Al Jazeera witnessed injured civilians arriving at an Aleppo hospital as intense artillery fire streaked across the sky and ricocheted off buildings. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian army have been engaged in increasingly intense fighting after integration talks broke down.
A French researcher serving a three-year sentence in Russia has been freed in a prisoner exchange with Moscow, French and Russian officials have said.
President Emmanuel Macron announced the release of Laurent Vinatier, who had been jailed for allegedly violating Russia’s so-called “foreign agent” laws, saying that the researcher was “free and back in France.”
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“I share the relief of his family and loved ones. My gratitude to our diplomatic agents for their mobilisation”, Macron said on Thursday.
Russia’s FSB security service announced that Vinatier, 49, had been swapped for basketball player Daniil Kasatkin, 26.
Kasatkin was arrested last June at a Paris airport and was wanted by the United States over an alleged involvement in ransomware attacks – an allegation that Kasatkin has previously denied.
The FSB said Vinatier had been pardoned by President Vladimir Putin, who promised last month to look into the case after a French journalist raised it during the Kremlin leader’s annual news conference.
Vinatier was arrested by the FSB at a Moscow restaurant in June 2024 and convicted four months later of breaking laws requiring individuals deemed to be “foreign agents” to register with the Russian authorities.
While behind bars, he was placed under additional investigation for espionage, and he had been facing a likely further trial in the coming months.
The FSB said that the researcher, acting on instructions from Swiss intelligence, had collected sensitive political and military information, including combat and training plans, that could target Moscow’s security.
However, it said that the case against Vinatier had been dismissed due to his “active repentance.”
Before he was arrested, Vinatier worked for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss-based conflict mediation organisation, where fellow scholars respected him.
At his trial, the researcher said he loved Russia, apologised for breaking the law, and even recited a verse by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
Frederic Belot, a lawyer representing Vinatier, said the decision was a “huge relief”.
“We are extremely happy that he has been released for Orthodox Christmas,” Belot added, who also represents Kasatkin.
Relations between Paris and Moscow have been frosty in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.
While Macron has been outspoken in his support for Kyiv’s military efforts alongside other European allies, including the UK, he has also expressed a willingness to engage with Russia to end the war.
On Thursday, Moscow condemned a security plan agreed by Ukraine and its European allies in the French capital, Paris, for the deployment of a peacekeeping force as an “axis of war”.
Earlier this week, European leaders and United States envoys announced that the security guarantees for Kyiv would include a US-led monitoring mechanism and a European multinational force, in the event of a ceasefire.
However, Moscow rejected the plan.
A Greenlandic lawmaker has stressed that Greenland is “not for sale” as United States President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration renew threats to take control of the autonomous Danish territory.
Aaja Chemnitz, a member of the Danish parliament representing Greenland, welcomed talks between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Danish and Greenlandic officials expected to take place next week.
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“I think it’s going to be very important to find solutions,” she told Al Jazeera on Thursday.
But Chemnitz stressed that Greenland’s position on its autonomy remains unchanged. “Greenland is not for sale, and Greenland never will be for sale,” she said.
Since taking office in January of last year, Trump has repeatedly said he wants to take over Greenland, stressing the island’s “strategic” importance in the Arctic region.
“We need Greenland from a national security situation. It’s so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” the US president told reporters on Sunday.
But Trump’s push has drawn strong rebukes from Greenland and Denmark, the European Union, and other major US allies, including Canada.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden stressed their commitment “to preserving security, stability and co-operation in the Arctic”.
“Security in the Arctic rests on respect for the fundamental principles of the UN Charter and international law, including the inviolability of borders,” the ministers said in a joint statement.
“We collectively reiterate that matters concerning Denmark and Greenland are for Denmark and Greenland to decide alone.”
Yet despite that opposition, the Trump administration continues to float the possibility of taking over Greenland – and it has refused to rule out the possibility of military action.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that “all options are always on the table for President Trump”.
“But I will just say that the president’s first option always has been diplomacy,” she said.
Fears of a US military operation to take control of Greenland have grown after the Trump administration sent the US military into the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to abduct President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday after a months-long pressure campaign.
The abduction, which has been denounced as a violation of international law, comes amid Trump’s push to exert US dominance in the Western Hemisphere in line with a 19th-century US policy known as the Monroe Doctrine.
Some experts say the US president’s plan to take over Greenland aligns with that doctrine.
Asked about Washington’s stance towards Greenland, Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that Trump is not the first US president to look at how to “acquire” the territory. He also did not rule out using military force.
“If the president identifies a threat to the national security of the United States, every president retains the option to address it through military means,” Rubio said.
It remains unclear who exactly will meet with Rubio next week for talks on the situation.
But Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said on Tuesday that she and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen had requested a meeting with the US secretary of state.
“The purpose of the meeting is to reflect the US’s significant statements on Greenland,” Motzfeldt wrote on social media.
Chemnitz, the Danish lawmaker, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the planned talks are an opportunity to address rising tensions over the US position.
“I think it’s important to focus on diplomacy,” she said. “This is a very strange situation for us, and many of us have been concerned about everything that has happened.”
Protesters faced a tear gas-like chemical as they demanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents leave Minneapolis, one day after an officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her car. Wednesday’s large-scale operation in the city was part of President Donald Trump’s nationwide crackdown on immigrants.
The US Senate has advanced a resolution that would bar President Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without congressional authorisation, paving the way for further consideration in the 100-member chamber.
The vote on a procedural measure to advance the war powers resolution was 52 to 47, as a handful of Trump’s fellow Republicans voted with every Democrat in favour of moving ahead.
The vote came days after US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a dramatic military raid in Caracas. Two previous attempts to advance similar resolutions were blocked in the Senate last year by Trump’s fellow Republicans, as the administration ramped up military pressure on Venezuela with attacks on boats in the southern Caribbean starting in September.