Portal:Current events/2019 May 20
May 20, 2019
(
2019-05-20
)
(Monday)
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Armed conflict and attacks
Thirty-two people are killed when
Islamic State members
started a prison riot and a fire in a prison located in
Vahdat
,
Tajikistan
.
(BBC News)
(Al Jazeera)
(RT)
Arts and culture
Whole Foods Market
announces it will eliminate disposable
plastic straws
in July from its stores in the
United States
,
Canada
and the
United Kingdom
.
(
USA Today
)
Business and finance
Ascena Retail Group
announces it will close all 650 Dressbarn stores by the end of the year.
(
USA Today
)
Disasters and accidents
Two people are killed, the pilot and the passenger, when a
floatplane
crashes into
Metlakatla
harbor near
Ketchikan
,
Alaska
. The pilot and passenger were the only people on board.
(CBS News)
(NBC News)
International relations
North Korea–South Korea relations
,
Droughts in Korea
South Korea
vows to send humanitarian aid to
North Korea
through international organizations as it suffers droughts.
(
Star Tribune
)
(
The New York Times
)
Iran–Saudi Arabia relations
,
Iran–United States relations
Iranian
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mohammad Javad Zarif
states that the "genocidal taunts" of
U.S. President
Donald Trump
"won't end Iran", in response to President Trump's comments that if Iran attacked U.S. interests, "that will be the official end of Iran." He also blasted
Saudi Arabian
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Adel al-Jubeir
for his previous May 19 remarks regarding Iran.
(
Brecorder
)
Russia–United States relations
U.S.
F-22 stealth jets
intercept four
Russian
Tupolev Tu-95
strategic bombers and two Russian
Su-35
jets entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone off the coast of
Alaska
. The Russian jets and bombers did not enter the
U.S.
nor
Canadian
airspace according to the
North American Aerospace Defense Command
.
(CBS News)
(CNN)
Law and crime
The
Swedish
prosecutor
files an arrest warrant against
WikiLeaks
founder
Julian Assange
over a rape allegation. Assange is serving a 50-week prison sentence in the
United Kingdom
for skipping bail.
(Reuters)
The
U.S. Supreme Court
in
Herrera v. Wyoming
rules in favor of a
Native American
elk
hunter from
Montana
who was convicted for hunting
off-season
in
Bighorn National Forest
, deciding that the 1868 federal treaty between the
Crow Nation
and the
U.S. Government
is still in force even after
Wyoming
became a state in 1890. The treaty gave tribe members hunting rights on "unoccupied" lands.
(Reuters)
(SCOTUS Blog)
Tax returns of Donald Trump
Judge
Amit Mehta
of the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
rules that accounting firm
Mazars
must comply with a subpoena issued by the
United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform
to turn over U.S. President
Donald Trump
's financial records.
(
The New York Times
)
Politics and elections
Ukrainian presidential inauguration
Former comedian and
reality television
actor
Volodymyr Zelensky
is sworn in as the 6th
President of Ukraine
by the
Verkhovna Rada
. Zelensky announces the dissolution of parliament and calls a snap
parliamentary election
.
(Deutsche Welle)
Ukrainian Prime Minister
Volodymyr Groysman
announces he will resign Wednesday in response to the new president's disbanding of parliament.
(Al Jazeera)
Ibiza affair
All ministers from the far-right
Freedom Party of Austria
, who make up close to half of
Austria's cabinet
, are resigning in response to their party leader,
Heinz-Christian Strache
being forced to resign as
Vice-Chancellor
after a video was published Friday showing Strache's participation in a compromising video.
(BBC News)
2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis
Venezuelan President
Nicolás Maduro
proposes early elections for Venezuela's
National Assembly
. Opposition leader and
National Assembly President
Juan Guaidó
has stated a rejection of the proposal.
(BBC News)
After several months of negotiations, President
Félix Tshisekedi
names
Sylvestre Ilunga Ilukamba
as the new
Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
in an agreement with former president
Joseph Kabila
. He had not appointed a prime minister since being elected in
December 2018
.
(Yahoo! News)
Science and technology
The
redefinition
of the
SI system
of measurement
adopted
by the majority of countries in the world takes effect.
(BIPM)
Month
May 2019
Previous day
May 19
Next day
May 21