Portal:Current events/2023 August 15

August 15, 2023 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2023 Sudan conflict
- Battle of Nyala
  - Three people are killed and 30 others are injured in a shootout and subsequent shelling at a hospital south of Nyala, South Darfur, Sudan. (AllAfrica)
  - Clashes begin again in Nyala, with at least 43 people confirmed dead and dozens more injured. (AllAfrica)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Two Palestinians combatants, including a 16-year old, are killed during a raid by Israeli soldiers in Jericho, in the occupied West Bank. (AP)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- 2022–2023 Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
  - Russia launches a large-scale airstrike on Lviv and northwestern Volyn Oblast, killing at least three civilians and injuring more than a dozen others. (Reuters)
- 2022–2023 western Russia attacks
  - Bryansk Oblast Governor Alexander Bogomaz says that Russian soldiers and security services stopped a Ukrainian sabotage group from infiltrating the border near the village of Kurkovichi. (AFP via Al Arabiya)
- Poland displays its weapons and defense systems at a military parade in Warsaw involving 2,000 troops, 200 vehicles and 100 aircraft. (AP)

Business and economy

2023 Brazil blackout
- Brazil is affected by a nationwide blackout, with all of the states connected to the national energy system impacted. The state of Roraima is unaffected as it has its own energy system. The cause of the outage is still unknown. (The Brazilian Report)
Economy of China
- The Chinese national statistics office announces that retail sales increased by 2.5% year on year in July, while industrial production increased by 3.7% and unemployment increased to 5.3%. However, further releases of statistics on age-specific data will be suspended. (AFP via CNA)
- The Chinese central bank lowers the medium-term lending facility rate, which is the interest rate on one-year loans to financial institutions, to 2.5%. (Reuters)
Economy of Kenya
- Kenya's government debt surges to a record KSh 10.1 trillion (US$70.75 billion), surpassing its KSh 10 trillion debt limit, attributed to external debt and currency fluctuations. President William Ruto's response to the country's financial crisis has been met with months of civil disorder. (AFP via RFI)
Sri Lankan economic crisis
- Sri Lanka permits the importation of buses and trucks, reversing a part of its 2020 vehicle import ban initiated due to foreign exchange shortages, while bans on cars, motorcycles, and three-wheeled motor scooters persist pending improved foreign reserves. (AFP via New Straits Times)

Disasters and accidents

Wildfires in 2023
- 2023 Canadian wildfires
  - A state of emergency is declared in Canada's Northwest Territories as wildfires spread closer to the territorial capital Yellowknife. The hamlet of Enterprise, South Slave Region, is almost completely destroyed due to the fires. (Reuters)
- 2023 Hawaii wildfires
  - In the United States, Maui County officials including Governor Josh Green say that that the death toll of the wildfires have reached 106. (Hawaii News Now) (Maui Now)
2023 North India floods
- At least 65 people are killed and 20 others are missing after flooding and landslides in northern India. (AFP via France 24)
2023 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Lan makes landfall in western Japan. (The New York Times)

Law and crime

2023 Ecuadorian general election
- Pedro Briones, a local leader of the Citizen Revolution Movement, is assassinated by gunmen in the northern province of Esmeraldas. (AP)
Child welfare advocates in the United States file a federal lawsuit to require the Biden administration to block imports of products containing cocoa harvested by children in West Africa, alleging that Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security have ignored evidence of the existence of these imports. (AP)
Former Malaysian prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin is acquitted by the high court of four corruption charges of obtaining bribes for his political party. (AP)

Sports