No 12725, Monday 09 Sep 2019, Bruno

ACROSS
5   Hold on, swapping hands for support (6) CRUTCH C(-l+r)RUTCH
7   Charming daughter meets love in Middle Eastern locale, on vacation (8) ADORABLE {A{D}{0}RAB}{Lo..lE}
9   Love plied surreptitiously for stack of fuel (8) WOODPILE {WOO}{PLIED*}
10 Most recent city tax (6) LATEST {LA}{TEST}
11 Memory of cello concert I played starting to cool off (12) RECOLLECTION {cELLO+CONCERT+I}*
13 SunTrust Banks have unchanged balance (6) STASIS {Su...sT}{AS IS}
15 Distort dress by cutting leg short (6) GARBLE {GARB}{LEg}
18 Hard-hearted, brutal China forced East under control (12) UNCHARITABLE {BRUTAL+CHINA} over {E}
21 Husband consumed by God after boy found God (6) BRAHMA {RA{H}MA}<=>{B}
22 Propose Democrat to replace new rule (8) DOMINATE (-n+d)DOMINATE
23 Rogue finally wants to turn empty life on the run (8) SWINDLER {w..tS}{WIND}{LifE}
24 Battle and persist without leader in conflict (6) RESIST pERSIST*

DOWN
1   Academic boss has loans (8) STUDIOUS {STUD}{IOUS}
2   Shake until HR intervenes (6) THRILL {T{HR}ILL}
3   Depressed member of parliament lounging around (3-5) LOW-LYING {L{OWL}YING}
4   Shameless desire to get one to take bottom off (6) WANTON {WANT}{ONe}
6   Private compartment to work or to meet (8) ROOMETTE*
7   Long time, no see – said secretary, finally at office (6) AGENCY {AGE}{N}{C(~see}{s...rY}
8   Get rid of cabinet's contents (4) LOSE cLOSEt
12 Shouts "Let Luau get rowdy!" before starting to sing (8) ULULATES {LET+LUAU}*{Sing}
14 ... therefore, wire carrying current becomes warm (8) SOCIABLE {SO}{C{I}ABLE}
16 Learns to struggle while absorbing Eastern lessons' essence on authenticity (8) REALNESS {LEARNS}* over {E}{leSson}
17 Think lost love can be replaced by a Cruise? (6) WANDER W(-o+a)ANDER
18 Release Chinese arrested in gun raid (6) UNHANG {UN{HAN}G*}
19 Detain Indian setter guzzling up drink (6) IMMURE {I}{M{RUM<=}E}
20 Escalate goal dispute (4) GROW {G}{ROW}

Reference List
Daughter = D, Love = 0, East = E, Husband = H, Boy = B, Democrat = D, New = N, No = N, Current = I, Eastern = E, Indian = I, Goal = G

GRID