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British actress Maggie Smith dies at the age of 89.
- Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (28 December 1934 – 27 September 2024) was a British actress known for her wit in both comedic and dramatic roles. She had an extensive career on stage and screen for over seven decades and was one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for six Olivier Awards. Smith is one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.
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Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Israel invades Lebanon, and Iran launches missiles against Israel.
- On 1 October 2024, Israel began an invasion of southern Lebanon in an escalation of the ongoing Israel–Hezbollah conflict, a result of the spillover of the Israel–Hamas war. It followed a series of major attacks on Hezbollah in September that degraded its capabilities and devastated its leadership; beginning with the explosions of its communication devices, followed by an Israeli aerial bombing campaign targeting Hezbollah throughout Lebanon, and culminating in the 27 September assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
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- On 1 October 2024, Iran launched 181 ballistic missiles at targets in Israel in at least two waves, marking the largest attack during the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict. The missile attack was codenamed Operation True Promise 2 (Persian: عملیات وعده صادق ۲) by Iran. It was the second direct attack by Iran against Israel after the April 2024 strikes.
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Shigeru Ishiba becomes Prime Minister of Japan after winning the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election.
- Shigeru Ishiba (Japanese: 石破 茂, Hepburn: Ishiba Shigeru, born 4 February 1957) is a Japanese politician who has served as the 65th prime minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2024, succeeding Fumio Kishida. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1986 and has served as Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2008 and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from 2008 to 2009, as well as being the secretary-general of the LDP from 2012 to 2014.
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In Australian rules football, the Brisbane Lions defeat the Sydney Swans to win the AFL Grand Final.
- The 2024 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football match that was contested between the Sydney Swans and the Brisbane Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, 28 September 2024. It was the 129th annual grand final of the Australian Football League (AFL), staged to determine the premiers of the 2024 AFL season. The match was attended by 100,013 spectators, a record for an AFL match between two non-Victorian teams. Brisbane won by a margin of 60 points, marking the club's fourth AFL premiership. Will Ashcroft of the Lions was awarded the Norm Smith Medal as the best player on the ground.
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Flooding in Nepal leaves more than 250 people dead, including 37 in the nation's capital, Kathmandu.
- Torrential rainfall during the annual monsoon season in early July, mid August, and late September 2024 caused significant flooding across Nepal as well as several mudslides. The September floods, which caused the most damage and deaths, were caused by the heaviest rainfall recorded in the region since at least 1970, itself the result of climate changes and specifically a low-pressure system. The impact of the floods was further increased by poor infrastructure and settlement planning, including unplanned construction on floodplains.
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More than 25 people die in flooding and landslides in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- On the night of 3–4 October 2024, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina was struck by floods caused by an atmospheric river produced over the Adriatic Sea. Over the course of the night, several central towns were flooded. A number of towns and villages were inaccessible as roads, bridges, and railways were blocked by water and landslides. It is the country's worst flooding since 2014. As of 5 October, 25 people died and dozens are missing.
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Israel–Hamas war (ongoing)
- An armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been taking place in the Gaza Strip and Israel since 7 October 2023. It is the fifth war of the Gaza–Israel conflict since 2008, and the most significant military engagement in the region since the Yom Kippur War, in 1973. It is the deadliest war for Palestinians in the history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
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Israel–Hezbollah conflict (ongoing)
- Exchange of strikes between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have been occurring along the Israel–Lebanon border and in Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights since 8 October 2023. It is part of the spillover of the Israel–Hamas war and is the largest escalation of the Hezbollah–Israel conflict since the 2006 Lebanon War.
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Russian invasion of Ukraine (ongoing)
- On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which started in 2014. The invasion, the largest conflict in Europe since World War II, has caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties. As of 2024, Russian troops occupy about 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, 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.
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Sudanese civil war (ongoing)
- A civil war between two major rival factions of the military government of Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies (collectively the Janjaweed coalition) under the Janjaweed leader Hemedti, began during Ramadan on 15 April 2023. Three minor (neutral) factions have participated in the fighting: Darfur Joint Protection Force, SLM (al-Nur) under Abdul Wahid al-Nur, and SPLM-N under Abdelaziz al-Hilu. Fighting has been concentrated around the capital city of Khartoum (largest and initial battle of the war) and the Darfur region. As of 8 September 2024, at least 20,000 people had been killed and 33,000 others were injured. As of 5 July 2024, over 7.7 million were internally displaced and more than 2.1 million others had fled the country as refugees, and many civilians in Darfur have been reported dead as part of the Masalit massacres.
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