Olaf Scholz was dumped out of his role as German Chancellor unceremoniously as his center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) lost 86 seats in a contest that proved catastrophic for parties on the left of the political spectrum. Most notably, perhaps, the election saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) take second place, winning 20.8% of the overall vote—twice as good as their result in 2021—gaining 69 seats for a total of 152

Since beginning his second term a month ago, U.S. President Donald J. Trump has announced, imposed, and floated a raft of trade policies that have threatened previously strong relationships with countries allied to the United States, economically and otherwise. Chief among these fairly unprecedented—but not particularly unexpected—measures was the announcement of “a 25% additional tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% additional tariff on imports from China," with “a lower 10% tariff” on imports of Canadian energy resources.

On the afternoon of 19 January, the popular social media platform TikTok services in the United States were restored after a brief ban that ended up lasting all of 14 hours. The ban, which went into effect around 10:30 PM EST on the night of 18 January, was reversed just over half a day later, nearly 24 hours before Trump’s inauguration. While Trump himself went on a crusade against TikTok during his first term, he warmed to the platform’s continuation during his most recent presidential campaign, arguing that a ban of the app would empower one of its arch-rivals, Facebook, which he called at the time an “enemy of the people”, a frequent theme of Trumpian attacks.

James Earl Carter Jr., former peanut farmer, Governor of Georgia, US Navy veteran, 39th President of the United States of America, and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, died at age 100 on Sunday, 29 December 2024, over 22 months after he began receiving hospice care. Upon his 100th birthday in October of 2024, Carter became the first former U.S. president to reach the century mark, with George H. W. Bush the closest, who died at the age of 94 in 2018.

South Korea was plunged into crisis, chaos, and turmoil in the late hours of Tuesday, December 3 as the country’s President, Yoon Suk Seol, made the shockingly brazen decision to declare martial law. This declaration was swiftly reversed, as Yoon backed down and lifted the order just over 6 hours later following an emergency vote by members of the National Assembly. The decree, which went into effect at 11 pm local time (GMT+9), banned all forms of protest, suspended activity by parliament and political parties, and placed media under full government control, although very few - if any - of these steps eventually went into effect.