Portal:Current events/2024 August 23

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Military aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukraine War
    • The United States announces a new military aid package to Ukraine, including air defense missiles, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), an array of anti-armor missiles, vehicles, and other equipment. (AP)
• Israel–Hezbollah conflict
  • Hezbollah launches over 100 rocket strikes on Israel Defense Forces targets in Mount Meron and Al-Malkiyya that were intercepted by Iron Dome and caused wildfires. (Times of Israel)
  • Seven Hezbollah militants are killed in Israeli airstrikes and shelling on Tayr Harfa and Shebaa in southern Lebanon. (Times of Israel)
• Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency, Turkish war crimes
  • Three people, including two journalists, are killed and another journalist is injured in a Turkish drone strike on a vehicle in Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. (Al Jazeera) (Committee to Protect Journalists)
• Surovikino penal colony hostage crisis
  • Four inmates linked to the Islamic State seize control of a prison in Surovikino, Volgograd Oblast, Russia, and take hostages, killing four prison staff members and injuring three others. The attackers are shot dead by responding security forces. (Azerbaijani Press Agency) (The Guardian)
• Syrian civil war
  • Abu Abdul Rahman Makki, a senior leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Din, is killed by an airstrike in Jabal Zawiya, Idlib Governorate, Syria. (AP)

Business and economy

• Unemployment in the United States
  • United States Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell states that increased unemployment rates and labor market cooling has made it necessary for the Federal Reserve to markedly reduce interest rates in the near future. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024 India–Bangladesh floods
  • At least 23 people are killed and more than 4.5 million people are affected by floods caused by heavy rains in eastern Bangladesh. (Al Jazeera)
• Twenty-seven people are killed and 16 more injured when a bus carrying Indian pilgrims on the Prithvi Highway in Nepal crashes. (AP)
• Ten people are killed by landslides and flooding in Phuket, Thailand. (Bangkok Post)
• A tourist from India falls eight-meters deep into a sinkhole after a section of a sidewalk along Jalan Masjid India in Kuala Lumpur caved in, prompting search and rescue operations. (The Star) (The Straits Times)

Health and environment

• 2023–2024 mpox epidemic
  • Gabon reports its first case of mpox in a man who traveled to Uganda. (Le Monde)

International relations

• International sanctions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia–United States relations, China–United States relations
  • The United States Treasury Department imposes sanctions on more than 400 individuals and entities, including Chinese firms that are allegedly aiding Russia in order to avoid western sanctions. (Reuters) (CNN)
• Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, India–Ukraine relations
  • During a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi urges Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to end the Russo-Ukrainian War, and volunteers to act as a mediator in talks between Zelenskyy and Russia. In a later national address, Zelenskyy thanked Modi but stated that it is necessary for India to respect international law as well as Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. (Reuters)
• Poland–South Africa relations
  • South Africa blocks the transfer of 50,000 purchased artillery shells to Poland out of fear that they would be sent to Ukraine for use in the Russo-Ukrainian War. (Kyiv Independent)

Law and crime

• 2023 antisemitic riots in the North Caucasus
  • A court in Krasnodar, Russia, sentences five men to more than six years in prison for participating in anti-Israel riots at Uytash Airport in Makhachkala, Dagestan, in October 2023. (Reuters)
• 2024 Solingen stabbing
  • Three people are killed and eight others are wounded in a mass stabbing at a public festival Solingen, NRW, Germany, during celebrations for the 650th anniversary of the city. A manhunt for the suspect and a citywide shelter-in-place emergency for residents are ongoing. (AP)
• 2024 United Kingdom riots
  • The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommends that the United Kingdom implement bans and auditing of hate speech, xenophobia, and far-right rhetoric by politicians, in addition to prohibiting the strip-searching of children and addressing the over-policing of schools, following widespread destructive anti-immigration protests exacerbated by remarks made by public figures and politicians. (Reuters) (The Guardian)
• The Hellenic Coast Guard open fire against a motorboat carrying 14 migrants near the island of Symi, Greece, killing one of the passengers. (AP)

Politics and elections

• 2024 United States presidential election
  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 2024 presidential campaign
    • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces that he is ending his presidential campaign and endorses Donald Trump's campaign. However, Kennedy will remain on the ballot in some states as he has already registered his campaign there. (The Hill) (USA Today)