South Korea said it will temporarily extend (Yonhap) a military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, scrapping a previous plan to leave the pact at midnight tonight. It also said it will suspend a complaint against Japan at the World Trade Organization to allow for direct negotiations.

The United States had pushed (NYT) for the continuation of the pact, which allows South Korea and Japan to share details on North Korean nuclear activities with each other and with Washington. Seoul’s threat to leave the agreement, known as GSOMIA, came amid a monthslong diplomatic rift with Tokyo. A senior official said Seoul considers “normalizing relations with Japan to be very important,” and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe praised the move (WSJ). Japanese officials said they will resume direct trade talks with South Korea.

Hong Kongers will choose some 450 district councillors in a Sunday vote (Guardian). Pro-Beijing parties won a wide majority in the last election, and pro-democracy protesters have encouraged voters to support opposition parties.

Nine new ministers were appointed to Nepal’s government (Reuters) after a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, who has reportedly been in poor health in recent years. Oli also allowed a former Maoist rebel chief to assume top leadership in the ruling Nepal Communist Party. 

Kazakhstan: The country will host a new round of Syrian peace talks (Reuters) facilitated by Iran, Russia, and Turkey on December 10–11, the Kazakh foreign minister said.

CFR’s Global Conflict Tracker looks at the most recent developments in Syria’s civil war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been charged (Haaretz) with bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three corruption cases, Israel’s attorney general announced.

Algeria: Protesters in a monthslong movement that unseated President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April escalated their demonstrations (Reuters) this week, calling for an upcoming election to be postponed until the ruling hierarchy leaves power.

In this Foreign Affairs piece, Killian Clarke discusses what Algerians can learn from Egypt’s failed revolution.

The country’s governing coalition will merge (Reuters) three of its four parties into one, the new Prosperity Party. The fourth party in the alliance boycotted the vote on whether to consolidate.

Cameroon: Fifteen-year-old Divina Maloum was named one of the winners (VOA) of the 2019 International Children’s Peace Prize, given by the Amsterdam-based KidsRights Foundation, for her work raising awareness in schools about militant groups such as Boko Haram. She shares the award with Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg. 

On the Africa in Transition blog, CFR’s John Campbell looks at the persistence of Boko Haram.

A new report [PDF] by the World Health Organization found what it called an “enormous difference” (WHO) between the health of those in European prisons and that of the region’s general population, while warning that health monitoring in the facilities remains poor.

Russia: The legislature’s lower house passed a bill that would designate individuals seen as collaborating with foreign media (RFE/RL) as “foreign agents.”  The measure has been criticized by press-freedom advocates.

Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have taken part in marches (Guardian) across Colombia that were planned weeks ago to denounce pensions cuts. Protesters also called for the full implementation of the country’s 2016 peace deal and criticized the government of President Ivan Duque, whose approval rating stands at 26 percent.  

Brazil: President Jair Bolsonaro launched a new political party (Reuters), which will be vice-chaired by his son, after clashing with the leadership of his previous Social Liberal Party.

President Donald J. Trump signed a bill that ensures funding (CNN) for the federal government through December 20, hours before a deadline to avoid a shutdown. Lawmakers have yet to approve a dozen annual appropriations bills to fund the government.