Current events: 2025-05-12

Wikipedia Current Events · 2025-05-12T20:10:52-0400

Armed conflicts and attacks

Gaza war
- Gaza war hostage crisis
  - Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander is released by Hamas after being kept in captivity in Gaza for 19 months since the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. (Reuters)
Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency
- The 12th Congress of the Kurdistan Workers' Party announces an immediate ceasefire of insurgency activities in Turkey and plans for a formal disbandment. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)
Myanmar civil war
- The National Unity Government of Myanmar says that an airstrike by junta forces killed 17 students and injured 20 others at a school in Tabayin, Sagaing Region, Myanmar. (Reuters)
An unknown armed group attacks a Chinese artisanal gold mine in Narena, Koulikoro Region, Mali, killing one Malian and two others from Ghana, and abducting two Chinese nationals. (AP)

International relations

China–United States trade war
- China and the U.S. release a joint statement announcing a 90-day pause in some reciprocal tariffs. (BBC News)
South Africa–United States relations
- The first group of Afrikaners arrive in the United States after US President Donald Trump grants refugee status to the white minority group, who Trump says face a "genocide" in South Africa. The government of South Africa rejects such claims. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

13 people are killed after an expired ammunition explosion in Garut Regency, West Java, Indonesia. (Jakarta Globe)

Politics and elections