Current events: 2025-12-09

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• M23 campaign, Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict
  • 2025 Uvira offensive
    • Media reports confirm that M23 has captured Sange, South Kivu, from the Congolese government and Burundian troops. (Al Jazeera) (SOS Media Burundi)
    • The United States and the European Union call on the Rwandan military and the M23 rebels to stop their offensive. (Yahoo News)
    • At least 20,000 people flee from Uvira across the Burundi–DRC border and reach Bujumbura. (Actualité in French)
    • M23 fighters enter Uvira. (TRT World)
• 2025 Cambodian–Thai border crisis
  • The Royal Thai Air Force carries out several airstrikes against Cambodia, killing nine civilians and wounding 20 more. (Al Jazeera)
  • Three Thai soldiers are killed and 29 more injured during clashes with Cambodian soldiers. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

• 2025 Turner Prize
  • British autistic artist Nnena Kalu wins the 2025 Turner Prize for her wrapped fabric sculptures, becoming the first artist with a learning disability to win the award. (AFP via The Sun Malaysia) (The Guardian)

Business and economy

• 2025 IndiGo disruption
  • The Directorate General of Civil Aviation of India orders IndiGo, the country's largest airline, to reduce its flights by 5% following a scheduling crisis last week that caused thousands of cancellations. (DW)
• Pakistani economic crisis
  • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approves the release of US$1.2 billion to Pakistan to assist with recovery from an economic crisis. The country has already received $3.3 billion from the IMF since last year. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• {{ill|Terra Drone Building fire|id|Kebakaran Gedung Terra Drone 2025}}
  • Twenty-two people are killed, and 19 more are rescued in a fire at a seven-story building in Jakarta, Indonesia. (AP)
• Seven people are killed when a Russian Air Force Antonov An-22 crashes during a test flight following repairs in Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. (Reuters)

Health and environment

• 2025 Catalonia swine fever outbreak
  • The Catalan government in Spain announces a state of emergency due to the rapid spread of African swine fever virus in wild boars in a {{cvt|12|km|mi|abbr=on}} region to avoid spreading to other regions of Spain. (20minutos in Spanish)

International relations

• Belarus–Lithuania relations, Violations of non-combatant airspace during the Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Lithuania declares a state of national emergency over security risks from Belarusian weather balloons violating Lithuanian airspace. (AP)

Law and crime

• War in Darfur
  • International Criminal Court investigation in Darfur
    • The International Criminal Court sentences Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war in Darfur. (Reuters)
• Catholic Church sexual abuse cases
  • Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York in the United States announces the archdiocese will set up a $300 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse who have sued the church. (AP)
• Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
  • A court in Beijing, China, orders Malaysia Airlines (MH) to pay {{Renminbi|link=yes}}2.9 million (US$410,000) each to families of eight missing passengers of MH370, which disappeared after departing from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in 2014. (AP)
• Operation Synytsia
  • A court in Villajoyosa, Spain, provisionally closes its investigation into the killing of Russian defector Maxim Kuzminov in the town after authorities cannot identify any perpetrators. (Reuters)
• School violence in the United States
  • One person is killed, and another is critically injured in a shooting at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky, United States. A suspect is taken into custody. (BNO News)
• Australia's Online Safety Amendment takes effect, age-restricting social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter (X), Tiktok, and YouTube, as well as accounts on the said sites registered to users under the age of 16. (CNN)
• The Nepalese Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority charges 55 people, including former ministers and officials, and a Chinese engineering company with fraud related to inflating expenses in the construction of Pokhara International Airport. (AP)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Czech parliamentary election
  • Andrej Babiš of the opposition ANO party is appointed as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic for his second non-consecutive term. (Reuters)
• The Slovak parliament votes to abolish the country's whistleblower protection office and replace it with a new body. (Reuters)

Science and technology

• Chinese space program
  • Chinese astronauts install debris-shielding on the Tiangong space station following damage to the docked Shenzhou 20 reentry capsule from orbital debris, and the crew conducts a spacewalk to prepare the compromised spacecraft for an uncrewed return. (Reuters)

Sports

• 2025 SEA Games
  • The 2025 SEA Games opens at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, with heightened security for Cambodian athletes and staff due to the ongoing Cambodia–Thailand conflict. (AFP via France 24)

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