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2025 December 07

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2025 Beninese coup attempt
  • Elements of the Benin Armed Forces, led by Pascal Tigri, announce a coup d’état against president Patrice Talon and the creation of a military junta, the Military Committee for Refoundation, after seizing state television. The coup attempt is ultimately unsuccessful. (Al Jazeera)
  • The Nigerian Air Force launches precision airstrikes against pro-coup forces in Cotonou in support of the Beninese government, killing several putschists. (Sahara Reporters) (Zagazola)
  • ECOWAS announces the deployment of ground troops to Benin from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. (Sahara Reporters)
  • France provides military intelligence, surveillance aircraft, and logistical assistance to Benin and shares intelligence with Nigeria to help thwart the coup attempt. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
  • Cyclone Ditwah
    • The death toll from the floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in Sri Lanka increases to 618. (Al Jazeera)
  • Cyclone Senyar
    • The death toll from the floods in Indonesia increases to 908, while 410 people remain missing. In Thailand, at least 216 people are also confirmed killed. (Al Jazeera)
• A Fire and Rescue NSW firefighter is killed and dozens of homes are destroyed as bushfires spread across parts of New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Papiri kidnapping
  • Nigerian authorities secure the release of 100 of the 315 students and staff abducted from a school in Niger State, while more than 160 others remain unaccounted for. (AFP via The Guardian)
• Ecuadorian security crisis
  • Thirteen suspected Los Lobos gang members are killed in a prison riot following two explosions in Machala, El Oro Province, Ecuador. (BNO News) (AP)
• Brazilian police report that two armed individuals stole eight Henri Matisse engravings and five works by Candido Portinari from the Mário de Andrade Library in São Paulo after threatening a security guard and visitors. (AFP via France 24)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Hong Kong legislative election
  • Hong Kong citizens vote for the members of the Legislative Council. (Reuters)

Sports

• 2025 FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup
  • In futsal, Brazil wins the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup after defeating Portugal 3–0 in the final held in Metro Manila, Philippines. Emilly is awarded the tournament’s Golden Ball. (GMA News)
• 2025 Formula One World Championship
  • In auto racing, McLaren’s Lando Norris wins his first Formula One World Drivers’ Championship after outscoring the defending champion, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, by two points at the end of the season’s final race in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (BBC)

2025 December 06

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2025 Afghanistan–Pakistan conflict
  • Five civilians are killed and eight more are injured in a shootout between Pakistani soldiers and Afghan soldiers at the border. (AP)
• Terrorism in Mexico
  • At least five people are killed and 12 others are injured in a suspected car bombing terrorist attack when a vehicle explodes outside of a police station in Coahuayana, Michoacán, Mexico. (BNO News)
• Colombian conflict
  • At least thirteen people are injured in a motorcycle bombing at a café near a police station in Balboa, Cauca Department, Colombia. (Blu Radio in Spanish) (Infobae in Spanish)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Two Palestinians are killed and a soldier is injured when Israel Defense Forces soldiers open fire on a car speeding toward troops in Hebron, West Bank. (The Times of Israel)

Business and economy

• 2025 IndiGo disruption
  • The Indian civil aviation ministry caps domestic airfares following widespread IndiGo cancellations caused by pilot shortages and operational failures, setting a maximum one-way price of ₹7,500 (US$83.38) for routes up to 500 km (310 mi). (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Arpora nightclub fire
  • Twenty-five people are killed, including 21 workers and four tourists, and approximately 50 others are injured in an explosion and fire at a nightclub in Arpora, Goa, India. (NDTV) (DW)
• At least 18 people are killed and two others are critically injured when a dinghy carrying migrants sinks off Crete, Greece. (Greek Reporter)

International relations

• International sanctions against Afghanistan
  • Australia imposes economic sanctions and travel bans on four Afghan government officials over their involvement in human rights violations, particularly the Taliban’s treatment of women. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• 2025 Saulsville shooting
  • Twelve people are killed, including three children, and 13 others are injured in a mass shooting at an unlicensed bar in Saulsville, Gauteng, South Africa. (AP)
• Four protesters from Take Back Power are arrested after they threw custard on a display case containing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London in England. (DW)

Sports

• MLS Cup 2025
  • In soccer, Inter Miami defeats the Vancouver Whitecaps 3–1 to win its first MLS Cup title. (USA Today)

2025 December 05

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Afghanistan–Pakistan clashes
  • Afghanistan–Pakistan border skirmishes
    • The Afghan military and Pakistani military exchange fire along their border, with Pakistani artillery targeting several Taliban outposts in the Helmand, Kandahar, and Zabul provinces. Both sides accuse the other of instigating the clashes. (Reuters) (WTOP News)
• Sudanese civil war
  • War crimes during the Sudanese civil war
    • Fifty people are killed, including 33 children, after the Rapid Support Forces strike a kindergarten in South Kordofan, Sudan. (AP)
• Colombian conflict
  • Colombia and the Clan del Golfo agree in Doha, Qatar, that the group’s combatants will begin assembling in three designated zones in Chocó and Córdoba starting March 1, with arrest and extradition orders suspended during the process. Colombia also designates additional municipalities for pilot peace programs as part of broader negotiations aimed at reducing violence. (Reuters)
• Myanmar civil war
  • The Tatmadaw conducts an airstrike on a tea shop in Sagaing, Myanmar, killing 18 civilians and wounding 20 more. (AP)

Business and economy

• Proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. by Netflix
  • Netflix, Inc. agrees to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for US$72 billion in one of the largest takeovers in entertainment industry history. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• A car strikes pedestrians during Christmas festivity preparations in Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe, France, injuring 19 people, including seven children. (Le Monde)

International relations

• Canada–Syria relations, Terrorism in Canada
  • Canada removes Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham from its list of terrorist entities following a review of the Syrian transitional government. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Epstein files
  • United States federal judge Rodney Smith orders the release of grand jury records from the 2006–2007 investigations into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, ruling that the recently enacted Epstein Files Transparency Act supersedes federal grand jury secrecy rules. (The Guardian)
• Flood control projects scandal in the Philippines
  • Philippine president Bongbong Marcos orders the interior department and the national police to pursue contractor Sarah Discaya and others accused of involvement in a ghost project in Davao Occidental. (Rappler)
• The European Union fines social media platform X €120 million (US$140 million) for breaching the Digital Services Act. (DW)

Politics and elections

• Conscription in Germany
  • The German Bundestag approves a government plan to expand military recruitment through mandatory questionnaires and medical screenings for young men while keeping conscription suspended. (Reuters)
• Pensions in Germany
  • The Bundestag approves a pensions bill that maintains pension levels until 2031 and introduces higher tax-free earnings for retirees. (Reuters)

2025 December 04

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • 2025 Rafah ambush
    • Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of the Israeli-backed and anti-Hamas Popular Forces, is fatally shot in Rafah, Gaza, by unidentified gunmen. (Middle East Eye)
• Yemeni civil war
  • 2025 Hadhramaut offensive
    • The Southern Transitional Council announces the capture of the al-Mahrah Governorate from the Yemeni government forces. (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed)
• War on drugs
  • 2025 United States military strikes on alleged drug traffickers
    • The United States Navy strikes a boat in the Pacific Ocean alleged to have been carrying illegal narcotics, killing four people onboard the vessel, according to the United States Southern Command. (The Guardian)
• Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict
  • Presidents Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda formally sign a peace agreement in Washington, D.C., hosted by U.S. president Donald Trump. (Newsweek)

Arts and culture

• Eurovision Song Contest 2026
  • Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, and the Netherlands announce they will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest after the European Broadcasting Union confirmed Israel’s participation. (BBC News)
• Pantone names “Cloud Dancer”, a shade of white, as its Color of the Year. (CNN)

International relations

• Russia–United Kingdom relations
  • Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
    • The United Kingdom imposes sanctions against Russia’s GRU and several military intelligence officers after a public inquiry concludes that Russian operatives carried out the 2018 Novichok attack in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, under orders from President Vladimir Putin. The UK also summons Russian ambassador Andrey Kelin. (Reuters)
• Kenya–United States relations
  • The United States signs a five-year agreement to provide over $1.6 billion to Kenya’s health system under its new global health strategy, with Kenya committing to increase domestic health spending by US$850 million. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Human trafficking in Spain
  • Spanish police arrest eleven people linked to a criminal network that smuggled over 300 workers into the country on tourist visas, mostly from Nepal, and placed them on farms. (AP)
• Planning of the January 6 United States Capitol attack
  • A 30-year-old man is arrested and charged with transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials after planting pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic parties’ headquarters in Washington, D.C., United States, a day before the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack in 2021. (NBC News)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Texas redistricting
  • The U.S. Supreme Court permits Texas to use its redrawn congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections, staying a lower court ruling that found the plan relied on racial considerations. (AFP via France 24)
• Abortion in Denmark
  • The Faroe Islands Løgting votes 17–16 to legalize abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. (AFP via NAMPA)
• Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif confirms Asim Munir to a five-year term as the country’s first Chief of the Armed Forces. (AP)

2025 December 03

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Yemeni crisis
  • Red Sea crisis
    • Attacks on the Eternity C
      • The Houthis release eleven seamen from the Eternity C carrier. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
  • Yemeni civil war
    • 2025 Hadhramaut offensive
      • The Southern Transitional Council seizes swathes of territory from the government of Yemen in Hadhramaut Governorate, including Seiyun. (The New York Times)
• Gaza war
  • Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip
    • Israel says it will reopen the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, allowing Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip. (BBC News) (PBS)
  • Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip
    • Five Palestinians, including two children, are killed by Israeli drone strikes near Khan Younis. (Al Jazeera)
  • The Israeli army says four of its soldiers were wounded in a Hamas attack in Rafah. (The Times of Israel)

Disasters and accidents

• Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
  • Malaysia announces that the search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will resume on December 30, with Ocean Infinity conducting a 55-day underwater search in a targeted area of the southern Indian Ocean under its existing “no-find, no-fee” agreement with the government. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Gaza war
  • Gaza peace plan
    • The Israeli Knesset votes 39–0 to endorse the 20-point Gaza peace plan, in a vote boycotted by the member parties of the Netanyahu government. (CNN)

2025 December 02

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Gaza hostage crisis
    • Hamas returns the remains of an unidentified person, possibly a hostage, to Israeli authorities to be examined by forensics experts. (PBS)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • 2025 Bannu ambush
    • A government administrator, two of his guards and a passerby are killed in an ambush against a vehicle in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (AP)

Arts and culture

• The Winter Egg, one of the few Fabergé eggs remaining in private hands, sells at Christie’s in London, England, United Kingdom, for £22.9 million (US$30.2 million), setting a new auction record for a work by the House of Fabergé. (CNN)

International relations

• Indonesia–Netherlands relations
  • Indonesia and the Netherlands agree to repatriate two elderly Dutch nationals convicted of drug trafficking, including one on death row, on humanitarian grounds, following a request from Dutch king Willem-Alexander. (Reuters)
• United States–Venezuela relations, Deportation in the second Trump administration
  • Venezuela approves the United States’s request to resume deportation flights, reversing a brief suspension imposed following U.S. president Donald Trump’s declaration that Venezuelan airspace was “closed”. (AFP via Al Arabiya)

Law and crime

• 2025 Samaritan’s Purse Cessna 208 hijacking
  • A Cessna 208 Caravan operated by Samaritan’s Purse to distribute humanitarian aid to Maiwut County is hijacked in Juba by a gunman who tried to divert the plane to Chad, but is apprehended after landing to refuel in Wau, South Sudan. (AP)
• Colombian authorities detain 17 children and nine adults belonging to the fundamentalist Jewish cult Lev Tahor, citing concerns about the safety of the children in the group. Five of the children had American and Guatemalan passports, and all 26 members were flown to New York to await investigations into their welfare. (AP)
• Former European Union foreign and security policy chief Federica Mogherini and two others are arrested in Belgium amid a fraud investigation. (The Guardian)
• Tunisian police arrest former human rights minister Ayachi Hammami to enforce a five-year prison sentence for a state-security conspiracy conviction issued amid recent appellate court rulings that imposed long jail terms on opposition figures. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Guinea-Bissau coup d’état, 2025 Guinea-Bissau general election
  • The Bissau-Guinean electoral commission announces that it is unable to release election results after armed men destroyed nearly all election tally sheets during the coup. (AFP via France 24)
• 2025 Saint Lucian general election
  • Incumbent Saint Lucian prime minister Philip J. Pierre wins a second term in office while his party, the Saint Lucia Labour Party, wins 14 of the 15 seats in Parliament against the opposition United Workers Party. (AP)
• 2026 Haitian general election
  • The Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti announces that presidential and legislative elections will be held in August 2026. (AFP via France 24)
• The Bulgarian parliament withdraws its draft 2026 budget, originally prepared for the adoption of the euro, following nationwide protests against proposed tax increases. (Reuters)
• Nigerian president Bola Tinubu appoints retired army general Christopher Gwabin Musa as defence minister, following Mohammed Badaru Abubakar’s resignation amid a nationwide security emergency. (AFP via The Africa Report)

2025 December 01

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Dnipro strikes
    • Four people are killed and at least 40 others are injured in a Russian Iskander missile strike on Dnipro, Ukraine. (Reuters)
  • Pokrovsk offensive
    • Russia says its forces have captured Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, after months of heavy fighting. (DW)
• Sudanese civil war
  • Siege of Babanusa
    • The Rapid Support Forces say that they have captured Babanusa, the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces in West Kordofan, Sudan. (Sudan Tribune)
• Haitian conflict
  • Haitian gangs launch a large-scale attack on the Ouest and Artibonite departments, causing hundreds of people to flee. Police say the gangs now control 50% of Artibonite, including the town of Pont-Sondé. (AP)
• Tajikistan reinforces its border with Afghanistan, as the Tajik government says that the drone strikes which killed two Tajik and three Chinese citizens over the past week originated from its neighbour. (Anewz)

Arts and culture

• Ragebait is named word of the year by the Oxford University Press. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
  • Cyclone Senyar
    • The toll from the floods in Indonesia increases to 604 people killed and 464 more missing. (Al Jazeera)
  • Cyclone Ditwah
    • The toll from the floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in Sri Lanka increases to 366 people killed and about 400 more missing. (Al Jazeera)
• A landslide strikes two boats docked at a river port in Ucayali, Peru, killing at least twelve people and leaving around 50 others missing. (BBC News)

Health and environment

• 2025 Kasaï Province Ebola outbreak
  • The Democratic Republic of the Congo declares that the Ebola outbreak in the country since August, which resulted in 53 confirmed cases, 43 deaths, and 11 probable cases, has ended. (AP)
• Cuba reports 33 deaths from dengue and chikungunya amid a widespread mosquito-borne disease outbreak, with health officials reporting thousands of new cases. (Reuters)
• Spain deploys 400 Mossos d’Esquadra and 117 Military Emergencies Unit members to contain the spread of the African swine fever virus in Catalonia after two dead wild boars tested positive for the virus. (Reuters)

International relations

• 2025 Guinea-Bissau coup d’état, Foreign relations of Nigeria
  • Nigeria grants asylum to Guinea-Bissau opposition leader and presidential candidate Fernando Dias da Costa at its embassy in Bissau to protect Dias from detention by the military junta. (AFP via Barron’s)
• Canada–European Union relations
  • Canada agrees to join the European Union’s Security Action for Europe initiative, which will allow Canadian defense firms greater access to EU markets and encourage European defense investment in Canada. (Reuters)
• China–Spain relations
  • China permits Spain to resume pork exports from regions unaffected by African swine fever following a trade prohibition imposed on November 28. (Reuters)
• Dominican Republic–United States relations, 2025 United States naval deployment in the Caribbean
  • The Dominican Republic announces that its temporary agreement permitting United States military personnel to use restricted areas at Las Américas International Airport and the San Isidro Air Base for logistical counter-narcotics operations remains in effect until April 2026. (Reuters)
• Honduras–United States relations
  • Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández is released from a prison in Preston County, West Virginia, after U.S. president Donald Trump pardoned Hernández from his conviction of aiding large-scale cocaine trafficking. (AFP via France 24)
• Thailand–Vietnam relations
  • Thailand extradites Vietnamese citizen Y Quynh Bđăp, who founded a human rights organization for ethnic minorities, amid concerns from human rights groups. (AP)

Law and crime

• 2025 Cameroonian presidential election, 2025 Cameroonian protests
  • Anicet Ekane, a 74-year-old opposition politician and leader of the MANIDEM party, dies in custody after being arrested a month ago during a crackdown in Cameroon. (AP)
• International Criminal Court investigation in Libya
  • A senior official of the RADA Special Deterrence Forces is transferred from Germany to The Hague, Netherlands, and placed in International Criminal Court custody for alleged war crimes while serving a senior role at a Libyan prison. (Reuters)
• Trial of Sheikh Hasina
  • A Bangladeshi court sentences former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and British MP Tulip Siddiq to five years and two years in prison, respectively, for corruption involving a government land project. (AP)
• Wang Fuk Court fire
  • Hong Kong police arrest thirteen people on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the fire, while officials report that some scaffolding netting at the site failed to meet required fire-resistance standards. (AFP via New Strait Times)

Politics and elections

• 2024–2025 Georgian protests, 2024–2025 Georgian political crisis
  • Use of camite during the 2024–2025 Georgian protests
    • BBC World Service says that the Georgian police used water cannons laced with the chemical agent camite against protesters in Tbilisi in 2024. The ruling Georgian Dream party denies the accusation, threatening to sue the BBC in an international court. (BBC News)
• 2025 Honduran general election
  • The Honduran National Electoral Council reports that presidential candidates Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla remain separated by about 500 votes in the preliminary count, which it describes as a technical tie, and announces that a manual count will begin. (AFP via South China Morning Post)
• 2025 Saint Lucian general election
  • The incumbent Saint Lucia Labour Party government, led by Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre, is projected to maintain a supermajority in the House of Assembly. (Associates Times)
• Kidnapping in Nigeria, Religious violence in Nigeria
  • Nigerian defence minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar resigns amid President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a nationwide security emergency. (AFP via RFI)
• Tens of thousands of people gather across Bulgaria to protest against government corruption and the proposed 2026 budget and calls for members of prime minister Rosen Zhelyazkov’s cabinet to resign. (DW)

Science and technology

• Mass surveillance in India
  • India’s Ministry of Communications orders smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Sanchar Saathi, a government-run cybersecurity app on all new devices within 90 days and to push the app onto older models through a software update. The ministry says the app is essential in “curbing misuse of telecom resources for cyber frauds and ensuring telecom cyber security”. (AP)
• Nuclear power in Malaysia
  • Malaysia enacts amendments to its nuclear law that require permits for all atomic-energy activities, including the import, export, transshipment, and transit of radioactive and nuclear materials. The updated framework introduces stricter oversight and penalties, including the possibility of the death penalty. (Reuters)

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