WORLD Radio News - WORLD Radio News: 12-19-25 (2/3)

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

The latest headlines in three minutes from WORLD updated three times throughout the day.Sign-up for the daily Sift email at thesift.org.Support sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth at wng.org/donate.

With World Radio News, I'm Kent Covington. The Trump administration has expanded sanctions against the international criminal court, accusing it of anti-Israel bias. World's Kristen Flavin reports. The new sanctions target two additional judges involved in cases against Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the judges helped advance investigations that the U.S. views as outside the court's authority. The administration argues the ICC is acting politically and overstepping by pursuing cases involving Israel and the U.S., neither of which belongs to the court.

The dispute follows last year's ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, which Israel strongly rejects. For World, I'm Kristen Flavin. A bit of good news on inflation, with prices growing slower than expected last month. New government numbers show prices up 2.7 percent as compared to one year earlier. That was down from 3% in the early fall, and many economists had expected inflation to remain around 3%. Some analysts, though, urge caution as the recent government shutdown disrupted normal collection of data and delayed the report. Energy costs moved higher last month, but core inflation, which leaves out food and fuel, slowed to 2.6%, and that is its lowest level in nearly four years.

Investigators are still working to determine what caused a private business jet to crash in North Carolina. The crash occurred at Statesville Regional Airport Thursday, airport manager John Ferguson. Proxby 10.15 a.m., we got a report of a corporate jet that crashed off the end of the runway on the east end. Officials say all seven people on board were killed, including retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffel, his wife, Christina, and their two children. The C-550 was attempting to land when it went down and burst into flames, sending debris across the runway. The Trump administration is moving ahead with what could be the largest U.S. weapons sailed to Taiwan on record. World's Paul Butler has more. The arms package is valued at more than $10 billion.

It includes missiles, rocket launchers, artillery systems, drones, and hundreds of long-range army tactical missile systems. weapons similar to those the U.S. has sent to Ukraine. The State Department says the sale supports U.S. security interests and helps Taiwan modernize its forces to better defend itself as the military threat from China grows. News of the sale angered Beijing with Chinese officials calling it interference in its internal affairs. For World, I'm Paul Butler.

And I'm Kent Coveington. For more sound journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth, Visit world radio.news.