December 14, 2016 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Aleppo offensive (November–December 2016)
- Shelling breaks the ceasefire in Aleppo causing disruption to the evacuation of rebels and civilians. (CNN) (The Star via Reuters) (BBC)
- Military intervention against ISIL
- A U.S. airstrike in Al-Raqqah, Syria, kills four ISIL leaders, two of which were confirmed to have roles in the November 2015 Paris Attacks. (USA via MSN)
Business and economy
- Merger talks between Danish oil and gas corporations DONG Energy and Maersk have reached an impasse over valuation. (Reuters)
- The Federal Reserve System raises the benchmark interest rate in the United States to a level between 0.5 and 0.75%. This is the second time in a decade that the Federal Reserve has increased interest rates. (New York Times)
International relations
- Spratly Islands dispute
- Satellite images show anti-aircraft guns and missile defence systems being built on artificial islands in the South China Sea; China had previously committed to not militarising its controversial developments in the region. (BBC News)
Law and crime
- Yahoo! data breaches
- Yahoo! announces that ID information about more than 1 billion accounts may have been hacked in August 2013. This is separate from the company's earlier disclosure of a data breach of 500,000 accounts in 2014. (The New York Times) (Business Insider)
- The Committee to Protect Journalists reports a record 259 journalists, 81 in Turkey, are jailed worldwide as of December 1. (CNN) (The New York Times)
Politics and elections
- Philippine Drug War
- The Philippines cabinet of Rodrigo Duterte, through former journalist Martin Andanar, criticizes the Western media's coverage of the Philippine Drug War, particularly that of The New York Times, and urges them to cover the purge more effectively. (The New York Times)
- President Rodrigo Duterte admits in a speech to a group of businessmen that he "personally" killed suspected criminals when he served as Davao City's mayor. (INQUIRER.net) (The Guardian) (NBC News)