Armed conflicts and attacks

• Middle Eastern crisis (2023–present)
  • Red Sea crisis
    • People are urged to seek shelter across southern and central Israel, including in Tel Aviv, as the Houthis launch ballistic missiles from Yemen. (The Times of Israel)
  • Syrian civil war
    • Western Syria clashes (December 2024–present)
      • Assadian Ba'athist loyalists kill 14 in clashes with the incumbent Syrian National Coalition forces. (BBC)

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • North Korean involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • The first capture of a North Korean soldier fighting against Ukrainian forces is confirmed by South Korea. (BBC News) (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• 2024 South Korean martial law crisis
  • Acting South Korean president Han Duck-soo is impeached by the National Assembly after he refused to appoint three Constitutional Court judges chosen by the Assembly to oversee president Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment case. Finance minister Choi Sang-mok becomes acting president. (BBC News) (Reuters)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israel–Hamas war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Killing of journalists in the Israel–Hamas war
    • Five journalists of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated Al Quds Today TV are killed in their vehicle by an Israeli airstrike near the Al-Awda Hospital in Deir al-Balah Governorate, Gaza. (CNN) (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Winter of 2024–25 in the Gaza Strip, Gaza Strip evacuations
    • Gaza Strip doctors report that three infants have died due to hypothermia from inadequate shelter in displacement camps amid a decrease in outdoor temperatures. (Al Jazeera)
• Red Sea crisis
  • December 2024 Israeli airstrikes in Yemen
    • Israel carries out a series of airstrikes between Sanaa and Hodeidah in Yemen, hitting a number of facilities, including Sanaa International Airport, and killing at least six people and injuring at least 40 others with the Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus present. (Al Jazeera) (Al Jazeera 2) (YNet)

(BBC)

• Somali Civil War
  • American military intervention in Somalia
    • Al-Shabaab confirms the death of Mohamed Mire Jama, a senior leader of the group, who had been designated as a terrorist by the United States, in an American drone strike near Kunyo Baroow, Hirshabelle State, Somalia. (Idil News) (Garowe Online) (Long WaR Journal)
• Nigerian bandit conflict
  • A Nigerian Air Force jet mistakenly kills ten civilians in Sokoto State, Nigeria, during a bombing raid targeting armed groups in the state, according to state governor Ahmad Aliyu. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• United Kingdom cost-of-living crisis
  • The United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics announces that the UK economy showed no growth in the 3rd quarter of the current fiscal year, following downward revisions. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243
  • Azerbaijani government officials tell Reuters that a Russian military surface-to-air missile launched from a Pantsir-S missile system was responsible for the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that killed 38 people yesterday. Officials also say that the aircraft's GPS navigation system was jammed during the flight. (Euronews) (Reuters)
  • Azerbaijan MP Rasim Musabayov calls for an apology and accountability from Russia following their alleged involvement in the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines flight. (United24Media)
  • Azerbaijan Airlines says that they will provide compensation for the victims and families of those who died in the plane crash. (Trend)
• Hadsel bus accident
  • Three people are killed and at least four others are injured when a bus carrying 58 people crashes into a lake in Hadsel Municipality, Norway. (BBC News) (NRK)

Health and environment

• 2024 Lobitos oil spill
  • The Government of Peru declares a 90-day environmental emergency for parts of Talara province due to an oil spill caused by state-owned oil company Petroperú. (Reuters)

International relations

• 2024 Baltic Sea submarine cable disruptions, Finland–Russia relations
  • 2024 Estlink 2 incident
    • Finnish border guards and police detain a Russian vessel suspected of damaging the Estlink-2 submarine power cable yesterday. (AP)

Law and crime

• A Cambodian court sentences the president of the opposition Nation Power Party Sun Chanthy to two years in prison and also bans Chanthy from running in elections for inciting civil disorder. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• South Korea's opposition files a motion to impeach prime minister and acting president Han Duck-soo, two weeks after president Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached. (BBC News)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israel–Hamas war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • Siege of North Gaza, Gaza famine
      • The United States-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network removes a report estimating that food insecurity conditions in northern Gaza have surpassed the highest IPC famine thresholds, after the United States envoy to Israel criticized the report's methodology as "irresponsible" for "outdated" and "inflated" estimates of the civilian population of Gaza. (FEWS NET) (Times of Israel)
• Somali Civil War
  • Constitutional crisis in Somalia
    • Jubaland crisis
      • The federal government of Somalia imposes a flight ban on Jubaland, including all flights to and from Jubaland, particularly affecting the cities of Kismayo and Doolow. The flight ban was initiated amid ongoing political tensions and military engagements after Jubaland forces reportedly defeated Somali Armed Forces in several locations, including Ras Kamboni, Kulbiyow, and Dolow. (Garowe Online) (The Somali Digest) (Eastleigh Voice)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure, Ukrainian energy crisis
    • A series of Russian ballistic missile and drone strikes target critical energy infrastructure in cities across in Ukraine, killing at least two people, injuring 20 others, and causing widespread emergency blackouts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemns Russian President Vladimir Putin for the "inhumane" attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. (The Kyiv Independent) (The Guardian) (RTÉ)
• Sudanese civil war
  • 2024 famine in Sudan
    • The IPC Famine Review Committee determines the presence of famine in five areas in Darfur and South Kordofan, Sudan, and estimates that five more areas will face famine by May 2025 due to ongoing conflict and blocked aid distribution. (BBC News Hausa)
• Ethiopian civil conflict
  • Ethiopian military forces close the country's border with Somalia following ongoing heavy fighting in rural areas of Harshin, Fafan Zone, between Ethiopia's Somali regional forces and local clan militias after the killing of a local security chief and his bodyguards. Hundreds of people, including children, flee from their homes. (Hiiraan Online) (Somali Guardian)
• Syrian civil war
  • Syria's new government says that fourteen of its troops were killed and 10 others were injured in clashes with Assad regime loyalists in Tartus Governorate. (BBC News) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243
  • An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 aircraft carrying 67 passengers from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, crashes while being diverted to Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 people and injuring 29 others. (Al Jazeera) (NPR)
  • Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev instructs the government to launch a criminal investigation into the crash. (Euronews)
• 2024 Estlink 2 incident
  • HVDC submarine power cable Estlink 2, which connects the power grids of Estonia and Finland, suffers an unexplained outage with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo stating that an investigation into the incident is underway. (AP)

International relations

• 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
  • Lebanon files a new complaint to the UN Security Council over Israel's ceasefire violations. (Bastille Post)

Law and crime

• More than 1,500 inmates escape from a prison in Maputo, Mozambique, after knocking down a wall during a riot. At least 33 people are killed and 15 others are injured. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera)
• Syrian authorities impose a curfew from 6 pm to 8 am in Homs following a series of protests by Alawite and Shi'ite Muslim minority groups. (Reuters)
• A Turkish court sentences the owner and architect of the Grand Isias Hotel in Adıyaman to more than 18 years in prison for negligent homicide after 72 people died when the hotel collapsed in the 2023 earthquakes. (DW)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Kosovan parliamentary election
  • Kosovo's election appeals authority allows the Serb List party, a Serb ethnic party, to participate in the upcoming election, stating that the party meets legal certification requirements. (AP)

Science and technology

• 2024 in archosaur paleontology
  • Scientists confirm the discovery of the Alpkarakush kyrgyzicus dinosaur species in Kyrgyzstan, the first theropod from the Jurassic period to be discovered in Central Asia. (Tempo)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Deir ez-Zor offensive, Eastern Syria insurgency
    • Islamic State militants launch attacks on the town of al-Hawayej in northeastern Syria, against Asayish forces. (SOHR)
  • Protests occur after a Christmas tree was set on fire in Al-Suqaylabiyah, Hama Governorate. (The Week)
  • Turkey's interior minister announces that more than 25,000 Syrian refugees have returned to Syria since former president Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by rebels. (Al Arabiya)
  • Syrian opposition factions announce that they will dissolve and merge under the authority of the Ministry of Defense. (Reuters)
• Haiti crisis
  • Gang war in Haiti
    • Three people are killed by gunmen in Haiti opening fire at the journalists, police and medical staff at the reopening of the Port-au-Prince General Hospital. (BBC News)
• 2024 Afghanistan–Pakistan skirmishes
  • At least 46 people are killed in a series of airstrikes by the Pakistan Army against alleged Pakistani Taliban hideouts in Paktika Province, Afghanistan. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

• National symbols of the United States
  • U.S. President Joe Biden signs a bill making the bald eagle the official national bird of the United States. (NBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024–25 Australian bushfire season
  • Residents of the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia, evacuate due to bushfires, with more than 41,000 hectares (100,000 acres) already burnt by the bushfires. (BBC News)
• 2024 Lobitos oil spill
  • Residents of Lobitos and Cabo Blanco, Peru, demonstrate against Peruvian state-owned oil company PetroPerú following an oil spill that contaminated six beaches. (La República)
• Twelve people are killed and four others are injured in an explosion at an explosives factory in Kavakli, Balıkesir Province, Turkey. (Al Jazeera)
• The Russian cargo ship MV Ursa Major, allegedly used to evacuate military personnel and equipment from Russian bases in Syria, sinks in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain following an explosion in the ship's engine room. The Russian Foreign Ministry says that 14 of the 16 crew members have been rescued, with the two others missing. (Politico)

International relations

• 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Syrian civil war
  • Palestine factions hand weapons to the Lebanese army and vacate their headquarters. (Middle East Monitor)
• Denmark–United States relations
  • The Danish government announces an increase in defense spending for Greenland hours after US president-elect Donald Trump repeated his interest in purchasing Greenland, although they affirm that the two are unrelated. (BBC News)
• Russia–United States relations
  • Gene Spector, an American citizen of Russian descent, is sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Russian court for espionage. (CNN)

Law and crime

• Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia
  • Human rights organization Reprieve reports that Saudi Arabia executed 330 people this year. (First Post)
• At least 21 people are killed and 25 others are injured in a series of violent incidents in Mozambique following the previous day's confirmation by the high court of Daniel Chapo as the winning presidential candidate in the recent election. (ABC News)
• Hong Kong offers bounties of HK$1 million (US$128,728) each for six foreign pro-democracy activists accused of violating the national security law, including Tony Chung, and also revokes the passports of seven others, citing actions such as incitement to secession, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces. (Reuters)
• Five people accused of being Al-Qaeda supporters are arrested in four cities in Italy. (Il Gazzettino)
• Four participants in the November 2024 Amsterdam riots are sentenced to prison, with 32-year-old Sefa Ö handed the longest sentence of six months. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

• Protests against Donald Trump, Panama–United States relations
  • Protesters gather at the U.S. Embassy in Panama City over Trump's threat to take back the Panama Canal. (France24) (DW)
• Maia Sandu is sworn in for her second four-year term as the President of Moldova. (Euronews)
• In his Christmas speech, Grand Duke of Luxembourg Henri announces that he will abdicate on 3 October 2025 and hand over the throne to his son, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume. (The Brussels Times)
• ʻAisake Eke is appointed as the new Prime Minister of Tonga. (RNZ)

Science and technology

• NASA large strategic science missions
  • The Parker Solar Probe attempts its closest-ever approach to the Sun to study the sun's temperatures, radiation, and magnetic field. (BBC News)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali Civil War
  • Constitutional crisis in Somalia
    • Jubaland crisis
      • Violent clashes occur between the Ethiopia-backed Jubaland forces and the Somali Armed Forces in Dolow, Gedo Region, Somalia, with Jubaland forces later taking control of the town. (Garowe Online) (Hiiraan Online)
      • The mayor of Badhadhe District, Lower Juba, Hassan Nuur Cabdi, survives an ambush attack which killed at least five of his security personnel. (Idil News) (Hiiraan Online)
• Syrian civil war
  • Operation Dawn of Freedom
    • Manbij offensive
      • The pro-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces launch a counter-offensive on recently captured pro-Turkish faction positions in Manbij, Aleppo Governorate, Syria, and recapture several villages. (SOHR)
  • Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi meets with de facto Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus to discuss the support of the Syrian transitional government. (Al Jazeera)
• Haitian crisis
  • Gang war in Haiti
    • 2024 Cité Soleil massacre
      • The death toll from the mass killing by a gang in Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, increases to 207, according to the United Nations. (Al Jazeera)
• Israel–Hamas war
  • Assassination of Ismail Haniyeh
    • For the first time, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claims responsibility for the July 2024 assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran. (Reuters)
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Attacks on protected zones and civilians in Gaza
    • At least seven people are killed in Israeli airstrikes on a safe zone in al-Mawasi, Gaza. Several other attacks across the Gaza Strip kill at least 43 others. (Al Jazeera)
• Mexican drug war
  • Seventeen people are killed in a string of attacks over the past 48 hours across the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. (El País)

Business and economy

• Student loans in the United States, Economic policy of the Joe Biden administration
  • The Biden administration officially withdraws two major legislative plans that would have granted student loan forgiveness to more than 30 million Americans. (Forbes) (CNBC)
• Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda announce plans to for a merger by 2026, potentially forming the third-largest automotive company in the world. (Al Jazeera) (Nikkei Asia)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024 famine in Sudan
  • The Government of Sudan suspends participation in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger monitoring system, in advance of a new report about famine occurring in the nation. (Reuters)
• Three people are killed and another is injured in severe storms in Rome, Italy, while two people go missing on the Gran Sasso d'Italia massif. (Roma Today) (Il Messaggero)
• Weather of 2024
  • The Santa Cruz Wharf of Santa Cruz, California, United States, partially collapses from high waves of a Pacific storm. (BBC News)

International relations

• Panama–United States relations
  • Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino rebuffs U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's recent threat to reimpose U.S. control over the Panama Canal, saying its shipping tolls aren't inflated and that Panamanian sovereignty over the waterway isn't negotiable. (Bloomberg)

Law and crime

• 2024 New York City Subway immolation
  • A man is arrested after fatally burning a woman yesterday on a Subway train in New York City, United States. (Al Jazeera)
• Capital punishment by the United States federal government
  • U.S. President Joe Biden commutes the death sentences of 37 out of the 44 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment. The exceptions are Dylann Roof, Robert Gregory Bowers, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who received death sentences for terrorism or hate-motivated mass murder-related crimes, as well as all four prisoners on US Military death row. (CBS News)
• Minas Gerais road crash
  • The suspected truck driver that caused a multiple-vehicle collision and killed at least 41 people in Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais, Brazil, turns himself in to local authorities. (R7) (G1)
• A man is arrested and charged with animal cruelty for shooting and killing 98 kangaroos on a military base in Singleton, New South Wales, Australia. (news.com.au)
• Guatemalan police rescue at least 160 children and 40 women held by the Lev Tahor Jewish sect and accuse the group of child sexual abuse, forced marriage, and human trafficking. Members of Lev Tahor broke into the care center in Oratorio, Santa Rosa Department, where the children were being held on Sunday. (Al Jazeera) (The Times of Israel) (The Independent)

Politics and elections

• Following the December 1 parliamentary elections in Romania, President Klaus Iohannis asks incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to form a new coalition, majority Cabinet, comprising the PSD, PNL and UDMR parties. The Government is named and confirmed by the Chamber of Deputies (Romania), and takes office the same day. (France 24)
• 2024 French political crisis
  • Following the collapse of the Barnier government, French President Emmanuel Macron announces a new center-right, minority coalition Government led by François Bayrou as new Prime Minister. (DW)
• Second presidency of Donald Trump
  • The United States House Committee on Ethics releases a report on former Florida representative and Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz, revealing that Gaetz paid women for sexual activity, committed statutory rape with a 17-year-old, possessed and used illegal drugs, accepted financial gifts beyond House limits, and assisted a woman in obtaining a passport. (BBC News)
  • Joel Greenberg, a former IRS employee of Florida is sentenced to 11 years in prison on 6 federal charges for underage sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking, identity theft, producing a fake ID card, and conspiring to defraud the US federal government, receiving a reduced sentence after testifying against eight other men including Gaetz, after initially facing 33 federal charges. (CNN)
• The Greek government restores citizenship to 10 members of the former royal family, including the children and grandchildren of King Constantine II, following their agreement to adopt the surname "De Grece", renounce royal claims, and formally recognize Greece's status as a parliamentary democracy. (AP)

Science and technology

• A team of scientists at the North-Eastern Federal University in Sakha Republic, Russia, unveil the highly preserved remains of a 50,000-year-old female juvenile woolly mammoth named Yana. The researchers say Yana was roughly about one-year-old when she died, likely from drowning, and was discovered in the Batagaika crater by locals. (BBC News)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Fall of the Assad regime
    • Syrian mass graves
      • An Assad regime mass grave containing the remains of 93 civilians, including several women and children, is discovered in Qarfa, Daraa Governorate, Syria, with all of the bodies reportedly burnt alive. (SOHR)
  • In the highest-ranking state visit since the regime change, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan holds a meeting with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus to support the transitional government. (Reuters)
• Israel–Hamas war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip kill at least 28 people. (France 24)
• Red Sea crisis
  • The US military states that the USS Gettysburg guided-missile cruiser accidentally shot down a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet and injured one of its pilots in a friendly fire incident following a series of airstrikes on Yemen. However, the Houthis claim that they shot down the fighter jet. (CNN) (Middle East Monitor)

Business and economy

• Residents of Logroño, La Rioja, Spain, win the world's biggest lottery, the Spanish Christmas Lottery's El Gordo €2.7 billion prize. (DW)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024–25 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season
  • The death toll from Cyclone Chido in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, increases to 94. (DW)
• 2024 Gramado Piper PA-42 crash
  • Ten people are killed and seventeen others are injured when a Piper PA-42 Cheyenne crashes into shops and a hotel while taking off from the Canela Airport in Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. (CNN) (ASN)
• The death toll from the stampede at two food distribution events in Abuja and Okija, Nigeria, increases to 32. (DW)
• Seven people are killed when a private Cessna 207 crashes into a hill in El Montoso, Jalisco, Mexico. (Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archive)
• An Airbus EC135 ambulance helicopter crashes near a hospital in Muğla, Turkey, killing all four people onboard. (AP)
• Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge collapse
  • Four people are killed and 13 others are missing when a highway bridge across the Tocantins River between Estreito, Maranhão, and Aguiarnópolis, Tocantins, Brazil, partially collapses. (Xinhua) (G1)

International relations

• Russia–Slovakia relations
  • Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico holds a previously unannounced meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. (The Moscow Times)

Politics and elections

• 2024 Novi Sad protests
  • Around 100,000 people gather at the Slavija Square in Belgrade, Serbia, to protest against the government response to the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse and demand the resignation of President Aleksandar Vučić and the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. President Vučić is dismissive of the protests and accuses the opposition of manipulating the protestors to gain political power. (Al Jazeera) (DW) (N1)
• New Zealand rejects the Cook Islands' proposal to establish its own passports and citizenship but expresses willingness to discuss independence if initiated by Cook Islanders. (Reuters)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • At least seven Ukrainian drones strike Kazan, Russia, six of which reportedly hit residential areas, including a 32-story apartment building. (Ukrainska Pravda) (Reuters)
• Haitian crisis
  • The Haitian government declares a one-month state of emergency amid the escalating gang violence and the deepening security crisis. (Caribbean National Weekly)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • Sixteen Pakistan Army soldiers are killed and five others are critically injured when Pakistani Taliban militants launch an overnight raid on an army post in Makeen, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (Al Arabiya)
• Red Sea crisis
  • Sixteen people are injured in a Houthi missile attack on the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area in Israel. (CNN)

Business and economy

• Constitutional crisis in Somalia
  • The Puntland region of Somalia announces that it will introduce a new regional currency in 2025. The region had previously shifted to use of the United States dollar in 2021, due to severe inflation of the Somali shilling. (Garowe Online) (Hiiraan Online) (Horseed Media)

Disasters and accidents

• Minas Gerais road crash
  • Forty-one people are killed when a bus collides with a granite block that fell from a truck on a highway in Minas Gerais, Brazil. (The Guardian) (G1) (O Globo)
• Ten people are killed and many others are injured in a stampede during a distribution of food and clothes at a church in Abuja, Nigeria. (AP)
• Nine people are killed and 13 more injured when a bus plunges into a ravine in Pa Alam, Lorestan, Iran. (AP)
• Two people are killed and three others are missing when an under-construction six-story building collapses in Sohana village, Mohali district, India. (Zee News)

Law and crime

• Censorship of TikTok
  • The Albanian government announces a one-year ban on the social media platform TikTok beginning in 2025, following a fatal stabbing of a teenager in November in connection to a confrontation on the platform. (Al Jazeera) (Türkiye Today)

Politics and elections

• 2024 Icelandic parliamentary election
  • The Social Democratic Alliance, led by Kristrún Frostadóttir, forms a coalition government in Iceland's Althing with the Liberal Reform Party and the People's Party. Kristrún becomes Iceland's youngest prime minister at 36 years old. (CNA)
• 2025 United States federal budget, Government shutdowns in the United States
  • The United States Senate passes a funding bill, with President Joe Biden subsequently signing the bill into law, thereby averting a government shutdown. (CBS News)