UKRAINE SHOOTS DOWN DRONES AS RUSSIA SAYS NO ‘CHRISTMAS CEASEFIRE’ ON THE CARDS

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine's air defense shot down “all 13” drones used to strike Kyiv on Wednesday, as Moscow launched a barrage of attacks on the capital.

“This morning terrorists started with 13 Shaheds … All 13 were shot down by our Ukrainian air defense. Well done. I am proud. Dear citizens, we thank the air defense, and do not forget about the sirens," Zelensky said.

Zelenskiy called on Russia this week to start withdrawing its troops by Christmas as the first step towards a peace deal after nearly 10 months of war.

The Kremlin said Wednesday it had not received any proposals from Kyiv to halt fighting in Ukraine during the upcoming holiday period and a ceasefire was not on Moscow’s agenda.

“No, no proposals have been received from anyone and no topic of this kind is on the agenda,” the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to a question on whether Russia would pause hostilities for the New Year or Christmas.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions rocked the city's central Shevchenkivskyi district early on Wednesday and that two administrative buildings had been damaged. An air raid alert was lifted three hours after it began.

In one Kyiv district, residents said they heard the sound of an Iranian Shahed drone - known as “mopeds” by Ukrainians because of the loud whirring of their engines - followed by a powerful explosion at a building next to their homes.

Some of the windows of nearby residential buildings had been smashed. Bits of the roof were strewn in the snow along with other debris. Shocked residents, wrapped up against the cold, inspected the damage.

The white tail of a drone could be seen in the wreckage. It had M529 Geran-2 written on it and a handwritten message “For Ryazan!!!”, an apparent reference to what Moscow says was a Ukrainian attack on an airstrip deep inside Russia this month.

US ambassador in Ukraine Bridget Brink said following the morning attacks that Kyiv could continue to rely on Washington’s backing.

Ukraine has been requesting further air defence support for some time and US is planning to send Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine, US media reports say.

64 UKRAINIANS, U.S. CITIZEN RELEASED: KYIV

Ukraine said on Wednesday that it had secured the release of a U.S. citizen as well as 64 Ukrainian members of the military in its latest prisoner swap with Russian forces.

Russia’s state-run TASS news agency has reported that the U.S. citizen, Suedi Murekezi, was arrested in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine in June and charged with attending anti-Russian protests and inciting “ethnic hatred”.

However, Mr. Murekezi’s lawyer said that he worked in a nightclub in Kherson city and denied his client’s involvement of being a combatant.

UN removes Iran from women’s rights body over rally crackdown

The UN on Wednesday voted to remove Iran from a women’s rights body over Tehran’s brutal crackdown of women-led protests. Iranian pro-democracy activists hailed the expulsion of the Islamic republic from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term.

BIDEN SIGNS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE PROTECTIONS BILL INTO LAW

Washington : US President Biden on Tuesday signed into law a bill granting federal protections to same-sex marriage, with a crowd of guests gathered at the White House to celebrate the legislative milestone. Biden —who as vice president took a public stand in favour of samesex unions well before they became legal throughout the US in a 2015 Supreme Court decision — touted the landmark law as a rights victory.

In an elaborate signing ceremony on the South Lawn, complete with musical performances from Cyndi Lauper and Sam Smith, Biden told thousands of supporters and lawmakers that the new law represents a rare moment of bipartisanship when Democrats and Republicans came together.

“We got it done. We’re going to continue the work ahead. I promise you,” Biden told the crowd, which White House officials later said had 5,300 people, before signing the bill to loud cheers. He added: “America takes a vital step toward equality, for liberty and justice, not just for some, but for everyone,” hesaid. “Love is love. Right is right. Justice is justice. ”

The new Respect for Marriage Act does not mandate states to legalise same-sex marriage but does require them to recognise a marriage so long as it was valid in thestate where it was performed. It repeals previous legislation defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and also protects interracial couples by requiring states to recognise legal marriages without regard to “sex, race, ethnicity or national origin”.

PAK COURT ADMITS PLEA SEEKING IMRAN’S DISQUALIFICATION FOR ‘HIDING’ DAUGHTER

Islamabad : The Islamabad HC on Wednesday admitted a petition seeking former Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s disqualification as a lawmaker on grounds of him concealing the existence of his allegedly illegitimate daughter, Tyrian White, while filing his nomination papers. The plea has been scheduled for hearing on December 20, making this the second such case against Imran after his disputed disqualification by the country’s election commission in October for allegedly withholding information about his assets and liabilities.

The HC had issued notice to Imran and the election com-mission on December 9, seeking details crucial to deciding if a plea seeking the former PM’s disqualification as lawmaker was maintainable. The court had last month reserved its verdict on the maintainability of the petition filed by one Sajid Mehmood. The petition claims that Imran wrongfully mentioned in his nomination papers that he had two dependants in sons Sulaiman and Qasim. The plea seeks issuance of summons to the ex-PM to inquire into the reasons for violation of Article 62, which states “a person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (parliament) unless — he is sagacio-us, righteous, non-profligate, honest and trustworthy”.

“Imran Khan has deliberately and willfully failed to declare his daughter Tyrian White in the relevant columns of the nomination papers and the affidavit appended therewith,” the petition claims, adding that Imran’s daughter had been residing in London and “he made appropriate arrangements for her but hid the information about her in the nomination papers and affidavit”. Article 62 sets preconditions for a MP to be “sadiq and ameen” (honest and righteous). It is the same provision under which former PM Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by a five-judge Supreme Court bench on July 28, 2017, in the Panama Papers case.

CHINA REMOVES OFFICIALS FROM UK OVER MANCHESTER PROTESTER ATTACK

London : China has removed six officials from Britain who police wanted to question over the treatment of a man who said he was kicked and punched while protesting outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester, British foreign minister James Cleverly said. Cleverly said the removal of the officials, including the consul general in Manchester, came after a police request to interview them over the incident. “I am disappointed that these individuals will not be interviewed or face justice,” Cleverly said in a written statement. “Nonetheless, it is right that those responsible for the disgraceful scenes in Manchester are no longer — or will shortly cease to be — consular staff accredited to the UK. ”

China later said the British government had failed tofulfil its obligations under international law to protect its consulate premises and personnel and its Manchester consul general had returned home as part of a rotation of officials. “The Chinese consul general in Manchester has completed his term of office and has returned to China upon instruction not long ago. This is a normal rotationof Chinese consular officials,” a Chinese embassy spokesperson said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Police had been investigating the alleged assault on a protester who was beaten by several men after being dragged inside the grounds of the consulate during a demonstration against President Xi Jinping. “Images carried on social media showed what appeared to be completely unacceptable behaviour by a number of individuals near the entrance to the consular premises,” said Cleverly, who summoned the acting ambassador over the incident. Cleverly said that police had requested six Chinese officials waive diplomatic immunity so they could be questioned and the embassy had been informed, giving them a week to act.

AMID A ‘TRIPLEDEMIC’, IT’S TIME TO MASK UP IN US AGAIN: EXPERTS

Masks are back, and, this time, they’re not just for Covid-19. A “tripledemic” of the coronavirus, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, sweeping through the US has prompted several cities and counties, including New York City and Los Angeles County, to encourage people to wear a mask in indoor public spaces once again.

Nationwide, Covid-19 case rates and hospitalisations have spiked by 56% and 24%, over the past two weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there have been 13 million illnesses and 7,300 deaths from flu this season, and the numbers are expected to rise. While RSVappears to be on the decline, infection rates are high across much of the country.

There is strong evidence that masks help to reduce the transmission of several respiratory viruses. One paper published in 2020 by researchers in Hong Kong showed people sick with either Covid-19 or flu breathed out fewer viral particles when they were wearing a mask.

Rates of influenza and other respiratory viruses flattened during 2020 and 2021 winter seasons, which was largely attributed to the protections the country took to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

“The basic truth is that masks work,” said Syra Madad, senior director at New York City Health + Hospitals. “Whether you’re talking about Covid-19 or other respiratory viruses, wearing a mask will help protect you against all these illnesses. ”

MEANWHILE, LONG COVID PLAYED AROLE IN OVER 3,500 DEATHS IN US: CDC

Long Covid has caused or contributed to at least 3,500 deaths in the US, an analysis of death certificates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. The study, published on Wednesday, found that such phrases were recorded in only atiny proportion of the more than 1 million deaths tied to coronavirus. Researchers said the results added to growing recognition of how serious long-term post-Covid medical problems can be. “It’s not one of the leading causes of death, but, considering that this is the first time that we’ve looked at it, it is possible for somebody to die and for long Covid to have played a part in their death,” said Farida Ahmadof National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC who led the study. Long Covid is a constellation of symptoms that can last for months and can affect every organ system. Some of the most debilitating symptoms are breathing problems, heart issues, fatigue, and cognitive and neurological issues.

US SPACE FORCE ESTABLISHES FIRST FOREIGN COMMAND IN SOUTH KOREA

Seoul : The US military formally launched a space force unit in South Korea on Wednesday, its first such facility on foreign territory that will likely enable Washington to better monitor its rivals North Korea, China and Russia.

The activation of the US Space Forces Korea at Osan Air Base near Seoul came after North Korea test-fired a barrage of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles designed to strike the US mainland and its allies South Korea and Japan in recent months. “Just 48 miles north of us exists an existential threat; a threat that we must be prepared to deter, defend against, and –if required – defeat,” Lt Col Joshua McCullion, chief of the new space unit, said at Osan. He apparently referred to North Korea, whose heavily fortified border with South Korea is just an hour’s drive from Seoul, the South’s capital.

The unit belongs to the US Space Force, which was launched in December 2019 under then-President Donald Trump as the first new US military service in more than 70 years. The Space Force was seen soberly as an affirmation of the need to more effectively organise for the defence of US interests in space — especially satellites used for civilian and military navigation, intelligence and communication. A previous Pentagon report said China and Russia had embarked on major efforts to develop technologies that could allow them to disrupt or destroy American and allied satellites in a crisisor conflict.

JAPAN TO COME UP WITH MAJOR DEFENCE POLICY

Japan is expected to announce its biggest defence overhaul in decades this week, hiking spending, reshaping its military command and acquiring new missiles to tackle the threat from China. The policies, to be outlined in three defence and security documents as soon as Friday, will reshape the defence landscape in a country whose post-war constitution does not even officially recognise the military.

Key among the new policies is a pledge to boost spending to 2%, from the previous spending of 1%, of GDP by 2027 to bring Japan in line with NATO members.

US INTRODUCES BILL TO CURB HUAWEI’S ACCESS TO BANKS

US lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill to sanction Chinese tech firm Huawei Technologies and Chinese 5G companies, restricting them from accessing US banks. The bill, introduced by Republican senator Tom Cotton and backed by lawmakers such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, seeks to “severely sanction” Huawei, and other “untrustworthy” Chinese 5G producers who they say engage in economic espionage against the US.

The bill will add these entities to the treasury department’s Specially Designated Nationals List, effectively freezing out of the US financial system. Huawei did not comment. China’s foreign ministry said “China opposes the US’. . . concept of national security”. It said China would “firmly safeguard” the rights of Chinese firms.

PERU DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY AS OUSTED LEADER REMAINS IN PRISON

Peru declared a nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday amid violent protests against the ouster of ex-president Pedro Castillo that have left seven people dead. The message came as Mr. Castillo was ordered to remain in prison, on charges of rebellion and conspiracy for another 48 hours ahead of a hearing.