Current events: 2024-12-27

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Middle Eastern crisis (2023–present)
  • Red Sea crisis
    • The Houthis launch a ballistic missile from Yemen, targeting Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. The missile is intercepted before reaching Israeli airspace. (The Times of Israel) (The Guardian)
    • Houthi-run state television reports American and British airstrikes have targeted Sanaa's Ma'ain District. No casualties are reported. (Anadolu Agency)
• Somali Civil War
  • Constitutional crisis in Somalia
    • Ethiopian–Somali conflict, Ethiopia–Somaliland MoU
      • The United Nations Security Council has approved the deployment of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), effective from January 1, 2025. This mission will replace the current African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS). Somalia has explicitly rejected Ethiopia's participation in AUSSOM. It comes after tensions with Ethiopia over a memorandum of understanding that Ethiopia signed with Somaliland, which Somalia considers a violation of its sovereignty and has offered Egypt to contribute troops to the mission. (Reuters)(Idil News)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • North Korean involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 2024 Kursk offensive
    • South Korea confirms the first capture of a North Korean soldier fighting against Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast, Russia. The captured soldier later dies from his injuries. (BBC News) (Reuters)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Israel–Hamas war
    • Israeli forces forcibly evacuate Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza. (BBC)
  • An 83-year-old Israeli woman is fatally stabbed by a Palestinian militant in Herzliya, Israel. (The Times of Israel)
• 2024 Baltic Sea submarine cable disruptions, 2024 Estlink 2 incident
  • NATO announces that it will boost its presence in the Baltic Sea in response to suspected sabotage of submarine power cables. (Reuters)
  • Estonia deploys its navy to protect its remaining Estlink submarine power cable following the failure of Estlink 2. (BBC News)

Business and economy

• China announces the formal approval of a proposal to construct the world's largest hydropower dam in Tibet. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

• Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243
  • Azerbaijan Airlines suspends flights to seven Russian cities in the aftermath of Flight 8243's crash in Kazakhstan, following allegations that the plane had been hit by a Russian surface-to-air missile. (DW)
  • United States National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says that there is evidence that Russia shot down Flight 8243. (The Hill)
  • Kazakhstan and Israel suspend flights over Russian airspace in response to the crash. (Politico)
• At least 69 people are confirmed to have died in a shipwreck off the coast of Morocco the prior week. (BBC)

Health and environment

• 2023–2024 mpox epidemic
  • Kosovo reports its first case of mpox in a 30-year-old man who returned from a trip to Africa. (Reuters)

International relations

• Syria–Ukraine relations, Grain From Ukraine program
  • Ukraine announces it has sent a shipment of 500 tonnes of wheat to Syria after Russia suspended supplies following the fall of the Assad regime. (The Kyiv Independent)

Law and crime

• 2024 Zhuhai car attack
  • A court in China sentences to death the perpetrator of the November car attack that killed 35 people. (AP)
• Argentina–Venezuela relations
  • Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab announces an investigation into a previously-detained Argentine National Gendarmerie non-commissioned officer for alleged links to right-wing terrorism. (Reuters)
• Georgia–United States relations
  • The U.S. State Department announces sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the Georgian Dream political party. (BBC)
• The Montenegrin Minister of Justice approves the extradition of cryptocurrency entrepreneur Kwon Do Hyung to the United States, over fraud allegations resulting from the collapse of the Terra and Luna tokens. (BBC)

Politics and elections

• 2024 South Korean martial law crisis
  • Impeachment of Han Duck-soo
    • Acting South Korean president Han Duck-soo is impeached by the National Assembly after he refuses to appoint three Constitutional Court judges chosen by the Assembly to oversee president Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment case. Finance minister Choi Sang-mok becomes acting president and acting prime minister. (BBC News) (Reuters)

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