Current events: 2024-12-30

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Prisoners of war in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • Russia and Ukraine exchange hundreds of prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Ukraine says many of those released by Russia includes those captured during the Siege of Mariupol in 2022. (BBC News)

Business and economy

• Syrian civil war
  • Fall of the Assad regime
    • The Syrian transitional government appoints Maysaa Sabreen as the first female Governor of the Central Bank of Syria. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Three tourists are killed and seven more injured during a fire at the Ember Hotel on Khaosan Road in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP)
• Scotland cancels Hogmanay celebrations due to weather warnings for rain snow and wind. (The Independent)

International news

• Syria–Ukraine relations
  • Syria says it hopes to form a "strategic partnership" with Ukraine following a high-level meeting in Damascus between Syria's de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. In the process Ukraine re-establishes relations with Syria. Ukraine vows to send more food aid to the Syrian people. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• 2024 South Korean martial law crisis
  • The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials formally requests an arrest warrant for impeached South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol over his declaration of martial law. (Reuters)
• Yazidi genocide
  • Germany's federal prosecutor charges an Iraqi couple arrested in the state of Bavaria, allegedly members of Islamic State, with enslavement, torture and war crimes, after they allegedly kept two young Yazidi girls (5 and 12 years old) as slaves and sexually and physically abused them. (DW)
• Crime in Trinidad and Tobago
  • Trinidad and Tobago declares a state of emergency after a spike in gang violence, which killed at least six people in the last two days. (CTV News)

Politics and elections

• Death and state funeral of Jimmy Carter
  • U.S. president Joe Biden orders a state funeral for former U.S. president Jimmy Carter to be held in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 2025. Biden also orders flags to be lowered to half-staff for thirty days in accordance with federal law. (BBC News)

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