Current events: 2024-05-12

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Israel–Hamas war
    • Rafah offensive
      • Antony Blinken warns that Israel lacks a credible plan to protect Rafah civilians. (Reuters)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • 2024 Kharkiv offensive
    • The Russian Defence Ministry states that its forces have captured several villages in Kharkiv Oblast. (CNN)
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • At least thirteen civilians are killed and 20 others are injured after a downed Ukrainian Tochka missile hits an apartment block in Belgorod, Russia. (AP) (Reuters)
  • Vladimir Putin reassigns Russian Defense minister Sergei Shoigu to the National Security Council. Shoigu is succeeded as Defense minister by Andrey Belousov. (The Washington Post)
• War in Sudan (2023-present)
  • Battle of El Fasher
    • Fighting during RSF attacks on eastern Al-Fashir, Sudan, kill at least 38 civilians and injure 189 over the weekend amid fears of an all out RSF assault on the city. (The Washington Post)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024 Afghanistan–Pakistan floods
  • The death toll from the ongoing flooding in northern Afghanistan rises to 315, with more than 1,600 people injured and 1,000 houses destroyed. (Reuters)
• 2024 Rio Grande do Sul floods
  • The death toll from the ongoing flooding in southern Brazil rises to 143, with 125 people still missing. The Brazilian government has announced R$12.1 billion in emergency spending for the crisis. (Reuters)
• A shopping mall burns down in Warsaw raising suspicions of an arson. Many of the venues were minority-owned. (Puls Biznesu)

Politics and elections

• Elections in Lithuania
  • 2024 Lithuanian presidential election
    • Lithuanians head to the polls to elect the President of Lithuania. (ABC News)
  • 2024 Lithuanian constitutional referendum
    • Lithuanians vote on a constitutional amendment to allow dual citizenship. (lnk.lt)
• 2024 Catalan regional election
  • The Socialists' Party of Catalonia wins the elections with its best result since 2003 and the pro-independence parties lose their absolute majority in the Parliament. (Reuters)
• 2024 North Macedonian presidential election
  • Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is sworn in as the first female President of North Macedonia. (Bloomberg in Macedonian)
• Forty-nine Vatican Museums employees start an unprecedented labor dispute over unfair and poor working conditions against the Vatican's Pontifical Commission. (Reuters)
• Hundreds of protesters march in Tunis, Tunisia, to demand the release of imprisoned journalists, activists, and opposition figures. (Reuters)

Sports

• Bayer Leverkusen extend their record unbeaten streak in European football to fifty unbeaten games. (Bundesliga)

Continue reading...