December 19, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Update from regional conflicts:

• A new analysis from the U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification says that while there have been improvements in nutrition and food supplies in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas cease-fire went into effect, some 100,000 Gaza residents were still experiencing "catastrophic conditions" of food insecurity as of last month. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,392 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• After a plan to use frozen Russian funds to provide loans to Ukraine fell apart last night over Belgian concerns of Russian retaliation, European Union leaders agreed today to provide 90 billion euros (about $106 billion) borrowed on capital markets as an interest-free loan to Ukraine to help meet the country's military and economic needs over the next two years. [more]
• Speaking at his annual end-of-year news conference today, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russian troops are advancing across the battlefields in Ukraine and said the Kremlin's military goals in the war would eventually be achieved. [more]

BROWN UNIVERSITY AND MIT SHOOTINGS | Authorities say the suspect in last weekend's fatal shooting at Brown University and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor later in the week was found dead at a New Hampshire storage facility last night. The suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police. [more]

U.S. ELECTIONS | The Justice Department sued Wisconsin, Illinois, Georgia, and the District of Colombia yesterday as part of efforts to require U.S. states and territories to turn over detailed voter information to federal authorities. The latest lawsuits bring to 22 the number of Justice Department lawsuits over election and voter data across the country. [more]

U.S. LGBTQ+ | The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulatory actions yesterday aimed at blocking access to gender-affirming care for minors in alignment with Trump administration policies. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says proposed actions include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors and prohibiting federal Medicaid funds from being used for such care. [more]

U.S. SPACE POLICY | In an executive order entitled "Ensuring American Space Superiority," President Donald Trump laid out plans yesterday pursuing "a space policy that will extend the reach of human discovery, secure the Nation’s vital economic and security interests, unleash commercial development, and lay the foundation for a new space age." Of note, the order calls for establishing initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030, developing and demonstrating prototype next-generation missile defense technologies by 2028, and "enabling near-term utilization of space nuclear power by deploying nuclear reactors on the Moon and in orbit, including a lunar surface reactor ready for launch by 2030." [full executive order] [more]

NEBRASKA | Gov. Jim Pillen announced this week that Nebraska will be the first U.S. state to implement new federally mandated work requirements for some people with Medicaid health insurance, with the requirement to take effect in his state on May 1. [more]

WISCONSIN | A federal jury found Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of obstruction yesterday in connection with what prosecutors said were her efforts to prevent the in-court arrest of a Mexican immigrant in April. The jury acquitted Dugan on a second charge of concealing an individual to prevent arrest. [more]

NORTH CAROLINA | Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and three members of his family were among the seven people killed yesterday when a business jet crashed while trying to return to North Carolina's Statesville Regional Airport shortly after takeoff. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. [more]

TRUMP PRESIDENCY | In a vote yesterday that the White House said was unanimous, but that some members claim was not, the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which President Donald Trump chairs, approved changing the name of the facility to "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts." The move was condemned by several relatives of the late President Kennedy and reports note that the name change may contravene a federal law that renamed the arts center after Kennedy following his assassination in 1963. Shortly after the name change was announced yesterday, the center's website header was changed to read "The Trump Kennedy Center." [more]

U.S. MARIJUANA REGULATION | President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday that paves the way for marijuana to be reclassified in the U.S. as a less dangerous drug and increase research into its medical uses. [full executive order] [more]

U.S. AND CANADA | With the current United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact, or USMCA, up for review in 2026, the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday that Canada and the U.S. will launch formal discussions in mid-January to review the two countries' free-trade agreement. [more]

INDIA AND PAKISTAN | Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar accused India today of "weaponizing water" by releasing water from Indian dams without warning in violation of the 1960 World Bank-brokered Indus Water Treaty, which governs water-sharing along the countries' shared border. [more]

UNITED NATIONS | Former Iraqi President Barham Salih was elected the next United Nations' high commissioner for refugees yesterday by vote of the General Assembly. [more]

GLOBAL ONLINE SCAMS | Concluding a summit co-hosted in Bangkok by Thailand and the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime this week, participants announced the formation of the Global Partnership Against Online Scams. Initial signatories of the partnership – Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Peru, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the online platform TikTok – pledged political, law enforcement, victim protection, and public awareness cooperation to fight online scams they say "represent a serious threat that exerts widespread impacts on individuals, businesses and governments globally, and pose transnational security and socioeconomic challenges which undermine human rights, national security, progress towards sustainable development, and public trust." [joint statement] [more]

BANGLADESH | Following the killing of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi by masked assailants in Dhaka last week, police and security forces have been deployed across Bangladesh following protests and ahead of anticipated national demonstrations. [more]

AUSTRALIA | Following last weekend's mass shooting at Bondi Beach in which 15 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded, Australian authorities have announced plans for a nationwide gun buyback program. Reports note that a similar program that followed the 1996 massacre in Tasmania's Port Arthur secured the surrender of about 640,000 prohibited firearms nationwide. [more]

HONDURAS | The Honduran National Electoral Council said yesterday that it has launched a special re-count of some votes from the country's November presidential election due to the thin margin between leading candidates and multiple accusations of voting irregularities. [more]

FRANCE | Workers at Paris' Louvre Museum voted today to suspend a strike that led to full and partial closures of the world's most visited museum since Monday. Reports say workers are scheduled to hold a January 5 vote to decide whether to resume strike action. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1966, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the Outer Space Treaty, an international agreement binding the parties to use outer space only for peaceful purposes. The treaty was adopted the following January and went into effect in October 1967. [more history]