< Portal:Current events

Portal:Current events/2016 April 23

April 23, 2016 (2016-04-23) (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
  • War in North-West Pakistan
  • Syrian Civil War
    • ISIL claims to have shot down a Syrian Arab Air Force MiG-23, southeast of Damascus, and captured its pilot. Amaq News Agency, which supports ISIL, gave the pilot’s name as Azzam Eid, from Hama. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it was not clear whether the plane had been shot down or crashed because of mechanical failure. (Daily Mail) (Times of Israel)
    • Syrian government airstrikes kill 25 people, mostly civilians, in attacks on rebel-held areas near the capital Damascus. (The New York Times)
  • Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
  • Iraqi Civil War
    • Two separate car bombs kill at least 12 people in Iraq's capital, Baghdad. The Islamic State claims responsibility for the blast at the security checkpoint in a northern district that killed nine and injured 28 others. Three people are killed and 11 injured at the second bombing in southern Baghdad that targeted an army convoy; no group has claimed responsibility. (Reuters)
Arts and culture
  • The continuing influence of English dramatist William Shakespeare is celebrated on the 400th anniversary of his death in Stratford-upon-Avon. (Time)
  • Spain commemorates the 400th anniversary of the death of its most famous author Miguel de Cervantes. (AFP via France 24)
Disasters and accidents
International relations
  • North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
    • North Korea is reported to have launched a submarine-launched ballistic missile for the first time. (Reuters)
  • Russia–United States relations
    • President of Russia Vladimir Putin accuses the United States of reneging on a 16-year-old deal that called for reducing Russia's and the United States' stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium. He accused Washington of trying to preserve its ability to turn some of its plutonium stockpile back into a form usable for nuclear weapons. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
  • Syrian peace process
    • Reuters reports the Friday afternoon truce between Kurdish Asayish forces and pro-Syrian government forces, declared following a three-day outbreak of violence that killed at least 26 people, is holding. (Reuters)
  • European migrant crisis
  • North Korea-United States relations
    • Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong says North Korea is ready to halt nuclear tests if the United States suspends its annual military exercises with South Korea. (AP via Time)
Law and crime
Politics and elections
  • Philippine presidential election, 2016
  • South Sudanese Civil War
    • Rebel leader Riek Machar misses an international deadline to return to the capital Juba to take the post of Vice President. Machar was offered the position by President Salva Kiir Mayardit in the hopes of putting an end to the civil war but has repeatedly delayed his return. (Al Jazeera)
  • Thousands of people protest in the German city of Hanover against the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal. They say the deal would drive down wages, and weaken environmental protection and labour rights. (BBC)
  • Darfurian status referendum, 2016
    • According to the Sudanese electoral commission, more than 97% of voters in Darfur choose to remain as five states rather than form a single region. However, The vote was held amid ongoing insecurity and many of Sudan's 2.5 million displaced people were not registered to vote, with the U.S. State Department warning that the referendum could not be considered credible "under current rules and conditions". (BBC)
  • Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso names former opposition leader Clément Mouamba as prime minister. (Reuters)
Science and Technology
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