Current events: 2025-10-24

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War on drugs
  • 2025 United States military strikes against alleged drug traffickers
    • Six people are killed in a U.S. missile strike on a suspected drug-running boat in the Caribbean Sea. (AP)
    • The Trump administration deploys the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier battle group to Latin America for counter-drug cartel operations. (Reuters)
• Gaza war, Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Israeli incursions in the West Bank during the Gaza war
    • An 18-year-old Palestinian man dies after being shot and critically injured yesterday during an Israeli raid in the Askar Camp in Nablus, occupied West Bank. (Al Jazeera)
• Israel–Hezbollah conflict
  • Two people are killed and two others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in Toul, Lebanon. (Al Jazeera)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • Three people are killed in a roadside bombing on a police vehicle in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in Hangu District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (The Canadian Press)

Arts and culture

• The Booker Prize Foundation announces the creation of the Children's Booker Prize, with the first £50,000 (US$66,500) winner to be announced in early 2027. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Atlantic hurricane season
  • At least three people are killed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as Tropical Storm Melissa makes landfall. (The New York Times)
• 25 people are killed and several others are injured in a fire on a bus in Kurnool, India. (AP)
• 14 people are killed, two others are rescued and two are reported missing when a rubber boat sinks off the coast of Bodrum, Muğla, Turkey. (DPA International)
• Four people are killed and over 21,000 others are affected during heavy rains in Sri Lanka. (Xinhua News Agency)

International relations

• Colombia–United States relations
  • The United States imposes sanctions on Colombian president Gustavo Petro, his wife Verónica Alcocer, his son Nicolás, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, accusing them of involvement in the global drug trade, amid worsening relations between both countries. (AP)

Law and crime

• 2025 Ovruch train attack
  • A man detonates a grenade on a train in Ovruch, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine, killing three women and a border guard, and wounding 12 other people. The perpetrator, who also died in the explosion, was a fugitive from Kharkiv. (Reuters) (News.az)
• 2025 Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan protests
  • Pakistan bans the Tehreek-e-Labbaik party after deadly clashes between party members and Pakistani police during a protest march led by the party over the past two weeks. (Reuters)
• Azerbaijan–Russia relations, Media freedom in Azerbaijan
  • A court in Azerbaijan orders a senior Russian journalist of state media agency Sputnik be released from prison and placed under house arrest for three months. The decision comes after a meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tajikistan amid deteriorating relations between the two countries. (Reuters)
• Murders of Albert Alfonso and Paul Longworth
  • A court in London, United Kingdom, sentences a Colombian man to life in prison for the murder and dismemberment of two men in London in July 2024. The man also pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of child pornography. (AP)
• Pork barrel scam
  • The Philippines' anti-graft court acquits former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile, his former chief of staff Gigi Reyes, and businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles of their remaining graft charges, citing failure to prove their guilt. The three had been charged over their alleged misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund. (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (ABS-CBN News)
• A manhunt is launched for Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, whose sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl sparked anti-immigration protests in Epping, Essex, England, after he was accidentally released from prison. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Irish presidential election
  • Citizens of the Republic of Ireland vote for the next President between independent candidate Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys. This is the first Irish presidential election since 1973 where there are only two choices, after Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin suspended his campaign and no other candidate made it past the nomination stage. Incumbent president Michael D. Higgins is term-limited. (BBC)
• The Croatian parliament votes to reintroduce compulsory military service, which had been shifted to a volunteer system in 2008. The new conscription will require two months of basic training, allowing conscientious objectors to opt for civilian service. (AP)

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