Armed conflicts and attacks

• Iran–Israel conflict during the Syrian civil war
  • Syrian state media reports that Israel has bombed the Port of Latakia. If this is confirmed by the IDF, it would be the second airstrike on the facility this month. Secondary explosions are believed to be from Iranian munitions stored at the facility. (The Times of Israel)
  • Massive damage at the port is reported from the air raid with most of the port on fire, although there are no immediate reports of casualties from the attack. Videos on social media show multiple large explosions and anti-aircraft fire over the city. A hospital, shops, and some residential buildings were also badly damaged. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

• At least 38 people are killed in the collapse of a private gold mine in En Nahud, Sudan. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in India
      • COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi
        • Delhi enters Level 1 "Yellow alert" which closes cinemas, schools, colleges, and gyms, imposes a nighttime curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., and restricts the capacity of public transport, restaurants, funerals and weddings, due to an increase in the number of Omicron variant cases. (The Times of India)
      • COVID-19 vaccination in India, COVID-19 drug development
        • The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issues emergency use authorizations for the Covovax vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and the Corbevax vaccine. The ministry also issues an emergency use authorization for Merck & Co.'s anti-viral drug Molnupiravir. (The Hindu)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh, COVID-19 vaccination in Bangladesh
      • Bangladesh begins administering booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 60 and frontline workers who have been fully vaccinated more than six months ago as the country attempts to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. (Bdnews24.com)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China
      • China issues stay-at home orders for hundreds of thousands of people in Yan'an due to the spread of COVID-19 cases, which also resulted in a lockdown in Xi'an, the country's largest lockdown since last year. (France 24)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
      • Vietnam reports its first case of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in a person who travelled from the United Kingdom on December 19. (VnExpress International)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Cyprus
      • Cyprus reports a record for the second consecutive day of 2,241 new cases of COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 154,926. (Financial Mirror)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in France
      • France reports a record 179,807 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (Radio France Internationale)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Greece
      • Greece reports a record for the second consecutive day of 21,657 new cases of COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 1,105,885. (Kathimerini)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Italy
      • Italy reports a record 78,313 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal
      • Portugal reports a record 17,172 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 1,303,291. (The Portugal News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
      • The United Kingdom reports a record 138,831 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (The Guardian)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in North America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
      • COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario
        • Ontario reports 8,825 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases since March 2020 to 715,405. (CFTO-DT)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
      • COVID-19 pandemic in California
        • California becomes the first U.S. state and the world's first subnational entity to surpass five million cases of COVID-19. (ABC News)
      • The United States reports a record 512,553 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours. (Deadline Hollywood)
      • The seven day average of child hospitalizations reaches a record level, with 378 children under 18 admitted each day. (ABC)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa
    • South Africa postpones a plan to end COVID-19 contact tracing and suspend some quarantine measures in order to consider additional comments about the policy after the government received many inquiries about the plan. (Bloomberg News)

Law and crime

• Russian police arrest two allies of opposition politician and activist Alexei Navalny, Kseniya Fadeyeva and Zakhar Sarapulov, under extremism charges. Leonid Volkov, another ally of Navalny, had tried to persuade Fadeyeva and Sarapulov to leave Russia as he and others have done, but they refused. (Barron's)
• The Supreme Court of Russia orders the liquidation of human rights group Memorial for violating the Russian foreign agent law. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

• Social Democratic Union of Macedonia leader Dimitar Kovačevski is confirmed as North Macedonia's Prime Minister-designate following the resignation of Zoran Zaev. (Reuters)