London (AFP) – Bursting with customers the week before Christmas, a second-hand charity shop in London’s Marylebone High Street looks even busier than the upscale retailers surrounding it. Popular in Britain for personal shopping, charity stores and online second-hand retailers are seeing an unlikely surge in interest for Christmas gifts, a time of year often criticised for promoting consumerism and generating waste.
Guatemala-Stadt (AFP) – Continuing a tradition he started 27 years ago, a veteran firefighter dressed as Santa Claus rappels from a bridge to deliver gifts to children from low-income neighborhoods in the Guatemalan capital two days before Christmas. At the age of 78, Hector Chacon, a major in the municipal fire department, descends from the Las Vacas bridge, a 75-meter former railroad crossing in the northern part of Guatemala City.
Damaskus (AFP) – Syrians visit a Christmas market in Damascus two weeks after Islamist-led rebels ousted longtime leader Bashar al-Assad. Assad fled Syria earlier this month as rebel forces led by the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the capital after a lightning offensive.
Gramado (AFP) – Ten members of a family died early Sunday when a small plane crashed into a commercial district in the city of Gramado in southern Brazil, civil defense authorities said. At least 17 people were injured on the ground, two of them seriously, while several others were treated for smoke inhalation. The aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from the nearby city of Canela, striking a chimney and a house before falling onto a furniture store, the Rio Grande do Sul state security secretariat stated.
Peking (AFP) – China says it supports Panamanians after recent threats made by US President-elect Donald Trump to retake control of the Panama Canal over complaints of “unfair” treatment of American ships. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning also warns that the Philippines was risking an “arms race” after Manila said it planned to acquire the US Typhon missile system to protect its maritime interests.
Belgrade (AFP) – Tens of thousands of people protest in Belgrade to demand that Serbian leaders take responsibility for the collapse of a train station roof that killed 15 people last month.
Magdeburg (Germany) (AFP) – Around 2,000 people gather outside the cathedral in the German city of Magdeburg as a memorial mass is held for victims of the car-ramming attack at a Christmas market that left at least five people dead and 200 injured. The mourners watch a big screen broadcast the ceremony inside, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in attendance.
New Delhi (AFP) – A branch of the Indian private detective sector which investigates potential children-in-law ahead of the big day is seeing a boost in business, while traditional arranged marriages decline. Hiring a detective for your child’s spouse can cost up to $2000 depending on the extent of surveillance.
Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis condemns ongoing strikes on Gaza during the weekly Angelus prayer, saying he thinks of “children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals.”
Manaus (Brazil) (AFP) – Santa Claus arrives by boat to deliver gifts to Indigenous children in the riverside community of Abelha in the Brazilian Amazon. Jorge Alberto, a 60-year-old technician, is one of 50 volunteers from Friends of Santa Claus who have delivered gifts to more than 150,000 children in rural Amazon communities since the organization was founded in 1998.
Russian President Vladimir Putin vows to bring more “destruction” to Ukraine in retaliation for a drone attack on a high-rise apartment block in the central Russian city of Kazan a day earlier. “Whoever, and however much they [Ukraine] try to destroy in Russia, they will face many times more destruction themselves and will regret what they are trying to do in our country,” Putin says during a televised government meeting.
Magdeburg (Germany) (AFP) – The motivation of the suspect in the deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeberg may have been “disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany” says a prosecutor. Horst Walter Nopens adds that “what exactly was behind it is still under investigation.”
