Portal:Current events/2017 December 5

December 5, 2017 (Tuesday)

Arts and culture

The last King of Romania, Michael I, dies at the age of 96. (BBC) (Reuters)
A summer 1941 Simon Templar (The Saint) novel by Leslie Charteris, titled The Saint's Second Front, describing a military attack by Japan on America—and subsequently rejected from publication for political reasons—emerges at a private auction after the work was presumed lost. (The Sun)

Business and economy

cyber defense network—suggesting telecommunications security on par with United Kingdom intelligence, which would save Belgium €1.6 billion per year—in exchange for buying 34 of their multirole combat aircraft, the Eurofighter Typhoon. (Het Laatste Nieuws)

2017 California wildfires
- Thomas Fire
  - Due to persistent high winds, a fire begins and quickly spreads—at a rate of up to one acre per second—near Santa Paula, California, covering now at least 50,000 acres (200 km²), crawling into the edges of Ventura and cutting power to 260,000 homes. 7,700 houses are under mandatory evacuation. (LA Times) (CNN)
Cyclone Ockhi
- Maharastra are on high alert because of Cyclone Ockhi. (Times of India)

Meerbusch train crash
- A passenger train runs into the rear of a freight train at Meerbusch, Germany. Forty-seven people are injured, three seriously. (BBC)

International relations

Positions on Jerusalem
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tells Donald Trump that Turkey might cut ties with Israel if the United States unilaterally recognizes Jerusalem as its capital. (BBC)
- According to a Palestinian spokesman, Donald Trump calls Mahmoud Abbas, "outlining his intentions" to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. The Palestinian President warns him against the dangers of such a step and says that he will continue reaching out to world leaders to prevent it from happening. (CNN)

Qatar–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict
- At a GCC summit in Kuwait City, the United Arab Emirates announce a political and military alliance with Saudi Arabia. (The Guardian)
Russia–United States relations
- Russia names Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and seven affiliated news media as foreign agents. The move comes after the United States government ordered the Russian government-funded television network RT America to register as a foreign agent. (The Washington Post)

Law and crime

Ukrainian crisis
- As police arrive at the stateless
  Kiev to detain him, Saakashvili goes up on the roof to protest verbally. Police then detain him and try to take him away in a blue minivan while hundreds of people block the street. Finally the supporters free him out of the van. Bespeeching the cameras again, he rails against corruption, against Petro Poroshenko and urges Ukrainians to "be afraid of nothing". (The Guardian) (U.S. News & World Report) (Reuters) (Interfax Ukraine)
- Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko claims in a briefing that Saakashvili received $500,000 from the fugitive Serhiy Kurchenko for his activities in Ukraine. He also says Severion Dangadze, an associate of Saakashvili's Movement of New Forces, had been arrested. (Interfax Ukraine)
2017 Spanish constitutional crisis
- Spain withdraws the international arrest warrant for five former Catalan officials now residing in Belgium. The charges of sedition and rebellion, however, remain. (BBC)
Recognition of same-sex unions in Austria
- Austria's Constitutional Court rules that the government cannot discriminate against same-sex couples' right to marry. (The New York Times)

Politics and elections

Aftermath of the Honduran general election, 2017
- After several days of violent protests due to allegations of electoral fraud, Honduran police have announced that they will not enforce a government-mandated curfew. (The Guardian)
2017 United States political sexual scandals
- U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) steps down amid allegations of sexual harassment. (NPR)

Science and technology

Reinforcement learning
- In just a few hours,
  AI AlphaZero learn to master both chess and shogi, beating top chess software Stockfish and Elmo without domain knowledge. (Critical Hit)

Smog in Delhi

Sri Lankan fast bowler Suranga Lakmal vomits and is taken off the field while levels of harmful pollutants exceed World Health Organization safe limits 12 times. Later in the game Indian pacer Mohammed Shami also vomits. December 3 already saw the first forced break in play in international cricket history. (The Guardian)
2018 Winter Olympics, Doping in Russia
- A 14-person
  PyeongChang, South Korea, after a report finds evidence of systemic doping cheating in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Any "clean" Russian athletes will compete under the name "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR) and the Olympic flag. (Yahoo! Sports)