Top News Stories –

Taylor Swift to release concert video on Apple Music –
Taylor Swift is releasing a live concert special from her 1989 world tour exclusively on Apple Music. The 1989 World Tour Live can be streamed from 20 December. It is not available to buy but it is free for streaming for Apple Music subscribers. Swift criticised Apple Music in June for not paying artists during its free, three-month trial launch. She said she was withholding her 1989 album because of Apple’s stance. The company then did a u-turn. Swift said Apple “had shown such humility in what they did … so that’s how we get to (here).” [BBC
Taylor Swift

Kim Jong-un ‘ordered girl group home over Chinese snub’ –
They mystery surrounding the hurried departure of Kim Jong-Un’s girl group from China may have been solved. North Korea reportedly ordered the Moranbong Band to return from China in a fit of pique after their scheduled performance was snubbed by the leadership in Beijing. The 21-strong Moranbong Band left Beijing abruptly just before they were due to perform at an invitation-only concert on Saturday. At least one member of China’s politburo was expected to attend, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News reported. A Chinese government official told Yonhap that North Korea initially expected Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, to attend he concert, but was horrified at the offer of only a politburo member. [Daily Telegraph]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Yemeni Civil War (2015), Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • Two senior army commanders from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are killed, including the head of the Saudi Special forces in Yemen, Colonel Abdullah al-Sahyan, along with dozens of Saudi, Emirati, Sudanese and Yemeni coalition troops in a OTR-21 Tochka missile attack by Houthi forces on their base near the city of Taiz in southwestern Yemen. (Reuters)
• Metrojet Flight 9268
  • Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry reports their investigation of the 31 October 2015 deadly crash of Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 in the Sinai has not found any evidence of terrorism. Prior to this, the working assumption has been that plane was brought down by a bomb, and a group affiliated with ISIL said it was responsible. (Sky News) (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict (2015)
  • A Palestinian rams his car into a bus stop near the Chords Bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem before being shot dead by police; fourteen people, including a toddler, are injured in the attack. (Ynet News) (The Times of Israel)
• Syrian Civil War
  • The Syrian Army backed by Hezbollah fighters retakes a key airbase on the eastern outskirts of Damascus. The Marj al-Sultan airbase had been under rebel control since November 2012. (BBC)
• 2015 PKK rebellion
  • At least seven people are killed in clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish protesters across southeast Turkey, as Turkish authorities declare new curfews across the restive region. According to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, 52 curfews have been imposed since mid-August by Turkish authorities across seven Turkish provinces in the region, placing around 1.3 million people under curfew. (Reuters)

Business and economics

• Oil price reached its lowest since December 2008. Other indicators in broader markets caused investor jitters ahead of the expected interest rate hike by the U.S. central bank on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Pacific typhoon season
  • Typhoon Melor (Nona)
    • Thousands of residents are evacuated as Typhoon Melor, also known as Nona in the Philippines, slams into tiny Batag Island in the eastern Philippines. The storm, headed to Sorsogon province, has intensified into the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane. Authorities shut schools and suspended fishing and ferry services in the central Phillipines. (AP via Columbus Ledger-Enquirer) (Reuters) (AccuWeather)
• At least 41 people are dead after an Argentine National Gendarmerie bus crashes near the city of Salta in north-west Argentina. (BBC), (AP via ABC News America)

Law and crime

• Censorship in China
  • Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang goes on trial in Beijing for online social commentary critical of the ruling Communist Party. (AP)
  • Chinese police prevent United States senior diplomat Dan Biers from delivering a statement outside the trial of Pu Zhiqiang. (Twitter) (CNN)
• An Australian court orders British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser to stop selling several versions of the popular painkiller, Nurofen, that were identical to its standard ibuprofen pills but nearly twice as expensive. (AP)
• United States Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl will face a court martial on charges of misbehavior before the enemy and desertion related to his capture by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan in June 2009. (AP via ABC News America)
• A Palestinian man from eastern Jerusalem, Muhammad Abu Kaf, is indicted by Israeli prosecutors on eight counts of incitement to violence or terror for posting a video on Facebook calling on people to stab Jews. (Ynet News)

Science

• The Geminids meteor shower is visible tonight. (Lifehacker)

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