Today's news: Court hearings begin for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu;  Opposition victory confirmed in Jakarta governorate;  Academics in South Korea choose four characters related to political turmoil as their expression of the year; India appoints a new governor for the Central Bank; Over 400 people arrested in Georgia.

TURKEY - SYRIA

The US and Turkey reached an agreement to ensure the withdrawal of the Kurdish-Syrian Forces (Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF), supported by the US in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria, from the town of Manbij, north-east of Aleppo. The Syrian National Army (SNA), backed by Turkey, had launched an offensive in the area starting on 6 December to push back the SDF, which Ankara links to the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, and for Erdogan it was a clearing of “terrorists”. The US said it would maintain a 900-strong military presence in eastern Syria.

ISRAEL

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

INDONESIA

The election race for the governorship of Jakarta was won by Pramono Anung, who beat rival Ridwan Kamil, supported by current President Prabowo Subianto. An unexpected victory for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the only opposition formation. The new governor will have to manage a city of 11 million people, where pollution, flooding and traffic congestion are the main problems.

SOUTH KOREA

University professors have chosen a four-character Chinese idiomatic expression to describe Korean society in 2024: 跳梁跋扈 (read: doryangbalho), which literally means ‘running amok wielding power at will’, 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 to the Ministry of Finance, as the new central bank governor, in a surprise move that leaves markets wondering about the future direction of monetary policy. Many had expected a reappointment of the current Reserve Bank of India governor, Shaktikanta Das. The appointment comes at a time when the country's economic growth is declining and inflation is picking up.

RUSSIA

The St. Petersburg court confiscated the land and country house of the blokadnitsa (Nazi siege survivor) Natalia Kolesnikova, as she was the mother-in-law of the famous journalist Aleksandr Nevzorov, listed as a ‘foreign agent’, deeming it fictitious that her daughter had bought the property when she travelled abroad with her husband.

GEORGIA

The Deputy Minister of the Interior of Georgia, Aleksandr Darakhvelidze, announced that more than 400 people were arrested in connection with the street protests of the past few days, 30 of whom have been remanded in custody, while 372 demonstrators were given administrative fines, and investigations and searches in Tbilisi and other cities are still ongoing.

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