June 20, 2018 (Wednesday)
Disasters and accidents
- Sinking of MV Sinar Bangun
- The MV Sinar Bangun, a ferry designed to hold 43 people, sinks at Tigaras port in Lake Toba, North Sumatra, leaving 192 reported missing. (ABC News)
- A pile of mining waste collapses in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia, killing ten people and injuring ten more. (Reuters)
International relations
- Foreign relations of China
- China expresses regret over the United States' decision to leave the United Nations Human Rights Council. (Reuters)
- Nuclear sharing
- Germany reportedly asks the U.S. Department of Defense if the Eurofighter Typhoon could be certified to carry nuclear bombs. (Reuters)
Law and crime
- Terrorism in Germany
- German authorities arrest a Tunisian man accused of building a ricin bomb. (The South China Morning Post)
- Trump administration family separation policy
- U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order to "maintain family unity", amid global outrage over the separation of migrant children from their families, reversing the administration's policy. It affirms the U.S. policy of "detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources". (BBC) (Boston Globe)
- Operation Impact
- The terror trial of accused ISIL recruiter Awso Peshdary is adjourned after three days of hearings in which the court hears testimony about the path to jihad allegedly taken by two of his associates, Ottawa students John Maguire and Khadar Khalib. (Ottawa Citizen)
- Following a battery short circuit causing an explosion a London Underground station last night, a 26-year-old man is arrested and bailed on suspicion of causing it deliberately to cause damage or endanger life. Metropolitan Police counterterror investigators hand the probe back to British Transport Police, concluding the incident which injured five was not a terror attack. (The Guardian)
Politics and elections
- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern goes into labour with her first child. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is now Acting Prime Minister, and will be for six weeks while Ardern is on maternity leave. (The New Zealand Herald) (Newshub)
Science and technology
- The International Space Station (ISS) successfully deploys the UK-led RemoveDEBRIS satellite, which is designed to test the removal of space debris in low Earth orbit. At 100 kg (220 lb), RemoveDEBRIS is the biggest satellite deployed from the ISS. (BBC)
- The United States government releases a Near-Earth Object Preparedness Plan for reducing risks of asteroid or comet impacts. (NASA)