Parts of Indian-administered Kashmir are tense after five civilians were killed in two separate attacks in the same area in less than 24 hours. Four people were killed and nine injured after militants fired at three houses in Rajouri district on Sunday evening. On Monday, a child died and four people were hurt after a blast took place near the same houses. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. Top police officials have started an investigation into the incidents. Sunday’s attack has triggered protests and strikes in Rajouri as people blamed the local administration for the security lapse. Manoj Sinha, the administrative head of the region, has condemned “the cowardly terror attack in Rajouri” and announced financial assistance for the families of the victims. “I assure the people that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished,” he tweeted on Monday.(BBC)…[+]

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been sworn in as the new president of Brazil – the third time he has held the country’s highest office. The veteran left-wing politician, known widely as Lula, also led the country between 2003 and 2010 – and defeated Jair Bolsonaro in October’s poll. In his first speech, Lula vowed to rebuild a country in “terrible ruins”. He decried the policies of his predecessor, who went to the US on Friday to avoid the handover ceremony. A sea of Lula supporters gathered in front of Congress since early in the morning – decked out in the red colour of his Workers’ Party. They travelled to see their leader sworn in – but also for a celebration. More than 60 artists – including Samba legend Martinho da Vila – were booked to perform on two giant stages decorated in the national flag as part of a music festival dubbed “Lulapalooza”. “Love has won over hate,” read one banner carried by a man dressed as Lula – complete with a presidential sash.(BBC)…[+]

A third of the global economy will be in recession this year, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. Kristalina Georgieva said 2023 will be “tougher” than last year as the US, EU and China see their economies slow. It comes as the war in Ukraine, rising prices, higher interest rates and the spread of Covid in China weigh on the global economy. In October the IMF cut its global economic growth outlook for 2023. “We expect one third of the world economy to be in recession,” Ms Georgieva said on the CBS news programme Face the Nation. “Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like recession for hundreds of millions of people,” she added. Katrina Ell, an economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney, gave the BBC her assessment of the world economy. “While our baseline avoids a global recession over the next year, odds of one are uncomfortably high. Europe, however, will not escape recession and the US is teetering on the verge,” she said.(BBC)…[+]

Former President Donald Trump’s tax returns have been released, ending a bitter six-year long battle to gain greater insights into his finances. The returns stretch from 2015 through 2020, covering Mr Trump’s candidacy and time in the White House. They give details of various entities through which he would have paid tax, including holdings companies and personal income. The BBC is reviewing the documents. Responding to Friday’s release of hundreds of pages of tax returns, Mr Trump’s camp warned that the disclosure will lead to the US political divide becoming “far worse”. “The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people,” his statement said.(BBC)…[+]

“I did not feel any fear because I believed that my demand is just,” said a defiant 18-year-old Afghan woman whose ambition to get a university degree has been frustrated by the Taliban’s ban on women in higher education. Angered at the prospect of seeing her future disappear, the woman (whose name we have changed for her safety) staged an extraordinary solo protest in front of Kabul University, invoking words from the Quran. On Sunday 25 December, Adela stood in front of the entrance holding up a board with a particularly powerful word written on it in Arabic – iqra, or ‘read’. Muslims believe this was the first word revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by God. “God has given us the right to education. We need to be afraid of God, not the Taliban who want to take away our rights,” she told the BBC Afghan service. “I knew that they treat the protesters very badly. They beat them, hit them, use weapons – they used Tasers and water cannon on them. But still I stood in front of them.(BBC)…[+]

Controversial online influencer Andrew Tate has been detained in Romania as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation. Tate – who was detained alongside his brother Tristan – had his house raided in the capital, Bucharest. A police spokesperson confirmed the arrests to the BBC. The former kickboxer rose to fame in 2016 when he was removed from British TV show Big Brother over a video which appeared to show him attacking a woman. He went on to gain notoriety online, with Twitter banning him for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted. He has since been reinstated. Despite social media bans he gained popularity, particularly among young men, by promoting an ultra-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle. He regularly appeared in videos with a fleet of expensive sports cars, on private jets, and enjoying expensive holidays.(BBC)…[+]

At least 19 people have been killed in a fire that swept through a Cambodian hotel-casino on the border with Thailand, local authorities say. Hundreds of people were in the Grand Diamond City building in the border town of Poipet when the fire broke out after 23:30 (16:30 GMT) on Wednesday. Video circulating on social media showed people apparently jumping or falling from upper floors. The hotel-casino employs 400 workers and had many Thai nationals as guests. Many of the victims are thought to have been trapped on upper floors and a Thai volunteer organisation, Ruamkatanyu Foundation, said it was unlikely that they could have survived. “There are 19 dead so far as we see bodies and bones,” said Sek Sokhom, director of Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey provincial information department. He warned that the death toll could be higher.  Rescue teams had struggled to reach people inside the building because of the dense smoke and are continuing to search it for those who are missing. Poipet is a key crossing point between the two countries. It is also popular for its casinos, which many Thai nationals visit because gambling is mostly illegal in Thailand.(BBC)…[+]

Nigeria’s police chief has ordered the suspension of an officer who allegedly shot dead a female lawyer in the main city Lagos on Christmas Day. Drambi Vandi is reported to have hit Bolanle Raheem as she and several family members were driving home from a church service. Many Nigerians are horrified over the killing of the lawyer, who was reportedly pregnant. The Nigeria Bar Association and human rights groups have demanded justice. Police chief Usman Alkali Baba said he would not relent in efforts to ensure justice for the lawyer and appealed to the public “to be calm”. In recent years there has been increased attention on police brutality in Nigeria. Nationwide protests, under the banner of the #EndSars movement, led to the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars) being disbanded in 2020.(BBC)…[+]

US energy giant ExxonMobil is suing the EU in a bid to force the bloc to scrap its new windfall tax on oil firms. A windfall tax is imposed on firms that benefited from something they were not responsible for. Energy firms are getting much more money for their oil and gas, partly due to supply concerns as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But Exxon accuses Brussels of exceeding its legal authority, calling the measure “counter-productive”. ExxonMobil reported a quarterly profit of almost $20 billion (£17.3 billion) in October. In September, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced the plan for major oil, gas and coal companies to pay a “crisis contribution” on their increased 2022 profits.(BBC)…[+]

South Korea’s military has apologised for failing to shoot down five drones that North Korea flew across their mutual border on Monday. Seoul fired warning shots and sent jets and attack helicopters to shoot down the aircraft, one of which flew close to the capital. Despite a five-hour pursuit, the drones reportedly all returned to North Korea. South Korea’s President has said that the incident showed the military’s readiness was “greatly lacking”. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which represents the major branches of its armed services, acknowledged in a statement on Tuesday that while the military can counter “attack drones that pose a real threat”, it is limited in its ability to detect and strike smaller spy drones. “Our military’s lack of preparedness has caused a lot of concern to the people,” said a senior official, Kang Shin-chul. He added that the military would “actively employ detection devices to spot the enemy’s drone from an early stage and aggressively deploy strike assets”.(BBC)…[+]