Current events: 2025-12-19

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • At least six Palestinians are killed when an Israeli tank fired 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

• 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)

Disasters and accidents

• Strong winds of 65 miles per hour cause major disruption in the Boston metropolitan area, leaving over 80,000 people without power, and causing delays, impacting more than 200 flights from Logan International Airport. (CBS News) (Boston 25 News)

International relations

• Russo-Ukrainian war, Ukraine–European Union relations
  • Foreign involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war
    • 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)

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)
• Mass shootings in the United States
  • A United States Army sergeant pleads not guilty to six counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and domestic violence for a mass shooting in August at Fort Stewart in Georgia, United States, that injured five people. (MSN)
• 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)

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