Portal:Current events

Topics in the news

Harald V in May 2026

King Harald V of Norway (pictured) dies at the age of 89 and is succeeded by Haakon VIII.
Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama dies at the age of 97.
Bosnian Serb military officer and convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić dies in prison at the age of 84.
At least 633 people are killed after flash flooding in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot Districts of Nepal and along the China–Nepal border.

August 29, 2026 (Saturday)

August 28, 2026 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Gaza war
- Israeli incursions in the West Bank during the Gaza war
  - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says that they have killed three Palestinian militants, including Islamic Jihad (PIJ) senior member Qais Bitawi, in a drone strike in the Israel-occupied West Bank city of Jenin. The PIJ also confirms Bitawi's death. (Reuters) (The Times of Israel)
Sudanese civil war
- Blue Nile campaign
  - Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) says that they have seized the Bakori and Surkum army bases in the southeastern Blue Nile region alongside Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North (SPLM–N). (Sudan Tribune)
- Kordofan campaign
  - Emergency Lawyers, an independent group documenting atrocities in Sudan, reports that eight civilians have been killed in drone strikes in the Sowdari District of North Kordofan. (AP) (Asharq Al Awsat)

Business and economy

The Japanese finance ministry says it spent a record ¥15.4 trillion (US$96 billion) between July 30 and August 26 to support the yen, marking the country's largest monthly currency intervention on record. (AFP via France 24)

Health and environment

Seventh cholera pandemic
- Nigeria records 65,000 cases of cholera, across 35 states, alongside 10,000 cases of diphtheria. Additionally, NCDC director Jide Idris reports a decline in cholera cases but also warn that transmission of cases remain ongoing. (The Nation NG) (Daily Trust)

Law and crime

Corruption in Ecuador
- An Ecuadorian court convicts former president Lenín Moreno of bribery linked to the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair plant in Napo Province. His wife, Rocío González Navas, and daughter are also found guilty. (Reuters)
Protests against Donald Trump
- Demonstrators gather in Washington, D.C., United States, to protest against the Trump administration's alleged efforts to rollback voting and civil rights, 63 years after the March on Washington rally by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (Reuters)
Scam centers in Cambodia
- The Cambodian government says that they have closed more than 700 online scam centers and arrested nearly 30,000 suspects, including 15 senior officials and law-enforcement officers, during a year-long crackdown on cybercrime networks. (Euronews)
Two men steal a 200-carat platinum-and-diamond necklace from the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, after smashing a display case with a hammer and fleeing, according to Austrian police. (AFP via CBS News)
Two teenagers are arrested in Israel for allegedly pledging allegiance to ISIS and plotting an attack on security forces at the Temple Mount and an IDF base in northern Israel. (Ynetnews) (The Times of Israel)

Politics and elections

Death and state funeral of Harald V
- King Harald V of Norway dies at the age of 89 after a 35-year reign and is succeeded by his son Haakon VIII. (AP) (BBC News) (CNN)
Forced contraception of women in Greenland
- Greenland establishes a truth and reconciliation commission after experts conclude that a decades-long Danish contraceptive program violated Inuit women's rights but disagree on whether it constituted genocide. (Al Jazeera)

Sports

2026–27 NHL season
- In ice hockey, the Colorado Avalanche sign defenceman and alternate captain Cale Makar to a eight-year extension worth US$163.2 million, the largest contract in National Hockey League history. He is the first player to exceed past $20 million in average annual value. (The Athletic via The New York Times) (CBS Sports) (ESPN)

August 27, 2026 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Middle Eastern crisis
- Gaza–Israel conflict
  - Gaza war
    - Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip
      - Three Palestinians are reported to be killed in strikes in the Gaza Strip, violating the October 2025 ceasefire. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)
    - Gaza war hostage crisis
      - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and its Spokesperson's Unit confirms Al-Qassam Brigades commander Ismail Mohammad Ibrahim Barim, who held Edan Alexander, Avera Mengistu, and Matan Zangauker as hostages, was killed in a strike in Khan Yunis. (The Times of Israel) (Israel National News) (The Jerusalem Post)
    - The IDF also confirms that they have recently killed two Hamas militants that invaded the Re'im Base in Re'im during the October 7 attacks in separate strikes in the Gaza Strip, including a body guard to former leader Yahya Sinwar and a Nukhba forces militant. (The Times of Israel)
  - It is reported that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held secret meetings with Hamas during the 2014 Gaza War. The Prime Minister's Office denies the reports. (The Times of Israel) (Ynetnews)
- 2026 Iran war
  - 2026 Iran war ceasefire
    - Qatar as a mediator in conflict
      - Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani talks with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran, including on the Strait of Hormuz and efforts to end the war. (Al Jazeera)
  - 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis
    - 2026 Strait of Hormuz campaign
      - United States Central Command commander Brad Cooper says that the military has cleared all Iranian naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz and its routes. (The Hill)
    - Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohsen Rezaei says that Iran is preparing a set of conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz after mediators called for them to do so. (Reuters)
    - The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reports that a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was hit by an "unknown projectile", causing a fire that was later extinguished. (Marine Insight)
Sudanese Civil Wars
- Sudanese civil war
  - Blue Nile campaign
    - Sudan's army repels a Rapid Support Forces attack on the town of Al-Keli in the Blue Nile region. (Sudan Tribune)
  - Battle of Khartoum
    - Sudan's Security Affairs Coordination Committee lifts the curfew and state of emergency on the capital Khartoum after two years. (Middle East Monitor) (BBC)
  - Around 12 people are reported killed in a airstrike near border with Chad. (Al Jazeera)
- Sudanese nomadic conflicts
  - Around 49 people are killed in a cattle raid on the Machar-Pakuek cattle camp in Mading Juer Boma in Tonj North County of South Sudan's Warrap state. (MENA via The New Arab)
Kivu conflict
- M23 campaign
  - Four people are killed after an unconfirmed civilian or military airplane is shot down with a surface-to-air missile near Minembwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Noveau Media)
Mexican drug war
- NORAD and the U.S. Northern Command say that the U.S. military used a laser weapon against three drones belonging to Mexican drug cartels. (Military Times)

Business and economy

South Korean company SK Gas pays a record US$5.3 million for priority passage of the LPG tanker G. Spirit through the Panama Canal before El Niño-related transit restrictions reduced daily crossings. (AFP via France 24)

Disasters and accidents

Wildfires in 2026
- 2026 Canadian wildfires
  - In Canada, British Columbia ends its state of emergency previously imposed on August 8 in response to wildfires that killed one person. (The Canadian Press News) (CTV News)
  - A section of the Trans-Canada Highway in the Fraser Canyon reopens after being closed for seven weeks due to the wildfires. (Redfm) (CTV News)
- Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune declares three days of national mourning after 12 people were reported to be killed in wildfires in northeastern Jijel. (Africanews)
2026 Flores earthquake
- The death toll from the earthquake that struck the Flores island in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, rises to 111, with 176,000 people displaced. (A News) (AA)
2026 Nepal floods
- The United States Geological Survey says a glacial collapse and debris flow, not an earthquake, caused the seismic event near the Nepal–Tibet border and subsequent flooding that killed at least 392 people and left over 900 more missing. (BBC News)
Incidents at Six Flags parks
- The X2 roller coaster at the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park in Valencia, California, U.S., closes after a CNN investigation reported that two riders were recently hospitalized for brain injuries. (CNN) (The Guardian)
Six people die after a pump boat carrying 13 passengers capsizes while crossing the Mapanuepe Lake in San Marcelino, Zambales, Philippines. Three others remain missing. (The Philippine Star)

Health and environment

2026 Ebola epidemic
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo begins vaccination for the Ebola outbreak in Kisangani, Tshopo, with healthcare and front line workers among the first to receive the vaccine. (Africanews)
2026 European heatwaves
- Germany's Robert Koch Institute estimates 15,800 heat-related deaths during summer 2026, the highest total in a decade of monitoring, as repeated heat waves push temperatures above 40 °C (104 °F). (Kurdistan 24)

International relations

Malaysia–Myanmar relations
- Malaysia says that 1,476 Burmese people will be voluntarily repatriated on September 29 in the first phase of a return program agreed with Myanmar, using Myanmar naval vessels. (AFP via The Manila Times)

Law and crime

2026 Gosen-Neu Zittau school stabbing
- Two people are killed in a stabbing at a private school in Gosen-Neu Zittau, Brandenburg, Germany. A suspect is arrested. (Xinhua)

Politics and elections

2026 Zambian general election
- Zambian presidential candidate Brian Mundubile surrenders to police and is questioned over an alleged national security threat after two weeks in hiding following the disputed presidential election, in which he finished second. (AFP via France 24)
Forced contraception of women in Greenland
- Denmark's parliament passes legislation granting 300,000 kr. (US$46,758) in compensation to each Greenlandic woman affected by non-consensual contraception administered under a Danish birth-control program in the 1960s and 1970s. (BBC News)
U.S. president Donald Trump signs an executive order directing federal agencies to call Lake Ontario "Lake America." The change applies only to U.S. federal usage; Canada need not adopt it, and no international authority exclusively determines names of shared waters. (AP) (The Guardian)
King Rukidi IV of Uganda's Tooro Kingdom, the youngest person to reign as a monarch, dies at the age of 34. (BBC News) (NTV Uganda)

Science and technology

August 2026 lunar eclipse
- A near-total partial lunar eclipse occurs over Africa, the Americas, and Europe. (TimeandDate)
The Korea AeroSpace Administration says that the Nuri will launch 15 satellites, a record, into space from the Naro Space Center in South Korea's Goheung County on October 7. (Korea Times) (Yonhap)

Sports

2026 Diamond League
- In athletics, Brazilian Alison dos Santos and American Masai Russell break the world records in men's 400 metres hurdles (45.80 seconds) and women's 100 metres hurdles (12.09 seconds), respectively, at the 2026 Weltklasse Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland. (Reuters)

August 26, 2026 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Middle Eastern crisis
- 2026 Iran war
  - 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis
    - 2026 Iran–Oman negotiations
      - The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps say Iran and Oman have agreed to share revenues from the Strait of Hormuz and define their respective maritime areas, while negotiations continue over reopening the waterway amid the war. (AFP via The Borneo Post)
      - Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi says that Iran will not allow military vessels to transit through the strait under the proposed agreement. (AP) (Military.com)
- Gaza war
  - The Israel Defense Forces says that they have killed several Hamas members in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip city of Jabalia, including on a structure allegedly used as a storage facility for weapons. (The Jerusalem Post)
Russo-Ukrainian war
- Attacks in Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war
  - An overnight Ukrainian drone attack "completely destroys" a Wildberries depot in Tambov Oblast, Russia. (Reuters)
  - A man and a 14-year-old child are killed in Lipetsk Oblast, and a woman is killed in Belgorod Oblast, in Ukrainian drone strikes. The Russian defence ministry says its forces have shot down 426 Ukrainian drones overnight. (Al Jazeera)
- Luhansk Oblast campaign
  - Nine people are killed after a Ukrainian strike on a bus in Russian-occupied Luhansk.