An Embraer passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced, saying 32 survivors had been rescued.

Several passenger plane crashes have occurred worldwide this year, including a Wednesday morning Azerbaijan Airlines wreck that has left dozens feared dead.

At least 38 people were killed when a passenger jet crashed in Kazakhstan after it was forced to divert from its intended destination in southern Russia—an area where Moscow’s air defenses have battled Ukrainian drones in recent weeks.

Pope Francis has called for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end the war triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In his traditional Christmas Day address, the Pope said "boldness [was] needed to open the door" to dialogue "in order to achieve a just and lasting peace" between the two sides.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has, for the first time, sent combatant units abroad, to aid Russia in the war in Ukraine. As noted in the Joint Statement on the DPRK’s Deployment of Troops to Russia this development indelibly connects the Indo-Pacific and European theaters,

Gene Spector faced espionage charges in August 2023, filed by a Moscow court, though the specifics of the allegations remain undisclosed.