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2025 December 21

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Israeli settler colonialism
  • The Israeli cabinet approves 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite such settlements being considered illegal under international law. (BBC News) (AP)

Business and economy

• Sugar industry in the Philippines
  • The Philippine agriculture department extends its import ban on sugar until December 2026. (The Rahnuma Daily)

International relations

• Libya–Pakistan relations
  • Pakistan agrees to sell military technology to the Libyan military for over US$4 billion, violating an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations on Libya. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Kidnapping in Nigeria
  • Papiri kidnapping
    • Nigerian presidential spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale reports that all remaining 130 students and staff abducted in November from a Catholic school in Niger State have been released. (AFP via The Guardian)
  • Gunmen abduct 28 people after intercepting a vehicle traveling to a Maulud gathering in Bashar, Plateau State. (AFP via France 24)
• Nine people are killed and ten others are injured in a mass shooting when 12 gunmen open fire near a tavern in Bekkersdal, Gauteng, South Africa. (AFP via CBS News)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Extremaduran regional election
  • In Extremadura, Spain, the ruling People’s Party of Extremadura of regional president María Guardiola wins the elections for its first time since 2011, while PSOE Extremadura reports its worst result ever and the far-right Vox party more than doubles its share of the vote. (RTVE)

2025 December 20

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Operation Southern Spear
  • 2025 United States naval deployment in the Caribbean, United States–Venezuela relations
    • The United States Coast Guard intercepts and seizes an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela after previously seizing another last week. (Reuters) (BBC) (The Washington Post)
• US intervention in the Syrian civil war
  • Operation Hawkeye Strike
    • The United States and Jordan carry out airstrikes on 70 Islamic State targets at multiple locations in Syria, in retaliation for the December 2025 Palmyra attack. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• Seven elephants are killed and another is injured when a passenger train strikes a herd in the Hojai district of Assam, India. (DW) (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Arrest of Imran Khan
  • A Pakistani court sentences former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to 17 years in prison after finding them guilty of corruption-related charges. (AP)
• Iran executes a man convicted of spying for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in Urmia. (AP) (Iran Human Rights)

Science and technology

• Blue Origin NS-37
  • German engineer Michaela Benthaus becomes the first person in a wheelchair and the first with paraplegia to travel to space on a sub-orbital trip conducted by Blue Origin. (DW)

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)

2025 December 18

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2025 Cambodia–Thailand conflict
  • Cambodia accuses Thailand of bombing Poipet on the border and denies the truce previously announced by United States president Donald Trump. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 North Carolina Cessna Citation II crash
  • Seven people, including stock car racer Greg Biffle and his family, are killed after Biffle’s Cessna Citation II jet crashes while landing at Statesville Regional Airport in Statesville, North Carolina, United States. (ABC News)

International relations

• Taiwan–United States relations
  • The United States approves a $11.1 billion arms sale to Taiwan, including medium-range ballistic missiles, drones, and howitzers, as the largest arms deal in the history of bilateral relations between the two countries. (DW)
• The United Nations General Assembly elects former Iraqi president Barham Salih as the next High Commissioner for Refugees, succeeding Filippo Grandi, whose term ends December 31. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Mass shootings in the United States
  • 2025 Brown University shooting
    • A 48-year-old suspect of the mass shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside of a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Authorities are investigating whether the murder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro is connected. (NBC News)
• Besançon poisonings
  • Frédéric Péchier, an anesthesiologist who was found guilty of poisoning 30 patients and killing twelve with anesthetic infusion bags in Besançon, Doubs, France, is sentenced to life in prison. (BBC News)
• Crime in Peru
  • Councilwoman Elena Rojas is assassinated and several others are injured, including at least four children, in a targeted mass shooting at a Christmas event in Chicama, Department of La Libertad, Peru. (BNO News)
• 2025 Mannheim car attack
  • The Mannheim Regional Court convicts Alexander Scheuermann, the perpetrator of a car attack in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany on March 3, of two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder, and sentences him to life imprisonment at a psychiatric facility. (The Straits Times)
• Terrorism in Russia
  • A Russian military court sentences a Belarusian national to 22 years in prison for terrorism after convicting him of planting explosives on two freight trains in Buryatia in 2023, causing major damage and rail disruptions. (Reuters)

2025 December 17

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Terrorism in Australia
  • 2025 Bondi Beach shooting
    • The surviving gunman of the attack on Bondi Beach, Australia, is charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act. (BBC News)
• War on drugs, Operation Southern Spear
  • 2025 United States military strikes on alleged drug traffickers
    • The United States Southern Command says the U.S. Navy attacked an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing at least four people. (AP)

International relations

• Foreign relations of the United States
  • Travel bans under the Trump administrations
    • United States president Donald Trump expands the country’s existing travel ban by banning citizens of Burkina Faso, Mali, South Sudan, and Syria, as well as those holding passports issued by the Palestinian Authority, from entering the country. He also imposes partial restrictions on citizens from 15 other countries. (NPR)
• Egypt–Israel relations
  • Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu approves a deal to export US$35 billion of natural gas from the Leviathan gas field to Egypt over the next 15 years. (AP)

Politics and elections

• Arrest of Jair Bolsonaro
  • The Brazilian Senate approves a bill that reduces penalties for certain crimes, including attempted coup, which could significantly shorten former president Jair Bolsonaro’s 27-year prison sentence. The bill now heads to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for signature. (AP)
• Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Russian president Vladimir Putin signs a law to redistribute ownerless homes on occupied territories to those who have lost homes during the conflict. (Euromaidan Press)
• Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court rules that Indigenous land rights constitute unamendable constitutional guarantees, thereby blocking congressional efforts to restrict the recognition of Indigenous territories and reinforcing existing protections despite pending legislative opposition. (Reuters)

Sports

• 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup
  • In association football, Paris Saint-Germain win their first FIFA Intercontinental Cup after defeating Flamengo 2–1 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time, in the final in Al Rayyan, Qatar. (Reuters)

2025 December 16

Armed conflicts and attacks

• M23 campaign, Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict
  • 2025 Uvira offensive
    • The March 23 Movement announces that they will withdraw from Uvira, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, following a request from the United States. (Reuters)
• Herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria, Fulani extremism in Nigeria
  • At least 12 people are killed and three others are abducted after Fulani gunmen attack a mining site in Plateau State, Nigeria. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Thirteen people are killed, and several others are injured when a passenger bus overturns on a highway and collides with a taxi in Isfahan Province, Iran. (AP)

Health and environment

• The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records the Arctic’s warmest year since measurements began, with average temperatures from October 2024 to September 2025 standing 1.60 °C (2.88 °F) above the 1991–2020 baseline. (AFP via RFI)

International relations

• Canada–Israel relations
  • Israel denies entry to six Canadian MPs trying to visit the occupied West Bank as part of a nonprofit-sponsored tour. (Al Jazeera)
• Operation Southern Spear, United States–Venezuela relations
  • U.S. president Donald Trump orders a blockade on oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. (The Telegraph)

Law and crime

• 2025 Beninese coup attempt
  • Benin places about 30 suspects, most of them soldiers, in pre-trial detention on charges including treason, murder, and endangering state security following a failed coup attempt. (AFP via Arab News)
• 2025 Liverpool parade incident
  • The Liverpool Crown Court convicts Paul Doyle, the perpetrator who injured 130 people after ramming his car into a crowd in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom, of charges of dangerous driving and maliciously causing grievous bodily harm, and sentences him to 21 years in prison. (DW)
• Belarus–Lithuania relations
  • Lithuanian police arrest 21 people allegedly connected to a criminal network responsible for smuggling cigarettes into the country via weather balloons from Belarus. (AP)
• Colombia–United States relations, War on drugs
  • The U.S. State Department designates Colombian cartel and neo-paramilitary group Clan del Golfo as a foreign terrorist organization. (DW)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Honduran general election
  • Honduran president Xiomara Castro announces that she will denounce an alleged “electoral coup” to the European Union, the Organization of American States, and the United Nations, accusing U.S. president Donald Trump of “interference”. (The Guardian) (Reuters)

Sports

• In association football, French and Paris Saint-Germain player Ousmane Dembélé is named the 2025 FIFA Men’s Player of the Year. (BBC News)

2025 December 15

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War on drugs, Operation Southern Spear
  • 2025 United States military strikes on alleged drug traffickers
    • The United States Southern Command says the U.S. Navy has carried out airstrikes on three alleged drug smuggling vessels in international waters of the Eastern Pacific, killing at least eight people. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Ten people are killed when a Cessna Citation III aircraft flying from Acapulco to Toluca crashes near a football field in San Mateo Atenco, Edomex, Mexico. (UNO TV in Spanish) (AP)

International relations

• Laos–South Korea relations
  • Laos and South Korea agree to upgrade their bilateral relations to a comprehensive partnership. (Reuters)
• Laos–Thailand relations, 2025 Cambodia–Thailand conflict
  • Thailand’s military stops fuel shipments through its border crossing with Laos in Chong Mek, Ubon Ratchathani province, after intelligence indicates that supplies are being diverted to Cambodian forces amid an ongoing conflict between Cambodia and Thailand. (Reuters)
• Trinidad and Tobago–Venezuela relations
  • The Venezuelan government accuses Trinidad and Tobago of participating in the United States seizure of the oil tanker Skipper and suspends all oil trade agreements and contracts between the two countries. (The Guardian)

Law and crime

• 2024 anti-tourism protests in Spain
  • The Spanish government fines homestay company Airbnb €63.9 million (US$75 million) for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals as protests blaming companies like Airbnb and Booking.com for driving up property prices for residents across the country continue. (AP)
• Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia
  • Saudi Arabia records a new annual high in executions, carrying out 340 executions to date after authorities execute three additional individuals, exceeding the previous record of 338 executions in 2024. (AFP via CTV News)
• Terrorism in the United States
  • Five individuals associated with the far-left Turtle Island Liberation Front are arrested for allegedly plotting a series of bombings across Southern California, United States, on New Year’s Eve. (BBC News)
• Hong Kong’s High Court convicts pro-democracy activist and media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and to publish seditious material under the national security law. (Reuters)
• A court in Moscow, Russia, designates protest music group Pussy Riot as an extremist group, banning its activities within Russia. (Reuters)
• Danske Bank completes its three-year corporate probation with the United States Department of Justice, concluding all regulatory proceedings related to suspicious transactions at its former Estonian branch, after pleading guilty to bank fraud conspiracy and forfeiting US$2 billion as part of a 2022 settlement. (Reuters)
• A judge in the Dominican Republic sentences seven former government officials to over a year in preventative detention in a US$250 million corruption case involving the health ministry. (AP)

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