UKRAINE – Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine is the birthplace of one of the world’s favourite carols, the Carol of the Bells. But there are few signs of Christmas in the city this year. Just a dusting of snow on deserted streets and skeletal buildings – and the constant sound of heavy shelling. Pokrovsk is Russia’s next target. Its troops are now less than two miles (three kilometres) from the city centre. And it’s not just buildings and homes that are being destroyed. Ukraine accuses Russia of trying to erase its cultural identity too – including its associations with that well-known carol.

Most of Pokrovsk’s population has already fled. The gas supply’s been turned off and many homes are without electricity and water. Those who remain, like 59-year-old Ihor, only break cover to find the bare essentials. He says it’s like living on a powder keg – you never know when or where the next shell will land. Oksana, 43, says she’s too frightened to leave her home, but goes out during a lull in the shelling to find wood and coal to keep warm.

She tells me she hopes Ukraine’s armed forces can hold on to the city, but she thinks that’s unlikely. Pokrovsk, she says, will probably fall. The city has already prepared for the worst. The statue of its famous composer, Mykola Leontovych, has already been removed. The music school that bore his name now lies boarded up and empty. (BBC)

Photo: Russia has ruined Pokrovsk, and is now just two miles from its city centre. (BBC)

VENEZUELA – 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. Following July’s election, the opposition campaign released tens of thousands of voting receipts that they said showed their candidate, Edmundo González, had won the contest. Independent observers and electoral experts told CNN that the receipts appear authentic and have questioned the electoral authority’s decision to announce Maduro as the winner.

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. (CNN)

Photo: A police car outside Argentina’s embassy in Caracas, where some members of Venezuela’s opposition are seeking asylum. (AP)

GUYANA –  Police are investigating the murder of a Surinamese man whose mutilated body was found in a trench on Sunday at Port Mourant, New Housing Scheme, Berbice. According to police, the body identified to be that of Marciano Michel Nelon, called ‘Dutchie’, age 23, was in a trench with multiple chop wounds. The discovery was made around 08:50hrs not too far from his home at Bangladesh, Port Mourant. “Detectives examined the body and noted chop wounds on the forehead, chin, back of the head, and the back of both feet”, police said.

Investigators believe that he was murdered sometime between 14:30hrs on Saturday and 08:50 hrs. on Sunday.  They believe too that he was attacked in his house first. “… ranks observed a small amount of suspected blood on the floor (of his home), and the deceased’s clothing was scattered, suggesting a possible struggle”, police reported to the press. Police revealed too that Nelon is no stranger to them. He was reportedly questioned in connection with the murder of Parmanand Pertab on October 26, 2024, near the Port Mourant Market area.  Further investigations are ongoing. (Kaieteur News)

COLUMBIA – One of the founders of the Medellin drug cartel has returned to Colombia after serving more than 20 years in jail in the US for drug trafficking. Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, now 67 years old, was deported by the US government and landed in Bogota on Monday a free man. Ochoa was one of the founding members of the notorious cartel and had been a senior lieutenant to infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The Medellin cartel dominated the cocaine trade and waged a violent campaign against the Colombian state before Escobar was killed in 1993. On his arrival in Bogota, immigration officials ran Ochoa’s fingerprints through their database, the country’s immigration agency said. Confirming that he is not wanted by Colombian authorities, it said that Ochoa was freed “to be reunited with his family”.

Amid a sea of reporters in the airport terminal, Ochoa was greeted by his relatives and hugged his daughter. In 2001, Ochoa was flown to the US after being arrested in Colombia in 1999 along with about 30 other alleged traffickers. He had already served a jail sentence in Colombia in the early 90s for his role as one of bosses of the Medellin cartel. Along with his brothers, he was the first major trafficker to surrender under a programme that protected cartel members from extradition to the US if they pleaded guilty to minor offences in Colombia. Ochoa and his brothers were released from prison in 1996, but Ochoa was arrested once again during the so-called Millennium operation over his involvement in the cocaine smuggling business in the US in the late 1990s.

In 2003, Ochoa was sentenced to more than 30 years in a US court for his involvement in the cartel that brought an average of 30 tonnes of cocaine into the US each month between 1997 and 1999. (BBC)

NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare pleaded not guilty on Monday to state murder and terror charges, while his attorney complained that statements coming from New York’s mayor would make it tough to receive a fair trial.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was shackled and seated in a Manhattan court when he leaned over to a microphone to enter his plea. The Manhattan district attorney formally charged him last week with multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism, in a state case that will run parallel to his federal prosecution.

His initial appearance in New York’s state trial court was preempted by federal prosecutors bringing their own charges over the shooting. The federal charges could carry the possibility of the death penalty, while the maximum sentence for the state charges is life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state charges expected to go to trial first.

One of Mangione’s attorneys told a judge that government officials, including New York Mayor Eric Adams, have turned Mangione into a political pawn, robbing him of his rights as a defendant and tainting the jury pool. (Jamaica-Gleaner)

Photo: Luigi Mangione is escorted into Manhattan Criminal court for his arraignment on state murder and terror charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (AP)

RUSSIA – North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia were given fake military documents with Russian names and birthplaces, the Ukrainian military said, amid claims from Kyiv that Russia is trying to conceal the presence of foreign fighters on the battlefield. Ukraine’s special operations forces said in a statement Sunday they had killed three North Korean soldiers in Russia’s western Kursk region and seized their documents. Their military identification documents “lack all the stamps and photos, the patronymic names are given in the Russian manner, and the place of birth is signed as the Republic of Tuva,” the statement said, referring to a Russian region in southern Siberia bordering Mongolia.

But the signatures on the documents are in Korean, which “indicates the real origin of these soldiers,” the statement added. “This case once again confirms that Russia is resorting to any means to hide its losses on the battlefield and conceal foreign presence,” the statement said. US, Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence estimates put the number of North Korean soldiers in Russia between 11,000 to 12,000, some of whom have already engaged in combat operations alongside tens of thousands of Russian forces to assist in recovering parts of Kursk taken in a Ukrainian offensive in August. (CNN)

Photo: North Korean troops train in Russia in footage circulated online. (Reuters)