Portal:Current events/2018 January 15

• Iraqi insurgency (2017–present), January 2018 Baghdad bombings
  • A double suicide bombing kills at least 35 people and injures over 90 in Baghdad, Iraq. (BBC)
• India–Pakistan military confrontation (2016–present)
  • Four Pakistani soldiers are killed in shelling by the Indian Army across the disputed Kashmir frontier. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Turkey threatens to "strangle" the United States-backed Syrian Border Security Force "before it's even born", while Syria vows to crush it and expel American military personnel from the country. Russia called the plans "a plot to dismember Syria". (Reuters)
• Aftermath of the Caracas helicopter incident
  • Two police officers and several gunmen are killed near Caracas in an operation to capture Óscar Pérez, the rogue pilot responsible for the Caracas helicopter incident on June 27, 2017, according to the Venezuelan government. Five people have also been arrested. (BBC)

• Weinstein effect, #MeToo
  • American actress Eliza Dushku says she was sexually assaulted by a stuntman when she was 12 years old. (The Guardian)

• After talks between the company, its lenders, and the United Kingdom's government fail to reach a deal, British multinational facilities management and construction services company Carillion fails and is liquidated, threatening thousands of jobs. Carillion is currently involved in projects such as the high-speed rail in the United Kingdom, including the High Speed 2 rail line. (BBC)
• List of largest rough diamonds
  • A 910 ct "D colour Type II A" diamond is dug up in the Letseng diamond mine, Lesotho. (MiningMX)

• The mezzanine overlooking the main lobby of the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta, Indonesia, collapses, injuring at least 70 people. The Indonesian National Police ruled out terrorism as the cause. (The Australian), (Daily Express)
• The Mayon volcano begins to erupt in the Philippines. (CNN)
• Chirajara bridge collapse
  • A partially completed bridge in Cundinamarca, Colombia, collapses, killing at least 10 workers. (Reuters)
• Sanchi oil tanker collision
  • An oil tanker sinks in the East China Sea after burning for a week, causing a major spill. (Gizmodo)

• 2017–18 North Korea crisis, Korean War
  • A meeting of senior officials from countries that backed South Korea in the Korean War begins today in Vancouver which will look at ways to better implement sanctions to push North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. China and Russia, which backed the North in the war but have since agreed to U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang, will not be attending the meeting. (Reuters)
• Israel–Palestine relations
  • Nabil Shaath, the foreign affairs adviser of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, says that the Palestinian Central Council freezes its recognition of the state of Israel until Israel recognizes Palestine as a state. Palestine will freeze the Oslo accords. (Gulf News)

• Aftermath of the 2013 Lahad Datu standoff
  • Malaysia upholds death sentences for nine Filipino Tausūgs over 2013 incursion in Sabah by a faction of claimant to the Sultanate of Sulu throne. (Reuters)
• A knife fight between students breaks out in a school in Perm, Russia. Twelve injured are reported, with three of them in serious condition. (BBC)
• Two people are arrested in Perris, California, after 13 people aged between 2 and 29 years old are found being held captive at their house, including some "shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks". They are all believed to be siblings. (BBC)
• Chinese espionage in the United States
  • Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officer, is arrested at New York's Kennedy International Airport and held without bail by the Brooklyn federal court. He faces charges that, after he left his job, he kept notebooks filled with classified information about undercover agents and assets which he allegedly used to help China identify informants and dismantle a U.S. spying network. (Reuters) (The New York Times) (The Washington Post)

• Politics of Egypt
  • The nephew of assassinated Egyptian president Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat announces that he will not run in March’s presidential election, blaming an environment of fear surrounding the vote. (The Guardian)
• Politics of Romania
  • Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose resigns after losing the support of the Social Democratic Party. (Reuters)
• Rohingya persecution in Myanmar
  • Win Myat Aye, Myanmar's minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, announced that his country would begin repatriating Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh beginning on January 23, 2018. Burmese officials also promised that a newly built camp for repatriated refugees would also be finished by that date. (The Washington Post) (ABC News)
• Partition and secession in California
  • A group of Californians criticize their state government and declare their desire to form a new U.S. state called New California. (U.S. News & World Report)
• Politics of the United States
  • Nine out of the twelve members of the U.S. National Park Service's advisory board resign out of protest over their treatment by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. (The Washington Post), (NPR)