Portal:Current events/2019 October 17

• 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria
  • After meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says Turkey has agreed to a five-day ceasefire in Syria while the United States helps facilitate the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters. (The Washington Post)

• The number of people confirmed killed in central and eastern Japan by Typhoon Hagibis rises to 77, while nine other people are still missing. (NHK World)
• A Peninsula Air passenger plane carrying 42 people crashes at an airport in Unalaska, Alaska. One passenger on the Saab SB20 is killed, and at least one more is seriously injured. (KTUU)
• A double-decker bus carrying pilgrims crashes and catches fire near Medina, Saudi Arabia. The disaster kills at least 35 foreigners. (BBC News)

• 2019 outbreak of lung illness linked to vaping products
  • Electronic cigarette maker Juul announces it will stop producing most of its flavored cartridges, excluding mint and menthol. (Arstechnica)

• Brexit negotiations, Brexit
  • The United Kingdom and the European Union agree on a new Brexit withdrawal agreement deal following talks in Brussels. Current coalition partner the Democratic Unionist Party subsequently announces they will oppose the deal. (BBC News)

• Murder of Kathleen Jo Henry
  • Police in Anchorage, Alaska charge Brian Steven Smith, who was arrested on October 8 for the murder of Kathleen Jo Henry, with a second murder, that of Veronica Abouchuk. Smith reportedly confessed to killing Abouchuk and told authorities where her body could be found. (KTLA Los Angeles)
• The New York City Council votes to close Rikers Island, the city's main prison, by 2026. The complex's infrastructural deterioration and excessive abuses were the cited reasons. (Reuters)
• The fourth night of violence in the streets of Catalonia in protest of the sentence of the Catalan independence leaders leaves 33 arrested and 80 injures. In Tarragona, the main door of the city hall is burnt. (El País) (La Vanguardia)

• Representative Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democratic Congressman and House Oversight Committee Chair, dies at age 68. (ABC News)
• List of Trump administration dismissals and resignations
  • U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announces he will resign by the end of the year. (NPR)
• Trial of Catalonia independence leaders, 2019 Catalan Protests
  • The Catalan president Quim Torra, in a special plenary session at the Parliament of Catalonia, announces that he will convene a third independence referendum and a Constitution throughout the legislature. (El Periódico)

• NASA announces that the InSight Mars lander's heat probe had successfully dug 3 centimetres (1.2 in) into the ground after becoming stuck 35 centimetres (14 in) in the ground in February 2019, confirming that the probe had not hit a rock and instead simply didn't have enough friction in the soil to dig much deeper. The vehicle landed near the Martian equator in November 2018. (Space.com)