Portal:Current events/2024 December 15

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • December 2024 Nuseirat refugee camp attack
    • Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmad Al-Louh is killed in an Israeli airstrike on a civil defense point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. (WAFA) (anews)
• Syrian civil war
  • Israeli invasion of Syria (2024–present)
    • Israeli Air Force fighter jets strike surface-to-air missile and weapon depots in Tartus Governorate, Syria, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights describing the strikes as the heaviest in the region since the start of the civil war. (AFP via Barron's)

Business and economy

• Free trade agreements of the United Kingdom
  • The United Kingdom joins the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, becoming the 12th member and the first European member. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024–25 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season
  • Thousands of people are believed to have been killed by Cyclone Chido in the French overseas department of Mayotte, with the cyclone also causing damage in the Comoros and Mozambique. (The Independent)
• 2024 Kerch Strait oil spill
  • At least one person is killed when two Russian oil tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-236, are damaged due to bad weather in the Kerch Strait with oil from the tankers actively leaking into the strait. (NOS) (CNN)

International relations

• Australia–Indonesia relations
  • Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces that the remaining five members of the Bali Nine drug-trafficking group, who were serving life sentences in Indonesia, have returned to Australia following an agreement between the two countries to end their imprisonment. (CNN)
• Ireland–Israel relations
  • Israel announces that it will close its embassy in Dublin, Ireland, over Ireland's alleged "extreme anti-Israel policies". (Reuters)

Law and crime

• 2024 Northeastern United States drone sightings
  • White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says that the United States Coast Guard has confirmed that there is no evidence of any "foreign-based involvement" in the unidentified drones that are being sighted over the Northeastern United States. (The Times of India via MSN)
• ABC News settles a defamation lawsuit filed by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump over statements made on air by anchor George Stephanopoulos about the E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump lawsuits, with ABC agreeing to pay $15 million to the Trump presidential library as well as $1 million for legal fees. (AP)