Portal:Current events/2018 April 4

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Shin Bet and the Israeli Defence Forces announce the arrests of eleven suspected members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group off the Gazan coast suspected of planning an attack on the Israeli Navy. (Israel National News) (The Times of Israel)
• 2018 Gaza border protests
  • Protests enter a second week, with the death toll from last week's clashes at the Israeli-Gazan border rising to 19. Hamas organisers direct participants to stay well back from the border fence to prevent further violence. (Haaretz)
  • The Palestinian Authority asks the United Nations to investigate. (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Israeli human rights group B'Tselem launches a campaign calling on soldiers to refuse orders at the border. (+972)
  • Ahmed Aboul Gheit, head of the Arab League, asks the International Criminal Court for an investigation. (The Times of Israel)
  • The Israeli Defence Forces state one of their jets opened fire on a man near the Gazan border yesterday, saying the individual was an armed terrorist. (Ynet)
• Terrorism in the United Kingdom
  • Police questioning two men suspected of plotting terror attacks in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire are granted an extension until April 10 to detain the suspects. (BBC)
• Terrorism in Syria
  • The parents of Ayşe Deniz Karacagil, killed in Raqqa, Syria, after she joined the Kurdistan Workers' Party, are acquitted of a terrorism propaganda charge for attending her funeral. (Hurriyet Daily News)
• Terrorism in Egypt
  • The Sohag Criminal Court in Egypt sentences 35 alleged Muslim Brotherhood members to life imprisonment and imposes prison terms on 155 more. Separately, a military court sentences four more to life imprisonment, imposes prison terms on two others, and acquits 13. (The Star Tribune)
• Terrorism in Turkey
  • Police across the nation arrest a total of 29 alleged coup participants on suspicion of terrorism. (Anadolu Agency)
• Authorities in Ukraine announce the arrest of a suspected terrorist in connection with a 2017 Kiev attack that killed two and wounded three including MP Ihor Mosiychuk. (Interfax)
• List of people indicted in the International Criminal Court
  • Malian alleged Islamic extremist war criminal Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud makes an initial appearance before the International Criminal Court accused of demolishing shrines in Timbuktu, rape, torture, and sexual enslavement. (ENCA)
• Djibouti grounds all flights at a US military base in the country after two accidents in two days. The base is used for counterterror operations in Yemen and Somalia. (Euronews)

• High-speed rail in Europe
  • The first ever direct train from London to Amsterdam departs from St Pancras railway station. The new Eurostar service estimated at three hours and 41 minutes arrived six minutes behind schedule. (The Independent)
• Jet Airways of India orders 75 Boeing 737 Max jets. (Flight Global)
• Bahrain says a recently-discovered offshore oilfield in its territorial waters contains 80 billion barrels of petroleum. (OilPrice.com)

• A fire at the Perseus shopping centre in western Moscow kills at least one person and injures at least six others. (The Independent)
• 2018 Balikpapan oil spill
  • The port city of Balikpapan, Borneo, Indonesia declares a state of emergency in response to an ongoing oil spill fire off the coast. The spill and fire killed four fishermen and is releasing toxic fumes. The slick currently extends to around seven square miles and marine fauna including protected species are being affected. (The Guardian)
• A fire in a building housing the Portuguese, Tunisian, Argentinian and Belgian embassies in Stockholm, Sweden injures 14 people. A man is arrested on suspicion of arson. (The Local)
• A U.S. Air Force F-16 crashes at the Nevada Test and Training Range near Las Vegas. (The Telegraph)

• Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announces the six-month closure of the island of Boracay in the Philippines, starting April 26. (Rappler)

• Syrian Civil War
  • The leaders of Iran, Turkey and Russia meet in Ankara. They declare their commitment to achieving a "lasting ceasefire" in Syria. (Ahval)
• Illegal immigration to the United States
  • U.S. President Donald Trump signs an order sending the National Guard to patrol the Mexico–United States border in response to Congress's failure to pass tightened border security measures. (CBS)
  • The Viacrucis del Migrante caravan of mostly Central American migrants is stopped by Mexican authorities. (Reuters)
• Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
  • Lawyers representing U.S. President Donald Trump are told by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller the President is considered to be more than a witness but is not under criminal investigation. (CNN)
• United States–Venezuela relations
  • United States Senator Dick Durbin visits Venezuela to negotiate the release of Joshua Holt, who has been detained for two years awaiting trial on a weapons charge. The United States has been critical of his prosecution. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
• Ukraine and Turkey sign an agreement improving aviation co-operation. (Anadolu Agency)
• China threatens tariffs of 25% on the import of 106 U.S. products, including soybeans and Boeing aircraft in reaction to a previous U.S. threat of tariffs worth up to $50 billion. (Deutsche Welle)
• At a summit in Baku, India and Azerbaijan discuss cooperation in areas including counterterrorism, agriculture, infrastuctural development, women's rights, and trade. (ANI)
• The European Commission reveals it has received notice from France that the nation intends to extend passport checks, normally not carried out at Schengen Area borders, for six months beyond the present April 30 expiry date. (telesur)

• Police arrest five suspects over a firebombing of a bus in Limpopo, South Africa that killed six people. (Eyewitness News)
• LGBT rights in the United States
  • Voters in Anchorage, Alaska, United States, reject a proposed amendment to the city charter which would have restricted public restroom use to the gender appearing on the user's birth certificate. (Out) (Anchorage Daily News)
• Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
  • Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, calls for an investigation into comments by UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Johnson is facing criticisms he overstated the strength of evidence against Russia, an accusation he calls "lamentable" and accuses Corbyn of sympathizing with Russia. (The Guardian) (BBC)
  • The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons rejects a Russian request for a joint investigation. (BBC)
• Facebook and Cambridge Analytica data breach
  • Facebook increases its estimate of the number of affected users to 87 million. (BBC)
• The Conseil National des Barreaux, which represents French lawyers, calls for nationwide action to protest proposed legal reforms by Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet. (The Law Gazette)
• Police arrest a 78-year-old man in London on suspicion of murder after he allegedly killed a burglar during a fight in his home. (The Telegraph) (BBC)
• Pascal Blasio makes an initial court appearance charged with causing an explosion likely to endanger life in connection to a 2017 blast that injured 31 in New Ferry, England. (BBC)
• Search and rescue operations continue for three children missing after an SUV crashed off a cliff and into the sea in California, killing five. The Mendocino County Sheriff says the crash was deliberate and a crime. (CNN)
• Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
  • At a meeting of the OPCW, 17 of the 41 countries abstain from a vote on not allowing Russia to participate in the inquiry. 15 countries vote in favour and six against. Three countries were not present at the meeting. (Reuters)
• Christian extremist terrorism in the United States
  • Lawyers representing two of the three defendants in a Kansas case alleging a Christian extremist plot to bomb a mosque tell jurors the FBI manipulated and encouraged the actions of the accused. (KCUR)
• Former President of Bolivia, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is found responsible of the death of 60 demonstrators during protests in October 2003. (BBC)

• Politics of Botswana
  • Slumber Tsogwane is endorsed and elected the 9th Vice President of Botswana by Parliament in a 35-1 vote. (Mmegi) (The Herald)
• Italian general election, 2018
  • Ahead of formal talks on the formation of a coalition government, Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio states he is willing to enter government with the Democratic Party and League but not with former President Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. (Politico)
• Egyptian presidential election, 2018, Censorship in Egypt
  • Egyptian news site Masr al-Arabia says its offices were raided and a journalist arrested in response to the republication of an article by The New York Times alleging irregularities in the nation's recent Presidential election. (The Guardian)
• Sierra Leonean general election, 2018
  • Julius Maada Bio is sworn in as President of Sierra Leone. (BBC News)

• A study published to the journal Nature finds dozens of potential stellar mass black holes in the Galactic Center, suggesting there may be as many as 20,000 orbiting the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. (National Geographic)