CANADA: Workers at Canada Post will be forced to return to their jobs tomorrow after the government ordered them to end their nearly month-long strike as negotiations reached an impasse.

About 55,000 workers went on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with the primary postal operator in Canada over poor wages, job security and how to staff a proposed expansion into weekend delivery.

GERMANY: Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in parliament today after 394 legislators voted against him and 116 abstained, putting the country on course to hold an early election in February.

Mr Scholz leads a minority government after his unpopular three-party coalition collapsed on November 6 when he fired his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalise Germany’s economy.

WEST BANK: The Israeli military raided Palestinian towns and villages today, including Beit Furik, a town south-east of the city Nablus, where forces arrested a Palestinian child.

Reports also emerged of violent clashes between the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and Palestinian fighters in and around the Jenin camp. No immediate casualties were reported.

RUSSIA: About 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded in fighting against the Ukrainian army over the weekend in the border region of Kursk, Ukraine’s military said today.

The casualties, which are the first since North Korea sent troops to Russia in support, occurred around three villages that have been facing a Ukrainian incursion in recent months.