The president of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, was sworn in for a third term on Monday three months after a disputed general election. Opposition parties and civil society rejected the results of the election, which the Constitutional Council said that Touadéra won with 77.9% of the vote. The Central African Republic is one of the countries where Wagner, a Russian mercenary group, was first active in Africa.

Israel appears to be systematically targeting journalists who worked for media owned by Hezbollah. Even the group's opponents decry the killings as illegal.

An Indian LVM3 rocket successfully launched the massive BlueBird 6 smartphone satellite for AST SpaceMobile to orbit on Tuesday night (Dec. 23).