Portal:Current events

Ankara train collision

• A high-speed train crashes at Marşandiz railway station in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least eight people and leaving dozens injured. (BBC)

• An Iranian political activist, Vahid Sayadi Nasiri, who was jailed for his messages on social media has died after spending 60 days on hunger strike. He had been accused of insulting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (BBC)

• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
  • The Afghan National Army abandons the western Shib Koh District after the government failed to resupply troops stationed there. The district, which borders Iran, is now effectively under Taliban control. (Reuters)
  • The Taliban claims responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 12 people, including 8 civilians in Kabul. (Tolo News)
• Two police officers are injured after a man throws a grenade at them at a shopping centre in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia. The attacker and his accomplice are later shot dead. (Xinhuanet)

• Pope Francis removes Australian prelate George Pell and Chilean prelate Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa from the Council of Cardinal Advisers. Both are accused of covering up child sexual abuse scandals. Former Archbishop of Kinshasa Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya also leaves the Council for unrelated reasons. (BBC)

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • Soldiers from North Korea and South Korea peacefully cross the Korean Demilitarized Zone for the first time since it was created in 1953. (CBS News)

• Michael Cohen, the former lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump, is sentenced to three years in prison for making illegal hush money payments to two women with whom Trump allegedly had affairs, and a concurrent sentence of two months for making false statements to Congress about a possible Trump Tower deal in Russia. (South China Morning Post)

• Politics of the United Kingdom, Future Conservative Party leadership election
  • By a vote of 200 to 117, British Prime Minister Theresa May survives a motion of no confidence within the Conservative Party. (BBC)

• 2018 Strasbourg attack
  • A gunman kills three people and injures 12 others in a mass shooting in Strasbourg, France, during the annual Christmas market. The shooter flees the scene but is identified by police as a known extremist. The incident is being treated as an act of terrorism. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian)

• Five U.S. Marines who were missing after two aircraft collided mid-air off the coast of Japan on December 6 are declared dead. (The Japan Times)

• Campinas Cathedral shooting
  • A gunman kills four people and injures four others at a Catholic cathedral in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. The gunman commits suicide after the attack. (BBC) (NBC News)
• Cannabis in New Zealand
  • New Zealand's government passes an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to allow chronic and terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis without facing the possibility of prosecution. (The Guardian)
• In the United Kingdom, a man is tasered by police at the gates of the Palace of Westminster. The area is placed on lockdown. (Daily Telegraph)
• Bill Cosby sexual assault cases
  • The lawyers of Bill Cosby file a list of nearly a dozen alleged trial errors as they appeal his sexual assault conviction and three-to-10-year prison term. (CBS News)
• Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese telecommunications executive wanted by the United States for allegedly trying to circumvent US trade sanctions against Iran, is granted bail with restrictions by a Canadian judge. (CBC)

• Thousands of students at the University of Tirana in Albania demonstrate against tuition fees. The government appeals for calm. (AP via U.S. News & World Report)

• The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Urjit Patel, resigns abruptly. (Reuters)

• Brexit
  • The Court of Justice of the European Union rules that an EU member state's invocation of Article 50 TEU is unilaterally revokable. (BBC)
  • Prime Minister Theresa May announces the deferral of the meaningful vote on the UK's negotiated withdrawal agreement from the European Union that was scheduled for tomorrow. (BBC)
• 164 countries adopt the non-binding Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Marrakech, Morocco. (UPI)

• Death of Grace Millane
  • New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern makes a public apology to the family of Grace Millane, who was murdered in Auckland on 1 or 2 December 2018, saying that "your daughter should have been safe here". (The Guardian)
• Thirty-three people are hospitalized in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy, after pepper spray was fired inside the gym of a school. This is the second pepper spray-related incident in the country in three days. On 8 December, six people died when someone fired the spray inside a nightclub, causing a stampede. (Il Messaggero)
• Russian serial killer and former policeman Mikhail Popkov is convicted of an additional 56 murders between 1992 and 2007. All of his victims were women. (Sky News)
• Russell Bishop is convicted of the murder of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows. He had been tried and found not guilty of the crimes in 1987, but the acquittal was quashed as new evidence in the form of DNA was now available. Bishop had been convicted in December 1990 of the abduction, indecent assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl in February of that year. (The Guardian)
• Nissan, the company's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, and an aide are indicted on charges that Ghosn underreported about ¥5 billion ($44.5 million) of his income. Ghosn's arrest warrant is renewed. (Kyodo News)
• Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr asks for a Canadian passport to travel to Saudi Arabia and speak with his sister Zaynab Khadr. (CBC CA) (Calgary Herald)

• Yellow vests movement
  • French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the country following the yellow vests protests. While refusing to reinstate a wealth tax or back down on the current reform agenda, he promises an increase to the minimum wage and to remove some taxes on low income earners. (Reuters)
• 2018 Armenian parliamentary election
  • Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's My Step Alliance bloc wins 70.4% of the vote. (Armenpress) (Reuters)

• NASA announces that Voyager 2 entered into the interstellar medium after exiting the heliosphere on November 5. (NASA)

• Two people die and 38 others are hospitalized after a fire erupted in a building in Reggio Emilia, Italy. (Gazzetta di Reggio)
• A helicopter crash in eastern Sudan kills Al-Qadarif state governor Mirghani Saleh and at least four other officials. (BBC)
• Severe winter storms in the southeastern United States kill three people and leave 310,000 others without power. (BBC)

• A beaver is seen in Northern Italy on camera, a species that has not been seen in the country since 1471. (CBC)

• Death of Grace Millane
  • The body of missing tourist Grace Millane is found outside of Auckland, New Zealand. (BBC)

• 2018 Armenian parliamentary election
  • Armenian citizens vote in the country's first ever snap election and the first one since the Velvet Revolution. (VOA)

• 2018 UK Championship
  • Ronnie O'Sullivan wins a record seventh UK Championship snooker title after defeating Mark Allen 10–6 in the final at the Barbican Centre, York. (BBC)
• 2018 NFL season
  • In American football, Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals passes Jerry Rice to become the all-time receptions leader with one team. (USA Today)
• 2018 Copa Libertadores
  • In international football, River Plate wins the Copa Libertadores by beating Boca Juniors 3–1 in extra-time (aggregate score 5–3). The final is played at the Bernabéu stadium in Madrid. (BBC)
• 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting
  • In Major League Baseball, the Hall of Fame announces the first members of its 2019 induction class, with Harold Baines and Lee Smith voted in by one of four special committees. They, along with any players elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America in January 2019, will be formally inducted at the Hall's facility in Cooperstown, New York on July 21, 2019. (AP via ESPN)

• Corinaldo stampede
  • Six people are killed and dozens more injured in a human stampede as frantic concertgoers try to exit a packed Lanterna Azzurra club in Corinaldo in Ancona Province, Marche, Italy, after pepper spray is reportedly fired inside the club. (BBC)
• Two buses crash head-on on a highway in Achacachi, Bolivia, leaving at least 17 people dead and 10 injured. (New Zealand Herald)

• Presidency of Donald Trump
  • White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly is set to resign by the end of the month according to U.S. President Donald Trump. (CNN)
  • President Trump announces his nomination of army general Mark A. Milley to succeed marine general Joseph Dunford as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Reuters)
• Yellow vests movement
  • 125,000 people demonstrate across France, according to the Minister of the Interior, with about 89,000 police officers on duty. 1,385 people are detained. Tear gas and pepper spray are used against the protesters and 135 people are injured. (Al Jazeera) (CBC)
• Federal Government of Belgium
  • Prime Minister Charles Michel says that the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party quits the coalition. N-VA cites its disagreement over the signing of the United Nations Global Compact for Migration. Michel plans to continue with a minority cabinet until the next scheduled election. (Het Laatste Nieuws) (Channel News Asia)

• The ULA launch of a Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the NROL-71 mission is called off 7 seconds before liftoff time. (NBC San Diego) (NASA Spaceflight)

• In its second season, Atlanta United FC wins the MLS Cup, defeating the Portland Timbers 2–0 in front of a record crowd of 73,019 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. (The Guardian)

• European migrant crisis
  • Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) rescue vessel Aquarius 2 ends migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea, citing sustained attacks on search and rescue by European governments, particularly Italy. (BBC)

• Eleven people die, including five hostages, as armed police battle robbers who had tried to raid two banks in Milagres, Ceará, Brazil. (BBC)
• Special Counsel investigation (2017–present)
  • American attorney Robert Mueller is set to reveal more details about the Special Counsel investigation as he faces court deadlines in the cases of two men who worked closely with Donald Trump. (Huffington Post)
• Jamaican reggae artist Buju Banton (Mark Anthony Myrie) is released from a U.S. prison and deported back to Jamaica, after serving 7 years of a 10-year drug charge conviction. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Charlottesville car attack
  • A jury finds James Alex Fields guilty of the murder, in the first degree, of Heather Heyer at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Al Jazeera)
• Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou attends a bail hearing in Vancouver while she awaits possible extradition to the United States. She is charged with conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions. (Reuters)

• Political appointments by Donald Trump
  • U.S. President Donald Trump nominates William Barr to be the new United States Attorney General, a position he held under George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993. Heather Nauert, a former journalist and the incumbent Spokesperson for the United States Department of State, is proposed as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Christian Democratic Union of Germany leadership election, 2018
  • Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer succeeds Angela Merkel as the new chairperson of the Christian Democratic Union, one of the major political parties in Germany. (The Guardian)

• Discoveries of exoplanets
  • Scientists from the University of Geneva announce that a previously-known Neptune-sized exoplanet, HAT-P-11b, has a slowly-escaping helium atmosphere. (International Business Times) (Phys.org)
• Chinese Lunar Exploration Program
  • The China National Space Administration successfully launches Chang'e 4 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center which will attempt the first ever robotic landing on the far side of the Moon in 2019. (BBC)