🇺🇸🇻🇪🇹🇹⚡- Venezuela has halted all gas supply to Trinidad and Tobago, cancelling all contracts with the island nation. Caracas has accused Trinidad of aiding the US in the seizure of the sanctioned oil tanker last week.

🇹🇷⚡- Turkey shot down an unidentified drone that entered its airspace from the Black Sea. Turkish F-16s shot the UAV over the north of the country.

Turkey's Ministry of Defense claims the drone was "out of control" at the time of it being intercepted. Flights at Ankara International Airport were temporarily suspended.

🇺🇸🇬🇧⚡️- The US has put the technology deal with Britain that was agreed upon during President Trump's visit to the country earlier this year on hold. The reasons given are the UK's unwillingness to bend regulations for other unrelated industries.

🇺🇸⚡️- Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is now engaged to Real America's Voice White House Correspondent Brian Glenn.

Greene divorced her first husband in 2022.

🇦🇺⚡️- "I also confirm the vehicle which was registered to the younger male, contained IED's, and i also confirm that it contained 2 home made ISIS flags." - NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon in relation to the Bondi Beach Mass Shooting

🇺🇸⚡️- "On Dec. 15, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters. Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking. A total of eight male narco-terrorists were killed during these actions—three in the first vessel, two in the second and three in the third. #OpSouthernSpear" - U.S. Southern Command

🇦🇺⚡️- Public broadcaster ABC News reports that a senior counter-terrorism official has confirmed that Sajid and Naveed Akram had travelled to the Philippines to receive "military-style training" 1 month before the Bondi Beach attack.

🇨🇩🇷🇼🇧🇮⚡- M23 says it is ready to withdraw from Uvira, South Kivu, as a "goodwill gesture," following Qatari mediation. M23 in return expects the city to remain "demilitarized."

🇺🇸⚡️- It has been 59 hours since the Brown University mass shooting, and there is still no suspect in custody. Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel is appearing on a podcast with his wife, Alexis Wilkins.

🇨🇩🇷🇼🇺🇬⚡- DR Congo sources report heavy military reinforcements have been arriving from Rwanda into Goma and the North Kivu region over the past 24-48 hours. After successfully capturing Uvira in South Kivu, DRC sources believe M23 are now turning their attention to the North Kivu region.

Reports indicate M23 are preparing to launch a large-scale offensive in an attempt to capture the major cities of Lubero, Butembo and even Beni. Unlike in South Kivu where M23 faced off with the Congolese, Burundian and Wazalendo armies, the three cities in North Kivu are under the control of the Ugandan Armed Forces, UPDF.

The presence of the UPDF in eastern Congo is shown on the map in light blue. Kinsasha had invited Kampala to assist fighting extremist groups in the Ituri region, such as the Islamic State, but more importantly CODECO. Uganda has been accused of supporting the Rwandan-backed M23 in the past, though those reports were never confirmed. However, in the past Kampala let Kigali 'secretly' know it did not appreciate the build-up of M23 along its borders, which led to the unusual exchange of territories between the UPDF and M23 just south of Lubero.

🇹🇭🇰🇭⚡- Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen says that "no Russian or other [Chinese] foreign nationals are fighting on the battlefield or serving as advisers" to the Cambodian military.

🇺🇸🇶🇦🇮🇱⚡- Qatar has become the newest member from the Middle East to submit a request for the purchase of F-35 jets, following Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey.

Israel has lodged a protest, as it did with Turkey's request, against the sale of the F-35s to Doha.

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡- Russia rejects a German-proposed Christmas truce with Ukraine.

🇫🇷⚡- "Brigitte Macron says sorry not sorry after calling feminist activists ‘stupid bitches'.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte apologized for being caught calling feminist activists 'sales connes' — which roughly translates to “stupid bitches”— but said she should be able to speak her mind away from the cameras," - Politico.

🇺🇸🇫🇷⚡️- French interior intelligence agency (DGSI) has renewed their contract with Palantir for the next three years.

The DGSI initially signed a partnership with Palantir following the 13th November 2015 Paris terror attack. They had renewed the contract in 2019 and 2022.

🇦🇺🇮🇳⚡- The family of the father and son Bondi Beach shooters in Hyderabad, India, says they are "shocked," and claim to have cut ties with the Akram duo "years ago."

The brother of Sajid Akram, the father, says Sajid had left India 25 years ago for Australia on a student visa, and "married a Christian" while there.

🇺🇸🇵🇭🇨🇳⚡- "The US is not a party to the South China Sea issue and has no right to interfere in the maritime matters among the South China Sea countries concerned.

The US must stop making statements that distort the facts and incite confrontation, and stop condoning and supporting the Philippines' provocations and disturbances in the South China Sea," - Guo Jiakun, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman.

🇵🇭🇹🇼⚡- The Philippines and Taiwan continue to draw closer together, with the two countries holding a bilateral meeting on maritime security.

A month ago, Taiwan agreed to upgrade 9 mainland Philippine military bases that could accommodate foreign troops, including the US and Australia, as well as hosting the Indian-Russian BrahMos missiles.

🇳🇬⚡- Suicide attack in northeast Nigeria kills 5 Nigerian soldiers.

🇪🇷🇸🇦🇦🇪⚡- Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, after travelling to Riyadh to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has accused the UAE of "attacking the sovereignties" of the Africa Horn region countries, Yemeni outlet al-Mahriah reports.

Afwerki blamed the UAE for destabilizing Sudan, funding separatism in Somalia, and arming Ethiopia, who are threatening to invade Eritrea's Assab region.

🇮🇳🇪🇹⚡- India's Prime Minister Modi arrives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Modi is expected to meet Prime Minister Ahmed and address the Ethiopian Parliament tomorrow.