Romania's leftist Social Democratic Party on Thursday withdrew from negotiations to form a pro-European coalition government, extending political turmoil that has gripped the European Union country after a top court annulled a presidential election.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu of the PSD, which won the most votes in the parliamentary election on Dec. 1, said his party was abandoning negotiations with three traditional parties after a fraught negotiation process failed.

France's President Emmanuel Macron traveled Thursday to the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey the devastation that Cyclone Chido wrought across the French territory as thousands of people tried to cope without the bare essentials such as water or electricity.

"Mayotte is demolished," an airport security agent told Macron as soon as he stepped of the plane.

Amid the havoc wrought by a violent earthquake two days earlier, Ivan Oswald and his staff prepared for lunchtime service Thursday at Nambawan Cafe, on an idyllic stretch of Vanuatu's waterfront.

The menu for the usual lunchtime rush was replaced with defrosted sausages for emergency workers sifting through rubble in search of those trapped alive or killed in flattened buildings when the massive, 7.3 jolt hit Port Vila, Vanuatu's capital 48 hours earlier. Search crews were joined Thursday by specialists arriving in waves from Australia, New Zealand and France.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged Israel to remove its forces from the "territory of Syria".

"We hope that Israel will at some point leave the territory of Syria. But now it is bringing in additional troops," Putin said at his annual end-of-year press conference.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make what is likely his final trip in office to the United Nations this week, capping his engagements with the world body after a tumultuous four years that saw war return to Europe and multiple crises in the Middle East.

With the U.N. Security Council more divided than ever, Blinken will chair two meetings of the U.N.'s most powerful body on Thursday. But neither will focus on Russia's war with Ukraine or the Middle East, where the U.S. has been frequently at odds with permanent members China and Russia and almost always in the minority when it comes to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday he was the target of a "profound injustice" after France's top court upheld a corruption case verdict requiring him to wear an electronic tag for a year.

Sarkozy, writing on X, also maintained his "perfect innocence" and said he expected the European Court of Human Rights to find France at fault in the case, adding that "this could have been avoided if I had benefitted from a level-headed legal analysis".

Elon Musk, clad in tuxedo and black tie, took the stage at President-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort shortly after the election with all the swagger of the winning candidate himself.

"The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear, the clearest mandate. The people have spoken. The people want change," Musk told the audience of Trump's biggest donors, campaign leaders and appointment seekers. "We are going to shake things up. It's going to be a revolution."

Russia's security service said Wednesday that it has detained a suspect in the killing of a senior general in Moscow.

The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces growing pressure to resign from his own Liberal Party after his top minister abruptly quit and criticized his handling of the budget. Trudeau has led the country for nearly a decade, but has become widely unpopular in recent years over a wide range of issues, including the high cost of living and rising inflation.

There is no mechanism for Trudeau's party to force him out in the short-term. He could resign, or his party could be forced from power by a "no confidence" vote in Parliament that would trigger an election that would very likely favor the opposing Conservative Party.

Russia's defense ministry Wednesday claimed the capture of two new settlements in the Donetsk region of east Ukraine as Moscow's troops advance.

The ministry said in a daily briefing that its forces had "liberated" Stari Terny and Trudove, both located near the industrial town of Kurakhove that Russia is seeking to capture.