February 9, 2018 (Friday)
Business and economy
- Trinity Mirror agrees to buy British publishing group Northern & Shell from Richard Desmond for £126.7 million. The deal gives Trinity Mirror ownership of the Daily Express and Daily Star newspapers. (The Guardian)
Disasters and accidents
- Earthquakes in 2018
- A 5.8 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of the Mexican state of Jalisco, prompting evacuations in the tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta and is felt in the country's second-largest metropolitan area of Guadalajara. No casualties are reported. (Puerto Vallarta Daily)
Law and crime
- iOS jailbreaking
- A Vice Motherboard report traces the origin of a significant iOS source code leak to an Apple intern and five "friends" in the iOS jailbreaking community. (The Verge via Slashdot)
- Russian espionage in the United States
- The New York Times reports that the CIA handed $100,000 to an unnamed Russian intelligence source in a Berlin hotel room, allegedly expecting to get back stolen NSA hacking tools. (Newsweek)
Politics and elections
- Government shutdowns in the United States
- The United States government runs out of funding for the second time this year, prompting another government shutdown. (The New York Times)
- A comprehensive budget deal is later passed by Congress in the early hours of the morning, and a Continuing Resolution is signed into law by President Trump that keeps the government open until March 23, 2018. (CNN) (Federal News Radio)
- Timeline of the Trump presidency, 2018 Q1
- Rachel Brand, Associate Attorney General since May 2017, plans to step down in the next several weeks in favor of a job in the private sector. (USA Today)
- Politics of Turkey
- Turkey arrests 17 leaders of the left-wing Peoples' Democratic Party for opposition to the ongoing Afrin offensive. (Reuters UK)
Science and technology
- Human genetics
- Researchers at the University of Edinburgh claim they have successfully brought prepubescent-sourced, immature human egg cells to maturity in a laboratory for the first time. The work may be significant because it may allow the harvesting and preservation of eggs from young girls undergoing toxic cancer treatment before their lifetime reservoirs of those cells are destroyed. (BBC) (Oxford Academic)
- Asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2018
- As predicted, asteroid 2018 CB, estimated to be between 15 and 40 metres (50–130 feet) in diameter, makes a fly-by past Earth at a distance of around 64,500 km (40,100 mi). This is the second asteroid to make a fly-by this week. (The Guardian)
Sport
- 2018 Winter Olympics
- The 23rd Winter Olympic Games start in Pyeongchang, South Korea. It marks the first time that South Korea has hosted the Winter Olympics. (The Guardian) (ABC News)