Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Winter of 2024–25 in the Gaza Strip, Gaza Strip evacuations
    • The Gaza Strip Government Media Office reports that 110,000 out of 135,000 tents used as shelters by displaced Palestinians have "completely deteriorated" and are now unusable due to strong winter winds and heavy rainfall. (Al Jazeera)
• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • Syria's new government announces "a large-scale sweep operation" in Latakia to arrest or eliminate all remaining pro-Assad insurgents and any threats to national security. (Al Jazeera)
• 2024 Afghanistan–Pakistan skirmishes
  • Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense announces that they targeted several locations in Pakistan in retaliation for Pakistani aircraft conducting aerial bombardments within Afghanistan. (Al Jazeera)

Business and economy

• Homelessness in the United States
  • U.S. homelessness hits a record high in 2024, increasing by more than 18% in the past year, primarily due to high housing costs, natural disasters, and an increase in migration to major cities. (BBC News)
• Moldova-Russia relations
  • Russian company Gazprom announces the supply of gas to Moldova will cease on January 1, 2025, alleging fails to fulfill its payment obligations. The Moldovan Prime Minister, Dorin Recean, accuses the Russian Government of deliberately weaponising energy flows to destabilise the country. (Euronews).

Disasters and accidents

• Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira Bridge collapse
  • The death toll from the highway collapse between Maranhão and Tocantins, Brazil, six days ago, increases to eleven, with six others still missing. (Correio Braziliense)
• Tornado outbreak of December 26–29, 2024
  • At least two people are killed in a tornado outbreak across the southern United States, with damage reported near Houston, Texas. (USA Today)

International relations

• Lukoil oil transit dispute, Ukrainian energy crisis, Slovakia–Ukraine relations
  • Slovakia threatens reciprocal measures against Ukraine's plans to suspend the transit of Russian oil to Slovakia on January 1, including suspending electricity supplies. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accuses Slovakia of opening a "second energy front" against Kyiv under Moscow's orders. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• The Afghanistan's Taliban government bans windows overlooking to places "used by women", and says that existing ones should be blocked. (RFI)

Politics and elections

• 2024 Mozambican general election
  • 2024 Mozambican protests
    • At least 13,000 Mozambicans flee the country into Malawi amid widespread civil unrest due to the results of the recent general election. (DW)
• 2024 South Korean martial law crisis
  • Impeachment of Han Duck-soo, Impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol
    • Impeached South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol is accused of ordering the authorization of the use of live firearms to stop MPs from overriding the martial law vote and to force the MPs out of the National Assembly legislature building. (BBC News)