Portal:Current events/2023 April 26

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Battle of Donbas
    • Russia uses its T-14 Armata main battle tanks in combat against Ukrainian forces for the first time. (Reuters)
  • China and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • Chinese leader Xi Jinping calls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with both countries announcing the dispatch of representatives to establish a diplomatic presence after the call. (NPR)
• Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
  • 2023 Dantewada bombing
    • Ten policemen and a civilian driver are killed when a bomb planted by suspected Maoist militants explodes in Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh, India. (Reuters)
• Iranian ayatollah and Assembly of Experts member Abbas-Ali Soleimani is assassinated in a shooting at a bank in Babolsar, Mazandaran province. The perpetrator, a security guard at the bank, has been arrested by police. (BBC News)
• Six Iranian demonstrators are injured in clashes in Fanuj, Sistan and Baluchistan province, after a teenager was killed when his motorcycle collided with a police car. (RFE/RL)

Business and economy

• Proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft
  • The United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority blocks Microsoft's $68.7bn (£55bn) acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying that the deal will leave video gamers with less choice and will reduce innovation. (BBC News)

Health and environment

• 2022–2023 mpox outbreak
  • Pakistan reports their first case of mpox. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• Capital punishment in Singapore
  • Singapore executes Tangaraju Suppiah for plotting to smuggle 1 kilogram of cannabis into the country. His execution, the country's first this year, drew significant pleas for clemency, including from the United Nations. (BBC News)
• Salvadoran gang crackdown
  • El Salvador opens a trial against former president Mauricio Funes for initiating a truce with street gangs during his presidency. Funes, who is currently living in Nicaragua, will not attend the trial. (AP)
• A Brazilian judge orders a temporary shutdown of social media app Telegram over its failure to provide information on Neo-Nazi chat groups to the Federal Police of Brazil. (AP)

Politics and elections

• 2023 United States debt-ceiling crisis
  • By a vote of 217–215, the United States House of Representatives passes a bill that would raise the United States debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for spending restrictions. (AP)
• English Channel migrant crossings
  • The House of Commons of the United Kingdom passes the Illegal Migration Bill by a vote of 289–230 despite opposition from some members of the ruling Conservative Party. (BBC News)
• Zooey Zephyr, the first openly transgender member of the Montana House of Representatives, is censured by the Republican-led chamber on a party-line vote following her protest of anti-transgender legislation. Zephyr will be barred from debate until the May legislative session. (KXLH-TV)

Sports

• 2023 NBA playoffs
  • In basketball, the eight seed Miami Heat defeat the Milwaukee Bucks, who held the best record of the season at 58–24, in five games. The loss was widely described as one of the greatest upsets in NBA history. (ESPN)