Portal:Current events/2024 July 16

July 16, 2024 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israel–Hamas war
- Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
  - At least 57 Palestinians are killed by Israeli bombardments in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah. (Reuters)
2024 Iran–Israel conflict, Israel–Hezbollah conflict
- Two people injured in an IDF drone attack in southern Lebanon.(Al Jazeera)
2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement
- Six people are killed during clashes in Bangladesh as opposition demonstrators protesting government job quotas, which benefit pro-government families, clashes with police and pro-government supporters. (Al Jazeera)
2024 Muscat mosque shooting
- The Islamic State claims responsibility for the prior day's mass shooting at a Shi'ite mosque in Muscat, Oman. This is the first attack carried out by the Islamic State in the country. (BBC)
Hezbollah–Israel conflict
- Three Syrian children are killed by an Israeli airstrike on the village of Umm al-Tut in southern Lebanon, while two others are killed during a strike on the Kfar Tebnit-Khardali road. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

At least 25 people are killed and 17 others are injured when a bus veers off a cliff and crashes in Ayacucho Region, Peru. (Reuters)
Heavy rainfall across the Midwestern United States causes a dam failure in Washington County, Illinois, prompting an immediate evacuation order in the nearby city of Nashville. (USA Today)
A malfunction causes an emergency shutdown of one of the four reactors at the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant in Rostov Oblast, Russia. Background radiation levels are reported as normal. (Reuters)

Health and environment

2024 European heatwaves
- Ukrainian state electrical grid operator Ukrenergo begins emergency power shutdowns in seven eastern and central oblasts amid a record heat wave and equipment failures worsened by ongoing Russian attacks. (Reuters)
Romania approves the culling of 481 bears in the country, after a 19-year-old woman was killed by a bear last week in the Carpathian Mountains. (Al Jazeera)

International relations

Czech Republic–Ukraine relations
- The Czech Republic announces plans to facilitate Colt CZ Group assault rifle production and the construction of an ammunition factory in Ukraine. (RFE/RL)
Estonia–Russia relations, Latvia–Russia relations, Lithuania–Russia relations
- The Baltic states announce their exit from Russia's and Belarus's electricity grid along with plans to synchronize their grid with the continental Europe grid on February 9, 2025. (AP)

Law and crime

Israel–Hamas war
- 2023 Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip
  - An investigation by the Associated Press and Israeli investigative organization Shomrim finds that the United States and Israel allowed tax-deductible donations totaling over US$200,000 to multiple Israeli far-right extremist groups involved in blocking and disrupting humanitarian aid delivery to the Gaza Strip. (AP)
Kosovo War
- War crimes in the Kosovo War
  - The Kosovo Specialist Chambers criminal tribunal sentences former Liberation Army member Pjetër Shala to 18 years in prison for war crimes committed during the war. (Al Jazeera) (Koha Ditore)
2024 Bangkok hotel cyanide poisoning
- Six Vietnamese and American people are found dead at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, in a suspected cyanide poisoning incident. (AP)
American senator Bob Menendez is found guilty on all counts, including acting as a foreign agent, in a federal corruption trial. (ABC News)
Former governor of Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria, and director of the Adra Prison Samir Ousman al-Sheikh is arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles, California, United States. Al-Sheikh has been accused of torturing and killing political dissidents while serving as prison director and governor. (The New York Times)
German authorities in four states search the properties of management and shareholders of the right-wing extremist magazine Compact, seizing assets and evidence after the magazine was banned by the interior ministry. (Reuters)
Police in Paraguay seize more than four tons of cocaine, worth $240 million, at a river port in Asunción, the largest cocaine seizure in the country's history. (AP)
Chinese businessman Guo Wengui is found guilty by a U.S. jury on multiple fraud charges, accused of running a racketeering enterprise from 2018 to 2023 that defrauded thousands of investors out of over $1 billion. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

2024 French legislative election
- French President Emmanuel Macron approves the resignation request of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who will continue to serve as head of the transitional caretaker government. (AP)
2024 Welsh government crisis
- Six weeks after losing a vote of no confidence in the Senedd, Vaughan Gething resigns as First Minister of Wales. (The Guardian)
Kenya Finance Bill protests
- Police fire tear gas and water cannons at anti-government protestors as demonstrations continue in cities across Kenya, calling for the removal of President William Ruto. (Al Jazeera)
Roberta Metsola is re-elected as President of the European Parliament with the highest number of votes ever registered for a candidate in the history of the European Parliament. (Times of Malta)