Died

King Michael of Romania, who saved his country from Adolf Hitler, died on Dec. 5. When Michael was 22, Hitler’s friend Ion Antonescu was the fascist dictator of Romania, World War II was tearing apart Europe, and Soviet Russia was threatening an invasion. Michael’s power was supposed to be nominal, but the boy king stopped a Romanian-Russian war in its tracks when he called Antonescu to the palace and arrested him. He then renounced all ties to Germany. Postwar, Michael tried to save the constitutional monarchy, watched his country fall to communism, and left Romania at gunpoint. He was 96 when he died.

Jailed

Larry Nassar, former Team USA Olympic gymnastics sports doctor, is going to jail for 60 years for use of child pornography. Investigators testified to the discovery of 37,000 images of child sex abuse on Nassar’s computers in 2016, and U.S. District Judge Janet Neff gave him the maximum sentence. Nassar also has two criminal cases against him involving allegations of sexual assault on female gymnasts in his care. More than 130 women, including three U.S. Olympians, filed civil lawsuits against Nassar claiming sexual abuse. Nassar has pleaded guilty to the assault charges, and a court will sentence him in January.

Accused

Ravi Zacharias, prominent Christian apologist, released a public response in December to accusations of sexual impropriety and false credentials. In the past, his ministry’s website had called Zacharias a doctor without clarifying his six doctorate degrees are all honorary. The ministry has apologized. Zacharias also noted a personal lawsuit he filed against a Canadian couple that claimed he had engaged in sexual misconduct with the female member of the couple. Zacharias says she had sent him sexual messages and nude photos over the phone even after he asked her to stop and blocked her number, and that the couple’s attorney asked him for millions of dollars in return for secrecy. Zacharias claims he immediately told his ministry leaders about the situation and found a lawyer. He has since dropped the lawsuit.

Redefined

Australia on Dec. 7 legalized same-sex marriage. The bill passed the country’s Parliament by an overwhelming majority after the completion of a countrywide poll showing broad support for the change. The new law protects the rights of registered religious leaders to refuse to perform same-sex marriages on the basis of faith. It does not extend these rights to nonreligious celebrants and businesses.

Banned

The International Olympic Committee on Dec. 5 banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics. The ban was a result of the IOC’s investigation into state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Games hosted by Russia. Much of the committee’s information came from Grigory Rodchenkov, head of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory in 2014. Rodchenkov claimed the country ran a systematic doping scam, a charge Russian authorities denied repeatedly.

Charged

In a 34-year-old case, two white men have been indicted by a grand jury for the murder of a young black man, Timothy Coggins. Coggins was found stabbed repeatedly and slashed with a knife in a town outside of Atlanta. He also appeared to have been dragged behind a truck. Many believed the crime was racially motivated, but Franklin Gebhardt and William Moore Sr. were not arrested until this November. Witnesses came forward saying the two had boasted about the murder for years and tried to intimidate witnesses into silence.