December 18, 2021 (Saturday)
Arts and culture
- Strictly Come Dancing
- EastEnders actress Rose Ayling-Ellis becomes the first deaf person to win the BBC show after she and her professional partner Giovanni Pernice beat the show's first male same-sex couple containing TV chef John Whaite and his professional partner Johannes Radebe in the final. (BBC News)
Disasters and accidents
- 2021 Karachi explosion
- Fourteen people are killed and several others are injured by a gas explosion in a sewage system in Karachi, Pakistan. (BBC News)
- Three workers are killed and three other people are injured when two cranes collapse on a street in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. A residential building is also damaged. (BBC News)
Health and environment
- COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
- COVID-19 pandemic in France, Travel during the COVID-19 pandemic
- France imposes a ban on British citizens from entering the country without compelling reasons due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in the United Kingdom. French and EU citizens returning from the UK must self-isolate for seven days unless they show a negative COVID-19 test result on arrival, which will reduce the self-isolation to 48 hours. (France 24)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal, COVID-19 vaccination in Portugal
- Portugal begins administering COVID-19 vaccines for children between the ages of 5 and 11 years. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine
- Ukraine reports its first case of the Omicron variant in a person who travelled from the United Arab Emirates. (The Times of India)
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
- COVID-19 pandemic in England
- The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan declares a "major incident" in effort to ease pressure of hospitals amid a record-breaking COVID-19 cases in the UK caused by the Omicron variant. (The Guardian)
- COVID-19 pandemic in England
- COVID-19 pandemic in France, Travel during the COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
- COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)
- New York state reports a record for the second consecutive day of 21,908 new cases of COVID-19. (WCBS-TV)
- COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina, COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
- At midnight, Argentina and Brazil reopen their borders for tourists with a mandatory proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. (La Voz)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
International relations
- Israel–Ukraine relations
- Ukrainian ambassador to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk says that Ukraine might recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (Times of Israel)
Law and crime
- An armed land dispute between the residents of the Nahualá and Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán municipalities, in Guatemala, results in the death of 12 people. (Al Jazeera)
- Former Ukrainian President and oligarch Petro Poroshenko leaves Ukraine on a "pre-planned diplomatic tour" of Turkey and Poland after the National Bureau of Investigation attempts to issue a summons regarding charges of abetting terrorism. The National Bureau of Investigation claims that Poroshenko was involved in looting national resources from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. (Deutsche Welle)