Taliban meets EU, Israel moves to recognise Armenian genocide, South Sudan sets first-ever election.

🇪🇺 An Afghan Taliban delegation met EU officials in Brussels for the first time. The talks focused on returning Afghan nationals who have no right to stay in Europe. The EU hasn’t recognised the Taliban government, but says limited engagement is needed to make deportations happen.

• Context: The Taliban continues to impose severe restrictions in Afghanistan, especially on women and girls.

🇮🇱🇦🇲 Israel’s government voted to recognise the Armenian genocide. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called the recognition a moral duty for Israel.

• Context: Armenians have long pushed for international recognition of the mass killings carried out during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Up to 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have been killed. Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, rejects the claim that the events amounted to genocide. Israel had previously avoided formal recognition, mainly because it was worried about damaging relations with Turkey. But ties between the two countries have worsened in recent years - Turkey has suspended most trade with Israel.

🇨🇦 CBC/Radio-Canada (Canada’s public broadcaster) has become a full member of the European Broadcasting Union, which means Canada is now eligible to take part in Eurovision. Prime Minister Carney raised the idea in his 2025 budget to build closer ties with Europe.

• Context: Canada wouldn’t be the first non-European country to take part. Israel and Australia regularly compete. Morocco competed once in 1980.

🇹🇿 Tanzania has banned all political rallies less than two weeks before planned youth-led protests.

• Context: During protests after last year’s election, 518 people died from “unnatural causes,” including 197 who were shot dead. The government has denied accusations that security forces used excessive force and blamed the violence on protesters.

🇺🇦🇺🇸 President Trump reportedly privately told President Zelensky to act “more boldly” and said he doesn’t believe Putin will make a deal without pressure. Trump recently joined other G7 leaders in reaffirming support for Ukraine.

🇰🇷 South Korea will train its entire active-duty military to operate drones to counter the threat from North Korea.

• Context: North Korea has been learning drone warfare directly from the war in Ukraine, where its troops have been supporting Russia. South Korea is also facing a shrinking military (-20% over 6 years) because of its declining population.

🇸🇸 South Sudan says it will hold its first-ever election on December 22. The country gained independence in 2011, with President Salva Kiir in power for 15 years.

Timeline:

• 2011 - 99% of South Sudanese voted to become independent.

• 2015 - The first scheduled election was postponed due to civil war.

• 2018 - A peace deal promised elections, but those were also postponed amid tensions between the president (government) and vice president (opposition).

• 2025 - Fighting between the government and opposition resumed.

There are still doubts over whether the vote will actually happen. We also don’t know if the opposition leader will be allowed to participate.

🇦🇺 A new study found Australia’s under-16 social media ban hasn’t made any meaningful difference so far. Researchers found that around 85% of under-16s were still using social media after the ban came into force in December.

• Context: Since Australia’s ban took effect, several governments have already introduced similar rules (Malaysia) or pledged to do so soon (the UK, France, Greece, Spain, Denmark, and many others). However, not everyone is convinced. Italian Prime Minister Meloni doesn’t believe the ban would be effective, and Estonia has been a vocal critic of it since the discussion began. Check out my Zoom call with Estonia’s digital minister here.