WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) – U.S. deportations of immigrants rose in the past year to the highest level since 2014, according to a U.S. government report released on Thursday, part of a broader push by outgoing President Joe Biden to reduce illegal immigration.

Welcome to Daily Maverick’s free mini crossword quickie. Follow the clues and fill in the squares to solve these minis.

Pentagon says the additional forces have been in Syria for ‘a while’, before fall of President Bashar al-Assad.

The president-elect’s late intervention to sink the bipartisan bill leaves lawmakers scrambling to reach an agreement.

A historic drought has stymied Ecuador’s hydroelectric power system, leaving many without electricity for hours on end.

Tech giant accused of using illegally mined metals in iPhones and other products sold globally.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry warns sanctions have ‘dangerous implications’ for the ‘strategic stability of the region’.

Lumen Technologies has kicked off a process to sell its consumer fiber operations, as the telecommunications company looks to phase out its legacy mass markets business and reduce its sizable debt pile, according to people familiar with the matter.

“If we do not succeed this time around, it will be the last stop before we reach the cliff,” said new French Prime Minister, Francois Bayrou.

Even with the recent declines, the SandP 500 is up 23% on the year, with the Dow up more than 12% and the Nasdaq up 29%.

The United Nations General Assembly voted on Thursday to ask the International Court of Justice for an opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is delivered by states and international groups including the UN.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged European countries on Thursday to provide guarantees to protect Ukraine after the war with Russia ends, but said these would not be enough without support from the US under Donald Trump.

There was no reprieve for the Eastern Cape Departments of Transport and Education as a Makhanda High Court judge handed down a detailed court order on Thursday compelling them to take comprehensive steps to provide scholar transport to qualifying learners in the province within days and provide a catch-up plan for those who missed school in 2024.

Parents of children undergoing treatment and mothers caring for their babies at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg received buckets of nutritious food on Thursday as part of Daily Maverick and SA Harvest’s nationwide donation campaign.

The Proteas’ upcoming Test series against Pakistan is one of the side’s most important in recent times. To get a favourable result, they need their bowlers fit and firing.

Vegetable import restrictions that have hurt both South African farmers and consumers in Botswana have been lifted, thanks to Botswana’s new government.

SA has experienced no load shedding for more than six months and Eskom expects to pencil in a profit of more than R10bn by the end of March 2025. However. the power utility still faces problems on many fronts, including corruption, smothering debt and municipalities not paying for electricity.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has attributed a surge in seasonal rubella cases across the country to the large number of children entering 2024 without prior rubella exposure or vaccination – a lasting impact of the Covid-19 lockdown era.