Crypto News: EU’s Ukraine lifeline

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European Union leaders finally agreed on a crucial €90 billion loan to help keep Ukraine in the fight against Russia, even if the late-night deal wasn't the one they'd originally planned.

The bloc decided to raise joint debt backed by the EU's own budget rather than frozen Russian state assets, an indicator of the continued tensions among member states over the risks of retaliation from Moscow.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a news conference in Brussels, on Dec. 18. Photographer: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a news conference in Brussels yesterday.

It's a defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who threatened legal action if the Kremlin's assets are seized at his annual marathon press conference in Moscow today. Russia had intensified a pressure campaign in recent days to try to split the EU and block the loan, knowing Ukraine risked collapse in the spring without it.

After months of prevarication amid warnings about the threat to Europe's own security from a Russian victory, EU leaders also realized they were staring into the abyss unless they stepped up.

The choice was "either money today or blood tomorrow," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is unlikely to worry about how the bloc reached its decision. He'd made clear that the loan was a matter of survival for his country. And Ukraine won't have to pay it back until Russia pays reparations.

The money strengthens his position as negotiations continue over US President Donald Trump's proposals to end the war.

Putin may indicate today whether he's open to accepting the latest draft peace plan, though it doesn't hand Russia all of the territory in Ukraine that he has demanded.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe will have to re-engage in dialogue with Putin to avoid being sidelined in negotiations between Russia and the US.

European leaders would be bargaining from a position of weakness if they'd blinked on the loan deal.

For now at least, after almost four years of war, they showed Europe is still willing to stand with Ukraine against Russian aggression. — Anthony Halpin

Talks during the European Council meeting summit in Brussels, in a photo released on Dec. 19. Source: Council of the European Union — Talks during the European Council meeting summit in Brussels.

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China reiterated that US weapons sales to Taiwan raise the chances of a clash between the superpowers — underscoring its displeasure after Washington approved a deal worth up to $11 billion. The military assistance serves to "put the people in Taiwan on a powder keg, push the Taiwan Strait toward danger and inevitably increase the risk of China-US conflict and confrontation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said today. The sale signals the Trump administration wants to maintain its defense ties with the island even as it boosts its trade and economic relationship with Beijing.

Thailand's army has recast its deadly clash with Cambodia as a battle against scam centers, adding a new motive for bombing runs across the border that it says are aimed at rooting out cybercriminals. Bangkok's new tone draws together two simmering crises in Southeast Asia: a border war that has killed dozens and displaced half a million people and a sprawling scam ecosystem.

A damaged property near the border with Cambodia, in Sisaket province, Thailand, on Dec. 14. Photographer: Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo — A damaged property near the border with Cambodia in Thailand on Monday.

Toyota will ship three models produced in the US to Japan next year, the Japanese auto giant's latest gesture designed to indulge Trump. The Camry sedan, Highlander sport utility vehicle and Tundra pickup truck will go on sale in Japan from 2026; they're made in Kentucky, Indiana and Texas, respectively. As the nation's biggest carmaker, Toyota is building on its charm offensive to try to get Trump to ease the steep tariffs he imposed on Japanese cars and related parts shipped to the US.

Australia will start a buyback of surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms after terrorists killed 15 people in a Hanukkah attack at Bondi Beach, the biggest such program since the government's repurchase in the aftermath of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. Residents and businesses are struggling to come to terms with the atrocity, with concerns about the longer-term damage to the area and its economy.

Violence swept through parts of Bangladesh after the death of a prominent activist behind the 2024 mass uprising, deepening concerns about the South Asian country's fragile political transition. Sharif Osman Hadi, who was a prospective candidate in the upcoming general election, died six days after being shot in the head by masked gunmen during a campaign event in Dhaka.

Protesters set fires at the offices of Bangladesh's leading daily newspapers The Daily Star and Prothom Alo following the news of the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, in Dhaka on Dec. 19. — Fires at the Daily Star and Prothom Alo newspaper offices in Dhaka today.

India's long-awaited package of financial-services reforms is setting the stage for a surge of foreign capital into the world's fastest-growing major economy.

Brazil's congress yesterday expelled Jair Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo, less than a month after the former president began serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup in 2022. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he would veto a bill passed by congress that would reduce his predecessor's sentence.

The Trump administration warned South Africa of "severe consequences" over what it said was the detention of US government personnel providing humanitarian support to Afrikaners, the latest instance of animosity between the two nations.

In the span of less than 24 hours, Trump unveiled a series of initiatives with widespread appeal, from bonus checks to new holidays — and promises of more to come — as he contends with falling popularity and economic uncertainty.

EU leaders missed a self-imposed deadline to complete a free-trade agreement with a South American bloc of countries this week and will instead aim to conclude the accord with the Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay — in January.

Farmers protest the Mercosur deal in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. The Mercosur accord is an attempt to create an integrated market of 780 million consumers, providing a boost to the EU's embattled manufacturing sector and giving Europe easier access to Mercosur's vast agricultural industry. Photographer: Wiktor Dabkowski/Bloomberg — Farmers protest the Mercosur deal in Brussels yesterday.

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The Trump administration halted the US green-card lottery program, which it said was used by the suspect in the Brown University shooting and killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. US authorities earlier identified the shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national who was a former student at Brown. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Valente, whose body was found yesterday after an apparent suicide, was granted a green card through the lottery program in 2017.