After the death of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi, violent protests erupted in Bangladesh. The HQ of the biggest daily newspaper was among the buildings that were destroyed by protesters who also demolished and vandalized offices. Elections are scheduled for the first election in the upcoming year.
Published On 19 Dec 2025
According to Antonio Costa, president of the EU Council, EU leaders have agreed to give Ukraine an interest-free loan to meet its military and economic needs over the next two years.
The leaders made the decision early on Friday to use frozen Russian assets to pay for Ukraine’s defense of Russia, according to diplomats.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, thanked the EU for its loan, which “truly strengthens” Kyiv’s defense.
Zelenskyy said on X that “this is significant support that truly strengthens our resilience.” He continued, “It is crucial that Russian assets remain immobilized and that Ukraine has a financial security guarantee for the foreseeable future.”
There is a deal, we say. The decision to support Ukraine for 2026-27 with 90 billion euros [105.5%] was approved. In a post on social media early on Friday, Costa said, “We committed, we delivered.”
After EU leaders worked hard into Thursday night’s agreement, Costa did not reveal the source of the funding.
However, an early draft of the summit’s conclusions, which was spotted by the Reuters news agency, stated that they would be made by the bloc’s controversial plan to use frozen Russian assets as a loan to support Ukraine’s war effort, secured by the EU budget.
EU governments and the European Parliament will continue to talk about establishing a loan to Ukraine based on assets held by the Russian central bank.
According to the text, the agreement on Friday won’t have an impact on Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic’s financial obligations, which both declined to contribute to financing Ukraine.
After EU leaders decided to borrow money to pay for Ukraine instead of using Russia’s frozen assets, Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, said on Friday that “law and sanity prevailed.”
Dmitriev, who mentions European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said on X that “Major BLOW to EU warmongers led by failed Ursula … voices of reason in the EU BLOCKED the ILLEGAL use of Russian reserves to finance Ukraine.
Once Moscow repairs its war damage, Kyiv will only be able to repay the EU loan based on joint borrowing. According to the text, the EU has reserved the right to use the frozen assets to pay off the loan, but the Russians will continue to do so until then.
One unnamed EU diplomat told Reuters, “It’s good in the sense that Ukraine will receive funding for two years.
Leaders had flocked to the decision, which came after hours of discussions about the technical and legal details of a loan based on frozen Russian assets, which diplomats claimed were too complicated or politically difficult to resolve at this point.
A second EU diplomat said, “We have gone from saving Ukraine to saving face, at least among those who have been pressing for the use of the frozen assets.”
The main challenge in using Russian money was to provide sufficient guarantees against financial and legal retaliation from Moscow for Belgium, where 185 billion euros ($217 billion) of the total 210 billion euros ($246 billion) of frozen assets are held.
Should the Kremlin’s plan to use its assets go ahead, it had stated that it would file legal suits against Russia and seize foreign assets.
Analysts had predicted that using frozen Russian assets as the only viable option for EU funding of Ukraine’s war effort prior to Friday’s decision. German state assets, which were not even taken during World War II, would be an unprecedented development, according to the proposal.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had warned that the chances of reaching an agreement remained “50-50” prior to Thursday’s meeting.
Bart De Wever, the prime minister of Belgium, had previously expressed his concern over the legal and financial risks to the European Parliament because he had previously argued that Belgium might be required to pay compensation to Russia if courts later determined that using the frozen assets was against the law.
Belgium demanded assurances that Russian assets held outside of Belgium would also be used, as well as binding commitments from other EU states to cover all potential liabilities.
Some nations, like Germany and the Netherlands, said they were willing to back up the loan, while others, like Italy and Bulgaria, resisted.
Published On 19 Dec 2025
United States forces have killed five more people on board vessels in the Pacific Ocean, bringing the death toll from the Trump administration’s military campaign against alleged seaborne drug traffickers to at least 104 since September.
The US military’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said on Friday that it carried out “lethal kinetic strikes on two vessels” in the eastern Pacific at the instruction of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, killing three people in one vessel and two in another.
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Thursday’s attack by US forces comes one day after a strike on another vessel, also in international waters in the eastern Pacific, which killed four people, SOUTHCOM said.
While the US military said the nine victims of the attacks over two days were “male narco-terrorists”, Washington has provided no proof that the almost 30 vessels destroyed since September in the Pacific and Caribbean, resulting in more than 100 dead, were involved in drug trafficking.
Defence Secretary Hegseth is also under intense scrutiny for reportedly ordering a second strike on survivors who clung to floating boat debris after an earlier attack on a vessel – attacking shipwreck survivors is considered a war crime, according to legal experts.
Latin American leaders and law experts have branded the US attacks “extrajudicial killings” while Trump has sought to justify the killings as necessary to halt drug trafficking into the US from Latin American drug cartels, particularly those based in Venezuela.
Trump has also ordered a huge military deployment to Latin America and has threatened to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, accusing him of overseeing a drug trafficking cartel.
Earlier this week, Trump raised the stakes by ordering a “total” naval blockade of all oil tankers – that are under US sanctions – from entering or leaving Venezuelan ports, a move designed to restrict the country’s oil resources and hobble the economy.
Maduro has blasted Washington’s military mobilisation and accused Trump of using the pretext of fighting drug trafficking as a cover for “regime change” in Venezuela and stealing the country’s oil reserves.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that he was willing to mediate between the US and Venezuela to “avoid armed conflict”.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum also offered to act as a mediator to find “a peaceful solution so that there is no US intervention”.
Lula, one of Latin America’s most influential leaders, told reporters that Brazil was “very worried” about the mounting crisis between Washington and Caracas.
Lula said he told Trump that “things wouldn’t be resolved by shooting, that it was better to sit down around a table to find a solution”.
“I am at the disposal of both Venezuela and the US to contribute to a peaceful solution on our continent”.
Lula also said he was concerned about what was behind the US campaign.
“It can’t just be about overthrowing Maduro. What other areas of interest are there that we are yet to be aware of? He continued, adding that he had no idea whether Venezuela’s oil, crucial minerals, or rare earths were the culprits.
No one ever articulates the need for this war, he continued.
Published On 19 Dec 2025
A man has been found dead in a rented apartment at a New Hampshire storage facility after being accused of killing two and wounding several people in a mass shooting at Brown University in the US state of Rhode Island, and of killing a professor from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Rhode Island, according to officials.
Former Brown student and Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente, 48, was discovered dead on Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Providence police chief Colonel Oscar Perez at a press conference.
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According to Perez, the suspect acted alone, according to Perez. According to the US attorney for Massachusetts, Leah B. Foley, investigators believe Neves Valente was to blame for the fatal shooting of MIT professor and Brown’s fatal shooting at his home on Monday.
In the Brown University shooting that occurred in large numbers on Saturday, two people were killed and nine others were hurt.
Authorities said they were looking into a link between the Brown mass shooting and the fatal shooting of 47-year-old MIT professor Nuno FG Loureiro on Thursday, and the investigation had dramatically changed.
Neves Valente attended Brown from the fall of 2000 through the spring of 2001, according to Brown University President Christina Paxson. She claimed that “he has no current affiliation with the university.” Between 1995 and 2000, Neves Valente and Loureiro both attended the same academic program at the same Portuguese university, according to Foley.
Prior to now, the FBI claimed to be aware of no connections between the two shootings.
After Wednesday’s news conference, a second person who had been linked to the suspect came forward and “blow the lid” on the case, according to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.
According to Foley, investigators located the Rhode Island-based vehicle Neves Valente rented in Boston. Outside of Brown University, that vehicle was seen.
The suspect, according to Foley, added a Maine number plate to the rental car’s plate to help conceal his identity after leaving Rhode Island for Massachusetts.
Neves Valente entered a condominium complex close to Loureiro’s on video. According to Foley, he was spotted entering the storage facility about an hour later after his death was discovered.
As the nation accepts the deadly attack on a Jewish holiday event in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which left 15 people dead, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a national gun buyback scheme.
The plan was described as the nation’s largest gun buyback since 1996, the year of the Port Arthur massacre on Tasmania, Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in modern history, and as the nation’s largest gun buyback since 1996, according to Albanese. Authorities will now purchase surplus, newly-banned, and illegal firearms.
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“As of right now, there are more firearms in Australia than there were prior to Port Arthur. There are currently more than four million firearms in the nation, according to Albanese, who spoke at a news conference on Friday.
“No one needs to own a gun,” declares the statement. And he claimed that someone in suburban Sydney doesn’t need to own six because the horrific events at Bondi demonstrate how necessary it is to remove more weapons from our streets.
According to Albanese, the scheme’s states and territories will have the authority to collect the weapons and process payments for surrendered firearms. Then, federal police will be in charge of their destruction.
“We anticipate that this scheme will result in the collection and destruction of hundreds of thousands of firearms,” said Albanese.
Australia has one of the lowest gun homicide rates in the world, thanks to some of the strictest gun laws in the world.
After a lone gunman, armed with semiautomatic weapons, nearly 30 years ago, killed 35 people at the tourist destination in Port Arthur, restrictions were tightened.
Authorities immediately immediately launched a significant gun amnesty and buyback scheme that removed more than 650, 000 newly-prohibited firearms from circulation following the massacre shocked the nation.
The Sydney shooting that occurred on Sunday, when two attackers, identified as father and son Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram, carried out a shooting spree that killed 15 people, has had a similar harrowing effect on Australian society as the Port Arthur massacre, which prompted self-reflection.
According to Albanese, “Islamic State ideology” was used to inspire 50-year-old Sajid, who was shot dead at the scene, and 24-year-old Naveed, who were both charged with “terrorism” and murder after he awoke from a coma on Tuesday.
Since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Albanese announced tougher hate speech laws on Thursday as he acknowledged the nation had experienced a rising tide of anti-Jewish hate.
One of the worst mass murders that this country has ever witnessed, according to Albanese, occurred on Sunday as a result of rising anti-Semitism in Australia.
He claimed that while it was an attack on the Jewish community, it also targeted the Australian way of life.
“Australians are shocked and enraged. I’m furious. It is obvious that we must do much, much more, to stop this evil plague, he continued.
One week after the mass shooting, the prime minister made an announcement on Friday that Australia will hold a national day of reflection on Sunday.
At 6:47 p.m. (07:47 GMT), Albanese advised Australians to “light candles” on December 21 for “exactly one week since the attack occurred.”
He told reporters, “It’s a moment to pause, reflect, and affirm that hatred and violence will never define who we are as Australians.”
In another act of condolence for the dead, hundreds of people plunged into the ocean off Bondi Beach earlier on Friday.
In the gentle morning swell, swimmers and surfers bobbed into a circle, splashing in the water and bursting with emotion.
Security consultant Jason Carr told the AFP news agency, “They slaughtered innocent victims, and today I’m swimming out there and being part of my community once more to bring back the light.”
“We’re still burying bodies,” the statement read. But “I just thought it was important,” the 53-year-old said.
He said, “I’m not going to let someone so evil, someone so dark, prevent me from doing what I enjoy doing.”
The signing of the trade agreement between the EU and the South American bloc Mercosur will be postponed until January, further delaying a deal that had been in the negotiation process for about 25 years, according to European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho’s confirmation on Thursday.
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Ursula von der Leyen, the commission’s president, was scheduled to sign the deal in Brazil on Saturday, but the majority of EU members were unwilling to do so.
Von der Leyen, Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, and Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy, reached a delay deal, according to the Associated Press, with the condition that Italy would vote in favor of it in January. von der Leyen, Costa, made the announcement at a summit on Thursday.
As he arrived for the summit on Thursday in Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron demanded more concessions and discussions in January. He had also pushed back against the agreement.
Macron claimed that he has been in discussions with Irish, Italian, Polish, Belgian, and other colleagues about putting off the signing.
The French leader said that “farmers already face a lot of challenges.”
The EU’s largest trade pact would include tariff reductions for Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
However, the deal’s critics, particularly those from France and Italy, fear a surge of cheap commodities that could hurt European farmers. Germany, Spain, and Nordic nations claim that it will boost exports hit by US tariffs and reduce China’s dependence by securing access to important minerals.
In a time of high global trade tensions, the EU-Mercosur agreement would establish the largest free-trade area in the world and encourage the 27-nation European Union to export more goods, including cars, tools, wines, and spirits to Latin America.
Germany, Spain, and the Nordic nations were “all lobbying vigorously in favor of this deal,” according to Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, who was reporting from Berlin. The French and Italian governments, however, were divided over their strong farming sectors.
Their concern is that the Mercosur countries’ far-priced imports, such as poultry and beef, could be overtaken by them, Keane said.
No signing is expected in December, then. He continued, “I’m hoping there will be a signing in the middle of January.”
Given that the powerful forces in this debate were pitted against one another, “but there must be a question now about what might happen between now and mid-January,” he continued.
According to a spokeswoman for the European Commission, Mercosur nations were made aware of the decision, and Brazil delayed signing the deal to give its EU partners a now-or-never ultimatum on Thursday to allow time to win over the disgruntled.
Italy’s Meloni had asked for “patience,” according to Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and that the country would eventually be ready for the deal.
Farmers in Brussels slowed roads and started fireworks in protest of the deal, prompting police to use tear gas and water cannons in response.
As demonstrators burned tyres and a fake wooden coffin bearing the word “agriculture,” some farmers who were traveling to the Belgian capital from as far away as Spain and Poland brought potatoes and eggs to throw.