Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Afghanistan; December 2020 Afghanistan targeted killings
  • Journalist Malalai Maiwand, an activist for women's and children's rights, and her driver are shot dead on their way to work in Jalalabad, Nangarhar. The Islamic State – Khorasan Province claimed responsibility for the attack. (DW) (Reuters)
• 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war
  • A large military parade is held in Baku to celebrate Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is among the foreign attendees. The parade includes thousands of soldiers, flyovers from helicopters and fighter jets, and a Turkish special forces brigade. (Al Jazeera)

Business and economy

• Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • The European Central Bank expands its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme by €500 billion to €1.85 trillion and extends the scheme to March 2022, saying it expects "a more pronounced near-term impact of the pandemic on the Eurozone economy and a more protracted weakness in inflation than previously envisaged". (Reuters)
• Mastercard and Visa cut financial ties with Pornhub following an investigation by The New York Times into child sexual abuse content and rape pornography on the website. Pornhub says that the moves are "exceptionally disappointing" as well as crushing news for the "hundreds of thousands of models who rely on our platform for their livelihoods". (Bloomberg)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
      • Tokyo reports a record 602 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the prefecture to 45,529. (Nikkei Asia)
      • Japan reports a record 2,973 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to official figures released by the government. (Kyodo News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
      • Malaysia reports a new single-day record of 2,234 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide number of confirmed cases to 78,499. (Malay Mail)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships
      • The Singapore government said that a suspected COVID-19 case aboard a "cruise-to-nowhere" was a false alarm after a passenger aboard Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas cruise ship who tested positive for COVID-19 has been found not to have contracted the virus. (AFP via CBS News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea
      • South Korea surpasses 40,000 total cases of COVID-19. (KBS World)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Belarus
      • Belarus reports a new single-day record of 1,939 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 154,392. (Belta)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark
      • Health Minister Magnus Heunicke announces the expansion of the country's partial lockdown measures to 31 other municipalities, beginning tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. local time. This comes after the country reports a record 3,132 new cases in the past 24 hours. (The Local Denmark)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in France
      • Prime Minister Jean Castex announces that the country will delay the reopening of cultural venues and introduce a night-time curfew from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. local time, where stay-at-home order will be lifted as planned on December 15 as it struggles to curb the spread of COVID-19. (BBC News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Germany
      • Germany reports a new single-day record of 23,679 cases, according to the Robert Koch Institute, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,242,203. (RND)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden
      • Sweden reports a record 7,935 new cases in the past 24 hours. (Reuters)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in North America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
      • COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario
        • Ontario reports a new single-day record of 1,983 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the province to 134,783. (CFTO-DT)
      • COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia
        • British Columbia reports a record 28 new deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the provincial death toll to 587. (Global News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
      • COVID-19 pandemic in North Dakota
        • North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum announces that the state has extended their mask mandate and limits on gatherings until January 18. (WCCO-TV)
      • TV personality Ellen DeGeneres announces that she has contracted COVID-19. Her contraction of the virus prompts production of her show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, to be halted until January 2021. (NBC News)
  • COVID-19 vaccine
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina
      • Argentine President Alberto Fernández announces the purchase of 10 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, and says that he will be the first person to receive the vaccine in order to prove that it is safe. An initial shipment of 600,000 doses will be received before the end of the year. (France 24)
    • Tozinameran
      • An expert panel advising the FDA recommends granting Tozinameran emergency approval for usage in the United States. (NPR)
      • Saudi Arabia approves Tozinameran as a safe vaccine. (Arab News)
    • Moderna announces that they will begin testing their vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, on adolescents aged 12–17 years. (CNBC)
• 2020 H5N8 outbreak
  • The Japanese Agricultural Ministry reports new cases of a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza (H5N8) at poultry farms in Saiki, Oita and Kinokawa, Wakayama. Authorities have started culling 56,000 chickens at the farm in Saiki as well as about 67,000 chickens at the farm in Kinokawa. (Nippon.com)

International relations

• Israel–Morocco normalization agreement, International recognition of Israel, Israel–Morocco relations, Political status of Western Sahara, 2020
  • The United States says that Morocco will normalize diplomatic relations with Israel, becoming the fourth Arab country to do so in recent months, in an agreement mediated by the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump also says that he recognizes "Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory". Morocco says that the United States "will open a consulate in Western Sahara as part of Morocco’s deal with Israel". (The Jerusalem Post) (Reuters)
• Foreign relations of Norway
  • Norway's Storting votes to lower the country's financial assistance package to the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestinian territories by $3.4 million over concerns of anti-Semitic content and incitement to violence in Palestinian school curricula. (Ynet News) (European Jewish Press)
• Netherlands–Russia relations
  • The Netherlands expels two Russian diplomats based in The Hague, who it accuses of being part of a Foreign Intelligence Service-led "espionage network" targeting the high-tech sector. Russia describes the Netherlander accusations as "unfounded", and says that the expulsion of its citizens was "provocative". (BBC News)

Law and crime

• LGBT rights in Bhutan
  • Bhutan's parliament passes a bill decriminalizing homosexuality. The bill will need to be approved by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in order to become law. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• European Union response to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • The European Council agrees on a compromise deal to unlock €1.8 trillion for the budget of the European Union and for the Next Generation EU recovery plan. (The New York Times)