Unknown (AFP) – Images from China’s army show live-fire drills around Taiwan that it says simulate a blockade of the self-ruled island’s key ports, prompting Taipei to condemn Beijing’s “military intimidation”. The latest show of force follows a bumper round of arms sales to Taipei by the United States, Taiwan’s main security backer.
London (AFP) – “To see it disappear is a shame,” says James Hyman, a former director and producer at MTV Europe, following the news that the channel, now owned by media giant Paramount Skydance, will wind down its international music broadcasting by the end of the year. “MTV Europe was so unique,” he says, describing the channel as a “community” that had “the whole of Europe all watching the same thing.” In 1981, MTV kick-started a new era of music and pop culture, with its almost half-century on-air featuring interviews with top artists, fashion programmes and a whole range of genre-specific music shows.
Vostochnyy (Russia) (AFP) – A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a number of communication satellites launches from the Vostochny cosmodrome facility outside the city of Uglegorsk, in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur.
Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey’s traditional “simit” bagels, sold in every corner of Istanbul, have become the key symbol for price increases in a country where, in less than five years, the price has jumped from 3 to 20 Turkish lira (40 euro cents). As Turkey’s inflation remains sky-high (31% annual inflation as of November), many Turks complain that even their diet’s most basic staple is slipping out of reach.
Alhaurín de la Torre (Spain) (AFP) – Several cities and towns in South Spain Malaga province are hit by flooding overnight after hail and heavy rainfall sweeps across the region, inundating streets. Spain is on the front line of climate change in Europe, with longer summer heatwaves in recent years and episodes of torrential rain in autumn and winter driven by the rise in greenhouse gases produced by human activity.
Belgrade (AFP) – A 470-kg World War II bomb was safely removed from a construction site in the wider central area of Belgrade. The US-made AN-M44 bomb, used during Allied air raids in 1944, was transported to an army training ground 180 km away, where it will be destroyed. Several unexploded bombs from past wars have been found in Serbia in recent years, all safely removed.
Unknown (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Ukraine is ‘in no hurry’ to resolve conflict peacefully, hours ahead of US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting in Florida. Putin also adds that if Kyiv does not want to “settle this business peacefully”, Russia will resolve all the problems “by military means”.
Toronto (Canada) (AFP) – People attend the opening of the Museum of Bad Gifts in Toronto, where local artists and community members display notoriously bad gifts they have received over the years. Some exhibits are original artworks created from unwanted presents that people have donated. The exhibition, now in its second year as a Christmas-season event, will be open to the public until the first week of January. Selected works are for sale, with proceeds donated to a local food bank.
Halifax (Canada) (AFP) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says he consulted with allies on his way to a meeting with US President Donald Trump, hours after Russia pummelled Kyiv with drones and missiles in its latest attack on the capital. During a stopover in Canada en route to Florida for the Trump meeting, Zelensky says “we discussed 20 points, our attitude to the territorial issue, to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, to money issues.”
Yangon (Myanmar) (AFP) – Displaced civilians living in makeshift jungle shelters in Myanmar’s Sagaing region denounce the upcoming election as an “unfair vote”, saying they cannot support it while their “lives are hanging between life and death”. Myanmar’s junta is set to preside over a month-long vote starting December 28, with heavily restricted polls as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering a civil war.
Chanthaburi (Thailand) (AFP) – Thailand announces that it has agreed to an “immediate” 72-hour ceasefire with Cambodia, potentially bringing an end to weeks of deadly border clashes which have killed 47 people and displaced over a million, according to official tallies. Defence Ministry Spokesperson Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri says the ceasefire is “not an act of trust” but a timeframe to test Cambodia’s ability to cease the use of “weapons, provocations and threats.”
Caracas (AFP) – Venezuelans recount their experiences of abuse in detention and call for justice for the 252 immigrants detained in the United States and sent to El Salvador’s mega-prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). “We call for an end to the abuse of migrants in the United States,” says Isqueibel Penaloza, one of those deported under the anti-immigration policies of the Donald Trump administration.
