* Chinese Premier Li Qiang has called for efforts to ensure the effective implementation of policies and secure a good start for this year's economic development during his inspection in the city of Jinan in east China's Shandong Province.
* The Indonesian Constitutional Court on Thursday abolished presidential and vice-presidential nomination threshold, providing every political party with equal rights to nominate their candidates.
* Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Thursday that his Smer-SD party is ready to negotiate with coalition partners about reciprocal measures against Ukraine following the halt of Russian gas transit.
* Mohammad al-Hindi, deputy secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, said on Thursday that Palestinian factions are close to reaching a ceasefire deal with Israel.
* China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced on Thursday that 10 U.S. companies have been added to the unreliable entities list for selling arms to the Taiwan region. The companies include Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and Lockheed Martin Missile System Integration Lab.
* Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Thursday that the country's state budget deficit for 2024 was lower than the government's most recent forecast of 2.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
* Uzbekistan's inflation rate in December 2024 reached 9.8 percent year-on-year, local media reported on Thursday. Food prices increased 2.4 percent from a year earlier, while services inflated 26.7 percent.
* More than 2,000 refugees died in 2024 while attempting to reach Europe, according to recent data from the United Nations and Italian sources.
* Spanish Maritime Rescue services confirmed on Thursday that a total of 366 illegal migrants arrived in Spain on the first day of 2025, with 268 of those reaching the Spanish-controlled Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.
* Turkey intercepted 55,726 illegal immigrants attempting to cross into European countries via its seas in 2024, according to the latest data released on Thursday.
* The Philippines added 37,098 new registered nurses in 2024, a member of the Philippines' House of Representatives said Thursday. Representative Marvin Rillo said that these registered nurses are most likely to work abroad despite the country's shortage of nurses.
* A total of 50 Afghan inmates imprisoned in Pakistan have been set free and returned to their homeland Afghanistan, the country's Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation said on Thursday.
* There is no safety for civilians anywhere in Gaza, with more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip under Israeli evacuation orders, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.
* A Hamas delegation has visited Egypt's capital Cairo to address challenges surrounding a Gaza ceasefire agreement, Hamas spokesperson Jihad Taha said on Thursday.
* Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan emphasized on Thursday the need for swift economic, financial, and commercial support for Syria's reconstruction during a joint press conference with Belgian Foreign Minister Bernard Quintin in Ankara.
* A series of blasts rocked Syria's southern Aleppo province on Thursday night, as Israeli warplanes carried out strikes on defense factories and a research center there, according to local media and a war monitor.
* Qatar Airways said on Thursday it will resume flights to Damascus starting Jan. 7, just days after Qatar reopened its embassy in the Syrian capital after a 13-year closure.
* The Italian city of Milan on Wednesday began enforcing strict limits on smoking tobacco products to improve health outcomes and municipal air quality.
* Cambodia's Ministry of Environment has launched a "National Roads Without Plastic Waste" campaign to ensure that national roads are free of garbage and plastic waste, said a ministry's press release on Thursday.
* A total of 12.66 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in the first 11 months of 2024 with an increase of 20.17 percent year-on-year, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) reported on Thursday. The growth indicates that Indonesia's tourism sector is recovering from the slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
* Croatia's tourism revenues are expected to reach a new record of 16 billion euros (16.51 billion USD) for the past year, according to the latest data from the Croatian National Bank (CNB) on Thursday.
* Officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Thursday that 14 people were confirmed dead when an attacker rammed a pickup truck into New Year's Day revelers in New Orleans one day earlier. The attacker was shot dead in gunfight with responding police officers.
* Heavy snow is expected to hit northern and eastern Japan through Saturday, mainly in mountainous areas along the Sea of Japan coast, due to a winter pressure pattern and a cold air mass, the country's weather agency said Friday.
* The average temperature in China in 2024 was the highest since 1961, when the country began compiling complete meteorological observation records, according to the National Climate Center on Thursday. The national average reading in 2024 stood at 10.9 degrees Celsius, 1.01 degrees Celsius above the annual average, breaking the previous record set in 2023, which was 10.71 degrees Celsius.
* The year 2024 was the warmest in Lithuania since meteorological records began, the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service said on Thursday. The average annual air temperature of 2024 in Lithuania was 9.5 degrees Celsius, which is 2.1 degrees higher than the average multi-year (1991-2020) air temperature.
