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Former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger dies at the age of 100.
- Henry Alfred Kissinger ( KISS-ən-jər; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger; May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat, political scientist, geopolitical consultant, and politician who served as United States secretary of state and national security advisor in the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford between 1969 and 1977. (more)
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The Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, wins the most seats in the Dutch general election.
- Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2023 to elect the members of the House of Representatives. The elections had been expected to be held in 2025 but a snap election was called after the fourth Rutte cabinet collapsed on 7 July 2023 due to immigration policy disagreements. The incumbent prime minister Mark Rutte announced that he would not lead his party into the election and retired from politics. (more)
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The novel Prophet Song by Paul Lynch wins the Booker Prize.
- Prophet Song is a 2023 dystopian novel by Irish author Paul Lynch, published by Oneworld. The novel depicts the struggles of the Stack family, including Eilish Stack, a mother of four who is trying to save her family as the Republic of Ireland slips into totalitarianism. The narrative is told in an unconventional manner, in which there are no paragraph breaks.
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All 41 workers trapped in a road tunnel collapse in Uttarakhand, India, are rescued after 17 days underground.
- On 12 November 2023, a section of the Silkyara Bend–Barkot tunnel, planned to connect National Highway 134 in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, India, caved in while under construction. The collapse occurred at around 05:30 IST and trapped 41 workers inside the tunnel. (more)
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In motorcycle racing, Francesco Bagnaia wins the MotoGP World Championship.
- The 2023 FIM MotoGP World Championship was the premier class of the 75th Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) Road Racing World Championship season, the highest level of competition in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. The season saw the introduction of sprints on Saturdays, a short-form race of approximately half the length of the main event, in addition to the traditional Grand Prix event on Sundays. (more)
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Somalia is admitted as the eighth member of the East African Community.
- The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation composed of eight countries in East Africa. The member states are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Federal Republic of Somalia, the republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda, as well as the United Republic of Tanzania. Salva Kiir Mayardit, the president of South Sudan, is the current EAC chairman. The organisation was founded in 1967, collapsed in 1977, and was revived on 7 July 2000. (more)
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Israel–Hamas war (ongoing)
- An ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been taking place chiefly in and around the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, with clashes also taking place in the West Bank and Israel–Lebanon border. On that day, Hamas-led Palestinian militants launched a multi-pronged invasion of southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The surprise attack comprised a barrage of rockets, while around 3,000 militants breached the Gaza–Israel barrier and attacked Israeli military bases and civilian population centers. At least 846 Israeli civilians and 324 soldiers and police were killed during the attacks, while an estimated 240 Israeli and foreign nationals were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. As of 11 October, at least 44 countries have condemned the attack as a terrorist attack, while other countries have placed the responsibility on Israel and criticized it for occupying Palestinian lands. Hamas stated that its attack was in response to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, rising Israeli settler violence and recent escalations. After clearing Hamas militants, the Israeli military responded by conducting an extensive aerial bombardment campaign in which 6,000 bombs were dropped on Gazan targets over six days and by imposing a total blockade of the Gaza Strip followed by a large-scale ground invasion of Gaza. (more)
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Myanmar civil war (ongoing)
- The Myanmar civil war, also called the Myanmar Spring Revolution and the People's Defensive War, is an ongoing civil war following Myanmar's long-running insurgencies which escalated significantly in response to the 2021 military coup d'état and the subsequent violent crackdown on anti-coup protests. (more)
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Russian invasion of Ukraine (ongoing)
- On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014. The invasion was the largest attack on a European country since World War II. It is estimated to have caused tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of military casualties. By June 2022, Russian troops occupied about 20% of Ukrainian territory. About 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage caused by the war, widely described as an ecocide, contributed to food crises worldwide.
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War in Sudan (ongoing)
- A war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), rival factions of the military government of Sudan, began on 15 April 2023, with the fighting concentrated around the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region. As of October 2023, between 9,000 and 10,000 people had been killed and 6,000 to 12,000 others injured. As of 24 October 2023, over 4.8 million were internally displaced and more than 1.3 million others had fled the country as refugees, and many civilians in Darfur have been reported dead as part of the 2023 Masalit massacres. The war began with attacks by the RSF on government sites as airstrikes, artillery, and gunfire were reported across Sudan. Throughout the conflict, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo and Sudan's de facto leader and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have disputed control of government sites in Khartoum, including the general military headquarters, the Presidential Palace, Khartoum International Airport, Burhan's official residence, and the SNBC headquarters, as well as states and towns in Darfur and Kordofan. The two sides were then joined by rebel groups who had previously fought against the two sides. Starting in June, the SPLM-N (al-Hilu) attacked army positions in the south of the country. In July, a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Mustafa Tambour (SLM-T) officially joined the war in support of the SAF, while in August, the rebel Tamazuj movement based in Darfur and Kordofan joined forces with the RSF. In November, the largest SLM faction, led by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM), declared war on the RSF, alongside the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). (more)