Portal:Current events/2018 December 20

December 20, 2018 (Thursday)

Arts and culture

Parts of the Ventura Freeway in Southern California is renamed as “President Barack H. Obama Highway” in honor of former President Barack Obama. (Pasadena Star News) (ABC News)

Armed conflicts and attacks

International military intervention against ISIL, Syrian Civil War
- Reacting to yesterday's announcement by the United States on the withdrawal of their forces from Syria, France's Defense Minister Florence Parly says on Twitter that ISIL has not yet been driven out of Syria. (Reuters)
Northern Rakhine State clashes
- Myanmar's military announces it will resume "clearance operations" in Rakhine State after a recent spike in attacks by unidentified assailants. In the past week, two Rakhine fishermen and a teenager were found murdered after they were reported missing, while two Maramagyi villagers were kidnapped and stabbed but managed to escape their abductors. (AFP via South China Morning Post) (Radio Free Asia)

Business and economy

Gatwick Airport drone incident
- Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, England, is shut down intermittently since Wednesday night, after drones are seen flying over the airfield. Police believe it is "a deliberate act to disrupt the airport". Hundreds of thousands of passengers are affected. (The Argus) (CNN)

Disasters and incidents

The annual Thomson Reuters poll among aid agencies shows that the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with its war, hunger and Ebola outbreak, is perceived as the most neglected crisis of 2018. The Central African Republic, with its civil war, is a close second. (South China Morning Post)
December 2018 British Columbia storms
- Severe windstorms in Vancouver and Vancouver Island damage houses, damage roads, and destroy a 100 year old pier in White Rock, British Columbia. One person stranded on the pier is rescued by helicopter. Several highways were closed due to trees falling. (Surrey Now)
The Mayor of Skagway, Alaska, Monica Carlson, as well as her mother, are killed after being struck by a tour bus in Washington, D.C. while preparing to visit the White House. (WTOP)

Law and crime

Ten years after the collapse of Belgian financial group Fortis in the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the prosecutor in Brussels decides to drop the case against seven former directors. The prosecution argues that it found insufficient evidence that they knowingly misled shareholders with over-optimistic company information. (Reuters)
Denmark passes a law that requires new citizens to shake hands with a Danish official at their naturalization ceremony. It is widely believed that the law was made to spite potential Muslim immigrants, who usually refuse to shake hands with people of the opposite gender. Several Danish municipalities are openly looking for loopholes in the law. (The New York Times)
Protests break out across Sudan over rising prices of bread and fuel, resulting in at least eight deaths. (Al-Jazeera)
Abortion in the Republic of Ireland
- Irish President Michael D. Higgins signs a bill making abortion legal in the Republic of Ireland for the first time. (Irish Times)

Politics and elections

Cabinet of Donald Trump
- U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis announces his resignation at the end of February 2019. Mattis says that his views are not well "aligned" with those of the President. (Reuters) (CNN)
2018 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election
- The CENI electoral commission delays the election to 30 December after 80% of the voting machines in the capital were destroyed in a suspected arson last week. (NPR)

Science and technology

Soyuz MS-09 lands safely on the steppe in Kazakhstan. (NASASpaceFlight.com)
U.S. researchers say that the Marburg virus has been found for the first time in West African bats, notably in Egyptian rousette fruit bats in Sierra Leone. Marburg is a "cousin" of the Ebola virus disease, which too may be spread by bats. (NBC News)

Sports

Cuba's baseball federation and Major League Baseball reach a deal that will allow Cuban players to compete in the USA without defecting. (BBC)