Tuesday,  December 27th, 2022 

It is announced that a record seventy-one military vehicles from the Chinese Air Force entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone in the past 24 hours. (Reuters) 

The Taiwanese government announces that it would extend the required duration for conscription from four months to one year, citing the increasing threat of China using military force to pursue Chinese unification. The reform, which will apply to men born after January 1, 2005, will take effect in 2024. (AFP via SBS World News) 

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol pardons former president Lee Myung-bak as part of a mass pardon aimed at “national unity”. Lee had been serving a 17-year sentence for corruption. (Al Jazeera) 

Ukrainian forces claim that they are closing in on the city of Kreminna in Luhansk Oblast. According to governor Serhiy Haidai, Russian fighters in some parts of the city were forced to retreat to neighboring Rubizhne. (The Guardian) 

Russian president Vladimir Putin issues a decree to prohibit the exports of Russian oil and petroleum products to countries and organizations that adhere to the US$60-per-barrel price cap that Australia, the European Union, and the G7 member states agreed upon earlier this month. The decree will be in effect from February 1 to July 1. (AFP via NDTV) 

A federal judge in Michigan, United States, sentences a man to 16 years in prison for plotting to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. The man was also convicted of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. (CNN) 

The Supreme Court of the United States rules 5–4 to maintain Title 42 of the U.S. Code, allowing the government to remove persons who have recently been in a country where an infectious disease was present. (AFP via RFI) 

Monday,  December 26th, 2022 

Five North Korean drones cross the DMZ into South Korea, which assembles aircraft to intercept the drones. One of the South Korean FA-1 light attack aircraft crashes during takeoff and a North Korean drone crashes near the South Korean capital of Seoul. It is believed that North Korea launched the drones in response to criticism of the quality of North Korean satellite images.  (Daily NK) 

The National Health Commission announces that China will suspend their COVID-19 quarantine requirements for passengers arriving from abroad beginning on January 8. (ABC News) 

Three Russian military members are killed by debris after Russia shoots down a drone that was approaching the Engels air base in Saratov Oblast, Russia. (AFP via Times of Israel) 

Six Syrian Democratic Forces members are killed and an unknown number of others are injured during an ambush by five Islamic State gunmen in Raqqa. One of the attackers is killed and another is arrested. (Al Jazeera) 

Six Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation militants are killed during a fight with the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian Army in Aleppo. (AP) 

Seventeen people are killed and 93 more injured as heavy snow affects Japan. (AP) 

Three members of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin have died within ten days from each other in Cambodia, prompting an increasing alarming situation. (AP) 

A French judge indicts a 69-year-old man with murder, attempted murder due to race, and the unlawful procurement and possession of a weapon for killing three people and injuring three others in the 10th arrondissement of Paris on December 23. The suspect had confessed to having been motivated by racism. (AFP via Deccan Herald) 

The End

Sunday, December 25th, 2022 

An attack on an electrical substation in Pierce County, Washington, United States, cuts off power to 14,000 people. The perpetrators and motive of the attack are unknown. (Seattle Times) 

Fourteen Iranian fishermen are returned to Iran after eight years of captivity in Somalia. The men were found in Somalia by police last month and freed from al-Shabaab jihadists after negotiations between the captors, tribal chiefs and Somali elders. (AFP via Al Arabiya) 

At least four people are injured, one of them seriously, when an avalanche hits the ski resort Zürs/Lech in Vorarlberg, Austria. Emergency services rescue all of the ten people who had been buried alive. (RTL News in German) 

Catalonia in Spain registers the highest December temperature ever for the autonomous community in Anglès, which reached 26.3 °C (79.3 °F). Several other stations, including in the regional capital of Barcelona, also break records. (Catalan News) 

A court in the Maldives sentences former president Abdulla Yameen to 11 years in prison on money laundering and bribery charges. (ABC News) 

Saturday, December 24th, 2022 

The Taliban issues a decree banning female employees from all non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan. (CNN) 

Russian forces shell the city of Kherson, killing at least ten civilians and injuring 58 others. (Daily Express) 

Kurds riot near the Place de la République in Paris, France, damaging shops and setting fires. The Paris Police Prefecture reports 11 arrests and at least 30 minor injuries in relation to the violence. The riot followed a peaceful protest in response to yesterday’s mass shooting at a Kurdish cultural center that killed three people. (Reuters) 

Six people are killed and two others are rescued after a bus falls off a bridge into the Lérez river in Galicia, Spain. (The Guardian) 

The Nara District Public Prosecutors Office in Nara Prefecture, Japan, says that the accused assassin of former prime minister Shinzo Abe is competent to stand trial for the killing. Prosecutors say that Tetsuya Yamagami “does not suffer from any mental illness that could greatly affect his ability to judge right from wrong”. According to sources, prosecutors plan to indict Yamagami on murder charges. (Yomiuri) 

Sitiveni Rabuka is confirmed as the new prime minister. Rabuka will hold the office again more than two decades after first leading the country as prime minister. (AP via VOA) 

The End

Friday,  December 23rd, 2022 

Footage of the President of South Sudan Salva Kiir urinating on himself during a national event sparks a widespread debate about ethics, age, health, governance and retirement. (The Guardian) 

The Russian-installed head of Liubymivka, Kakhovka Raion, Andrei Shlepa, is assassinated in a car bombing in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region. Russia accuses Ukraine of being behind the attack. (Reuters via The Straits Times) 

Three people are killed and four others are injured in a mass shooting at a Kurdish community center in Paris, France. The perpetrator, a 69-year-old Frenchman, is arrested. (BBC News) 

Japan’s internal affairs ministry reports that the country experienced its highest level of inflation since 1981 last month after core consumer prices increased by 3.7 percent from November 2021. (AFP via Manila Bulletin) 

At least 200 million people, two-thirds of the population of the United States, are under weather warning advisories, with the state of New York issuing a travel ban due to extreme temperatures. 1.5 million people across the country are left without power and at least 28 people are killed as a result of the storm.  (Sky News) 

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who received a life sentence in Nepal for murdering 12 tourists between 1963 and 1976, and suspected of murdering also 18 other people, is released from prison due to his old age and good behaviour in accordance with a Supreme Court order. He is deported to France and barred from Nepal for ten years. (AFP via NDTV) 

Thursday, December 22nd, 2022 

Somalia’s ministry of defense says that the military has recaptured the key town of Runirgod from al-Shabaab. 150 insurgents were killed and 15 others were arrested in the operation. (Xinhua) 

Fiji mobilises its army in response to threats made against the country’s minority groups and ongoing civil unrest. (RNZ) 

The Scottish Parliament passes the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill by 86–39 votes, amending the Gender Recognition Act 2004 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to simplify the legal gender change process in Scotland. The bill now awaits royal assent. (AFP via Manila Bulletin) 

The Spanish Congress of Deputies passes a bill by 188–150 votes allowing anyone over the age of 16 to legally change their gender on their national identity card. The bill will now head to the Senate for final approval. (BBC News) 

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York releases FTX co-founder and former chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried on a $250 million bail on the condition that he resides at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, while he awaits trial on criminal fraud charges over the bankruptcy of his cryptocurrency exchange. (AFP via Deccan Herald) 

Italian rugby union team Benetton Treviso suspends an unnamed player following an investigation by the Italian public prosecutor’s office on racist behavior exhibited during a Secret Santa team event involving Guinea-born player Cherif Traorè, in which the suspended player reportedly gifted Traorè a rotten banana. (AFP via news.com.au) 

The End