Portal:Current events/2024 May 8

May 8, 2024 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israel–Hamas war
- Al-Shifa Hospital siege
  - A third mass grave holding at least 49 bodies is discovered in Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital. (Al Jazeera) (The Hill)
- Humanitarian aid during the Israel–Hamas war
  - Israel reopens the Kerem Shalom border crossing, allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. However, the UN states that no aid has entered. (AP)
- Rafah offensive
  - Israeli troops reach the outskirts of Rafah with Hamas saying that heavy fighting is underway. The Israeli military says that it has "uncovered terrorist infrastructure" and killed a number of Hamas militants as it advances. (BBC News)
2024 Iran–Israel conflict, Israel–Hezbollah conflict
- Two Hezbollah and three PIJ killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon.(Reuters)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
  - Russia launches missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, injuring three people and damaging critical infrastructure. Ukraine says that it shot down 39 of 55 missiles and 20 of 21 drones. (AP) (Bloomberg News)
- Kharkiv strikes
  - At least seven people, including four children, are injured in a Russian airstrike on Kharkiv. (Reuters)
- Russia occupies the villages of Novokalynove in Donetsk Oblast and Kyslivka in Kharkiv Oblast. (Anadolu Agency)
Islamic State–Taliban conflict
- A motorcycle bombing kills three Taliban security personnel in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan. The Islamic State – Khorasan Province claims responsibility for the attack. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

A statue of the late African American civil rights leader Daisy Bates is unveiled at the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C., representing the state of Arkansas. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Tornadoes of 2024
- Tornado outbreak of May 6–8, 2024
  - Dozens of tornadoes strike the United States over the past three days, killing five people and leaving multiple others injured. (The New York Times)
2024 Rio Grande do Sul floods
- The death toll from the ongoing heavy flooding in southern Brazil increases to 100, with 128 people still missing and 163,000 people displaced. (Reuters)
Rolling blackouts occur in several cities in Mexico amid an ongoing heatwave in the country. (The New York Times)
A Boeing 767 operated by FedEx is forced to make an emergency landing at Istanbul Airport after the front landing gear fails to deploy. (The Guardian)
A Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) F-16C fighter jet crashed at Tengah Air Base after the pilot experienced issues during take-off. The pilot ejected successfully and is receiving medical attention. The RSAF has temporarily suspended training for the F-16 fleet until investigations show that it is safe to resume. (The Straits Times) (MINDEF Singapore)

Health and environment

COVID-19 vaccine
- AstraZeneca withdraws its marketing authorizations in Europe and withdraws its COVID-19 vaccines worldwide due to low demand, after finding that the vaccines can very rarely lead to blood clots. (The Telegraph)

Law and crime

Human trafficking in India
- The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation arrests four people linked to a network of human traffickers who have been luring young men to go to Russia with the promise of jobs or university admission, then forcing them to fight in the war in Ukraine. The Ministry of External Affairs is working with Russia to secure discharges for 20 Indian nationals in the Russian Army. (Al Jazeera)
Two Cambodian and Chinese people are deported from Singapore after being convicted of laundering over S$3 billion (US$2.2 billion), Singapore's largest ever money laundering case. (VnExpress)

Politics and elections

Elected British politicians who have changed party affiliation
- British Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke defects to the opposition Labour Party, citing the Sunak government's failure to stop the English Channel migrant crisis. (Reuters)
The United States House of Representatives vote 359–43 to keep Mike Johnson as House Speaker, defeating an initiative by Marjorie Taylor Greene to have him removed. (Al Jazeera)

Science and technology

Researchers at Google DeepMind announce the development of AlphaFold 3, an AI model that can predict the structures of almost all biological molecules and model the interactions between them. (Time) (Nature)

Sports

2024 Summer Olympics torch relay
- The ship Belem arrives in Marseille, France, with the Olympic flame. (AP)