Portal:Current_events/2018_April_16 Knowpia

April 16, 2018 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Terrorism in Israel
- Petah Tikva resident Zohar Zuaretz is indicted on counterterror charges for far right social media posts in which he spoke of killing Arabs. (The Times of Israel)
- Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman declares the Iliya Institute, a Jerusalem community centre, to be a terror organisation operating on behalf of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. (The Jerusalem Post)
Terrorism in Malaysia
- Malaysia announces the arrest of six alleged Islamic State members accused of plotting to abduct and murder police and assault places of worship. Authorities appeal for information on four more suspects. (Channel NewsAsia)
Syrian Civil War
- Russia denies interfering with the site of a chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria, and says a nine-member Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons team currently waiting in Damascus will be allowed to visit on Wednesday. (BBC)
- Syrian state media SANA reports that the Syrian Air Defense Force has intercepted several missiles fired at Shayrat Airbase in the Homs Governorate. The U.S. denies any involvement. (Haaretz)
2018 Gaza border protests
- Israel announces sanctions on the owners of fourteen bus companies, and their families, in response to the firms transporting Palestinian protestors to the Gaza-Israel border. (The Washington Post)

Arts and culture

2018 Pulitzer Prize
- The annual Pulitzer Prizes, which celebrate US journalism, are awarded. The New York Times wins the most with three. Pieces on Donald Trump and the #MeToo movement feature prominently. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

Grenfell Tower fire
- A leaked draft report by fire investigators BRS Global for the Metropolitan Police reveals new details of mistakes in the construction and refurbishment of Grenfell Tower in London. As well as flammable cladding the report finds errors in window and cavity installation. It concludes the fire would have not spread beyond a single flat and all 71 victims would have survived had refurbishment not been performed, and that victims may also have survived had they sought refuge behind fire doors protecting waste chute rooms on each floor. (The Evening Standard) (The Independent) (The Evening Standard)
Disasters in Indonesia
- A warehouse in Cirebon, Indonesia, collapses onto a neighbouring arts centre where teenagers were preparing for a dance show. At least seven people die, six of them children. (The Straits Times)
- The Indonesia People's Representative Council convenes a meeting to discuss the ongoing oil spill in Balikpapan Bay, East Kalimantan. (Tempo)
Shipping accidents in 2018
- An initial report on a collision between container ships MV Tolten and MV Hamburg Bay near Karachi, Pakistan, that caused millions of rupees in damage and lost cargo last month suggests errors by MV Toltens captain caused the collision and better tug provision by Karachi Port would have prevented it. (Geo)
- Firefighters reopen the sealed Korean fishing ship FV Dong Won 701 in the Port of Timaru, New Zealand, in a bid to finally extinguish the fire that broke out on April 9. (NZCity.co.nz)
Railway accidents in 2018
- Four elephants are killed after being hit by a freight train near a Bagadihi Forest Range area in Jharsuguda district in the Indian state of Odisha. (The Tribune Chandigarh)

Health and environment

An international team researching a plastic-consuming bacterium discovered in 2016 at a Japanese landfill site announce the accidental synthesis of an artificial enzyme that breaks down plastics more efficiently than the bacterium. The team suggest the molecule could be used for environmentally sound plastics disposal. (The Guardian)

International relations

2018 inter-Korean summit
- South Korea is expected to open a press center and online platform in preparations for the summit with North Korea. (The Korean Herald)
- The summit is expected to set the tone for the North Korea–United States summit later this year. (Yonhap News Agency)

Law and crime

Crime in India
- Eight people, including a juvenile and a caretaker for a local temple, go on trial in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, accused of abducting an eight-year-old girl, keeping her captive, sexually abusing her, and murdering her in a high-profile case that has already been the subject of nationwide protests and pretrial Supreme Court proceedings. (The Times of India)
Former President of Andalusia and ex-Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Manuel Chaves González declares before the court as a key figure in the ERE corruption scandal. (El País)
A judge in Ragusa, Sicily, Italy, orders the release of a Proactiva Open Arms migrant search and rescue ship detained in Pozzallo since arriving there on March 18 carrying over 200 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean Sea. Catania prosecutors requested the Spanish ship's detention alleging involvement in illegal immigration after Proactiva refused to hand the migrants over to Libya. (A.N.S.A.)
Police clash with KKE protestors in Athens, Greece, firing tear gas as the crowd uses angle grinders in an attempt to topple a statue of former U.S. President Harry Truman in response to the United States' airstrikes in Syria. Three protestors are injured. (eKathimerini)
South Carolina authorities announce that a riot yesterday at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, Lee County, killed seven inmates and wounded seventeen others. (The Guardian)
Terrorism in Turkey, Turkey–United States relations
- U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson goes on trial in Turkey facing espionage and terrorism charges that carry a maximum prison term of 35 years. (ABC News)
List of journalists killed in Russia
- Russian investigative journalist Maxim Borodin falls from a window in Yekaterinburg and dies. Local officials say the death is non-suspicious but Novy Dens chief editor and international monitor OSCE both say he may have been murdered. (BBC)
The Holocaust
- German prosecutors charge an unidentified 94-year-old ex-Auschwitz guard with aiding and abetting 13,335 murders when he was nineteen. (BBC)

Science and technology

Explorers program
- SpaceX's scheduled launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is delayed until April 18. TESS is designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method and is 400 times more powerful than the Kepler space observatory. (BBC)
China's People's Liberation Army says the nation's J-10C fighter jets have entered combat service. (Xinhua)
Bombardier announces an increase in range for the Global 7000 business aircraft to 7,700 nautical miles, surpassing the Gulfstream G650 as the longest-range private jet. (The Montreal Gazette)
Archaeologists announce the discovery of a treasure haul potentially linked to 10th Century Danish King Harald Bluetooth in Rügen, Germany. The initial finds were made by amateur treasure hunters in January and the total haul is the largest of its type. (BBC)

Sports

2018 Boston Marathon
- Desiree "Desi" Linden becomes the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years. For the men's division, Yuki Kawauchi of Japan became the first Japanese person to win since 1987. (USA Today)

Summary