Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali Civil War
  • American military intervention in Somalia
    • U.S. President Donald Trump orders the withdrawal of almost all U.S. troops and assets from Somalia by January 15, according to the Department of Defense. (BBC News)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • A 13-year-old Palestinian is killed by Israeli troops during clashes in the West Bank. (The Washington Post)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea
      • The number of new confirmed cases in South Korea reaches a nine-month high of 629 cases in the last 24 hours, the majority being from the Seoul Capital Area. The country now has 36,332 total confirmed cases, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. (Yonhap News Agency)
      • Acting Seoul Mayor Seo Jung-hyup announces that stores, theatres and other facilities must close at 9:00 p.m. local time for two weeks beginning tomorrow. This announcement comes after the city reported a record 295 new cases. (The Korea Times)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Bahrain
      • Bahrain grants emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech, becoming the second country after the United Kingdom to approve the vaccine. (Arab News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
      • Japan reports a record 45 new deaths in the past 24 hours as the number of severe cases also hitting a record 505 patients. (Nippon.com)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Austria
      • Vienna, Tyrol and Vorarlberg begin a nationwide mass testing of their populations in an effort to limit infections when families meet during Christmas. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary
      • Hungary reports a record 189 new deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide death toll to 5,513. (Hungary Today)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia
      • Health Minister Tomaž Gantar announces that Slovenia plans to launch mass COVID-19 testing before the end of the year as current restrictions have failed to reduce the infection rate. Testing should start after December 11 or 12, when the first 100,000 test kits are expected to be delivered to the country. (The Slovenia Times) (Barron's)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in North America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
      • The United States records 227,885 new cases of COVID-19, breaking a record set the previous day. (The Associated Press via WEYI-TV)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
      • Canada exceeds 400,000 cases of COVID-19. (Global News)

International relations

• Federated States of Micronesia–United States relations
  • The Federated States of Micronesia declines to host the annual Operation Christmas Drop with the U.S. Air Force. The annual operation, which delivers food and other humanitarian aid to Pacific islanders, has been cancelled by Micronesian President David W. Panuelo, who cited the threat of COVID-19. (RNZ)
• Rohingya refugee crisis, Ashrayan Project
  • Despite international pressure to back down, Bangladesh begins transferring thousands of Rohingya refugees to the remote island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh says all the refugees being moved have given consent and that the relocation was voluntary. (BBC News)

Law and crime

• Decriminalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States
  • The House of Representatives votes 228–164 to pass a bill, known as the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, that would decriminalize recreational cannabis at a federal level. (BBC News)
• 2020 Nova Scotia attacks
  • Three people have been arrested for illegally providing ammunition to the gunman who killed 22 people across Nova Scotia, Canada in April. One of the three arrested is the gunman's common-law spouse. (CBC)
• The Mayor of Liverpool, England, Joe Anderson is arrested along with four others for conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation. He is subsequently suspended from the Labour Party. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

• 2020 Montenegrin parliamentary election
  • The parliament of Montenegro approves a new coalition government of centre-right, pro-Serb minority and green parties, formally ending three decades of Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS) rule in the country. New Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić vows to dismantle a state apparatus built by the DPS, and root-out corruption and organised crime. (Reuters)

Science and technology

• The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search completes testing of all Mersenne numbers with exponents less than 100,000,000. Following the milestone, the server experienced an increase in traffic, prompting maintenance and the temporary removal of the top section of the "Milestones" page which normally shows the live real time progress report toward upcoming milestones. (Mersenne Forum) (YCombinator)