Portal:Current events/2025 December 16

Armed conflicts and attacks

• M23 campaign, Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict
  • 2025 Uvira offensive
    • The March 23 Movement announces that they will withdraw from Uvira, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, following a request from the United States. (Reuters)
• Herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria, Fulani extremism in Nigeria
  • At least 12 people are killed and three others are abducted after Fulani gunmen attack a mining site in Plateau State, Nigeria. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Thirteen people are killed, and several others are injured when a passenger bus overturns on a highway and collides with a taxi in Isfahan Province, Iran. (AP)

Health and environment

• The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records the Arctic's warmest year since measurements began, with average temperatures from October 2024 to September 2025 standing 1.60 °C (2.88 °F) above the 1991–2020 baseline. (AFP via RFI)

International relations

• Canada–Israel relations
  • Israel denies entry to six Canadian MPs trying to visit the occupied West Bank as part of a nonprofit-sponsored tour. (Al Jazeera)
• Operation Southern Spear, United States–Venezuela relations
  • U.S. president Donald Trump orders a blockade on oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. (The Telegraph)

Law and crime

• 2025 Beninese coup attempt
  • Benin places about 30 suspects, most of them soldiers, in pre-trial detention on charges including treason, murder, and endangering state security following a failed coup attempt. (AFP via Arab News)
• 2025 Liverpool parade incident
  • The Liverpool Crown Court convicts Paul Doyle, the perpetrator who injured 130 people after ramming his car into a crowd in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom, of charges of dangerous driving and maliciously causing grievous bodily harm, and sentences him to 21 years in prison. (DW)
• Belarus–Lithuania relations
  • Lithuanian police arrest 21 people allegedly connected to a criminal network responsible for smuggling cigarettes into the country via weather balloons from Belarus. (AP)
• Colombia–United States relations, War on drugs
  • The U.S. State Department designates Colombian cartel and neo-paramilitary group Clan del Golfo as a foreign terrorist organization. (DW)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Honduran general election
  • Honduran president Xiomara Castro announces that she will denounce an alleged "electoral coup" to the European Union, the Organization of American States, and the United Nations, accusing U.S. president Donald Trump of "interference". (The Guardian) (Reuters)

Sports

• In association football, French and Paris Saint-Germain player Ousmane Dembélé is named the 2025 FIFA Men's Player of the Year. (BBC News)