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2025 March 18

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Middle Eastern crisis
  • Gaza war
    • Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip
      • March 2025 Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip
        • The Israeli military conducts airstrikes and artillery shelling across several regions of the Gaza Strip, killing at least 404 Palestinians and wounding 560 more. The shellings represent the largest attack of the Gaza war since the beginning of a ceasefire which came into effect on 19 January. (AP) (Al Jazeera)
  • Red Sea crisis
    • The Israeli military intercepts a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis from Yemen at the Nevatim Airbase in southern Israel. (Middle East Monitor) (Times of Israel)
• Russo-Ukrainian War
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that the Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted to launch an offensive on Belgorod Oblast with five assaults before being stopped by Russian forces, characterizing the alleged attacks as an attempt to discredit U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace negotiations. (The Kyiv Independent)
• Somali Civil War
  • Attempted assassination of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
    • At least ten people are killed and 20 others are injured in an assassination attempt by Al-Shabaab militants targeting Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud near Villa Somalia on the road to Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia. (Idil News)

International relations

• February 2025 Putin–Trump call
  • U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agree to an immediate energy infrastructure ceasefire in Ukraine during a phone call, with additional negotiations to begin immediately on a permanent settlement of the conflict. Putin stated that the end of all foreign military and intelligence support to Ukraine would be one condition of such a settlement. (ABC News)

Law and crime

• 2025 Nagpur violence
  • A curfew is imposed in parts of Nagpur in Maharashtra, India, after Hindu groups demanded the removal of the tomb of Aurangzeb, a 17th-century Mughal emperor, sparking violence. (BBC News)
• The Peruvian government declares a state of emergency in the capital city Lima and deploys military personnel to make patrols to combat increased violent crime rates. (AP)

Politics and elections

• LGBTQ rights in Hungary
  • The Hungarian parliament votes 136–27 to ban LGBTQ events in the country, including the annual Budapest Pride event. (DW)

Science and technology

• Boeing Crew Flight Test, SpaceX Crew-9
  • Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon 2 capsule after nine months on the International Space Station (ISS). The astronauts were originally supposed to be aboard the ISS for eight days but their return was delayed due to technical problems with their Boeing Starliner Calypso capsule. (BBC News)

2025 March 17

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • Two massacres of Alawite Syrians kill fifty-seven people. The number of civilians reportedly killed in coastal Syria primarily by sectarian executions from Syrian government-associated forces since March 6 increases to 1,557. (SOHR)
  • Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian civil war, Hezbollah–Syria relations
    • Hezbollah–Syria clashes, Lebanon–Syria border clashes
      • According to Syria’s state media, clashes occur at the Lebanon–Syria border, after the Syrian transitional government accused Hezbollah militants of kidnapping three soldiers into Lebanon and subsequently killing them. (AP)
• Kivu conflict
  • M23 campaign
    • The M23 rebels announce they will withdraw from peace talks that was due to occur with the Congolese government tomorrow due to sanctions imposed on the group by the European Union earlier today. (DW)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • A drone strike in Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, injures one person and causes a fire at an energy facility, according to Astrakhan Oblast governor Igor Babushkin. (Reuters)
• Terrorism in Lithuania, Russian hybrid warfare
  • Lithuanian prosecutors accuse Russia’s military intelligence of orchestrating an arson attack on an IKEA store in Vilnius in May of last year. (Reuters)
• March 2025 United States attacks in Yemen
  • The U.S. launches airstrikes on targets in Al Hudaydah and the Al Jawf Governorate. Tens of thousands of people attend a rally against the U.S. attacks on Yemen in the capital city Sanaa. (Euronews) (France24)

Business and economy

• German economic crisis
  • German automaker Audi announces it will cut 7,500 jobs in the country due to slowing electric vehicle demand. (DW)

Disasters and accidents

• Aerolínea Lanhsa Flight 018
  • Thirteen people, including popular Garifuna musician Aurelio Martínez, are killed and five others are rescued when an Aerolínea Lanhsa Jetstream 41 crashes into the Caribbean Sea shortly after takeoff from Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport in Roatán, Bay Islands Department, Honduras. (South China Morning Post)
• Three people are killed when an Extra EA-400 plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Samedan Airport near La Punt Chamues-ch, Grisons, Switzerland. (The Times of India)
• Seven migrant bodies are recovered after a boat capsizes off the coast of Cyprus. (Reuters)
• A tourist dies on the stairs of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, causing a temporary closure of the monument. (O Globo)

International relations

• Belgium–Rwanda relations, Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict, M23 campaign
  • Rwanda expels the Belgian ambassador after Belgium accused Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels in their campaign in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Belgium expels the Rwandan ambassador in return. The two countries sever diplomatic relations with one another, with Rwanda accusing Belgium of sustaining neocolonialism. (DW) (BBC News)
• Syria–European Union relations, Germany–Syria relations, Syria–United Kingdom relations
  • Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas vows for the European Union to lift sanctions against Syria to restore diplomatic ties between them, acknowledging the present massacres of Alawite civilians as showing Syria’s need for stability. Germany pledges €300 million in aid towards stabilizing Syria and its humanitarian situation. (Politico) (The New Arab)
  • The European Union pledges €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) to Syria for aid, while the United Kingdom pledges an additional £160 million (€190.3 million). (DW)

Politics and elections

• A court in Georgia sentences former president Mikheil Saakashvili to four and a half years in prison for illegally entering the country in 2021. (BBC News)

2025 March 16

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Red Sea crisis
  • March 2025 United States attacks in Yemen
    • The Houthi health ministry announces that the death toll from yesterday’s strikes by the U.S. in Yemen rose to 53, with 98 injured. (BBC)
  • The Houthis claim that they targeted USS Harry S. Truman with 18 rockets and drones. No damage has been reported. (Al Jazeera Arabic)
• Insurgency in Balochistan
  • Eleven people are killed and 21 more are injured in a suicide bombing targeting a Frontier Corps convoy on a highway in Nushki, Balochistan, Pakistan. The Balochistan Liberation Army claims responsibility, claiming they killed 90 security personnel. (India Today) (WION)

Disasters and accidents

• Kočani nightclub fire
  • At least 59 people are killed and more than 152 others are injured after a fire breaks out in a nightclub during a concert in Kočani, North Macedonia. (Al Jazeera)
• Tornado outbreak of March 13–16, 2025
  • The death toll from the tornadoes across several states in the U.S. increases to 40. (ABC News)
• At least 16 people are killed and 18 others are injured when an unexploded ordnance from the Syrian civil war explodes and causes a building to collapse in Latakia, Latakia Governorate, Syria. (AP) (DW)
• The Wilhelmina Tower in Valkenburg, Netherlands, built in 1906 and designated a Rijksmonument, collapses. (NOS)

Politics and elections

• United States President Donald Trump signs an executive order shutting down multiple state-funded broadcasters, including Voice of America, Radio y Televisión Martí and Alhurra, and ceasing grants to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. (ABC News Australia) (Reuters)

2025 March 15

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip, Killing of journalists in the Gaza war
    • Israeli airstrikes kill at least nine Palestinians, including several journalists, and injures several others in Beit Lahia, North Gaza Governorate, Gaza. (UPI)
  • Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, Gaza Strip famine
    • UNICEF reports that 1 in 3 children in North Gaza are malnourished due to the Israeli blockade stopping all humanitarian aid, describing the situation as “catastrophic”. (Al Jazeera)
• Red Sea crisis
  • March 2025 United States attacks in Yemen
    • U.S. President Donald Trump orders a series of airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, killing at least 31 people and wounding 101 more. U.S. Central Command announces that the strikes are the beginning of a large-scale operation in Yemen. (AP) (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
• Insurgency in Balochistan
  • A police officer is killed and six others are injured when an improvised explosive device strikes an Anti-Terrorism Force vehicle on patrol in Kirani, Balochistan, Pakistan. (Asian News International)
• Myanmar civil war
  • At least 27 people are killed and 30 others are injured in an airstrike by the Tatmadaw in Let Pan Hla near Mandalay, Myanmar. (CTV News)
• Sudanese civil war
  • The bodies of eleven people, including women and children, are discovered at the bottom of a well in Khartoum, Sudan. The Sudanese government accuses the Rapid Support Forces of being behind the deaths. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Sino-Metals Leach Zambia dam disaster
  • Environmental investigators determine that the February 2025 failure of a tailings dam owned by a Chinese copper mining company dumped 50 million liters of highly toxic waste into the Kafue River basin, killing ecosystems up to 100 km (62 mi) downstream and impacting the water supply, fishing activities, and irrigation of 60% of Zambia’s population. (The Independent)
• Dao Khanong Expressway Bridge collapse
  • Seven people are killed, sixteen others are injured, and at least thirty people are missing after an elevated section under construction of the Dao Khanong Expressway Bridge [th] collapses onto a section of the Chaloem Maha Nakhon Expressway in Bangkok, Thailand. (The Star)
• Tornado outbreak of March 13–16, 2025
  • The death toll from the tornado outbreak in the United States rises to 34 people. (ABC News)

International relations

• American expansionism under Donald Trump, Proposed United States acquisition of Greenland
  • Hundreds of people attend a protest outside the U.S. Consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, in opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposals of acquiring Greenland for the United States. (DW)
• Thailand–United States relations, Persecution of Uyghurs in China
  • United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces visa restrictions on former and current Thai officials who were involved in deporting of at least 40 Uyghur men who were seeking asylum back to China, despite concerns that they could face persecution. (Nikkei Asia)

Law and crime

• March 2025 Venezuelan deportations
  • U.S. President Donald Trump says Tren de Aragua is “conducting irregular warfare” against the US and orders its members to be deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Following a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocks this order. (BBC)
  • The Trump administration deports more than 200 alleged members of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 to El Salvador where they are transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center. (NPR)

Politics and elections

• 2024–present Serbian anti-corruption protests
  • A large crowd of people gathers on the streets of Belgrade, Serbia to protest against President Aleksandar Vučić and the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. The Ministry of Internal Affairs estimated the number of protestors at 107,000, although the independent media give a much higher number. The protest is said to be the largest at least since the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000. (DW)
• Indonesian lawmakers meet at a Central Jakarta luxury hotel instead of the legislature amidst budget cuts, allegedly to secretly discuss on military law revisions that would bring back dwifungsi, a doctrine allowing military personnel to hold civilian positions. Civil activists try to stop the meeting but are hindered by hotel security. (Kompas) (TEMPO)

2025 March 14

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • 2025 Gaza war ceasefire
    • Hamas says that it has agreed to resume ceasefire talks and release American Israeli hostage Edan Alexander following a proposal from U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. (The Hill)
• War against the Islamic State
  • Islamic State insurgency in Iraq
    • Iraq announces that the deputy head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, was killed in the Al Anbar Governorate during a joint operation between Iraqi security forces and the United States. (Reuters) (AP)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • Four people, including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam district chief Maulana Abdullah Nadeem, are injured in a bombing at the Maulana Abdul Aziz Mosque mosque in South Waziristan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (Indian Express)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024–2025 Cuba blackouts
  • A failure at a central power plant cuts electricity in Cuba, leaving over ten million people without power. (CNN)
• 2025 Oklahoma wildfires
  • Severe winds and dry conditions in the U.S. states of Oklahoma and Texas cause a series of wildfires, forcing evacuations and leaving thousands without power. (The New York Times)
• Tornado outbreak of March 14, 2025
  • Three people are indirectly killed by storms as a regional risk for an outbreak of severe weather is outlined by the Storm Prediction Center over much of the United States. A rare high risk convective outlook is issued for tomorrow over the Deep South. (Storm Prediction Center)
• At least two people are killed and one other is injured in a landslide at a salt mine in Karak District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (Aaj News)

International relations

• South Africa–European Union relations
  • European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announces that the European Union will invest €4.7 billion (US$5 billion) in aid and development projects in South Africa after the United States ended most of its USAID programs. (DW) (Reuters)
• South Africa–United States relations
  • U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declares South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool persona non grata for his criticism of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. (Al Jazeera)
• Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • U.S. President Donald Trump publicly asks Russian President Vladimir Putin to spare the lives of “thousands of Ukrainian soldiers” said to be surrounded in Kursk Oblast. (ABC News)

Law and crime

• Huawei lobbyists are banned from entering the European Parliament and its subsidiaries during an investigation on corruption in the European Parliament. (Euronews)
• The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration permanently restricts helicopter activity over the Helicopter Route near the site of the Potomac River mid-air collision. (AP)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election
  • Mark Carney is sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Canada. (CBC News)

Science and technology

• March 2025 lunar eclipse
  • A total lunar eclipse occurs in the morning hours across the Western Hemisphere at night. (Space.com) (EclipseWise)

2025 March 13

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • Spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community Hikmat al-Hajari rejects any deal with the new Ahmed al-Sharaa-headed transitional government, accusing it of being “extremist in every sense of the word” and refusing to “recognize a terrorist” in reference to the concurrent sectarian massacres of Syrian Alawites. (Rudaw) (The Jerusalem Post)
• War against the Islamic State
  • Puntland counter-terrorism operations
    • Islamic State insurgency in Puntland
      • Puntland forces claim to have killed a senior foreign ISIL commander responsible for orchestrating drone attacks using explosive-laden unmanned aerial vehicles in the Lugta-Huraanhur and Togga Raq-Raq valleys of the Cal Miskaad Mountains in Puntland’s Bari Region. (Garowe Online) (Hiiraan Online)
• Gaza war
  • Palestinian genocide accusation, Gaza genocide
    • The United Nations Human Rights Council accuses Israel of committing genocidal acts and other war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, including committing gender-based violence and sexual assault against prisoners and the systematic destruction of healthcare systems in the region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismisses the reports and accusations, calling them biased and “antisemitic”. (DW) (Reuters)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia–United States relations
    • Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the U.S. proposal for the ceasefire in Ukraine would depend on Russia’s conditions being met, and that there will be further discussions. (Euronews) (Politico)

Business and economy

• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces that NHS England will be abolished in a drive to reduce bureaucracy and bring National Health Service management back under “democratic control”. The move is expected to result in around 6,500 job losses. (BBC News)
• Qatar begins supplying natural gas to Syria via Jordan to increase production at the Deir Ali power plant in Rif Dimashq Governorate, which will provide electricity to Damascus and other major cities. (Al Jazeera)

International relations

• American expansionism under Donald Trump
  • Panama–United States relations
    • The Trump administration reportedly orders the U.S. military to plan options to expand the presence of American troops in Panama and potentially try to reclaim the Panama Canal. (NBC News)
  • Proposed United States acquisition of Greenland
    • During a meeting at the White House with Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte, U.S. President Donald Trump refuses to rule out the U.S. annexation of Greenland when questioned. (Sky News)
• Armenia–Azerbaijan relations
  • Armenia and Azerbaijan agree on a peace treaty to formally end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and establish a mutually-agreed border between both countries. (Reuters)
• Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan relations
  • Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon sign a deal to formally end the border dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Railways, roads, and air transport resumes between both countries. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• 2025 United States federal mass layoffs
  • U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California orders the U.S. departments of agriculture, energy, interior, veterans affairs, and the Treasury to reinstate probationary workers who were fired by the Office of Personnel Management. (Reuters)
• Corruption in Belgium
  • Federal Police searches Huawei’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on suspicion of bribery. (Euronews)

Politics and elections

• Union State
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that Russian citizens permanently residing in Belarus will be able to vote and run in local elections in Belarus, and that Belarusian citizens permanently residing in Russia will be able to vote and run in local elections in Russia. (Belsat)

2025 March 12

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali Civil War
  • 2025 Shabelle offensive
    • 2025 Beledweyne hotel attack
      • Somali security forces end the 24-hour siege at a hotel in Beledweyne, Hiran, Somalia, with at least fifteen civilians and all six Al-Shabaab attackers killed. (BBC News) (AP)
      • Following the attack, over 100 Somali parliament members urge President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to resign, citing leadership failures amid worsening security and governance crises. (Idil News) (Garowe Online)
• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documents three further reprisal massacres of Alawite minority communities on 12 March in which 158 civilians were killed, totaling 1,383 civilian deaths as a result of fifty separate massacres conducted in western Syria since March 6. (Barron’s)
• Insurgency in Balochistan
  • 2025 Jaffar Express hijacking
    • Security forces rescue all surviving passengers and security personnel from yesterday’s hijacking of the Jaffar Express passenger train in Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). Officials confirm the deaths of all 33 BLA militants, as well as 29 passengers, and 8 soldiers. (News 24) (Al Jazeera)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Kursk offensive
    • Russian troops, backed by close air support, enter the town of Sudzha in Kursk Oblast, ending seven months of Ukrainian occupation. (MSN) (Reuters)
    • Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov says that remaining Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast are entirely surrounded. (Proto Thema)[unreliable source?]

Business and economy

• 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico, Canada–United States relations
  • Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc announces retaliatory tariffs on CAD$29.8 billion (US$20.7 billion) of goods from the United States after U.S. president Donald Trump announced additional tariffs on Canadian metals. (DW)

International relations

• Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict
  • Angola confirms that peace talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Rwandan-backed March 23 Movement will begin on 18 March, after the DRC previously insisted on solely negotiating with Rwanda. (DW)
• Iran–United States relations
  • Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei rejects negotiations with the U.S. regarding Iran’s nuclear program, stating that Iran is “not interested in nuclear weapons”. (BBC News)
• Red Sea crisis
  • The Houthi movement in Yemen announces it will resume targeting Israeli ships because its deadline for Israel to resume aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip has passed. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• The City Court in Tbilisi, Georgia, convicts former president Mikheil Saakashvili of embezzlement and sentences him to nine years in prison. The court also fines the former head of the Special State Protection Service, Teimuraz Janashia, ₾300,000 (€99,936) in connection to the case. (DW)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Belizean general election
  • Belizeans vote to elect the 31 members of the House of Representatives between the incumbent People’s United Party and the opposition United Democratic Party. The ruling party is re-elected by 26 seats to 5. (Breaking Belize News) (Jamaica Observer)
• The Syrian presidential office announces the creation of the National Security Council as a means of confronting national and internal security problems. (Reuters)
• 2025 Swiss Federal Council election
  • Following the resignation of Swiss Defense Minister Viola Amherd, the Federal Assembly votes to elect the new member of the Federal Council. Martin Pfister is elected as the head of the defense ministry. (Reuters) (Radio SRF)

Sports

• 2024–25 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
  • Norwegian ski jumpers Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang are suspended by FIS and will not participate in Raw Air due to an ongoing investigation involving the manipulation of ski equipment. (Reuters)

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