Thursday, April 11th, 2024 

Archaeologists announce the discovery of new frescos at the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, depicting mythological ancient Greek figures. (BBC News) 

U.S. President Joe Biden warns that Iran is threatening to launch a significant attack against Israel and promises “ironclad U.S. support” for Israel in the event of an attack. (BBC News) 

Russia warns its citizens against travelling to the Middle East amid increasing tensions between Iran and Israel. (CNBC) 

The Netherlands increases its military budget to 2 percent of its GDP for the first time since 1994. (Algemeen Dagblad) 

South Korean prime minister Han Duck-soo and all senior advisers to President Yoon Suk Yeol resign en masse in response to the results of yesterday’s parliamentary elections. (ABC News) 

A search operation at a power plant on Lake Suviana, near Bologna, Italy, has recovered the bodies of three workers who were missing after an explosion two days ago. This brings the confirmed death toll to six. A seventh worker is still missing, while the five injured are still in critical conditions. (Il Resto del Carlino) 

Russia launches missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, damaging power facilities and causing widespread power outages for about 200,000 people. Ukraine says that the Trypilska thermal power plant in Kyiv Oblast was destroyed in an overnight attack. (Reuters) (Bloomberg) 

A Robinson R22 helicopter owned by the Philippine Air Force crashes near a public market in Cavite City, Philippines, killing both pilots. (AFP via Barron’s) 

A court in Vietnam sentences tycoon Trương Mỹ Lan to death for embezzling $12.46 billion from the Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank. (DW) 

At least four people are killed and five others are injured in a Russian missile strike in Mykolaiv. (Reuters) 

The Karen National Union, local PDF groups, and other Karenni organizations seize the town of Myawaddy, Kayin State, from the Tatmadaw after three days of fighting. Junta planes subsequently bomb the town, causing more than 1,000 locals to flee into neighbouring Thailand. (CNN) (Radio Free Asia) 

Thirty-eight prisoners escape from a prison in Moroni, Comoros. (Reuters) 

Wednesday, April 10th, 2024 

Cornel West names Melina Abdullah as his VP pick as part of his presidential campaign. (Politico) 

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills three sons of Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh. (Haaretz) 

Russian airstrikes in Kharkiv Oblast kill at least three people and injure four others. (Reuters) 

Four people are killed and seven others are injured in a Russian missile strike in Odesa. (Reuters) 

American video game company Epic Games announces that it will lay-off around 870 employees, roughly one-sixth of its workforce, due to slower growth than expected. (CBC via Yahoo! News) 

A bus carrying Eid Al-Fitr pilgrims crashes and plunges into a ditch in Balochistan, Pakistan, killing seventeen people and injuring 16 others. (AP) 

Five people are killed and 35 others are injured in a fire at the New Lucky House in Kowloon, Hong Kong. (Reuters) 

A person is killed by flooding in Mississippi, United States, as severe weather hits the Southern United States. (CBS News) 

South Koreans vote for members of the National Assembly. The opposition, primarily consisting of the Democratic Party, its alliance and the Rebuilding Korea Party, wins the election in a landslide, increasing their legislative majority but falling short of the two-thirds supermajority needed to pass constitutional amendments or override the veto of President Yoon Suk Yeol. (Reuters) 

Tuesday,  April 9th, 2024 

The largest humanitarian aid airdrop since the war began takes place over the northern Gaza Strip, with at least 14 aircraft from nine nations taking part in the operation. (BBC News) 

Heavy fighting and clashes occur between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in areas controlled by the RSF primarily near Wad Madani in Gezira State. (Dabanga Sudan) 

The Turkish Trade Ministry announces that it will suspend the export of 54 categories of goods to Israel in response to Israel banning Turkey from participating in humanitarian air drops over the Gaza Strip. (Al Jazeera) 

A Federation University Australia expedition confirms that bird flu is currently spreading across Antarctica, with outbreaks confirmed in wild bird populations in Beak Island, Hope Bay, Devil Island, and Paulet Island. (El Pais) 

Three people are killed, five are injured and four are missing in an explosion at a power plant on Lake Suviana, near Bologna, Italy. (AP) 

The death toll from Sunday’s ferry sinking in Mozambique increases to more than 100 people, with around 20 people still missing. (NOS) 

More than 100,000 people in Russia and Kazakhstan are ordered to evacuate amid catastrophic flooding along the Ural river. (Reuters) 

The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration reports that 38 people died when a boat, which has carried around 66 Ethiopian migrants, has sank off Godoria, Djibouti, a day before while on its way to Yemen. At least six more are still missing and presumed dead. (AFP via South China Morning Post) 

The Arizona Supreme Court upholds a law criminalizing most types of abortions in the case Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Mayes. (The Guardian) 

Monday,  April 8th, 2024 

A total solar eclipse occurs in North America for the first time since 2017. It is the last total solar eclipse to be visible in the contiguous United States until 2044. (Fox Weather) 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered an invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip with a date “being set” for the ground offensive. (The Telegraph) (NU.nl) 

Heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops takes place around the city of Chasiv Yar, with Ukraine describing the situation as “difficult” and “tense”; separately, shelling kills three civilians in Huliaipole, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. (Al Jazeera) 

Ukraine claims to have damaged the Russian Navy missile ship Serpukhov [ru] in the Baltic Sea near Kaliningrad. (Kyiv Independent) 

Khartoum reports 384 cases of dengue fever which are attributed to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan. (Al Taghyeer) 

A ferry from Lunga, Mossuril District to the Island of Mozambique capsizes off the coast of Nampula Province, Mozambique, killing at least 94 people and leaving 26 others missing. (The Guardian) 

Over 100 civilians in South Kordofan are killed after allies of the Rapid Support Forces launch attacks in villages across the state. (Dabanga Sudan) 

99 Cents Only Stores files for bankruptcy in the U.S. state of Delaware, with the intention to liquidate. (Reuters). 

Protesters set fire to government buildings and dozens of vehicles in the Mexican state of Guerrero amid anger over the police killing of a college student in March and the kidnapping of 43 students in 2014. Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda‘s office in Chilpancingo is ransacked. (AP) 

In college basketball, Connecticut repeats as national champions, becoming the first program to do so since the Florida Gators did so in 2006 and 2007. (Patch) 

The End

Thursday, April 4th, 2024 

Gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier says that if armed groups under his command are included in talks for a future transitional government, then they would consider ceasing hostilities. (BBC) 

Researchers at the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument in Arizona, United States, release the largest 3D map of the universe featuring more than six million galaxies. Using this map, researchers are able to measure the acceleration of the expansion rate of the universe with unprecedented accuracy, detecting hints that the rate of expansion has been increasing over time. (The Guardian) (Berkeley Lab) 

Shipping lanes and airspace in the Great Belt strait in Denmark are closed for several hours after a missile launcher malfunctions on the frigate Niels Juel. (NOS) (CNN) 

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that Ukraine will eventually become a NATO member. (Reuters) 

Russian-installed officials say that Ukrainian shelling has killed two civilians and injured nine others in Donetsk. Separately, four people are killed in drone attacks in Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast. (Reuters) 

A man stabs the Governor of Murmansk Oblast Andrey Chibis at a meeting in Apatity, Murmansk Oblast, Russia. The attacker is arrested by police. (Reuters) 

99 Cents Only Stores announces an orderly wind-down, closing all of its 371 stores in the United States beginning April 5. (Newsweek) 

Eleven security forces, including five Revolutionary Guards, are killed in Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran, during an attack against the Revolutionary Guards’ headquarters by members of Jaish ul-Adl. Sixteen militants are killed in the ensuing shootout. (Reuters) 

Former Al-Nusra Front emir Abu Maria al-Qahtani is assassinated in a suicide bombing in Sarmada, Idlib Governorate, Syria. The Islamic State are accused of being behind the attack, which also injured several others at his house. (Reuters) 

Scientists from the Federation University Australia report that thousands of Adélie penguins have been found dead in Antarctica amid an increase in bird flu cases among wild bird populations. (Reuters) 

Bird flu spreads to cattle herds in at least six U.S. states, while a dairy farm worker is infected in Texas, becoming the second person to ever become infected with the virus in the United States. (Bloomberg) 

Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa, is arrested and charged with corruption one day after resigning from office. (VOA) 

Myriam Spiteri Debono is sworn in as President of Malta, succeeding George Vella and becoming the third woman to hold the office. (Times of Malta) 

Russia launches multiple Shahed drone strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine, killing at least five people, including three rescue workers, and injuring five others. (Reuters) 

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024 

The National Defense Ministry of Taiwan says more than 30 Chinese PLA Air Force warplanes have entered Taiwanese airspace, and at least nine PLA Navy warships have been detected around Taiwan. The ROC Armed Forces has been deployed in response to the violation. (Times Now News) 

The Philippines says it will respond to any Chinese attempts to interfere with its resupply of troops in the South China Sea. (Reuters) 

Canada deploys 70 members of its armed forces to Jamaica to train peacekeepers for a future intervention in Haiti. (CBC) 

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake is felt off the coast of Taiwan, prompting tsunami warnings for Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. A large section of the uninhabited Guishan Island collapses into the ocean. Nine people are killed in Taiwan, four of whom by rockfalls. Over 930 others are injured. (AP) (Al Jazeera) 

Uganda’s Constitutional Court upholds the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, which prescribes the death penalty for certain homosexual acts. (South China Morning Post) 

Tuesday,  April 2nd, 2024 

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council says that it has decided on a response to the Israeli attack on its diplomatic facilities in Damascus, Syria, which killed several high-ranking members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. (The Guardian) 

Ukraine launches airstrikes more than 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) inside Russia, targeting an oil refinery and the dormitory of a factory producing Iranian-designed Shahed drones in Yelabuga, Tatarstan. Several people are injured. (The Guardian) 

Eighteen people, including five children, are injured in a Russian missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine. (Reuters) 

Armed youths belonging to the Murle people attack a village in Greater Pibor Administrative Area, South Sudan, killing 12 people and injuring 10 others, with 15 children reported missing. Most of the victims were elderly residents. (Reuters) 

Twenty-nine people are killed and eight others are injured in a fire at a nightclub under renovation in Istanbul, Turkey. (Reuters) 

A student is killed and two others are injured in a shooting at a school in Vantaa, Uusimaa, Finland. A 12-year-old student is detained. (AP) (Yle) 

A mayoral candidate is assassinated in Celaya, Guanajuato, ahead of Mexico’s upcoming general election. (CNN) 

Monday,  April 1st, 2024 

An Israeli airstrike targeting the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, kills eight members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including Iranian brigadier general Mohammad Reza Zahedi. (Reuters) 

The Israeli government says that it will ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting in its territory. (BBC News) 

Seven volunteers from the World Central Kitchen, including six British, Polish, Australian and Palestinian nationals and a dual American-Canadian citizen, are killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Deir el-Balah. (Al Jazeera) 

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq launches three drones at Eilat, Southern Israel, damaging a building. No injuries are reported. (The Times of Israel) 

Authorities in Amur Oblast, Russia, end the rescue operations for 13 workers who were trapped in a deep gold mine since March 18, and declare the workers dead. (ABC News) 

The town of Montmorillon in Nouvelle-Aquitaine is hit by severe flooding following heavy rains. (Sky News) 

Ekrem İmamoğlu is re-elected as mayor of Istanbul. (The New York Times) 

An ongoing severe drought in southern Africa causes around 20 million people to experience hunger. (AP) (The Independent) 

North Korea fires a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan near South Korean territory. (AP) 

The End