Current events: 2024-12-15

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israel–Hamas war
  • December 2024 Nuseirat refugee camp attack
    • Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmad Al-Louh is killed in an Israeli airstrike on a civil defense point in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. (WAFA) (anews)
• Syrian civil war
  • 2024 Israeli invasion of Syria
    • Israeli Air Force fighter jets strike missile and weapon depots in Tartus Governorate, Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights describes the strikes as the heaviest in the region since the start of the civil war. (Barron's)

Business and economy

• Free trade agreements of the United Kingdom
  • The United Kingdom joins the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), becoming the 12th and only European member. (Reuters) Disasters and accidents
• 2024–25 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season
  • Hundreds, possibly thousands of people are estimated to have been killed by Cyclone Chido in the French overseas department of Mayotte. (Reuters)
• 2024 Kerch Strait oil spill
  • At least one person is killed when two Russian oil tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-236, are damaged due to bad weather. Oil from the tankers is actively leaking into the Kerch Strait. (NOS) (CNN)

International relations

• Australia–Indonesia relations
  • Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces that the remaining five members of the Bali Nine drug-trafficking group, who were serving life sentences in Indonesia, have returned to Australia following an agreement between the two countries to end their imprisonment. (CNN)
• Ireland–Israel relations
  • Israel announces that it will close its embassy in Dublin over Ireland's alleged "extreme anti-Israel policies". (Reuters)

Law and crime

• 2024 New Jersey drone sightings
  • White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says that the United States Coast Guard has confirmed that there is no evidence of any "foreign-based involvement" in the unidentified drones being sighted over the Northeastern United States. (The Times of India via MSN)
• ABC News settles a defamation lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over statements made on air by anchor George Stephanopoulos about E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump, with ABC agreeing to pay $15 million to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library plus $1 million for legal fees. (AP)

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