Portal:Current events/October 2018

• 2018 Eastern Euphrates missile strike
  • Iran fires six ballistic missiles from its own territory at ISIL targets near the Euphrates river valley in eastern Syria, in response to the Ahvaz military parade attack. (The Independent)

• Danish airline Primera Air collapses into bankruptcy and announces that it is ceasing all operations at midnight on Monday. (BBC)

• 2018 Naga, Cebu landslide
  • The death toll of the landslide in Cebu, Philippines rise to 77. Eight others are still missing and presumed dead. (ABS-CBN News)
• Thirteen people are killed and at least 30 others are injured when a military transport truck flips over on a major road in Freetown, Sierra Leone. (Channel NewsAsia)
• 2018 Pacific hurricane season
  • Hurricane Walaka becomes a category 5 hurricane. It is expected to hit the Johnston Atoll. (Star-Advertiser)

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • North Korea and South Korea begin removing landmines and other explosives from the Korean Demilitarized Zone. (CBS News)

• A hand grenade explodes in a night club in the city of Yambio in South Sudan, killing at least ten people and injuring dozens of others. The police commissioner in the city confirmed that the explosion is not related to the ongoing civil war in the country. (Channel NewsAsia)

• 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
  • On the one-year anniversary of the Catalan independence referendum, protesters block roads, train tracks and the entrance of the Barcelona stock exchange and students go on strike. (The Guardian)
  • After an independentist demonstration, the Mossos d'Esquadra evicts riots demanding the implantation of the Republic before the main door of the Catalan Parliament in a failed attempt to assault it. (La Vanguardia) (BBC)
• Mirko Tomassoni and Luca Santolini take office as Captains Regents of San Marino. (San Marino RTV)
• Mauricio Vila Dosal takes office as Governor of the Mexican state of Yucatán. (Diario de Yucatán)

• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their discoveries in cancer therapy. (The New York Times)
• The discovery of a third Sednoid, 2015 TG₃₈₇, is announced. The 200–600-kilometre (120–370 mi) wide asteroid never approaches less than 65 astronomical units from the Sun, more than twice Neptune's distance. (Nature)

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), Afghan parliamentary election, 2018
  • A suicide bomber kills 13 people and injures more than 30 others at an election rally in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. (BBC)

• 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami
  • At least 1,347 people are now known to have died in the aftermath of the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami. (BBC)
• European migrant crisis
  • Thirty-four migrants drown in a shipwreck in the western Mediterranean Sea. The Moroccan Navy rescues 26 survivors and recovers 11 bodies. (Channel NewsAsia)

• Saudi Arabia–United States relations
  • In a public speech in Southaven, Mississippi, U.S. President Donald Trump claims that Salman of Saudi Arabia's power wouldn't last "for two weeks" without the support of the U.S. military. (Reuters)

• Terrorism in France
  • French RAID and BRI police units raid the headquarters of a Shiite association in Grande-Synthe and the homes of its leaders for "strong support" to "many" terrorist organizations. Assets are frozen and three people remanded in custody. (France-Soir via Koz Post)

• Politics of the United Kingdom, Brexit
  • DUP leader Arlene Foster says that extra border checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain are the "one red line" for her party. (Bloomberg)
• Government of Iraq
  • The Council of Representatives of Iraq elects Barham Salih as president. Salih then appoints Adil Abdul al-Mahdi as prime minister. (CNN)

• The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou, and Donna Strickland for their work using lasers to manipulate microscopic objects. Strickland is the first woman to win this award in 55 years. (The New York Times) (CNN)

• Toys "R" Us lenders cancel the bankruptcy auction of its brand name and other intellectual property assets and instead plan to revive the Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us brand names. (CNBC)

• 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami
  • The confirmed death toll from an earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia has risen to 1,407. (Reuters)
  • The Soputan volcano on Sulawesi erupts, sending ash columns 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) into the air. (South China Morning Post)
• Six rescue divers drown after they are caught in a whirlpool during a mission to locate and rescue a teenager from a disused mining pool in Malaysia. (BBC)

• United States withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
  • The International Court of Justice orders the U.S. to lift sanctions against Iran related to the import of humanitarian goods and civil aviation safety. (The Guardian)
  • U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that the United States is terminating the 1955 Treaty of Amity with Iran. (Fox News)
• The United States announces its withdrawal from the optional protocol concerning compulsory settlement of disputes of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. (Reuters)

• Florence, South Carolina shooting
  • Seven police officers are shot, one fatally, by a gunman in Florence, South Carolina, United States. Five civilians were also injured. (CNN)
• Immigration policy of Donald Trump, Immigration to the United States
  • A federal court in California blocks the Trump administration from terminating the Temporary Protected Status program that allows immigrants from four countries to live and work in the United States. (NPR)
• Former Member of Parliament and Member of the National Assembly for Wales, Simon Thomas, pleads guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children. (BBC)
• Pardon of Alberto Fujimori
  • A Peruvian court reverses the pardon granted to former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and orders that Fujimori must be returned to prison. (BBC)

• Politics of France
  • French President Emmanuel Macron accepts the resignation of Minister of the Interior Gérard Collomb. (ABC News) (Le Parisien)
• Presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, Human Security Act
  • The Congress of the Philippines proposes a new law that could give Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte wide-ranging powers similar to Ferdinand Marcos. (SCMP)

• Discoveries of exoplanets
  • Kepler-1625b, an exoplanet proposed in 2017 to be orbited by an exomoon, the first possible example of a moon orbiting a planet in another stellar system, is confirmed with observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. (Space.com)
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency sends its first ever "Presidential Alert", a Wireless Emergency Alerts test message, at 2:18 p.m. EDT (18:18 UTC) to most cell phones in the United States. (Time)
• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to George P. Smith, Frances Arnold, and Greg Winter for the design of molecules with a range of uses by means that mimic natural selection. (The New York Times).

• In chess, Arkady Dvorkovich is elected as president of the FIDE. (Associated Press)

• India–Russia relations
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in India for a summit meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (The Times of India)

• At least 14 people are killed in separate drug-related incidents in Cebu Province, Philippines. (GMA News)
• Doping in Russia, Cyberwarfare by Russia
  • The U.S. Justice Department announces indictments of seven Russian GRU intelligence officers for hacking computers associated with 250 athletes and anti-doping sports organizations in the USA and around the world. (USA Today)
• Catholic Church abuse cases
  • Michigan authorities seize records from Catholic dioceses in the state as part of an investigation into possible sexual abuse by clergy. (CNN)

• The Swedish Academy names two new members: Swedish supreme court justice Eric Runesson, and Swedish-Iranian writer and poet Jila Mossaed. (Reuters)

• Defense industry of Russia
  • India buys the S-400 missile system, potentially facing CAATSA U.S. sanctions. (CNN)

• 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami
  • The confirmed death toll from an earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia has risen to 1,571. (First Post)
• At least 13 passengers are killed in a head-on bus collision in Tver, Russia. The bus driver and another passenger are injured. (The Moscow Times)
• Three people are killed and many others are injured after heavy floods strike the Italian region of Calabria. A bridge collapses and landslides also occur. (La Stampa)

• 2018 Nobel Peace Prize
  • Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict." (NBC News)

• Corruption in South Korea
  • Lee Myung-bak is sentenced to 15 years in jail and US$20 million in fines and forfeiture, on charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. All four living former Presidents of South Korea now have been convicted. (Reuters via Malay Mail)
• Shooting of Laquan McDonald
  • A Chicago police officer, Jason Van Dyke, is convicted of second degree murder in a historic jury verdict. (Chicago Tribune)
• French police launch an investigation into the disappearance of Meng Hongwei, the president of Interpol. He was reported missing after traveling to his native country of China last week. (The Independent)

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Defense Minister of Israel Avigdor Lieberman says that Israel will reduce the fishing zone off the Gaza Strip from 9 nautical miles (17 km; 10 mi) to 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) as a reaction to the weekly Gaza border protests. Three Palestinians were killed in yesterday's protest, in which over 20,000 protestors took part. (Al Jazeera)

• At an auction in London, the painting Girl with Balloon by Banksy self-destructs through a built-in shredder hidden in the frame after selling for US$1.4 million. (NBC)

• 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami
  • The death toll of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Sulawesi, Indonesia, rises to 1,649. More than 265 are missing. (The New York Times)
• At least 50 people are killed and 100 others are injured after an oil tank truck collides with a vehicle on the Kinshasa—Matadi highway in Kisantu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (NDTV)
• At least 22 people are killed and 14 injured after a minibus falls into a gorge on the Srinagar Jammu National Highway in India's Jammu and Kashmir state. (Tribune of India)
• 2018 Haiti earthquake
  • A magnitude 5.9 earthquake kills at least 12 people in northern Haiti. At least 162 others are injured. (Miami Herald)
• 2018 Schoharie, New York limousine crash
  • Twenty people are killed in Schoharie County, New York, when a stretch limousine fails to stop at an intersection, veers into a parking lot and strikes an empty vehicle, which in turn hits two pedestrians. All 17 passengers in the limousine are killed, along with the driver and the two pedestrians. (BBC)

• Food Additives Amendment of 1958
  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration bans the usage of seven artificial flavors as food additives. Six of them cause cancer in animals when used in "much higher" doses than the conditions of their intended use. (NPR)
• Foreign fighters in the Syrian and Iraqi Civil Wars
  • Jack Letts, a British-Canadian Islamic State fighter held in Syria, faces deportion from Syria to Canada instead of the United Kingdom. (Al-Masdar News) (The Guardian)

• Gabonese legislative election, 2018
  • After long delays, voters in Gabon head to the polls for the first time since the controversial 2016 presidential election. (EWN)
• Latvian parliamentary election, 2018
  • Voters in Latvia go to the polls to vote for a new parliament. The governing coalition loses its majority with two new parties Who owns the state? and the New Conservative Party becoming the second and third biggest parties behind Social Democratic Party "Harmony". (Deutsche Welle), (Reuters)
• Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination
  • Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court is confirmed when a final vote takes place, with 50 senators for his confirmation and 48 against. (ABC News)
• Romanian constitutional referendum, 2018
  • Romanians go to the polls to vote in a referendum on changing the Constitution to redefine marriage as being only between a man and a woman. (CNN)

• War in Afghanistan
  • Afghan officials say that the Taliban destroyed highway bridges in Maidan Wardak Province, cutting off road traffic between the capital Kabul and the provinces of Ghazni, Zabul and Kandahar. Electricity was cut off in four provinces, and fighting was reported in Ghazni Province. At least ten Afghan police officers were killed. Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in two weeks. (AP via Tampa Times) (Reuters via The National)
• 2018 Barkan Industrial Park shooting
  • A 23-year-old Palestinian opens fire and kills two Israelis, seriously wounding a third inside the Barkan Industrial Park on the West Bank. The gunman, who had worked at the factory where the shooting took place, fled the scene and remains at large. (The Washington Post) (Reuters) (Ynet News)

• 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami
  • The Indonesia's disaster agency confirms the deaths of 1,944 people in the double earthquake and tsunami. 5,000 people are still missing and presumed dead. (ABS-CBN News)
• Hurricane Michael
  • Six people in Honduras, four in Nicaragua and three in El Salvador died after heavy floods triggered by Hurricane Michael affected Central America. Several others are injured and at least one is missing. (BBC)

• Police announce that investigative journalist Viktoria Marinova was found murdered yesterday in a park in Ruse, Bulgaria. Marinova's latest work was on "GPgate", a scandal involving alleged corruption and abuse of European Union subsidies in Bulgaria. (Thuner Tagblatt) (RFE/RL)
• The Communist Party of China announces that Interpol president Meng Hongwei is suspected of violating the law and is "under the supervision" of a party anticorruption watchdog. Hours later, Interpol announces that it has received his resignation. (The New York Times) (Twitter)
• 2018 attacks on Hindi-speaking migrants in Gujarat
  • A total of 342 people have been arrested for attacking Hindi-speaking migrants in the Indian state of Gujarat. The new wave of violence was prompted by the arrest of a non-Gujarati for the alleged rape of a 14-month-old baby a week prior. (First Post)

• Cameroonian presidential election, 2018
  • Voters in Cameroon head to the polls. Incumbent President Paul Biya seeks a seventh term to his 36-year rule. (Reuters)
• Brazilian general election, 2018
  • Brazilians elect a new president (first round), state governors and parliaments. (RTÉ) (Al Jazeera)
  • Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro falls short of a majority in the first round with 46% of the vote and will face Fernando Haddad, who received 29%, in a runoff vote set for October 28. (The Guardian)
• Romanian constitutional referendum, 2018
  • A referendum on changing the constitutional definition of a family is invalidated, as voter turnout announced by the Central Electoral Bureau is 20.41%, 10% under the validation threshold. (Digi 24)
• São Toméan legislative election, 2018
  • The ruling Independent Democratic Action (ADI) under Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada loses its absolute majority in the National Assembly. (Africanews)

• Second Libyan Civil War; Terrorism in Egypt
  • A Libyan National Army operation in Derna results in the capturing of Hesham Ashmawy, one of Egypt's most wanted militants. (BBC)

• Google announces that it is shutting down its Google+ network for consumers after seven years due to "very low usage" and a software error, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, that potentially exposed the data of 500,000 users. Google+ will fully shut down in August 2019. (Sky News)

• 2018 Haiti earthquake
  • The death toll of a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck Haiti rises to 15. At least 333 others are injured. (The Punch)
• 2018 Atlantic hurricane season
  • A hurricane watch is issued for the Florida Panhandle as Hurricane Michael begins moving toward the Yucatan Channel. (Upi)
  • Tropical Storm Michael becomes Hurricane Michael and is upgraded to a category 1 storm. (NBC News)

• Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
  • Investigative website Bellingcat identifies the second suspect involved in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal as Alexander Mishkin, a doctor who works for the Main Intelligence Directorate. (The Guardian)
• Death of Fernando Albán, Caracas drone attack
  • The Justice First politician Fernando Albán, who was arrested on Friday related to an alleged assassination attempt in August, dies whilst in custody of the Venezuelan intelligence service. The state reports his death as suicide, which is disputed by all other reports. (The Guardian)

• Moons of Jupiter, Colonization of Europa
  • New research suggests Europa, a moon of Jupiter, may be covered in tall, jagged ice spikes, presenting a problem for any potential landing on its surface. (The Verge) (The Washington Post)

• 2018 NFL season
  • New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees becomes the NFL’s career leader in passing yardage, surpassing Peyton Manning. (Fox News) (The Washington Post)
• 2018 Major League Baseball season
  • Boston Red Sox player Brock Holt becomes the first player in MLB history to hit for the cycle during a postseason game. (ESPN) (Bleacher Report)

• American Music Awards of 2018
  • American singer Taylor Swift wins four trophies, including Artist of the Year, and holds 23 American Music Awards, beating Whitney Houston. (BBC News) (Sky News)

• 2018 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Hurricane Michael strengthens to a category 2 storm with 110 mph winds as it continues to ascend through the Florida Panhandle. (Washington Post) (Tampa Bay Times)
• A sinkhole in Dazhou, China, kills four people. (NY Post)
• 2018 European floods
  • At least 12 people die in flash flooding on the Spanish island of Mallorca, including nationals of at least 3 countries. A five-year-old child is missing. (BBC), (El País)
• Pipeline accidents in Canada
  • In British Columbia, communities are forced to evacuate after a pipeline operated by Enbridge explodes near Prince George. (Digital Journal) (Toronto Star)

• Former Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti is sentenced to 15 years and 6 months in prison for fraud in a system to clean the polluted Lake Amatitlán. Baldetti still has four pending lawsuits and extradition to the United States. (The Guardian)

• Foreign relations of the Holy See, Foreign relations of North Korea
  • North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invites Pope Francis to Pyongyang, and said he would be "warmly welcomed" to North Korea. (New York Times) (UPI)

• Nikki Haley announces her resignation as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, effective at the end of the year. (NBC News)

• At least 51 people are killed when a bus traveling from the Kenyan capital Nairobi to Kisumu veers off the road and overturns. (BBC)
• Three people were killed and houses were damaged after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck off East Java, Indonesia. (The Straits Times)
• At least five people died and 30 were injured when a passenger train derailed in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. (Cyprus Mail)
• Four people are killed and 20 others are injured when an apartment building collapses in Manama, Bahrain. (Gulf Business)
• 2018 Haiti earthquake
  • The death toll of a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck Haiti rises to 17. (Otago Daily Times)
• 2018 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Hurricane Michael strengthens to a "potentially catastrophic" Category 4 hurricane and makes landfall on the Florida Panhandle. (NPR) (Fortune)
  • A man in Greensboro, Florida is killed by a tree that crashed through his home, becoming the first reported death from the storm in the United States. Later, a child is killed by a falling tree in Seminole County, Georgia. (BBC)
  • The storm causes power outages to 550,000 customers in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, and 375,000 people in 22 counties have been ordered to evacuate. (The Weather Channel)
  • Heavy rain and strong winds from Michael are expected in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia on Thursday. (The Washington Post)

• The Turkish newspaper Sabah names the 15-member Saudi Arabian intelligence team allegedly involved in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Reuters)
• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announces in a public broadcast that the United States President Donald Trump has sent an order to assassinate him. (Al Jazeera)

• Capital punishment in Bangladesh, Terrorism in Bangladesh
  • A Dhaka court sentences 19 people to death, including two former ministers, and sentences Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairman Tarique Rahman to life imprisonment over a 2004 attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)

• At least 41 people are killed after a river bursts its bank in Bududa, Uganda. Many more are injured and dozens are displaced. (BBC)
• 2018 European floods
  • Heavy floods affect France and Italy: in the French city of Sainte Maxime, two people drown after their vehicle is swept away by floodwater. In the Italian city of Cagliari, a woman is found dead inside her car, while another man is missing. A bridge also collapses and roads are damaged. (BBC)
• 2018 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Hurricane Michael is downgraded to a tropical storm, but tornadoes are spotted in Georgia and Florida. (Business Insider)
• Eight children die and three are injured when the wall of a house collapses in the suburban area of Sukkur, Pakistan. (Dawn News) (Samaa TV)
• A mudslide in the central Colombian town of Marquetalia results in at least twelve deaths. (AP via ABC America)
• The collapse of a shopping mall under construction in the Mexican city of Monterrey results in at least seven deaths and nine people missing. 15 others are injured. (AP via ABC News America)
• Three people are killed and two are injured after a lorry crashes into a minibus in Thatcham, England. (BBC)

• Russia–Ukraine relations, Schism of 2018
• The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople plans to recognize the autocephaly of two Ukrainian Orthodox Churches, a move welcomed by Ukrainian leaders and denounced as "catastrophic" by the Russian Orthodox Church. (RFE/RL)

• Keiko Fujimori, leader of the opposition in the Congress of Peru and daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, is arrested on charges related to illicit campaign finance received from the Odebrecht corporation. (BBC News)
• Arrest of Juan Requesens, Human rights in Venezuela
  • The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights releases an official charge for the protection of Juan Requesens, laying out actions that the Venezuelan government must take to ensure the imprisoned politician's welfare, specifically stating that he must not be "object to acts of violence against [his health]". This comes after a two-month investigation, and days after the death in custody of another Venezuelan politician. (Voice of America), (Inter-American Commission for Human Rights)

• Soyuz MS-10, carrying a cosmonaut and an astronaut to the International Space Station, is forced to make an emergency landing in Kazakhstan after a failure with its Soyuz-FG rocket. (Reuters)
• Discoveries of exoplanets
  • Kepler 159d, an exoplanet with the same size as Saturn, is discovered by University of Western Ontario student Chris Fox and professor Paul Wiegert. (Phys.org) (CBC CA)

• United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics
  • Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, Indiana Pacers head coach Nate McMillan, and Villanova men's basketball head coach Jay Wright are expected to be assistants for the United States basketball team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. (Los Angeles Times) (NBC Olympics)

• Wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank
  • Princess Eugenie marries Jack Brooksbank at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in the second British royal wedding in 2018. (Today)

• 2018 Atlantic hurricane season
  • The death toll in the U.S. from Hurricane Michael rises to 17: eight in Florida, five in Virginia, three in North Carolina and one in Georgia. (BBC) (CNN)

• Turkey–United States relations
  • A court in Turkey orders the release of American evangelical Christian pastor Andrew Brunson after two years of arrest. (Reuters)
• Turkish officials claim to have audio and video evidence of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi being tortured and murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. (BBC)

• War in Afghanistan
  • A motorcycle rigged with explosives is detonated at an election rally in northeastern Afghanistan, killing at least 14 people, including civilians and security forces. (ABC News)
• Somali Civil War
  • Two blasts in the town of Baidoa in Somalia kill at least 15 people and injure more than 30 others. (VOA)

• Five South Korean climbers and four Nepali guides die after a snowstorm destroys their camp on a Himalayan peak in Nepal. (BBC)
• At least 27 people die and many others disappear after heavy floods and landslides in Sumatra, Indonesia. (The Canberra Times)
• At least 50 people are killed and 30 others injured when a pipeline catches fire and explodes in southeast Nigeria. (Ripples Nigeria)
• Eleven people are killed after their vehicle and a lorry collide head-on in Thessaloniki, Greece. (BBC)

• Venezuela releases political activist Lorent Saleh due to his poor mental health, after a prolonged campaign by and talks with the Spanish Office for Latin America. Saleh had been detained for over four years by secret services in Venezuela without trial, and is being transferred to Spain. (BBC)
• Acting on an anonymous tip, Michigan state inspectors discover the bodies of 11 badly-decomposed infants inside the ceiling of a former funeral home in Detroit. (UPI)

• Óscar Romero, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador assassinated while celebrating Mass in 1980, is canonized by Pope Francis. Six other canonizations, including that of Pope Paul VI, are also announced. (BBC)

• At least 22 people are killed in Turkey after a lorry carrying migrants plunges off a road. (BBC)
• A small plane crashes into a crowd near Fulda, Germany, killing three people and injuring eight others. (BBC)
• A bus travelling from Germany to Italy crashes in southern Switzerland, leaving one dead and 14 injured. (AP)
• Tropical cyclone effects in Europe
  • Hurricane-force winds from former Hurricane Leslie strike central and northern Portugal, leaving a man dead and 27 others injured. It moves through Spain as a tropical storm. (Metro Libre)

• Luxembourg general election, 2018
  • Voters in Luxembourg go to the polls for the 24th general election. (DW)
• Bavarian state election, 2018
  • Voters in Bavaria, Germany go to the polls for electing the 180 members of the 18th Landtag of Bavaria, with the Christian-democratic conservative CSU party suffering significant losses. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• Belgian local elections, 2018
  • Voters in Belgium go to the polls for local elections, with the Greens making historic gains. (France 24) (EURACTIV)

• 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)

• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) says that a U.S. airstrike has killed around 60 al-Shabaab militants near Harardhere in central Somalia. (BBC)

• At least seven people are killed and more than 80 others injured after a train derails in Bouknadel, Morocco. (Reuters)
• The death toll of an accidental explosion in Aba, Nigeria, rises to 200. Over 2,000 people protest, claiming that the pipeline explosion was caused by NNPC's negligence. (Vanguard News)
• Two Myanmar Air Force F-7 fighter jets crash into a broadcast tower in Magway, Myanmar, resulting in the deaths of both pilots and an 11-year-old girl, who was killed by falling debris. (New York Times)

• United States sanctions against Iran
  • The United States Treasury Department announces new sanctions on 22 Iranian corporations and banks. (Bloomberg)
• Australia–Israel relations
  • Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces that his government is considering recognising Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and relocating its embassy accordingly, in line with the United States, drawing local criticism and sparking outrage from members of the opposition. The announcement comes days before a by-election in which the governing party's candidate is Dave Sharma, a former ambassador to Israel. (BBC)
• Saudi Arabia–United States relations, Killing of Jamal Khashoggi
  • United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets in Riyadh with Saudi Arabia King Salman to express concerns about the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Fox News) (Reuters)
  • Senior U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham states that Mohammed bin Salman has murdered Khashoggi and that the country's crown prince has "got to go". (AOL) (CNBC)

• Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resigns from his post in order to dissolve the National Assembly and force early elections by the end of the year. (RFE/RL)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza–Israel conflict
  • Palestinians in the Gaza Strip launch two rockets at Israel, one landing in the southern city of Beersheba, causing serious damage to a house but no injuries, and the other landing in the sea. (The Times of Israel)
  • In response to rocket fire, Israeli Air Force jets attack targets in Gaza including a tunnel crossing into Israel, tunnel digging sites, a factory storing components used for tunnel building and another for the manufacturing of aerial weaponry. (The Washington Post)

Arts and culture

• Medal of Honor recipients for the Vietnam War
  • Retired United States Marine veteran John Canley receives the Medal of Honor award from U.S. President Donald Trump for his contributions in the Vietnam War. (Fox News) (USA Today)

Disasters and accidents

• 2018 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Over 1,000 people remain missing a week after Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle. (Huffington Post)
• 2018 European floods, Hurricane Leslie
  • The death toll of the heavy floods in France rises to 14, while another person is missing. (Le Soir)

Law and crime

• Kerch Polytechnic College massacre
  • A double bombing-mass shooting attack leaves 20 dead in a college in Kerch, Crimea. An 18-year-old student carried out the gun and bomb attack and then committed suicide. The attacker "hated the technical school very much" and had vowed "revenge" on his teacher. (BBC)
• Cannabis in Canada
  • Canada becomes the first G20 nation to fully legalise cannabis. (Yahoo! Canada)
• Macedonia naming dispute
  • Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias resigns after discussion with the Greek Defence Minister in the framework of the Greece-Macedonia Accord. (Ekathimerini)
• 2016 German terror plot
  • German media uncover a large ISIL terrorism plot which had been foiled in 2016. (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

• War in Afghanistan
  • Afghan general and Kandahar police chief Abdul Raziq Achakzai is assassinated by one of his bodyguards during a high-level meeting inside the governor's compound with U.S. general Austin S. Miller. Gen. Miller escaped unharmed according to officials while the governor was critically injured. The Taliban claims responsibility. (BBC)

• Cobalt Air suddenly announces its dissolution, cancelling all future operations and leaving many passengers stranded in Cyprus. (BBC)
• The Federal Aviation Administration states that it will allow U.S. airlines to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports, at Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhia, and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine. (Reuters)

• Severe flooding in Texas kills at least two people and damages dozens of houses. Weather forecasters predict that more rain will come and possibly flood hundreds more houses. (CBS News)

• Astronomers discover Hyperion, an ancient proto-supercluster that appeared 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang. (CNET) (Reuters)
• The China space industry plans to launch the world's first "artificial moon" into orbit by 2020 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center to illuminate city streets after dark. (Straits Times) (Time)

• CumEx-Files
  • A tax fraud scheme discovered in 2017. (The CumEx-Files)

• 136 years after beginning construction, the Sagrada Família in Barcelona receives a building permit to complete construction. (CNN) (Newser)

• Amritsar train disaster
  • At least 59 people are dead and 100 are injured after a train runs into a Dussehra celebration near Amritsar in India's northern state of Punjab. (BBC News)
• A SH-60 Seahawk helicopter crashes on the flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan, leaving 12 sailors injured. (Los Angeles Times)

• Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
  • Former Secret Intelligence Service head John Sawers says that Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammad bin Salman was behind the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (The Guardian)
• Saudi Arabia–Turkey relations
  • Saudi Arabia's general prosecutor claims Jamal Khashoggi died in a fight inside the Istanbul consulate. (CNBC)
  • Twitter suspends a bot network spreading pro-Saudi Arabia tweets regarding Kashoggi's disappearance. (NBC)

• Illegal immigration to the United States
  • Hundreds of Central American migrants taking part in a migrant caravan to the United States clash with riot police on the Guatemala–Mexico border. (BBC)
• Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Social media in the United States presidential election, 2016, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections
  • The United States Justice Department charges 44-year old Elena Khusyaynova of Saint Petersburg with conspiracy to defraud the United States for managing the financing of the social media troll operation that included the Internet Research Agency. (CNN)

• Arianespace launches the European Space Agency–Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency probe BepiColombo from Guiana Space Centre as it begins a 7-year journey to Mercury. It is the final mission of the Horizon 2000+ program. (The Guardian)

• Four U.S. tourists are killed in Costa Rica after a rafting accident on a swollen river. (BBC)

• Russia–United States relations
  • U.S. President Donald Trump says that the United States will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a 1987 nuclear arms treaty with Russia. (The Guardian)

• Religious violence in Nigeria
  • A spat in a market in Nigeria's northern Kaduna State results in 55 dead. After the brawl, 22 people were arrested. (BBC)
• Tanzanian billionaire Mohammed Dewji is freed by his captors nine days after being seized by unknown gunmen. (CNN) (Quartz)
• 2018 Sagay, Negros Occidental hacienda massacre
  • Unidentified armed men shoot and kill nine sugarcane farmers in Sagay, Negros Occidental, Philippines. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• The number of remains of babies, fetuses found stashed in Detroit funeral home rises to now more than 60. (Reuters)

• Afghan parliamentary election, 2018
  • After a delay of three years, voters in Afghanistan head to the polls to elect members of the nation's parliament. The election is marred by violence and suicide attacks which leave over 170 dead or wounded nationwide. (Deutsche Welle)
  • Because of technical issues in some constituencies, voting was extended until Sunday. Additionally, voting in the Kandahar Province will be delayed by one week following the assassination of police commander Abdul Raziq Achakzai two days prior. (Reuters) (Gandhara)
• Wentworth by-election, 2018
  • Independent candidate Kerryn Phelps leads the vote count in the Australian House of Representatives seat of Wentworth. If she wins, the Australian House of Representatives will enter into a hung parliament. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Opposition to Brexit in the United Kingdom
  • More than 600,000 people gather at Parliament Square in London as protesters from the People's Vote campaign call for a second Brexit referendum deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union. (BBC) (Time)

• The skull of the Luzia Woman, one of the oldest known human fossils from the Americas, is recovered from the remains of the National Museum of Brazil. The museum staff states that the museum intends to attempt to restore the fossil. (BBC)
• A research study published in The New England Journal of Medicine describes a significant mortality response to the immunotherapy Atezolizumab used in conjunction with the chemotherapy nab-paclitaxel for a type of untreatable Breast cancer (Triple-negative) when the tumors also display programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression. (The New York Times),(The New England Journal of Medicine)

• 2018 Major League Baseball season
  • The Los Angeles Dodgers return to the World Series after a 5–1 victory against the Milwaukee Brewers in game 7 of the National League Championship Series. (The Los Angeles Times)

• 2018 Yilan train derailment
  • At least 18 people are killed and 187 are injured after a train derails in Yilan County, Taiwan. (BBC)
• At least 30 people are injured after a floor collapses at an apartment in South Carolina. (CBS News)
• 2018 Pacific hurricane season
  • Hurricane Willa strengthens to a category 4 hurricane off the Pacific Coast of Mexico. (CBS News)
• Earthquakes in Canada, Earthquakes in 2018
  • Three large earthquakes measuring between magnitude 6.5 and magnitude 6.8 strike near Vancouver Island. No tsunami warning is issued. (Global News) (Spokesman)
• Following the failure of Soyuz MS-10, the Russian-supplied Soyuz MS-11 for crew transport to the ISS is now rescheduled to occur on December 3, earlier than initially planned. (Interfax)

• Israel–Jordan relations
  • King Abdullah II announces Jordan will reclaim two small plots of farmland territory leased to Israel under their 1994 peace treaty. (Reuters)

• Six people are wounded at a street gang-related shooting near TIAA Bank Field before an NFL game, in which the Jacksonville Jaguars hosted the Houston Texans. (Chicago Suntimes) (US News)
• A NATO spokesperson confirms Brigadier General Jeffrey D. Smiley as the American wounded by gunfire three days earlier during the attack in which Abdul Raziq Achakzai was assassinated. (ABC News)

• After nine years of construction, China is expected to open the world's longest sea bridge, Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, at a ceremony in Hong Kong. (Business Insider)

• Two passenger buses collide in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan, in the Punjab Province of Pakistan, resulting in 19 deaths and 40 injuries. (The Express Tribune) (Arab News)

• British Columbia electoral reform referendum, 2018
  • The Canadian province of British Columbia begins a postal ballot to determine whether to maintain the current first-past-the-post voting system or switch to a form of proportional representation for their provincial elections. (Elections BC)
• Transgender rights
  • The Trump administration through the United States Department of Health and Human Services plans to include a legal definition of gender in the federal civil rights Title IX law. The proposed alteration to the law would define gender as an unchangeable anatomical and genetic condition determined at birth. Members of the LGBT community plan to contest the move, which they state would largely end protections for transgender Americans. (The New York Times) (NPR)

• Ancient Black Sea shipwrecks
  • The discovery of a Classical Greek trading ship thought to date to approximately 400 BC is reported by a team of scientists working in the Black Sea. It is the oldest known intact shipwreck. (BBC)
• Replica Titanic
  • It is announced that Titanic II, a replica of the original RMS Titanic that sank in 1912, is set to set sail in 2022 and will include modern lifeboats and technology. The ship is expected to travel the same route as the original ship. (CNET) (Cleveland.com)

• An escalator collapses at Repubblica – Teatro dell'Opera metro station in Rome, Italy, leaving at least 20 people injured, the majority Russian football team CSKA fans. (BBC)
• Hurricane Willa hits the coast of Western Mexico. It is also expected to become a nor'easter after it passes through the United States. (Boston Globe)

• Killing of Jamal Khashoggi
  • Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rejects the Saudi Arabian government's official account of the killing of Saudi-American journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a widely publicised address before the Turkish parliament. (The Guardian)
  • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces that the United States will revoke visas of Saudi Arabia officials behind the killing of Khashoggi. (VOA News) (Star Tribune)

• October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts
  • A mail bomb is discovered at the home of George Soros in Bedford, New York, United States. It is safely detonated by the Bedford Police Department. While Soros was not at the residence when the device was discovered, the businessman and philanthropist is believed to be the intended target. (BBC) (NPR)
• Terrorism in Canada
  • A motion passed by the Conservative Party calling for a government strategy on returning Canadian Islamic State fighters is approved 280-1 by MPs. (Global News)
• The Connecticut Supreme Court rules that all documents, journals, and belongings of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza be released to the public because of lack of exemption from the state's open record laws. (Hartford Courant) (CBS News)

• 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami
  • Authorities lower the casualty numbers for the September 28 earthquake and tsunami to 2,256 dead, 10,679 injured, and 1,075 still missing. (reliefweb)

• Killing of Jamal Khashoggi
  • Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman will address an international audience for the first time since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. (CBS News)
  • U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges that the Saudi Arabia crown prince "could have been" involved in the killing of Khashoggi, noting that "the prince is running things over there". (The Guardian)

• Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections, cyberwarfare by Russia
  • The United States Cyber Command contacts individual Russians with the hope to deter them from interfering with upcoming American elections, including the November midterms. (CNBC)
• October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts
  • The United States Secret Service intercepts two suspicious packages described as "potential explosive devices" addressed to former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. One addressed to former CIA director John O. Brennan was received at CNN's New York studios, which were evacuated. Other politicians who received similar packages include U.S. Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz (whose name and address was on the return label of a package meant for former Attorney General Eric Holder but had the wrong recipient address) and Maxine Waters. Authorities are also attempting to locate a suspicious package sent to former Vice President Joe Biden that was marked return to sender due to a bad address. (Washington Examiner) (NPR)
• Junpei Yasuda, a Japanese journalist kidnapped by Al-Nusra Front in Syria, is released. (Time)
• 2018 Jeffersontown shooting
  • A shooter kills two people in a Kroger store near Louisville, Kentucky. (AP via CBS)

• Settlement of the Americas
  • Stone tools are found in Texas dating back 15,000 years, being the oldest evidence of humans in North America. (Daily Mail)

• The United Kingdom opens all combat roles in the British Armed Forces, including special forces, to women for the first time. (Reuters)

• 2018 Pacific typhoon season
  • Super Typhoon Yutu makes landfall on Saipan and Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands as a category 5 storm. The typhoon becomes the most powerful tropical cyclone to strike any part of the United States since 1935. (Saipan Tribune), (The Washington Post)
• Flash floods near the Dead Sea in Jordan kill at least 21 people including 19 children on a school trip and injure 43 others. (Al Jazeera)
• On its first day of service the Sheffield Supertram's new tram-train is struck by a truck and derailed. (ITV), (Express)

• October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts
  • The New York City Police Department recovers a package similar to those found earlier this week at the office of TriBeCa Productions, which is used by actor Robert De Niro. (NBC New York)
  • The FBI is investigating two packages found at postal facilities in Delaware, sent to former Vice President Joe Biden. (Vice)
  • The Miami-Dade Police Department and federal authorities believe several of the packages went through a mail processing and distribution center in Opa-locka, Florida and are currently searching the facility with a bomb squad and K-9 unit. (CNN)
• Corruption in Spain
  • Former IMF Director and ex-Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Rodrigo Rato enters prison to serve a sentence of 4 and a half years for a crime of embezzlement. (The New York Times)
• Me Too movement
  • Labour peer Peter Hain uses parliamentary privilege to name Philip Green as the British businessman who used an injunction to prevent allegations of sexual harassment against him being published in The Daily Telegraph. (The Guardian)

• Politics of Ethiopia
  • United Nations diplomat Sahle-Work Zewde becomes the first female President of Ethiopia in its history after the resignation of Mulatu Teshome. (BBC)
• U.S. President Donald Trump announces his plan to lower American prescription drug prices. (The Washington Post)

• Climate of Mars
  • A new study finds that water on Mars may contain more oxygen than previously thought. (Times Now News)

• 2018 Gaza border protests
  • Israel responds to 40 Palestinian rockets with 80 air strikes on what Israel states are Iranian and Hamas-controlled weapon factories in Gaza. An Egypt-meditated ceasefire is announced by Islamic Jihad soon afterward. (Reuters)
• Terrorism in Canada
  • The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada orders Othman Hamdan, a Fort St. John man whose Facebook posts promoted the Islamic State, deported. The deportation is not immediate and requires additional events to occur. (CBC)

• Flash floods in southern Russia result in six deaths and one missing person. (WECT)

• October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts
  • The FBI has confirmed that packages similar to those found earlier this week were sent to U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. (CNBC) (San Francisco Gate)
  • Authorities are also investigating a packages addressed to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and billionaire Tom Steyer. (APnews.com) (San Francisco Gate)
  • A suspect, Cesar Sayoc, is taken into custody in Plantation, Florida. (NBC News) (San Francisco Gate)
• A man in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, is arrested for attempting to steal one of four existing original copies of Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral. (NPR) (BBC News)
• 2018 Freiburg gang rape
  • Authorities arrest eight men after a gang rape in Freiburg, Germany on 14 October, with police seeking more men. (The New York Times)

• 2018 Irish presidential election and Blasphemy Referendum
  • Voters re-elect Michael D. Higgins as President of Ireland and vote to remove the offense of blasphemy from the Constitution, with winning margins of over 30% in both votes, according to exit polls. (The Guardian) (BBC)
• 2018 Sri Lankan constitutional crisis
  • Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremasinghe is replaced by Mahinda Rajapakse. (BBC) (The Guardian)

• 2018 World Series
  • In baseball, game 3 of the World Series, in which the Boston Red Sox lose to the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 3–2, extends to 18 innings and lasts 7 hours and 20 minutes, becoming by far the longest game in World Series history. (USA Today)

• Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
  • A gunman opens fire at the Tree of Life - Or L'Simcha Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing at least 11 people. The perpetrator 46-years old Robert Bowers was an active user of the social media service Gab where he had posted anti-Semitic and racist content as well as one before the shooting that said "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in". (BBC), (CBC)

• 2018 Leicester City F.C. helicopter crash
  • An AgustaWestland AW169 helicopter with Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha on board crashes shortly after take-off from the King Power Stadium Leicester, United Kingdom. (BBC)
• A seven-alarm fire destroys an apartment building in Boston, Massachusetts, injuring 11 people and displacing 114 residents. (The Boston Globe)

• Gabonese legislative election, 2018
  • Gabonese citizens vote in the second round of the latest legislative election. (News24)
• ALDE European Parliament group expels Catalan nationalist party PDECat amid corruption scandals that affect the CDC predecessor party. (El Periódico)

• Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
  • American online payments system company PayPal bans American social media site Gab, known for its association with the alt-right movement, while Joyent, Gab's American hosting provider, states that they will terminate their service tomorrow. The move comes after it was revealed that the suspect in yesterday's 11 deaths, Robert Bowers, was an active member on the social network. (CNET)
• American computer company IBM announces plans to acquire American software company Red Hat for US$34 billion. (CNBC)

• A landslide in Isola di Capo Rizzuto of Calabria, Italy, kills ten construction workers while they repair a sewer. (Architecture, Building & Construction News)
• 2018 European floods
  • Heavy floods and strong winds in the comune of Manduria in Taranto, Italy, destroys several buildings and roads, leaving at least one person injured. (Quotidiano Puglia)

• India–Pakistan relations
  • The Supreme Court of Pakistan reimposes a ban on all Indian-produced content on Pakistani television channels. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

• Japanese company Hitachi Chemical states that it falsified inspections for a material used in semiconductors. (Reuters)

• Brazilian general election, 2018
  • Brazilians elect Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party as president, with 55% of the vote, in the second round of the presidential election. (BBC)
• Georgian presidential election, 2018
  • Georgian citizens vote in the last presidential election to be decided by direct election. (RFE/RL)
• Hessian state election, 2018
  • Voters in the German state of Hesse go to the polls to elect a new legislature. The election is widely considered a test for Angela Merkel's ruling CDU–SPD coalition. (BBC)
  • Both the CDU's and the SDP's swing drop by a little over 10%, while The Greens surge to second place with 19.5% of the vote and the AfD place fourth with 12% of the vote. (BBC)
• New International Airport for Mexico City
  • A nation-wide referendum called upon by Mexico's president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador results in a majority of votes for the cancellation of the new airport and in support of upgrades to the current Mexico City and Toluca airports as well as the adapting of Santa Lucía Military Base's runways for civilian aircraft use. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Private spaceflight
  • Beijing-based private development space launch company LandSpace's three-stage rocket, Zhuque-1, carrying a satellite named Future built for state media China Central Television, fails to reach orbit. (Reuters)

• Syrian Civil War
  • The National Museum of Damascus reopens to the public six years after it was closed due to the war. (BBC)

• Lion Air Flight 610
  • A Boeing 737 MAX 8, en route from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang, crashes into the ocean near Karawang, Indonesia, killing all one hundred eighty-one passengers and eight crew. (The Straits Times)
• 2018 European floods
  • Heavy floods and strong winds continue to affect all of Italy. For the duration of the disaster across the country, the death toll is eleven people. (Il Messaggero)
• 2018 Chongqing bus crash
  • A bus veers off the Second Wanzhou Yangtze River Bridge and plunges into the Yangtze River in Chongqing, China after its driver was distracted by an unruly passenger, killing at least 13 people. (BBC)

• Brexit
  • AFM, the financial markets authority in the Netherlands, says it will prepare for financial trading taking place on its infrastructure in the event the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. (Reuters)

• Politics of Germany, Hessian state election, 2018
  • Following a disappointing state election on Sunday, German chancellor Angela Merkel announces that she will not seek re-election as party head at a conference in early December and as German chancellor in 2021. (CNBC)

• 2018 Formula One World Championship
  • In auto racing, Lewis Hamilton clinches his fifth World Drivers' Championship with a fourth-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix. Hamilton ties Juan Manuel Fangio for second place in drivers' championships, behind only Michael Schumacher with seven. (BBC)
• 2018 World Series
  • In baseball's World Series, the Boston Red Sox defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fifth game, winning the series four games to one and claiming the team's ninth World Series title. Red Sox first baseman Steve Pearce is named the Series' Most Valuable Player. (The New York Times)

• 2018 Pacific typhoon season
  • Typhoon Yutu causes landslides in the Philippines, leaving at least four people killed and thirty-one others trapped. (Reuters)
• A fire along South Africa's Garden Route in the Cape Province, kills at least seven people. (BBC)

• Complications of pregnancy
  • Research published in JAMA Internal Medicine describes that mothers should wait at least a year between giving birth and getting pregnant again to reduce health risks to mother and baby. (BBC)

• List of serial killers by number of victims
  • German convicted serial killer and former nurse Niels Högel begins his third trial (previous convictions were in 2008 and 2015), this time in Oldenburg, for additional patient murders by administering fatal doses of medication between 1999–2005 which may include his assignment as one of Germany's worst serial killers since World War II. At the beginning of the trial, Högel confesses to the murder of 100 of his patients. (BBC), (Deutsche Welle)
• Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority
  • A judge in Ecuador rules against WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, who had contested new rules imposed on him in the country's embassy in London. Assange had argued that the conditions violated his "fundamental rights and freedoms", and were intended to force him to leave. His lawyers have appealed against the ruling. Assange took refuge in the embassy six years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden in a sexual assault case that has since been dropped. (BBC)
• Boston convicted organized crime boss and former FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Whitey Bulger dies in the United States Penitentiary at Hazelton, West Virginia. (CNN)
• Arrest of Juan Requesens, Human rights in Venezuela
  • It is reported that imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Requesens has been transferred from isolation to a military hospital in Caracas, after days of reports that he has been suffering an untreated dental infection as well as wounds of torture. (Venezuela al día)
• John Letts, the father of the alleged British-Canadian Islamic State fighter Jack Letts who is being held by Kurdish forces in Syria, calls for the Canadian government to help secure his release. (BBC), (CTV News)

• United States Constitution
  • U.S. President Donald Trump vows to revoke the right to automatic citizenship given to children born on United States land to illegal immigrants. According to most authorities, birthright citizenship in the United States is protected in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. (BBC)
• Taliban in Qatar
  • Five members of the Taliban who were freed by the Obama administration from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for former captive Bowe Bergdahl join the insurgent group’s political office in Qatar. (Military Times), (The Washington Post)

• NASA's Parker Solar Probe spacecraft becomes the closest ever sent to the sun, by passing 42.7 million km (26.6 million miles) from the sun's surface. The previous record was set in 1976 by the Helios 2 spacecraft. Parker's elliptical orbit will eventually take it to within 6.1 million km (3.8 million miles) of the sun. (BBC)
• NASA announces that the Kepler spacecraft has expended all its fuel and will be retired after nearly 10 years of service, having found more than 2,600 exoplanets. (Los Angeles Times)
• The Hawaii Supreme Court affirms the permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea. (Thirty Meter Telescope)

• A 17-year-old local student, who studied at a nearby polytechnic school, detonates an explosive device inside a Federal Security Service building in Arkhangelsk, Russia, killing himself and wounding three FSB officers. The agency is Russia's primary state security agency and a successor to the KGB. (Meduza)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Boko Haram militants kill at least 15 people in a village on the outskirts of Maiduguri, in northeast Nigeria. (Reuters)

• List of tallest statues
  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveils the Statue of Unity, which depicts the first Deputy Prime Minister of India, first Home Minister of India and recipient of the highest civilian award of the Republic of India, the Bharat Ratna, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The statue is located near the Narmada Dam in the Indian state of Gujarat. At 182 metres, it is the world’s tallest statue. (NDTV)

• A helicopter carrying senior Afghan National Army officials crashes, killing all 25 people on board in the western Farah Province, Afghanistan. The Taliban claims responsibility for shooting it down, however Afghan officials blame bad weather as the cause of the crash. (Al Jazeera), (Sky News)

• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • North Korea is set to allow inspections of its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, which officially closed in May 2018. (The Guardian)
• Denmark–Iran relations, Iran and state-sponsored terrorism
  • Denmark calls on the European Union for new sanctions against Iran after Danish security services accused the Iranian intelligence service of plotting an assassination of an Iranian activist on Danish soil. Copenhagen also recalls its ambassador to Tehran. (The Guardian)

• Blasphemy law in Pakistan
  • A Pakistani court overturns the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy. (BBC)
• Killing of Jamal Khashoggi
  • The Turkish chief Istanbul prosecutor İrfan Fidan’s office states that Jamal Khashoggi was, with premeditation, strangled and his body was dismembered as soon as he entered the Saudi consulate building in Istanbul. This is the first such accusation against Saudi Arabia by any Turkish official. (AP)
• Legality of cannabis, Cannabis in Mexico
  • A complete ban on recreational use of marijuana is ruled unconstitutional by Mexico's Supreme Court, putting the responsibility of regulating its consumption on lawmakers. (Reuters)
• The Venezuelan Intelligence Agency, SEBIN, names a new director, General Manuel Cristopher, in the wake of the death of Fernando Albán. (Voice of America)
• Timeline of investigations into Trump and Russia (July–December 2018)
  • After three prominent legal analysts (Geoff Shepard, Benjamin Wittes, Jack Goldsmith, and Stephen Bates) filed separate lawsuits seeking its unsealing and Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, on October 11 ordered the disclosure, the National Archives releases a set of documents from the Watergate investigation as a possible "road map" for the Mueller probe, including a would-be indictment against former president Richard Nixon. (CNN), (The Washington Post)