Portal:Current events/2024 September 20

September 20, 2024 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israel–Hezbollah conflict
- Assassination of Ibrahim Aqil
  - Israel launches airstrikes on the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah operatives. The airstrikes hit at least one building, killing at least 14 people, including senior Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil, and wounding 66. (Al Jazeera)
Mali War
- 2024 Bamako attacks
  - The toll from the JNIM's attacks three days ago against a military camp in Bamako, Mali, and Modibo Keita International Airport is confirmed to be of at least 77 people killed and about 200 more injured. (Al Jazeera)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant crisis
  - Management of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant accuses the Armed Forces of Ukraine of creating threats to the plant's safety by launching a drone to attack a nearby electrical substation. (Reuters)
Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Militants kill nine Pakistani soldiers in separate attacks in North and South Waziristan, Pakistan. (ABC News)
Syrian civil war
- Three children are killed and another is injured, all from the same family, when a landmine placed by unknown individuals in a plastic bag explodes near a park in Manbij, Aleppo governorate. (SOHR)
- Kata'ib Hezbollah announce that Abu Haidar al-Khafaji, a senior commander in the group, was killed in Damascus, Syria, and blame Israel for the attack. (Barrons)

International relations

Afghanistan–Iran relations
- Iran summons the acting head of Afghanistan's embassy after claiming a visiting Afghan official disrespected the country's national anthem by not standing, days after a similar incident in Pakistan. The Afghan delegate apologizes, but claims this was because music in public is banned by the Taliban and that they had banned the Afghan national anthem itself. (Al Arabiya)
Kosovo–European Union relations
- Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti accuses the European Union of appeasing Serbia while attempting to normalize Balkan relations out of a fear of it moving closer to Russia, and threatens consequences against plans for Kosovo's EU accession. (Reuters)
Ukraine–European Union relations
- President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announces a loan of up to €35 billion (US$39 billion) for Ukraine in military and energy support following Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy's drafting of a new victory plan against Russia. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Capital punishment in Taiwan
- The Constitutional Court in Taiwan upholds the legality of the death penalty in the country, but limits its use to the "most serious crimes". (Time)

Politics and elections