SCMP World·Tuesday, December 16, 2025

SCMP World - Tuesday, December 16, 2025

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

EU drops 2035 combustion engine ban in victory for carmakers

The European Commission unveiled a plan on Tuesday to drop the EU’s effective ban on new combustion-engine cars from 2035 after pressure from the region’s vehicle sector, marking the bloc’s biggest retreat from its green policies in recent years. The move, which still needs approval from EU governments and the European Parliament, would allow continued sales of some non-electric vehicles. Carmakers in regional industrial powerhouse Germany and in Italy had sought easing of the rules. The EU...

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Miss Finland anti-Chinese racism scandal is damaging country, PM says

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Tuesday that a racism scandal that saw the country’s Miss Finland being stripped of her crown and several politicians posting derogatory images was damaging his country’s image. “Yesterday, during a debate in parliament, I said that this has caused damage to our country. That is certainly the case,” Orpo told reporters on Tuesday at the sidelines of a summit gathering leaders of European countries near or bordering Russia. “Personally, I do not accept.

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Arctic has hottest year ever recorded, as climate impacts cascade

The Arctic has experienced its hottest year since records began, a US science agency announced on Tuesday, as climate change triggers cascading impacts from melting glaciers and sea ice to greening landscapes and disruptions to global weather. Between October 2024 and September 2025, temperatures were 1.60 degrees Celsius (2.88 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1991-2020 mean, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its annual Arctic Report Card, which draws on data going back to

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Susie Wiles: Trump’s chief of staff talks ‘retribution’ quest, Epstein, Maduro in Vanity Fair

Susie Wiles, US President Donald Trump’s understated but influential chief of staff, criticised Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and broadly defended the president’s aggressive second administration in a series of interviews published Tuesday in Vanity Fair. Wiles told the magazine in a wide-ranging, revealing series of conversations that she underestimated the scandal involving Epstein, the disgraced financier, but sharply criticised how Bondi managed the case..

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Zelensky demands justice as 35 nations back Ukraine reparations fund, but will Russia pay?

Top European officials including President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed on Tuesday to set up an international body to decide on tens of billions of euros of eventual reparations to compensate Ukraine over Russia’s invasion. The International Claims Commission for Ukraine, signed by 35 countries, will assess and decide on claims for reparations, including any amount to be paid out. The commission’s establishment follows the setting up of a so-called “Register of Damages”, which has already received.

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Russia will end the European Union, not the other way around

For the philosopher Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, everything is “geist”, which could be translated as either mind or spirit. So everything is either mindful, spiritual or mental, depending on your preferred translation. He calls institutions “objective spirit”. This is because ideas are only “subjective” when they are stuck in people’s heads or in books. Once those ideas are realised, for example, in forms of governments and social institutions, they become objectified and take on a concrete reality,

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China slaps anti-dumping duties on EU pork, but lowers final rates

China has announced anti-dumping taxes of up to 19.8 per cent on pork imports from the European Union, following an 18-month investigation. Effective on Wednesday, the duties – ranging from 4.9 per cent to 19.8 per cent, depending on the company – will be implemented for a period of five years, according to a notice issued by the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday. The rates in the final ruling are significantly lower than those included in a preliminary determination in September, when EU pork...

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US boat strikes kill 8 in eastern Pacific, adding to drug war death toll

The US military said Monday that it attacked three boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing a total of eight people as scrutiny over the boat strikes is intensifying in the US Congress. The US military said in a statement on social media that the strikes targeted “designated terrorist organisations”, killing three people in the first vessel, two in the second boat and three in the third boat. It did not provide evidence of their alleged drug trafficking but posted a

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Ukraine claims it hit and disabled Russian submarine in first underwater drone attack

Ukraine said on Monday it hit and disabled a Russian missile-carrying submarine docked at a Black Sea naval base using underwater sea drones for the first time, but Moscow denied the strike caused any damage. The attack with Ukrainian-made “Sub Sea Baby” drones hit the submarine in the port of Novorossiysk where Russia has rebased many of its Black Sea naval vessels to put them out of reach of Ukrainian strikes, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said. Footage published by the SBU showed a...

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Trump urges Xi to show leniency for Jimmy Lai as Britain summons China’s ambassador

Britain’s government on Monday summoned China’s ambassador to the UK to protest the conviction of British citizen Jimmy Lai Chee-ying on national security charges in Hong Kong, while US President Donald Trump said he urged leniency for Lai in a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release,” Trump told reporters, without specifying exactly when he spoke with Xi. “He is an older man, and he is not well. So I did put

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