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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Persian Gulf crisis
  • BW Group say that their ship crew saw an oil tanker suffer an explosion after being hit by “an external source” off the coast of the port city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. They also say oil may have leaked from the site of the blast. (The Times of Israel)
• Tigray conflict
  • A International Rescue Committee staffer and three Danish Refugee Council aid workers are shot dead in Ethiopia's Tigray Region. (The Telegraph)

Disasters and accidents

• 2020–21 South Pacific cyclone season
  • Cyclones Yasa and Zazu threaten several Pacific countries, especially Fiji. Yasa intensifies into a category 2 storm and hovers in the waters between Fiji and Vanuatu and is expected to reach Fiji on Thursday as category 4. Zazu unleashes heavy rains in Tonga. (RNZ)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
      • Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announces that the Go To Travel campaign will be suspended nationwide from December 28 to January 11. He also said Tokyo and Nagoya will be removed as eligible destinations for the campaign. (The Japan Times)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, COVID-19 vaccine
      • Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says that Singapore has approved a vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech. The country expects to receive shots by year-end, and 5.7 million people could be vaccinated for free by third quarter of 2021. (CNBC)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea
      • South Korea orders schools in Seoul and surrounding areas to close from tomorrow until the end of the month due to rise of new COVID-19 cases, which has broke records not seen since the pandemic began. (CNA)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in North America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
      • COVID-19 vaccine
        • COVID-19 pandemic in West Virginia
          • West Virginia Governor Jim Justice becomes one of the first top elected officials to take the vaccine. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
        • The United States begins administering their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, becomes the first person in the country to receive the vaccine outside of a clinical trial. (ABC News)
      • The death toll from COVID-19 in the United States exceeds 300,000. (CNN)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
      • Canada kicks off their vaccination campaign by administering the vaccine to healthcare workers and elderly nursing home residents. (Reuters)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands
    • Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte impose a tough five-week nationwide lockdown, announces that schools, non-nessential shops, museums and gyms will close at midnight until January 19. (AP)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa
    • South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announces to limit public gatherings to no more than a 100 people for indoor events and 250 for outdoor events and extension of nationwide curfew from 11:00 pm to 4:00 am throughout the festive season. He also said alcohol will only be sold from Monday to Thursday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm local time. (Independent Online)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
    • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announces that the country will impose a five-day full lockdown beginning on December 31 at 9:00 pm local time until January 4, as the new daily deaths hit a record 229 in the past 24 hours. (Arab News)

International relations

• Sudan–United States relations, Global war on terrorism
  • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces that the United States has removed Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Sudan had been on the list since 1993 on grounds of Omar al-Bashir's regime harboring militant groups including al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah. Prime Minister of Sudan Abdalla Hamdok welcomes the decision. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• 2020 United States presidential election
  • The Electoral College meets in the state capitols to officially elect the next President. Joe Biden, the presumptive president-elect, is officially elected president after securing California's 55 electoral votes and will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021. Outgoing President Donald Trump continues to dispute the results of the election, claiming widespread electoral fraud, despite numerous failed lawsuits to the contrary. (The Guardian)
  • The Michigan State Capitol is closed to the public for the day and its legislative sessions are cancelled due to "credible threats of violence" in response to the election. (CNN)
• List of Trump administration dismissals and resignations
  • President Trump announces that Bill Barr will resign as United States Attorney General on December 23. (CNBC)

Science and technology

• Several Google services go down without warning around 11:50 UTC, including YouTube, Google Search, and the Google Play Store. The chatting app Discord and mobile video game Pokémon Go also go down. (IGN) (Newsweek)
• Amid controversy over alleged illegal content, Pornhub removes all non-verified user-uploaded videos, which made up the majority of the millions of videos on the platform. Pornhub says its new measures are now "more strict than any social media platform". (BBC)

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