Welcome again to World Temporary, the place we’re wanting on the European Union’s monetary help for Ukraine, Australia proposing a gun buyback program, and violent protests throughout Bangladesh.
‘We Will Not Collapse’
European Union leaders agreed on Friday to offer a $105 billion, interest-free mortgage to Ukraine over the following two years to help its conflict effort towards Russia. Nonetheless, the landmark pledge stopped in need of allocating billions of {dollars}’ price of frozen Russian property to Kyiv, concluding (at the least, for now) a significant flash level that has divided the 27-nation bloc.
Welcome again to World Temporary, the place we’re wanting on the European Union’s monetary help for Ukraine, Australia proposing a gun buyback program, and violent protests throughout Bangladesh.
‘We Will Not Collapse’
European Union leaders agreed on Friday to offer a $105 billion, interest-free mortgage to Ukraine over the following two years to help its conflict effort towards Russia. Nonetheless, the landmark pledge stopped in need of allocating billions of {dollars}’ price of frozen Russian property to Kyiv, concluding (at the least, for now) a significant flash level that has divided the 27-nation bloc.
With out the EU’s mortgage, Ukraine was on observe to run out of funding within the spring. In line with the Worldwide Financial Fund, Kyiv wants $161 billion in 2026 and 2027 to successfully fight Russia; in any other case, Ukraine can be pressured to slash drone manufacturing. However Friday’s authorized mortgage prevented this concern from turning into a actuality—masking roughly two-thirds of Kyiv’s monetary wants.
“It’s a sign to the Russians that there isn’t any level for them to proceed the conflict as a result of we now have monetary help, and subsequently, we won’t collapse on the entrance line,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X on Friday.
EU leaders additionally argued that European help for Ukraine is important to forestall future Russian aggression towards the remainder of the continent. “We’ve got a easy alternative: both cash at this time, or blood tomorrow,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk mentioned on Thursday.
EU member states agreed to make use of the bloc’s personal funds as collateral as a substitute of allocating frozen Russian property in Europe, totaling roughly $247 billion, to pay for the mortgage. Though a number of European international locations, together with Ukraine, campaigned for using the immobilized Russian funds, Belgium refused to again this plan, arguing that it did not adequately defend Brussels from potential authorized and monetary dangers; round $226 billion price of Russia’s Europe-based property are held by Belgian firm Euroclear, which Russia’s central financial institution has already introduced a lawsuit towards in a Russian courtroom.
On Friday, the European Union mentioned these property will stay blocked till Russia pays for Ukraine’s conflict reparations. The World Financial institution estimates that the price of reconstruction over the approaching decade will likely be at the least $524 billion—or nearly thrice Kyiv’s financial output in 2024.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that “if Russia doesn’t pay reparations we’ll—in full accordance with worldwide legislation—make use of Russian immobilized property for paying again the mortgage.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced this proposal on Friday as “daylight theft,” suggesting that “the implications could possibly be grave” for the international locations that authorize it.
Not each EU member state is on board with the mortgage, although, with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia all initially opposed. “I’d not like a European Union in conflict,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban mentioned, including that “to provide cash means conflict.” The leaders of all three international locations have been described as allies of Putin.
Nonetheless, on Friday, Orban, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in the end determined to not block the mortgage’s passage in alternate for protections from any monetary fallout—risking their relationships with Russia to keep away from additional dissent throughout the European bloc.
At the moment’s Most Learn
What We’re Following
Getting weapons off the streets. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese introduced a buyback program on Friday to “get weapons off our streets.” The initiative is available in response to the Bondi Seaside mass capturing in Sydney on Sunday, throughout which two suspected gunmen whom investigators consider might have been impressed by Islamic State ideology killed 15 worshippers and injured dozens extra at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration.
One of many suspected gunmen held a firearm license and owned six weapons “despite residing in the course of Sydney’s suburbs,” Albanese mentioned. “There’s no motive why somebody in that state of affairs wanted that many weapons.” Australia additionally issued a buyback program following the nation’s 1996 mass capturing, which specialists say melted down as many as 1 million firearms.
Below the proposal, the Australian authorities would pay gun homeowners to give up “surplus, newly banned and unlawful firearms.” The initiative provides to different proposed measures geared toward tightening the nation’s already strict gun legal guidelines, together with imposing a restrict on the quantity and kinds of firearms that a person can personal. Albanese has additionally vowed to additional fight antisemitism by rising penalties on these convicted of spreading “hate, division and radicalisation.” The buyback program should nonetheless be authorized by lawmakers. Australian opposition chief Sussan Ley known as on Albanese on Friday to recall Parliament earlier than Christmas to move the laws.
Violent nationwide protests. Bangladeshi officers urged for calm on Friday after mass, violent protests swept the nation over the killing of a youth protest chief. Sharif Osman Hadi, 32, was ready to launch his parliamentary marketing campaign forward of elections deliberate for February 2026 when he was shot in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, final week. Hadi was a distinguished determine of the student-led motion that ousted then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina final August and a vocal critic of India’s political affect on Bangladesh. Medical and occasion officers confirmed Hadi’s loss of life late Thursday after he spent six days on life help.
Approaching the heels of one other nationwide Bangladeshi demonstration this week towards New Delhi’s choice to host Hasina throughout her self-imposed exile, interim chief Muhammad Yunus warned on Friday that current instability—together with arson assaults on journalists—may undermine February’s parliamentary elections.
“This can be a vital second in our nation’s historical past after we are making a historic democratic transition,” the interim authorities mentioned in a assertion. “We can not and should not permit it to be derailed by these few who thrive on chaos and reject peace.”
TikTok’s new homeowners. TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor, ByteDance, reportedly signed binding agreements with three main buyers to type a brand new U.S. three way partnership to personal the app, in response to an inside memo by TikTok CEO Shou Chew that was seen by Bloomberg on Thursday. The deal—anticipated to shut on Jan. 22, 2026—will permit the favored U.S. social media app to proceed working in america, a future as soon as thought of unsure because of its ties to Beijing.
Final 12 months, the U.S. Congress handed a legislation requiring ByteDance’s divestiture from TikTok over fears that the app’s consumer information could possibly be accessed by the Chinese language authorities and subsequently posed a nationwide safety menace. On the time, ByteDance owned one hundred pc of TikTok’s shares. Trump signed an govt order throughout his first time period successfully banning TikTok and vowed to additional crack down on its U.S. presence this 12 months. Nonetheless, a deal to switch TikTok possession to U.S. firms proved tougher than anticipated, requiring months of negotiations and several other monthslong extensions.
Below the new consortium, practically half of TikTok will likely be owned by a bunch of non-Chinese language buyers. The U.S.-based Oracle and Silver Lake funding firms in addition to the Emirati agency MGX will every personal 15 % of TikTok’s shares; U.S. consumer information, together with TikTok’s customized algorithm, will likely be saved domestically in an Oracle-run system. ByteDance will retain a 19.9 % stake, with one other 30.1 % held by ByteDance associates. It’s unclear who will personal the remaining 5 % of the corporate.
What within the World?
José Antonio Kast received Chile’s presidential election runoff on Sunday. What’s Kast’s political alignment?
A. Communist
B. Onerous proper
C. Centrist
D. Liberal conservative
Odds and Ends
‘Tis the season for … festive crimes? Canadian police are investigating a large shoplifting incident that passed off on Monday, wherein a number of individuals dressed as Santa Claus and his elves stole greater than $2,000 price of meals from a Montreal grocery retailer. The Robins des Ruelles (or Robins of the Alleys) group has claimed duty for the theft, including that they redistributed the stolen items beneath a Christmas tree on the close by Place Simon-Valois and introduced leftovers to varied group fridges. The thieves, likening themselves to modern-day Robin Hoods, have accused grocery store chains of utilizing excessive inflation to justify elevating costs.
And the Reply Is…
B. Onerous proper
If Kast’s right-wing insurance policies show profitable in Chile, they might turn into standard in different international locations across the area, Michael Albertus argues.
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Correction, Dec. 19, 2025: A earlier model misstated the title of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
