Portal:Current events/2017 October 3

• Syrian Civil War
  • ISIL releases video footage of two alleged Russian soldiers it captured. However, Russia denies the claims. (Newsweek)

• Hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom
  • The Scottish Government Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse announces that he will seek an indefinite ban (an existing moratorium has been in place since 2015) on crude oil recovery in Scotland by means of the process of hydraulic fracturing. (BBC)
• Yahoo! data breaches
  • Yahoo! reports that all three billion of its accounts were hacked in the August 2013 data theft. (Reuters)

• Hurricane Maria death toll controversy
  • Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló's office reports that the number of deaths related to Hurricane Maria has risen to 34. (Reuters)

• Iran–United States relations
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Ellen S. Huvelle awards Amir Mirza Hekmati, a U.S. Marine who was imprisoned in Iran as a falsely accused CIA spy, a default judgment of $63 million for his ordeal. (The Washington Post)
• Cuba–United States relations
  • The Trump administration, through the Department of State and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, expels 15 Cuban diplomats, after pulling half of its own embassy staff from Havana on Sept. 29, due to the alleged failure of Cuba to take appropriate steps to protect American personnel against the mysterious health attacks. (Reuters)

• 2017 Spanish constitutional crisis
  • Catalan general strike
    • Pro-independent trade unions, businesses, and schools in Catalonia hold a general strike to protest Spanish police brutality during the October 1 independence referendum. (CNBC)
    • King Felipe VI addresses a message to the Nation in an exceptional speech, since it has only happened five times in 40 years of democracy amid the escalation of tension Catalonia is suffering. Noting the seriousness of the situation, condemns the irresponsibility of the Generalitat of Catalonia in wanting to break the unity of the country, the society and the legality. (The Guardian) (Reuters)
• Politics of Portugal
  • Former Prime Minister of Portugal Pedro Passos Coelho steps down as the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party in local elections. (Politico)
• Abortion in the United States
  • The U.S. House of Representatives passes legislation (Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act) which would criminalize abortions made 20 weeks into a pregnancy, except for cases endangering the mother's life, rape, or incest. (CNN)
• Politics of Iraq
  • Former President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, dies at the age of 83. He was the first non-Arab president of Iraq. (Reuters) (BBC)

• Nobel Prize in Physics
  • The Nobel Prize committee awards Americans Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, and Kip Thorne the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration that discovered gravitational waves. (Nobel Prize.org) (The Washington Post)