Türkiye takes control of Manbij (according to the US).

News of the day: Court hearings against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begin. The victory of the opposition in the Jakarta governorate is confirmed. South Korean academics choose four characters related to political unrest as expression of the year. India appoints a new governor for the Central Bank. More than 400 people arrested in Georgia.

Türkiye – SYRIA

The United States and Türkiye have reached a agreement to ensure the withdrawal of the Kurdish-Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the United States in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria, from the city of Manbijnortheast of Aleppo. The Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) had launched an offensive in the area starting December 6 to push back the SDF, which Ankara links to the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, and For Erdogan it is a cleansing of “terrorists.” The United States said it would maintain a 900-strong military presence in eastern Syria.

ISRAEL

Court hearings resumed today against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will have to answer to charges of corruption, fraud and breach of trust in three different cases, eight years after the investigation began. Netanyahu had long called for the testimony to be postponed because of the conflict in the Middle East.

INDONESIA

Pramono Anung won the Jakarta governorship elections, defeating his rival Ridwan Kamil, supported by the current president Prabowo Subianto. An unexpected victory for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the only opposition party. The new governor will have to manage a city of 11 million inhabitants, where pollution, flooding and traffic congestion are the main problems.

SOUTH KOREA

University professors have chosen a four-character Chinese idiom to describe Korean society in 2024: 跳梁跋扈 (read: doryangbalho), which literally means “uncontrolled exercising power as he pleases”, but can be translated as “unscrupulous abuse of power”. Meanwhile, the National Assembly (Parliament) approved the appointment of a permanent special prosecutor for the investigation against President Yoon Suk-yeol.

INDIA

India has appointed Sanjay Malhotra, secretary of the Ministry of Finance, new central bank governorin a surprise move that leaves markets wondering about the future direction of monetary policy. Many expected a new appointment from the current Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das. The appointment comes at a time when the country’s economic growth is slowing and inflation is picking up.

RUSSIA

The St. Petersburg court confiscated the land and country house of the blokadnitsa (survivor of the Nazi siege) Natalia Kolesnikova, for being the mother-in-law of the famous journalist Aleksandr Nevzorov, classified as a “foreign agent”, considering it fictitious that her daughter had bought the property when she traveled abroad with her husband.

GEORGIA

Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandr Darakhvelidze announced that more than 400 people were detained in connection with street protests in recent days, 30 of whom have been remanded in custody, while 372 protesters were given administrative fines. and investigations and searches continue in Tbilisi and other cities.