Kemi Badenoch vowed to renew the Conservative Party, after winning a tense run-off against Robert Jenrick to become the new leader of the Tories. The MP for North West Essex won with 53,806 votes to 41,000 for Jenrick, arguing for a low-tax, free-market economy and pledging to "rewire, reboot and reprogramme" the British state. At 44-years-old, she is one of the younger leaders for a political party and is the first Black leader of a Westminster party, i.e. British political party.

Following her victory, she said: "The task that stands before us is tough but simple. Our first responsibility as His Majesty's loyal Opposition is to hold this Labour Government to account." In her first media appearance since that victory, she told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that she would tell "hard truths" to the country and her party. But she drew criticism for suggesting that the Partygate scandal that saw Boris Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules had been "overblown".

Germany's three-party ruling coalition collapsed after Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced he will fire Finance Minister Christian Lindner over persistent rifts on spending and economic reforms, a move that paves the way for a snap election within months. Scholz said he had asked Linder to ease spending rules to allow more Ukraine aid, but Lindner refused. The firing effectively ejects Lindner's fiscally conservative Free Democratic Party from the troubled coalition, forcing Scholz to call for a confidence vote that he said would take place on January 15.

If, as is likely, Scholz loses that vote, a snap election is set to take place by March. The renewed political instability in Germany came just hours after Donald Trump's clear win in the U.S. election, a result said to be very discomfiting to German political leaders. In a statement at the chancellery announcing the developments, Scholz mentioned an atmosphere where "uncertainty is growing," in what was widely interpreted to be a reference to the Trump win.

China moved forward with a complaint at the World Trade Organization that alleges the European Union has improperly set anti-subsidy tariffs on new Chinese-made electric vehicles. The Chinese diplomatic mission to the WTO said Monday it "strongly opposes" the measures and insisted its move was designed to protect the EV industry and support a global transition toward greener technologies. The European bloc announced last month it was imposing import duties of up to 35% on electric vehicles from China, alleging the Chinese exports were unfairly undercutting EU industry prices.

Electric vehicles have become a major flashpoint in a broader trade dispute over the influence of Chinese government subsidies on European markets and Beijing's burgeoning exports of green technology to the bloc. China alleged that the EU move amounted to "an abuse of trade remedies" that violates WTO rules, and amounted to "protectionist" measures, according to the mission's statement. Valdis Dombrovskis, the executive vice president of the EU's Commission, called the steps "proportionate and targeted".

A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security forces in restive northwestern Pakistan, killing four officers and wounding five others, officials said, while on the same day two schoolchildren were killed when a mortar exploded near them elsewhere in the region. The roadside bombing happened Wednesday in South Waziristan district, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, local police officer Dilawar Khan said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, has stepped up its assaults in the region since its ally the Taliban seized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.

Later the same day, a mortar fired by insurgents landed near a road in the Tirah valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, killing two schoolchildren who were going to school on foot, police said. The Pakistani military has launched dozens of operations against the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in the region, but militants continue to carry out frequent attacks.