Portal:Current events/2018 April 23

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2018 Gaza border protests
  • Two more Palestinian protestors, aged 18 and 20, die from wounds sustained in clashes at the Israeli–Gazan border. Both were shot by Israeli troops. (US News)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • A Saudi-led coalition airstrike kills Yemen's Supreme Political Council president Saleh Ali al-Sammad. He was considered the most senior Houthi official in Sana'a. (BBC)
  • An airstrike hits a wedding procession in Bani Qa'is District in Yemen's northwestern Hajjah Governorate, killing between 22 and 33 people, according to Yemeni health officials. (South China Morning Post)
• 2018 Toronto van attack
  • A van strikes a group of pedestrians in Toronto, Canada, killing ten and injuring sixteen. According to the Toronto Police Service, the driver, who fled the scene, was later arrested. (BBC) (Globe News) (The Guardian) (BBC)

Arts and culture

• Freedom of speech in Egypt
  • United Nations cultural authority UNESCO awards imprisoned Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid the 2018 Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, drawing criticism from Egypt. Abu Zeid faces the death penalty. (The Straits Times)
• Israeli lawmakers Yuval Steinitz and Oren Hazan accuse Jerusalem-born actress Natalie Portman of antisemitism and seek to revoke her citizenship with Hazan calling her a "little hyprocrite liar" after she decides not to travel to Israel and accept the US$2 million Genesis Prize. (i24 News)
• Beverley Folk Festival in England collapses into administration. (NME)
• Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to her and the Duke's third child and second boy; the child is fifth in line to the British throne. (BBC)

Business and economy

• Underwater engineering firm Subsea 7 begins negotiations to acquire offshore company McDermott International, offering US$2 billion for it. (Splash 24/7)
• The Finnish government decides not to expand a small two-year trial of universal basic income. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

• List of shipwrecks in 2018
  • Ferry operator DFDS has discontinued their Rosyth – Zeebrugge ferry service. DFDS says it is no longer profitable to operate the route. The change follows a fire aboard the MV Finlandia Seaways a day before. The Scottish government seeks urgent talks between DFDS and Transport Secretary Humza Yousaf. (BBC)
• 2018 North Korea bus accident
  • A bus crash in North Hwanghae, North Korea, kills 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans. A further two people are seriously injured. (The Independent)
• Southwest Airlines Flight 1380
  • Southwest Airlines cancels 128 flights in addition to 40 cancelled yesterday as it inspects the CFM56-7B engines mounted to its Boeing 737 fleet following a fatal accident. (NBC News)
• 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
  • European Commission President Donald Tusk testifies in Warsaw about the disaster which killed 96 including then-President Lech Kaczynski. Tusk was Prime Minister at the time. He is locked in disputes with Law and Justice over the crash. (The Independent)

Health and environment

• Doctors at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, perform the world's first successful transplant of a penis and scrotum from a deceased donor to a U.S. soldier injured in Afghanistan. The testicles are not transplanted. (BBC)

International relations

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • South Korea ceases loudspeaker broadcasts directed at soldiers over the North Korean border ahead of a planned meeting later this week between leaders Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un. (i24 News)
• Nicaragua–United States relations
  • The U.S. State Department orders the families of U.S. diplomats in Nicaragua to leave amid riots by protestors against proposed pension changes. President Daniel Ortega has scrapped the changes but further protests are nonetheless anticipated. (BBC)

Law and crime

• Bosnian War
  • Radovan Karadžić starts his appeal against his conviction for genocide and other wartime crimes at the UN court at The Hague. (Balkan Transitional Justice)
• Freedom of speech in the United Kingdom
  • Scottish YouTuber Mark "Count Dankula" Meechan is fined £800 for a racially aggravated offence under the Communications Act for a video of a pug dog responding to Nazi slogans. Protests are held outside Airdrie Sheriff Court and English Defence League ex-leader Tommy Robinson sits in court to support Meechan. (BBC)
• Murder of Stephen Lawrence
  • UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces that henceforth April 22 will be marked nationally as Stephen Lawrence Day to commemorate the black teenager murdered 25 years ago in a racist assault. The high-profile crime led to the Metropolitan Police being labeled "institutionally racist". (BBC) (The Telegraph)
• Death of Kim Wall
  • Danish prosecutors seek a life sentence for Peter Madsen, accused of murdering a Swedish journalist on board his self-built submarine. Psychiatric evidence describes Madsen as presenting "psychopathic traits" and a "high risk" of offending further. (The Straits Times)
• Nashville Waffle House shooting
  • Travis Reinking, suspected of shooting and killing four people in a Waffle House restaurant in Antioch, Tennessee, is captured following a police manhunt. (Yahoo! News)
• Piracy in the 21st century
  • The owners of the Dutch ship MV FWN Rapide announce the ship was attacked by pirates last night while sailing from Ghana to Nigeria and 12 of the crew abducted. (Splash 24/7)
• November 2015 Paris attacks
  • Suspect Salah Abdeslam and a co-defendant are convicted of attempting to murder police officers and terror offences in Belgium, with each receiving a 20-year sentence. Abdeslam is being held in France awaiting trial for the 2015 attacks. (BBC)

Politics and elections

• 2018 Armenian protests
  • Serzh Sargsyan resigns as Armenia's prime minister after eleven days of large street protests against him. (The Guardian)
• Mausoleum of Reza Shah
  • A mummified body is found at Shahr-e Rey which Iranian media reports possibly belongs to former country's king, Reza Shah. His mausoleum was destroyed after 1979 Revolution. (The Daily Sabah)
• Politics of Malawi
  • Former Malawian President Joyce Banda announces she is to return from three years of exile amid a corruption scandal. (Euronews)

Science and technology

• Discoveries of exoplanets
  • A study reveals that WASP-104b, a hot Jupiter exoplanet, is darker than charcoal and absorbs 99% of light. (The Inquisitr) (I4U)

Sports

• 2018 London Marathon
  • It is confirmed runner Matt Campbell, a former MasterChef semifinalist, died in hospital after collapsing during yesterday's London Marathon. The race was the hottest since the annual event began. (BBC)