FINLAND – The Helsinki police department say the vessel, which was boarded on Thursday, was moved to inner anchorage near Porvoo as a better place to carry out an investigation. Authorities in Finland have moved an impounded Russia-linked tanker closer to port after seizing control of the vessel earlier this week. The Eagle S is suspected of damaging the Estlink-2 power cable which runs under the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia by dragging its anchor along the seabed. The Estlink-2 power cable, which takes electricity from Finland to Estonia under the Baltic Sea, went down on Wednesday but there was little impact to services. The Helsinki police department say the vessel, which was boarded on Thursday, was moved to inner anchorage near Porvoo as a better place to carry out an investigation.

The Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands but has been described by Finnish customs and EU officials as being part of Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers shipping oil and gas in defiance of international sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine.

The aging vessels, often with obscure ownership, routinely operate without Western-regulated insurance. Russia’s use of the vessels has raised environmental concerns about accidents given their age and uncertain insurance coverage. On Friday, NATO chief Mark Rutte said he’d spoken to Finland’s President Alexander Stubb and agreed that, “NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea.” Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia, abandoned its decades-old policy of military neutrality and joined NATO in 2023 in response to the invasion of Ukraine. (Euronews)

Photo: The Eagle S oil tanker at sea outside Porkkalanniemi. (AP)

SYRIE – Holding new elections in Syria could take up to four years, rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has said in a broadcast interview. This is the first time he has given a timeline for possible elections in Syria since his group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led a rebel offensive that ousted former President Bashar al-Assad. In the interview with Saudi state broadcaster Al Arabiya on Sunday, he said drafting a new constitution could take up to three years. He said it could also be a year before Syrians begin to see significant change and improvements to public services following the overthrow of the Assad regime.

Sharaa said Syria needed to rebuild its legal system and would have to hold a comprehensive population census to run legitimate elections. Sharaa – previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – has led the country’s new authorities after the Assad presidency fell earlier this month. Since then, questions have been raised over how HTS will govern the multi-ethnic country. HTS began as a jihadist group – espousing violence to achieve its goal of establishing a state governed by Islamic law (Sharia) – but has distanced itself from that past in recent years.

Sharaa said the group, which was once aligned with Islamic State and al- Qaeda and is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN and many countries, will be “dissolved” at an upcoming national dialogue conference but gave no further details. The gathering could be the first test of whether Syria’s new leadership can achieve the promised goal of uniting the country after thirteen years of civil war. Responding to criticism of his transitional government, he said the appointments made were “essential” and not meant to exclude anyone. Syria is home to many ethnic and religious groups, including Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shia and Arab Sunnis, the last of whom make up a majority of the Muslim population. (BBC)

Photo: Rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said he did not see himself as a “Syrian liberator”, adding that the people had saved themselves. (Reuters)

BEIJING – China will reduce import tariffs on a large number of goods next year in its latest move to expand domestic demand and advance high-standard opening up, authorities announced Saturday.

Provisional import tariffs, lower than the most-favored-nation rates, will be applied to 935 commodities as part of an annual tariff adjustment plan effective on Jan. 1, 2025. This plan “will help increase the imports of quality products,” according to a statement from the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.

This tariff reduction aligns with the need to foster new quality productive forces through scientific and technological innovation, enhance people’s well-being, and promote green and low-carbon development, the commission said.

For instance, lower provisional tariffs will be implemented for some raw materials, including ethane, cycloolefin polymers and ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymers, which are important basic materials for the petrochemical industry. These tariff cuts will effectively reduce the production costs of enterprises, promote their technological innovation and facilitate the green development of the petrochemical industry,” said Fan Min, deputy head of the information and market department at China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation.  (Xinhua)

USA – Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and a former peanut farmer whose vision of a “competent and compassionate” government propelled him into the White House, died on Sunday, according to local media. He was 100. The news was announced by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday. Carter’s death follows the passing of his wife Rosalynn on Nov. 19, 2023 at the age of 96 with her family by her side at the Carter home in Plains, Georgia, just days after she had been admitted to hospice care.

The late former president himself had entered hospice care in February 2023. Carter survived for years after he had a “small mass” removed from his liver in early August 2015 and later that month announced he had liver cancer that had spread throughout his body.

The Carter family had a history of cancer and the former president lost his father, brother, and two sisters to pancreatic cancer. His mother had breast cancer, which later spread to her pancreas.

Jason Carter, Carter’s grandson, had announced in May that he believed the former president was “coming to the end” of his life’s journey. But the former president hung on much longer.

The soft-spoken leader with a signature Georgia drawl saw his single term in the Oval Office clouded by an economic downturn at home and a hostage crisis abroad.

His post-presidency life was marked by a very visible dedication to service, but also a series of sometimes controversial moves as he continued to wade into foreign affairs, particularly as it related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Carter met with the leadership of terrorist group and Palestinian representative Hamas in 2009 and 2015. He reprimanded Israel for its operations against Hamas in 2014, saying there was “no justification in the world for what Israel is doing.”

Ukrainian sniper Oleksandr Matsievsky was captured by Russians in the first year of the full-scale invasion. Later, a video emerged showing him smoking his last cigarette in a forest, apparently next to a grave he had been forced to dig.

In October this year, nine captured Ukrainian soldiers were reportedly shot dead by Russian forces in Kursk region. Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the case including a photo showing half-naked bodies lying on the ground. This photo was enough for one of the victims, drone operator Ruslan Holubenko, to be identified by his parents. “I recognised him by his underwear,” his distraught mother told local broadcaster Suspilne Chernihiv. “I bought it for him before a trip to the sea. I also knew that his shoulder had been shot through. You could see that in the picture. The list of executions goes on. Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating reports of beheadings and a sword being used to kill a Ukrainian soldier with his hands tied behind his back.In another instance, a video showed 16 Ukrainian soldiers apparently being lined up and then mowed down with automatic gunfire after emerging from a woods to surrender.

Some of the executions were filmed by Russian forces themselves, while others were observed by Ukrainian drones hovering above. The killings captured on such videos usually take place in woods or fields lacking distinctive features, which makes confirming their exact location difficult. BBC Verify, however, has been able to confirm in several cases – such as one beheading – that the victims wear Ukrainian uniforms and that the videos are recent. The Ukrainian prosecution service says that at least 147 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been executed by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion, 127 of them this year. Executions became systemic from November last year and have continued throughout all of this year. Sadly, their number has been particularly on the rise this summer and autumn. This tells us that they are not isolated cases. They are happening across vast areas and they have clear signs of being part of a policy – there is evidence that instructions to this effect are being issued.” International humanitarian law – particularly the Third Geneva Convention – offers protection to prisoners of war, and executing them is a war crime. Despite this, Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Russia’s Chechnya, briefly ordered his commanders involved in the Ukraine war “to take no prisoners  (BBC)