International relations

• Syria–Germany relations, Syria–France relations
  • Germany's Annalena Baerbock and France's Jean-Noël Barrot are the first EU Foreign Ministers to travel to Damascus after the fall of Assad to discuss a new political beginning with the Syrian Transitional Government and Syrian civil society. (Der Spiegel), (France 24)

Law and crime

• 2024 South Korean martial law crisis
  • Yoon Suk Yeol residence standoff
    • Corruption investigators and prosecutors raid the central Seoul residence of recently impeached President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol to arrest him for refusing to show to three court summons. The raid is unsuccessful due to the Presidential Security Service blocking further entrance, leading to a multi-hour standoff. (The Guardian)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • 2024 Israeli invasion of Syria
    • Israeli warplanes carry out airstrikes on defense factories and a research center in Al-Safira, Aleppo Governorate, Syria. (Xinhua)
  • US intervention in the Syrian civil war
    • According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, U.S. forces are deploying a new convoy to areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces in Kobani, Aleppo Governorate, as part of operations to establish a new US military base in north-eastern Syria. (SOHR)
• Israel–Hamas war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • Eleven people are killed, including a Hamas police chief, in an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp in al-Mawasi in the Gaza Strip. (BBC News)
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announces that it has approved a delegation to Doha, Qatar for ceasefire talks. (Reuters)
• War in Somalia, War against the Islamic State
  • Puntland military offensives into ISIS
    • Puntland forces conduct airstrikes on ISIL hideouts in Bari, Puntland, Somalia, after they announced a military offensive against ISIL and Al-Shabaab. (Idil News) (VOA)

Business and economy

• German economic crisis
  • The Handelsblatt Research Institute reports that the German economy is in its "greatest crisis in post-war history" after projecting that the economy will enter its third year of recession in 2025 with a 0.1% contraction, following a 0.3% contraction in both 2023 and 2024. (TVP World)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Fullerton plane crash
  • A small plane crashes through the roof of a commercial warehouse in Fullerton, California, United States, causing a fire, killing two people and injuring at least 18 others. (KABC-TV) (AP)
• Two officers were injured in an explosion of an unknown object at a police fence in Berlin-Wittenau; the reasons for this are still unclear. (tagesschau)

International relations

• Syria–Ukraine relations
  • Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Ukraine will pledge support to the Syrian transitional government. (The Press Democrat)

Politics and elections

• 2024 Venezuelan political crisis
  • The government of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro offers a US$100,000 reward for the capture of exiled opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, who claims that he is ready to take office as the legitimate president on January 10. (El Universal) (El País)
• The Constitutional Court of Indonesia rules that the 20% electoral threshold for political parties to nominate a presidential candidate is not legally binding, potentially enabling smaller parties to participate in future presidential elections without the need to form coalition with larger parties. (Reuters)

Science and technology

• 2025 in paleontology, Dinosaurs of the British Isles
  • The largest site of dinosaur footprints of the Cetiosaurus and Megalosaurus dating back to the Middle Jurassic Bathonian stage 166 million years ago is discovered at a quarry in Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom. (BBC News)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israel–Hamas war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip kill at least 26 Palestinians, including four children. At least ten others are missing and believed to be buried under rubble. (Al Jazeera)
• 2025 New Orleans truck attack
  • A man kills 15 people and injures 35 others, including two police officers, in a vehicle-ramming and shooting attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, before being shot dead. The FBI says that it found an Islamic State flag in the suspect's vehicle. (Reuters)
• Somali Civil War
  • The African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission, endorsed by United Nations Security Council on December 27, replaces the African Union Transition Mission as the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia. (Voice of Nigeria) (UN Press)

Arts and culture

• Public Domain Day
  • The novel A Farewell to Arms and the cartoon characters Popeye and Tintin enter the public domain in the United States. (Rolling Stone)

Business and economy

• 2022–2023 Russia–European Union gas dispute
  • Russia's gas firm Gazprom suspends exports of Russian natural gas through Ukrainian pipelines after Ukraine refused to renew the transit agreement between its operator Naftogaz and Gazprom. However, Hungary will continue receiving Russian natural gas via the TurkStream pipeline. (Reuters)
• Foreign relations of Mexico
  • Mexico's Tax Administration Service implements new tariffs, including a 19% duty on goods from countries without international trade agreements with Mexico and a 17% duty on goods from Canada and the United States under certain value thresholds. (Reuters)
• Moldova–Russia relations
  • As announced, Russia's Gazprom halts its gas supplies both to Moldova and the self-proclaimed Transnistrian republic alleging non-compliance with payment obligations. (bne IntelliNews), (Politico)

Disasters and accidents

• European migrant crisis
  • Twenty-seven migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are killed, and 83 others are rescued after two boats capsize off the Kerkennah Islands near Tunisia, with searches ongoing for additional missing passengers. (France 24)
• Three people are killed and over twenty others are injured in a fireworks explosion at a house in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. (CTV News)

International relations

• Honduras–United States relations
  • Honduran President Xiomara Castro warns that she might remove all US military bases from Honduras and seek to cancel the military cooperation with the United States if President-elect Donald Trump fulfills his threat to order mass deportations of Hondurans when he takes office next January 20. (The Tico Times)

Law and crime

• 2024–2025 German New Year's Eve pyrotechnics incidents
  • Five people are killed, several others are injured, and at least 330 people are arrested due to mishandling of pyrotechnics during New Year's celebrations in Germany. (RNZ) (1News)
• 2025 Cetinje shootings
  • Twelve people are killed and four others are injured in a shooting spree in Cetinje, Montenegro. The perpetrator kills himself. (AP) (Al Jazeera)
• Al Jazeera controversies and criticism
  • The Palestinian Authority suspends Al Jazeera's broadcasts and operations in Palestine, accusing the network of interfering in internal affairs and spreading incitement and misinformation. (Reuters)
• Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia
  • Saudi Arabia announces the execution of six Iranian nationals convicted of smuggling hashish. In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Saudi ambassador in protest. (AP)
• LGBTQ rights in Liechtenstein
  • Liechtenstein becomes the 39th country to legalize same-sex marriage. (GCN)
• Trump International Hotel Las Vegas Tesla Cybertruck explosion
  • A Tesla Cybertruck explodes outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada, United States, killing the driver and slightly injuring seven other people. Police are currently investigating whether the fireworks that the truck was carrying were part of a terrorist plot. (ABC News)
• Five people are killed in a familicide mass stabbing when a son kills his four sisters and mother in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. (The Hindu)
• A police officer is killed and four other people are injured in a vehicle-ramming attack during a patrol in Nelson, New Zealand. A 32-year-old suspect is arrested. (AP)
• Eleven people are injured during a mass shooting outside a nightclub in Queens, New York, United States. (The Nightly)
• FBI agents announce the seizure of more than 150 homemade pipe bombs and other explosive devices from a home in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, United States, "the largest seizure by number of finished explosive devices in FBI history". (AP)

Politics and elections

• Bulgaria and Romania finalize the process of joining the Schengen Area and lift their land border controls. (AP)
• Karin Keller-Sutter is sworn in as President of Switzerland. (Le News)