Portal:Current events/2025 March 19

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip
    • March 2025 Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip
      • The Israeli military conducts multiple airstrikes on Rafah and Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, killing at least 60 Palestinians. (Al Jazeera) (The Times of Israel)
      • The United Nations reports that a UN official is killed and five others are wounded in a strike on a guesthouse. The UN states that the perpetrator is unclear at this time. (AP)
      • The Israeli Defense Forces re-take the Netzarim Corridor, preventing the movement of Palestinians between the northern and southern sides of Gaza. (Al Jazeera)
• Kivu conflict
  • M23 campaign
    • 2025 Walikale offensive
      • M23 rebels enter Walikale, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, after overrunning Congolese Army positions north of the town. (Reuters)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russia is attempting to discredit U.S. President Donald Trump's peace negotiations after Russian Armed Forces launched drone attacks on Kyiv overnight after talks between the U.S. and Russia. (BBC News)
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • The Russian Ministry of Defense says Ukraine violated the energy infrastructure ceasefire reached by presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin by launching a drone attack on an oil depot in Krasnodar Krai. (The Moscow Times)

Business and economy

• Santander UK announces the closure of 95 bank branches in the United Kingdom with the loss of up to 750 jobs expected. The bank says the closures are required as a result of more customers using online banking. (Sky News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Arnhem city fire
  • Authorities begin demolishing façades of historic buildings, including those that survived the Battle of Arnhem, following a fire in the city in the Netherlands on March 6. (NOS)
• Mediterranean Sea migrant smuggling
  • The Italian Coast Guard retrieves the bodies of six migrants, rescues 10 people, while 40 others remain missing after a dinghy carrying 56 people capsizes off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy, after departing from Sfax, Tunisia. (DW) (France 24)
• At least two people die in flash floods in Constantina and one dies in Córdoba in Andalusia, Spain. (Diario Público)

International relations

• Iran–United States relations
  • U.S. government sources reveal that President Donald Trump's letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei from two weeks ago contained a deadline of two months for reaching a new deal on Iran's nuclear program. (Axios)

Law and crime

• Arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu
  • Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is also the main opposition figure against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is arrested by Turkish Police along with more than 100 other people for alleged corruption and aiding terrorism. (Reuters) (AP)
• Dakota Access Pipeline protests
  • A jury in North Dakota, United States, orders Greenpeace to pay at least $660 million to Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the Dakota Access Pipeline, after ETP sued the organization for holding protests near Standing Rock Reservation concerning the violation of indigenous sovereignty of Native Americans. (DW) (The Guardian)
• Rohingya conflict
  • Bangladesh Police arrest Ataullah abu Ammar Jununi, the leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a Rohingya insurgent group, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, accusing him of leading and carrying out attacks against the Tatmadaw since 2016 along with charges of illegal entry, murder, and sabotage. (DW) (The Straits Times)
• Prosper family murders
  • Nicholas Prosper, a 19-year-old who was convicted of killing three family members and plotting a school shooting in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, in 2024, is sentenced to minimum of 49 years in prison without parole. (CTV News)
• Four people are injured in a stabbing attack in Atwater, California. ^[1]

Politics and elections

• 2025 Turkish anti-government protests
  • Protests accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government of democratic backsliding erupt in Istanbul, Turkiye, following the arrest of leading opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu and more than 100 other individuals broadly associated with the political opposition. (Reuters)