Portal:Current events/2025 June 23

June 23, 2025 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Middle Eastern crisis
- Iran–Israel war
  - Airstrikes during the Iran–Israel war
    - A United Nations fact-finding mission reports that Israeli strikes on Iran’s state broadcasting agency and killing of Iranian nuclear scientists were likely in violation of international humanitarian law. (Al Jazeera)
    - The Israeli military strikes Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, damaging the facility's infrastructure. State TV showed first responders carrying a casualty and searching for survivors under a collapsed building. (BBC News) (Reuters)
    - Qatar closes the country's airspace amidst an imminent threat of a Iranian ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces stationed in the country. Multiple explosions are reported over Doha. (AP) (BBC News)
  - 2025 Iranian strikes on Al Udeid Air Base
    - Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps says it has launched missiles at the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and U.S. bases in Iraq. U.S. officials later confirm no Iranian missiles hit the Al Udeid Air Base. (France 24)
    - The Qatar Foreign Ministry says the Qatari military has intercepted all the missiles launched at the Al Udeid Air Base, and that no injuries are reported. (Al Bawaba) (Axios)
  - Iran–Israel war ceasefire
    - U.S. president Donald Trump announces that a ceasefire has been reached between Iran and Israel. The ceasefire has not been confirmed by either Iran or Israel. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)
- Gaza war
  - Rafah aid distribution killings
    - Israeli gunfire and airstrikes kill at least 43 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, including 13 people seeking aid assistance. (Al Jazeera)
  - Spanish foreign minister José Albares calls on the European Council to suspend EU relations with Israel due to Israeli human rights violations in Gaza. He also calls for an arms embargo against Israel and sanctions on individuals obstructing the two-state solution. (Al Jazeera) (YeniSafak)
Somali Civil War
- 2025 Shabelle offensive
  - At least seven Ugandan Armed Forces personnel are confirmed killed by Al Shabaab following a three-day siege on Sabiidd-Anole in the Lower Shabelle region of Somalia amid ongoing operations against the militant group. The soldiers were part of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, tasked with countering Al-Shabaab. (Garowe Online) (The Defense Post)
  - Al-Shabaab claims that its fighters have overrun a military installation, killed several soldiers, and seized weapons and military equipment following fierce fighting erupted on the morning between Somali National Army and Al-Shabaab militants. (Hiiraan Online) (The Eastleigh Voice)
- Child soldiers in Somalia
  - The United Nations formally removes Somalia from its annual register of nations that enlist and deploy child soldiers. The country had been included on the register since 2007, owing to consistent reports of child recruitment by Somali Armed Forces and associated militias. (The Eastleigh Voice) (UN)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War
  - NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announces that European countries and Canada will send Ukraine a combined aid package of €35 billion (US$40.3 billion). (RBC)
- Kyiv strikes
  - Russian forces launch a large-scale drone and missile strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, damaging residential areas, hospitals, and sports infrastructure, killing nine people and injuring at least 33 others. (BBC News)

Law and crime

Gaza war protests
- The United Kingdom announces it will ban the direct action protest network Palestine Action on anti-terrorism grounds after the group broke into the RAF Brize Norton base and vandalized two planes. (AP)
The Thai Department of Special Investigation seizes 2.4 metric tons of methamphetamine disguised as corn flour packages worth $90.8 million from a tourist boat off the coast of Eastern Thailand and arrests eight men in Rayong province for attempted drug smuggling. (AP)
The Indonesian National Narcotics Board announces it arrested 285 people, including 29 women and seven foreigners, and seized over 0.68 ton of narcotics in a two-month crackdown operation on narcotrafficking and illegal drug abuse. (AP)

Science and technology

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile releases the first light images from its new 8.4-meter (28 ft) telescope. (Scientific American)