Portal:Current events/2025 August 19

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Gaza war hostage crisis
    • Israeli forces kill Jihad Kamal Salem Najjar, a member of the Hamas military wing who was responsible for abducting the Bibas family in Nir Oz during the October 7 attacks. (The New York Times) (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Hamas positively receives an Egyptian–Qatari-mediated 60-day ceasefire proposal, which is rejected by Israeli defense minister Israel Katz with national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warning of a "tragedy" if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives in. (The New York Times)
  • At least 25 Palestinians are killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, including in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. (The Times of Israel)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
    • Russian forces launch 270 drones and ten missiles at critical infrastructure in Poltava and Chernihiv Oblasts, Ukraine. (Kyiv Post)
• Nigerian bandit conflict
  • At least 27 people are killed and several others are injured in a mass shooting by bandits at a mosque in Unguwan Mantau community, Katsina State, Nigeria. (Reuters)
• Mexican drug war
  • Six severed heads are discovered on a road that links the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala in Mexico. The La Barredora cartel is suspected to be behind the attack. (BBC News)
• Sudanese civil war, Gaza war
  • The United Nations reports that a record 383 aid workers were killed in the 2024 calendar year, up by 31% from 2023, including 181 who were killed in Gaza and 60 in Sudan. There have already been 265 aid workers killed so far this year. (DW)

Business and economy

• 2025 Air Canada flight attendants strike
  • Air Canada announces it will gradually restart operations tonight after it reached a tentative agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the airline's over 10,000 flight attendants. (NPR)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Afghan deportation from Iran
  • 2025 Herat road crash
    • At least 79 people are killed, including 19 children, and three others are injured when an overcrowded passenger bus carrying migrants deported from Iran veers off a road and collides with a motorcycle and a truck before catching fire in Guzara District, Herat Province, Afghanistan. (BBC News) (The Washington Post)
• Four people are killed and nearly a dozen others are injured in a fire at a warehouse in Los Guayos Municipality, Carabobo, Venezuela. (Cedar News)

Law and crime

• The Colombian Supreme Court of Justice overturns a lower court order placing former president Álvaro Uribe under house arrest while he appeals convictions for bribery and abuse of process, ruling that the measure will not apply until the appeal is resolved. (Reuters)
• The Peruvian Constitutional Court orders the suspension of all investigations into President Dina Boluarte, including probes into protest-related deaths, alleged illicit enrichment, and temporary absence from office, until her term ends in July 2026. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• Constitutional crisis in Somalia
  • Former Somali presidents Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed denounce the administration of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for its management of public land in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, accusing it of violating constitutional safeguards and forcibly displacing impoverished families. (Hiiraan Online)
• Eemeli Peltonen, a 30-year-old Finnish member of parliament, dies by suicide inside the Parliament House in Helsinki. (Yle)