Newscoop: Long Stories Short

World In Brief

A Saudi doctor drove a car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany yesterday, killing 4 and injuring more than 68. Der Spiegel reported that the suspect had sympathized with Germany's far-right AfD party.

The stop-gap funding bill in the US Congress has passed, averting a government shutdown. Donald Trump's demand that the debt limit be lifted was not in the bill.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei signed a decree on Thursday that authorizes use of the country's armed forces in domestic politics. This would include social mobilizations or protests.

After Cyclone Chido devastated the French island territory of Mayotte last week, and residents were still without water, French president Emmanuel Macron faced an angry Mayotte crowd. He was heavily criticized for telling them: “If it wasn’t for France, you’d be 10,000 times deeper in shit.”

Finnish MP for Lapland Heikki Autto said that with Finland's 1380 km-long border with Russia, and with Russia now engaging in cyber and hybrid war, "If we wish for peace, we have to prepare for war."

Judges in the US are expressing alarm at Donald Trump's rewriting of the history of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots, including that attempt to overturn the presidential election. Trump has promised a blanket pardon for participants.

In the US Congress yesterday, the bipartisan stop-gap funding bill went down after Elon Musk and Donald Trump ordered Republicans to veto anything that gave Democrats a win. The government faces a shutdown by Friday night.

As the fight over the government spending bill continues, some GOP House members are floating the idea of Elon Musk as House Speaker to replace Mike Johnson.

As bird flu continues to spread among dairy cattle, California has declared a state of emergency. The first severe human case has occurred in the state of Louisiana.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced last week that any takeover of media companies TVN and Polsat, or other strategically important companies, will have to be approved first by the government. The aim is to protect against “hostile takeovers” from Hungary, Russia or China.

Syria's airport in Damascus has reopened for the first time since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, but only for domestic flights.

On Wednesday, Chile's president Gabriel Boric criticized harshly Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank, saying "I choose humanity. What Benjamin Netanyahu has done is a war crime, a crime against humanity."

A temporary spending bill looked set to pass in the US Congress with bipartisan support, but US president-elect Donald Trump ordered Republicans to reject the bill. They must renegotiate or force a government shutdown on Friday.

After an editorial in the British Times newspaper described the assassination of Russian Lt Gen Igor Kirillov as “a legitimate act of defence” by Ukraine, Russian security council deputy head, Dmitry Medvedev, described the editors of the Times as “legitimate military targets.”

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear TikTok's appeal challenging a federal law that could ban the social media app by Jan.19. Oral arguments are scheduled for Jan.10.

Nuclear

The Nuclear Notebook

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

+4 glocal

Israel

The BBC's Civil War Over Gaza

DropSite

+4 glocal

Europe

Europe's center is not holding

Responsible Statecraft

+2 glocal

Europe

A house divided

Novaya Gazeta

+6 glocal

MENA

Gaza v. Blinken: Palestinians Sue Secretary of State Over 'Failure' to Follow US Law on Sending Military Aid to Israel

Zeteo

+5 glocal

Climate

Arctic Tundra Has Turned From 'Carbon Sink to Carbon Source' in Dangerous Flip: NOAA

Common Dreams

+2 glocal

MENA

A year after hijacking the Galaxy Leader, the Houthis aren’t going anywhere

+972 Magazine

+3 glocal

Newstream

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For me, the background of this image is just as horrible as what we see in the front. This line of photographers, clearly used to these scenes by now, forced to constantly share with a completely indifferent world some of the most horrific scenes humans ever watched, featuring… https://t.co/GcnjkOtM4N
— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) December 18, 2024

this is what it must have felt like to hear robin hood stories in like 1370 https://t.co/bQ5MTRxoSl
— katewagner.bsky.social (@mcmansionhell) December 8, 2024

Not a single mention of Israel/Gaza. We see you, we hear you, and if you think this is good for you and for the EU, you are delusional. https://t.co/NjINeLSxe7
— İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي (@iyad_elbaghdadi) December 16, 2024

Democrat Josh Shapiro: “In America we don't kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences."

Also Josh Shapiro: Signing missiles that will be used to kill people in cold blood. pic.twitter.com/ZGMINxAPD4
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) December 10, 2024

In a new article in the Guardian, human rights leader @RepMcGovern urges President Biden to stand up to @Chevron and pardon me after I was illegally detained for 993 days by the oil company.

“No corporation is above the law.” ⤵️⤵️ pic.twitter.com/KSgMmJTRFy
— Steven Donziger (@SDonziger) December 13, 2024

Jabalia, before and after. pic.twitter.com/Ij1w0RXDca
— Jehad Abusalim جهاد أبو سليم (@JehadAbusalim) December 13, 2024

A young girl in northern Gaza sending good wishes to the newly-free people of Syriahttps://t.co/LwZgSAAXNH
— Newscoop (@newscoop) December 11, 2024

UN General Assembly demands #Israel withdraw from #Syria’s occupied #GolanHeights. The resolution reaffirmed the inadmissibility of acquiring territory by force. https://t.co/SgVUeFmTIl
— James Richard Walker (@JRWalker_) December 8, 2024

In #Syria you can leave prison, but prison never leaves you, as Syrian author Jaber Baker knows.

In sharing his story with @newlinesmag, Baker reports that for two years in a notorious prison, he endured #torture and humiliation on trumped-up charges. https://t.co/Mg9tUWvbKO
— Lotte Leicht @lotteleicht.bsky.social (@LotteLeicht1) December 8, 2024

Why does the Western mainstream media never mention the American-occupied territories in Syria? pic.twitter.com/4o6EZLiu55
— Richard (@ricwe123) October 5, 2024

Intact people feel empathy whenever a life is taken. I feel that empathy.

I also know this guy & execs are praised by shareholders for high denials. That they analyzed charts of “patient mortality” vs. cost-benefit. I wonder if they felt that empathy.

US healthcare is inhuman. pic.twitter.com/C8rymmHnXV
— tara houska ᔖᐳᐌᑴ (@zhaabowekwe) December 4, 2024

Western media needs to stop both-sidesing GENOCIDE.

Amnesty didn’t “accuse” Israel of genocide, the word you’re looking for is “concludes.” pic.twitter.com/Mr3MpUlZZ3
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) December 5, 2024

The US is going to learn the hard way that it can’t just bully the rest of the world into compliance anymore https://t.co/suVt2RahHW
— Bay Area People’s Republic 🚩☭ (@Karl_Was_Right) December 3, 2024

Rashid Khalidi, the preeminent Palestinian intellectual of our time, is convinced that the Israelis simply don't understand the conflict – living in a "bubble of false consciousness"https://t.co/l8fFysoCKb
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) December 1, 2024

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law but backed down under parliamentary pressure, leaving many to ask: why did he do it?

Al Jazeera's @soraya_lennie explains. pic.twitter.com/R8FBd6cMZR
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) December 4, 2024

A commenter asked me how Joe Biden commits such horrible atrocities when he himself experienced tragedies like the loss of his wife and son. I answered by explaining the concept of moral fragmentation. Through it, one may spend the bulk of their day doing evil things but will… pic.twitter.com/q7klZ3iwHm
— Chris Hedges (@ChrisLynnHedges) December 3, 2024

The Syrian rebels' capture of Aleppo has raised speculation of Ukrainian involvement in planning the operation against the Russian-allied Damascus government, using FPV "kamikaze" drones, a technology Ukraine has mastered since the 2022 Russian invasionhttps://t.co/NVPMtGYHJT
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 3, 2024

Here we go again. Another coup, after many years, in South Korea. This is the direct result of the reckless promotion of a New Cold War by US-UK-EU: authoritarianism springs up from within https://t.co/gDFr45jQpg
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) December 3, 2024

Disturbing move: South Korean PresYoon Suk Yeol declared “emergency martial law,” accusing the opposition of controlling parliament (ie winning elections), sympathizing w/ North Korea (unlikely) & paralyzing gov’t with anti-state activities (ie protests). https://t.co/JryB47In9J
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) December 3, 2024

"Quadcopters were emitting baby sounds, playing sounds of screaming women."

Palestinians in Gaza say Israel has been using small quadcopter drones, equipped with loudspeakers, to lure them out of their homes and then shoot them. #GazaCrimes pic.twitter.com/W4VytzyvdA
— Al Jazeera Investigations (@AJIunit) December 2, 2024