SCMP World·Sunday, December 28, 2025

SCMP World - Sunday, December 28, 2025

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

Kosovo’s left-leaning ruling party wins snap election, exit poll shows

Kosovo voted on Sunday in its second parliamentary election in 11 months, with Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s left-leaning Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination Movement party, emerging as the clear winner, according to exit polls. The ruling Vetevendosje secured around 43.5 per cent of the vote, a survey by broadcaster T7 based on interviews with 4,600 voters showed. The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) followed with 23.6 per cent, while the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) won 15.9 per cent and..

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1 dead, another injured in mid-air helicopter crash in New Jersey, officials say

Two helicopters crashed in New Jersey in what federal authorities say was a mid-air collision that killed one person and critically injured another. Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to a report of an aviation crash at about 11:25am local time on Sunday, and police and fire crews subsequently extinguished flames that engulfed one of the helicopters. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) described the crash as a mid-air collision between an Enstrom F-28A helicopter...

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Trump says Zelensky and Putin ‘serious about peace’ in war talks sprint

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he believed the leaders of Ukraine and Russia were serious about peace as he spoke to them both in what he called the final stages of his efforts to end the war. Trump, who had promised to finish the war on day one of his presidency, said he had no deadline but is embarking on a year-end diplomatic sprint as he welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to his Florida estate. Much like when Zelensky last met Trump in October, Russian President...

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UK’s Starmer criticised for welcoming activist’s return from Egypt as old tweets resurface

The UK prime minister is facing criticism after he celebrated the return to Britain of a human-rights activist who was recently released from an Egyptian prison but whose past social media posts apparently contained violent and antisemitic language. Successive British governments have campaigned for the release of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a dual national who had been imprisoned in Egypt for most of the past 14 years. He returned to the UK on Friday after Egyptian authorities lifted a travel ban that..

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3 dead in Syria as thousands of Alawites protest against deadly mosque bombing

At least three people were killed on Sunday during Alawite protests in western Syria, health authorities said, as thousands took to the streets across the religious minority’s heartland following a deadly mosque bombing. Thousands in coastal provinces and central Syria took part in demonstrations called by a religious authority to protest against the mosque attack in Homs on Friday that killed eight people and reignited minorities’ fears under the new Islamist authorities. War monitor the Syrian

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Iran launches 3 satellites into space from Russia, state television reports

Iran launched three domestically built observation satellites into space from Russia on Sunday, state television reported, marking a new step for Tehran’s space programme despite Western sanctions. The country maintains that its aerospace industry is peaceful and complies with UN Security Council resolutions imposed over its nuclear programme. “Three Iranian satellites, Zafar-2, Paya and Kowsar 1.5, were launched into space by a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia,” Iranian...

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New York’s subway joins London, Singapore and retires MetroCard and embraces tap-and-go fares

When the MetroCard replaced the New York City subway token in 1994, the swipeable plastic card infused much-needed modernity into one of the world’s oldest and largest transit systems. Now, more than three decades later, the gold-hued fare card and its notoriously finicky magnetic strip are following the token into retirement. The last day to buy or refill a MetroCard is December 31, 2025, as the transit system fully transitions to OMNY, a contactless payment system that allows riders to tap...

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Brigitte Bardot, French icon and animal rights activist, dies at 91

Brigitte Bardot, the French actress who set the standard for a generation of female sex symbols in the 1960s and devoted her later life to animal rights, has died. She was 91. Agence France-Presse reported her death on Sunday, citing a statement from her foundation that didn’t provide details. The archetype of beauty to millions of men, Bardot spawned an era of curvy, pouting, insouciant actresses with her role as a self-assured small-town sexpot in And God Created Woman (1956). Throughout the..

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Russia’s Putin warns of escalation if Ukraine rejects peace talks

Russian ‌President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine was in no hurry for peace ‍and if it did not want to resolve their conflict peacefully, Moscow would accomplish all its goals by force. Putin’s remarks on Saturday, carried by state news agency Tass, followed a vast ⁠Russian drone and missile attack that prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to say Russia was showing its wish to continue the war while Kyiv wanted peace. Zelensky is to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday to.

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Zelensky looks to secure Ukraine peace deal at Trump meet as Russian offensive mounts

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will sit down on Sunday with Donald Trump and seek to secure the US president’s stamp of approval for a new proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia. The 20-point plan, which emerged from weeks of intense US-Ukraine negotiations, lacks Moscow’s approval, and the face-to-face in Florida comes in the wake of a massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv. The meeting, hosted by Trump at his opulent Mar-a-Lago residence, will be the pair’s

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