Portal:Current events/2025 December 19

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • At least six Palestinians are killed when an Israeli tank fires at a wedding hosted in a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City. (Al Jazeera)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • Eight people are killed, including four attackers, and 15 others are injured in a suicide attack by unidentified militants on a military post in North Waziristan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (AP) (Amu Television)

Business and economy

• Mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • The Democratic Republic of the Congo suspends artisanal copper and cobalt processing, ordering operators to halt activities and certify mineral origins while a new commission verifies traceability and legality to curb illegal exports. (Reuters)
• Restrictions on TikTok in the United States
  • Social media platform TikTok announces a deal to sell 80.1% of its United States-based assets to a consortium of companies, including Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX, and existing ByteDance investors, to avoid a ban in the US. (DW)
• Uganda restricts imports of Starlink satellite internet equipment by requiring military clearance for related devices. (Reuters)

International relations

• Russo-Ukrainian war, Ukraine–European Union relations, Foreign involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Confiscation of Russian central bank funds
    • The European Union agrees to loan €90 billion (US$105 billion) to Ukraine from its internal budget after failing to use frozen Russian assets. (The Washington Post) (Reuters)
• Immigration policy of the second Trump administration, 2025 Brown University shooting
  • The U.S. government suspends the Diversity Immigrant Visa scheme for green cards after the Brown University shooting suspect was revealed to be from Portugal. (BBC News)
• The Bahamas–Kosovo relations
  • The Bahamas becomes the 110th country to recognize Kosovo as an independent state. (Office of the Prime Minister)

Law and crime

• 2025 Bondi Beach shooting
  • Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese announces a nationwide gun buyback program, the largest since the aftermath of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in response to the recent Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney. (AFP via France 24)
• 2025 Taipei stabbings
  • Three people are killed and five more injured in a mass stabbing near a subway station in Taipei, Taiwan. The perpetrator, who also threw smoke bombs at the train station, dies during the chase with police. (Reuters)
• Caning in Singapore
  • Singapore announces that scammers will face mandatory caning of up to 24 strokes from December 30 under changes to the criminal law passed by parliament in November. (AP)
• December 2025 Bangladesh violence
  • Protests and riots erupt across Bangladesh after the assassination of activist Osman Hadi by two members of the banned Awami League party. (Al Jazeera)
• Epstein Files Transparency Act
  • The U.S. Department of Justice releases a heavily redacted fraction of the Epstein files, potentially violating the law that determines their full release by December 19. The department intends to continue releasing remaining files over subsequent weeks. (AP) (The Guardian)