Portal:Current events/2018 January 3
January 3, 2018 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Boko Haram insurgency
- A suicide bomber attacks a mosque in Gamboru, Nigeria, killing 11 people. (Deutsche Welle)
Disasters and accidents
- Storm Eleanor
- Winter storm Eleanor moves from the British Isles to continental Europe with one dead in France as well as injuries and material losses in Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. (BBC)
Law and crime
- Law of Iceland
- A new Icelandic law goes into effect which requires government agencies and companies with more than 24 full-time employees to prove they are paying men and women equally, as required by existing legislation. (NPR) (The New York Times)
- Politics of Ethiopia
- Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announces that Ethiopia will drop charges against all political prisoners and close down the infamous prison camp of Maekelawi. (AP)
Politics and elections
- Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity
- U.S. President Donald Trump dissolves the voter fraud commission noting the cost to the public of litigating against lawsuits from states objecting to the voter information requested. (Reuters) (CNN)
Science and technology
- Computer security
- Security researchers disclose two hardware vulnerabilities—Spectre, which affects most modern processors, and Meltdown, which affects most Intel chips. (Reuters) (The Guardian)
- Largest known prime number
- The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search announces the discovery of the latest largest known prime number, a Mersenne prime with 23,249,425 digits, equal to 277,232,917 − 1. (International Business Times)