Portal:Current events/2018 April 10
April 10, 2018 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian Civil War
- 2018 Douma chemical attack
- Anonymous U.S. officials say the United States is considering a multinational military response against Syrian government forces, with experts saying that France, the United Kingdom, and Middle Eastern allies would be considered to help. (Reuters)
- Eurocontrol warns airlines to operate with care over the Mediterranean Sea owing to planned airstrikes in Syria. (Reuters)
- 2018 Douma chemical attack
- Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
- Yulia Skripal is released from hospital. Russia says it will view any resettlement efforts by the United Kingdom as "abduction." (Sky News)
- 2018 Gaza border protests
- An Israeli Defence Forces investigation clears a sniper who fired a single bullet through the Gazan border fence, striking a Palestinian, but criticises a second soldier who filmed the incident and cheered. Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman says Israel has the world's most moral army and soldiers occasionally "let out some tension". (The Times of Israel)
- New York police arrest members of Jewish group IfNotNow during a protest against Israeli actions. IfNotNow members were blockading a local politician, and have previously chained themselves to the Israeli consulate. (The Jewish Telegraphic Agency) (The Times of Israel)
- Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman calls Gazan journalist Yasser Murtaja, shot dead by Israel while covering border protests, as a "Hamas terrorist" engaged in intelligence gathering against the Israeli military. (The Times of Israel)
- Greek soldiers fire warning shots at a Turkish helicopter over the Aegean Sea after it approaches the island of Ro. (The Telegraph)
- France claims that a Russian military plane made a low pass over the warship Aquitaine off the Lebanese coast, claiming the aircraft was in deliberate breach of international law. (The Jerusalem Post)
- Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- A Yemeni human rights group files a war crimes complaint against Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Paris as the prince visits France. (Sputnik News)
- Terrorism in Italy
- A car bomb in Limbadi, near Vibo Valentia, Calabria, kills local politician Matteo Vinci and leaves his elderly father critically injured. (ANSA)
- Police say an improvised explosive device exploded overnight at a Unicredit bank in Bologna, with the bomber leaving behind graffiti criticising Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (ANSA)
- Terrorism in Russia
- Russian Federal Security Service head Alexander Bortnikov says the FSB has foiled six terror attacks in 2018 so far, including plots targeting polling stations and a shopping centre. (TASS)
- Terrorism in the United States
- United States Federal Prosecutors file a request to sentence Enrique Marquez, who purchased rifles used in a 2015 terror attack in California, to 25 years in prison. (AP via U.S. News & World Report)
- 2016–present purges in Turkey, HDP repression:, Terrorism in Turkey
- An appeals court in Turkey hands opposition Peoples' Democratic Party MP Burcu Çelik Özkan a sentence of more than seven years in prison for terrorism propaganda. She had previously received a six-year sentence for pro-Kurdistan Workers' Party activity, but the case has been retried following an appeal. (Ahval News)
- 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
- The Civil Guard arrests one woman and warrants a man from the Committees for the Defense of the Republic, focused on the defense of Catalan Republic, accused of terrorism and sedition. (El País)
Arts and culture
- List of Japanese supercentenarians
- Japanese supercentenarian Masazo Nonaka is confirmed as the world's oldest living man. (Sky News)
Business and economy
- Hungarian parliamentary election, 2018
- Hungarian businessman Lajos Simicska shuts down daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet after 80 years in print, and Lánchíd Rádió in response to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán winning a third consecutive parliamentary supermajority. Simicska was a former supporter of Orbán until he fell out with the Prime Minister in 2015. (Bloomberg)
- Economy of India
- Jet Airways withdraws from the race to acquire debt-ridden state-owned Air India. (Arabian Business)
Disasters and accidents
- Shipwrecks in 2018
- Firefighters contain a fire on FV Dong Won 701 in the Port of Timaru, New Zealand. The ongoing blaze, which broke out yesterday, has injured three people. (The New Zealand Herald)
- A court in Istanbul issues a warrant for the seizure of MV Vitaspirit, a Maltese tanker that crashed into a historic waterfront mansion on the Bosphorus on April 7, until the mansion's owners receive US$50 million. (Hurriyet Daily News)
- Humboldt Broncos bus crash
- The Alberta Transportation Ministry suspends operations by Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd pending investigation into a crash with a bus which killed 15 people. (Global News)
- US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211
- Nepalese investigators release their preliminary report into the disaster. (The Aviation Herald)
- Two buses collide head-on in Luton, England, resulting in thirteen people injured. (Sky News)
- A French military jet accidentally drops an inert bomb on a car factory in Nogent-sur-Vernisson, France. Two are injured and gendarmes evacuate 150. (The Express)
- Thousands are left without power and flights are grounded after a powerful storm hits Auckland, New Zealand. (Radio New Zealand)
- A 53-metre (174 ft) tower collapses the wrong way during demolition in Vordingborg, Denmark, severely damaging many buildings, including a cultural centre. (The Independent)
- 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
- Poland's ruling Law and Justice unveils a new monument on the eighth anniversary of the disaster, which killed 96 including then-President Lech Kaczyński near Smolensk, Russia. Initial investigations primarily blamed errors on the flight crew but Poland is conducting a new investigation with a new report expected to claim Russian air traffic controllers purposely misled the jet about its location before it was destroyed in an explosion. (Radio Poland)
- Law and Justice's Jarosław Kaczyński, twin brother of ex-President Lech, calls off Marches of Remembrance held in Warsaw every month since the disaster, saying they are not needed owing to the new monument. (Poland Radio)
International relations
- Israel–Russia relations
- 2017–18 Qatar diplomatic crisis
- U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and praises the nation's efforts to combat terrorism, reversing his previous stance that Qatar funded terrorists at a "high level". Qatar and its neighbours are presently disputing the level and nature of terrorism in Qatar. (Fox News)
- Terrorism in Malaysia, Terrorism in the United States
- Judges from the United States meet with counterparts in Malaysia to discuss strategies for prosecuting terrorists. (The New Straits Times)
- Israel extends the area fishermen from southern Gaza are allowed to operate in from six miles offshore to nine miles offshore for three months. Restrictions remain unaffected in northern Gaza. (The Times of Israel)
Law and crime
- Indonesia announces the capture of MV STS-50, a stateless vessel wanted by Interpol for illegal fishing, and her crew following a chase. MV STS-50 previously evaded capture in Mozambique and escaped after being detained in China. Following the ship's detention Indonesia launches a slavery investigation into working conditions on board. (Channel NewsAsia) (The Independent)
- Inn Din massacre
- Seven Myanmar Army soldiers are convicted of murder and sentenced to ten years in prison for their participation in the execution of ten Rohingyas in Inn Din. (Reuters)
- Ukraine detains a Russian ship in Odesa suspected of illegally extracting sand. (TASS)
- An Italian judge says a mafia clan has been plotting the murder of Spia.it journalist Paolo Borrometi. Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni voices his support to the journalist. (ANSA)
- Terrorism in Iraq
- An al-Hashd al-Shaabi commander announces the deaths of 90 Islamic State members in Kirkut, Iraq. (Iraqi News)
Politics and elections
- Presidency of Donald Trump
- U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert resigns at the request of National Security Advisor John R. Bolton. (CNBC)
- 2018 Kemerovo fire
- Aman Tuleyev, who resigned as governor of Kemerovo Oblast after a shopping centre fire killed 64 people there, is elected speaker of the regional legislature. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Ali Najafi resigns from his post after eight months in the office. His last resignation was rejected by the City Council. (Radio Farda)
- Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal
- United States senators question Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the various controversies the social network is dealing with, including recent disclosures concerning Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook data. (Los Angeles Times), (Wall Street Journal)
Science and technology
- Discoveries of exoplanets
- Four new Hot Jupiter exoplanets are discovered: HATS-39b, HATS-40b, HATS-41b and HATS-42b. (Phys.org)
- The Scott Polar Research Institute announces a mission planned for 2019 to search for Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's famed lost ship Endurance, which sank in 1914 leading to a multi-year rescue operation. (The Independent)
- Proxima Centauri b, an Earth-like exoplanet, is hit with a deadly superflare. (ARS technica)