Macron joins European partners in expressing solidarity over Greenland issue

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday joined European partners in expressing "full solidarity" over the Greenland issue, after U.S. President Donald Trump recently reiterated his call to take over the Danish autonomous territory.

"Greenland belongs to its people. Denmark stands as its guarantor. I join my voice to that of Europeans in expressing our full solidarity," Macron said on social media platform X.

"In Nuuk, I reaffirmed France's unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland," said Macron, referring to his visit to Greenland in June.

On Sunday, Trump announced the appointment of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland, which has sparked strong diplomatic reactions in Greenland, Denmark and the European Union (EU).

Venezuela's National Assembly passes law to protect navigation, trade freedom

Venezuela's National Assembly on Tuesday passed a law aimed at guaranteeing and protecting freedom of navigation and trade against piracy, blockades and other illicit international acts, following U.S. seizures of vessels carrying Venezuelan oil in the Caribbean.

The "Law to Guarantee Freedom of Navigation and Commerce Against Piracy, Blockades, and Other International Illicit Acts" was declared approved by National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez after the vote.

The legislation was passed during an extraordinary session and under urgent procedures, following U.S. seizures of vessels carrying Venezuelan oil on the high seas, and it allows prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone who promotes or finances what it describes as piracy or blockades.

The law seeks to safeguard Venezuela's commercial and political relations from what authorities describe as threats by the United States.

U.S. military sinks alleged drug boat in eastern Pacific, killing 1

The U.S. military on Monday sank "a low-profile vessel" suspected of transporting drugs in international waters in the eastern Pacific, killing a male aboard, the U.S. Southern Command said.

At the direction of the U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted "a lethal kinetic strike" on the vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters, the command said in a post on social platform X.

Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations, the post said, adding that one male narco-terrorist was killed in the attack.

As of Monday, the Pentagon has sunk more than 29 alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean since early September, killing at least 105 people aboard.

Libya's army chief of staff, 4 other officials killed in plane crash near Turkish capital

Libya's army chief of staff, Mohammed al-Haddad, and four other military officials were killed when their business jet crashed south of Ankara on Tuesday evening, Libyan and Turkish authorities said.

Turkish gendarmerie units located the wreckage of the Falcon 50 jet near Kesikkavak village in Ankara's Haymana district, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah later confirmed the deaths in a statement, saying al-Haddad and several senior military officials were killed when the aircraft crashed while returning from an official visit to Trkiye. He said the government would investigate "the circumstances of the accident."

The aircraft, with tail number 9H-DFJ, departed Ankara's Esenboga Airport at 20:10 local time (1710 GMT) bound for Tripoli. Contact was lost at 20:52 (1752 GMT), shortly after the crew issued an emergency landing notification near Haymana, Yerlikaya said.

Palestine says Israel's approval of new settlements "dangerous step"

Israel's decision to establish 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank is a "dangerous step" aimed at tightening control over Palestinian territory, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The move extends "the policies of apartheid," undermines the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, and destroys "any real prospect of stability," the ministry said in a statement on social media. It added that the decision was part of Israel's efforts to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a pro-settler politician, said Israel's security cabinet had approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the West Bank, bringing the number of settlements legalised or approved over the past three years to 69.

Smotrich said the decision was part of a broader push to strengthen Jewish settlements across the West Bank and to prevent "the de facto establishment" of a Palestinian state.

Fukushima nuclear-contaminated wastewater discharge tops 130,000 tons

The 17th round of ocean discharge of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was completed on Monday, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said.

Despite concerns and opposition from the international community, Japan unilaterally launched the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water from the plant into the ocean in August 2023. As of the completion of the 17th round, the cumulative volume released has reached about 133,000 tons.

The latest discharge began on Dec. 4. The operation was temporarily suspended after a powerful earthquake struck off Aomori Prefecture on Dec. 8, and was resumed on Dec. 9. A total of 7,833 tons of wastewater had been released during this round, containing approximately 2.4 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium, according to TEPCO.

TEPCO's data showed that in fiscal 2025, running from April 2025 to March 2026, the company plans to carry out seven rounds of discharge, with a total volume of about 54,600 tons.

S. Korea's parliament passes bill to set up special insurrection tribunal

South Korea's parliament on Tuesday passed a bill to set up a dedicated special tribunal handling insurrection cases, caused by former impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol's botched martial law imposition last December.

The bill was passed through the National Assembly, led by the ruling Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party-proposed bill mandated the establishment of at least two benches each in the Seoul Central District Court and the Seoul High Court for the insurrection cases.

It also demanded the appointment of at least two judges in the Seoul Central District Court responsible for reviewing whether to issue warrants for search, seizure, arrest and detention relevant to the investigation of the insurrection cases.