Portal:Current events/2024 December 20

December 20, 2024 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Sudanese civil war
- Darfur campaign
  - Siege of El Fasher
    - The United Nations Human Rights Office reports that the Rapid Support Forces have killed over 782 civilians and wounded over 1,143 others in El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, since May, and urges the RSF to halt their incursions into the city. (Al Jazeera)
    - At least 50 people, mostly from the Zaghawa ethnic group, have been killed by the Rapid Support Forces in the past week in El Fasher, North Darfur State, Sudan. (Sudan Tribune)
Syrian civil war
- Israeli invasion of Syria (2024–present)
  - Israeli soldiers injure a Syrian man protesting against the soldiers' presence in Ma'ariya, Daraa Governorate. (Al Jazeera)
- Fall of the Assad regime
  - The United States drops the $10 million terrorism bounty offered for capture of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani who ousted Assad. (AP) (Times of Israel)
- US intervention in the Syrian civil war
  - U.S. forces kill regional ISIS leader Abu Yusif, also known as Mahmud, in an airstrike in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria. (US CENTCOM)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 2024 Kursk offensive
  - A Ukrainian missile strike kills six people and injures 10 others in Rylsk, Kursk Oblast, Russia, according to acting Kursk Oblast governor Alexander Khinshtein. Russia says that it will raise the issue of the missile strike at the United Nations Security Council. (Reuters)
- Kryvyi Rih strikes, Kyiv strikes
  - At least one person is killed and eight others are injured in Russian missile strikes on civilian infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih and Kyiv, Ukraine. (The Kyiv Independent) (Reuters)
Islamist insurgency in the Sahel
- Mali War
  - At least 20 people are killed in attacks on six villages in Mali's Mopti Region by suspected jihadists linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, who also destroy property during the assaults. (Reuters)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Israeli incursions in the West Bank during the Israel–Hamas war, Israeli settler violence
  - Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in Marda, Salfit Governorate, in the occupied West Bank and deface the building's facade with anti-Arab statements, including "Death to Arabs". (Al Jazeera) (AFP via Barron's)
Terrorism in Germany
- 2024 Magdeburg car attack
  - Five people are killed and over 200 others are injured in a vehicle-ramming attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. The suspected perpetrator is arrested. (Al Jazeera) (Blick)
Myanmar civil war
- The Arakan Army claims to have captured the Tatmadaw's regional headquarters in Rakhine State, Myanmar. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
- Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
  - Malaysian Minister of Transport Anthony Loke announces a new search effort for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing in March 2014, to be conducted by American marine robotics company Ocean Infinity. (DW)
Rohingya genocide
- The Sri Lanka Navy rescues 102 Rohingya refugees, including 25 children, that were found adrift on a fishing trawler and takes them to Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. (Al Jazeera) (The Independent)
Thirty-eight people are killed, 20 people are rescued, and over 100 others remain missing after a ferry capsizes while crossing the Busira River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (AP) (Al Jazeera)
Eleven people are killed, 45 others are injured and 37 vehicles are destroyed after an LPG tank truck catches fire and explodes after a speeding truck crashed into it in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. (The Statesman)
Eight people are killed and 18 others are rescued when a speedboat carrying migrants capsizes off the coast of Rhodes, Greece. (AP)

International relations

Australia–Solomon Islands relations
- Australia agrees to provide Solomon Islands with financing, training, and infrastructure support worth AU$190 million (US$118 million) over four years to strengthen its police force as part of a renewed security partnership between the two countries. (France 24)
Hungary–Poland relations
- Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs summons Hungary's ambassador to protest the Hungarian government's decision to grant asylum to former Polish deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski, who is wanted under the European Arrest Warrant for alleged corruption. Poland also recalls its ambassador to Hungary Sebastian Kęciek for consultations. (AP)

Law and crime

2024 Zagreb school stabbing
- A child is killed and seven other people are injured in a mass stabbing at a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia. The 19-year-old perpetrator is arrested. (BBC News)
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights rules that El Salvador violated the human rights of a woman denied an abortion during a high-risk pregnancy in 2013 and orders the country to implement measures allowing abortions in cases where the woman's life is at risk. (The Guardian)
Guatemalan authorities rescue 160 minors from the Lev Tahor sect in Oratorio, Santa Rosa, amid allegations of human trafficking, forced marriage, and child abuse. (Reuters)
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau files a lawsuit against banks JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo for failing to protect consumers against alleged widespread fraud on the built-in payment system Zelle equating over $870 million. (Al Jazeera) (Detroit Free Press)

Politics and elections

2025 United States federal budget
- Government shutdowns in the United States, National debt of the United States, United States debt ceiling
  - A funding bill ensuring full operation of the U.S. federal government service with an amendment supported by President-elect Donald Trump that would enforce a two-year suspension of the federal debt ceiling is rejected in the Republican-majority House of Representatives, with multiple Republicans and nearly all Democrats opposing the bill. A government shutdown is expected to occur if no bill is passed by midnight. (BBC News)
  - House Speaker Mike Johnson reintroduces a funding bill without Trump's debt ceiling suspension, stating that "we will not have a government shutdown". The bill, which will fund the government until March 2025, passes the House by a vote of 336–34 and will now go to the Senate. (The Washington Post)
2025 Belarusian presidential election
- Estonia says that it will not recognize the results of the upcoming presidential election in Belarus, which it claims has already been rigged to ensure that President Alexander Lukashenko will be re-elected. (ERR)
In Italy, the Meloni government survives a confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies on the 2025 budget. (Reuters)
Sam Hou Fai is sworn in as Chief Executive of Macau, succeeding Ho Iat Seng. (RTHK)