Portal:Current events/2025 September 16

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • 2025 Gaza City offensive
      • The Israeli military formally launches a ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza City as 75 people are killed by Israeli airstrikes, most in Gaza City, with thousands of others evacuating. (Reuters)
  • Gaza genocide
    • An independent United Nations commission of inquiry publishes a report that "finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza," listing four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people during the war. (UN News) (BBC News)
• Kivu conflict
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict, M23 campaign
    • M23 rebels hold a military parade of newly-trained recruits in eastern Congolese towns captured by the rebels in an offensive months prior. (AP)
• Red Sea crisis
  • Israeli attacks on Yemen
    • The Israel Air Force bombs at least ten Houthi targets near Hudaydah Port in Al Hudaydah, Yemen. The sites targeted by the airstrikes reportedly include a command center and locations used to smuggle weapons from Iran. (The Jerusalem Post)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • The Trump administration approves its first weapons aid packages for Ukraine. This is the first use of a new mechanism to supply Ukraine with weapons from U.S. stocks using funds from NATO countries. (Reuters)
• War in the Sahel
  • Mali War
    • Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) fighters ambush and burn at least 100 fuel trucks arriving in Mali from Senegal and the Ivory Coast. The attacks are part of a nationwide blockade on fuel and other goods enforced by JNIM as it besieges Malian government-held cities and towns. (AP via Ottumwa Courier)
• Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
  • The Naxalites declare an indefinite unilateral ceasefire and state their openness to peace talks with the Indian government amid ongoing military operations against their insurgency. (AFP via UCA News)

Business and economy

• Economy of Uganda
  • Uganda announces that it will borrow US$358 million from the African Development Fund, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, and Standard Chartered to fund a power grid link with South Sudan, a road to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and expanded clean water access. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• At least 15 people are killed and 16 others are missing when a cloudburst causes landslides and flooding across Uttarakhand, India. (The Indian Express)

Health and environment

• Climate of Spain
  • The Spanish State Meteorological Agency announces that 2025 was Spain's hottest summer since records began in 1961, averaging a temperature of 24.2 °C (75.6 °F), and surpassing 2022's record of 24.1 °C (75.4 °F). The record-high temperatures caused three heatwaves over the summer, including the 16-day heatwave in August which sparked wildfires. (DW)

International relations

• China–Philippines relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
  • Scarborough Shoal standoff
    • China's coast guard reports that a Datu Cabaylo-class multi-mission offshore vessel of the Philippine fisheries bureau rammed a Chinese coast guard vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, while the Philippines say Chinese ships used water cannons that damaged the Filipino vessel and injured a crew member. (AP) (Reuters)
• Yemeni civil war
  • 2025 Houthi raids on UN buildings in Sanaa
    • The United Nations relocates its resident coordinator's office for Yemen from Houthi-controlled Sanaa to Yemeni government-controlled Aden after the detention of UN staff by the Houthis, while maintaining operations across the country. (Reuters)
• Australia–Papua New Guinea relations
  • Australia announces that it will fund the construction of a new ministerial wing for Papua New Guinea's Parliament House in Port Moresby as the country marks its 50th anniversary of independence. (AP)
• Hungary–United States relations
  • The United States restores Hungary's full participation in the Visa Waiver Program after the Orbán government implements measures requested to address security concerns. (Reuters)
• Mercosur signs a free trade agreement with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. (AP)

Law and crime

• 2020 Beirut explosion
  • Bulgarian police arrest the owner of the ship that brought explosive material to Beirut, Lebanon, which caused an explosion in August 2020 that killed more than 200 people. (Reuters)
• 2024 Mannheim stabbing
  • The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court sentences Afghan national Sulaiman Ataee to life in prison for the May 2024 mass stabbing in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, which killed one person and injured five. (AP)
• Colombian conflict, Kidnappings in Colombia
  • Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace sentences seven former FARC leaders, including ex-commander Timoleón Jiménez, to up to eight years of reparations work for their role in kidnappings. (AFP via France 24)
• Controversies surrounding Jair Bolsonaro
  • A Brazilian regional federal court orders former president Jair Bolsonaro and the federal government to each pay R$1 million (US$185,528.76) in damages for racist remarks he made in 2021 while in office. (The Guardian)
• Flood control projects controversy in the Philippines
  • The Philippine Court of Appeals orders the freezing of 135 bank accounts and 27 insurance policies linked to individuals and companies under investigation for alleged corruption in flood control projects, following a request by the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Anti–Money Laundering Council. (Reuters)
• Killing of Brian Thompson
  • In the United States, a New York judge dismisses the two terrorism charges brought against Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, but allows a second-degree murder charge to stand. (BBC News)
• Modern immigration to the United Kingdom
  • The High Court of Justice issues an interim injunction blocking the deportation of an Eritrean asylum seeker to France under a returns agreement, pending a hearing on his trafficking claim. (Al Jazeera)
• Murder of Agnes Wanjiru
  • Kenya's Magistrates' Court issues an arrest warrant and seeks the extradition of a British citizen over the 2012 murder of Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru near a British army training camp in Nanyuki, Laikipia County. (Reuters)
• Nord Stream pipelines sabotage
  • An Italian appellate court approves the extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian national allegedly involved in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions. The suspect's lawyer says that he plans to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Cassation. (AP)
• Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse
  • Serbian prosecutors indict former construction minister Goran Vesić and 12 others on public safety charges over the Novi Sad railway station roof collapse that killed 16 people. (Reuters)
• Romanian prosecutors indict former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu and 21 others on charges of attempting to undermine national security by planning violent protests after the cancellation of the 2024 election over alleged Russian interference. (Financial Times)
• Senegalese authorities intercept 112 Gambian migrants aboard a pirogue off the coast of Dakar on the suspicion of irregular migration as they attempt to reach Europe. (Reuters)
• The Seoul Central District Court issues an arrest warrant for former People Power Party floor leader Kweon Seong-dong on charges of receiving illegal political funds from the Unification Church during the 2022 South Korean presidential election campaign. (The Korea Herald)
• The high court in Gauteng, South Africa, rejects an appeal by the family of former Zambian president Edgar Lungu, upholding its ruling that Lungu's remains must be returned to Zambia for burial. (AP)
• U.S. president Donald Trump files a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the newspaper The New York Times after the paper published articles and a book alleging that part of The Trump Organization's wealth was acquired through fraud. (NPR)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Malawian general election
  • Malawians vote to elect a president, the 229 members of the National Assembly, and 509 local government councillors. (AP)
• Internet in Afghanistan
  • Afghan supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada orders a complete ban on Wi-Fi internet in the northern Balkh Province to "prevent immorality". (The Independent)
• Matteo Rossi and Lorenzo Bugli are elected the new captains regent of San Marino for the following semester. (San Marino RTV)