Portal:Current events/2016 December 15

December 15, 2016 (Thursday)

International relations

War in Donbass
- The European Union extends its main Ukraine-related economic sanctions against Russia for six months until mid-2017. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories
- Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio holds a press conference showing findings from 2 different forensic experts of "9 points of forgery" alleging President Obama's long form birth certificate was forged and also claims to have found the birth certificate used to make the forgery. (USA Today) (Newsmax)

Charleston church shooting
- Dylann Roof is convicted of the racially motivated murder of nine black churchgoers in the U.S. city of Charleston, South Carolina. (New York Post)

Politics and elections

Romanian legislative election, 2016
- Romania's centre-left Social Democratic Party won 45% of the seats in both houses of parliament in Sunday's election, and with the expected participation of the liberal centre-right Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Party in the coalition government, will hold an outright majority of 250 seats in the 465-seat assembly. (Reuters) (Romania-Insider.com)

Science and technology

A Pegasus rocket successfully deploys the CYGNSS hurricane observation satellite constellation for NASA. (NASA) (SpaceFlight 101)