Portal:Current events/2025 November 17

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • German support for Israel in the Gaza war, Germany–Israel relations
    • Germany expects to lift its restrictions on military equipment exports to Israel from November 24, which were banned in August due to the siege of Gaza City. (AP)
  • Gaza peace plan
    • The United Nations Security Council votes in favor of a US-drafted resolution endorsing the peace plan, including the establishment of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) and Board of Peace. (BBC News)
• Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Kharkiv strikes
    • A Russian missile strike on a residential area in Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, kills three people and injures 10 others. (Reuters)
  • Military aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian war, France–Ukraine relations
    • Ukraine signs an agreement with France to receive up to 100 Rafale fighter jets, along with anti-aircraft warfare, munitions, and drones. Both governments say the proposed use of frozen Russian assets will partly finance it. (CNN)
• Yemeni civil war
  • In Lahij, Yemen, suspected Houthi gunmen carries out an ambush against a convoy carrying the governor of Taiz and a military commander, killing five of their bodyguards. Both the governor and the commander are unharmed, while two gunmen are also killed. (Xinhua)
• Druze insurgency in Southern Syria
  • An investigative committee in Syria detains members of the country's military and security forces in an investigation into sectarian violence in Sweida in July involving the Druze. (AP)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • Thirty-eight Pakistani Taliban militants are killed by the army in a series of raids since yesterday in Dera Ismail Khan, North Waziristan, Bannu and Bajaur, in Pakistan. (AP)
• Nigerian bandit conflict, Kidnapping in Nigeria
  • Gunmen kidnap 25 female students from and kill the vice principal of a secondary school in Maga, Kebbi State, Nigeria. (DW) (BBC News)

Arts and culture

• The Cambridge University Press and Assessment announces parasocial as its word of the year. (CNN)

Business and economy

• Spanish transport minister Óscar Puente announces the AV350 project, which will upgrade the Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line to a maximum operating speed of 350 km/h (220 mph) and make it one of the world's fastest trains. Puente says work is scheduled to begin next year and is expected to take three years. (Reuters)
• At the Dubai Airshow, UAE flagship airline Emirates announces a deal to buy 65 Boeing 777-9 aircraft worth US$38 billion, with deliveries starting in 2027. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Medina bus crash
  • A bus carrying Indian Umrah pilgrims collides with a tank truck near Medina, Saudi Arabia, killing 45 people. (Hindustan Times)
• The toll from yesterday's bus crash in Simiatug, Tungurahua Province, Ecuador, increases to 21 people killed and 40 others injured. (Reuters)
• Six people are killed and 19 others are injured when a landslide triggered by heavy rain strikes a bus carrying 32 passengers in Khánh Vĩnh district, Khánh Hòa province, Vietnam. (Reuters)
• Five tourists are killed in a blizzard in Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia, where military and police rescue four others and continue search and rescue operations. (AFP via France 24)
• Airjet Angola Flight MBC-100
  • An Embraer ERJ-145 operating as AirJet Angola Flight 100 carrying 29 members of a Ministry of Mines delegation crashes while attempting to land at Kolwezi Airport in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. No casualties are reported. (ASN) (Israel Hayom)

Health and environment

• Polio eradication, Health in Pakistan
  • Polio in Pakistan
    • Pakistan launches an initiative to vaccinate 34.5 million children against measles and rubella and 23.3 million against polio. (AP)
• Health in Ethiopia
  • Ethiopia confirms three deaths from a Marburg virus disease declared on Friday in West Omo Zone. (Euronews)
• At least 71 schools in Australia and New Zealand close as authorities investigate recalled children's play sand products from Kmart and Target after testing detected asbestos in some samples. (Reuters)

International relations

• Nicaragua–United States relations, Immigration policy of the second Trump administration
  • The United States imposes visa restrictions and revokes some existing visas for Nicaraguans, including owners of transportation and travel companies, who it says facilitate illegal immigration to the U.S. under Nicaragua's migration policies. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Capital punishment in Bangladesh, Trial of Sheikh Hasina
  • A domestic tribunal in Bangladesh sentences former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan to death in absentia over crimes against humanity committed during the quota reform protests in 2024. (AP) (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Chilean presidential election
  • Due to no candidates receiving 50% of the vote in the presidential election, a runoff occurs between left-wing candidate Jeannette Jara of the Unity for Chile coalition and right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast of the Change for Chile coalition, with the vote set for December 14. (DW)
• 2025 Iraqi parliamentary election
  • The Independent High Electoral Commission releases the seat distribution from Iraq's recent election as prime minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani's Coordination Framework alliance declares that it will form the majority bloc and will nominate the next prime minister. (Reuters)
• Flood control projects controversy in the Philippines
  • Philippine executive secretary Lucas Bersamin and budget secretary Amenah Pangandaman resign over their alleged involvement in flood control corruption. Finance secretary Ralph Recto replaces Bersamin as the executive secretary. (Gulf News)
• Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia
  • Russia's Rosfinmonitoring adds former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and London Business School dean Sergei Guriev to its list of extremists and terrorists. (Reuters)