Portal:Current events/2025 December 23

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Israeli settler violence
    • Five masked Israeli settlers break into a Palestinian house in the southern West Bank, killing three sheep, injuring four others, and fire tear gas into the living quarters. Three children under the age of four are taken to hospital after the tear gas attack. (Los Angeles Times)
• Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Northern Donetsk Oblast campaign
    • The Ukrainian Armed Forces confirm their withdrawal from Siversk, Donetsk Oblast. (Reuters)
• War on drugs, Operation Southern Spear
  • 2025 United States military strikes on alleged drug traffickers
    • The United States Southern Command announces U.S. forces have struck an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one person. (ABC News)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • The Pakistani Taliban detonates a bomb and shoots at a police van in Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, killing five officers. (Reuters)
• Yemeni civil war
  • In an agreement mediated by the United Nations special envoy office and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council and the Houthis release a joint 2,900 detainees held throughout the civil war. (AP)

Business and economy

• The Italian Competition Authority fines Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair €255 million (US$300 million) for allegedly abusing its dominant market position from April 2023 to April 2025 by restricting how travel agencies sell its flights. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Harmony Jets Flight 185
  • A Dassault Falcon 50 jet carrying Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, the Libyan Army chief, four other passengers and three crew crashes approximately two kilometers south of Kesikkavak, Haymana, Ankara, Turkey. No survivors are reported. (Al Jazeera) (AP)
• At least two people are killed and 20 others are injured in an explosion and fire at a nursing home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. (WPVI-TV) (Reuters)

International relations

• Montenegro–Turkey relations, Visa policy of Montenegro
  • Montenegro reinstates visa-free entry for Turkish citizens but shortens the permitted stay from 90 days to 30 days after resuming cooperation with Turkey. (Reuters)
• United States–European Union relations, Visa and deportation controversies in the second Trump administration
  • The United States imposes visa bans on Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO Imran Ahmed, former European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton, Global Disinformation Index co-founder Clare Melford, and HateAid CEOs Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon for allegedly pressuring U.S. social media platforms to restrict speech. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Corruption in Romania
  • Romanian president Nicușor Dan announces an investigation into alleged systemic abuses within the judiciary after judges and prosecutors report intimidation and undue influence by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. (Reuters)
• Piracy in Venezuela
  • The Venezuelan National Assembly approves a law that creates prison terms of up to 20 years for promoting or financing activities defined as piracy, blockades, or related international crimes. (Reuters)
• Zagreb school stabbing
  • A Croatian man is sentenced to 50 years in prison for fatally stabbing a 7-year-old student at a school in Zagreb in December 2024. (AP)

Politics and elections

• 2026 Portuguese presidential election
  • A court in Lisbon, Portugal, orders Chega presidential candidate André Ventura to remove campaign posters targeting the Romani people within 24 hours, ruling that the materials are discriminatory and may incite hatred, or face daily fines of €2,500 (US$2,940) per poster. (Reuters)