Portal:Current events/2025 December 15

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War on drugs, Operation Southern Spear
  • 2025 United States military strikes on alleged drug traffickers
    • The United States Southern Command says the U.S. Navy has carried out airstrikes on three alleged drug smuggling vessels in international waters of the Eastern Pacific, killing at least eight people. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Ten people are killed when a Cessna Citation III aircraft flying from Acapulco to Toluca crashes near a football field in San Mateo Atenco, Edomex, Mexico. (UNO TV in Spanish) (AP)

International relations

• Laos–South Korea relations
  • Laos and South Korea agree to upgrade their bilateral relations to a comprehensive partnership. (Reuters)
• Laos–Thailand relations, 2025 Cambodia–Thailand conflict
  • Thailand's military stops fuel shipments through its border crossing with Laos in Chong Mek, Ubon Ratchathani province, after intelligence indicates that supplies are being diverted to Cambodian forces amid an ongoing conflict between Cambodia and Thailand. (Reuters)
• Trinidad and Tobago–Venezuela relations
  • The Venezuelan government accuses Trinidad and Tobago of participating in the United States seizure of the oil tanker Skipper and suspends all oil trade agreements and contracts between the two countries. (The Guardian)

Law and crime

• 2024 anti-tourism protests in Spain
  • The Spanish government fines homestay company Airbnb €63.9 million (US$75 million) for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals as protests blaming companies like Airbnb and Booking.com for driving up property prices for residents across the country continue. (AP)
• Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia
  • Saudi Arabia records a new annual high in executions, carrying out 340 executions to date after authorities execute three additional individuals, exceeding the previous record of 338 executions in 2024. (AFP via CTV News)
• Terrorism in the United States
  • Five individuals associated with the far-left Turtle Island Liberation Front are arrested for allegedly plotting a series of bombings across Southern California, United States, on New Year's Eve. (BBC News)
• Hong Kong's High Court convicts pro-democracy activist and media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and to publish seditious material under the national security law. (Reuters)
• A court in Moscow, Russia, designates protest music group Pussy Riot as an extremist group, banning its activities within Russia. (Reuters)
• Danske Bank completes its three-year corporate probation with the United States Department of Justice, concluding all regulatory proceedings related to suspicious transactions at its former Estonian branch, after pleading guilty to bank fraud conspiracy and forfeiting US$2 billion as part of a 2022 settlement. (Reuters)
• A judge in the Dominican Republic sentences seven former government officials to over a year in preventative detention in a US$250 million corruption case involving the health ministry. (AP)