Portal:Current events/2024 December 27

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali Civil War
  • Constitutional crisis in Somalia
    • Ethiopian–Somali conflict, 2024 Ethiopia–Somaliland memorandum of understanding
      • The United Nations Security Council approves the Resolution 2767 deployment of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), effective January 1, replacing the current African Union Transition Mission in Somalia. However, Somalia rejects Ethiopia's participation in AUSSOM amid tensions over a memorandum of understanding that Ethiopia signed with Somaliland in January. Somalia considers the memorandum a violation of its sovereignty and has instead asked Egypt to contribute troops to the mission. (Reuters) (Idil News) (UNSC)
• Gaza war
  • Kamal Adwan Hospital sieges
    • Israeli forces forcibly evacuate the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza. (BBC News)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • North Korean involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 2024 Kursk offensive
    • South Korea confirms the first capture of a North Korean soldier fighting against Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast, Russia, with the soldier later dying from his injuries. (BBC News) (Reuters)
• 2024 Baltic Sea submarine cable disruptions, 2024 Estlink 2 incident
  • NATO announces that it will increase its presence in the Baltic Sea in response to the suspected sabotage of Estlink submarine power cables. (Reuters)
  • Estonia deploys its navy to protect its remaining Estlink submarine power cable following the failure of Estlink 2. (BBC News)
• Red Sea crisis
  • The Houthis launch a ballistic missile from Yemen, targeting Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. The missile is intercepted before reaching Israeli airspace. It is the first time that the THAAD missile defense system is used by Israel to intercept a missile during combat operations. (The Times of Israel) (The Guardian)
  • Houthi-run state television reports that American and British airstrikes have targeted the Ma'ain District of Sanaa, Yemen. No casualties are reported. (Anadolu Agency)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • A 83-year-old Israeli woman and Holocaust survivor is fatally stabbed by a Palestinian former Shin Bet informant from the West Bank in Herzliya, Israel. The attacker was then shot and injured by police. (The Times of Israel)

Business and economy

• Medog Hydropower Station
  • China announces the formal approval of a proposal to construct the world's largest hydropower dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243
  • Azerbaijan Airlines suspends flights to seven cities in Russia following the crash of Flight 8243 on Wednesday, amid allegations that the plane had been hit by a Russian surface-to-air missile. (DW)
  • United States National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says that there is evidence that Russia shot down the Azerbaijan Airlines flight. (The Hill)
  • Kazakhstan and Israel suspend flights over Russian airspace in response to the Azerbaijan Airlines crash. (Politico)
• A traffic collision between a truck and a bus kills eight people and injures 27 others in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. (AP)

Health and environment

• 2023–2024 mpox epidemic
  • Kosovo reports its first case of mpox in a 30-year-old man who travelled to Africa. (Reuters)

International relations

• French military withdrawal from West Africa
  • Senegalese prime minister Ousmane Sonko announces the closure of all foreign military bases in the country, citing a decision by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye to remove foreign troops as part of a broader shift away from colonial-era military arrangements. (AP)
• Georgia–United States relations
  • The U.S. State Department announces sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the Georgian Dream political party. Georgian prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze accuses the United States of "blackmail" over the move. (BBC News) (Al Arabiya)
• Syria–Ukraine relations, Grain From Ukraine program
  • Ukraine announces that it has sent a shipment of 500 tonnes of wheat to Syria after Russia suspended shipments following the fall of the Assad regime. (The Kyiv Independent)

Law and crime

• 2024 Zhuhai car attack, Capital punishment in China
  • A Chinese court sentences the perpetrator of the car attack in Zhuhai that killed 35 people to death. (AP)
• Argentina–Venezuela relations, Conservative wave
  • Venezuelan attorney general Tarek William Saab announces an investigation into a previously detained Argentine National Gendarmerie non-commissioned officer for alleged links to right-wing terrorism. (Reuters)
• The Montenegrin Minister of Justice approves the extradition of cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon to the United States over fraud allegations resulting from the collapse of the Terra and Luna tokens. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

• 2024 South Korean martial law crisis
  • Impeachment of Han Duck-soo
    • South Korean prime minister and acting president Han Duck-soo is impeached by the National Assembly after refusing to appoint three Constitutional Court judges chosen by the Assembly to oversee president Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment case. Finance minister Choi Sang-mok is appointed acting president and acting prime minister. (BBC News) (Reuters)
• 2024 German government crisis, 2025 German federal election, Scholz cabinet
  • German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolves the Bundestag and schedules new elections for February 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition collapses and no parliamentary majority emerges to form a stable government. (AP)