Reuters World News - Australia shooting, Ukraine, Jimmy Lai, Chile and Republicans

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Australia vows stricter gun laws after a father and son shot and killed 15 people at Bondi Beach. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Kyiv can drop its NATO membership goal. A Hong Kong court finds media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty of foreign collusion. And a poll shows Republicans still hold the edge with older voters. Plus, Chile makes a sharp rightward shift.   Listen to Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Find the Recommended Read here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. It's Monday, December 15th. Today, a father and son are revealed to be the Bondi Beach shooters. Zelensky offers to drop Ukraine's NATO aspirations. Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai is convicted of national security offences. And the latest Reuters Ipsos poll shows Republicans hold the edge with older voters. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. seven days a week. A fun-filled Hanukkah celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach suddenly descends into chaos. We saw those fireworks at the start,

and then next second we see people lying on the floor. So a kid get a shot. It was probably the worst feeling I was overseen. Lifeguard Trent Tour recounting what he witnessed, a father and son killing 15 people at the Jewish celebration. Earlier, I spoke to Kirsty Needham, who rushed to Bondi in the wake of the attack. When we got there, they were still there.

People were processing it. When they started to speak about what they had seen, the dead bodies on the ground, the injuries, it was hard for them to talk and it's not something that you would commonly see in Australia. There are very few mass casualty events in Australia. Kirsty says attention is a turning to the father and son and their background.

The father died during the father died during, the attack. Authorities say they had been investigating the son in 2019 he was looked at for potential links to a terrorist organisation. Officials have said today, but at that stage it was determined that there was no further threat. The father 50 had come to Australia in 1998 on a student visa and became a resident. He had travelled in and out of Australia. But, but he had come to Australia, But little is known about them. In a remarkable scene, one Sydney resident wrestled a gun from one of the alleged attackers. There is a hero of this attack, 43-year-old Ahmed al-Armad, who's said by local media to be a fruit shock owner.

He's recovering from surgery in hospital. He sustained a bullet wound to his arm and his hand. Again, little is known about him, but local media have reported that he is a Muslim from Syria. Australia has experienced a string of anti-Semitic attacks since the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza. I asked Kirsty about the government's response in the wake of the Bondi shooting. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said

we're doing what we should be doing but they've also looked at gun laws. Australia has some of the world's strictest gun laws but there's been attention paid today to the fact that this 50-year-old gunman had six weapons. The Prime Minister has flagged there could be new restrictions on the number of weapons that someone could own.

There could be restrictions on the length of time that a gun licence lasts for. And just recently, the National Cabinet has announced they're also going to crack down on customs. So fake guns and other weapons coming into the country. Ukraine is willing to drop its ambitions to join NATO. That's according to President Vladimir Zelensky. The move marks a huge shift. shift for Kiev, which has fought for NATO membership as a safeguard against Russia. Zelensky's offer came during five hours of talks in Berlin with US envoys, including Steve Whitkoff and Jard Kushner.

These negotiations continue today. To Hong Kong now, where the High Court has found media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces in the city's highest-profile national security trial. The 78-year-old founder of the now shuttered Apple Daily newspaper faces potential life in prison. The landmark case has drawn international scrutiny of Hong Kong's judicial independence after a sweeping crackdown on rights and freedoms

following 2019 protests. Lai has already spent five years in jail and pleaded not guilty to all charges. And now over to markets and we've got Mike Dolan from Morning Bid with us today to line us up for the week ahead. Mike, some disappointing figures out of China, right?

Hi, Carmel. A big day for Chinese economic numbers. a whole series of releases for November today, all uniformly weak. It has to be said, retailing industry, investment, house prices, all showing well below forecast, well below market forecasts. And in the backdrop, there's this smouldering issue with its longstanding property bust. One of the big state developers, China's Vanky, lots of reports of another missed day. debt payment, which will just keep that story going a lot longer and is weighing on the economy

generally, specifically domestic demand and consumers. So interestingly, Chinese markets have weakened, but they've not weakened as much as the rest of Asia. And this is partly as a result of people expecting some form of stimulus to come through to meet what's expected to be a 5% growth target for next year. And the yuan is at its strongest level in more than a year. which doesn't really help if you're in the middle of a trade war. Thanks, Mike.

Listen to MorningBid wherever you get your podcasts or ask for it on your smart speaker. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley has announced the release of a man held as a person of interest in the Brown University shooting. Officials did not elaborate and why he'd been taken into custody in the first place. While the killer is presumed to remain at large, authorities said they would not reimpose an initial shelter-in-place order for the campus and surrounding community that had been lifted.

The Saturday shooting left two students dead and nine injured. Actor-director and political activist Rob Reiner and his wife have been found dead in their Los Angeles home. There were 78 and 68. Police are investigating the circumstances as an apparent homicide. As an actor, Reiner was best remembered for his role in the TV comedy All in the Family as Mike Meathead Stivik. He then went on to have a prolific Hollywood career,

directing movies such as when Harry met Sally, a few good men and the Princess Bride. Jose Antonio Kast has secured the Chilean presidency in the country's sharpest right-word shift since the end of military dictatorship in 1990. It's a sign of how his far-right anti-immigrant views have gained a wave of new support. Kast has promised to crack down on crime and immigration,

including building border walls and forming a specialized police force to track down and deport migrants in the country illegally. Our senior correspondent, Alexander Villegas, was on the ground for Kast's victory. He won in every region throughout the country. He even won in areas

where the left did well during the first round presidential elections. Kast has been a consistent hardliner throughout his decades-long political career. As a student, he campaigned to keep Pinochet in power. And this is his third presidential run. He's a Catholic who's very conservative in values, has been against abortion the day after a pill, and he's always been quite strong against immigration and security. And this election, crime and immigration have come to dominate the

electoral race. Cheetah is still one of the safest countries in Latin America, but in recent years it's seen a spike in organized crime and immigration, leading many voters, every voter that we spoke to listed crime as their top concern when it came to this election. This is part of what handed Cass to his victory. And now this adds Chile to the list of Latin American countries that have turned right in recent elections. The latest Reuters Ipsos poll suggests big implications for the 2026 midterms for Republicans, with the economy now a key concern. And our poll could also shed some early light on the political narratives shaping the next press. presidential election. Political correspondent Jim Oliphant explains some key takeaways.

Trump is really taking a hit now on the economy, which used to be one of his greatest strength. It's the platform on which he ran against Joe Biden. So it's now, it's interesting that he's being undone by the same forces that propelled him into office. And in fact, last week at his event in Pennsylvania, he sounded very much like Joe Biden in that he was trying to convince Americans that the economy is fine, even though they might think otherwise. And what our poll shows is basically voters are losing faith in his ability to handle the economy. That is going to translate directly to next year's midterms. The saving grace for Republicans, though, the poll also told us that older voters,

and we're talking about voters over 50, they still tend to view the Republican Party as a better bet. And these were the kinds of voters that more reliably turn out in, mid-term year. So if anything is going to save the Republican Party next year, it's going to be these older voters. And for today's recommended read, the restaurateur behind the UK's first Michelin-starred vegan restaurant discusses the rise of meat-free dining. There's a link to the story in the pod notes. For more on any of the stories from today, check out roiders.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week.

We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.