Portal:Current events/2019 February 27

February 27, 2019 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2019 India–Pakistan standoff
- The Pakistani Air Force claims it has carried out six airstrikes in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, shooting down one Indian aircraft and capturing one pilot following a dogfight. Pakistani officials claimed that they have shot down two Indian Air Force (IAF) jets. Wreckage of one aircraft fell in Azad Kashmir while the other fell in Indian-administered Kashmir. Indian officials initially rejected that any of their aircraft was shot down and claimed that all of IAF pilots were accounted for. However, later on they acknowledge that one IAF Mig-21 has been shot down and its pilot was captured by the Pakistan Army. India officials also claimed to have shot down one Pakistani Air Force (PAF) jet that violated its airspace. However, Indian officials claim were rejected by Pakistani officials. (The Week (India)) (NDTV)(The Hindu Business Line)(Dawn News)
- An Indian Air Force Mi-17 transport helicopter crashes in the Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, killing all six IAF personnel onboard and a civilian on the ground. (Hindustan Times)
Israeli involvement in the Syrian Civil War, Israel–Russia relations
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel will "continue to take action against Iran in Syria". (The Times of Israel)

Arts and culture

Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
- Ukraine withdraws from this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, Israel, after Ukrainian entrant Maruv said she refused to be used as a "political tool" after being asked to sign a contract saying she wouldn't hold any concerts in Russia in the lead up to the event. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

Ramses Station train collision
- A train crash and subsequent fire kills at least 25 people at Ramses Station in Cairo, Egypt. (BBC News)
- Egyptian Transport Minister Hisham Arafat consequently resigns. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly accepts the resignation. (Africa News)
2019 Taplejung helicopter crash
- A helicopter crashes in Taplejung, Nepal, killing 7 people, including Nepal's culture and tourism minister Rabindra Prasad Adhikari. (The New York Times)
A suspected gas explosion in Taraz, Kazakhstan, kills three people in an apartment block. (RFERL)
Disasters in Indonesia
- A landslide hits an illegal gold mine in North Sulawesi, Sulawesi, Indonesia. An estimated 60 people are trapped underground as shafts give way, while three others are found dead. (Sky News)

International relations

2019 North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit
- U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meet face-to-face for the first time since their summit last year. (CNBC)
Brexit negotiations
- MPs in the House of Commons meet to discuss UK Prime Minister Theresa May's latest proposed deal for the state's departure from the European Union. May says if this proposal and a 'no deal' scenario are both rejected by MPs they will be granted a vote on extending the departure deadline beyond the current one of March 29. (BBC News)
- Conservative MP Alberto Costa tables an amendment to secure the rights of EU citizens within the UK and UK citizens abroad. Theresa May tells Commons she opposes the amendment; Home Secretary Sajid Javid subsequently supports it, apparently unaware of May's opposition. Costa resigns as parliamentary private secretary to Scottish Secretary David Mundell, who supports the amendment. The government subsequently announces it will support the amendment. (The Guardian)

Law and crime

Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (2019)
- U.S. President Donald Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, is prepared to testify that Trump was aware of longtime adviser Roger Stone's efforts to make contact with WikiLeaks in advance of its release of damaging information about Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, according to a copy of his public testimony submitted to Congress and obtained by CNN. (CNN)
Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom
- Nine men receive prison terms for raping two vulnerable teenage girls in Bradford over a period of years. A tenth is cleared. The abuse began when the victims were fourteen. The girls were from a children's home. (BBC News)
Human rights in Israel, Terrorism in Israel
- Shin Bet arrest lawyer Tarek Barghout, an attorney who has represented "terror" suspects, and a Palestinian man named Zakaria Zubeidi for what it calls "their involvement in serious and current terrorist activities." (The Times of Israel)
Steven Avery, a high-profile miscarriage of justice victim subsequently convicted of murder after his release in 2003, is granted a fresh appeal in Wisconsin. Avery, who was suing Manitowoc County officials over his original wrongful conviction when he was arrested for murder, gained international attention as the subject of the documentary Making a Murderer. (Sky News)
The family of Pat Finucane, murdered during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, win a declaration from the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom that the investigation into his killing was sufficiently ineffective to amount to a failure of the state's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Supreme Court stops short of mandating a public inquiry as requested by the family. Members of the security services are accepted to have colluded with Finucane's murderers, but the scale and nature of collusion is unclear. (Sky News)

Politics and elections

2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis
- Juan Guaidó announces that he will exercise his "duties as president" when he returns to Venezuela from Colombia. Guaidó also stated that he did not see any signs of "broad support" from Russia towards Nicolás Maduro. (CNN), (Forbes)
- Colombia asks for intervention from the United Nations to help end the crisis. (Reuters)
Antisemitism in the UK Labour Party
- Chris Williamson, a Labour MP, is suspended by his party over comments that Labour had "given too much ground" when responding to criticism over its handling of antisemitism within its ranks. (BBC News)