Current events: 2025-03-08

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • 2025 Shabelle offensive
    • Al Shabaab seizes the town of Cadale and some villages including Bushra Sheekh, Ceel Xarar and Xaruur, being at about 70 kilometers of Mogadishu. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud asks Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for help. Ethiopia sends ten thousand ENDF troops near the Ethiopia–Somalia border. (Idil News)
  • 2025 Shabelle offensive
    • Dozens of people are killed, including a senior police commander, as heavy fighting breaks out after Al-Shabaab fighters attack the Police Force. Al-Shabaab claims to have taken over new areas of Al-Kawthar and Boos-Hareeri in Middle Shabelle region, Hirshabelle State, Somalia. (Idil News)
• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that groups attributed to the Syrian Ministry of Defense have killed over 750 Alawite civilians across several massacres in western Syria. (SOHR) (CTV News)
• Gaza war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • 2025 Gaza war ceasefire
      • Three Palestinians are killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, two by a drone strike in Rafah and one by gunfire in al-Tannour, Rafah Governorate. (Al Jazeera)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • A Russian ballistic missile strike on Dobropillia, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, kills at least eleven people and injures 37 others. (Reuters)
    • A Russian Shahed drone strike on a business park in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv Oblast, kills three people and wounds seven others. (Ukrinform)

Business and economy

• Canada–China trade war
  • China announces that it will implement 100% tariffs on several Canadian agricultural exports including rapeseed and peas and 25% tariffs on pork and aquacultural products will be implemented on March 20, in retaliation against earlier tariffs instituted by Canada on Chinese electric vehicles and metal exports. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024–25 Australian region cyclone season
  • Cyclone Alfred
    • One person is confirmed killed and thirteen others are injured in floods caused by Cyclone Alfred as it passes through Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. (AP)

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