Portal:Current events/2025 February 25

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Kivu conflict
  • M23 campaign
    • 2025 Uvira offensive
      • The Congolese military launches an attack against M23-aligned rebels around the town of Minembwe in South Kivu in an effort to recapture it, and claims to have killed four rebel commanders in a drone strike. (Critical Threats Project)
• Syrian civil war
  • Israeli invasion of Syria
    • The Israeli Air Force strikes targets throughout Southern Syria as Israel begins a military operation to "demilitarize" the southern Syrian governorates of Daraa, Suwayda and Quneitra. Syrian state media reports airstrikes near Damascus. At least two people are reportedly killed. (ABC News) (The Times of India)
• 2020s European re-armament
  • The United Kingdom announces an increase in military spending to 2.5% of its GDP by 2027, and 3% by 2034 at the latest. The move comes just before UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday in Washington, D.C. (The New York Times)
• Casamance conflict
  • The Senegalese government and the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance reach an agreement to end their 40-year conflict at talks mediated by Bissau-Guinean President Umaro Sissoco Embalo. (The Defense Post)
• Central African Republic Civil War
  • Nine people are killed and hundreds of homes are burned down in 3R rebel attacks in Bamingui-Bangoran, Central African Republic. (AP)

Business and economy

• American fabrics and handicraft supplies retail chain Jo-Ann Stores files its second bankruptcy claim and announces it will close all 800 stores in the 49 states, with liquidation sales beginning immediately. (NPR)
• Iraq agrees to reopen the oil pipeline between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey after a conversation between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani, having been closed for two years due to a dispute between Iraq and Turkey. (Anadolu Agency) (The Arab Weekly)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Chile blackout
  • A nationwide power outage occurs in Chile, impacting most of the country's population and causing the temporary stoppage of several significant industries. (Reuters)
• 2025 Queensland floods
  • At least twelve people are killed by a melioidosis outbreak caused by standing waters from persistent flooding in Queensland, Australia. (7News)
• 2025 Sudanese Air Force Antonov An-26 crash
  • A Sudanese military plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Wadi Seidna Air Base on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum, killing at least 46 people and injuring several others. (BBC News)
• Four workers are killed and six others are injured when an elevated highway under construction collapses in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. (AP)
• A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hits near the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, with no damage reported. (ABC News)

International relations

• Rwanda–United Kingdom relations, Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict
  • The UK government suspends financial aid and imposes economic sanctions on several high-ranking Rwandan officials over the country's military support for M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Reuters)
• Ukraine–United States relations
  • Ukrainian Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna announces that Ukraine has reached a deal with the United States on mineral resources. (Kyiv Independent)

Law and crime

• 2025 Thiruvananthapuram mass murder
  • A man brutally beat ( five people, including his brother, girlfriend, to death with a hammer in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, South India. gulfnews Economic Times
• Environmental issues in Brazil
  • The Brazilian Public Prosecutor's Office files a lawsuit against mining corporation Vale S.A. and the state of Pará for mass metal poisoning that has affected the Xikrin indigenous people, whose Indigenous Territory is located in the state. (News-Press NOW)
• The Indonesian Attorney General’s Office arrests three executives of state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina on charges of corruption and fraud regarding gasoline quality that cost the government more than $11 billion USD. (The Straits Times) (The Jakarta Globe)

Politics and elections

• Second presidency of Donald Trump
  • Executive orders in the second presidency of Donald Trump
    • U.S. District Judge for the Western Washington District Court Jamal Whitehead temporarily blocks President Donald Trump's executive order to suspend the Refugee Admissions Program, ruling that President Trump cannot nullify the law passed by Congress, following a lawsuit against the Trump administration by the International Refugee Assistance Project. (AP)