STOCKHOLM, 20 December 2022, (TON): Sweden’s Supreme Court blocked the extradition of an exiled Turkish journalist, a key demand by Ankara to ratify Stockholm’s NATO membership.

The court said “there were several hindrances to sending back former editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily, Bulent Kenes, who Turkey accuses of being involved in a 2016 attempt to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”

Some of the accusations against Kenes are not crimes in Sweden, which along with the political nature of the case and his refugee status in Sweden, rendered an extradition impossible, the court added.

LONDON, 20 December 2022, (TON): The Regional Stakeholder Network gives disabled people across the UK a stronger voice.

Portrait of Minister for Disabled People, Tom Pursglove he is smiling and looking directly at the camera wearing a dark suit and red tie.

7 new regional chairs for the Regional Stakeholder Network have been appointed today by the Minister for Disabled People.

They will take the lead in supporting and advising the government on issues affecting disabled people and disability organisations in regions across England.

KUALA LUMPUR, 20 December 2022, (TON): Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim won a confidence vote in parliament, cementing his mandate a month after an inconclusive election result forced him to ally with the graft-tainted party of his former political rivals.

The affirmation of support was done via voice vote late in the day, with those in favour of Anwar’s leadership drowning out those opposed, said Johari Abdul, speaker of the lower house of parliament.

Anwar told AFP he had the support of 148 members of the 222-seat legislature, giving him the two-thirds majority necessary to pass reforms after a divisive November 19 general election.

WASHINGTON, 20 December 2022, (TON): The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Industrial Base Policy, through its Defense Production Act Investments Program and the Air Force Executive Agent, issued its first critical minerals award using Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations funds to Perpetua Resources Idaho, Inc. to secure an American source of critical minerals for missiles and munitions.

The DPA Investments Program will provide $24.8 million to Perpetua to complete environmental and engineering studies necessary to obtain a Final Environmental Impact Statement, a Final Record of Decision, and other ancillary permits. 

Perpetua will perform this study work related to its Stibnite-Gold Project in central Idaho through 2024.

This investment is essential to ensure the timely development of a domestic source of antimony trisulfide for the manufacture of small arms and medium caliber cartridges, as well as many other missile and munition items.

SEOUL, 19 December 2022, (TON): North Korea test-fired a pair of ballistic missiles with a potential range of striking Japan on Sunday, in a possible protest of Tokyo’s adoption of a new security strategy to push for more offensive footing against North Korea and China.

The launches came two days after the North claimed to have performed a key test needed to build a more mobile, powerful intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the U.S. mainland.

The two missiles traveled from the country’s northwest Tongchangri area about 500 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 550 kilometers before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, according to the South Korean and Japanese governments.

VATICAN CITY, 19 December 2022, (TON): Pope Francis revealed for the first time in an interview Sunday that he had signed a resignation letter nearly a decade ago should poor health prevent him from carrying out his duties.

Francis who turned 86 has said in the past that he would step down from the papacy should health problems keep him from his duties.

In Spanish newspaper ABC, the pontiff said he signed his resignation letter and handed it over to the Vatican’s secretary of state, Tarcisio Bertone, before that cardinal’s retirement in 2013.

LONDON, 19 December 2022, (TON): The UK’s Conservative Party is set to claim up to £15 million in fresh funds following a series of donations, including a contribution of up to £4 million from Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour.

The fundraising effort will likely see the UK’s ruling party overtake the main opposition Labour Party in donations received ahead of the next general election, said Conservative chair Nadhim Zahawi.

Mansour’s donation could be one of the largest in UK political history, sources said. Other expected major donors include Graham Edwards, executive chairman and co-founder of investment company Telereal Trillium; and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

UNITED NATIONS, 19 December 2022, (TON): The United Nations on Friday launched the International Decade of Indigenous Languages aimed at helping peoples around the world to keep their mother tongues alive.

UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi said “preserving their languages is “not only important for them, but for all humanity.”

He said “with each indigenous language that goes extinct, so too goes the thought: the culture, tradition and knowledge it bears. That matters because we are in dire need of a radical transformation in the way we relate to our environment.”

BERLIN, 19 December 2022, (TON): The German army’s military equipment problems and technical issues may impede the fulfillment of the country’s NATO obligations, newsweekly Der Spiegel reported.

The Bundeswehr’s Puma armored vehicles suffered technical problems during a recent military exercise, leaving 18 of them currently inoperable, according to the report.

These armored vehicles of the 10th Panzer Division were planned to be deployed to the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force next month.

German Chief of Defense Gen. Eberhard Zorn acknowledged the military equipment problems, but promised that the German army will take necessary measures to meet its commitments to NATO.

QAMISHLI, 19 December 2022, (TON): Baran Ramadan Mesko had been hiding with other migrants for weeks in the coastal Algerian city of Oran, awaiting a chance to take a boat across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Days before the 38-year-old Syrian Kurd was to begin the journey, he received news that a smuggler boat carrying some of his friends had sunk soon after leaving the Algerian coast. Most of its passengers had drowned.

It came as a shock, after spending weeks to get to Algeria from Syria and then waiting for a month for a smuggler to put him on the boat.

But having poured thousands of dollars into the journey, and with his wife and 4- and 3-year-old daughters counting on him to secure a life safe from conflict, the engineer-turned-citizen journalist boarded a small fishing boat with a dozen other men and took a group selfie to send to their families before they went offline.