Portal:Current events/2022 May 16

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russo-Ukrainian War
  • 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • Battle of Kharkiv
      • Ukraine says that its troops have pushed back Russian forces in a counter-offensive, reaching the border with Russia. Kharkiv governor Oleh Synyehubov confirms that Ukrainian forces have restored control of a border crossing with Russia in the region. (Reuters)
    • Siege of Mariupol
      • Five buses and an armored personnel carrier evacuate several hundred soldiers from the Azovstal steel works following negotiations with the Russian Armed Forces. The evacuated soldiers will be exchanged for Russian prisoners of war. (BBC News) (Reuters)
    • The Russian Defence Ministry says that its forces have shot down three Ukrainian Air Force warplanes, including a Su-25 over Mykolaiv and a Su-24 strike jet near Snake Island in the Black Sea. (Reuters)
• Somali Civil War
  • American military intervention in Somalia
    • U.S. President Joe Biden announces that American troops will be redeployed to Somalia, reversing a previous order under former President Donald Trump. (ABC News)

Business and economy

• 2022 boycott of Russia and Belarus
  • McDonald's announces that it has begun the process of selling all of its restaurants in Russia citing the "humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine", as the reason for ending operations in the country after 32 years. It is later announced that these restaurants will reopen under a new brand in mid-June, and that their menus will be retained. (Reuters) (TASS)
• The Russian ruble approaches a 5-year high against the Euro to become "the world's best-performing currency so far this year" as foreign currency supply exceeds demand. (Reuters)
• Commercial flights from Sanaa International Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, resume after six years. The Yemenia flight carried 151 passengers to the Jordanian capital Amman. (France 24)

Disasters and accidents

• Wildfires in 2022
  • 2022 New Mexico wildfires
    • The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire in New Mexico, U.S, grows to 300,000 acres, becoming the largest wildfire in the state's history. (CNN)
• Fourteen people are killed and 19 others are injured after a tourist bus crashes into a billboard in Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia. (AP)
• One person is killed and 85 others are injured after a cargo train collides with a passenger train in Catalonia, Spain. (AP)

Law and crime

• The Ghanaian Ministry of Defence warns that the possibility of a terrorist attack occuring in the country is "very real" and that the country's defence system has been placed on high alert. (Yen.com.gh) (GhanaWeb)

Politics and elections

• Enlargement of NATO
  • Sweden–NATO relations
    • Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson confirms the decision her party made on Sunday and formally announces Sweden's intent to join NATO. (The Guardian)
    • In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin warns that Russia will react to the "expansion of military infrastructure" by NATO in Sweden and Finland, saying that "problems are being created for no reason at all. We shall react accordingly". (Sky News)
• Borne government
  • French Minister of Labour Élisabeth Borne is appointed by President Emmanuel Macron as the new Prime Minister of France, succeeding Jean Castex. (Le Monde in English)

Sports

• Homosexuality in association football
  • Homosexuality in English football
    • Blackpool F.C. midfielder Jake Daniels becomes the first professional football player in the United Kingdom to come out as gay since 1990. (The Independent)