Portal:Current events/2021 December 18

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 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 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)

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)