Portal:Current events/2025 April 3

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • Rafah offensive
      • The Israel Defense Forces retakes control of Rafah, prompting thousands of Palestinians to flee the city. (Reuters)
      • At least 100 Palestinians are killed and 70 others are injured, including some critically, in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. One of the strikes killed at least 27 people, including 8 men, 14 women, and 5 children, at a sheltering school in the north. (AP News)
• M23 campaign
  • 2025 Walikale offensive
    • M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka claims that the group's withdrawal from Walikale, North Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, was to show goodwill for peace negotiations. (Critical Threats)
• Mexican drug war
  • At least five CJNG gunmen are killed and 116 explosive devices seized after a combined operation that took place in Apatzingán. In the same day, in the municipality of Parácuaro, an encounter between delinquents, the SEDENA and the National Guard leaves one gunman killed. (La Jornada) (Contramuro)
• A dispute between two groups of miners over access to gold deposits in La Paz Department, Bolivia, escalates into clashes with six people reportedly killed and several others missing. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• Tariffs in the second Trump administration
  • A 25% tariff on all automotive imports into the United States enters force. No exemptions are announced despite requests from several major trade partners, including Japan and the United Kingdom. (Reuters)
  • Multinational car manufacturer Stellantis announces it will lay off 900 workers across five of its U.S. factories and will pause production at assembly plants in Canada and Mexico in response to the tariffs. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• January 2025 Southern California wildfires
  • The death toll from wildfires in Southern California, U.S., increases to 30. (CTV News)
• Mediterranean Sea migrant smuggling
  • Two boats carrying migrants capsize in the early hours of the morning near Lesbos in the Aegean Sea, killing 16 people and leaving one more missing. More than 40 people are rescued by the Hellenic Coast Guard. (AP)
• Tornado outbreak of April 1–3, 2025
  • At least seven people are killed and thirteen others are injured by overnight severe weather including tornadoes, storms, hail and floods across Tennessee, Missouri, and Indiana in the United States. (NBC News)

International relations

• Hungary–Israel relations
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lands in Budapest, Hungary, a signatory of the International Criminal Court (ICC), for a state visit in defiance of the international arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes. (The Jerusalem Post) (AP)
  • The Hungarian government announces it will withdraw from the ICC. (Reuters)
• China arrests three Filipinos suspected of espionage near Chinese military facilities as part of a network recruited by Philippine intelligence to gather sensitive information. The Philippines say the arrests are related to previous arrests of Chinese nationals for similar offences. (AFP via CNA) (Reuters)

Law and crime

• 2025 Turkish protests
  • Turkish National Police detain eleven people for spreading calls for and participating in shopping boycotts in the country as a protest against the arrest of Istanbul mayor and opposition presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu. (DW)
• Canada convoy protests
  • The Ontario Court of Justice in Ontario, Canada, convicts Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two leaders of the truck driver protest movement against COVID-19 vaccination in Canada, of criminal mischief. (AP)
• Mass shootings in the United States
  • Three people, including the perpetrator, are killed and two others are injured in a mass shooting when a 29-year-old man shoots his mother and at passing cars in Sabattus, Maine, United States. (ABC News)
• Seven people, including the perpetrator, are injured in a mass stabbing near Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., United States. A suspect was arrested. (The Independent)
• A 50-year-old man sets himself on fire inside of his car in a failed car bombing near the National Monument on Dam Square in Amsterdam, Netherlands, causing a small explosion and injuring himself. No bystanders were injured. (NDTV)