Current events: 2024-12-07

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • 2024 Syrian opposition offensives
    • Operation Dawn of Freedom
      • 2024 Manbij offensive
        • Turkish-backed Syrian National Army forces conduct extensive drone strikes and artillery shelling on villages near U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces positions in Manbij. (Motabaat) (Asharq Al-Awsat)
    • Battle of Damascus (2024)
      • Syrian security officials and Arab officials tell the The Wall Street Journal that First Lady of Syria Asma al-Assad, the Syrian president’s British-born wife, fled with their three children to Russia last week. (Yahoo News)
      • The Military Operations Command coalition led by Tahrir al-Sham says a military operation to capture Damascus is underway with rebels reportedly advancing on the capital on several fronts. (The Jerusalem Post)
      • Rebel forces capture Al-Dumayr, Yabroud and Saasaa in Rif Dimashq Governorate as the Syrian Defense Ministry denies reports that its troops are abandoning positions in the Damascus countryside. (Al Arabiya) (SOHR)
      • Rebel forces enter the Damascus suburbs of Darayya, Muadamiyat al-Sham, Jaramana and are advancing towards Harasta. (Kurdistan24)
      • Syrian state television says President Bashar al-Assad remains in the capital amid conflicting reports of his whereabouts. (BBC News)
      • The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Otto Pedersen calls for an "orderly political transition" from the collapsing Syrian government to the Syrian opposition to end the conflict. (AP)
    • 2024 Homs offensive
      • Rebel forces enter the city of Homs, later capturing the city after hours of urban warfare to oust Assad loyalists. (Reuters) (Times Now)
      • Rebels capture Homs Central Prison, releasing around 3,500 prisoners, as reports of pro-government forces begin withdrawing from Homs. (Cedar News) (Barrons)
    • Palmyra offensive (2024)
      • The United States-backed Revolutionary Commando Army (Free Syrian Army) takes control of Palmyra in Homs Governorate after heavy fighting with pro-government forces. The rebels also capture the towns of Al-Sukhnah and Al-Qaryatayn. (Yeni Safak)
    • Southern Syria offensive (2024)
      • The Syrian Armed Forces announce a complete withdrawal from the Daraa and Suwayda Governorates in order to reinforce the capital, Damascus. (AP)
      • Rebel forces capture Al-Sanamayn as they advance towards Damascus. A senior rebel commander says their forces are now within 20 kilometres of the capital. (First Post) (The Hindustan Times)
      • Rebel forces capture the city of Quneitra according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Al Arabiya)
    • Deir ez-Zor offensive (2024)
      • More than 1,000 Syrian soldiers seeking refuge cross into Iraq through the Al-Qa'im border crossing, according to Iraqi authorities. (Iraqi News Agency)
    • The Syrian Army withdraws from Al-Hasakah and Qamishli in the northeast Al-Hasakah Governorate, handing over control of the Kurdish-majority cities to the Syrian Democratic Forces. (Anadolu Agency) (Yeni Safak)
  • Iranian intervention in the Syrian civil war
    • Iran begins to evacuate military personnel, diplomatic staff and civilians from Syria amid rebel advances. (The New York Times)
  • Refugees of the Syrian civil war
    • The UN World Food Programme reports that renewed conflict in Syria is estimated to displace around 1.5 million Syrians. (Al Jazeera)
• Israel–Hamas war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • Refugee camp airstrikes in the Israel–Hamas war
      • At least 20 people, including six children, are killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in Deir al-Balah Governorate, Gaza. (Al Jazeera)
  • Qatar Prime Minister and top diplomat Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani says at the Doha Forum that his country is seeing momentum build up for a ceasefire to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas on the Gaza Strip. (Al Jazeera)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • Six Pakistan Army soldiers and 22 Tehreek-e-Taliban militants are killed in clashes near the Afghan border. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• Reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris
  • Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, reopens five years after the fire that damaged the structure. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024 Hague explosion
  • Five people are killed, four are injured and others are missing after an explosion destroyed several apartments in The Hague, The Netherlands. Police are looking for a car that fled from the scene. (BBC News) (The Guardian)
• Storm Darragh
  • Two people are killed by falling trees in England as Storm Darragh hits the British Isles. (BBC News)
  • Over 1.5 million people suffer from power outages in Ireland and the United Kingdom. (Sky News)

Law and crime

• Cross-strait relations, Chinese intelligence activity abroad
  • Prosecutors in Taiwan charge four soldiers with espionage and accuse them of passing photographs of Taiwan's military capability to Chinese agents in exchange for money from 2022 to 2024. (DW) (The Standard)

Politics and elections

• 2024 Indian farmers' protest
  • Over 100 Indian farmers march from Punjab to the capital city New Delhi to demand for the legal assurance of a minimum support price for all crops and loan forgiveness for the farmers. (DW)
  • Punjab Police set up barricades and fire tear gas at the farmers marching, causing them to turn around and return to Shambhu, Punjab. (Hindustan Times) (Anadolu Agency)
• 2024 South Korean martial law
  • Attempted impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol
    • A vote to impeach South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol fails in the National Assembly due to a boycott by members of Yoon's People Power Party. (AP)
  • President Yoon Suk Yeol apologizes to the South Korean population, promising that he will not avoid legal sanctions or institute martial law a second time. (The Guardian)
• Interim President and military junta leader of Burkina Faso Ibrahim Traoré dismisses Prime Minister Apollinaire J. Kyélem de Tambèla and dissolves the current government without giving formal explanation. (DW) (Irish Examiner)

Science and technology

• The Iranian Space Agency successfully launches the Simorgh rocket carrying two satellites and the Saman-1 space tug from the Imam Khomeini Space Launch Terminal in Semnan, Iran, its heaviest payload ever launched in the program's history. (DW)

Sports

• MLS Cup 2024
  • In association football, the Los Angeles Galaxy beat the New York Red Bulls, 2-1, winning their 6th championship, the most in Major League Soccer. (AP)

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