Portal:Current events/2025 February 27

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Gaza war
    • 2025 Gaza war ceasefire
      • As part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal, Hamas releases the bodies of four Israeli hostages in return for the Israeli government releasing 617 Palestinian prisoners. The second phase of the ceasefire has not been negotiated. (DW)
  • Thirteen people are injured in a car-ramming attack in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Israel. The suspect, a Palestinian residing in Ma'ale Iron, is later shot and killed by police after an attempted stabbing attack. (Times of Israel)
• Kivu conflict
  • 2025 Bukavu offensive
    • 2025 Bukavu M23 rally bombings
      • A grenade attack at an M23 rally in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, celebrating their recent victory over government forces in the city, kills at least eleven people and wounds 65 others. (Reuters)
• Kurdish–Turkish conflict
  • Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency
    • Jailed Kurdish leader and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Öcalan calls for an end to the conflict with Turkey and asks the group to disarm and disband, amid peace efforts between the Turkish government and the PKK led by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party. (Rudaw) (Reuters) (DW)
• Somali Civil War
  • Somali capital city Mogadishu enters a security lockdown after several mortars were fired toward Aden Adde International Airport during a visit from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. (Anadolu Agency)
  • Somali forces regain control of Balad after Al-Shabaab launches a coordinated attack, detonating roadside bombs and briefly seizing the town. (Hiiraan Online)
• Villa Somalia security guards open fire on civilians at Lido Beach in Mogadishu while attempting to clear the beach ahead of a visit from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, killing a teenage boy and wounding several others. (Idil News) (HBN)

Business and economy

• Denmark–United States relations
  • Danish retailer group Salling Group, which operates around 34% of the retail market share in the country, announces it will start differentiating brands owned by European companies from American ones, in retaliation to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed acquisition of Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm. (DW)

Disasters and accidents

• A fire at a three-story residential building in Quezon City, Philippines, kills eight people and injures one other. (AP)
• Two people are killed when a Robinson R44 helicopter crashes on a private property in Uvalde, Texas, United States. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are currently investigating the accident. (KENS-TV)
• Two Russian tourists are killed in a shark attack while scuba diving in the Verde Island Passage off Batangas, Philippines. (Fox News)

International relations

• United Kingdom–United States relations
  • U.S. President Donald Trump meets with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington, D.C., for talks that include the Russo-Ukrainian War peace negotiations. Starmer also presents a letter from King Charles III inviting Trump to visit London later this year. (NPR)

Law and crime

• Persecution of Uyghurs in China
  • Forty Uyghur men detained in Thailand for over a decade are deported to China, despite concerns regarding their persecution. (Al Arabiya)
• The prosecutor's office in Paris, France, closes a criminal complaint case by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) against technology company Apple for alleged money laundering and deceptive business practices related to the purchase of minerals in the DRC from armed militias. It is one of the DRC's two lawsuits, with another in Belgium. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• 2024 Austrian legislative election
  • The Social Democratic Party, the Austrian People's Party, and the NEOS party in Austria agree to form a coalition government, leaving out the far-right Freedom Party, who won the most seats in the National Council in the 2024 legislative election. The coalition agreement ends Austria's longest period without a government since World War II. (DW) (Euractiv)
• The Trump administration bans NASA scientists and US government officials from attending the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change conference that started this week in Hangzhou, China, which are focused on the seventh IPCC Assessment Report on climate change. (Nature)

Science and technology

• Meta Platforms says it has fixed an error that resulted in Instagram users' Reels feeds displaying violent and graphic videos despite these users having content filters enabled. (Al Arabiya)
• OpenAI releases their latest large language model, GPT-4.5. (The Verge)