Portal:Current events/2024 March 12

March 12, 2024 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
  - 2024 Western Russia incursion
    - The Freedom of Russia Legion, the Sibir Battalion, and the Russian Volunteer Corps enter Belgorod and Kursk oblasts. Russia claims to have repelled the attacks. (The Guardian)
  - Ukraine launches 25 drones at Russian cities, hitting a major oil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. (The Guardian)
- 2024 Ivanovo Ilyushin Il-76 crash
  - A Russian Aerospace Forces Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane with 15 people on board crashes in Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. (The Guardian)
- Bombing of Kryvyi Rih
  - Three people are killed and at least 36 others are injured in a Russian missile strike on apartment buildings in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. (Reuters)
Israel–Hezbollah conflict
- Israeli Air Force jets launch airstrikes in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, striking "Hezbollah military command centers". Hezbollah says that two of its members were killed in the airstrikes. (Reuters)
- Hezbollah launches more than 100 Katyusha rockets into northern Israel, targeting several Israeli military outposts. (The New York Times)
Piracy off the coast of Somalia
- About 20 armed pirates hijack a Bangladeshi bulk carrier in the Indian Ocean that was en route to the United Arab Emirates. The vessel is under the control of the pirates and is heading towards the coast of Somalia. (The National News)
War in Sudan
- The Sudanese Army says that it has taken control of the national television and radio broadcaster in Omdurman from the Rapid Support Forces. (Reuters)

International relations

Argentina–Venezuela relations
- Argentina announces diplomatic actions against Venezuela after president Nicolás Maduro banned Argentina-licensed aircraft from entering Venezuelan airspace amid deteriorating relations between the two countries. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Law and crime

Lithuania and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The opposition politician Leonid Volkov is attacked outside his home in Vilnius, Lithuania, apparently on orders by Vladimir Putin. The incident is being investigated as a terror crime. (Al Jazeera)
Israeli Police kill a 13-year-old boy who allegedly fired fireworks at them in Shuafat, East Jerusalem. (Al Arabiya)
Capital punishment in Japan
- A court in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, overturns the death sentence of Yakuza Kudo-kai leader Satoru Nomura and sentences him to life in prison. Nomura had originally been sentenced to death for a 1998 murder. (The Mainichi)
Three Coptic Christian monks from Egypt are killed during a mass stabbing at a monastery in Cullinan, South Africa. (Reuters)
A Romanian court rules that social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate can be extradited to the United Kingdom to face charges of sexual aggression. (BBC News)
Zimbabwean police arrest a self-proclaimed prophet and rescue 251 children from a compound operated by his followers. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

2024 United States presidential election
- 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries
  - The Democratic Party holds presidential nominating contests in Georgia, Mississippi, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Washington. Democrats Abroad also concludes its primary. (AP)
  - Incumbent President Joe Biden officially surpasses the 1,968 delegate threshold needed to become the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for President. (The Washington Post)
- 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries
  - The Republican Party holds presidential nominating contests in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington. (AP)
  - Former President Donald Trump officially surpasses the 1,215 delegate threshold needed to win his third consecutive Republican Party nomination for President, joining Richard Nixon as the only people in U.S. history to win the Republican nomination thrice. (NBC News)

Science and technology

A scientific expedition to the Bounty Trough off the coast of New Zealand reports the discovery of more than one hundred new species. (The New York Times)

Sports

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund announces a $2 billion offer to buy both professional tennis tours, the ATP Tour and the WTA Tour. (The Telegraph)