February 2, 2018 (Friday)
Business and economy
- China–United Kingdom relations
- Amid a perceived erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong, British Prime Minister Theresa May concludes a three-day visit to China, said to have generated £9 billion in trade deals. (Hong Kong Free Press)
- History of YouTube
- YouTube announces that YouTubers who make "egregious" content will be punished. Critics of the move call it censorship. (BBC)
- YouTube, in a move to boost transparency and combat propaganda, announces that it will start to label videos by broadcasters that receive state-funding. (The Hill)
Disasters and accidents
- 2018 Sibanye Gold incident
- All 955 South African miners, who were stuck in the Beatrix gold mine near Welkom in central Free State province since Wednesday, have been brought to the surface. Earlier, 65 other workers were rescued. No serious injuries have been reported. The accident apparently happened when a strong storm knocked over an electric power tower triggering the huge power cut. (BBC) (Reuters) (OkayAfrica)
International relations
- Mexico–United States relations
- Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Videgaray Caso, flanked by visiting United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland, rejects "any option that would imply the use of violence" on the subject of Venezuela. On the eve of his visit, Tillerson had defended the 19th-century United States policy in Latin America and suggested that the Venezuelan Army could manage a "peaceful transition" from President Nicolás Maduro. (Reuters)
Law and crime
- Crime in France
- After two days of questioning, influential Islamic academician and Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan is charged with the alleged rape of two women and jailed in Paris. (The Guardian)
- Aftermath of the 2017 Finsbury Park attack
- As the sole perpetrator of the 19 June 2017 attack on Muslims in London, Darren Osborne is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murder. (Al Jazeera)
- Aftermath of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting
- An Arizonan ammunition dealer is charged in a Nevada federal court with "conspiracy to manufacture and sell armor-piercing ammunition without a license" after his fingerprints were discovered on unfired armor-piercing ammunition inside Stephen Paddock's suite. (Reuters)
Politics and elections
- Nunes memo
- U.S. President Donald Trump authorizes Congress to release the Nunes memo, against the wishes of the FBI, Department of Justice, and lawmakers from both sides, all of whom say that the document's release poses a risk to national security. (NPR) (USA Today)
- The document is released through the House Intelligence Committee's website. Opinions on the memo were largely mixed, with Democrats, some Republicans and several national security experts suggesting that certain details in the document confirm prior reports surrounding the reasoning for the FBI's decision to conduct the investigation. Critics of the memo suggested that its release was a partisan attempt to undermine and discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russian intelligence associates, and posed a risk to national security . (CNN)
- Nuclear Posture Review
- The United States releases a new policy on nuclear arms, the first update since 2010. It calls for the introduction of two new types of weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal: low-yield nuclear submarine-launched ballistic (SLBM) and cruise (SLCM) missiles. (Denver Post) (NPR)
Sports
- Football in Lithuania
- FK Panevėžys, a Lithuanian football club from the second-level I Lyga, is allegedly duped into signing Barkley Miguel Panzo based on fabricated data from a Wikipedia page. However, the club apologizes on 3 February for "the appearance of incorrect information" on its website. (SPORTbible) (FK Panevėžys)