Portal:Current events/2018 October 15

• 2018 Cologne attack
  • At least three people are injured after a man firebombs a fast-food restaurant in the Cologne main station and takes a woman hostage. The woman is later rescued by German counter-terrorism units. (The Guardian) (Washington Post)

• Kensington Palace announces that Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex are expecting their first child. (BBC)

• Economy of the United States
  • American retailer Sears files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after accumulating USD $134 million in debt. (ABC News)
• Hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom
  • Fracking for shale gas begins in the United Kingdom for the first time since it was suspended in 2011 after being linked to a series of earthquakes. Cuadrilla Resources say they will spend at least three months fracking two horizontal wells in Lancashire. (BBC)

• 2018 European floods, Hurricane Leslie (2018)
  • At least 10 people have been killed by flash floods in the Aude region of south-western France. A bridge also collapsed in the locality of Villegailhenc, while all roads are inaccessible in Carcassonne. (BBC)
• 2018 California wildfires
  • The Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a major California utility based in San Francisco, announces they temporarily turned off power to 60,000 customers in 12 Northern California counties due to threats of wildfires. Red flag warnings are issued to 22 million people in the state. (CNN) (Mercury News)

• Russia–Ukraine relations, Schism of 2018
  • The Russian Orthodox Church announces it will break communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople over Eastern Orthodox Church official plans to recognize the autocephaly of two Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. Moscow says it hopes Constantinople will change its mind to avoid this schism. This marks an important new aspect in the rift between Russia and Ukraine. (The Guardian)

• A ban on rough sleeping in public areas comes into force in Hungary. Despite international criticism of the law, the Hungarian government says it is in the "interests of society as a whole". (BBC)
• Mounir el-Motassadeq, sentenced to 15 years in prison as a member of the Hamburg cell of the September 11 attackers, was deported from Hamburg, Germany to Morocco. (Reuters)

• Politics of Yemen
  • Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi sacks Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, blaming him for the current economic crisis and famine in the country. Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed is appointed as the new Prime Minister. (Reuters)