Financial Times - Steff Chávez / US government nears shutdown after Donald Trump attacks bipartisan funding bill

• The US government could shut down within days after Donald Trump appeared to kill a bipartisan funding bill’s chance of passing through Congress.

• The president-elect on Wednesday lashed out at an agreement struck between House Republicans and Democrats to keep the federal government funded beyond Friday, urging his allies on Capitol Hill to reject the “foolish” and “inept” compromise.

• The dramatic collapse of the bipartisan deal just two days before the Friday deadline followed Trump’s criticism on social media, where he said the “only way” to secure a deal would be stop-gap funding “WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling”.

• The death of the compromise means the government could run out of funding before the weekend, halting some federal programmes. Some federal workers would be sent home and pay for federal employees, including those serving in the military, would be suspended.

    
The Guardian - Julian Borger / Israel accused of act of genocide over restriction of Gaza water supply

• Israel’s restriction of Gaza’s water supply to levels below minimum needs amounts to an act of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, a human rights report has alleged.     

• Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigated Israeli attacks on the water supply infrastructure in Gaza over the course of its 14-month war there. It has accused Israeli forces of deliberate actions intended to cut the availability of clean water so drastically that the population has been forced to resort to contaminated sources, leading to the outbreak of lethal diseases, especially among children.

• There were provisional orders from the international court of justice earlier in the year for Israel to halt its offensive and take immediate measures to prevent genocide being committed, pending a court ruling on whether it was already committing the crime.

• There have been nearly 670,000 recorded cases of acute watery diarrhoea since the war began, and more than 132,000 cases of jaundice, a sign of hepatitis. Survivable childhood diseases have also become significantly more lethal because of the destruction of Gaza’s hospitals and health clinics.

Bloomberg / China-EU trade ties ‘on hold’ ahead of Trump’s White House return: Spanish envoy

• Chinese banks raised new mortgage costs for the first time in three years, new data from a research firm shows, as narrowing margins are dragged down by a persistent property slump and slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy. 

• The average mortgage rate for buyers’ first homes in 42 big cities inched up to 3.08% in November from a record low of 3.05% in the previous month, the first increase since October 2021, according to data from Singapore-based firm Data Motion International Trading Pte.

• Chinese banks battling a record low net interest margin — a key measure of profitability — are under pressure to boost their books, which have become a constraint on the central bank’s ability to further bring down interest rates. Deeper cuts forecast next year are set to intensify the challenge for lenders to find ways to deal with declining loan rates.

• China in late September moved to lower costs on as much as $5.3 trillion in outstanding mortgages for homeowners to bolster the property market. Central bank governor Pan Gongsheng said at the time the measures would result in an average 50 basis point cut for borrowers and reduce their annual interest expenses by about 150 billion yuan ($20.6 billion).

              
Euractiv - Nikolaus J. Kurmayer / Berlin to abolish controversial gas transit fee with support from CDU leader

• A controversial German gas tariff contested by central European countries will be abolished on Friday (20 December), following a plea by would-be German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Euractiv has learnt.

• When Germany rapidly filled its gas storage in 2022, it was left with a multi-billion-euro bill. To recoup the cost, all gas entering the country was levied with a charge – even gas just passing through from Western European LNG terminals. Neighbouring EU countries complained, saying the charge stood in the way of replacing Russian gas. As a result, Berlin promised to abolish the rule from 2025.

• When the German government collapsed in November, so did the parliamentary majority, which was essential to adopting the change in law. Now, the CDU (EPP) has stepped up to lend its vote, three sources close to the process told Euractiv.

• The Austrian government has said that the charge, currently at €2.5 per MWh, had already cost the country €60 million and would come in at €750,000 added cost per day should Russian gas flows cease.

   

Our opinion reads for today:

• Foreign Affairs - Peter E. Harrell / How to Stop a Trade War
• Project Syndicate - Richard Haass and Carolyn Kissane / The Energy Transition That Couldn’t