Portal:Current events/2017 July 18

July 18, 2017 (Tuesday)

Disasters and accidents

Earthquakes in 2017
- A 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, west of the Alaskan Aleutian Island of Attu, in the North Pacific Ocean. No immediate reports of casualties or damage; a tsunami warning was cancelled. (Reuters) (AP) (USGS)
Glaciers in Switzerland
- A shrinking glacier in Switzerland has revealed two frozen bodies believed to be of a couple who went missing in 1942 and had never been found, despite extensive searches. Swiss authorities said that a DNA test will be conducted in several days' time. (BBC News)

International relations

Ukrainian crisis
- DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko announced that the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) would form a new state called Malorossiya (Little Russia) as an official successor to what he called the "failed state" of Ukraine, with Donetsk replacing Kiev as the country's capital. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky denounced the plans. (ABC News) (The Telegraph)

Law and crime

Judicial system of Turkey
- Turkey arrests six people, including the director of Amnesty International, for allegedly "helping an armed terrorist organisation". (Al Jazeera)
Corruption in Spain
- The President of Spanish Football Federation and Vicepresident of FIFA and UEFA, Ángel María Villar, is arrested with his son amid a corruption scandal. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Politics of Australia
- Canadian-born Larissa Waters resigns as a Senator, and as deputy leader of the Australian Greens, after discovering she remains a dual citizen of Canada, rendering her election unconstitutional under section 44. The move comes four days after Scott Ludlam, Waters' co-deputy, resigned due to his New Zealand citizenship. (Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
Bermudian general election, 2017
- Voters in Bermuda go to the polls to elect their Premier and members of the House of Assembly. (The Royal Gazette)
Efforts to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
- A Republican Senate bill to repeal and replace large portions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act fails to win enough support to pass. (The New York Times)