In Rome, praying for the victims of conflicts around the globe, including the people of Sudan and the ‘martyred Rohingya’ of Myanmar, Pope Francis said: “At the end of a year, have the courage to ask how many lives have been torn apart in armed conflicts, how many deaths?”
“We have proven more than once that we can solve the most difficult problems and will never retreat, because there is no force that can divide us,” he said, referring to the Ukraine war that in recent months has largely been deadlocked.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his New Year address said Ukraine had become stronger in overcoming serious difficulties as the war against Russia moves towards completing its second year. “The major result of the (previous) year, its main achievement: Ukraine grew stronger,” he said.
Speaking on the policy directions for the new year at a key meeting of North Korea’s ruling party, Kim Jong Un ordered the country’s military, the munitions industry and the nuclear weapons sector to accelerate war preparations to counter what he called unprecedented confrontational moves by the US.
In a televised speech to mark the New Year, Xi said China’s ‘reunification’ with Taiwan is inevitable. “The reunification of the motherland is a historical inevitability. Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” he said.
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