December 9 – GLOBAL
Global Health: Coronavirus, or Covid-19
China’s two companies, Sinovac and Sinopharm, develop coronavirus vaccines. Unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, it works by using killed viral particles to expose the body’s immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response. They also are less effective, currently at 79 percent.[1]
More about China’s coronavirus vaccines
(Dec 10): South Korea has been hit by four waves of coronavirus infections since its first case in January, but according to health officials, the current outbreak is the hardest to control. Daily number of new cases South Korea’s used to be as two per day; currently the number is 682. The current wave has spread through numerous small clusters that erupted in nursing homes, hospitals, saunas, bars, restaurants, music halls and factories, most of them in the Seoul metropolitan area, but also in towns farther away.[2]
(Dec 14): As the U.S. surpasses 300,000 coronavirus deaths and 15 million cases, it begins its vaccination campaign using the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine that received emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The vaccine will go first to medical staff and older people. Most Americans will have to wait several more months to receive the vaccine.[3]
Pfizer’s Vaccine Offers Strong Protection After First Dose
(Dec 20): Total infections around the world reach 76 million.[4]
(Dec 22): The United Kingdom identifies a new variant of the coronavirus that is more contagious and genetically distinct from, more established variants. In response, the UK tightens restrictions and imposes new lockdowns over Christmas, while some European countries and beyond announce a ban travel on the U.K.[5]
Tracking the Covid-19 outbreak globally
More on the new variant of the coronavirus
(Dec 26): Polls in the United States show that people who are willing to take the coronavirus vaccine has grown to more than 60 percent, and in one poll 73 percent — a figure that should be sufficient for herd immunity.[6]
More on the vaccine in the U.S.
How does a vaccine get approved? (video: 02:53 min)
(Dec 26): The European Union begins its vaccination campaign with the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine to more than 450 million people in 27 countries that comprise the Union. Scientists say the vaccine should also work against the new, more infectious variant of the virus.[7]
December 9 – Africa: ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis
Tens of thousands of Ethiopia’s Tigray people, an ethnic minority in northern Ethiopia, flee the violence to Sudan after the Ethiopian government’s military offensive in the region of Tigray. While the country’s troops clashed with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the Tigrayan civilians are caught in the middle of the conflict, facing death from shelling, but also severe shortages of food and medicines, looting, and ethnic antagonism.[8]
Background: The Tigray minority constitutes 7.3 percent of the 110.8 million people in Ethiopia.[9] The feud started last year, when Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed dissolved the ruling coalition made up of several ethnically based regional parties and merged them into a single, national party. The TPLF rejected the move, accusing PM of trying to weaken regional states. The feud intensified in September 2020, when Tigray held a regional election despite a nationwide ban on all polls due to the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister responded by calling the vote illegal and declaring war on the Tigray region.[10]
More on the Tigray crisis
December 10 – Africa / Middle East / North America:
MOROCCO / ISRAEL / UNITED STATES
Foreign relations
Morocco is the fourth Arab country to begin normalizing relations with Israel under accords brokered by the United States. Both sides will reopen liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv (rather than embassies or consulates). They will also expand economic and cultural cooperation. In return the U.S. will recognize the Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, a long-disputed territory.[11] Palestinian officials condemn the agreement, saying it encourages Israel’s denial of their rights. Morocco, however, reaffirms that it is still committed to the Palestinian cause.
More about the consequences of the U.S. recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara
December 14 – North America: UNITED STATES
U.S. elections
The Electoral College votes to confirm Joe Biden’s win as president and Kamala Harris as vice president in the arcane process laid out in the U.S. Constitution. This time there are no “faithless electors”, which is when presidential electors vote for someone else other than their state’s popular vote winner. President Trump has not conceded and continues to attack the election results as fraudulent without any evidence. He also unsuccessfully has challenged them in dozens of courts.[12]
What is a faithless elector?
Electoral College: The people who ultimately pick the US president
A historic win of Kamala Harris
December 14 – Europe: RUSSIA
Politics: Russia’s opposition leader Alexey Navalny
An investigation by the group Bellingcat, an independent international collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists, pieces together how Russian Security Service (FSB) followed and constantly watched Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny even prior to his poisoning in August 2020. Navalny has been working to expose corruption among the Russian political elites and oligarchs since being denied the opportunity to run against Putin in the 2018 presidential election and to campaign against the governing United Russia party.[13]
More about an investigation into Navalny’s poisoning
An interview with Alexey Navalny about the poisoning
Russian spy revealing how Navalny was poisoned
December 22 – Middle East: ISRAEL
Politics
After weeks of infighting, the Israeli government collapses and the parliament dissolves itself after failing to approve a budget. This means that on May 23, Israel will hold a fourth election in two years. The current government will remain in place until after the election and the formation of a new government, a process that could take many months.[14]
More about the collapse of the Israeli government
December 24 – Europe: UNITED KINGDOM / EUROPEAN UNION
Brexit
After months of negotiations and just a week before the end of the transitional period, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom agree to a post-Brexit trade deal that includes issues such as fishing rights, future business rules, aviation, and security relations.[15]
Details of the Brexit trade agreement
December 28 – Middle East: SAUDI ARABIA
Women’s Rights
Saudi Arabia sentences a 31-year old prominent women’s’ rights activist, Loujain al-Hathloul, to more than five years in prison. One of the causes that she championed was to bring a change to allow women to drive. She was jailed in 2018 and now convicted of various charges including undermining the kingdom, trying to harm national security, and an advance a foreign agenda.[16] International human rights groups have repeatedly called for her release. According to Amnesty International (AI), Loujain al-Hathloul has been denied regular contact with her family and access to a lawyer. There are also reports that she has been tortured including electric shocks, whippings, and sexual harassment. The AI also says that this flawed trial is “yet another sign that Saudi Arabia’s claims of reform on human rights are a farce.”[17]
Saudi Arabia reforms: Are they good news for women? – (video 3:09 min) BBC News
The best and worst countries for women