Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the European Union’s financial support for Ukraine, Australia proposing a gun buyback program, and violent protests across Bangladesh.
‘We Will Not Collapse’
European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide a $105 billion, interest-free loan to Ukraine over the next two years to support its war effort against Russia. However, the landmark pledge stopped short of allocating billions of dollars’ worth of frozen Russian assets to Kyiv, concluding (at least, for now) a major flash point that has divided the 27-nation bloc.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the European Union’s financial support for Ukraine, Australia proposing a gun buyback program, and violent protests across Bangladesh.
‘We Will Not Collapse’
European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide a $105 billion, interest-free loan to Ukraine over the next two years to support its war effort against Russia. However, the landmark pledge stopped short of allocating billions of dollars’ worth of frozen Russian assets to Kyiv, concluding (at least, for now) a major flash point that has divided the 27-nation bloc.
Without the EU’s loan, Ukraine was on track to run out of funding in the spring. According to the International Monetary Fund, Kyiv needs $161 billion in 2026 and 2027 to effectively combat Russia; otherwise, Ukraine would be forced to slash drone production. But Friday’s approved loan prevented this concern from becoming a reality—covering roughly two-thirds of Kyiv’s financial needs.
“It is a signal to the Russians that there is no point for them to continue the war because we have financial support, and therefore, we will not collapse on the front line,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X on Friday.
EU leaders also argued that European support for Ukraine is vital to prevent future Russian aggression against the rest of the continent. “We have a simple choice: either money today, or blood tomorrow,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday.
EU member states agreed to use the bloc’s own budget as collateral instead of allocating frozen Russian assets in Europe, totaling roughly $247 billion, to pay for the loan. Although several European countries, including Ukraine, campaigned for the use of the immobilized Russian funds, Belgium refused to back this plan, arguing that it failed to adequately protect Brussels from potential legal and financial risks; around $226 billion worth of Russia’s Europe-based assets are held by Belgian company Euroclear, which Russia’s central bank has already brought a lawsuit against in a Russian court.
On Friday, the European Union said these assets will remain blocked until Russia pays for Ukraine’s war reparations. The World Bank estimates that the cost of reconstruction over the coming decade will be at least $524 billion—or almost three times Kyiv’s economic output in 2024.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that “if Russia does not pay reparations we will—in full accordance with international law—make use of Russian immobilized assets for paying back the loan.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced this proposal on Friday as “daylight robbery,” suggesting that “the consequences could be grave” for the countries that authorize it.
Not every EU member state is on board with the loan, though, with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia all initially opposed. “I would not like a European Union in war,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, adding that “to give money means war.” The leaders of all three countries have been described as allies of Putin.
However, on Friday, Orban, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico ultimately decided not to block the loan’s passage in exchange for protections from any financial fallout—risking their relationships with Russia to avoid further dissent within the European bloc.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Getting guns off the streets. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a buyback program on Friday to “get guns off our streets.” The initiative comes in response to the Bondi Beach mass shooting in Sydney on Sunday, during which two suspected gunmen whom investigators believe may have been inspired by Islamic State ideology killed 15 worshippers and injured dozens more at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration.
One of the suspected gunmen held a firearm license and owned six guns “in spite of living in the middle of Sydney’s suburbs,” Albanese said. “There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns.” Australia also issued a buyback program following the country’s 1996 mass shooting, which experts say melted down as many as 1 million firearms.
Under the proposal, the Australian government would pay gun owners to surrender “surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms.” The initiative adds to other proposed measures aimed at tightening the country’s already strict gun laws, including imposing a limit on the number and types of firearms that an individual can own. Albanese has also vowed to further combat antisemitism by increasing penalties on those convicted of spreading “hate, division and radicalisation.” The buyback program must still be approved by lawmakers. Australian opposition leader Sussan Ley called on Albanese on Friday to recall Parliament before Christmas to pass the legislation.
Violent nationwide protests. Bangladeshi officials urged for calm on Friday after mass, violent protests swept the country over the killing of a youth protest leader. Sharif Osman Hadi, 32, was prepared to launch his parliamentary campaign ahead of elections planned for February 2026 when he was shot in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, last week. Hadi was a prominent figure of the student-led movement that ousted then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last August and a vocal critic of India’s political influence on Bangladesh. Medical and party officials confirmed Hadi’s death late Thursday after he spent six days on life support.
Coming on the heels of another nationwide Bangladeshi demonstration this week against New Delhi’s decision to host Hasina during her self-imposed exile, interim leader Muhammad Yunus warned on Friday that recent instability—including arson attacks on journalists—could undermine February’s parliamentary elections.
“This is a critical moment in our nation’s history when we are making a historic democratic transition,” the interim government said in a statement. “We cannot and must not allow it to be derailed by those few who thrive on chaos and reject peace.”
TikTok’s new owners. TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, reportedly signed binding agreements with three major investors to form a new U.S. joint venture to own the app, according to an internal memo by TikTok CEO Shou Chew that was seen by Bloomberg on Thursday. The deal—expected to close on Jan. 22, 2026—will allow the popular U.S. social media app to continue operating in the United States, a future once considered uncertain due to its ties to Beijing.
Last year, the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance’s divestiture from TikTok over fears that the app’s user data could be accessed by the Chinese government and therefore posed a national security threat. At the time, ByteDance owned 100 percent of TikTok’s shares. Trump signed an executive order during his first term effectively banning TikTok and vowed to further crack down on its U.S. presence this year. However, a deal to transfer TikTok ownership to U.S. companies proved more challenging than anticipated, requiring months of negotiations and several monthslong extensions.
Under the new consortiumnearly half of TikTok will be owned by a group of non-Chinese investors. The U.S.-based Oracle and Silver Lake investment companies as well as the Emirati firm MGX will each own 15 percent of TikTok’s shares; U.S. user data, including TikTok’s personalized algorithm, will be stored locally in an Oracle-run system. ByteDance will retain a 19.9 percent stake, with another 30.1 percent held by ByteDance affiliates. It is unclear who will own the remaining 5 percent of the company.
What in the World?
José Antonio Kast won Chile’s presidential election runoff on Sunday. What is Kast’s political alignment?
A. Communist
B. Hard right
C. Centrist
D. Liberal conservative
Odds and Ends
‘Tis the season for … festive crimes? Canadian police are investigating a massive shoplifting incident that took place on Monday, in which several people dressed as Santa Claus and his elves stole more than $2,000 worth of food from a Montreal grocery store. The Robins des Ruelles (or Robins of the Alleys) group has claimed responsibility for the theft, adding that they redistributed the stolen goods under a Christmas tree at the nearby Place Simon-Valois and brought leftovers to various community fridges. The thieves, likening themselves to modern-day Robin Hoods, have accused supermarket chains of using high inflation to justify raising prices.
And the Answer Is…
B. Hard right
If Kast’s right-wing policies prove successful in Chile, they could become popular in other countries around the region, Michael Albertus argues.
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Correction, Dec. 19, 2025: A previous version misstated the title of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
