Portal:Current events/2017 February 4
February 4, 2017 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in Donbass
- A rebel commander is killed by a bomb in eastern Ukraine while three Ukrainian Army soldiers are killed in fighting. At least 33 people have been killed in fighting over the past week. (AP via News Limited)
International relations
- Australia–United States relations
- Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says Australia will honor the agreement to accept refugees from Central America even though the U.S. has postponed interviews with asylum seekers in a camp at the Pacific island of Nauru. (The Washington Examiner)
- Ukraine–United States relations
- U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in a telephone call, discuss strengthening the two countries' strategic partnership with particular attention to the conflict in the Donbass, a Ukrainian region that borders Russia. (Reuters)
Politics and elections
- 2017 Romanian protests
- Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu announces that his government will scrap its proposed decree of decriminalizing some graft offenses on Sunday. (Reuters)
- The United Nations drop sanctions on Gulbuddin Hekmatyar after his Hezb-e Islami faction and the Afghan government reached a deal in September. Hekmatyar is granted immunity in exchange for his abandoning violence and supporting the Constitution of Afghanistan. (BBC News)
- U.S. immigration suspension, State of Washington v. Trump
- The Department of Homeland Security says it has stopped enforcing the executive order per Judge James Robart's ruling in State of Washington v. Trump. The State Department activates visas that had been previously suspended because of this order. (NBC News)
- The federal government notifies the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that it will appeal Judge Robart's ruling that has halted enforcement of the executive order. The filing contained no legal arguments. (USA Today)
- Late Saturday, the Justice Department files a request to "immediately stay" Friday's court ruling. (NBC News)
Science and nature
- The cave squeaker (Arthroleptis troglodytes), a critically endangered species of frog, is located and captured for the first time since 1962. Scientists announce plans to breed. (The New York Times)