Portal:Current events/2024 August 22

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Israeli incursions in Tulkarm
    • An Israeli drone strike kills three Palestinians in Tulkarm in the West Bank, during a raid where IDF soldiers set fire to civilian homes and used bulldozers to destroy residential areas. (Al Jazeera)
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • Eleven Palestinians are killed and six others are injured in an Israeli strike on a residential building in Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip. (DW)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • A ferry carrying 30 fuel tanks sinks in the port of Kavkaz, in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, following a Ukrainian attack. (Reuters)
    • The International Atomic Energy Agency announces an investigation of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant following accusations from Russia that a Ukrainian drone targeted the power plant. (Reuters)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Suspected Boko Haram militants kill 13 farmers in Shiroro, Niger State, Nigeria. (Barron's)
• At least eleven police officers are killed in an ambush on a convoy by armed attackers near Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, Pakistan. (Sky News)

Arts and culture

• The government of Botswana presents to the public a 2,492-carat raw diamond, discovered by the Lucara diamond and mining company from the Karowe diamond mine, and said to be the second largest in the world. (AP) (The Guardian)

Business and economy

• 2024 Canada railway shutdown
  • Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City lock out roughly 10,000 unionized railroad workers in Canada, leading to a railway stoppage that impacts many North American supply chains and may cost the economy of Canada C$341 million per day. (Reuters)
  • In response to the railway stoppage, Canadian labour minister Steven MacKinnon refers the two disputes to binding arbitration. (CBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2023–2024 South American drought
  • 2024 Brazil wildfires
    • Nearly 1,500 firefighters are dispatched to contain intense wildfires that are causing dense hazardous smoke to fully "engulf" Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil, with the total number of wildfires in Brazil reaching 59,000 since the start of the year. (The Guardian)
• Thai Flying Service Flight 209
  • Nine people are killed when a Cessna 208 Caravan crashes into a mangrove forest in Chachoengsao shortly after taking off from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP) (The Nation Thailand)
• Eleven people are killed after a boat carrying migrants capsize while trying to cross the Drina river from Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Reuters)
• Seven people are killed and 12 others are injured after a fire at a hotel in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. (The Nation Thailand)

Health and environment

• 2023–2024 mpox epidemic
  • Burundi reports 171 new mpox cases, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 572 cases. (Barron's)
  • Sri Lanka reports its first two cases of mpox, but does not specify the clade the cases are from. (Dhauru)

International relations

• Belarus–China relations
  • Belarus and China agree to greatly strengthen mutual trade, financial, energy, and security cooperation, which includes enhancing industrial supply chains and collaboration with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Treatment of women by the Taliban
  • The Taliban bans women from singing, reciting poetry, or reading aloud in public and mandates that women must wear a veil in public under new laws approved by the Supreme Leader as part of efforts to combat "vice" and promote "virtue". (Al Arabiya)

Politics and elections

• 2024 Indonesian local election law protests, 2024 Indonesian local elections
  • Thousands of people gather outside the House of Representatives in Jakarta, Indonesia, as well as in other major cities across the country, to protest attempted changes to local elections law that would benefit the ruling coalition, in defiance of two recent Constitutional Court decisions. (BBC News)
  • Police fire tear gas and water cannons at protesters attempting to storm the House of Representatives, prompting the Parliament to delay and eventually cancel the vote on the proposed changes. (AP)
• 2024 Venezuelan presidential election
  • The Supreme Court of Venezuela certifies the results of the 2024 presidential election, denying claims that opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia won the election. (AP)
• Human rights in Afghanistan, Afghanistan and the United Nations
  • The Taliban prohibits Richard Bennett, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, from entering the country, accusing him of spreading propaganda. (DW)