Portal:Current events/2017 February 3

February 3, 2017 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
- According to Afghan Police, eight of their forces have been killed by the Taliban at a checkpoint in Faryab Province. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Syrian Civil War, American-led intervention in Syria
- At least 47 ISIL militants have been killed by Turkish and U.S.-led bombing raids by fighter jets on the town of al-Bab in the last 24 hours, with the Turkish Armed Forces attacking 135 other ISIL targets in northern Syria. (Al Jazeera)
- Activists say U.S.-led coalition aircraft has destroyed the main pipeline supplying the de facto ISIL capital Al-Raqqah with water. (The New York Times)
2016–17 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar
- The United Nations Human Rights Council releases a report detailing mass atrocities by the military and police forces against Myanmar's Rohingya minority, including gang-rapes, mass killings, and possible ethnic cleansing, which could amount to crimes against humanity. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
- According to Tokyo Electric Power Company, radiations levels within one of the reactors of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, are at its highest level since experiencing a meltdown, with a reading of 530 sieverts an hour. (The Guardian)
The United Nations and various humanitarian groups call on the international community to help prevent a possible famine in Somalia as rising food prices and drought have left over six million people at risk of starvation. (The Guardian)

International relations

Iran–United States relations
- The United States Department of the Treasury announces new sanctions against Iran in response to the latter's recent ballistic missile test. Thirteen people and twelve entities with ties to Iran have been affected. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- In retaliation for the recent travel ban, Iran bars the United States' athletes from the 2017 Wrestling World Cup - Men's freestyle tournament to be held in Kermanshah. (The Washington Post)
Peru–Venezuela relations
- Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's government creates a temporary visa for thousands of Venezuelans whose country is mired in a deep economic crisis. Visa holders will be able to study, work, and receive health services in Peru for a year. "This is part of our migratory policy that aims to build bridges not walls", says Interior Minister Carlos Basombrio. (Reuters)
Per the Afghan government's request, the United Nations drops sanctions against Hezb-e Islami party leader and former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. This potentially sets up his return to Afghanistan, which is part of the country's peace deal with its second largest militant group, signed in September 2016. (Reuters)(BBC)

Law and crime

The High Court of Australia rules that Rod Culleton was ineligible for election as a candidate for Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party in Western Australia in the Federal election and is ineligible to serve in the Senate of Australia. (Canberra Times)
2017 Paris machete attack
- A French Army soldier shoots and wounds a man armed with a knife who was trying to enter an underground shopping area near the Louvre in Paris. The museum was evacuated. (BBC)
U.S. immigration suspension
- United States federal judge James Robart temporarily blocks the so-called travel ban nationwide pending a legal challenge by the government. (Reuters) (NBC News)
  - The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency tells U.S. airlines that they should board travelers who had been blocked by the executive order addressed in Judge Robart's ruling. (Global News) (The New York Times) (The Guardian)
  - The justice department says it will not file for an emergency stay on Friday night. (The Guardian) (Reuters)
- A lawyer for the Justice Department, in a federal court in Virginia, says 100,000 visas have been revoked this week. A State Department spokesperson says the actual number is fewer than 60,000. (NBC News)
- Former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik says he was detained at Dulles Airport earlier this week because he had visited Iran in 2014. A Lutheran minister, Mr. Bondevik was in Washington for meetings associated with the National Prayer Breakfast. (The Nordic Page) (The New York Times)
Political appointments of Donald Trump
- West Point graduate, billionaire businessman, and philanthropist Vincent Viola withdraws his name from consideration as Secretary of the Army because of Defense Department rules concerning his family businesses. (Reuters) (Military Times) (Reuters)
Citing court rulings and privacy laws, the United States Department of Agriculture stops making its records of animal abuse available to the public online, which makes them available exclusively through Freedom of Information Act requests. It has not yet been revealed whether another Agency will now be responsible for the keeping and public hosting of such records. (The Washington Post)