US News

• Police officer Jason Meade was charged for murdering Casey Goodson Jr. [Link]
• Apple informs the State Department 11 diplomats’ phones have been hacked by the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. [Link]
• The Treasury Department will roll out sanctions in celebration of Biden’s democracy summit. [Link]
• Biden is using CIA Director William Burns as a diplomat. [Link]
• Fuel leaking from a Navy facility in Hawaii into drinking water. [Link]
• The US donated 44 armored vehicles to Greece. [Link]
• Despite the pandemic, weapon sales for the top 100 defense contractors were up 1.3% in 2020. [Link]

Covid

• Nevada will charge unvaccinated public workers $55 a month if they use state insurance. [Link]
• Some school districts have spent pandemic relief efforts on athletic facilities and vape detectors. [Link]
• Oklahoma is suing the Pentagon over the covid vaccine requirement. [Link]
• The US will ship 11 million covid vaccines abroad. Nine million will go to Africa. [Link]

Venezuela

• The foreign minister in the US recognized Venezuelan interim-government resigned, calling the interim government a caste. [Link]

Europe

• The EU is spending hundreds of millions to prevent migrants from reaching its borders. [Link]
• Finland will buy $11.2 billion in F-35s. [Link]

Russia

• Belarus claims a Ukrainian military helicopter violated its airspace. [Link]
• The US and Russia make some progress during talks in Vienna about sending more diplomatic staff to each other’s countries. [Link]
• The White House is putting together a comprehensive package to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine. [Link]
• The Washington Post reports intelligence documents and officials say Russia will Ukraine as soon as early 2022. The intelligence says Russia has 70,000 troops deployed near the border with Ukraine and expects the number to reach 175,000. [Link]
• Biden and Putin will talk Tuesday on a video call. [Link]
• A Russian airline says a civilian plane over the Black Sea had to change altitude because of a NATO spy plane. [Link]

China

• Japan has agreed to pay more to house US troops. The US and Japan have not agreed on the amount of increase. [Link]
• Biden will announce a diplomatic boycott of the Olympic Games in China. [Link]
• A top Space Force general warns China is developing space capabilities at twice the rate of the US. [Link]
• US intelligence claims China is attempting to build a naval base in Equatorial Guinea. [Link] 
• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says America is a Pacific power. He called for American allies and businesses to help counter China. [Link]
• Austin says Chinese flights in the Air Defense Identification Zone could be a rehearsal for military action. [Link]
• The US carried out a record number of surveillance flights over the South China Sea in November. [Link]
• US sanctions on Huawei have exacerbated the supply-chain shortage of chips. [Link]

India

• Indian forces killed 13 civilians. Six civilians were killed when the soldiers opened fire on a bus of miners. Seven additional civilians were killed when locals confronted the soldiers for killing the miners. A soldier was killed in the confrontation. [Link]

Myanmar

• Five protesters were killed by the Myanmar military during a protest. [Link]
• Former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to four years in jail for incitement and breaching covid rules. Suu Kyi was removed from power by a military coup in February. [Link]

Middle East

• US officials say Iran walked back concessions that had been agreed to by the previous administration. [Link]
• The UAE’s top national security adviser will travel to Iran for talks. [Link]
• Lebanon’s information minister resigned in hopes to ease tensions with Saudi Arabia. Saudi cut ties with Lebanon after statements from the minister making a mild criticism of Saudi’s war in Yemen became public. [Link]
• Saudi Crown Prince MbS held a call with the Lebanese prime minister. [Link]
• An ISIS attack killed 13 people in a Kurdish town in Iraq. [Link]
• ISIS carried out a series of attacks over the weekend in Iraqi Kurdistan, killing two Peshmerga fighters. [Link]
• On Friday, the US carried out a drone strike in Syria, claiming to kill a terrorist. On Sunday, the US admitted it may have killed civilians in the strike. [Link]
• The US special forces are carrying out humanitarian missions with Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria. [Link]
• Saudi Arabia carried out several airstrikes in Yemen, killing 90 Houthi fighters. [Link]
• A Saudi airstrike in Taiz, Yemen kills 16 civilians. [Link]

Africa

• At least 31 people in Mali were killed by militants attacking a bus. [Link]
• An attack on a base in Niger left over 100 dead, 79 militants and 29 soldiers. [Link]
• A separate attack killed 12 soldiers in Niger. [Link]
• At least 24 people were killed during “tribal clashes” in Sudan. [Link]
• Uganda says its forces will stay in the Congo as long as needed to defeat the Allied Democratic Forces. Uganda deployed at least 1,700 troops to the DRC last week. [Link]
• Two Uganda journalists and a politician were informed by Apple they were the targets of state-sponsored surveillance. At least one case the target was hit with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. [Link]