Portal:Current events/2017 February 9
February 9, 2017 (Thursday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian Civil War, Battle of al-Bab
- At least three soldiers of the Turkish Armed Forces are accidentally killed by a Russian airstrike near al-Bab in northern Syria. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
- The International Committee of the Red Cross announces it will be temporarily halting some of its operations in Afghanistan after gunmen killed six of its workers yesterday. (Al Jazeera)
- An airstrike hits a tunnel in the Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border, killing at least two people and injuring five more. It is unclear who launched the airstrike. (Al Jazeera)
Disasters and accidents
- A fire at the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant in northwest France caused an explosion in a "non-nuclear" part of the station. One reactor was taken offline and five people were affected by fumes. The accident did not cause a radioactive leak. (Reuters)
- February 2017 North American blizzard
- A major blizzard hits the northeastern United States, cancelling more than 2,400 flights. (The Weather Channel)
- A power outage plunges the Belgian capital of Brussels into darkness. (BBC)
International relations
- China–United States relations
- Donald Trump, the President of the United States, agrees to continue the One China Policy after a discussion with Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Washington Post)
- Russia–United States relations
- When Russian President Vladimir Putin, during the January telephone conversation with President Donald Trump, raised the possibility of extending the 2010 New START treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads, President Trump declined, stating that this treaty is a bad deal for the United States. (Reuters) (The Hill)
Law and crime
- U.S. immigration suspension
- The appeal of the Trump administration is denied as the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said it would not block a lower-court ruling that brought the president's executive order to a halt. (BBC)
Politics and elections
- A high court in Kenya blocks a government bid to close the Dadaab refugee camp and repatriate over 260,000 Somali refugees back to Somalia. The government said it will appeal against the ruling. (BBC)
- 2017 Romanian protests
- Romanian Justice Minister Florin Iordache resigns after losing the support of Prime-Minister Sorin Grindeanu. (Reuters)
- President of the Senate Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu notifies the Constitutional Court claiming a judicial conflict of a constitutional nature between the Government of Romania and the Public Ministry, through the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA). (actmedia)
- Democrat Congressman Jerrold Nadler files a Resolution of Inquiry motion aimed at clarifying Donald Trump's relationship to Russia as well as potential conflicts of interest arising from his businesses. (The Washington Post)