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Breaking News Live Updates, December 19, 2025: The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday approved former Iraqi President Barham Salih as the next head of the UN refugee agency, its first from the Middle East since the late 1970s. The 193-member world body elected the 65-year-old Kurdish politician as the UN high commissioner for refugees by consensus and a bang of the gavel by Assembly President Annalena Baerbock. Diplomats in the assembly chamber burst into applause as Salih's election became official.
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TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US business to three American investors — Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX — ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in the United States. The deal is expected to close on January 22, according to an internal memo seen by The Associated Press. CEO Shou Zi Chew said in the memo that ByteDance and TikTok have signed binding agreements with the three investors.
President Donald Trump's Mideast envoy on Friday will host top officials from Middle Eastern countries mediating the Gaza ceasefire, a State Department official said, in a bid to push the tenuous agreement into its next phase. The envoy, Steve Witkoff, is Trump's key delegate for handling peace negotiations. He will meet in Miami with officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, said the State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview a meeting that has not yet been publicly announced.
A Kremlin envoy will travel to Florida to discuss a US-proposed plan to end the war in Ukraine, a US official said Thursday, part of the back-and-forth diplomacy as the Trump administration pushes for a potential deal. Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia's sovereign wealth fund, is set to meet with US President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami on Saturday, according to an American official who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview a meeting that hasn't yet been publicly announced.
European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide a massive interest-free loan to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, EU Council President Antonio Costa said. “We have a deal. Decision to provide 90 billion euros ($106 billion) of support to Ukraine for 2026-27 approved. We committed, we delivered,” Costa said in a post on social media, without providing details about how the money would be raised.
The European Union on Thursday said it would drastically reduce asylum claims from seven nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia by considering them safe countries of origin, prompting widespread outrage from human rights groups on International Migrants' Day. An agreement between European Parliament and the European Council, or the group of the 27 EU heads of state, said that the countries would be considered safe if they lack “relevant circumstances, such as indiscriminate violence in the context of an armed conflict.” Asylum requests by people from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco and Tunisia will be "fast-tracked, with applicants having to prove that this provision should not apply to them,” read the announcement of the agreement.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed a new UK ambassador to the United States on Thursday, replacing a diplomat who was fired over his over his links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Christian Turner, currently the UK's permanent representative to the United Nations, will replace Peter Mandelson, who was sacked in September because of his friendship with Epstein.
Tens of thousands of people on Thursday filled the streets of Bulgaria's capital and other major cities in the country, calling for a fair election and an independent judiciary able to effectively fight widespread corruption. The demonstrations in Sofia and elsewhere came after last week's protests sparked by the government's budget plans for higher taxes and spending increases. The government later withdrew the contentious 2026 budget plan, but eventually bowed to people's demands and stepped down.
TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US business to three American investors — Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX — ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in the United States. The deal is expected to close on January 22, according to an internal memo seen by The Associated Press. CEO Shou Zi Chew said in the memo that ByteDance and TikTok have signed binding agreements with the three investors.
The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday approved former Iraqi President Barham Salih as the next head of the UN refugee agency, its first from the Middle East since the late 1970s. The 193-member world body elected the 65-year-old Kurdish politician as the UN high commissioner for refugees by consensus and a bang of the gavel by Assembly President Annalena Baerbock. Diplomats in the assembly chamber burst into applause as Salih's election became official.
