Australia PM will propose tougher gun laws after Bondi Beach mass shooting
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media at Parliament House Canberra on December 14, 2025 in Canberra, Australia. (Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The Australian government is “prepared to take whatever action is necessary,” after a shooting that left 15 people dead and more than 40 injured at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said during a press conference on Monday.
Albanese said Sunday would be remembered as a “dark day in Australia’s history,” after authorities said two gunmen — one of whom was killed during the incident — opened fire on an event marking the first night of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
At least 15 people were killed and more than 40 people were injured in the attack, a NSW Health spokesperson said in a statement to media on Monday afternoon. Twenty-seven patients are being treated at eight hospitals in and around Sydney, the spokesperson said.
The prime minister encouraged everyone in Australia to put a candle in their windows on Monday evening to show “that light will indeed defeat darkness.”
Albanese said he planned to “put on the agenda of the national cabinet tougher gun laws,” with details to include “the number of guns that can be used or licensed by individuals” and whether or not licenses for guns should be reviewed after a period of time, he added.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said in a separate press conference that he believes it’s time for a “change to the law in relation to firearms legislation in New South Wales.”
The alleged shooters were father and son, aged 50 and 24, officials said during a news conference. The father was killed and the son is hospitalized with unspecified injuries, according to officials. Their names were not released.
NSW Police Force Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon confirmed there is a 24-year-old male who is in the hospital at the moment and will likely face criminal charges.
Six firearms were collected from the scene, officials said, adding that the father had a gun license and six licensed firearms. Officials said investigators are working to determine whether the six firearms collected from the scene were licensed to the father.
Two improvised explosive devices were also discovered at the scene and were removed to be rendered safe by a bomb disposal unit, according to officials at the news conference.
Speaking to reporters on Monday about the two suspects, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the son is an Australian born citizen and the father arrived in 1998 on a student visa.
Albanese said the son was investigated by authorities in 2019 for links to Islamic State, but that “that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence.”
Albanese on Sunday called the attack “an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism” and “an act of terrorism.” The prime minister called for “national unity” in response to the shooting.
A portrait of 10-year-old Matilda, victim of the Bondi Beach shooting, sits on a flower memorial beside Bondi Pavilion on December 17, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. James D. Morgan/Getty Images
A tiny white coffin was slowly carried out of the synagogue as people sobbed, hugged, clutched teddy bears and held colorful, heart-shaped balloons.
Matilda’s family moved from Ukraine to Australia “for a good life,” a rabbi told The Associated Press.
Matilda’s mother told ABC News that this photo of Matilda in a yellow dress with her face painted was taken on the day she was killed.
In an online fundraiser, a teacher wrote that she knew Matilda — whose last name has not been released — as a “bright, joyful, and spirited child who brought light to everyone around her.”
Matilda was among the 15 people killed when two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration this weekend in what officials called an antisemitic terror attack. More than 40 others were wounded.
One gunman was killed at the scene and the second is in custody and facing charges.
ABC News’ Nataliia Popova contributed to this report.
Greenland residents and political leaders have publicly rejected suggestions by U.S. President Donald Trump that the Arctic island could become part of the United States. Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, has emphasized that its future will be decided by its own people, with officials stating that the island is not for sale and does not wish to become American. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The heads of all 27 European Union member states will gather in Brussels on Thursday for what the body is calling an “extraordinary” summit regarding the recent crisis in transatlantic relations prompted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland.
European leaders “will discuss recent developments in transatlantic relations and their implications for the EU and coordinate on the way forward,” a notice posted to the website of the European Council — the body made up of EU national leaders — said.
The meeting, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time, comes after several weeks of tensions between the U.S. and its European allies over the fate of Greenland, a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark which Trump has repeatedly said — across both his first and second terms in office — that he wants to acquire for the U.S.
The issue has dominated this week’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Trump addressed the event on Wednesday, swinging between apparent threats against NATO allies over Greenland while also ruling out the use of military force to seize the massive Arctic island.
Trump described Greenland as a “piece of ice” and framed his proposed acquisition of the territory — which he several times incorrectly referred to as Iceland, though the White House denied that he misspoke — as payment for decades of U.S. contributions to NATO and European security.
Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte after his address. Later, Trump wrote on social media that the “framework of a future deal” on Greenland had been reached on Greenland.
The president said he would shelve plans to impose tariffs on eight NATO allies who deployed small numbers of troops to Greenland earlier this month — a threat that prompted fierce criticism from European leaders and raised the prospect of a transatlantic trade war.
Neither Trump nor Rutte immediately revealed the details of the purported deal. Trump told CNN that the U.S. got “everything we wanted,” while Rutte told Fox News that the issue of Greenland’s sovereignty “did not come up” in his meeting with the president.
A NATO spokesperson told ABC News that trilateral talks between the U.S., Greenland and Denmark were ongoing.
Rutte told Reuters on Thursday, “We came to this understanding that collectively as NATO, we have to step up here, including the U.S.”
Rutte said that minerals exploitation in Greenland was not discussed during his talks with Trump on Wednesday, and that specific negotiations relating to Greenland will continue between Washington, Copenhagen and Nuuk.
“You can always take Donald Trump at his word,” Rutte said. “He is the leader of the free world, and he is doing what I would love for a leader of the free world to do.”
On Thursday morning, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement that Copenhagen and Nuuk have been coordinating on discussions over Greenland. Denmark was in “close dialogue with NATO” and with Rutte before the latter’s meeting with Trump, she said.
“NATO is fully aware of the position of the Kingdom of Denmark. We can negotiate on everything political; security, investments, economy. But we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty,” the prime minister said.
“I have been informed that this has not been the case either. And of course, only Denmark and Greenland themselves can make decisions on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland,” Frederiksen said.
A European Council spokesperson told ABC News there had been “no change in the agenda” for Thursday’s meeting in Brussels following Trump’s announcement of a possible deal.
In a statement on the Council’s website, the body’s President Antonio Costa said that the key topics for discussions on Thursday will include “unity around the principles of international law, territorial integrity and national sovereignty” and “unity in full support and solidarity with Denmark and Greenland.”
Also to be discussed, Costa said, are a “shared transatlantic interest in peace and security in the Arctic, notably through NATO” and “concern that further tariffs would undermine relations and are incompatible with the EU-U.S. trade agreement.”
“The EU wants to continue engaging constructively with the United States on all issues of common interest,” the statement said.
Tourist boats on the River Thames in London, UK, on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. UK businesses ended 2025 feeling more upbeat about the economy’s prospects after they were spared much of the tax pain at last month’s budget. (Carlos Jasso/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The River Thames winds 215 miles through England, carving out the curves and bends that define much of the geography, including London’s. For centuries, the river has been called “monster soup” and the “dirty old river.”
For thirty years, Lubos Grajciarik, known online as Urban Angler Lou, has stood on its banks with a fishing rod in hand.
“Originally, I came from Slovakia… and I have fished most of my life,” he told ABC News.
He has witnessed firsthand the river’s slow transformation, from Canary Wharf’s rise to the quieter stretches upstream at Richmond and at the weir Teddington Lock.
“Yes, there is improvement,” he said. “Water is still polluted. But it is significantly lower than in previous years.”
Further improvement, and the hope for an even cleaner future, now rests on a monumental infrastructure project beneath London: the £4.5 billion, or about $6 billion, Tideway Tunnel, also known as the “super sewer.” The 25-km tunnel — the largest upgrade to London’s sewers in 150 years — is, according to its designers, intended to intercept overflows and capture waste before it reaches the river.
Four of the tunnel’s 21 gates, which are valves that are designed to stop the waste before it enters the Thames, are operational, with more to open in the coming months.
“The newly completed Tideway Tunnel will reduce the volume of discharges entering the tidal Thames in a typical year by 95%,” said a spokesperson for Thames Water, the company responsible for London’s wastewater.
Optimism from those along the riverbank appears to be supported by science. For more than half a century, the City of London Corporation has collaborated with anglers and ecologists in a citizen science project to track fish populations.
Scientists estimate that more than 100 species now inhabit the Thames, a river once declared biologically dead. In 2024, volunteers caught 122 fish across five species — bass, flounder, eel, pouting and dab.
Grajciarik said his catches reflect that resurgence. “There is a mixture of both species,” he said. “Freshwater pike and perch coexist with occasional mullets, sea bus, sea route.” The Thames, where saltwater meets fresh, has become a rare brackish habitat — alive again, yet still fragile.
But beneath the river’s revival, a darker current still runs.
“In many ways, the Thames is a much healthier ecosystem than it was. Though there are other pressures, like pharmaceuticals, chemicals, [micro]plastics, in the sewage now, against heavy metals several decades ago,” said Dr. Alexander Lipp, an Earth and environmental scientist who created Sewage Map, a platform that tracks sewage overflows in real time.
“Only 6% of the rivers and streams in the Thames basin are classed as in ‘good ecological health’ by the Environment Agency,” a spokesperson for Thames21, an environmental charity working to revive rivers in the Thames Basin, told ABC News. “The primary culprit is physical modifications (straightening, deepening or even paving over rivers), followed by sewage pollution.”
Thames Water saw serious pollution incidents more than double in 2024 — to 33 from 14 a year earlier — according to the Environment Agency’s latest report, which was released before the new “super sewer” began opening. Out of nine water companies assessed, Thames Water alone earned a one-star rating, the lowest possible.
Officials at the Environment Agency — a government agency responsible to protect and improve the environment in the U.K. — attributed the decline in the rating to a mix of factors: unusually wet and stormy weather, years of underinvestment, poor infrastructure maintenance and more rigorous monitoring.
Thames Water said that “all discharges of untreated sewage are unacceptable” in a 2023 statement.
Addressing the low ratings, a company spokesperson said in an emailed response to ABC News, that “in 2024-25, Thames Water also made a record capital investment of £2.225 billion. We know we need to further improve for our customers, community, and the environment, which is why we have embarked on the largest ever investment programme, delivering the biggest upgrade to our network in 150 years.”
Yet those promises are shadowed by debt — nearly £17 billion, or about $22.3 billion, as of March 2025 — amid the growing pressure of climate change. The company said this month that its debt had grown to nearly £20 billion and that it was negotiating with its creditors.
“Any sewage discharged into the Thames negatively affects the river, increasing nutrient loading, bacteria, and plastic pollution,” the Thames21 spokesperson said.
“Climate change is something that’s going to make this worse,” Lipp said. He explained that London’s combined sewage system, where stormwater and wastewater share the same pipes, is easily overwhelmed by heavy rain. With more intense downpours expected, spills will likely become even more frequent.
Still, Lipp noted, “I would say that Thames is better than other companies when it comes to data transparency.”
The company says long-term recovery will take patience. “Transforming Thames is a major programme of work that will take time; it will take at least a decade to achieve the scale of change required,” a spokesperson said.
“I can see the people taking more responsibility for our waters,” said Grajciarik, the fisherman. He often reports oil from nearby boats or sewage spills to the U.K.’s Environment Agency’s hotline number.
But whether the massive investments and new infrastructure will be enough remains uncertain.
