Current events: 2024-12-18

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
  • Armenia–Azerbaijan border crisis (2021–present)
    • Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev says that arms sent by France to Armenia pose a threat to Azerbaijan. (Trend News Agency)
• Syrian civil war
  • Syrian opposition
    • Hadi al-Bahra, President of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, says that the Coalition will dissolve once a national conference is convened and a constituent assembly is elected, and demands the transitional Government just installed in Damascus to be "credible, inclusive and not founded on sectarian bases". (North Press Agency)

Disasters and accidents

• Twenty-five people are killed and dozens are missing after a boat capsized on a river in Inongo, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

• Russian state media agency TASS announces the nation's development of an mRNA vaccine against cancer, which is planned to be distributed to patients free of charge starting next year. The Russian Ministry of Health, who made the announcement, did not publish or release clinical trial data to support their claim that the vaccine treated cancer. (The Times of India) (TASS)
• California declares a state of emergency over bird flu. (New York Times)

International relations

• Indonesia–Philippines relations
  • Mary Jane Veloso, a former inmate on death row in Indonesia, is repatriated to the Philippines after negotiations between the governments of the two countries. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Legal affairs of the Tate brothers
  • The Westminster Magistrates' Court rules that UK police may seize £2.2 million (US$2.5 million) from influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan for allegedly failing to pay taxes on profits from their online ventures. (DW)
• The Dutch Data Protection Authority fines Netflix €4.75 million ($4.98 million) for failing to properly inform subscribers about the handling of their personal data between 2018 and 2020. (Al Arabiya)

Politics and elections

• 2024 Georgian presidential election, 2024 Georgian parliamentary election, 2024 Georgian post-election protests
  • In an address to European Parliament, outgoing Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili urges the European Union to economically and politically pressure the current Georgian government into holding new elections, claiming that recent elections were a "new form of invasion" by Russia. (Euronews) (AP)

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