Portal:Current events/2018 December 21

December 21, 2018 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Colombian conflict
- Ecuadorian drug trafficker and FARC dissident Walter Arizala is killed in a joint police and military operation near Tumaco. Arízala was wanted for the murder of two Ecuadorian journalists earlier in the year. (BBC)

Business and economy

Gatwick Airport drone incident
- Two people are arrested by Sussex Police and charged with "criminal use of drones". (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

At least 23 people are killed and 14 injured in Dang Deukhuri District, Nepal, when a bus carrying students and their teachers returning from a botanical trip runs off a road and plunges 700 meters into a ravine. (BBC)
At least 13 miners, eleven Poles and two Czechs, are killed and 10 injured in a methane explosion in a coal mine in Karvina, Czech Republic. (BBC)
Five people are killed and dozens injured when a train slams into a bus carrying school students in Niš, Serbia. (BBC)

Law and crime

Criminal justice reform in the United States
- U.S. President Donald Trump signs the First Step Act, a bipartisan prison and sentencing reform bill, into law. (The Guardian)
Carlos Ghosn, formerly the chairman of Nissan, is arrested again on suspicion of shifting personal losses to the company. (Wall Street Journal)
A Canadian judge denies former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport. (Seattle Times) (CBC)

Politics and elections

2019 United States federal budget
- The U.S. Congress adjourns for the night before reaching a new budget agreement, starting a partial federal government shutdown that began the next day at 12:00 a.m. EST (05:00 UTC). (NBC News)
A motion of no confidence is passed by the National Assembly of Guyana with a vote of 33–32, triggering early elections scheduled for 2019. (St. Lucia News Online)

Science and technology

Largest known prime number
- The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search announces the discovery of a new Mersenne prime, 2^82,589,933-1. It has 24,862,048 decimal digits, which surpasses the previous record by over 1.5 million digits. (NPR)