injured, the Ukrainian military said.

Residential buildings, hotels and medical facilities were also damaged in the strikes, while Ukraine added that Russia kept up its attacks across other areas of the country overnight including the Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.

According to a statement from Russia’s Ministry of Defence, its strikes targeted “decision-making centers and military installations,” including a hotel housing military commanders and “foreign mercenaries.”

The former Kharkiv Palace hotel and the headquarters of the Ukrainian Security
Service for the Kharkiv region were hit, the statement said.

It added that a control center used by the Ukrainian army in the village of Zalestsy in Khmelnitsky region was targeted and fuel depots in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia were destroyed.

Two HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems were also destroyed, according to the statement.

In a separate attack on the southern city of Kherson on Sunday, a teenage boy was killed and three people injured, according to local officials. A nine-year-old child sustained a head injury and is fighting for his life, the official said.

Russia said that the strikes overnight were in response to the deadly Ukrainian strike on the city of Belgorod on Saturday – an attack it blamed on Ukraine and condemned by Russia’s MOD as a “terror attack.”

At least 24 people, including three children, were killed and 107 others wounded in Belgorod, in one of the single deadliest attacks on Russian civilians since the war began. From those injured, 25 are in serious condition, including six children. There has been no official comment from Ukraine.

The Russian Defence Ministry had vowed the bombardment “would not go unpunished.”

In his speech emphasising national unity, Putin called his military “heroes.”

“We have proven more than once that we can solve the most difficult problems and will never back down,” he said.

Putin continued: “In the past year we have worked hard and accomplished a lot. We were proud of our common achievements, rejoiced at our successes and were firm in defending national interests.”

The address will be shown before midnight local time in all 11 time zones in Russia. Last year, he spoke from the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don, flanked by members of the military.

The final weeks of 2023 have seen an increased number of attacks from both sides.

On Friday, Russia launched its biggest air attack on Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion. An unprecedented number of drones and missiles were fired at targets across the country, killing at least 47 people.

Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi has been re-elected for a second term after getting more than 73% of the vote in a December 20 poll, the country’s election commission CENI said on Sunday.

The declaration of the result follows days of opposition complaints about the way the election was conducted.

Announcing the results in the capital Kinshasa, Denis Kadima, head of CENI, said Tshisekedi had obtained more than 13 million votes out of over 18 million valid votes, adding that turnout was more than 43%.

Cheers erupted  from Tshisekedi’s supporters present at the declaration after Kadima announced that Tshisekedi was provisionally elected.

Political parties, candidates and those mandated by them have two days to challenge the outcome of the election at the Constitutional Court. The court then has seven days to rule on the case and proclaim the final result.

Opposition frontrunner Moise Katumbi, who came second with 18%, has already ruled out mounting a legal challenge to CENI’s results, citing the alleged lack of independence of state institutions.

Other opposition candidates have not clarified whether they will challenge the results.

Earlier on Sunday a group of nine opposition presidential candidates, including Katumbi, and six leaders of political parties asked supporters to take to the streets to protest after the release of the provisional results.

Joint declaration

“We categorically reject the sham election … and its results,” the main opposition candidates said in a joint declaration. They demanded fresh elections be held with a new electoral body on a date to be agreed by all.

“We call on our people to take to the streets en masse after the proclamation of the electoral fraud,” they said.

The government of Congo had previously rejected calls for a rerun of the elections.

Logistical setbacks, an election day over-run, and an opaque vote count have fuelled a dispute that threatens to further destabilise a country roughly the size of Western Europe which is the world’s top producer of cobalt and other prized industrial commodities.

Since election day, some of Tshisekedi’s main challengers, including former oil executive Martin Fayulu, have been calling for a re-run of the contest and of legislative elections, accusing CENI of allowing the vote to be tipped in the president’s favour.

CENI and the government have dismissed these allegations and also warnings from independent observer groups that the unscheduled extension of voting and other incidents on election day, and during the tabulation of votes, may have compromised the credibility and legal footing of the poll.