Year in review: A look at events in December 2024

1 – Canada’s Rachel Homan wins the women’s final at the Grand Slam of Curling’s Kioti National in St. John’s. The Ottawa skip’s team beat Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg 6-5. Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes have now won two straight slams and are 40-and-two on the season.

2 – Canada lists the Houthi militant group as a terrorist entity. Listed as Ansarallah, the designation allows for criminal penalties against any person or group that knowingly deals with a listed entity. The move follows the steps of allies like the United States as Canada has supported American and British strikes against Houthi targets earlier this year.

2 – Two-time Canadian Olympian Mirela Rahneva retires from competitive skeleton racing. The 36-year-old earned five World Cup victories over her 11-year career, taking home bronze at the world championship last year. The Ottawa native finished fifth at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and 12th at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

3 – Kate Middleton kicks off the emir of Qatar’s trip to Britain. The U.K. government enlisted her to ensure the success of a state visit by the leader of a key ally, even as the Princess of Wales recovers from cancer treatment. The event is just one of a handful of appearances that she has made since her diagnosis in March.

3 – The Toronto Transit Commission board votes to ban mobility devices with lithium-ion batteries, including electric bikes and scooters, during winter months. The ban on e-bikes and e-scooters inside TTC vehicles and stations would be in effect between Nov. 15 and April 15 each year, following concerns over potential fire hazards. It wasn’t immediately clear when enforcement of the new ban would start.

4 – For the second year in a row, Taylor Swift is named Spotify Wrapped’s most-played artist. The megastar had more than 26.6-billion streams this year as she performed around the world, with her Eras Tour wrapping up in Canada. Swift was followed by Canadian singer The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Toronto star Drake and Billie Eilish.

4 – Starting early next month, Air Canada will bar carry-on bags for its lowest-fare customers. Canada’s largest airline says passengers who opt for its basic fare on trips within North America and to sun destinations will have to check any duffel bags, rollers and large backpacks for a fee.

4 – New York City’s police commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a news conference that the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was a “brazen, targeted attack.” The NYPD says 50-year-old Thompson was set to speak at an investor meeting when he was gunned down around 6:45 a.m. outside the New York Hilton Midtown by a shooter who fled on foot and then rode off on a bicycle. Though officials said the attack appeared to be targeted, they did not yet have a motive for the shooting.

4 – The Vancouver Art Gallery says it is not going ahead with a planned design for its new home because of soaring construction costs. The estimated cost increased by $200 million, putting construction on pause. Vancouver Art Gallery CEO Anthony Kiendl says the gallery will no longer be working with a Swiss architectural firm. But he says it remains committed to building a new cultural hub.

4 – A Taiwan firm cancels its plan to build an electric vehicle battery plant near Vancouver. Parent company Taiwan Cement says the company is cancelling the Maple Ridge, B.C., plant to focus on Taiwanese production. The move is in step with other battery makers suspending similar projects across North America. The B.C. and federal governments pledged a combined $284.5 million in government funding for the plant.

5 – Thousands of New Yorkers gather to witness 55,000 multicoloured lights come to life as the Rockefeller Center’s iconic Christmas tree lit up in Manhattan. The giant Norway spruce is topped with a Swarovski star crown featuring three-million crystals. Once the holiday season is over, the 23-metre tall tree will be used for lumber for Habitat for Humanity.

5 – Bitcoin tops the $100,000 mark as a massive rally in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency sparked by the election of Donald Trump rolls on. The milestone comes just hours after the U.S. president-elect signalled a lighter regulatory approach to the crypto industry with his choice of advocate Paul Atkins to be the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

5 – Canada’s new WNBA franchise will be called the Toronto Tempo. The handle was officially unveiled with some haste after it was leaked the day before, appearing briefly on a team drop-down menu on the women’s basketball league’s official website. Toronto is the league’s first franchise outside the U.S.. The new team will be owned by Kilmer Sports Ventures, which reportedly paid US$115 million for it.

5 – Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Junior wins this year’s Tip O’Neill award. The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum gives the honour every year to a Canadian player who excels on the field and also adheres to the sport’s “highest ideals.” The Montreal-born Guerrero had 30 home runs and 103 runs batted in last season.

6 – Dignitaries gather in front of Polytechnique Montreal’s main campus to pay tribute to the 14 women killed at the engineering school in 1989. Thirteen other people were injured in the anti-feminist attack, perpetrated by Marc Lépine. Lépine took his own life in the attack. He had ranted about feminists ruining his life. The school’s president Maud Cohen says there’s a duty to remember what happened and learn from the tragedy. In the evening, another ceremony illuminated the sky over Mount Royal with 14 beams of light for each of the women killed in the shooting. For the first time, a 15th beam of light was added in memory of all victims of femicide. The ceremony was timed to coincide with the exact time the first shots were fired.

6 – Canadian moguls star Mikael Kingsbury wins a gold medal in moguls to continue his perfect start to the World Cup season. The 32-year-old from Deux-Montagnes, Que. scored a season-high 87.92 points to finish atop the podium in Sweden. The win comes after he won the World Cup season opener last weekend in Finland. Kingsbury is in his 16th season of moguls with 92 World Cup wins under his belt and 131 medals in 151 starts.

7 – Canadian short-track speedskater Danae Blais wins a World Cup gold in the women’s 1,000-metre race at the ISU Short Track World Tour in Beijing. The 25-year-old from Chateauguay, Que., earned her first victory in an individual distance on the international circuit. Blais also helped the women’s relay team capture gold in Beijing.

7 – The historic Notre Dame Cathedral officially reopens in Paris, more than five years after being gutted by fire. Quebec Premier Francois Legault was on hand for ceremonies to mark the occasion, which were by invitation only. Prince William and U.S. president-elect Donald Trump were also there, as well as U.S. First Lady Jill Biden. Montreal blacksmith Mathieu Collette and Toronto blacksmith Nicholas Erb both played a role in Notre Dame’s restoration.

7 – Nova Scotia’s Sidney Crosby collects his 1,023rd career assist during a game when his team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, defeated the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2. That tied him with Canadian ice hockey great Gordie Howe for the fifth-most helpers in NHL history with one franchise. Crosby is just 10 assists short of matching another Canadian hockey icon, Mario Lemieux, for a place on the franchise’s all-time list.

7 – Alan Young, a lawyer and legal scholar known for leading the challenge against Canada’s prostitution laws, dies at the age of 69. Young was a central figure in a landmark Supreme Court case that struck down Canada’s prostitution laws as unconstitutional in 2013, forcing the federal government to revise the legislation. Young was also known for defending people with AIDS, cancer and MS who were charged for using medical marijuana, which led to federal regulations permitting its use. York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School called his death “a profound loss” for the legal profession.

8 – The Syrian government falls after a lightning rebel offensive ended the Assad family’s 50-year iron rule following a remarkably swift offensive across the country. This comes as rebel forces seized control of the capital city of Damascus and sent crowds into the streets to celebrate the end of the Assad rule. Syrian state television broadcasted a video statement from the rebels, saying President Bashar Assad had been overthrown and all those in jail had been set free. The head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said President Bashar Assad fled the country. while Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government is ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government. Many residents of the capital were in disbelief at the speed at which Assad lost his hold on the country after nearly 14 years of civil war.

8 – Pop megastar Taylor Swift wraps up her record-smashing Eras Tour at BC Place in Vancouver. The nearly 150-show tour began 20 months ago and touched five continents, grossing an estimated US$2.2 billion along the way. About 60,000 people attended the final concert inside the stadium, which was also watched by millions more on livestreams around the world. Swift thanked the city for being part of the “most thrilling chapter” of her life to date.

9 – American polygamist leader Samuel Bateman pleads guilty to a scheme that orchestrated the sexual assault of children, and will spend 50 years in prison. He acknowledged in an Arizona court that he coerced girls as young as nine to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults. He also admitted to scheming for years to bring girls across state lines for his sex crimes. Bateman is the self-declared prophet of a small offshoot of the sect once led by Warren Jeffs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

10 – Canadian writer Nadim Roberts earns the prestigious Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. Roberts was selected for the $40,000 U.S. grant to fund his book about a storied highway project in the Northwest Territories. The Whiting Foundation says his forthcoming book “The Highway” uses the history of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway to explore the legacy of colonialism and residential schools in Canada’s Far North. The book tells the story of three boys who ran away from residential school in 1972 and tried to walk hundreds of kilometres from Inuvik in a journey where only one of them survived.

10 – Zach Churchill resigns as leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal party. He said he will be replaced on an interim basis by Derek Mombourquette. The announcement comes a day after a recount in the district of Yarmouth saw Churchill lose his seat to the Progressive Conservatives. The Liberals were reduced to just two seats in last month’s provincial election that saw Progressive Conservative Premier Tim Houston win a second consecutive majority government.

10 – University of Toronto’s Geoffrey Hinton and Princeton University’s John Hopfield receive their Nobel Prize for physics. The King of Sweden bestowed the accolade on the pair of computer scientists at the Stockholm Concert Hall. They were given the prize because their use of physics developed some of the underpinnings of machine learning, a branch of computer science that helps artificial intelligence mimic how humans learn. The two are splitting the accolade valued at roughly $1.45 million Canadian. Hinton will donate a portion of his share to an Ontario organization working to boost Indigenous access to water.

10 – Canadian swimming phenom Summer McIntosh sets the world record in the 400-metre freestyle. The 18-year-old from Toronto swam to victory at the world short-course swimming championships in three minutes and 50.25 seconds. McIntosh continued her fantastic year that saw her win three gold medals and a silver at this year’s Paris Olympics.

11 – A federal judge in Texas rejects the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet. The late Tuesday decision cites concerns over the bidding process, calling it flawed, while also criticizing how much money families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive. Jones had to put Infowars up for sale as part of his bankruptcy case, linked to a defamation lawsuit ordering him to pay nearly $1.5-billion after repeated calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U-S history a hoax.

11 – Google releases its annual “Year in Search,” rounding up the top trending queries entered into its namesake search engine in 2024. The Google “Hum to Search” function was used most often for Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things.” The most-searched song overall was “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar.

11 – Saudi Arabia is named the host of the FIFA 2034 World Cup. While Saudi officials say hosting the international tournament can accelerate change, human rights groups warn FIFA’s lack of safeguards around the World Cup will put the lives of migrant workers at risk building stadiums and transport networks. FIFA has also awarded the 2030 World Cup to Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

11 – The prime minister wrapped up an approximately 90-minute meeting with the premiers on U-S president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says the premiers proactively identified critical minerals and other Canadian goods the U.S. relies upon.

12 – U.S. President Joe Biden commutes the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and pardons 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. The White House says it’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

12 – Donald Trump is named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. This is the second time the U.S. president-elect has received the honour and he says he actually likes it better this time around. He made the remark as he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

12 – A long-running dispute over the Churchill Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador comes to an end. The premiers of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have agreed to a non-binding energy deal that cancels a 1969 contract. That contract saw Newfoundland and Labrador own most of the hydroelectric plant but allowed Hydro-Quebec to make most of the profit. Hydro-Quebec will now have to pay 5.9 cents per kilowatt hour for power from Labrador — nearly 30 times more than what the utility has been paying for decades.

12 – An Indian teenager becomes the youngest chess world champion. The 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju surpassed the achievement of Russia’s Garry Kasparov, who won the title at the age of 22. The Indian teen prodigy has long been considered a rising star in the chess world after he became a chess grandmaster at 12.

13 – A decades-in-the-making deal to have three tobacco giants pay out billions of dollars to provinces and territories is approved by the companies’ creditors. The proposed deal lays out $24 billion for provinces and territories $4 billion for tens of thousands of Quebec smokers involved in a class-action lawsuit and more than $2.5 billion for smokers in other provinces and territories.

13 – The government is intervening in the Canadian Postal Worker Strike. Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon says negotiations are at an impasse and that Canadians are fed up. He’s asked the industrial relations board to report on whether it thinks a deal can be struck by the end of the year. If it deems a deal is unlikely, Canada Post and workers will be ordered back to work.

13 – Ottawa will allow Canadian pension funds to own a larger portion of Canadian companies ahead of the incoming Trump administration. Finance Minister Chrystia (KRIHST’yah) Freeland says Monday’s fall economic statement will remove the current 30 per cent ownership cap on a company’s voting shares. Freeland says Canada is “in a global fight for capital” as the Trump administration looks to discourage investment anywhere other than the U-S.

13 – A Canadian Navy vessel called HMCS Protecteur will take to the seas, nearly a decade after the last supply ship bearing the name was taken out of service. The new joint support ship was launched at Seaspan’s shipyards in North Vancouver, B.C. with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other dignitaries at the ceremony.

14 – South Korea’s parliament impeaches President Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law decree with a 204-to-85 vote. His presidential powers and duties have been suspended in a move that ends days of political paralysis but sets up an intense debate over Yoon’s fate. The Constitutional Court has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss Yoon as president or restore his powers. If he’s thrown out of office, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.

14 – Former mayor Mike Savage is sworn into office as the new lieutenant-governor for Nova Scotia. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Savage’s appointment as the King’s representative in October. He replaces Arthur J. LeBlanc who had held the position since 2017.

14 – ABC News agrees to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit. It involved anchor George Stephanopoulos’s inaccurate on-air assertion that the U.S. president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. A settlement document shows ABC will also post a note on its website expressing regret over the claim in a March segment on “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos.

14 – Toronto swimmer Summer McIntosh sets another world record at the short-course swimming championships, winning gold in the women’s 400-metre medley, finishing in four minutes, 15.48 seconds, nearly five seconds ahead of the next swimmer. It is McIntosh’s third gold medal and the third record she has set at the championship.

15 – The Canada Industrial Relations Board orders a return to work for some 55,000 Canada Post employees who have been on strike since Nov. 15. The board determined the crown corporation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are at an impasse after two days of hearings. Canada Post operations are set to resume on Tuesday. The federal labour minister stepped in on Friday to push for an end to the work stoppage.

15 – Zakir Hussain, one of India’s most accomplished classical musicians, dies at the age of 73 from chronic lung disease. He defied genres and introduced tabla to a global audience. Hussain was considered the greatest tabla player of his generation, with a career that spanned six decades and included collaborations with the likes of singer-songwriter and Beatle George Harrison and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

15 – Al Raine, the only mayor of Sun Peaks Resort Municipality in British Columbia, dies at the age of 83 surrounded by his wife, champion skier Nancy Greene Raine, and others. Raine resigned as mayor one day before his death, saying it wasn’t something he wanted to do but his ALS was growing more difficult. Raine called ALS a horrible disease and combined with adult-onset asthma it made breathing more difficult every day. He said he’d been lucky to have lived a full life with no regrets, with a supporting and wonderful wife, two healthy boys and a life full of adventures.

16 – Britain approves the sale of International Distribution Services, Royal Mail’s parent company, to a Czech billionaire, paving the way for the national postal service to pass into foreign ownership for the first time in its 500-year history. Authorities confirmed that the takeover, worth the equivalent of US$4.6 billion, can go ahead. Businessman Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group and IDS had been waiting since May for official approval under U.K. national security laws. The postal service will remain headquartered in the U.K. and Britain’s government will retain a so-called “golden share” in it.

16 – Federal Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland resigns, hours before the fall economic statement was set to be introduced. In a letter published on social media, Freeland said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked her to step aside from her post late last week and offered her another cabinet role. She says she will stay on as a Liberal MP, and will run again in the next federal election. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc is sworn in as finance minister to replace Freeland.

16 – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is chosen as The Canadian Press Newsmaker of the Year for 2024. It is the second time in a row news editors across the country placed Poilievre at the top of the list. Running miles ahead of his opponents in the polls throughout the year, Poilievre has cemented his position as Canada’s prime minister-in-waiting.

16 – A former FBI informant pleads guilty to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving U.S. President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, that became central to a Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. Alexander Smirnov entered his plea to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge stemming from a separate indictment accusing him of concealing millions in income. Smirnov had told his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid the president and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015.

16 – Canadian icon Terry Fox is chosen to appear on this country’s next $5 bill. In its fall economic statement, the federal government announced Terry Fox will adorn the bank note. The late amputee who lost his leg to cancer raised money for cancer research by running his Marathon of Hope in 1980. He died the next year when his cancer spread to his lungs, but the annual fundraising run in his name has raised more than $850 million.

17 – Superstar actor Tom Cruise is awarded the U.S. Navy’s top civilian honour for “outstanding contributions to the Navy and the Marine Corps” with his role as a fictional navy pilot in the movie Top Gun and other films. The 62-year-old was given the Distinguished Public Service Award by U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro in a ceremony near London. For his part, Cruise said he was proud to receive the “extraordinary acknowledgement.”

17 – Canada’s national housing crisis is chosen as The Canadian Press News Story of the Year for 2024. Editors across the country say housing was a story in every community in Canada. Record population growth pushed by rapid increases in immigration pushed up rents and home prices as new home starts could not keep up with demand. Every level of government has been seized with the issue throughout the year, prompting an official adjustment to immigration targets, as well as major housing investments from the federal Liberals.

17 – British Columbia’s Duncan McDonald is Canada Soccer’s 2024 Para Player of the Year. The 24-year-old played every minute at this year’s IFCPF World Cup in Spain, where Canada finished 12th. McDonald took over as captain after Samuel Charron was injured.

18 – The House of Commons starts its winter holiday break until MPs return Jan. 27. The break means Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a few weeks to ponder his next move as he faces renewed calls to resign.

18 – Canadian curler Kevin Martin is one of 88 people to be appointed to the Order of Canada. The latest group of appointees also includes E. coli expert Carlton Gyles, former chief electoral officer of Canada Jean-Pierre Kingsley, actor Ryan Reynolds, Holocaust survivor Mariette Doduck and guitarist Don Alder.

18 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cancels his year-end interviews with news outlets. This comes after the surprise resignation announcement from Chrystia Freeland earlier in the week, who said she would be stepping down as finance minister.

19 – The Victoria, B.C., suburb of Colwood says it has hired its first family doctor in a new approach aimed at easing the community’s physician shortage. Colwood chief administrative officer Robert Earl says the pilot project plans to recruit family doctors and put them on the city payroll, offering full medical benefits, vacation and a pension. The pilot project is the first of its kind in Canada.

19 – Murder hornets have been declared eradicated five years after first being spotted in the U.S. and Canada. The Washington and U.S. departments of agriculture say the world’s largest hornet hasn’t been detected in Washington since 2021. DNA evidence suggested that populations of the invasive breed dangerous to honeybees found in British Columbia and Washington in 2019 were not related and appeared to have come from different countries. The nonprofit Invasive Species Centre in Canada has said the hornets are also considered eradicated in this country.

19 – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is ending the year calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation. While Singh began 2024 by propping up Trudeau’s minority government, in September he pulled the party out of a supply and confidence agreement made with Trudeau in 2022. Now, after Trudeau’s finance minister quit, Singh said it is time for Trudeau to resign.

19 – New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt reverses policy changes concerning sexual orientation and gender identity in New Brunswick schools. The policy required transgender and nonbinary students under-16 to gain parental consent before teachers could use their preferred names and pronouns in informal settings at school.

19 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appoints two new members to Canada’s Senate, including Nunavut’s first-ever member of Parliament. Trudeau announced Nancy Karetak-Lindell will fill Nunavut’s only Senate seat.

19 – Letters and parcels are moving once again after a month-long strike, with Canada Post accepting commercial volumes of mail too. Though work is returning to normal and postal workers are sorting through the backlog, Canada Post is warning the delays could last into the new year.

20 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau adds eight fresh faces to his cabinet. The new cabinet ministers are sworn in at Rideau Hall in the presence of the prime minister and Governor General Mary Simon. Trudeau moved to bolster his struggling government by plugging gaps in his front bench after several cabinet ministers decided not to run in the election next year and the resignation of his finance and housing minister earlier in the week. Trudeau did not move the major players on his team.

20 – U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatens to add the 27 countries that make up the European Union to his tariff list. In a social media post, Trump says the countries will be added to the list of trade partners he’ll place tariffs on unless the group takes steps to import more U.S. goods. He is already threatening to place a 25 per cent tariff on all goods imported to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico unless both countries increase border security to stop what he says is a flow of illicit drugs and migrants into his country.

20 – Germans are mourning a violent attack after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove a black BMW into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers. At least five people are dead, including a small child, and more than 200 people are injured. Fifty-year-old Taleb A has been arrested at the site of the attack. Police say he has lived in Germany for nearly two decades, practising medicine. Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day as several people stopped and cried.

20 – Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson dies from pneumonia at the age of 65. Baseball’s “Man of Steal” was known for shattering records for the number of stolen bases over his 25-year career, his unusual home run power and his undeniable swagger. Henderson had a lengthy list of accolades and accomplishments like an MVP recognition, 10 All-Star selections and two World Series titles, including one with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993.

21 – Canada Soccer names Jonathan David and Vanessa Gilles as its Players of the Year, decided by a ballot of Canadian media and coaches. Twenty-four-year-old David, who won the award in 2019, leads the French league this season with 11 goals for Lille. Gilles has become a fixture at the head of the Canadian defence, and scored four goals in 14 games for Canada this year.

21 – The U.S. Senate rushes through the final passage of a bipartisan plan that avoids a government shutdown and temporarily funds federal operations. The document is expected to be signed by President Joe Biden. The new version of the bill drops president-elect Donald Trump’s demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.

22 – Two U.S. Navy pilots are shot down over the Red Sea in what officials have described as a “friendly fire” incident. It marks the most serious threat against U.S. troops in over a year of America targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The Navy says both pilots are alive, one suffering from minor injuries, after ejecting from their jet, but the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become due to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

22 – At least 32 people in Nigeria are killed in stampedes during two Christmas charity events. Many of the victims collapsed during a crowd surge as people grew desperate for food items. Twenty-two people died at an event where a philanthropist had organized the distribution of food. Ten others were also confirmed dead at a separate church-organized event distributing food and clothing items.

22 – Pope Francis formally inaugurates the 2025 Holy Year while reviving the ancient church tradition of encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome. The call comes amid new security fears following a Christmas market attack in Germany. At the start of Christmas Eve Mass, Francis is slated to push open the Holy Door on St. Peter’s Basilica. The door will then remain open throughout the year to allow the estimated 32 million pilgrims to visit Rome and pass through.

22 – Burt, a huge Australian crocodile that had a cameo in the 1986 movie “Crocodile Dundee,” dies. The Crocosaurus Cove reptile aquarium in Darwin says the reptile was at least 90 years old. The saltwater crocodile was estimated to be more than five metres long and was featured in a scene with “Crocodile Dundee” stars Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski.

23 – U.S. President Joe Biden commutes the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row. The move will see their sentences converted to life behind bars. It also comes ahead of the White House return of Donald Trump, who is an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment.

23 – Shohei Ohtani is named The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the third time. That ties the two-way superstar with Michael Jordan. Ohtani earned his third National League Most Valuable Player Award after helping the Los Angeles Dodgers win their eighth World Series title. He crushed Toronto Blue Jays fans hearts earlier this year when he signed a record 10-year, US$700 million contract with the Dodgers.

23 – The U.S. House Ethics Committee accuses Matt Gaetz of regularly paying women, including a 17-year-old girl, for sex as well as buying and using illicit drugs all while the Florida Republican was a member of Congress. The report by the bipartisan panel includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and vacations that Gaetz took part in. The findings conclude that he violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office. Gaetz denies all wrongdoing.

23 – Pioneering Metis human rights advocate Muriel Stanley Venne dies at the age of 87. The trail-blazer was born in Alberta and was one of the first people to be appointed to the province’s Human Rights Commission in 1973. Venne was also the founder of Women of the Metis Nation and the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women. Both groups say her leadership and advocacy made a remarkable difference in Alberta’s justice and education systems, as well as in the lives of Indigenous women. She became the first Metis person to receive the Order of Canada in 2005.

24 – An explosion at a weapons factory in northwest Turkey has left at least 12 people dead and four more injured. The local governor says the capsule production facility of the factory collapsed, but the surrounding buildings sustained only minor damage.

24 – The remains of a 50,000-year-old baby mammoth uncovered by melting permafrost in Russia’s Siberia are unveiled to the public. The female mammoth nicknamed Yana weighs more than 100 kilograms and is just over a metre tall and two metres long. It’s one of seven mammoth carcasses recovered worldwide and scientists have described her remains as the best-preserved mammoth body ever found. Yana will now be studied by scientists at Russia’s North-Eastern Federal University.

24 – Shyam Benegal, a renowned Indian filmmaker known for pioneering a new wave cinema movement that tackled social issues in the 1970s, dies at age 90 after suffering from chronic kidney disease. Benegal’s contribution to cinema was recognized as a director, editor and screenwriter and he was also credited with a new genre of filmmaking.

24 – Vancouver artist, advocate and activist Joe Average dies at the age of 67 after four decades of living with HIV, frail from the medications he needed to manage the illness. Over the years, Average advocated for people living with HIV and terminal illnesses, as well as marriage equality and LGBTQ rights. His sister says she will remember that he was thoughtful, compassionate toward others and full of “unconditional love.”

25 – The first Christmas Eve masses in five years were celebrated tonight at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The church held four masses to accommodate all of the worshippers and visitors who attended services at the restored historic church, which was gutted by fire in 2019 and only recently reopened.

25 – Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry says at least 28 people survived an Azerbaijani airliner crash in the city of Aktau. The ministry confirmed that 67 people, including five crew, were on board the Embraer 1-90 aircraft. That means more than 30 people are likely dead. Officials on the ground say four bodies have been recovered. Russia’s civil aviation authority is reporting that the pilot chose to divert from the planned route after a bird strike led to “an emergency situation on board.”

25 – Pilgrims line up to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome as Christmas marks the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration. The event is expected to bring 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome. On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis knocked on the door and was the first to walk through it, inaugurating the 2025 Jubilee that he dedicated to hope.

25 – Hanukkah — Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights– begins this year on Christmas Day. It’s only happened four times since 1900, inspiring some religious leaders to host interfaith gathering The holidays overlap infrequently because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on Dec. 25. The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005.

25 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wished Canadians a Merry Christmas in a video message today. He spoke about hope and kindness in his Christmas message, saying it’s a time to “put our politics aside.”

25 – King Charles uses his annual Christmas message to speak about those who are in the middle of conflicts around the world. He referenced the wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine, saying the devastating impacts of fighting pose a daily threat to so many lives. The king attended Christmas Day services earlier at a church on Sandringham estate along with Prince William, Kate and their three children.

25 – NFL’s debut on Netflix today went off without a hitch. The defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-10 in the first game before the Houston Texans hosted the Baltimore Ravens. NFL Media says the broadcast became the second-most popular live title on Netflix to date.

26 – People start to gather in prayer in Indonesia to mark 20 years since a massive Indian Ocean tsunami killed roughly 230,000 people. They’re visiting mass graves in honour of the more than 170,000 people who died in Indonesia alone after a powerful 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered the devastating tsunami. Fatalities were reported across a dozen countries, while 1.7 million people were displaced.

26 – Canada’s top doctor says bird flu and measles are among her top concerns for the year ahead. Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says there were far more cases of measles in Canada this year than in previous ones, and the vast majority of those infected were unvaccinated. Tam also has her eye on H5N1 avian flu. The virus has been on the rise globally and had its first human case in Canada this year — a teen who fell severely ill in B.C.’s Fraser Valley. She says farm workers and people who keep backyard birds should wear personal protective equipment.

26 – Star swimmer Summer McIntosh has won her second straight Canadian Press female athlete of the year award. The 18-year-old from Toronto earned 52 of the 53 votes cast by sports editors, broadcasters and reporters. McIntosh highlighted her dominant season by becoming the first Canadian to win three gold medals at a single Olympics this summer in Paris.

27 – The Mega Millions jackpot in the U.S. is now worth more than $1 billion. Friday’s $1.15-billion jackpot will potentially be the fifth largest in the game’s history. The odds of winning the jackpot are one in 302,575,350.

27 – NASA has confirmed a spacecraft made the closest ever approach to the sun. The Parker Solar Probe passed within a mere 6.1 million kilometres of the sun and survived the journey. The spacecraft was launched in 2018 to better understand what drives the solar wind and why the sun’s outer atmosphere is so much hotter than its surface.

27 – Hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg is named the Canadian Press male athlete of the year. The 22-year-old from B.C. earned the honour for his golden performance in Paris, where he became Canada’s first Olympic champion in the event. He also earned the country’s first hammer throw medal since 1912.

27 – Oscar-nominated writer and filmmaker Charles Shyer dies at the age of 83 in Los Angeles. Shyer made an indelible mark in the world of comedy with hit romantic comedies like “Private Benjamin,” “Baby Boom,” and “Father of the Bride” which he made with Nancy Meyers. He was also one of the founding members of the Directors Guild of America.

28 – Russian President Vladimir Putin apologizes to Azerbaijan’s leader for a “tragic incident” involving an Azerbaijani plane crash that killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured. The Kremlin says air defence systems were firing near Grozny — where the plane was supposed to land — due to a Ukrainian drone strike, but stopped short of saying one of the strikes hit the plane. The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital to Russia when it turned toward Kazakhstan and crashed while making an attempt to land. The apology comes after a U.S. official and an Azerbaijani minister made separate statements blaming the crash on an external weapon and pointed to Russian air defence systems.

28 – The Olympic champion relay sprinters team is voted The Canadian Press team of the year. Andre De Grasse, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Aaron Brown sprinted to an unexpected gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The sprinters earned 37 of the 53 votes cast by sports editors, producers and reporters across Canada. Rachel Homan’s curling squad finished second with seven votes. De Grasse says his teammates ran the race of their life before he grabbed the final handoff and crossed the finish line while nursing a hamstring injury.

28 – Actor Olivia Hussey dies at the age of 73, following a battle with breast cancer. Hussey starred as Juliet in the in 1968 adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet.” The Shakespeare adaptation won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for best new actress. Several decades later, Hussey and co-star Leonard Whiting filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures regarding the nude scenes filmed for the movie, which they said they were coerced into performing. Following her death, Whiting released a statement saying – quote – “rest now my beautiful Juliet, no injustices can hurt you now.”

28 – Canadian actor, activist and trail-blazing former “Sports Illustrated” model Dayle Haddon dies at 76 after a carbon monoxide poisoning incident. Haddon died in a Pennsylvania home after emergency dispatchers were notified about an unconscious person at the Solebury Township residence where she lived. Authorities say a 76-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition related to the incident. Haddon appeared on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Esquire in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the 1973 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

28 – A plane carrying 181 people skids off the runway and crashes into a concrete fence while bursting into flames, at an airport in Muan, South Korea. Emergency officials say it appears the landing gear on the plane malfunctioned. One hundred and seventy-nine people are confirmed dead in the fire, with only two survivors, both crew members. Local TV stations aired footage showing thick pillows of black smoke billowing from the fiery plane wreckage. Videos of the crash show the pilots didn’t deploy flaps or slats to slow the aircraft as it arrived from Bangkok, Thailand. South Korea’s Transport Ministry identified the plane as a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet. Officials are calling it one of the country’s worst aviation disasters.

28 – Charles Dolan, the man who founded some of the most prominent American media outlets, including HBO, dies at the age of 98 of natural causes. Dolan’s legacy in cable broadcasting includes founding Home Box Office in 1972, Cablevision in 1973 and the American Movie Classics television station in 1984.

29 – Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, dies at the age of 100 after spending more than a year in hospice care. He grew up on a peanut farm in Georgia and served in the U.S. Navy before his one term as president from 1977 to 1981. Following his time in the White House, Carter dedicated his life to humanitarian work and was a major contributor to Habitat for Humanity. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, almost 25 years after his work on the Camp David Accords helped pave the way for a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979, the first of its kind. Carter is the longest-lived U.S. president in American history and won a Nobel Peace Prize.

29 – Veteran TV and stage actress Linda Lavin dies at the age of 87 in Los Angeles due to complications from recently discovered lung cancer. Lavin starred as the title waitress character for nine seasons in the TV sitcom “Alice” from 1976 to 1985, and was nominated for an Emmy. She went on to win a Tony for best actress in a play for Neil Simon’s “Broadway Bound” in 1987.

30 – Syria appoints its first female interim Central Bank governor. Maysaa Sabreen is the second woman appointed in a leadership role under Ahmad al-Sharaa and his Islamist group that led Bashar Assad’s ouster weeks ago. Sabreen inherits a dire financial crisis following a decade of civil war, mismanagement as well as sanctions, which has led to the Syrian pound drastically losing its value against the U.S. dollar.

30 – An Argentine judge confirms charges against five people in connection with the death of musician Liam Payne. The judge ordered preventive prison for two of them for having supplied the former One Direction member with drugs. One of the suspects is an employee of the hotel in Buenos Aires where Payne stayed until he died after falling from the balcony of his room in October. The other person was a waiter Payne met in a restaurant.

30 – Telecom giant Rogers Communications installs and activates five new cell towers along the Infamous “Highway of Tears” in British Columbia. The activation of the towers marks the “substantial completion” of efforts to improve access to 911 services and 5G wireless coverage on the route. The new towers will cover previous wireless service gaps over roughly 166 kilometres. Two more towers are still being put up, but once they are completed, there will be continuous coverage on the entire 720-kilometre stretch of highway. The Highway 16 corridor between Prince George and Prince Rupert is known as the Highway of Tears due to the dozens of Indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing along the route.

30 – Actors Carey Mulligan, Stephen Fry and author Kazuo Ishiguro are awarded New Year Honors that celebrate artists, athletes, politicians and others in British Society. Mulligan was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to drama. Fry was knighted along with England’s former soccer manager Gareth Southgate and London Mayor Sadiq Khan. More than 1,200 people across the United Kingdom were honoured.

30 – U.S. officials blame China for a major security breach in which hackers remotely accessed several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents in early December. The department did not provide details on how many workstations had been accessed or what sort of documents the hackers obtained. It’s believed the data was gathered after a third-party software service provider was compromised. In a letter to lawmakers, officials said the hack was being investigated as a “major cybersecurity incident.”

31 – Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt reach a divorce settlement after one of the longest and most contentious divorces in Hollywood history. No court documents have been filed yet and a judge will need to sign off on the agreement. Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, after a private jet flight from Europe during which she alleged Pitt was abusive toward her and their children. She and Pitt were among Hollywood’s most prominent couples for 12 years and have six children together.

31 – A South Korean court issues warrants to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol and search his office and residence over his short-lived declaration of martial law. The country’s anti-corruption agency says it is investigating whether the declaration earlier this month amounted to rebellion. But experts still say there is little chance of detention or searches unless Yoon is formally removed from office.

31 – New rules governing the sales of machetes and other long-blade weapons in Manitoba come into effect. Retailers are required to keep the items stored in a way so shoppers can’t access them without assistance. Businesses are also required to sell only to adults who can present photo ID, and to keep records of their sales for two years. The government passed the law earlier this year following a series of violent attacks in Winnipeg involving machetes and knives.

31 – Jon Hromek, the leader of the Saskatchewan United Party, resigns after failing to win any seats in the October provincial election. Hromek says party members must recognize the importance of homegrown leaders who prioritize the needs of residents, given new leadership in the United States and – quote – “chaos in Ottawa.”

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

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