Portal:Current events/December 2017

• 2017 Peshawar Agriculture Directorate attack
  • Four attackers storm the Directorate of Agricultural Training Institute in Pakistan and exchange fire with police and army personnel. The four attackers are killed in the attack, and at least 12 people are killed and 35+ are injured. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claims responsibility. (Arab News)

• Economics of bitcoin
  • The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission gives a go-ahead for Bitcoin futures to trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board Options Exchange. (Fortune)

• 2017 Philippine dengue vaccination crisis
  • The Philippine Department of Health temporarily suspends a school-based dengue vaccination program after Dengvaxia vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur made a statement that its product poses higher risks to people without prior dengue infection. (Rappler) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

• Links between Trump associates and Russian officials
  • Michael Flynn, former U.S. National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump, pleads guilty to one count of making a false statement to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials. It is also announced that Flynn will cooperate with Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation. (The New York Times) (New York Daily News)

• Aftermath of the 2017 Honduran general election
  • The government of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is seeking re-election, imposes a ten-day curfew after allegations of electoral fraud and calls for an election recount resulted in violent protests across the country. (AP via ABC News)
• Abdication of Emperor Akihito
  • Emperor Akihito announces his intentions to abdicate the throne on April 30, 2019. (CNN)

• A 100-megawatt Tesla Powerpack system, which is the world's largest lithium-ion battery, is launched in Jamestown, South Australia. (AP via The Guardian)

• 2018 FIFA World Cup seeding
  • The draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup takes place at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia. (The Telegraph)

• Israeli involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  • Israel launches surface-to-surface missiles at a military installation outside the Syrian capital Damascus overnight, Syrian state TV reports. (BBC)

• ABC News suspends journalist Brian Ross for four weeks without pay as a consequence for an erroneous report on Michael Flynn. (CNBC)

• Heavy rainfall causes flooding in southern Albania. At least one person has died and 3,000 houses have been flooded. (Fox News)
• 2017 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
  • Cyclone Ockhi hits southern India causing 13 deaths in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The cyclone kills 15 people and displaces another 200,000 persons in Sri Lanka. (NDTV) (Economy Next)

• Bangladesh–Holy See relations, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
  • Pope Francis ends his six-day trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh by visiting the Rohingya refugees in Dhaka. (AFP)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • The former president of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh suggests that he is open to talking to the Saudi-led coalition that his forces have been fighting for years. (BBC)
• United States and the United Nations
  • The Trump administrations withdraws the United States from the Global Compact on Migration of the United Nations. (Voice of America)

• Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
  • The United States Senate passes the Republican tax reform bill with a 51–49 vote. (CNN)

• Voyager program
  • Voyager 1 successfully fires backup maneuvering thrusters, that had previously remained inactive for 37 years. Those thruster firings are to keep the spacecraft's antenna pointed at Earth, which is vital to maintain communications. (Ars Technica)

• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • Battle of Sana'a (2017)
    • The Royal Saudi Air Force bombs Houthi positions in southern Sana'a in support of Ali Abdullah Saleh-headed General People's Congress. (Reuters)

• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announces the creation of the petro cryptocurrency in a bid to ease the country's ongoing socioeconomic crisis. (BBC)

• A 10-tonne fishing boat collides with a 336-tonne fuel tanker near Yeongheung Island, South Korea, killing 13 of the 22 people on board the fishing boat. Two people remain missing. (Radio New Zealand)

• History of the Communist Party of China
  • General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping concludes a two-day "high-level dialogue" with party leaders from 120 countries. The program he announces includes the full funding by the Communist Party of China of 15,000 visits from foreign party leaders over the next five years "to deepen exchanges". (The Australian)

• In Tel Aviv, up to 20,000 people demonstrate in front of the home of the Attorney General of Israel, Avichai Mandelblit, against the slow pace of corruption investigations against Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu. (Newsweek)
• The lawyer of Ahmed Shafiq, a candidate for the spring 2018 presidential elections in Egypt, says she met him in a hotel room in Cairo following his arrest the day before in Dubai, U.A.E., after saying earlier today that his family didn't know his whereabouts. (Ahram Online) (BBC)

• Corsican territorial election
  • The pro-autonomy coalition party Pè a Corsica obtains 45% of the votes in the first round of the Corsican Assembly elections preceding the replacement of the departments of Haute Corse and Corse-du-Sud and the region of Corsica, France, with a single territorial collectivity. Two "miscellaneous right" parties and La République En Marche! also achieve the 7% election threshold to reach the second round. (France TV Info) (France 3) (Los Angeles Times)
• Ukrainian crisis
  • Several thousand opposition supporters demonstrate in central Kiev, calling for the parliament to adopt legislation on presidential impeachment. (RFE/RL)

• Sri Lankan cricket team in India in 2017–18
  • Sri Lanka cricket players take to wearing masks to combat smog pollution that disrupts the third Test against India in Delhi. (BBC)
• The Pontiac Silverdome, former home of the NFL's Detroit Lions and the NBA's Detroit Pistons, was to be partially imploded as part of its planned demolition; however, approximately 10% of the explosives do not detonate, and the attempted implosion fails. (NBC) (The New York Times)

• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen; Yemeni Civil War
  • Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is killed by Houthi forces in a roadside attack outside Sana'a after an earlier attack on his house. (BBC) (NPR)
• Israeli intervention in the Syrian Civil War
  • For the second time in three days, Israel carries out a missile strike on military facilities near Damascus. (Daily Star UK)

• Positions on Jerusalem
  • Jordan's foreign minister Ayman Safadi has warned the U.S. of "dangerous consequences" if it recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (BBC)
  • Hamas calls the U.S. government's plan to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel "a flagrant attack on the city by the American administration" and threatens to start a Third Intifada. (France 24)
  • Turkey's deputy foreign minister Bekir Bozdağ warns of a "major catastrophe" if the U.S. moves its embassy to Jerusalem as planned in the Jerusalem Embassy Act. The last six-month presidential waiver delaying the move was signed on June 1. (Deutsche Welle) (The Daily Mail)
• 2017 North Korea crisis
  • South Korea and the United States launch their largest-ever annual joint aerial drill. (The Australian)
  • A high-level United Nations delegation led by Department of Political Affairs head Jeffrey D. Feltman travels to North Korea for talks this week. It will be the first such diplomatic visit in six years. (The Guardian)
• Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
  • France puts the concern on the E.U. Ecofin agenda that the current version of the United States fiscal act would unduly penalize E.U. companies by taxing their U.S. operations beyond locally produced value added. (Le Figaro)
• Executive Order 13769
  • The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the act banning most people from eight countries, six of them Muslim-majority, to travel to the United States can take full effect pending legal challenges. (U.S. News & World Report)

• Syrian Civil War
  • The British government suspends payments to the so-called Free Syrian Police after a BBC Panorama investigation revealed that the cash has been diverted to the Salafist rebel groups of Nour al-Din al-Zenki and Jabhat al-Nusra, police officers being hand-picked by these groups, dead people appearing on the payroll and some police officers participating in summary executions. (BBC)
• Murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia
  • Malta arrests 10 people over the investigative journalist's murder on October 16. (CNN)
• 2017 Spanish constitutional crisis
  • The prosecutor in a Brussels court repeats the demand to extradite Carles Puigdemont and four other former Catalan officials to Spain. The defense says that the adduced facts are "not punishable" under Belgian law. The judge delays the decision until December 14. (Politico.eu)
  • The Supreme Court of Spain grants six former Catalan officials bail of €100,000 each. Four other people, Oriol Junqueras, Joaquim Forn and two leading activists, remain in jail over the "risk of re-offending". (Bloomberg)
• Investigation of Apple's transfer pricing arrangements with Ireland
  • Apple Inc. and Ireland agree on an interim deal to put €13 billion in an escrow fund for the repayment of back taxes, starting early 2018. Still, both parties refute that the alleged "sweetheart" corporate tax deals were illegal. In 2016, the European Commission found that an unfair advantage of €13 billion is to be reimbursed. (Silicon Republic)

• The Eurogroup selects Mário Centeno, Portugal's Minister of Finance, to succeed Jeroen Dijsselbloem as their next president. (Chicago Tribune)
• Federal lands in Utah
  • U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders shrinking the Bears Ears National Monument area by 85% and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by half. (Fox News)
• Roy Moore sexual abuse allegations
  • Debbie Wesson Gibson, one of the women accusing Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, shares evidence of their relationship when she was 17 to the press. (Washington Post)

• The last King of Romania, Michael I, dies at the age of 96. (BBC) (Reuters)
• A summer 1941 Simon Templar (The Saint) novel by Leslie Charteris, titled The Saint's Second Front, describing a military attack by Japan on America—and subsequently rejected from publication for political reasons—emerges at a private auction after the work was presumed lost. (The Sun)

• Eurofighter GmbH offers Belgium a national cyber defense network—suggesting telecommunications security on par with United Kingdom intelligence, which would save Belgium €1.6 billion per year—in exchange for buying 34 of their multirole combat aircraft, the Eurofighter Typhoon. (Het Laatste Nieuws)

• 2017 California wildfires
  • Thomas Fire
    • Due to persistent high winds, a fire begins and quickly spreads—at a rate of up to one acre per second—near Santa Paula, California, covering now at least 50,000 acres (200 km²), crawling into the edges of Ventura and cutting power to 260,000 homes. 7,700 houses are under mandatory evacuation. (LA Times) (CNN)
• Cyclone Ockhi
  • Gujarat and Maharastra are on high alert because of Cyclone Ockhi. (Times of India)
• Meerbusch train crash
  • A passenger train runs into the rear of a freight train at Meerbusch, Germany. Forty-seven people are injured, three seriously. (BBC)

• Positions on Jerusalem
  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tells Donald Trump that Turkey might cut ties with Israel if the United States unilaterally recognizes Jerusalem as its capital. (BBC)
  • According to a Palestinian spokesman, Donald Trump calls Mahmoud Abbas, "outlining his intentions" to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. The Palestinian President warns him against the dangers of such a step and says that he will continue reaching out to world leaders to prevent it from happening. (CNN)

• Gulf Cooperation Council, Qatar–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict
  • At a GCC summit in Kuwait City, the United Arab Emirates announce a political and military alliance with Saudi Arabia. (The Guardian)
• Russia–United States relations
  • Russia names Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and seven affiliated news media as foreign agents. The move comes after the United States government ordered the Russian government-funded television network RT America to register as a foreign agent. (The Washington Post)

• Ukrainian crisis
  • As police arrive at the stateless Mikheil Saakashvili's house in Kiev to detain him, Saakashvili goes up on the roof to protest verbally. Police then detain him and try to take him away in a blue minivan while hundreds of people block the street. Finally the supporters free him out of the van. Bespeeching the cameras again, he rails against corruption, against Petro Poroshenko and urges Ukrainians to "be afraid of nothing". (The Guardian) (U.S. News & World Report) (Reuters) (Interfax Ukraine)
  • Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko claims in a briefing that Saakashvili received $500,000 from the fugitive Serhiy Kurchenko for his activities in Ukraine. He also says Severion Dangadze, an associate of Saakashvili's Movement of New Forces, had been arrested. (Interfax Ukraine)
• 2017 Spanish constitutional crisis
  • Spain withdraws the international arrest warrant for five former Catalan officials now residing in Belgium. The charges of sedition and rebellion, however, remain. (BBC)
• Recognition of same-sex unions in Austria
  • Austria's Constitutional Court rules that the government cannot discriminate against same-sex couples' right to marry. (The New York Times)

• Aftermath of the Honduran general election, 2017
  • After several days of violent protests due to allegations of electoral fraud, Honduran police have announced that they will not enforce a government-mandated curfew. (The Guardian)
• 2017 United States political sexual scandals
  • U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) steps down amid allegations of sexual harassment. (NPR)

• Reinforcement learning
  • In just a few hours, DeepMind's AI AlphaZero learn to master both chess and shogi, beating top chess software Stockfish and Elmo without domain knowledge. (Critical Hit)

• Sri Lankan cricket team in India in 2017–18, Smog in Delhi
  • Sri Lankan fast bowler Suranga Lakmal vomits and is taken off the field while levels of harmful pollutants exceed World Health Organization safe limits 12 times. Later in the game Indian pacer Mohammed Shami also vomits. December 3 already saw the first forced break in play in international cricket history. (The Guardian)
• 2018 Winter Olympics, Doping in Russia
  • A 14-person International Olympic Committee panel bans Russia from the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, after a report finds evidence of systemic doping cheating in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Any "clean" Russian athletes will compete under the name "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR) and the Olympic flag. (Yahoo! Sports)

• Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
  • President Vladimir Putin declares victory over the Islamic State terror group across both banks of the river Euphrates. (TASS)
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that Russian air strikes kill 21 people in a village on the eastern side of the Euphrates river in Deir al-Zor province. (Reuters)

• The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art is brought to reply to an online petition signed by thousands of people. The museum refuses to stop displaying a Balthus painting, Thérèse rêvant. (The Telegraph) (Le Nouvel Obs)
• Finland celebrates its 100 years of independence. (Yle News)
• Michelin unveils its first Michelin Guide for Bangkok, Thailand, which is the sixth city in Asia and second in Southeast Asia after Singapore. (CNN)
• Weinstein effect
  • The "Silence Breakers", including those involved in the #MeToo movement, are named Time magazine's 2017 Time Person of the Year. (Time) (AP)

• UNICEF reports that as many as 17 million babies worldwide face potential brain development issues due to their exposure to toxicity levels more than six times higher than considered safe in air. (BBC)

• United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
  • U.S. President Donald Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and says the U.S. starts the process of moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The United States Department of State issues an internal travel warning to Israel, Jerusalem and the West Bank until December 20. The U.S. embassy in Amman temporarily suspends routine public services and stops embassy travel around Jordan. Embassies in Berlin and London issue vigilance warnings to U.S. citizens. (CNN) (Reuters) (BBC)
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praises the announcement as a "historic landmark." (BBC)
  • President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas says the move undermines the U.S. position as a peace mediator while the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas says that the decision would "open the gates of hell on U.S. interests in the region." (BBC)
  • The Arab League calls it "a dangerous measure that would have repercussions" and also questions the future role of the U.S. as a "trusted mediator" in peace talks. (BBC)
  • Protests against the decision break out in Jordan, State of Palestine, and Turkey. (BBC) (Reuters)
  • The decision draws critical reaction from key U.S. allies that include the EU, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. (Chicago Tribune) (BBC)
  • Pope Francis urges respect for the status quo for Jerusalem and calls for "wisdom and prudence" to avoid further conflict. (ABC News)
  • Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres criticizes the announcement, saying that it "would jeopardise the prospect of peace for Israelis and Palestinians". (BBC)
  • Eight of the 15 current United Nations Security Council members call to hold an urgent meeting on the U.S. decision. The meeting is expected for December 8. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• Suspected sonic attack on the United States Embassy in Havana
  • Investigators discover brain abnormalities in the victims. They are now carefully not using the term "sonic" to describe the attacks and there is growing skepticism it was caused by a sonic device, with the sound heard by victims being a by-product of the brain damage. The white matter of the brains showed changes which doctors believe could not be caused by sound. (Yahoo! News)
• Sanctions against North Korea
  • An Institute for Science and International Security study indicates that (between March 2014 and September 2017) a total of 49 countries violated United Nations sanctions against North Korea to varying degrees. (CNN)

• Crime in France
  • A French court does not order the custody of Suleyman Kerimov but sets a €40 million bail and tighter controls. Kerimov was arrested on November 21 in a money laundering and tax fraud case. (TASS)

• Politics of Lebanon
  • The Lebanese cautiously welcome a political agreement that enables Prime Minister Saad Hariri to officially withdraw his unexpected November 4 resignation. (The Daily Star)
• Ukrainian crisis
  • Police raid the wrong tent of an activist camp in Kiev and fail to arrest the stateless opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili. A police source says police are preparing a special operation and will be unleashed "in the near future". (The Daily Star) (TASS)
• Politics of Russia
  • President Vladimir Putin announces his participation in the 2018 presidential election. (The Western Journal)

• The U.S. Government Accountability Office starts a study into the (currently unregulated) length of freight trains. (Reuters)
• ULAS J1342+0928
  • A study published in Nature and the Astrophysical Journal Letters describes the discovery of the most distant supermassive black hole ever, around 13.1 billion light years away. (The Verge)

• 2017–18 UEFA Champions League
  • In football, Cristiano Ronaldo becomes the shared all-time top scorer in the UEFA Champions League group stage and he is the first person to score in all six group stage matches, by adding to Real Madrid C.F.'s 3–2 win against Borussia Dortmund. With a 7–0 victory over FC Spartak Moscow, Liverpool F.C. is the fifth English club to qualify for the knockout phase; a first too. (De Standaard) (Gazet van Antwerpen)

• Positions on Jerusalem
  • The Czech Republic recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel's capital "in practice". (Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
  • Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expresses interest in moving his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. (Haaretz)
• Greek–Turkish relations
  • The President of Turkey embarks on a two-day state visit of Greece. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's démarche is a first in 65 years. (The Guardian) (Reuters)
• European migrant crisis, Treaty on European Union
  • The European Commission orders Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to court over their refusal to incorporate more refugees. This is the third step in a process that may lead to fines and loss of the countries' voting rights in the European Union. (De Standaard) (Die Zeit)
• Economic globalization
  • Fifteen countries ask the World Trade Organization a mandate to negotiate binding rules on e-commerce, days after India turned down negotiations. (Economic Times)

• Same-sex marriage in Australia
  • The Parliament of Australia votes to make same-sex marriage legal in Australia. (The Australian)
• 2017 Aztec High School shooting
  • Three people, including the gunman, are killed in a school shooting at Aztec High School in New Mexico. (MSN)
• 2016–17 purges in Turkey
  • Peoples’ Democratic Party’s co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş remains behind bars until the next hearing, scheduled for February 14, 2018. He risks 142 years in prison. (Turkey Purge)
• Aftermath of the AMIA bombing
  • In a 491-page ruling, a court indicts former President of Argentina Cristina Fernández for treason and orders for her arrest for "trying to cover up Iran's possible role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people". Former foreign affairs minister Héctor Timerman is also concerned. Both have previously denied wrongdoing. (Reuters)

• 2017 United States political sexual scandals
  • United States Senator Al Franken announces that he will resign "in the coming weeks" amid sexual harassment allegations. (Time)
  • Arizona Congressman Trent Franks announces that he will resign on January 31, 2018. This announcement comes after two of his employees filed a complaint about his conduct, and the House Ethics Committee opened a sexual harassment investigation. (Fox News)
• Nepalese legislative election, 2017
  • Voters in Nepal go to the polls for the second round of a historic legislative election. The turnout is 67%, up from 65% in the first round. (Foreign Affairs) (Economic Times)
• Cabinet of Germany
  • The Social Democratic Party congress votes to start talks on "whether and in what form" to support a new federal government. (The Washington Post)
• Politics of Poland
  • Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło resigns just hours after surviving an opposition no-confidence motion. She will be replaced by Finance Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, according to the ruling Law and Justice party. (BBC)

• UEFA Euro 2020
  • Eurostadium in Brussels, Belgium, is unselected as a host for the UEFA Euro 2020 football competition, ceding its place for group stage matches to Wembley Stadium in London, England. Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel says the city made the error of wanting to build a stadium outside its territory. (voetbalnieuws.be) (VRT)

• Syrian Civil War
  • Russian jets carry out airstrikes in a village in the northwestern Idlib Governorate, where a de-escalation zone exists, killing at least five civilians. (World Bulletin)
• 2017 Semuliki attack
  • Suspected Allied Democratic Forces militants in North Kivu, DR Congo, kill at least 15 United Nations peacekeepers, mostly Tanzanian, and five Congolese soldiers, and wound 53 other people. An unknown number of the rebels are killed. Over 90 peacekeepers have been killed since the mission started in 1999. (The Guardian)

• Japan–European Union relations
  • The European Union and Japan announce that they concluded negotiations on a trade deal. (Reuters)

• December 2017 Southern California wildfires
  • Donald Trump approves California's request for an emergency declaration, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts across five Southern California counties. (Los Angeles Times)

• United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
  • Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov says that the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital by the United States "runs counter to common sense." (Reuters)
  • Clashes erupt in Bethlehem and Hebron. Dozens of people throw stones at Israel Defense Forces who reply with tear gas and water cannon. More than 200 people are wounded. One person was killed. The Health Minister of the Palestinian National Authority named the man killed on the Gaza Strip border. (BBC) (Reuters)
  • Demonstrators across the Arab and Muslim worlds take to the streets on Friday, holy day, expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and outrage at the U.S. move. (Reuters)
  • 14 of the 15 United Nations Security Council members denounce the United States' stance on Jerusalem. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Brexit negotiations
  • The European Union and the United Kingdom reach agreement on the first stage of Brexit including the status of the border between the U.K. and Ireland. (CNN)
• 2017 North Korean crisis, Japan–North Korea relations
  • The Japanese Minister of Defense says that his country is to procure medium-range missiles. This purchase is controversial for a country that renounced the right to wage war. (Reuters)
• Treaty on European Union, Politics of Poland
  • Poland's Sejm approves controversial judiciary changes amid accusations of threat to democracy. (The Guardian)

• Crime in Japan
  • Three people are killed in a rampage involving swords near the Tomioka Hachiman Shrine in Japan. (The Japan Times) (The Asahi Shimbun)

• 2017 United States political sexual scandals
  • Trent Franks, a United States representative for Arizona's 8th congressional district, announces his immediate resignation, following allegations that he asked a female staffer to be a surrogate mother for him. Franks previously announced that he would resign from Congress in January 2018. (KSAZ-TV)
• 2018 United States federal budget
  • Trump signs a continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown for another two weeks. Congress has until December 22 to hash out differences over funding DACA, CHIP, tax reform, and military funding within the limits of the Budget Control Act of 2011. (Fox News) (U.S. News & World Report)
• Presidency of Donald Trump
  • The White House announces that Deputy National Security Advisor Dina Powell will leave the Trump administration early 2018. (The Hill)
• Ukrainian crisis
  • Mikheil Saakashvili is arrested again by the National Police of Ukraine. He was on the run since December 5. He has been leading anti-corruption rallies against Petro Poroshenko. (RTL Nieuws) (BBC)

• United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
  • Hundreds of people protest on the West Bank and in Gaza for the third day in a row. (BBC)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017), American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present), Iraq–United States relations
  • Iraq announces that its war against Islamic State (IS) is over. The United States Department of State welcomes the end of the "vile occupation" and says that the fight continues. (BBC)

• Egyptology
  • Archaeologists in Egypt display items, including figurines, masks and a mummy, from one of two previously unexplored tombs, Kampp 150 and Kampp 161, in the ancient Nile city of Luxor. (BBC) (National Geographic)
• Presidency of Donald Trump
  • The New York Times reports that Donald Trump spends at least four hours a day watching the news on television. He watches CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. (The Hill)

• The 1.6-hectare populated hamlet of Alwine in Uebigau-Wahrenbrück district, Germany, is sold for 140,000 € at a public auction. (AFP via Daily Nation)

• 2017 MLS Cup
  • In association football, Toronto win their first MLS Cup defeating the Seattle Sounders 2–0 in the final, becoming the first MLS team to complete the domestic treble. (AFP via Yahoo!)

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • A 24-year-old Palestinian stabs and seriously wounds an Israeli security guard at Jerusalem's Central Bus Station. The attacker is arrested. (Reuters) (The Washington Post) (The Independent)

• Iraqi Civil War
  • An Iraqi military parade in Baghdad celebrates final victory over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declares December 10 an annual national holiday. (Reuters)

• 2017 California wildfires
  • New evacuations are ordered as the fires spread toward a string of California coastal cities. Santa Ana winds and rugged mountain terrain continue to hamper firefighting efforts. Authorities report the Thomas Fire is only 15 percent contained. (Los Angeles Times) (Reuters)

• Capital punishment in Iran
  • The spying charge death sentence against Vrije Universiteit Brussel guest-lecturer Ahmadreza Djalali is now executable, since his Iranian lawyer did not appeal the verdict and sentence within the required three-week limit. (De Standaard) (VRT)

• Venezuelan presidential election, 2018
  • Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is up for re-election, bans the main opposition parties, Justice First, Democratic Action and Popular Will from running in next year's presidential election. (BBC)

• Severe acute respiratory syndrome
  • Scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology trace the source of the deadly 2002–04 SARS virus outbreak, which killed 774 people in 37 countries, to a colony of cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in China's Yunnan province. (The Guardian)

• 2017–18 Premier League
  • Manchester City beat local rivals Manchester United 2–1 at Old Trafford to set a new record for successive victories in English top-flight games, breaking the record of 13 successive league wins in a single season set by Chelsea, Arsenal, Preston North End and Sunderland. (Metro) (BBC)

• 2017 New York City Subway bombing
  • An attempted terrorist attack occurs when a homemade pipe bomb worn by a man explodes near New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal. Three people, as well as the attacker, are injured. The suspect, identified as Akayed Ullah, is in custody. (The New York Times) (CNN)
• Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
  • During a visit to Syria, his first, President Vladimir Putin announces that a significant part of Russian forces will withdraw from Syria now that ISIL has been defeated in the country. (BBC) (RT)

• Cinema of Saudi Arabia
  • The Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia announces that it will lift a ban on commercial cinemas that has lasted more than three decades. (BBC)

• Economy of the United Kingdom
  • A £6 billion ($8 billion) deal to sell 24 Eurofighter Typhoons to Qatar is announced. (BBC)

• December 2017 Southern California wildfires
  • The Thomas Fire is the fifth largest in modern Californian history. (NPR)

• Transgender personnel in the United States military
  • U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denies a Trump administration request to enforce the ban on transgender troops while this case is under appeal, thereby reaffirming her order that requires the U.S. military to accept transgender recruits effective January 1, 2018. (Reuters)
• 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt and following purges in Turkey
  • Turkey's state news agency announces that prosecutors in Istanbul have requested life sentences against six people, including journalist brothers Ahmet and Mehmet Altan and chronicler Nazli Ilicak. One of the accusations is reportedly "having committed a crime in the name of a terror organization without being a member of it." (Yenisafak) (RTBF)

• Hezbollah political activities
  • Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, vows to return to Israel. Tens of thousands of people demonstrate in South Beirut. (VRT)
• Ukrainian crisis
  • Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili is freed from detention following Judge Larysa Tsokol's dismissal of prosecutors’ house arrest request. (Reuters)
• Politics of India
  • Rahul Gandhi is elected unopposed as the head of the opposition Congress Party. On 16 January 2018, he is to take over the reins from his mother Sonia Gandhi, who held the position for 19 years. (Al Jazeera) (The Times of India)
• Politics of France
  • Corsican nationalists demand talks with the French government after a convincing win in the second round of elections for a reformed regional government in Corsica. (The Guardian)

• British Antarctic Territory
  • Mount Hope, in a disputed region of Antarctica, is found to be the highest mountain in territory claimed by the United Kingdom. Ben Nevis in Scotland is the highest mountain in the United Kingdom. (BBC)
• Space policy of the United States
  • U.S. President Donald Trump signs the "Space Policy Directive 1" that establishes the foundation for a crewed mission to the Moon, while also maintaining a longer-term NASA goal of landing a man on Mars. (Reuters)
• Male homosexuality
  • The Y-linked protein NLGN4Y transfer from an older brother to a younger by transfer through the mother's womb, the mother's bloodstream, and her created antibodies reaching her next male fetus' brain, together appear to influence the gayness of the next brother. (CNN) (PNAS)

• Unibail-Rodamco agrees to purchase shopping mall owner Westfield Corporation for $15.7 billion. (Business Insider)

• An explosion and fire at the Gas Connect Austria pipeline hub in Baumgarten an der March kills one person and injures 21. Service to Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy is suspended. Italy declares a state of emergency. (Reuters) (Deutsche Welle)

• Crime in Peru
  • A 22-year-old student is found dead inside the National University of San Marcos, of Lima, and the most important and oldest of Peru. Everything seems to indicate that he had been killed. Authorities have identified a possible suspect, who is also a student at the university. (La República) (ATV) (América Televisión)

• Regulation of chemicals
  • Reacting to a petition from more than a million EU citizens, the European Commission releases a 16-page report on glyphosate. It adopts a renewal of the approval of glyphosate for a 5-year period and plans to improve the science reviewing process. (Reuters via Le Figaro)

• Syrian Civil War
  • The Syrian opposition urges Russian president Vladimir Putin to put pressure on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in order to "rescue" the Geneva peace talks and begin face-to-face bilateral talks. (The Guardian)
• Foreign relations of Rwanda, Foreign relations of France
  • Rwanda steps up pressure on France to admit alleged complicity in the 1994 genocide by publishing a report by law firm Cunningham Levy Muse. (Financial Times)

• Government of San Francisco
  • Mayor of San Francisco Ed Lee dies of an apparent heart attack. Supervisor London Breed becomes acting Mayor. (SFGate)
• United States Senate special election in Alabama, 2017
  • Voters in Alabama go to the polls to fill the United States Senate seat vacated by current United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The race is between Roy Moore (R) and Doug Jones (D). (CNN)
  • The Associated Press declares Doug Jones the winner. (AP via New York Times)

• Climate change in the Arctic
  • This year's Arctic Report Card reveals that the plunge in sea ice extent as well as the amount of ocean surface warming is unprecedented in at least the last 1,500 years. (Mashable)

• Weinstein effect
  • Marshall Faulk, Ike Taylor, and Heath Evans are suspended from the NFL Network due to allegations of sexual harassment. (The Washington Post)
• 2017 EAFF E-1 Football Championship
  • South Korea beats North Korea 1–0 in Tokyo. The Japanese authorities gave the North Korean players a special visa to enable their participation in the event that was formerly known as the East Asian Cup. (Sporza)

• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • At least 30 people are reported to have been killed in Saudi-led coalition air strikes on a rebel military police camp in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. (BBC)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Militant Palestinians fire rockets towards Israel from the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces say that the Iron Dome system intercepted two missiles, while one rocket fell in a flat open area and nobody was hurt. (Het Laatste Nieuws)
  • The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, calls for a new revolt or intifada. (Het Laatste Nieuws)

• Rohingya persecution in Myanmar
  • Dublin City Councillors vote 59–2 to revoke the Freedom of the City of Dublin given to Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi for her apparent failure to protect the Rohingya minority from violence. Singer Bob Geldof returned his Freedom one month ago, protesting that Suu Kyi also held the honour. (The Guardian) (The Guardian)

• Marine Corps Air Station Futenma
  • A 17-pound (8 kg) CH-53E transport helicopter window lands on school grounds in Okinawa, Japan, marking the second time in less than a week that an American aircraft part has fallen on a school there. Today, a child sustains "minor injuries". The United States Marine Corps apologizes. (ABC News)

• Proclamation No. 216
  • The Congress of the Philippines votes to approve President Rodrigo Duterte's request to extend the declaration of martial law in Mindanao until December 31, 2018. (AFP)
• Operation Car Wash
  • Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas is sentenced to six years imprisonment for financial corruption involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. The decision will not be enforced until the court confirms the ruling. The court's decision can be appealed. (BBC News) (El Universo) (in Spanish)
• Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar
  • Two Reuters journalists are arrested in Myanmar for trying to illegally obtain official documents. The were reporting about the Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine State. (The New York Times)

• Politics of the United States
  • Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton announces the appointment of Lt. Gov. Tina Smith to replace resigning Sen. Al Franken in the United States Senate. (St. Paul Pioneer Press)
• Politics of the United Kingdom
  • Prime Minister Theresa May suffers a 309–305 defeat, her first, in the House of Commons when MPs from both major parties approve an amendment to the Brexit bill subjecting a Brexit agreement to a preliminary vote by Parliament. (The Guardian) (BBC)
• 2017 United States political sexual scandals
  • Kentucky state legislator Dan Johnson, who had been accused of sexual assault of a teenager, dies of a gunshot wound, an apparent suicide. (AP)

• Road cycling
  • Team Sky professional cyclist Chris Froome returns a non-negative result for asthma medication salbutamol, during the Vuelta a España in September. (Cyclingnews.com)

• Internal armed conflict in Colombia, Paramilitarism in Colombia, Illegal drug trade in Colombia
  • Colombia's biggest narcotics gang, Clan del Golfo (AGC), declares a cease-fire in effect since December 13. They say the gesture is meant "to contribute to a full, total and lasting peace." The Colombian government says that it welcomes the move but also that it will continue their pressure on the organization. (GMA Network)

• Proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney
  • The Walt Disney Company announces its intent to acquire a large portion of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion, pending regulatory approval. (CBS)
• Economy of Israel
  • Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical, the world's largest generic drug manufacturer, is restructuring in order to pay off debt, and will be cutting its work force by about a quarter. (Reuters)
• Net neutrality in the United States
  • The Federal Communications Commission votes 3-to-2 to dismantle its net neutrality regulations. (Wired) (Wired)

• Perpignan crash
  • A train crashes into a school bus at a level crossing in the Arrondissement of Perpignan in France, killing six pupils on the bus. (BBC)
• Southern California wildfires
  • A firefighter is killed while battling the Thomas Fire, the second death linked to the fourth largest wildfire in California history. (The Washington Post)
• West Wind Aviation Flight 280
  • A plane crash in Fond-du-Lac, Saskatchewan, causes 24 injuries and 1 death. (CBC)

• Health education in Guatemala
  • The Supreme Court of Justice of Guatemala rules not to allow the implementation of a usage manual from the Procuratorate of Human Rights for talks and workshops about sexuality due to the document's views on abortion, which, except risk for mother's life, is illegal in the country. (Prensa Libre)

• Iran–United States relations
  • Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, accuses Iran of violating the 2015 nuclear deal by allegedly supplying the missile fired last month on Saudi Arabia from Yemen. Iran refutes the claim as based on "fabricated" evidence. (Bloomberg News)
• Somalia–United States relations, Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • The U.S. government cuts aid to some Somali military units for allegedly misusing funds. (CNN)
• Pope Francis accepts the diplomatic credentials of new ambassadors to the Holy See from Azerbaijan, Chad, India, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Swaziland, and Yemen. In his welcoming address, the Pope mentions "the key role that dialogue plays in enabling diversity". (Vatican Press Office)

• Education in the United States
  • Attorneys general for California, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts sue the Trump Administration's Department of Education for not granting loan relief to students defrauded by for-profit schools. (Reuters)

• Operation Car Wash
  • The main opposition party of Peru, Popular Force, which has the absolute majority in Congress, gives the president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski less than 24 hours to present his resignation. This comes after it revealed that he received large sums of money from the Odebrecht construction company, through a financial advisory firm of his property, in exchange of the concession of important infrastructures for the country. (Reuters)
• Donald Trump's political appointments
  • Michael Dourson, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine professor, withdraws his nomination for an assistant administrator position with the Environmental Protection Agency. (NBC News)

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict, United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
  • Palestinians and the Israeli army scuffle in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and at the Qalandia border crossing over the status of Jerusalem. Clashes are also reported in Gaza, Ramallah, Hebron and Qalqilya. In conflicts where Israeli law enforcement used live ammunition and Palestinians threw rocks, two Palestinians died in Gaza while 150 were wounded and two more were killed in the West Bank while a further 10 were wounded. (Reuters)

• Beate Uhse AG, supplier of the Pabo erotica catalog, files for bankruptcy in Germany. Only the holding company restructures in order to secure refinancing with the creditors. Beate Uhse-Rotermund opened the first sex shop in 1962, in Flensburg, under the name "Institut für Ehehygiene" ("Institute for marriage hygiene"). (Washington Post)
• In an effort to avert strikes, the Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair reverses its long-standing policy of refusing to recognize pilots' labour unions. (New York Daily News)

• 2017 Java earthquake
  • A magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes the island of Java causing massive damage along with two confirmed deaths. (ABC News)

• Child sexual abuse in Australia
  • A 17-volume report detailing children's experiences of sexual abuse in Australian institutions is published. It concludes that the issue is systemic and "not a case of a few rotten apples". It contains 189 new recommendations, for a total of 406. This report finalizes a five-year Royal Commission inquiry. (Ten News)
• The most recent U.S. government statistics show a marked increase in the yearly number of deaths by drug overdose. The number for end May 2017 is 66,324, up 17% when compared to the previous 12-month period. (U.S. News & World Report)

• Corruption in Russia
  • Former economy minister Alexey Ulyukaev is found guilty of soliciting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft's Igor Sechin. He is sentenced to 8 years in prison. Ulyukayev is the most senior serving official to be arrested in decades. He previously denied the charges, saying he’d been "set up". (Reuters)
• Obamacare replacement proposals
  • A Federal District Judge for Eastern Pennsylvania temporarily enjoins the Trump administration from implementing new rules that change the Obamacare contraceptive mandate. California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and Washington have also sued the federal government over the rules. (AP via ABC News)
• Censorship in France
  • France's Constitutional Court rejects a bill to make visiting terrorist websites a criminal offence, citing "inviolability of freedom of communication and expression" as a reason. (Sputnik News) (Le Parisien)

• Brexit
  • European Union leaders agree to allow the next phase of Brexit. (U.S. News & World Report)

• AOL discontinues its instant messaging app AIM after more than 20 years. (PC Gamer)

• Association football
  • According to the Spanish newspaper El País, FIFA warned the Royal Spanish Football Federation, threatening to exclude Spain from participation in the 2018 World Cup. FIFA reportedly argues that the Spanish attempt to remove Ángel María Villar (who is accused of corruption) from the national federation's presidency is an illicit government intervention in the Spanish football federation's activities. (The Independent)

• China–United Kingdom relations, One Belt One Road Initiative
  • The BBC reports that former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron is to head a £750 million ($1 billion) U.K. private fund to improve air, road and railway links between China and its trading partners. (The Independent) (The Guardian)

• December 2017 Southern California wildfires
  • More evacuations are ordered as surging Santa Ana winds drive the 40-percent contained Thomas Fire, now the third-largest in California history, further westward in Santa Barbara County. (Reuters) (The Hill)
• Six people are killed, including Hilda Hernández, sister of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, in a helicopter accident that was headed to Comayagua from Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa. (Reuters)
• Five people are killed and at least 15 missing in a mudslide in Villa Santa Lucía, a remote village in southern Chile, after more than 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) of rain the previous 24 hours. President Michelle Bachelet declares a state of emergency. Sunday is the run-off election for Chile's next president. (BBC) (The Washington Post)

• Politics of Australia
  • The Coalition keep a one-seat majority in the Australian House of Representatives after the Liberals win the Bennelong by-election. (The Guardian)
• Politics of South Africa
  • Thousands of delegates of the African National Congress gather in Johannesburg to elect a party leader, who may replace President Jacob Zuma before his term expires in 2019. (AP via Newser)

• Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program
  • The existence of a U.S. government program that investigated reports of UFOs is revealed. (The New York Times)

• 2017 FIFA Club World Cup
  • Real Madrid wins the FIFA Club World Cup for the second time, beating Grêmio 1–0 in the final. Real Madrid becomes the first team to win the tournament back to back. (BBC)

• 2017 Quetta church attack
  • A suicide bomb and gun attack on a Methodist church in Pakistan kills nine people. (BBC) (Dawn)
• Second Libyan Civil War
  • Gunmen shoot dead the Mayor of Misurata, Libya, Mohamed Eshtewi, and wound his brother, after they chase down his car. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • A Russian airstrike using napalm kills at least ten civilians, including four children and six women from one family, in Idlib's town of Khan Shaykhun, according to the leader of the White Helmets. (Anadolu Agency)

• Russia–Venezuela relations
  • Venezuela and Rosneft sign agreements on gas exploration and exploitation. (Marine Link)
• Bitcoin reaches an all time high at $19,783.06 USD per BTC. (Fortune)

• Six people are killed in a multiple-vehicle collision in Birmingham, England. (BBC)
• A power failure at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport results in the cancellation of more than 1,100 flights, and leaves hundreds of passengers stranded. (The New York Times)

• Positions on Jerusalem
  • Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of Turkey says "the day is close when officially, with God's permission" his nation will open an embassy to Palestine in East Jerusalem. (The Hill)
  • Eighty-thousand Muslims demonstrate in Jakarta, Indonesia, against the U.S recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. (Voice of America)
• China–Russia relations
  • The Russian Ministry of Defense says that Russia and China concluded a five-day computer-generated air defense drill in Beijing. (Newsweek)
• 2017 St. Petersburg raid
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin thanks U.S. President Donald Trump for sharing intelligence from the Central Intelligence Agency which they say helped prevent a terrorist attack in Saint Petersburg. (Los Angeles Times)

• Australia–North Korea relations
  • Australian Federal Police arrest naturalized North Korean Chan Han Choi for violating UN and Australian sanctions by acting as an economic agent for North Korea. (BBC)

• Chilean general election, 2017
  • Voters choose Sebastián Piñera over Alejandro Guillier as their next president in a run-off election. (Deutsche Welle) (CNN)
• Ukrainian crisis
  • Several hundred people take part in clashes between Ukrainian police and anti-Petro Poroshenko protesters (led by opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili) demanding the president's resignation at the October Palace in Kiev. (VOA)

• Sailing
  • François Gabart from France sets a new solo around the world sailing record after he circumnavigates the globe in 42 days and 16 hours in his trimaran Macif. This is six days faster than the previous record held by fellow Frenchman Thomas Coville. (The Guardian)

• Twitter suspends the accounts of well-known white nationalists per recently implemented new offensive content rules. (AP via Time)
• Texas Rangers baseball pitcher Cole Hamels and his wife Heidi donate their mansion and 100 acres of land in southwestern Missouri, valued at nearly $10 million, to Camp Barnabas, a charity with camps in the Missouri Ozarks for children with special needs and chronic illnesses along with their siblings. (New York Post) (ESPN)

• 2017 Washington train derailment
  • At least three people are killed and 77 injured when an Amtrak passenger train derails on an Interstate 5 overpass in Pierce County, Washington. This train is part of a new Cascades service from Tacoma that launched the same morning. (CNN) (CBS News) (The Olympian)
• A Polish MiG-29 crash lands in a forest near Mińsk Mazowiecki. The pilot survived despite not ejecting. (TVN24)

• United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
  • The United States vetoes a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for it to withdraw its declaration of a capital in Jerusalem, which was approved by the other 14 members. (Reuters)
• United States–North Korea relations
  • The United States and the United Kingdom claim North Korea is directly responsible for the WannaCry ransomware attack which occurred earlier this year. (BBC)

• Weinstein effect
  • U.S. radio preacher Brother Stair (host of The Overcomer Ministry) is arrested on seven charges of sexual assault and one county of burglary. (Walterboro Live) (The Post and Courier)
  • The show will discontinue its radio broadcasts on January 1, 2018 but will continue on satellite and its website. (The Overcomer Ministry)
• Aftermath of the Unite the Right rally
  • Charlottesville Police Chief Alfred Thomas announces his retirement. He was previously criticized for his poor handling of the rally and counterprotests. (NPR) (WTVR)

• Austrian legislative election, 2017
  • Sebastian Kurz becomes the new Chancellor of Austria and a new government is inaugurated. (Bloomberg)
• Politics of South Africa
  • Cyril Ramaphosa becomes president of the African National Congress (ANC), defeating Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma by 2,440 votes to 2,261. (News24)
• Politics of the United States
  • President of the United States Donald Trump presents a new National Security Strategy document that labels China and Russia as the primary threats to U.S. economic dominance. (BBC)

• Earliest known life forms
  • University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers report, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that microscopic fossils discovered in a nearly 3.5 billion-year-old piece of rock in Western Australia are the oldest fossils ever found and the earliest direct evidence of life on Earth. (Phys.org) (The Times)

• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • Houthis say that they launched a Volcano H-2 missile targeting at the Al-Yamamah Palace in the Saudi capital city of Riyadh. According to the Saudis, the missile was intercepted south of Riyadh and caused no casualties. (Reuters)
  • The Secretary-General of the OIC, Yousef Al-Othaimeen, says the repeated launch of ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia served to confirm the Houthis' "hostility and criminality" and further claimed "The Houthis are trying to destabilize Saudi Arabia and the entire region." (Anadolu Agency)

• 2017 Washington train derailment
  • An NTSB spokesperson says that preliminary indications are that the train was travelling at 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) on a 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) track. The Positive train control (PTC) safety system was not operational on the train, says Amtrak. (BBC)
• A tour bus crash in Mexico leaves at least 12 people dead and 18 injured. The cause of the crash is under investigation. (The Washington Post)

• Canada–United States relations, North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announce the formation of an international group that seeks to increase pressure on North Korea regarding their nuclear program. The group, comprised of 18 countries, will meet for the first time on January 16, 2018 in Vancouver. (AFP)

• Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
  • The United States House of Representatives passes the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 by 227 votes to 203. After being sent to the United States Senate for a vote, the Senate's parliamentarian found that several provisions in the House bill violated Senate rules, which forced the House of Representatives to call a second vote on an altered version of the legislation that has the violating provisions removed. The second vote by the House of Representatives is expected to take place on December 20, 2017. (NBC News)
• Taxation in the Philippines
  • Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act. (The Philippine Star)

• In U.S. college women's basketball, two Hall of Fame coaches win their 1,000th career games—first Sylvia Hatchell of North Carolina, followed a few hours later by Geno Auriemma of Connecticut. Auriemma becomes the fastest coach to reach the mark in NCAA Division I history for either men or women, doing so in his 33rd season and 1,135th game. (ESPN)

• • The European Court of Justice (ECJ) rules that Uber is officially a transport company and not a digital service, thus requiring it to accept stricter regulation and licensing within the European Union. The case arose after Uber was told to obey local taxi rules in Barcelona. (The Guardian)

• Foreign policy of the United States
  • President Trump suggests that the United States could withhold foreign aid for countries that vote in favor of a United Nations resolution calling on the U.S. to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. (The Hill)
• China–South Korea relations
  • South Korea's coast guard says it fired 249 warning shots over a group of Chinese fishing boats "swarming around" one of its patrol ships in South Korean waters. (The Independent)

• Poland in the European Union, Judiciary reforms in Poland
  • The European Commission invokes Article 7 of the European Treaty against E.U. member Poland, denouncing recent judiciary reforms putting it under the political control of the ruling majority and citing "serious risk to the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers". (Le Monde) (The Guardian)
• Cannabis in New Zealand
  • Terminally ill patients in New Zealand are now able to take medicinal cannabis. (The New Zealand Herald) (Newshub)
• Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
  • The United States Senate and House of Representatives pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which sends it to United States President Donald Trump for signing. This comes after a previous and different version of this legislation was passed by the House yesterday. The law removes the individual insurance mandate from Obamacare. (ABC News)
• Israel–Palestine relations
  • 16-year-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, daughter of Bassem al-Tamimi, is arrested on December 19 in a pre-dawn raid on her home in Nabi Salih by the Israeli army after being suspected of assaulting an Israeli soldier. Later in the day, her mother Nariman is allegedly arrested too when visiting her daughter at a police station. (Al Jazeera)
• Presidency of Donald Trump
  • U.S. President Donald Trump commutes the prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, who in 2009 was sentenced to 27 years in prison for bank fraud and money laundering. (USA Today)

• The National Institutes of Health lifts a three-year ban on scientists experimenting with lethal viruses in the United States, saying the potential benefits of disease preparedness outweigh the risks. (BBC)

• Association football
  • Belgian First Division A
    • Reigning Belgian champion R.S.C. Anderlecht agrees to be sold to the highest bidder, Marc Coucke, just before a January 1 fiscal deadline. (Het Laatste Nieuws)
  • Expansion of Major League Soccer
    • Major League Soccer announces that Nashville has been selected to host a new MLS franchise. No definite timetable for the team's first season has been set. (ESPN)

• December 2017 Melbourne car attack
  • Nineteen people are injured after a car crashes into pedestrians at the corner of Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street in Melbourne, Australia. The driver is arrested. Victoria Police believe that the incident was a "deliberate act" but not terrorism-related. (The Age) (The Observer)
• Border incidents involving North and South Korea
  • A Korean People's Army soldier defects to South Korea after crossing the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). South Korean border guards fired warning shots at North Korean troops who approached the Military Demarcation Line, in search of the missing soldier. He is the fourth North Korean soldier to defect this year. (Reuters)

• The wreckage of the HMAS AE1, the first submarine to serve in the Royal Australian Navy, is found near the Duke of York Islands after a 103-year search. (BBC)

• Papa John's Pizza founder John Schnatter announces he will step down from his position as CEO on January 1, 2018. The move comes two months after he criticized NFL leadership over national anthem protests by NFL players. He will be succeeded by COO Steve Ritchie. (Chicago Tribune)
• Alphabet Inc. announces Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who has been chief executive of Google/Alphabet since 2001, will step down in January 2018. Schmidt will continue to serve on Alphabet's board of directors. (Reuters)

• A ferry sinks off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines with 251 passengers on board. At least four people are reported to have died. The toll is expected to rise, as many are still missing. (NPR)
• 2017 Jecheon fire
  • A fire at a fitness center in Jecheon, South Korea, kills at least 29 people and leaves 26 others injured. (AFP via Rappler)

• United Nations General Assembly resolution ES-10/L.22
  • The United Nations General Assembly votes 128–9, with 35 abstentions, in a nonbinding resolution to demand that the United States rescind its December 6th declaration on unilaterally recognizing the holy and contested city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. (Canoe.com)

• Slender Man stabbing
  • Judge Michael Bohren rules Anissa Weier will spend 25 years in institutional care after she was previously found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect of the 2014 stabbing of her classmate. (WITI)

• Catalan regional election, 2017 Spanish constitutional crisis
  • Voters in Catalonia go to the polls for a snap election called by the Spanish government after the former regional government unsuccessfully declared independence. (BBC)
• Elections in Cuba
  • The Cuban Parliament approves moving the country's municipal elections to March, and the presidential election to April, when President Raúl Castro is expected to step down. (ABC News)
• Government shutdown in the United States
  • House and Senate pass a continuing resolution bill to avert a government shutdown until January 19, 2018. (NPR)

• Life expectancy
  • The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports life expectancy in 2016 in America declined for the second year in a row because of the opioid crisis. (Reuters)

• Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • After 1,000 days of civil war in Yemen, eight million people are at risk of starvation. (BBC)
• Protests on U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
  • Two Palestinians are shot dead and about 60 others are wounded by Israeli troops gunfire as thousands protest along the Gaza border fence, in all seven West Bank cities and in East Jerusalem, against the U.S. declaration. (Reuters)

• Economics of bitcoin
  • The digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin loses a third of its value within 24 hours. (CNN)
• CSX Corporation names chief operating officer Jim Foote its new chief executive officer, succeeding E. Hunter Harrison who died last week. Harrison had started a restructuring campaign less than a year ago. (Reuters)
• Apple Inc. litigation
  • Apple Inc. faces backlash and lawsuits after admitting to slowing down the speed on some of their older phones deliberately. (CNET) (Business Insider)

• The Philippine Coast Guard reports that 252 passengers and crew have been rescued while five people were killed when a ferry capsized Thursday east of Manila. (Reuters)

• United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
  • Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will not accept any U.S. plan for peace with Israel, because it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. (BBC)
• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • The United Nations Security Council unanimously imposes new sanctions on North Korea that caps refined petroleum product imports to 500,000 barrels a year, a 90 percent cut, and demands the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 24 months. (Reuters)
• Ukraine–United States relations
  • The U.S. agrees to supply Ukraine with more lethal weapons, now including Javelin anti-tank missiles. (AP via New York Daily News)

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests Everitt Aaron Jameson, a 25-year-old former Marine, on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack in the Pier 39 area over Christmas. (BBC)
• American police shoot dead an Egyptian man after he opened fire on them. Police described it as an apparent terror attack.(CNN)

• Catalan regional election, 2017
  • Pro-independence parties retain their absolute majority in the regional parliament, while the unionist Citizens party secures the highest number of seats. (BBC)
  • The political situation means that there is no clarity as to which party is given the right to form the government. (BBC)
  • The voter turnout reaches a record high for a Catalan regional election of over 83%. (Reuters)
• Brexit
  • The United Kingdom's Home Office confirms the return of the blue British passport after the UK leaves the European Union. The new passports will be issued from October 2019. (BBC)
• Tax reform in the United States
  • President Donald Trump signs the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 into law. (CNN)

• 2017 Pacific typhoon season
  • Tropical Storm Tembin
    • More than 200 people are dead in the southern Philippines as a result of floods and mudslides caused by Severe Tropical Storm Vinta. (Reuters)
• London Zoo fire
  • A fire breaks out at a café and shop at the London Zoo. An aardvark is killed and four meerkats are missing. (Sky) (Reuters)
• December 2017 Southern California wildfires
  • The Thomas Fire becomes the largest in Californian state history. (BBC)
• Rajasthan bus crash
  • Thirty-three people are killed and 15 injured as a bus falls 65 feet into the river in Rajasthan, Western India. (Sky News)
• 2017 Davao City mall fire
  • Thirty-seven people, mostly call centre workers, are missing and presumed dead in a fire in the Davao City Mall in the Philippines. (The Express) (The Free Press Journal)

• Foreign relations of France
  • French President Emmanuel Macron says he will help strengthen the military forces of the G5 Sahel fighting Islamist militants in the Northern Mali conflict. (Reuters)

• A mail carrier from Dublin, Ohio, (told that he would lose his job) allegedly kills 2 of his supervisors. (AP via ABC News) (The Columbus Dispatch)

• Previously secret documents from Alan Ewen Donald, the United Kingdom's ambassador to China between 1988 and 1991, regarding the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, are released after being declassified in October, putting the death toll from the protests at 10,000 people. (BBC)
• Former Peru president Alberto Fujimori is taken, from prison, to a local hospital for treatment for abnormally low blood pressure. (Reuters)

• 2017–18 La Liga
  • For a record third time in a row, FC Barcelona wins the El Clásico away match versus Real Madrid C.F.. With a 3–0 score, they extend their lead over Real Madrid at the top of La Liga to 14 points. (The Guardian)

• Typhoon Tembin
  • Officials raise the death total from this storm to 182, with at least 153 people missing and more than 70,000 displaced. (Malay Mail)

• Positions on Jerusalem
  • Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales says he will move his country's Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. (Reuters)
• Transport in Tunisia
  • Tunisia's Transport Ministry suspends Emirates Airlines flights to Tunis. (Deutsche Welle)
• Sanctions against North Korea
  • North Korea’s foreign ministry, in an official statement, says the latest United Nations sanctions are an act of war and are, in effect, a complete economic blockade. (Reuters)

• Pardon of Alberto Fujimori
  • Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardons Alberto Fujimori, who was serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and human rights violations. (BBC)

• 2016–17 purges in Turkey
  • The Turkish government dismisses 2,756 public servants for alleged links to organizations involved in the July 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt. (France 24)

• China's AVIC AG600, the world's largest amphibious aircraft, makes its maiden flight. State-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) has spent almost eight years developing the aircraft, which is designed to carry out marine rescues and battle wildfires. (BBC)

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  • A suicide blast near the National Directorate of Security headquarters in Kabul kills 10. Amaq News Agency claims ISIL is responsible for the attack. (Reuters)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • More than 70 civilians are believed to have been killed in two-days of airstrikes by the Royal Saudi Air Force targeting Houthi forces. (Al Jazeera)

• At least 19 people are killed and 25 others injured in a jeepney-bus collision in La Union, Philippines. (CNN) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• A public transport bus crashes into Slavyansky Bulvar subway station entrance in Moscow, Russia, killing four and injuring eleven. (BBC)

• Russian presidential election, 2018
  • The Russian Central Election Commission refuses to register opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a candidate in the presidential election due to a previous embezzlement conviction, which he claims is politicized. Navalny has called for his supporters to boycott the upcoming election in response. (BBC)

• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • According to emergency services and the Houthi-owned Al Masirah, Saudi Arabian coalition air strikes kill 15 people and wound 60 at al-Shahra souq, a popular market in Taiz Governorate. (Al Jazeera) (Het Laatste Nieuws)

• Foreign relations of Saudi Arabia
  • Seven Israeli chess players are denied travel visas to the Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Saudi Arabia as the two countries have no diplomatic relations. Players from Qatar and Iran are given last-minute visas, while Ukrainian champion Anna Muzychuk refuses to participate because she does not want to wear an abaya. (BBC)
• Russia–Syria relations
  • Forty Syrian rebel and opposition groups reject Russia's offer to attend peace talks in late January 2018. (Fox News)

• Sinai Insurgency
  • Fifteen militants accused of carrying out attacks in 2013 during the Sinai Insurgency are hanged in Egypt. The last mass execution in the country took place in 2015, when six jihadists were executed. (BBC)

• Liberian general election, 2017
  • Voters in Liberia will elect a new president in a run-off election between vice-president Joseph Boakai and former footballer George Weah. Weah is elected with 60% of the vote. (BBC) (BBC)
• Mining industry of Morocco
  • Thousands of Moroccans protest working conditions in Morocco's coal pits. (France 24)

• Doping in Russia
  • Grigory Rodchenkov, the person who exposed Russia's systematic doping of Olympic athletes, is warned by U.S. officials that Russian agents may be inside the United States looking for him, and that new security measures must be taken to ensure his safety. (UPROXX) (BBC Sport)

• War in Donbass, Minsk II
  • Ukraine exchanges hundreds of prisoners with the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic. (BBC)
• Perekrestok supermarket bombing
  • A bomb goes off in a supermarket in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, injuring at least 10 people. Police say they are treating the blast as an attempted terror attack. Social media accounts linked to ISIL have claimed responsibility. (Reuters)

• Israel–United States relations
  • Israel's Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz says that the new underground railroad terminal in the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem (part of East Jerusalem) will be named in honor of U.S. President Donald Trump. (Jerusalem Post)
• Positions on Jerusalem
  • The Iranian Parliament votes 207–0 to declare Jerusalem the "everlasting capital" of Palestine. (The Times of Israel)
• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • North Korea is building its first operational ballistic missile submarine on an “accelerated schedule,” according to the US-Korea Institute of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. (The Christian Science Monitor)

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  • December 2017 Kabul suicide bombing
    • A suicide bombing at a Shi‘ite cultural center and news agency in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 41 people and injures 84 others. ISIL-affiliated Amaq News Agency says this group is responsible. (Reuters) (CNN)
• Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • Battle of Benghazi (2014–2017)
    • The Libyan National Army declares full control of Benghazi, the country's second largest city, after retaking the last district held by Islamist militants. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • The White Helmets reports that Syrian government and Russian warplanes, using rockets and internationally-banned weapons - including vacuum bombs, repeatedly strike residential areas in the town of Al-Lataminah and six villages in Idlib province, killing 22 people. (Daily Sabah)

• Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are voted the most admired man and woman in the United States, according to Gallup's annual poll. (CNN)

• • Twelve people are dead in an apartment fire in The Bronx area of New York City. (AP via Yahoo!)

• Turkey–United States relations
  • United States consular missions in Turkey and the Embassy of Turkey, Washington, D.C. announce they will resume visa services. (France 24)

• Crime in the Philippines
  • In Mandaluyong, Philippines, law enforcers mistakenly fired at a Mitsubishi Adventure, which they thought carried suspects in a previous shooting incident, resulting in two people dead and two others injured. As a result, 10 police officers were relieved from the post. (GMA News)(Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• Same-sex marriage in the United States
  • The Oregon Court of Appeals upholds a $135,000 fine against the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Sweet Cakes by Melissa v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. A similar case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission has reached the Supreme Court of the United States with a decision expected in June 2018. (NBC News)
• 2017 Wichita, Kansas swatting
  • Police shoot and kill a man in Wichita, Kansas, after a hoax emergency call sends them there. (BBC)

• Liberian general election, 2017
  • With 98 percent of the votes counted, Liberia’s National Elections Commission announces these unofficial results show Senator George Weah, a former Pro footballer, defeating vice president Joseph Boakai, 61.5 to 38.5 percent, in the runoff of October's presidential election, to succeed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female Liberian president. (The New York Times)

• Saint Menas church attack
  • Nine people are killed in two coordinated attacks targeting Coptic Christians in Egypt. Two of the victims are killed by a gunman in a Coptic-owned appliance store in the Helwan area of Cairo. The gunman then moves to a church where he kills a further six civilians and a policeman before being arrested. (BBC)

• Venezuelan communications director Jorge Rodríguez announces that the country's Petro cryptocurrency, backed by 5.3 billion barrels of oil worth $267 billion, will launch shortly. (CNBC)

• Kamala Mills fire
  • At least 15 people are killed in a rooftop restaurant fire in Mumbai, India. (AP)

• 2017 Iranian protests
  • Anti-government demonstrators have taken to the streets of Iran for a second day, with protests being held in a number of cities. (BBC)
• Politics of Mali
  • In a surprising event, Malian Prime Minister Abdoulaye Idrissa Maïga and his government resign without providing a reason. (The Guardian)

• Insurgency in Egypt (2013–present)
  • Three suspected militants are killed and ten others are arrested by Egyptian security forces in Giza. (Reuters)
• Ukrainian crisis
  • A man strapped with explosives takes 11 people hostage in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The Ukrainian police free all the hostages and arrest the man. (Reuters)

• Nepal bans solo climbers, double amputees and blind climbers from scaling its mountains, including Mount Everest, in a bid to reduce accidents. This has been criticized by successful double-amputee Everest climbers. (BBC)

• Ten people are killed and two are injured in a car crash near Acapulco, Mexico. (Reuters)

• Two security officers are killed in a shooting at the hotel-casino Arizona Charlie's Decatur in Las Vegas. (KVVU-TV)

• 2017 Iranian protests
  • Two protesters are shot dead by Iranian police in Dorud, Lorestan Province, as anti-government protests spread across the country. (Reuters)

• A large number of fireworks accidentally go off in a barge at a New Year's Day show in Terrigal, NSW, Australia, causing thousands to be evacuated from the beach by police and the two people on the barge to suffer minor injuries. (BBC)
• A truck collision in western Kenya kills at least 36 people and injures 18. (The Standard)
• 2017 Sydney Seaplanes crash
  • A DHC-2 Beaver seaplane crashes into the Hawkesbury River near Sydney, killing at least six people. (BBC) (CTV NEWS)
• 2017 Nature Air Cessna 208 Caravan crash
  • Twelve people, including all 10 American passengers, are killed when their single-propeller plane crashes in a mountainous area near Punta Islita, in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. The pilot was former President Laura Chinchilla's cousin. (CBS News) (AFP and The Tico Times)
• A fire consumes a multi-story parking garage in Liverpool, England, destroying about 1,400 cars parked there, most for an international horse show in the adjacent Liverpool Echo Arena. No injuries are reported, and all horses and pet dogs were moved to safety. (Reuters) (AP and CBS News)

• United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issues "a red alert for our world," saying that conflicts have deepened, global anxieties about nuclear weapons have increased, inequalities have grown, and nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise. Guterres calls for global unity to overcome these growing challenges. (CNN)

• Copper Canyon Apartment Homes shooting
  • Five Douglas County, Colorado sheriff's deputies are shot, one fatally, and two civilians are injured at a domestic disturbance call. The suspect was also killed. (CBS News)
• Law of China
  • China announces the country's ivory trade is now illegal. In 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-U.S. President Barack Obama announced "near-complete" ivory bans for each country. America's ivory ban went into effect in June 2016. (National Geographic)

• Politics of India
  • Indian film superstar Rajinikanth, who has a huge following in the country and is one of Asia's highest paid actors, has announced he is entering politics. (BBC)
• 2017 Iranian protests
  • Iran blocks access to Telegram and Instagram as the largest anti-government protests since 2009 continue. (The Guardian)
• Palestine–United States relations
  • Palestine recalls their envoy to the United States for "consultations," following President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas says they will not accept any U.S. peace plan in the wake of Trump's move. (BBC)

• 2017 NFL season, 2017 Cleveland Browns season
  • In American football, the Cleveland Browns becomes the second team in the NFL, along with the Detroit Lions to have a winless season. (The Washington Post)